Negative Size Effect Research Articles

Fertility and Schooling in Ouagadougou : The Role of Family Networks

The importance of family solidarity networks is routinely cited in the literature to explain why the relationship between number of children and schooling in sub-Saharan Africa does not follow the predicted theoretical pattern. The dilemma between quantity and quality of children may be less acute for parents if they can foster out their children to the extended family, or receive monetary support from them to pay for schooling costs. However, there has been little empirical exploration of this hypothesis due to a lack of suitable data. Drawing on an original dataset (Ouagadougou Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems, Demtrend 2012 retrospective survey), this study uses logistic regression models to study the combined effect of family networks and number of siblings on schooling of children in suburban districts of Ouagadougou. The findings show that large families more frequently receive support from family networks for schooling than smaller ones. Moreover, family networks are able to offset the negative effect of large family size on school enrolment, but only for a part of the population, the poorest being excluded.

The effect of networks on international attention in SMEs: theory and evidence from the Netherland

This paper analyzes the determinants of managerial attention in the context of exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on social network theory, the attention-based view, and the international business literature, the paper hypothesizes that distinctive characteristics of international networks explain variations in international attention of SME managers. The model is tested using survey data from 126 exporting SMEs in the Netherlands. The results support the hypotheses that international network size and geographical diversity of network contacts determine managers’ international attention in SMEs. We also find evidence for a negative moderating effect of network size on the relationship between geographical diversity and international attention of SME managers.

Economic Growth and Government Size in Developed Countries: Dose the Imperfection of Econometrics Turn Economics into an Agnostic Science?

Faced with the imperfection of econometrics in terms of potential endogeneity bias, there are generally three options in research methodology for empirical test in economics. The most scientific option should be based on a comparison of all possible analysis methods and a choice of the optimal model based on objective criterion rather than subjective value judgment. This paper illustrates these three options by testing a Neoclassical growth model with the institutional effect of government size based on panel data of OECD countries from 1960 to 2013. The author does not argue that empirical finding of this paper is conclusive but argues that the estimation result obtained from Difference GMM estimator developed by Arellano and Bond (1991) is more reliable than those from the estimators of Within-group Fixed Effect (WG), Chamberlain’s π-matrix or Ordinary Least Square (OLS) as it can remove more endogeneity than the latter three methods. Despite differences in dataset, model specification and estimation methodology, the finding of a negative growth effect of government size for developed economies in this paper is generally consistent with other recent empirical growth studies since 2000, however, this paper gives much higher magnitudes of estimates for growth elasticity of government size than previous studies, possibly because Difference GMM estimator removes more endogeneity than other estimators.

Legitimacy and the cost of government

While previous research documents a negative relationship between government size and economic growth, suggesting an economic cost of big government, a given government size generally affects growth differently in different countries. As a possible explanation of this differential effect, we explore whether government legitimacy (measured by satisfaction with the way democracy works) influences how a certain government size affects growth. On the positive side, a government perceived as legitimate may “get away” with being big since legitimacy can affect behavioral response to, and therefore the economic growth cost of, taxation and government expenditures. On the negative side, perceived legitimacy may make voters less prone to acquire information, which in turn facilitates interest-group oriented or populist policies that harm growth. A panel-data analysis of up to 30 developed countries, in which two different measures of the size of government are interacted with government legitimacy, reveals that perceived legitimacy exacerbates a negative growth effect of government size in the long run. This could be interpreted as governments taking advantage of being regarded as legitimate in order to secure short-term support at a long-term cost to the economy.

