Investment Hypothesis Research Articles

The Brexit Unknown—Britain's Boom or Bust?

This case invites students to assess the impact that Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, might have on a New York–based hedge fund's portfolio and, specifically, its UK assets. The case is designed to prompt students to make market assumptions and investment hypotheses based on a combination of numerical data and qualitative information. It requires no numerical computations; instead, it asks the student to interpret both markets' short-term reactions to the Brexit vote and strategy shifts from UK and European business leaders in order to evaluate longer-term implications for the economies of the United Kingdom, Europe, and the world.

Testing Financial Constraint Hypothesis of Investment in NEPSE Listed Companies

This study aims to test financing constraints of Nepalese firms and its impact on investment behavior by controlling the accelerator effect. It divides the firms into Financially Constrained (FC) and Unconstrained (UC) group using discriminant analysis and uses Econometric Model to analyze investment cashflow sensitivities (ICFS) of firms. The data comprised the accounting observations (n=256) obtained from the annual reports of 16 non-financial companies listed in Nepal Stock Exchange Ltd. Results show that financially constrained firm exhibit higher cashflow sensitivity indicating significant influence of financing constraints on Nepalese firm's investment behavior. It documents the evidence of financial market inefficiency, urging for policy prescriptions to address these constraints and spur investment and growth.

Differential grandparental investment when maternal grandmothers are living versus deceased.

Grandparents can increase their inclusive fitness by investing time and resources in their grandchildren. However, not all grandparents make such investments equally, and between-grandparent differences in this regard can be predicted based on paternity uncertainty, lineage and grandparents' sex. Using population-based data for English and Welsh adolescents (n = 1430), we examined whether the death of the most important grandparent (in terms of investment), the maternal grandmother (MGM), changes relative support for existing hypotheses predicting differential grandparental-investment patterns. To contrast the predictions of the grandparental investment hypotheses, we used generalized order-restricted information criterion approximation. We consequently found that, when MGMs are alive, the most-supported hypothesis is 'discriminative grandparental solicitude', which ranks grandparental investment as MGMs > maternal grandfathers (MGFs) > paternal grandmothers (PGMs) > paternal grandfathers (PGFs). However, when MGMs are deceased, the paternity uncertainty hypothesis (MGFs = PGMs > PGFs) receives the most support; this is due to increased investment by PGMs. Thus, when the heaviest investors (i.e. MGMs) are deceased, PGM investments are closer to-but do not exceed-MGF investments.

Age, but not an immune challenge, triggers terminal investment in the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus.

The terminal investment hypothesis proposes that, when individuals are faced with a threat to survival, they will increase investment in current reproduction. The level of the threat necessary to elicit terminal investment (the dynamic terminal investment threshold) may vary based on other factors that also influence future reproduction. Here, we tested whether there is an interactive effect of age and an immune challenge on the dynamic terminal investment threshold in the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus. We measured the courtship call, mating attractiveness, ejaculate size, and offspring production of T. oceanicus males. We found only limited support for the dynamic terminal investment threshold: there was no consistent evidence of a positive interaction between male age and immune challenge intensity. However, we found evidence for age-related terminal investment: older males produced a larger spermatophore than younger males. Older males also had a slower calling rate compared to younger males, suggesting a potential trade-off between these two pre- and post-copulatory traits. As some, but not all, reproductive traits responded plastically to cues for terminal investment, our research highlights the importance of considering a broad range of pre-and post-copulatory traits when exploring the potential for terminal investment to occur.

