The burden of severe obesity and the efficiency and equity of treatment

 Severe obesity rates have doubled during the last twenty years, particularly in disadvantaged Australians. Paradoxically, disadvantaged Australians are the least likely group to receive treatment using bariatric surgery. Health care costs for individuals with severe obesity are double the population average. These costs are decreased after bariatric surgery, particularly in individuals with diabetes.

Are firms with negative book equity in financial distress?

© 2015 World Scientific Publishing Co. and Center for Pacific Basin Business, Economics and Finance Research. This study examines whether negative book equity (BE) firms are in financial distress by analyzing their operating performance, financial characteristics, distress risk, and survivability when they first report negative BE. Firms with small magnitude of negative BE (SNBE firms) suffer from persistent negative earnings and financial distress, while firms with large magnitude of negative BE (LNBE firms) experience a temporary non-distress related earnings shock. LNBE firms report consecutive years of negative BE, but have lower distress risk and failure rate than both SNBE and control firms. However, all negative BE stocks have abysmal returns subsequent to their first report of negative BE.

The moderating effect of individual level collectivist values on brand loyalty

In today's dynamic business environment the success of a firm often depends on its ability to create brand loyalty. While there is a large body of research exploring brand loyalty and its antecedents, little has been done to examine how the relationship between these antecedents and brand loyalty is moderated by consumer differences in individual level collectivist values. This understanding is important however as consumers high in individual level collectivist values have been found to make different brand choices than consumers low in individual level collectivist values. We develop and test theory that suggests consumer differences in individual level collectivist values have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between perceived value, perceived quality, brand trust and brand loyalty. The results show that consumers high in individual level collectivist values are significantly more loyal to a focal brand, especially when brand trust and perceived quality are at relatively low levels. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.

Sharing the load: role equity in the incubation of a monomorphic shorebird, the masked lapwing (Vanellus miles)

Sex roles during incubation vary dramatically in socially monogamous shorebirds. The "incubator conspicuousness" hypothesis posits that, for biparentally incubating and sexually dimorphic birds, the more conspicuous sex should incubate when visually foraging predators are inactive, and in many ecosystems this is at night. Therefore, sexually monomorphic species should share incubation equitably throughout the day and night. We examined incubation patterns in Masked Lapwings Vanellus miles and found that the contribution of the sexes to incubation was equitable. Another measure of incubation behavior, bout duration, was similar between the sexes; male bout durations were slightly shorter than for females. This finding is consistent with the predictions of the incubator conspicuousness hypothesis, although other processes may also explain equitable care.

Executive equity risk-taking incentives and audit pricing

Using a large sample of U.S. firms spanning the period 2000-2010, we document a strong positive association between the sensitivity of CEO compensation portfolio to stock return volatility (vega) and audit fees. We also show that the positive association between vega and audit fees is weaker in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) period. In supplementary tests, we show that the relation between vega and audit fees is stronger for firms with older CEOs and in firms where the CEO is also chairman of the board. Collectively, our results suggest that audit firms incorporate executive risktaking incentives in the fees they charge for their services.