Fertility Decline and Child Schooling in Urban Settings of Burkina Faso

As evidenced in Western rich countries, Asia, and Latin America, lower fertility allows couples to invest more in each of their children's schooling. This postulate is the key rationale of family planning policies in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, most studies on Africa have found no correlation or even a positive relationship between the number of children in a family and their educational attainment. These mixed results are usually explained by African family solidarity and resource transfers that might reduce pressures on household resources occasioned by many births as well as methodological problems that have afflicted much research on the region. Our study aims to assess the impact of family size on children's schooling in Ouagadougou (capital of Burkina Faso), using a better measure of household budget constraints and taking into account the simultaneity of fertility and schooling decisions. In contrast to most prior studies on sub-Saharan Africa, we find a net negative effect of sibship size on the level of schooling achieved by children--one that grows stronger as they progress through the educational system.

Size Still Matters!

Recent studies have challenged the cross-sectional explanatory power of the size variable for stock returns. In this paper, we reexamine the size effect by disentangling the delisting effect at the same time. We believe that firms to be delisted from their current stock exchanges usually experience some fundamental changes in financing or structures, which should introduce certain abnormal components into returns right before the delisting date. Therefore, the risk-return relation during this period would be very different from the ordinary patterns. In particular, we find that when a firm is close to be delisted from its current stock exchange, its returns are positively related to firm size, and this opposite effect offsets the original negative size effect. By excluding the delisting period, we are able to restore the negative size effect in a rather robust way. Additionally, we reconstruct the commonly used SMB, HML and UMD proxies without stocks that are in their delisting process, and show a significant improvement in the time-series fit over the existing proxies. Overall, we illustrate that size effect is still approximating for certain risk factors in empirical studies. However, there does exist a very different risk-return behavior during the delisting period, which should be reasonably distinguished from other observations.

Interrelation between catalytic activity for oxygen electroreduction and structure of supported platinum

Electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of the carbon-supported Pt catalysts obtained by chemical and electrochemical deposition has been studied in 0.10M HClO4 at 293K in the expectation to gain new insights into the influence of the substructure of platinum on its catalytic properties for the ORR. Electron microscopy, XRD and electrochemical techniques have been employed to demonstrate that: (i) the ‘chemically’ synthesised Pt/C catalysts contain highly-dispersed isolated metal particles at intermediate metal loadings and both isolated crystallites and crystallite aggregates at higher loading; (ii) the electrodeposited Pt/C materials are ‘nanostructured’, i.e. contain large (up to ca 350nm) aggregates with the deposition potential dependent morphology composed of comparatively small (<20nm) platinum crystallites. No structural dependence of the ORR catalytic properties for the ‘chemically’ synthesised Pt/C catalysts has been revealed, except for the well-known negative size effect. On the contrary, platinum electrodeposited on glassy carbon or furnace black demonstrates atypically high ORR catalytic activity, especially, when electrodeposition is undertaken at 0.10V. Presumably, easily oxidisable defect sites, intergrain boundaries in particular, present at comparatively high concentrations in the electrodeposited materials provide efficient adsorption of O2, which further reduction occurs at the highly catalytically active Pt(111) facets. Structural defects present at an optimal concentration are concluded to promote the ORR catalytic activity of platinum, but excessive defectiveness of the Pt catalyst might hinder the kinetics of the oxygen electroreduction.

Coursework versus examinations in end-of-module assessment: a literature review

In the UK and other countries, the use of end-of-module assessment by coursework in higher education has increased over the last 40 years. This has been justified by various pedagogical arguments. In addition, students themselves prefer to be assessed either by coursework alone or by a mixture of coursework and examinations than by examinations alone. Assessment by coursework alone or by a mixture of coursework and examinations tends to yield higher marks than assessment by examinations alone. The increased adoption of assessment by coursework has contributed to an increase over time in the marks on individual modules and in the proportion of good degrees across entire programmes. Assessment by coursework appears to attenuate the negative effect of class size on student attainment. The difference between coursework marks and examination marks tends to be greater in some disciplines than others, but it appears to be similar in men and women and in students from different ethnic groups. Collusion, plagiarism and personation (especially ‘contract cheating’ through the use of bespoke essays) are potential problems with coursework assessment. Nevertheless, the increased use of assessment by coursework has generally been seen as uncontentious, with only isolated voices expressing concerns regarding possible risks to academic standards.