Male plumage colouration predicts female reproductive investment and nestling survival in a colour dimorphic tropical songbird

In sexually colour dimorphic bird species, males can exhibit phenotypic variation, with males breeding in either dull female-like plumage or brightly coloured plumage. Two contradictory hypotheses predict that the male phenotype variation can influence the female investment in a given breeding attempt. Whereas females usually prefer males in bright coloured plumage, the “differential allocation hypothesis” predicts that females should invest more in their reproductive output when mating with them; while the “compensatory investment hypothesis” predicts that females should invest more when mating with non-preferred males. To test those predictions, we analysed reproductive data for two consecutive breeding seasons (2018–2019 and 2019–2020) of Lined Seedeaters Sporophila lineola. S. lineola is a socially monogamous songbird species in which males exhibit two breeding phenotypes, a black-and-white plumage being the most common, and a less common female-like brownish plumage. Our findings show that females mated with brownish males have a higher reproductive investment (i.e., egg volume) than those mated with black-and-white males. Despite the lower investment of females in egg volume, our results showed that black-and-white males have a higher nestling survival, producing more hatchings and fledglings per season than brownish males, which could suggest a higher fitness. Our findings indicate that investment allocation on the eggs and offspring survival rates can be attributed to the plumage colour of males.

Impact of food availability and predator cues on meadow vole response to social vs. non-social odorants

Abstract The risk of predation and food deprivation may alter the degree to which animals associate with conspecifics. We examined if food deprivation, the risk of predation, or simultaneous exposure to both altered meadow voles’ preference for odour cues in a way that adheres to the terminal investment, safety in numbers, or avoidance hypotheses. Satiated or food-deprived meadow voles were given the choice to investigate either opposite-sex conspecific bedding, same-sex conspecific bedding, clean bedding, or self-bedding when exposed to mink urine or olive oil. Mink urine and food deprivation did not impact the amount of time meadow voles spent with each type of bedding, but meadow voles did begin investigating more quickly when experiencing either or both stressors. However, food deprivation and mink urine did not have an additive impact on any measured variable. Further research is needed to determine if the terminal investment hypothesis is the hypothesis that best describes the mating behaviour of meadow voles facing one or multiple stressors.

Growth trajectories of wild Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis) determined from parallel laser photogrammetry

Socioecological factors are associated with life-history patterns and growth trajectories among primates. Under certain conditions, selection may favor a temporal decoupling of growth and major life-history events such as sexual maturation or natal dispersal. Yet, empirical tests of these associations in wild populations remain scarce owing to the lack of non-invasive methods to capture growth trajectories. In this study, we first compared two non-invasive methods of digital photogrammetry. Then, we used parallel laser photogrammetry to investigate forearm growth of wild Assamese macaque males and females in their natural habitat at Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand to test life-history and socio-ecological hypotheses. Across 48 males and 44 females, we estimated growth trajectories and pseudo-velocity curves by applying quadratic plateau models and non-parametric LOESS regressions. We assessed the development of sexual dimorphism by comparing the sexes at five different ages. Females had completed 96% of their growth at the age at first birth (5.9 years) and ceased growing at 7.1 years of age. Males, in contrast, grew until well after their average age of natal dispersal: they reached 81% of their size at the age of natal dispersal (4.0 years), and ceased growing only at 9.0 years of age, much later than females. Sexual dimorphism in forearm length was driven by an extended growth period in males, which is expected for males dispersing between multimale and multifemale groups and not facing the risk of being ousted by other larger males. Our results contradict the neonatal investment hypothesis that predicts a desynchronization of investment in growth and reproduction only in female baboons, but not other papionins producing cheaper neonates. Furthermore, male Assamese macaques do not delay natal dispersal until they are fully grown, in accordance with predictions of the male-career-framework for species with low to medium level of direct competition.

Darwinian Grandparenting Redux: a Pre-registered Replication and Extension

Mothers’ fathers consistently invest more in their grandchildren than fathers’ mothers. This pattern was explained by Laham et al. in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 31(1), 63-72. (2005) via the preferential investment hypothesis—the idea that fathers’ mothers invest less in grandchildren than mothers’ fathers because the former typically have more certain alternate investment outlets available. In two studies of prolific workers (combined N = 4086), we first failed to replicate the findings of Laham et al. and then successfully replicated them. In the combined sample, mothers’ fathers received more positive ratings than fathers’ mothers when participants had cousins through fathers’ sisters, but this difference between grandparents disappeared when participants did not have cousins through fathers’ sisters. We also found that people spent more time with their maternal and paternal grandparents to the degree that they were not maternal grandparents to someone else, which mediated the closer feelings.

