Explaining Women’s Level of Involvement in Nascent Entrepreneurial Activities –The Non-linear Role of R&D Investments in Different OECD Countries

Acknowledging that “There is perhaps no greater initiative a country can take to accelerate its pace of entrepreneurial activity than to encourage more of its women to participate” (Reynolds, Camp, Bygrave, Autio, & Hay, 2001: 5), our study is interested in explaining women’s level of involvement in nascent entrepreneurial activities in different countries. It has been argued, “Institutional theory may be a particularly apt framework for addressing national contexts shaping entrepreneurial activity” (Baughn et al., 2006: 688). Indeed, structural characteristic of a given country could explain why there are consistent differences in the levels of entrepreneurial activity in different countries (Reynolds et al., 2003). While we do not lack empirical studies about the importance of different regulative, normative, and cognitive institutions, we still know relatively little about one important regulatory institution, namely the level of R&D investments, and its role in explaining women’s level of involvement in nascent entrepreneurial activities. Since the first lessons of endogenous growth theory (Aghion and Howitt,1992; Romer, 1994), innovation has been considered as one of the main sources of economic development. Innovation should ensure higher productivity gain, develop new business opportunities and, hence promote self-employment. Yet, findings of empirical studies on the linkages between innovation and levels of entrepreneurial activity remain somewhat ambiguous. In some cases (e.g. Wennekers et al., 2002; Anokhin & Wincent, 2012) scholars have observed a positive relationship between small firms and innovation, while in other cases a negative link (e.g. EIM/ENSR, 1996, 1997; Parker, 2009; Arin et al., 2015). These negative results are usually attributed to important run-up costs of research and development (R&D) related to innovation activities, which, in turn, makes R&D investments an enormous hurdle for entrepreneurial activities. Because relatively less attention has been paid to the constraining or empowering role of R&D investments in explaining women’s level of involvement in nascent entrepreneurial activities, in this study our main objective is to explore conceptual arguments and empirically test them about the effects of R&D investments on the relative rates of female nascent entrepreneurs in different countries

FDI, banking crisis and growth: direct and spill over effects

This study suggests a new decomposition of the effect of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on long-term growth in developing countries. It reveals that FDI not only have a positive direct effect on growth, but also increase the latter by reducing the recessionary effect resulting from a banking crisis. Even more, they reduce its occurrence. JEL: F65, F36, G01, G1

DOES FINANCIAL GLOBALIZATION STILL SPUR GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES? CONSIDERING EXCHANGE RATE VOLATILITY

This paper analyses the effects of financial globalization on growth in developing countries, focusing on its interaction with exchange rate volatility. Based on dynamic panel data models and the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (system GMM) estimator, it replicates the method of Gaies et al. (2019a; 2019b) and extends it by exploring a new spillover effect of financial globalization in terms of exchange rate volatility measured by six different indicators. The findings show the positive influence of investment-globalization on growth through the traditional channel of capital accumulation and by reducing the negative impact of exchange rate volatility. These impacts are not ensured by indebtedness-globalization, thereby shedding light on the government's decision in developing countries on foreign capital control policy. These results are robust to changes in the estimator and variables used

English Language Teaching in the 19908: How Will Teachers Fit in?

This article proposes that the directions that English language teaching will take in the 1990s can be discerned from trends that are now firmly in place. The growth of English language teaching as an international enterprise and the efforts that have been made to professionalize our work offer important lessons for the next decade. Progress in language teaching results from the search for what is universal about classroom language teaching and learning, and from an appreciation of the distinctive features of particular teaching and learning settings. Like cultural anthropologists, we need to adopt an ethnographic view of classroom teaching and learning. Beyond that, we must encourage the trend in our field to redefine the nature of authority and expertise and to encourage those who work in a particular setting to determine what they wish to value in English language teaching methodology, materials, and goals. JALT's theme for its most recent conference-"Directions for the '90s" -is the kind that invites us to look back, to look around, and to look forward. It is an appropriate theme, certainly, one that has been the staple of professional meetings in our field at the beginning of each decade. Each new decade offers us an artificial but

Early childhood education in Japan compared with developmentally appropriate practice guidelines in the United States

The purpose and content of early childhood education in a culture reflect the culture and serve to maintain it. Also, they reveal the culture\u27s perceptions of childhood and its expectations for its people. Each young child represents a fresh chance for· teachers to mold an ideal person for that culture. The content of early childhood education is created by interaction among the history of the culture, the present conditions in the culture, and the perceived future of the culture. An historical perspective is therefore important