A synergy effect of internationalization and firm size on performance

Purpose– The purpose of the current study is to investigate the existence of a negative synergy effect of internationalization and firm size on firm performance for publicly traded US hotels.Design/methodology/approach– The study performs the two-way fixed-effects model to investigate the proposed negative synergy effect.Findings– The findings do not support the proposed negative synergy effect, but support the positive synergy effect of internationalization and firm size on performance.Originality/value– This study examines the hypothesis developed based on the agency cost theory using the hotel industry's unique monitoring cost argument. However, findings support the opposite, implicitly suggesting that the hotel's monitoring cost in the international franchising context may not be severe as some expect.

Inside the Black Box of Class Size: Mechanisms, Behavioral Responses, and Social Background

Studies on the effect of class size on student achievement typically find that disadvantaged students benefit more from reduced class size than others. To better understand this differential impact, we analyze changes in the learning environment due to class size, and behavioral responses to class size among parents, schools, teachers and students. The variation in class size is induced by a maximum class size rule applying to upper primary schools in Sweden.We find that in response to an increase in class size: i) teachers seem to assign more responsibility to students; ii) low-income students find their teachers hard to follow when taught in full-class iii) high-income parents help their children more with homework; iv) parents are more likely to change schools; and v) other school inputs and student effort adjust very little. These findings help explain why we find that the negative effect of class size on achievement in our data is concentrated among low-income students.

Effects of Generational Competition and Substitution on Late Labour Participation and Labour Market Exit from a Multilevel Perspective

In this paper, we investigate the effects of demographic, economic and labour market structures on labour market participation and on the transition to inactivity (exit) for older males in eleven European countries. Theoretically, our analysis is guided by considerations of intragenerational competition and intergenerational substitution. Following Easterlin’s hypothesis that intragenerational competition rises with cohort size, we assume a negative effect of cohort size on labour market participation and a positive effect on early exit from the labour market. Taking into account that different cohorts are substitutes at least to a certain extent, we assume that the probability of an early exit will be reduced by a high intergenerational exchange ratio in favour of older workers. Thus, labour market participation is influenced by the populations’ age structure both when entering the labour force and during the career. Moreover, low shares of graduates in older cohorts are expected to reduce older workers’ chances of labour market participation. In addition to demographic structures, general economic conditions, such as per capita GDP and its development over time, act both to further and to hamper the employment of older workers. Additionally, labour market structures, such as unemployment rates, the extent of part-time work or the amount of service jobs influence individual participation and the transition to inactivity. To test these hypotheses, we use merged data from the first two waves of SHARE and macro-level indicators from Eurostat. We estimate a two-level random-intercept logit model which allows us to determine the share of variance in international late careers that can be attributed to country-specific factors and can quantify the relative impact of specific socio-demographic and socio-economic backgrounds. Our results imply that cross-national variance in labour market participation is mainly driven by the instance of long-term unemployment and the share of highly-educated older men. While our analyses reveal some evidence of intragenerational competition, we do not find evidence of intergenerational competition forcing early exit or decreasing participation.

PENGARUH IDIOSYNCRATIC RISK DAN LIKUIDITAS SAHAM TERHADAP RETURN SAHAM

This study examined the effect of idiosyncratic risk and liquidity of shares on stock return. It used data of 50 companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2009–2011 period. The independent variable was the idiosyncratic risk and the liquidity of the shares, as well as control variables such as firm size. Using panel data and pooled least square, result show that idiosyncratic risk had a significant negative effect on stock return, liquidity of the shares had significant positive and significant negative effect of firm size. This means that firms with small idiosyncratic risk that small investors will be preferred, so the demand from individuals and institutions simultaneously will push stock prices and provide a higher return.

