Differentiated effects of formal and informal institutional distance between countries 2 on the environmental performance of multinational enterprises

This research examines the influence of environmental institutional distance between home and host countries on the standardization of environmental performance among multinational enterprises using ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression techniques and a sample of 128 multinationals from high-polluting industries. The paper examines the environmental institutional distance of countries using the concepts of formal and informal institutional distances. The results show that whereas a high formal environmental distance between home and host countries leads multinational enterprises to achieve a different level of environmental performance according to each country's legal requirements, a high informal environmental distance encourages these firms to unify their environmental performance independently of the countries in which their units are based. The study also discusses the implications for academia, managers, and policy makers.

Brazil’s Northeast Financing Constitutional Fund: Differentiated effects on municipal economic growth

This article investigates the effects of the investments made by the Northeast Financing Constitutional Fund (FNE) on the economic growth of that region's municipalities in the decade of 2000. To that end, it uses an empirical framework based on growth models that make it possible to form convergence clubs according to the municipalities' initial development level. The results corroborate the empirical strategy and reveal the existence of four groups of municipalities, in which investment flows through the FNE have different effects on growth. In general, the FNE produces positive and significant effects in most municipalities of the Northeast, except for those whose gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was either very low or very high at the start of the decade, in which case its effects are not significant.

The differentiated effects of CSR actions in the service industry

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to attempt to explain why the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives may be different and/or more important in service firms compared to manufacturing firms. CSR is becoming a common strategy, hence its extensive research. Central to it is the analysis of the effect of CSR on a firm’s performance, whose outcome depends on firm-specific and industry-related factors. Design/methodology/approach – The event study methodology is applied to all the 248 companies that have ever traded on the Spanish Stock Market between 1990 and 2007. A regression analysis examines potential different effects of CSR on service and goods firms. Findings – The results show that CSR activities have a positive impact on firm performance that is higher for service firms than for manufacturing firms. Actions related to the environment, responsible labor relationships and good corporate governance are especially important in the service context. Research limitations/implications – This research is focused on shareholders’ performance, but it does not consider other stakeholders, such as real consumer behavior or employees’ commitment and productivity. Practical implications – Service firms are likely to gain from focusing on some CSR activities (environment, employees and good corporate governance) and should use their responsible behavior as a valuable tool for public relations and differentiation in the market. Originality/value – This article is the first attempt to empirically test and explain why the relationship between CSR and firm performance may be different (more positive) for service vs manufacturing firms.

MODELING DIFFERENTIATED TREATMENT EFFECTS FOR MULTIPLE OUTCOMES DATA

Multiple outcomes data are commonly used to characterize treatment effects in medical research, for instance, multiple symptoms to characterize potential remission of a psychiatric disorder. Often either a global, i.e. symptom-invariant, treatment effect is evaluated. Such a treatment effect may over generalize the effect across the outcomes. On the other hand individual treatment effects, varying across all outcomes, are complicated to interpret, and their estimation may lose precision relative to a global summary. An effective compromise to summarize the treatment effect may be through patterns of the treatment effects, i.e. "differentiated effects." In this paper we propose a two-category model to differentiate treatment effects into two groups. A model fitting algorithm and simulation study are presented, and several methods are developed to analyze heterogeneity presenting in the treatment effects. The method is illustrated using an analysis of schizophrenia symptom data.

Effects of 2013 Cap reform on land market: regionalized farm payments and changes in farmers’ intended behaviour

The CAP reform process has been a central issue for agricultural economics research in recent years, and is gaining further attention in view of the post-2013 perspectives (Viaggi et al., 2010; Bartolini et al., 2011). Today the CAP is in the middle of a new reform process. Through the debate generated by the official proposals, published in October 2011 (COM(2011)625/3), the European Union (EU) engaged in a revision of the CAP ended on 26 June 2013 when a political agreement has been reached (IP/13/613, MEMO-13-621 and IP/13/864). In particular, in Italy the switch of the payment regime from historical to regional bases will take place. The underlying assumption is that the shift to regionalized payments changes the remuneration of inputs and has an impact on farmers’ allocation of fixed resources. In this context, farmers are expected to adjust their plans to the new policy environment as the regionalization of support is meant to create a change in incentives faced by farmers. The objective of this thesis is to provide an ex-ante analysis of the potential impact of the introduction of regionalized payments, within the post-2013 CAP reform, on the land market. Regionalized payments seem to produce differentiated effects and contribute to a general (slight) increase of land exchanges. The individual reaction to the new payments introduction would be different depending on location and specialization. These effects seem to be also strongly influenced by the difference in historical payments endowment and value, i.e. by the previous historical system of distribution of payments.