Clutch size and the rejection of parasitic eggs: a comparative test of the maternal investment hypothesis

Clutch size and the rejection of parasitic eggs: a comparative test of the maternal investment hypothesis

Reproductive effort and terminal investment in a multispecies assemblage of Amazon electric fish

AbstractThe terminal investment hypothesis (TIH) predicts that individuals with favorable prospects for future reproduction (i.e., high residual reproductive value, RRV) should moderate current reproductive investment in favor of growth, survival, and future reproduction, whereas those with low RRV should “terminally invest” by diverting somatic resources towards current reproduction at the expense of future reproduction. However, support for the TIH in wild animal populations is fragmentary, and the ecological contexts of terminal investment remain poorly known. We report a remarkable case of simultaneous terminal investment involving five sympatric species of the electric knifefish genus Brachyhypopomus, from Amazonian floodplain and terra firme stream habitats. We found that terminal investment is synchronized by seasonal breeding, in response to circannual environmental variation in mortality risk. Four species exhibit a uniseasonal iteroparous (annual) life history with complete post‐reproductive mortality after a single breeding season. One species (Brachyhypopomus beebei) exhibits a 2‐year multiseasonal iteroparous life history with breeding in two seasons and post‐reproductive mortality after the second. In mature females and (most) males of the annual species, as well as in both mature female and male second‐year (but not first‐year) B. beebei, we documented an increase in two metrics of reproductive effort (size‐adjusted gonad mass and electric signal amplitude) and a concomitant reduction in somatic condition (size‐adjusted somatic mass), all in response to proximity to the end of the common breeding season, when RRV approximates zero. In mature first‐year B. beebei, we documented neither an increase in reproductive effort nor a decline in somatic condition, implying an alternative strategy of reproductive restraint. Our findings support Kirkwood's disposable soma theory, which posits that death by reproductive exhaustion can be delayed if terminal investment is replaced by reproductive restraint, allowing individuals to survive and breed in a subsequent season. Deferral of the terminal investment response in annual species, and the origin of a gonadal regression‐regeneration sequence, may open pathways for rapid evolutionary transitions to multiseasonal iteroparity. Excepting the age (year‐group) dependency of terminal investment in B. beebei, we were unable to identify intrinsic cues or extrinsic environmental cues for the terminal investment response in Brachyhypopomus.

Why do UK firms repurchase their own shares

We examine the practice of share repurchases in the UK from 2000 to 2016 We find that an important regulatory reform in 2003, which relaxed previously strict rules about repurchases, was followed by a significant increase in repurchase activity by UK main-market listed firms We then examine the motivation for repurchases, testing several key hypotheses from prior literature. Our analysis of 6,228 firm years provides support, across both regulatory regimes, for both the free cash flow and the investment hypotheses. However, there are also changes in share repurchase motivations following the easing of restrictions. Important differences between UK and US payout practices are identified.

Age-specific fecundity under pathogenic threat in an insect: Terminal investment versus reproductive restraint.

The terminal investment hypothesis predicts that as an organism's prospects for survival decrease, through age or when exposed to a pathogenic infection, it will invest more in reproduction, which should trade-off against somatic maintenance (including immunity) and therefore future survival. Attempts to test this hypothesis have produced mixed results, which, in addition, mainly rely on the assessment of changes in reproductive effort and often overlooking its impact on somatic defences and survival. Alternatively, animals may restrain current reproduction to sustain somatic protection, increasing the chance of surviving for additional reproductive opportunities. We tested both of these hypotheses in females of the yellow mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor, an iteroparous insect with reproductive tactics similar to that of long-lived organisms. To achieve this, we mimicked pathogenic bacterial infections early or late in the life of breeding females by injecting them with a suspension of inactivated Bacillus cereus, a known natural pathogen of T. molitor, and measured female age-specific fecundity, survival, body mass and immunity. Inconsistent with a terminal investment, females given either an early or late-life immune challenge did not exhibit reduced survival or enhance their reproductive output. Female fecundity declined with age and was reduced by the early but not the late immune challenge. Both early and late-life fecundity correlated positively with life expectancy. Finally, young and old females exhibited similar antibacterial immune responses, suggesting that they both restrained reproduction to sustain immunity. Our results clearly demonstrate that age-specific reproduction of T. molitor females under pathogenic threat is inconsistent with a terminal investment. In contrast, our results instead suggest that females used a reproductive restraint strategy to sustain immunity and therefore subsequent reproductive opportunities. However, as infections were mimicked only, the fitness benefit of this reproductive restraint could not be shown.

