Review of E. Narducci 'Cicerone Prospettiva 2000. Atti del I Symposium Ciceronianum Arpinas. Arpino 5 Maggio 2000'

Cicerone Prospettiva 2000. Atti del I Symposium Ciceronianum Arpinas. Arpino 5 Maggio 2000 ; Interpretare Cicerone. Percorsi della critica contemporanea. Atti del II Symposium Ciceronianum Arpinas. Arpino 18 Maggio 2001 by E. Narducci Review by: Valentina Aren

Reconstructions of a Republic. The political culture of ancient Rome and the research of the last decade.

Review of (K. J.) Hölkeskamp Rekonstruktionen einer Republik. Die politische Kultur des antiken Rom und die Forschung der letzten Jahrzehnte (Historische Zeitschrift Beiheft 38). Pp. 146. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2004. ISBN: 3-486-64439-4

Libertas и политические отношения в поздней Римской республике

Данная монография предлагает сравнительный анализ идеи о libertas и ее практического воплощения в политической борьбе периода поздней Римской республики. Реконструируя представление римлян о libertas на фоне аналогичных концептов в классическую и эллинистическую эпохи, автор старается переосмыслить сущность политической борьбы в поздней Римской республике и ту роль, которую играло представление римлян о libertas в тогдашних политических отношениях.Монография включает указатель источников (c. 312-318) и общий указатель (c. 319-324)

(WP 2012-01) Territorial Tax System Reform and Corporate Financial Policies

We examine the effect of a permanent change to a country income repatriation tax system on a set of corporate financial policies. In 2009 Japan and UK switched from a worldwide system to a territorial system for the taxation of earnings repatriated by their multinational firms. Due to the relatively high corporate tax rate in Japan and UK, the new system effectively reduced the tax liabilities of most multinational firms when repatriating earnings. We find that after the change Japanese and UK firms accumulate less cash, pay out larger amounts to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, and invest less abroad. We do not find that the tax system change has significantly affected corporate domestic investments

Firm Location and Corporate Debt

This study examines the influence of a firm’s geographical location on corporate debt and provides evidence that the higher cost of collecting information on firms distant from urban areas has significant implications on a wide array of corporate debt characteristics. We find that rural firms face higher debt yield spreads and attract smaller and less prestigious bank syndicates than urban firms. Rural firms attempt to reduce their informational disadvantage by relying more on relationship banking. Our results on the effect of location on corporate debt are robust to the inclusion of an extensive set of firm and issue characteristics

Characterisation of global flow and local fluctuations in 3D SPH simulations of protoplanetary discs

A complete and detailed knowledge of the structure of the gaseous component in protoplanetary discs is essential to the study of dust evolution during the early phases of pre-planetesimal formation. The aim of this paper is to determine if three-dimensional accretion discs simulated by the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method can reproduce the observational data now available and the expected turbulent nature of protoplanetary discs. The investigation is carried out by setting up a suite of diagnostic tools specifically designed to characterise both the global flow and the fluctuations of the gaseous disc. The main result concerns the role of the artificial viscosity implementation in the SPH method: in addition to the already known ability of SPH artificial viscosity to mimic a physical-like viscosity under specific conditions, we show how the same artificial viscosity prescription behaves like an implicit turbulence model. In fact, we identify a threshold for the parameters in the standard artificial viscosity above which SPH disc models present a cascade in the power spectrum of velocity fluctuations, turbulent diffusion and a mass accretion rate of the same order of magnitude as measured in observations. Furthermore, the turbulence properties observed locally in SPH disc models are accompanied by meridional circulation in the global flow of the gas, proving that the two mechanisms can coexist.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 21 pages, 25 figure

The Effect of Taxes on Multinational Debt Location

We provide new evidence that differences in international tax rates and tax regimes affect multinational firms\u27 debt location decisions. Our sample contains 8287 debt issues from 2437 firms headquartered in 23 different countries with debt-issuing subsidiaries in 59 countries. We analyze firms\u27 marginal decisions of where to issue debt to investigate the influence of a comprehensive set of tax-related effects, including differences in personal and corporate tax rates, tax credit and exemption systems, and bi-lateral cross-country withholding taxes on interest and dividend payments. Our results show that differences in personal and corporate tax rates, the presence of dividend imputation or relief tax systems, the tax treatment of repatriated profits, and inter-country withholding taxes on dividends and interest significantly influence the decision of where to locate debt and the proportion of debt located abroad. Our results are robust to firm and issue specific factors and to the effect of legal regimes, debt market development, and exchange rate risk

The Effects of Securities Class Action Litigation on Corporate Liquidity and Investment Policy

The risk of securities class action litigation alters corporate savings and investment policy. Firms with greater exposure to securities litigation hold significantly more cash in anticipation of future settlements and other related costs. The result is due to firms accumulating cash in anticipation of lawsuits and not a consequence of plaintiffs targeting firms with high cash levels. The market value of cash is significantly lower for firms exposed to litigation risk. Corporate investment decisions are also affected by litigation risk, as firms reduce capital expenditures in response. Our results are robust to endogeneity concerns and possible spurious temporal effects

Seasonal Variation in Leaf Growth and Antioxidant Content of Moringa oleifera Cultivated at Buenos Aires, Argentina

The properties and applications of Moringa oleifera are so vast that it is called the "miracle tree". The objective of this work is to study the seasonal variations in the leaf antioxidant content and the scavenging activity on DPPH radicals in concordance with its growth on M. oleifera plants of two seed origin, Commercial (C, seeds that were obtained from a market) and Bolivia (B, seeds that were obtained from a commercial forest of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia); the experiment was conducted at Buenos Aires, Argentina. Significant differences were found on leaf growth, antioxidant content and DPPH activity along the growing season. The lower leaf dry weight as percentage of fresh weight, higher specific leaf area, higher relative growth rate and lower phenol content on B leaves than C leaves could indicate that B plants are geared for a higher productivity rate of resource acquisition than C plants. Specific leaf area, leaf dry weight as percentage of fresh weight, phenol content and activity of DPPH radicals on leaf extracts were significantly correlated, which could be used on productivity estimation and nutraceutical valuation. The phenol content and activity of DPPH radicals of leaf extracts of B and C origins indicate that the leaves of the plants growing in the described conditions are of noteworthy value. These are the first antecedents for M. oleifera growing at Buenos Aires, Argentina, allowing to preliminary consider this area as one of the southernmost zone.Fil: Arena, Miriam Elisabet. Universidad de Morón. Facultad de Agronomía y Ciencias Agroalimentarias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Radice, Silvia. Universidad de Morón. Facultad de Agronomía y Ciencias Agroalimentarias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

When Managers Bypass Shareholder Approval of Board Appointments: Evidence from the Private Security Market

This paper investigates the influence of managerial entrenchment on private placements by examining the firm\u27s decision to appoint representatives of the private investors to the board without shareholder approval. By analyzing a sample of U.S. firms that appoint directors in combination with private offerings between 1995 and 2000, we find that firms with greater managerial entrenchment are more likely to bypass shareholder approval. Firms that bypass shareholders are less likely to appoint independent directors or to elect one of these directors as chairman. We also show that the market reacts more positively to the private offering announcement when the firm submits its board candidates for shareholder approval. Further, firms that bypass approval underperform compared to firms that obtain it. Overall our findings suggest that managers avoid shareholder approval to perpetuate entrenchment