The board structure and firm performance in SMEs: Evidence from Spain

The aim is to analyse the efficiency of the board of directors as a corporate governance mechanism. For this purpose, we examine the effect of board composition, size, activity, leadership structure and CEO tenure on firm performance. To test our hypothesis we use a sample of 307 Spanish SMEs, none of which is listed. Our main empirical result is the negative impact of the outside directors proportion and board size on firm performance. The presence of outside directors can be said not to have resulted in improved firm performance. Despite the greater monitoring, advising and networking capacity attributed to outside directors, the firms in the sample showed a significant presence of insider directors, an aspect that may be related to their greater knowledge of the firm, with a subsequently positive effect on strategic planning decisions. The negative effect of board size could indicate that the disadvantages of worse coordination, flexibility and communication inside large boards seem to be more important than the benefits of better manager control by the board of directors.

Latino Immigration and Representation in Local Politics

Theories of racial politics argue that areas with large minority population are characterized by greater levels of policy equity, yet empirical research often fails to find evidence for this prediction. In this article, we develop and test an alternative view of the relationship between minority group size and the representation of minority interests in government using the case of Latino representation in local politics. We argue that Latino group size results in both favorable and unfavorable policy outcomes for Latino communities. The nature of the Latino population, specifically the extent to which it is composed primarily of citizens or noncitizens, explains when each outcome will occur. Latinos achieve more favorable policy outcomes for their interests when the size of the Latino citizen population increases but less favorable outcomes when the number of Latino noncitizens increases. The negative effect of noncitizen group size is mediated by the presence of Latino citizens and representatives. Our hypotheses are tested using data from a national sample of several hundred local school districts and educational policy outcomes.

The Factors Affecting Writing Reviews in Hotel Websites

We aim to understand the people's motivation for writing the reviews in order to better explain drivers of WOM activities in the online channel for the successful implementation of the hotel marketing. For this purpose, we choose one of the popular tourist destinations: Paris. We collect data for empirical analysis from one of the biggest online hotel reservation website. Our analysis reveals that higher rating and lower price increases the propensity to write reviews. However, while the extreme rating and star score and star rating does not have any effect on the propensity to write a review. We have also found the evidence for the negative effect of larger room size on the propensity to write a review. These results imply that satisfaction rather than dissatisfaction increases people's motivation more for writing reviews in hotel websites. We briefly discuss the managerial implications of our results.

Factors affecting variation in the reproductive investment of female treefrogs, Hyla intermedia

In anurans, fecundity (clutch size) is the most important determinant of female reproductive success. We investigated three possible causes responsible for fecundity variation in female Italian treefrogs, Hyla intermedia, during four breeding seasons: (i) variation in morphological (body size and condition) and life-history (age) traits; (ii) variation in the tradeoff between the number and the size of eggs; (iii) seasonal effects and within-season differences in the timing of deposition. At the population level, we found no evidence for a tradeoff between the number and the size of eggs, because they both correlated positively with females’ body size. Conversely, neither age nor post-spawning body condition showed any effect on female reproductive investment. Independent of body size, we found no evidence for variation in reproductive effort among different breeding seasons, but strong evidence for a decrease of clutch size and an increase of egg size with the advancing of a breeding season. To test for the functional significance of the observed temporal variation in allocation strategy, we carried out a rearing experiment in semi-natural conditions on a random sample of ten clutches. The experiment showed a negative effect of clutch size and a positive effect of egg size on both tadpole growth and developmental rates, suggesting that reproductive investment, although constrained by body size, can be adjusted by females to the time of deposition to increase the chances of offspring survival.

Is mother condition related to offspring condition in migratory caribou (Rangifer tarandus) at calving and weaning?