Personal Financial Management Practices and Demographic Factors on Financial Wellbeing of Medical Doctors Employed in Public Hospitals Nairobi County, Kenya

Financial wellbeing is very important in both a personal and organizational level. Medical doctors are among the well-remunerated workers in Kenya. However, according to Kenya Medical Association 2017 financial information, it indicates that 70% of medical doctors employed under public hospitals in Nairobi City County Kenya are struggling financially. This study sought to determine the impact of financial knowledge on financial wellbeing of medical doctors employed in public hospitals Nairobi County, to determine the effect of demographic factors on financial wellbeing of medical doctors working in public hospitals Nairobi City County, to establish the effect of financial disposition and budgeting habits on financial wellbeing of medical doctors employed in public hospitals Nairobi County, to find out the effect of financial saving behavior on financial wellbeing of medical doctors employed in public hospitals Nairobi County and to define the moderating effect of economic condition on the association between personal financial management and financial wellbeing of medical doctors employed in public hospitals Nairobi County, Kenya. This study was anchored on Keynesian absolute income hypothesis, Prospect theory, Lifecycle savings theory, Permanent income hypothesis, Relative income hypothesis, and Savings and investment hypothesis. This study used descriptive research design and data was collected from a target population of 259 doctors employed by the Nairobi City County government. The Yamane formula was used to obtain the sample size. Primary information assembly was done utilizing a semi-structured survey provided to the specialists through dropping and picking later strategy. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the gathered information; mean, mode, middle, standard deviation, tables, figures, rates, and frequencies. The relationship between the variables was established by the use of inferential statistics. The knowledge of financial products (b=.354, t = 5.429, P<0.05), financial disposition and budgetary habits (b=.117, t = 2.397, P=.018), and financial saving behavior (b=.110, t = 5.316, P<0.05) had a positive statistically significant association with financial well-being of doctors. A unit increase in personal financial management increased financial wellness by 0.104 (b= .104, t=5.089, P<0.01) and was not moderated by the economic condition of doctors statistically significantly, P=.811. This study concluded that personal financial management was a predictor for financial wellbeing of doctors employed in public hospitals Nairobi City County. Overall, as personal financial management increased, the financial wellbeing increased. The recommendation was that training programs on financial products and diversification of investments are needed for medical doctors at the County level, as a large proportion of medical doctors did not own financial products nor attended training on personal financial management.

Mr Joseph Maclise and the Epistemology of the Anatomical Closet

This article takes up the case of Joseph Maclise (1815–1891), a talented and truculent surgeon, anatomist, and medical illustrator of mid-nineteenth-century Britain. Maclise left behind a corpus of brilliant, idiosyncratic anatomical images, and opinionated commentaries, but almost no evidence of his social interactions or affective relations. Homoerotic desire was heavily policed in Maclise’s time. Given the conditions under which the archive was created (or suppressed, or lost, or shamed into reticence), we can never know with certainty what he intended or felt, or what his readers received—but we do have a rich evidentiary base of visual materials. Using narrative history, close readings of images and texts, detailed comparisons with other illustrated anatomies, and open-ended theoretical and methodological approaches (a mash-up of queer theory, Foucault, gaze theory, genre analysis, and contextualization)—an argument is joined: a book can be a closet and a queer space. Maclise’s drawings, ostensibly designed to contribute to the improvement of medical knowledge, theory, and practice, show good-looking young men and cadaveric bodies in various states of dissection. Penises, testicles, anuses, faces, sensuous hands on skin are crisply rendered in illusionistic perspective, with a highly cultivated aestheticism—often without any relevance to the anatomical topic discussed—and little attention is paid to the female body. In historical context, and from our twenty-first-century vantage point, the hypothesis of homoerotic investment leads to productive interpretations. This article poses more questions than answers but comes to rest with this: it is plausible and meaningful to take Maclise’s anatomical illustrations, and the figures depicted therein, as queer objects of queer desire.

