Some Facts About the Cyclical Convergence in the Euro Zone

In the context of a single currency and a common monetary policy defined by the European Central Bank for the euro area as a whole, it is important to evaluate the degree of business cycle resemblance among the participant countries. We resort to the association and synchronization concepts to define cyclical convergence. Using a time domain approach, we purport to use several parametric and non-parametric statistics to investigate whether the cycles of these countries have converged to the euro area business cycle during the sample period. The results obtained are in line with those from previous studies and suggest that Italy, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal and Greece have cyclically converged to the euro area business cycle. Regarding the United Kingdom, the evidence suggests the existence of a strong degree of association with the euro zone, exhibiting however a lead cycle in the more recent period.

Labor hiring, investment and stock return predictability in the cross section

We document that the firm level hiring rate predicts stock returns in the cross-section of US publicly traded firms even after controlling for investment, size, book-to-market and momentum as well as other known predictors of stock returns. The predictability shows up in both Fama-MacBeth cross sectional regressions and in portfolio sorts and it is robust to the exclusion of micro cap firms from the sample. We propose a production-based asset pricing model with adjustment costs in labor and capital that replicates the main empirical findings well. Labor adjustment costs makes hiring decisions forward looking in nature and thus informative about the firms’ expectations about future cash-flows and risk-adjusted discount rates. The model implies that the investment rate and the hiring rate predicts stock returns because these variables proxy for the firm’s time-varying conditional beta

Corrupting Learning: Evidence from Missing Federal Education Funds in Brazil

While cross-country analysis suggests that corruption hinders economic growth, we have little evidence on the mechanisms that link corruption to long-run economic development. We provide micro-evidence on the consequences of corruption for the quality of education. We use data from the auditing of Brazil’s local governments to construct objective measures of corruption involving educational block grants transferred from the central government to municipalities. Using variation in the incidence of corruption across municipalities and controlling for students’, schools’ and municipal characteristics, we find that corruption significantly reduces the school performance of primary school students. Students residing in municipalities where corruption in education was detected score 0.35 standard deviations less on standardized tests, and have significantly higher dropout and failure rates. We also provide evidence on the mechanisms that link corruption and mismanagement to learning and school attainment. The results are consistent with corruption directly affecting economic growth through the reduction of human capital accumulation. JEL Codes: D73, I21, H72

Cross-sectional Tobin's Q

The neoclassical investment model matches cross-sectional asset prices both in first differences and in levels. With ten book-to-market deciles as the testing portfolios, the investment model largely matches the Tobin’s Q spread and the average return spread across the extreme deciles. The parameter estimates imply low adjustment costs around 1.7% of sales. The model’s fit results from three aspects of our econometric strategy: (i) We test the model at the portfolio level to alleviate the impact of measurement errors; (ii) we match the first moment to mitigate the impact of temporal misalignment between asset prices and investment; and (iii) we allow for nonlinear marginal costs of investment. Our evidence suggests that any differences between the intrinsic value of equity and the market value of equity tend to dissipate in the long run.

Government Spending, Political Cycles, and the Cross Section of Stock Returns

Using a novel measure of industry exposure to government spending, we show predictable variation in cash flows and stock returns over political cycles. During Democratic presidencies, firms with high government exposure experience higher cash flows and stock returns, while the opposite pattern holds true during Republican presidencies. Business cycles, firm characteristics, and standard risk factors do not account for the pattern in returns across presidencies. An investment strategy that exploits the presidential cycle predictability generates abnormal returns as large as 6.9% per annum. Our results suggest market underreaction to predictable variation in the effect of government spending policies

Portuguese telenews and foreign news

Brief caracterization of portuguese television and telenews. Foreign news international politics new

Higher fibrinolytic and inflammatory markers are associated with central venous catheters use in chronic kidney disease patients under haemodialysis

Interruption of blood supply to the heart is a leading cause of death and disability. However, the molecular events that occur during heart ischemia, and how these changes prime consequent cell death upon reperfusion, are poorly understood. Protein SUMOylation is a post-translational modification that has been strongly implicated in the protection of cells against a variety of stressors, including ischemia-reperfusion. In particular, the SUMO2/3-specific protease SENP3 has emerged as an important determinant of cell survival after ischemic infarct. Here, we used the Langendorff perfusion model to examine changes in the levels and localisation of SUMOylated target proteins and SENP3 in whole heart. We observed a 50% loss of SENP3 from the cytosolic fraction of hearts after preconditioning, a 90% loss after ischemia and an 80% loss after ischemia-reperfusion. To examine these effects further, we performed ischemia and ischemia-reperfusion experiments in the cardiomyocyte H9C2 cell line. Similar to whole hearts, ischemia induced a decrease in cytosolic SENP3. Furthermore, shRNA-mediated knockdown of SENP3 led to an increase in the rate of cell death upon reperfusion. Together, our results indicate that cardiac ischemia dramatically alter levels of SENP3 and suggest that this may a mechanism to promote cell survival after ischemia-reperfusion in heart