Maternal characteristics can affect offspring traits, yet they are seldom included when considering density dependence of juvenile traits and population dynamics. We quantified the influence of population size and maternal traits on body condition of migratory caribou ( Rangifer tarandus (L., 1758)) calves at birth and weaning. We contrasted female–calf pairs of the Rivière-George (RG) herd, which has recently declined to low population size, with pairs of the much larger Rivière-aux-Feuilles (RAF) herd. Calves of the RAF herd were lighter, smaller, and leaner than calves of the RG herd at both birth and weaning. Differences between herds, however, were much greater at weaning than at calving, suggesting a combined effect of herd size and summer range conditions on calf growth. Maternal mass was positively related to calf body condition during both periods. The positive influence of maternal mass on calf body condition was greater for RAF than RG calves at birth, but it was similar for the two herds at weaning. Our results show that the negative effect of population size on calf body condition can be modulated by maternal mass at calving, and that the positive effect of maternal mass is greater at weaning.

Behavioural processes in social context: Female abductions, male herding and female grooming in hamadryas baboons

The formation of bonds between strangers is an event that occurs routinely in many social animals, including humans, and, as social bonds in general, they affect the individuals' welfare and biological fitness. The present study was motivated by an interest in the behavioural processes that drive bond formation in a social context of hostility, in which the incumbent partners vary greatly in physical power and reproductive interests, a situation in which individuals of many group-living species find themselves often throughout their lives. We focused on the quantitative analysis of female abductions via male aggressive herding in a nonhuman primate, the hamadryas baboon, in which intersexual bonds are known to be strong. We tested three hypotheses informed by sexual conflict/sexual coercion theory (male herding-as-conditioning and female grooming-as-appeasement) and by socioecological theory (unit size and female competition). The results supported the predictions: males resorted to coercive tactics (aggressive herding) with abducted females, and abducted females elevated the amount of grooming directed at their new unit males; in fact, they escaped from the otherwise negative effect of unit size on female-to-male grooming. These findings reveal that conflicts of interest are natural ingredients underpinning social bonds and that resorting to coercive aggression may be an option especially when partners differ greatly in their physical power.

Impact of Culm Harvest on Seed Production in a Monocarpic Bamboo

AbstractSuccessful regeneration of bamboos from seed is a key issue in the ecology of many tropical regions and the livelihoods of their inhabitants. The gregarious monocarpy of many bamboos may be driven by a need to satiate seed predators by seeding in abundance at infrequent intervals. In long‐lived clonal monocarps, seed production is expected to be positively related to the success of the clone in generating more and larger ramets during its lifetime. Ramification may be constrained by harvesting of culms, but it is unclear whether the reduction in productivity is proportional to the loss of reproductive biomass. We counted the seed produced by 661 culms (ramet stems) sampled from 90 clumps of the gregariously monocarpic bamboo Schizostachyum dullooa that is intensively harvested by villagers in northeastern India. The smallest clumps had fewer culms and few or no culms more than one year old. Seed production was indeed positively related to culm size and the number of culms in a clump. First‐year culms were markedly more productive than older culms after controlling for culm diameter and clump size. There was a negative effect of clump size on productivity per culm which may occur because clumps that had been harvested heavily were able to exploit resources retained in rhizomes from harvested culms. Nevertheless, small clumps produced much less seed than larger clumps, generating a risk of unknown magnitude that heavily harvested stands of monocarpic bamboos may be unable to satiate seed predators during their single opportunity for reproduction.

Career Change and the Iron Cage: Organizations and the Early Labour Market Experience of Professional Managers

abstractAlthough it is often acknowledged that organizational structure and career outcomes are related, developed theory on how formal features of the design affect inter‐firm job mobility is incomplete. I focus on organizational size and structural differentiation and relate them to ideas about internal labour markets, organizational senescence, bureaucratic complexity, and resource endowments. Analysing data on the early career histories of professional managers, I find that the negative effect of organizational size on quits weakens with organizational age while a firm's elaborate hierarchy monotonically increases quits in all but very large firms. I interpret these effects as potential mechanisms for linking demographic processes between and within organizations and as a basis for integrating research in corporate demography and career mobility.