FDI inflow and financial channels: international evidence before and after crises

PurposeExtending on the resource-seeking foreign direct investment (FDI) hypothesis, this paper aims to uncover the potential relationship between financial and non-financial channels and inward FDI before and after the global financial crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe sample includes 561 year-country observations on 33 developed and developing countries during 2001 and 2017. This study investigates several determinants such as inflation, gross domestic product growth, exchange rate, trade openness, financial openness, Sharpe ratio and country market capitalization, using ordinary least squares, fixed effects and system generalized method of moments.FindingsThe results indicate a negative relationship between inflation and financial openness with FDI inflow while market capitalization and exchange rate were positively connected to FDI inflow. All three financial channels of FDI inflow: financial market size, financial openness and Sharpe ratio significantly influenced FDI inflow. Moreover, inflation, financial openness and Sharpe ratio imply a meaningful impact on the FDI inflow of developed and developing countries, with a relatively stronger influence during the post-crisis periods. Asymmetric impact tests also revealed similar results.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings offer an impression that financial market development channels may significantly boost FDIs in developing and, as well as developed countries. With special reference to the developing countries, a disciplined financial market and financial openness may help attract more FDIs.Originality/valueImpact of the financial crisis on FDI inflows while observing the impact of the financing channels in developing and developed countries is rare in the academic domain. This study forwards that a structured and open financial market may help in recovering from the financial crisis.

Depression of the soil arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community by the canopy gaps in a Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) plantation on Lushan Mountain, subtropical China.

Both canopy gaps (CG) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play key roles in seedling establishment and increasing species diversity in forests. The response of AMF to canopy gaps is poorly understood. To assess the long-term effects of canopy gaps on soil AMF community, we sampled soil from plots in a 50-year Cryptomeria japonica (L.f.) D. Don. plantation, located in Lushan Mountain, subtropical China. We analyzed the AMF community, identified through 454 pyrosequencing, in soil and edaphic characteristics. Both richness and diversity of AMF in CG decreased significantly compared to the closed canopy (CC). The differences of the AMF community composition between CG and CC was also significant. The sharp response of the AMF community appears to be largely driven by vegetation transformation. Soil nutrient content also influenced some taxa, e.g., the low availability of phosphorus increased the abundance of Acaulospora. These results demonstrated that the formation of canopy gaps can depress AMF richness and alter the AMF community, which supported the plant investment hypothesis and accentuated the vital role of AMF–plant symbioses in forest management.

An agent-based model of the female rivalry hypothesis for concealed ovulation in humans.

After half a century of debate and few empirical tests, there remains no consensus concerning why ovulation in human females is considered concealed. The predominant male investment hypothesis states that females were better able to obtain material investment from male partners across those females' ovulatory cycles by concealing ovulation. We build on recent work on female competition to propose and investigate an alternative-the female rivalry hypothesis-that concealed ovulation benefited females by allowing them to avoid aggression from other females. Using an agent-based model of mating behaviour and paternal investment in a human ancestral environment, we did not find strong support for the male investment hypothesis, but found support for the female rivalry hypothesis. Our results suggest that concealed ovulation may have benefitted females in navigating their intrasexual social relationships. More generally, this work implies that explicitly considering female-female interactions may inspire additional insights into female behaviour and physiology.