Antecedents of Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Stress in a Public Hospital: A P-E Fit Perspective

This article tests different P-E fit dimensions in order to assess their impact on three work outcomes: job satisfaction; organizational commitment; and stress perception. Findings shows that P-E fit dimensions have differentiated effects on its dependent variables. This study contributes to several important academic discussions. The first concerns the model tested, which contains several P-E fit dimensions. The second scientific contribution is to consider P-E fit dimensions as antecedents of three job outcomes. The third contribution concerns the development and testing of a new P-E fit dimension called "person-reforms" fit.

The gender dimension of globalization: a survey of the literature with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Pension legislation and gender equity in Latin America

Includes bibliography

CEPAL Review no. 113

Development then and now: Idea and utopia / Rolando Cordera Campos .-- Latin America’s competitive position in knowledge-intensive services trade / Andrés López, Andrés Niembro and Daniela Ramos .-- Wage share and economic growth in Latin America, 1950-2011 / Germán Alarco Tosoni .-- Patterns of technical progress in the Brazilian economy, 1952-2008 / Adalmir Marquetti and Melody de Campos Soares Porsse .-- Mexico: Combining monthly inflation predictions from surveys / Pilar Poncela, Víctor M. Guerrero, Alejandro Islas, Julio Rodríguez and Rocío Sánchez-Mangas .-- Expectations and industrial output in Uruguay: Sectoral interdependence and common trends / Bibiana Lanzilotta .-- Argentina: Impacts of the child allowance programme on the labour-market behaviour of adults / Roxana Maurizio and Gustavo Vázquez .-- Occupational mobility and income differentials: The experience of Brazil between 2002 and 2010 / Sandro Eduardo Monsueto, Julimar da Silva Bichara and André Moreira Cunha .-- What does the National High School Exam (enem) tell Brazilian society? / Rodrigo Travitzki, Jorge Calero and Carlota Boto .-- Brazil’s Northeast Financing Constitutional Fund: Differentiated effects on municipal economic growth / Fabrício Carneiro Linhares, Ricardo Brito Soares, Marcos Falcão Gonçalves and Luiz Fernando Gonçalves Viana.

Effects of Low-Level Laser Therapy and Orthodontic Tooth Movement on Dental Pulps in Rats

Objectives: To describe the microscopic pulpal reactions resulting from orthodontically induced tooth movement associated with low-level laser therapy (LLLT) in rats. Materials and Methods: Forty-five young male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to three groups. In group I (n = 20), the maxillary right first molars were submitted to orthodontic movement with placement of a coil spring. In group II (n = 20), the teeth were submitted to orthodontic movement plus LLLT at 4 seconds per point (buccal, palatal, and mesial) with a GaAlAs diode laser source (830 nm, 100 mW, 18 J/cm(2)). Group III (n = 5) served as a control (no orthodontic movement or LLLT). Groups I and 11 were divided into four subgroups according to the time elapsed between the start of tooth movement and sacrifice (12 hours, 24 hours, 3 days, and 7 days). Results: Up until the 3-day period, the specimens in group I presented a thicker odontoblastic layer, no cell-free zone of Weil, pulp core with differentiated mesenchymal and defense cells, and a high concentration of blood vessels. In group II, at the 12- and 24-hour time points, the odontoblastic layer was disorganized and the cell-free zone of Weil was absent, presenting undifferentiated cells, intensive vascularization with congested capillaries, and scarce defense cells in the cell-rich zone. In groups I and II, pulpal responses to the stimuli were more intense in the area underneath the region of application of the force or force/laser. Conclusions: The orthodontic-induced tooth movement and LLLT association showed reversible hyperemia as a tissue response to the stimulus. LLLT leads to a faster repair of the pulpal tissue due to orthodontic movement. (Angle Orthod. 2010;80:116-122.)

