Bank institutional setting and risk-taking: The missing role of directors’ education and turnover

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the relationship between bank institutional setting and risk-taking by exploring whether board education and turnover are drivers of the risk propensity of cooperative banks compared to jointstock banks. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a comprehensive dataset of Italian banks over the 2011-2017 period, we examine whether these board characteristics affect the risk propensity of cooperative and joint-stock banks. Bank risk is measured by the Zindex, profit volatility and the ratio of non-performing loans to total gross loans. Findings: The findings show that cooperatives take less risk than joint-stock banks and have lower board turnover and education. Furthermore, we find that while board education mediates the relationship between the cooperative model and bank risk-taking, we do not find evidence of board turnover. Thus, the lower educational level of cooperative directors contributes to explaining the lower risk-taking of cooperative banks. Implications: The findings have several implications. In terms of the more general policy debate, our results point to the need to strengthen the governance model for both joint-stock and cooperative banks while supporting the view that a more ad hoc perspective on the best models and practices for each type of institutional setting would be preferable. In particular, the study reveals how board education’s effects on bank risk-taking should be carefully monitored. Originality/value: Through a mediation framework, this study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between bankinstitutional setting (by distinguishing between cooperative and joint-stock banks) and risk-taking behavior by exploring the underlying mechanisms at the board level, which is novel in the literature

Psychological constructs in foreign policy prediction

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67914/2/10.1177_002200276701100304.pd

Psychological climate and individual factors as antecedents of work outcomes

European research in Work and Organizational Psychology traditionally has a phenomenological orientation, favours comprehensive models, and stresses the role of individuals and situational factors in the work process. This means that individual characteristics of employees and the notion of cognitive regulation within situations have a prominent place. In this study, we used a framework that incorporates both these aspects as determinants of work behaviour (Roe & Zijlstra, 1991) and applied this in research on psychological climate. Based on survey data from 406 hospital employees, we tested a model that specified organizational citizenship behaviour as a mediator of relationships between individual factors (psychological climate and self-efficacy) and work outcomes (quality of performance and emotional exhaustion). The results demonstrated support for our hypothesized model of how work behaviour mediates the relationship between these antecedents and outcomes. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed

Early handling and repeated cross-fostering have opposite effect on mouse emotionality

Early life events have a crucial role in programming the individual phenotype and exposure to traumatic experiences during infancy can increase later risk for a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions, including mood and anxiety disorders. Animal models of postnatal stress have been developed in rodents to explore molecular mechanisms responsible for the observed short and long lasting neurobiological effects of such manipulations. The main aim of this study was to compare the behavioral and hormonal phenotype of young and adult animals exposed to different postnatal treatments. Outbred mice were exposed to (i) the classical Handling protocol (H: 15 min-day of separation from the mother from day 1 to 14 of life) or to (ii) a Repeated Cross-Fostering protocol (RCF: adoption of litters from day 1 to 4 of life by different dams). Handled mice received more maternal care in infancy and showed the already described reduced emotionality at adulthood. Repeated cross fostered animals did not differ for maternal care received, but showed enhanced sensitivity to separation from the mother in infancy and altered respiratory response to 6% CO2 in breathing air in comparison with controls. Abnormal respiratory responses to hypercapnia are commonly found among humans with panic disorders (PD), and point to RCF-induced instability of the early environment as a valid developmental model for PD. The comparisons between short-and long-term effects of postnatal handling vs. RCF indicate that different types of early adversities are associated with different behavioral profiles, and evoke psychopathologies that can be distinguished according to the neurobiological systems disrupted by early-life manipulation

Proteomic studies of marine organism

Comunicaciones a congreso

High performance polyethylene nanocomposite fibers

A high density polyethylene (HDPE) matrix was melt compounded with 2 vol% of dimethyldichlorosilane treated fumed silica nanoparticles. Nanocomposite fibers were prepared by melt spinning through a co-rotating twin screw extruder and drawing at 125°C in air. Thermo-mechanical and morphological properties of the resulting fibers were then investigated. The introduction of nanosilica improved the drawability of the fibers, allowing the achievement of higher draw ratios with respect to the neat matrix. The elastic modulus and creep stability of the fibers were remarkably improved upon nanofiller addition, with a retention of the pristine tensile properties at break. Transmission electronic microscope (TEM) images evidenced that the original morphology of the silica aggregates was disrupted by the applied drawing