Phytomass Reserves and Distribution of Biogenic Elements in Gmelin Larch Stands in Central Evenkia (Using the Example of a Small Drainage Basin)

For the first time, for a small watershed in Central Evenkia, using the method of model trees, a change in the composition and structure, as well as in the phytomass and biogenic elements reserves in larch forests, depending on the age of the stands, was revealed. It was found that the main mass-forming components in the phytomass of all stands are the trunk and root fractions. The proportion of the trunk phytomass increases and the proportion of branches and needles decreases with age. It was found that the composition of the roots changes little with the age of the stand, which confirms the hypothesis of the annual primary carbon investment into larch roots in the permafrost zone. It is shown that the largest carbon reserves are accumulated in overmature stands, while nitrogen reserves accumulates in the needles of young stands.

Stage-Specific Parasitism by a Mutualistic Partner Can Increase the Host Abundance

Mutualism is one of the major interaction types occurring in ecological communities, and has significant consequences for population dynamics and community structure. A major feature of mutualism is its context dependence; i.e., potentially mutualistic relationships may become parasitic or neutral depending on the abiotic conditions and presence of other species. Recently, stage structure has been recognized as an additional important factor underlying the context-dependence of mutualism, giving rise to the concept of stage-structured mutualism, which states that mutualistic partners at one life-history stage may become parasitic at other life-history stages. However, the ecological consequences of such a stage-structured interaction remain unknown. Here, we present a simplified one host–one partner model with a juvenile–adult stage structure of the host species, in which the partner species improves fecundity of the adult host but suppresses growth and maturation of the juvenile host. Numerical simulations identified two ecological conditions for stage-specific parasitism to counterintuitively increase host abundance: (i) the benefits derived by the adult host from the partner species are large and the costs imposed on the juvenile host by the partner species are small (the partner investment hypothesis), and (ii) host population growth is limited by adult reproduction instead of juvenile maturation (the ontogenetic asymmetry hypothesis). Although the partner investment hypothesis appears more intuitive, exhaustive parameter exploration revealed that the ontogenetic asymmetric hypothesis would be more likely to operate. This counterintuitive result implies that the dynamics of mutualistic interactions are more complex than previously thought. The present study provides novel insights into the ecological consequences of mutualism and illustrates the importance of the ontogenetic perspective of mutualism in community ecology. Further research is required in both empirical and theoretical approaches to better understand the mechanisms by which stage-structured mutualism mediates population dynamics and community structure in more complex systems.

Late-life reproduction in an insect: Terminal investment, reproductive restraint or senescence.

The terminal investment, reproductive restraint or senescence theories may explain individual late-life patterns of reproduction. The terminal investment hypothesis predicts that individuals increase reproductive allocation late in life as prospects for future survival decrease. The other two hypotheses predict reduced reproduction late in life, but for different reasons. Under the Reproductive Restraint hypothesis, individuals restrain their reproductive effort to sustain future survival and gain more time for reproducing, whereas under the Senescence process, reproduction is constrained because of somatic deterioration. While these hypotheses imply that reproduction is costly, they should have contrasted implications in terms of survival after late reproduction and somatic maintenance. Testing these hypotheses requires proper consideration of the effects of age-dependent reproductive effort on post-reproduction survival and age-related somatic functions. We experimentally tested these three hypotheses in females of the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor, an iteroparous and income breeder insect. We manipulated their age-specific allocation into reproduction and observed the effects of this manipulation on their late-life fecundity, post-reproduction survival and immunocompetence as a measurement of somatic protection. We found that females exhibit age-related decline in fecundity and that this reproductive senescence is accelerated by a cost of early reproduction. The cost of reproduction had no significant effect on female longevity and their ability to survive a bacterial infection, despite that some immune cells were depleted by reproduction. We found that female post-infection survival deteriorated with age, which could be partly explained by a decline in some immune parameters. Importantly, females did not increase their reproductive effort late in life at the expense of their late-life post-reproduction survival. Late-life reproduction in T. molitor females is senescing and not consistent with a terminal investment strategy. Rather, our results suggest that females allocate resources according to a priority scheme favouring longevity at the expense of reproduction, which is in line with the reproductive restraint hypothesis. Such a priority scheme also shows that a relatively short-lived insect can evolve life-history strategies hitherto known only in long-lived animals. This puts in perspective the role of longevity in the evolution of life-history strategies.