Yes / Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose that consumer choice be guided by price fairness judgements to increase consumer satisfaction and subsequently enhance market efficiency. Consumers en masse lack the information to judge price fairness, thereby causing their ability to influence the economy to be overlooked. Design/methodology/approach – This is an argumentative and conceptual work that aims to initiate a debate on this important yet unexplored issue. The arguments presented in the paper are based on economic and technological considerations. Findings – The measure for enabling a consumer price fairness judgement is unit cost information – the cost incurred by a firm to produce a product and/or service. The benefits and challenges stemming from the availability of unit cost information (i.e. cost transparency) to consumers and companies are presented and the likely impact of cost transparency on addressing information asymmetries between buyers and sellers are discussed. Originality/value – Although a significant body of knowledge exists on issues such as price transparency and how it is driven and enabled by the growth of the Internet, there is little or no evidence of research yet on issues related to cost transparency. The authors believe this work would create a new line of research for scholarly community leading to an impact on practice.

This Dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay examines how corporate financial policies depend on the properties of future cash flows. In contrast to prior literature, we investigate the role of asymmetries in the distributionof cash flows. We document the relevance of such asymmetries for firms' payout, liquidity, and capital structure policies. Policies are more sensitive to downside volatility and the directional effect of upside variation is often opposite that of downside. Controlling for cash flow volatility,policies significantly relate to measures of skewness. Firms adopt more conservative policies (lower propensity to pay, more cash, less leverage) when cash flow news is more negatively skewed. The second essay addresses a mythical relationship between corporate payout and short-termism. Over the past 30 years, aggregate investment by US public corporations has declined, and corporate payout has increased. These facts are interpreted as evidence that public firms are plagued by short-termism and are foregoing valuable investment opportunities to support the large payouts. We find that large increases in corporate payout do not impact firm investment or innovative activities in the short run. In the long run, firms which increase their payout invest more in physical capital than control firms and that their RandD spending is comparable. Firms which increase their payout do not experience a decline in operating profitability or valuation in the long run. These conclusions hold when we restrict our attention to firms who persist in making large payouts and for those high payout firms that rely on internal funds. Our results are inconsistent with the view that unusually high payout harms the long-term viability of US firms. The evidence in the paper suggests that the high payers are from industries with declining growth opportunities but the firms themselves are expecting their high profitability and cash flow to persist. / Doctor of Philosophy / Large increases or decreases in a company’s earnings or stock returns are breathcatching. Do such large changes contain information about the company’s future performance? If so, what information do they carry? My first essay answers these questions by looking into the data. We find that extreme stock returns do carry information about firms’ long-run performance, and this information effectively predicts firms’ financial decisions including payout, cash balance, and leverage. U.S. public firms have been decreasing their capital investment and increasing their cash payout to shareholders in the past 30 years. This create a concern because these firms are supposed to support economy growth and create jobs. Some commenters would conclude that if public firms payout so much money to shareholders, they would not have enough resource to support economy growth and create jobs. We try to find evidence from the data to support or refute this argument. The data shows that firms that payout a large amount of cash to shareholders do not reduce investment relative to their otherwise similar peers, neither in the short run nor in the long run. We also find that the firms that payout high amount are from industries with declining growth opportunities but the firms themselves are expecting their high profitability and cash flow to persist.