Regional Effects of Port Infrastructure: A Spatial CGE Application to Brazil

This article attempts to elucidate one of the mechanisms that link trade barriers, in the form of port costs, and subsequent growth and regional inequality. Prior attention has focused on inland or link costs, but port costs can be considered as a further barrier to enhancing trade liberalization and growth. In contrast to a highway link, congestion at a port may have severe impacts that are spread over space and time whereas highway link congestion may be resolved within several hours. Since a port is part of the transportation network, any congestion/disruption is likely to ripple throughout the hinterland. In this sense, it is important to model properly the role nodal components play in the context of spatial models and international trade. In this article, a spatial computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that is integrated to a transport network system is presented to simulate the impacts of increases in port efficiency in Brazil. The role of ports of entry and ports of exit are explicitly considered to grasp the holistic picture in an integrated interregional system. Measures of efficiency for different port locations are incorporated in the calibration of the model and used as the benchmark in our simulations. Three scenarios are evaluated: (1) an overall increase in port efficiency in Brazil to achieve international standards; (2) efficiency gains associated with decentralization in port management in Brazil; and (3) regionally differentiated increases in port efficiency to reach the boundary of the national efficiency frontier.

Effects of a mixture of growth factors and proteins on the development of the osteogenic phenotype in human alveolar bone cell cultures

Strategies to promote bone repair have included exposure of cells to growth factor (GF) preparations from blood that generally include proteins as part of a complex mixture. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of such a mixture on different parameters of the development of the osteogenic phenotype in vitro. Osteoblastic cells were obtained by enzymatic digestion of human alveolar bone and cultured under standard osteogenic conditions until subconfluence. They were subcultured on Thermanox coverslips up to 14 days. Treated cultures were exposed during the first 7 days to osteogenic medium supplemented with a GFs + proteins mixture containing the major components found in platelet extracts [plate I et-derived growth factor-BB, transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1, TGF-beta 2, albumin, fibronectin, and thrombospondin] and to osteogenic medium alone thereafter. Control cultures were exposed only to the osteogenic medium. Treated cultures exhibited a significantly higher number of adherent cells from day 4 onward and of cycling cells at days 1 and 4, weak alkaline phosphatase (ALP) labeling, and significantly decreased levels of ALP activity and mRNA expression. At day 14, no Alizarin red-stained nodular areas were detected in cultures treated with GFs + proteins. Results were confirmed in the rat calvaria-derived osteogenic cell culture model. The addition of bone morphogenetic protein 7 or growth and differentiation factor 5 to treated cultures upregulated Runx2 and ALP mRNA expression, but surprisingly, ALP activity was not restored. These results showed that a mixture of GFs + proteins affects the development of the osteogenic phenotype both in human and rat cultures, leading to an increase in the number of cells, but expressed a less differentiated state.

Effects of rosiglitazone and linoleic acid on human preadipocyte differentiation

Background Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is a ligand-activated transcription factor known to be central to both adipose tissue development and insulin action. Growth of adipose tissue requires differentiation of preadipocytes with acquisition of specific cellular functions including insulin sensitivity, leptin secretion and the capacity to store triglyceride. Dietary fatty acids and members of the thiazolidinedione class of compounds have been reported to influence adipogenesis at the transcriptional level. Here, we compare the effects of a dietary fatty acid, linoleic acid, and a thiazolidinedione, rosiglitazone, on biochemical and functional aspects of human preadipocyte differentiation in vitro . Materials and methods Human omental and subcutaneous preadipocytes were subcultured 2-3 times and subsequently differentiated for 21 days in the presence of either linoleic acid or rosiglitazone. Differentiation was assessed using a number of biochemical and functional parameters. Results Omental and subcutaneous preadipocytes differentiated in the presence of linoleic acid showed marked cytoplasmic triacylglycerol accumulation however, no biochemical markers of differentiation (LPL expression, G3PDH gene expression and enzyme activity and leptin expression or secretion) were detected. In contrast, treatment of these cells with rosiglitazone induced full biochemical differentiation as judged by all markers assessed, despite comparatively little lipid accumulation. The rosiglitazone effects were subcutaneous depot-specific. Cells treated with linoleic acid showed decreased glucose uptake cf rosiglitazone-treated cells. A luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that rosiglitazone potently activates h-peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma while linoleic acid had no effect. Conclusions These studies demonstrate that (a) human preadipocytes have the potential to accumulate triacylglycerol irrespective of their stage of biochemical differentiation; (b) while omental preadipocytes are refractory to biochemical differentiation in vitro , they are able to accumulate triacylglycerol; and (c) rosiglitazone and linoleic acid may exert their effects via different biochemical pathways.