Commandant of Lubizec: Fiction and the Holocaust in the Twilight of the Survivor Era

Seventy years after the liberation of the camps, Holocaust scholarship remains as vibrant and self-renewing as ever. Important works have been published in recent years; many have helped to shift the spotlight onto topics to which too little attention had been paid. For example, researchers like Omer Bartov, Timothy Snyder and Robert DesBois have focused on the war in the East and mass murder in the western Soviet Union, where some one and a half million Jews were shot by firing squads in what is now often referred to, following DesBois and the title of his book, as the Holocaust by bullets. Wendy Lower’s Hitler’s Furies has re-opened the topic of the significant roles of women in the killing fields of the East. The access that scholars now have to archives that were previously unavailable is only one of many factors that suggest that Holocaust scholarship will continue to provide ever-new perspectives on what is already the most written about event in history

Variation in extubation failure rates after neonatal congenital heart surgery across Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium hospitals

OBJECTIVE: In a multicenter cohort of neonates recovering from cardiac surgery, we sought to describe the epidemiology of extubation failure and its variability across centers, identify risk factors, and determine its impact on outcomes. METHODS: We analyzed prospectively collected clinical registry data on all neonates undergoing cardiac surgery in the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium database from October 2013 to July 2015. Extubation failure was defined as reintubation less than 72 hours after the first planned extubation. Risk factors were identified using multivariable logistic regression with generalized estimating equations to account for within-center correlation. RESULTS: The cohort included 899 neonates from 14 Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Consortium centers; 14% were premature, 20% had genetic abnormalities, 18% had major extracardiac anomalies, and 74% underwent surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Extubation failure occurred in 103 neonates (11%), within 24 hours in 61%. Unadjusted rates of extubation failure ranged from 5% to 22% across centers; this variability was unchanged after adjusting for procedural complexity and airway anomaly. After multivariable analysis, only airway anomaly was identified as an independent risk factor for extubation failure (odds ratio, 3.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.4-6.7; P = .01). Neonates who failed extubation had a greater median postoperative length of stay (33 vs 23 days, P < .001) and in-hospital mortality (8% vs 2%, P = .002). CONCLUSIONS: This multicenter study showed that 11% of neonates recovering from cardiac surgery fail initial postoperative extubation. Only congenital airway anomaly was independently associated with extubation failure. We observed a 4-fold variation in extubation failure rates across hospitals, suggesting a role for collaborative quality improvement to optimize outcomes

Estimation of Abbreviated Cyclosporine A Area under the Concentration-Time Curve in Allogenic Stem Cell Transplantation after Oral Administration

Measurements of Cyclosporine (CsA) systemic exposure permit its dose adjustment in allogenic stem cell transplantation recipients to prevent graft-versus-host disease. CsA LSSs were developed and validated from 60 ASCT patients via multiple linear regressions. All whole-blood samples were analyzed by fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA-Axym). The 10 models that have used CsA concentrations at a single time point did not have a good fit with AUC0–12 (R2 < 0.90). C2 and C4 were the time points that correlated best with AUC0–12 h, R2 were respectively 0.848, and 0.897. The LSS equation with the best predictive performance (bias, precision and number of samples) utilized three sampling concentrations was AUC0–12 h = 0.607 + 1.569 × C0.5 + 2.098 × C2 + 3.603 × C4 (R2 = 0.943). Optimal LSSs equations which limited to those utilizing three timed concentrations taken within 4 hours post-dose developed from ASCT recipient's patients yielded a low bias <5% ranged from 1.27% to 2.68% and good precision <15% ranged from 9.60% and 11.02%. We propose an LSS model with equation AUC0–12 h = 0.82 + 2.766 × C2 + 3.409 × C4 for a practical reason. Bias and precision for this model are respectively 2.68% and 11.02%

Interview with Beatriz Gallardo

Film has been a powerful tool in documenting and raising awareness about (im)migration. It can reveal the root causes of population movement, both voluntary and involuntary, and it can open our eyes to the economic, social, legal and psychological challenges of newcomers. Beatriz (Bea) Gallardo Shaul has been involved as a film producer in bringing these issues of (im)migration to the attention of the general public and in preserving a record of the impact of these issues on the people of Guatemala. Gallardo earned a Masters in Communications from San Carlos University in Guatemala (cum laude). Her credits as a film producer date from 2003, when she was associate producer of the television documentary Guatemala 9.11.03: The Human Face of a Civil Celebration