Objetivos: a) descrever um novo método de medida do contorno palpebral superior, b) medir o grau de assimetria interocular do contorno em sujeitos normais, c) quantificar a assimetria interocular do contorno após cirurgia de ptose com conjuntivo-müllerectomia (CMM) e avanço aponeurótico via anterior (VANT), realizadas por dois cirurgiões. Casuística e Métodos: a) dois observadores independentes usaram o programa NIH Image J, com plugin Bézier para extrair o contorno palpebral de fotografias de 29 olhos de sujeitos normais. A concordância entre as duas extrações foi aferida pelo coeficiente percentual de superposição (CPS) de duas linhas, bem como pelo gráfico de Bland-Altman para as diferenças entre a localização do ponto mais alto dos contornos (pico) e pelo coeficiente de correlação Lin, que mensura o quanto as medidas se aproximam da linha de igualdade; b) foi medido o contorno palpebral direito e esquerdo de uma amostra de 75 pessoas normais, com idades variando entre 19 e 73 anos, com média = 44,6 ± 15,7 DP. A amostra foi analisada como um todo e também quando dividida em dois grupos: Grupo 1 (G1) (n=39, idade média =30,2 anos ± 4,5 DP) e Grupo 2 (G2) (n=38, idade média =58,6 anos ± 8,2 DP). O grau de concordância do contorno palpebral direito e esquerdo foi estimado pela mensuração do CPS para toda a extensão da pálpebra, bem como para as porções medial e lateral em relação ao centro da pupila. A assimetria da posição do pico dos contornos também foi quantificada; c) foram analisadas as fotos de 38 pacientes consecutivos portadores de ptose involucional operados bilateralmente por dois cirurgiões distintos (C1, n=20 e C2, n=18) com CMM e VANT (o mesmo número de pacientes em cada técnica). Resultados: a) As curvas de Bézier foram ajustadas a todos os contornos palpebrais com alta reprodutibilidade, o CPS médio = 96,1% ± 1.7 DP. As diferenças entre a posição do pico do contorno foram de +0.5 e -0.5, em torno da média = 0. O coeficiente de Lin foi igual a 0.96; b) os contornos palpebrais foram ajustados por funções parabólicas com coeficiente de determinação médio de 0,99. A assimetria média dos CPS foi de 5.5% sem diferenças significativas entre os segmentos lateral e medial e entre G1 e G2. O valor médio da localização dos picos foi de -0.48 mm (lateral ao centro pupilar) ± 0,06 EP. A média da assimetria desse parâmetro foi de 0,43 mm ± 0,04 EP; c) a assimetria média dos contornos após a CMM foi de 5.3% para C1 e 5.9% para C2. Esse grau de assimetria não foi diferente do observado no grupo controle. Após a correção VANT, esses valores foram, respectivamente, 10.4% e 10.8%, significativamente maiores do que os observados na população normal. Conclusões: As curvas de Bézier possibilitam a extração do contorno palpebral superior com excelente reprodutibilidade. Na pessoas normais, todos os contornos são bem ajustados por curvas parabólicas com picos situados discretamente lateral ao centro pupilar. O contorno é melhor simetrizado com a CMM do que com a VANT. / Purposes: a) to describe a new test of upper eyelid contour measurement, b) to quantify the asymmetry of the interocular of lid contour in normal subjects, c) to measure the interocular contour asymmetry after ptosis surgery with conjunctivaMüllerectomy (CMM) and aponeurotic surgery anterior approach (AAS). Casuistic and Methods: a) two independent observers used the NHIJ image software with a Bézier plugin to extract the lid contour of 29 photos of normal eyes. The agreement of the two lid contours was measured with the coefficient percentage overlapping of superimposing two lines (PCLS) as well by computing the differences of the contour peak location with the Bland and Altman plot and Lin correlation coefficient; b) The right and left lid contours of a sample of normal subjects (n = 75) with ages ranging from 19 and 73 years was measured. The sample was analyzed as a whole and also divided into two age groups G1 (n=39, mean age = 30.2 ± 4,5 SD) and G2 (mean age = 58.6 years ± 8,2 SD). The degree of agreement of the two contours was estimated by the CLS for the whole extension of the lid and for the medial and portions relative to the pupil center. The contour peak asymmetry was also quantified; c) the photos of 28 patients with involutional ptosis who underwent bilateral surgery by 2 different surgeons (C1, n=20 and C2, n=18) with CMM and AAS (equal number of patients with each technique). Results: a) The Bézier curves were adjusted with high concordance between observers for all lid contours. The mean CLS was 96.1% ± 1.7 SD. The peak contour differences (+0.5 to -0.5 mm) were equally distributed around the mean value = 0. The mean Lin coefficient of concordance was 0.96; b) all lid contours were adjusted to parabolic functions with a mean coefficient of determination = 0.99. The mean asymmetry of the contours estimated by the CLS was 5.5%. The mean value of the peak location was - 0.48 mm ± 0,06 SE (lateral to the pupil center) without significant differences between the medial and lateral portions of the lids and between G1 and G2. The mean asymmetry of this parameter was de 0,43 mm ± 0,04 EP; c) The mean contour asymmetry following CMM was 5.3% for C1 and 5.9% for C2, these values were not different from the observed in the control group. After ptosis correction with AAS these values were respectively 10.4% and 10.8% significantly greater than observed in the normal population. Conclusions: The Bézier curves allow the extraction of the upper lid contours with excellent concordance between observers. In the normal population all contours are well adjusted with parabolic function with the peak contour localized slightly lateral to the pupil center. CMM allow a better symmetry of lid contour than AAS.

Em mercados de capitais perfeitos, a decisão de investimento de uma empresa pode ser considerada independente de sua decisão de financiamento, uma vez que recursos externos funcionam como um perfeito substituto para o capital interno. No entanto, em mercados de capitais com imperfeições, tais como custos de transação, custos de falência, problemas de assimetria de informações e problemas de agência, a disponibilidade de capital interno tende a influenciar a decisão de investimento. A insuficiência de recursos internos pode levar empresas a não aproveitarem boas oportunidades de investimento (subinvestimento) e o excesso pode incentivar administradores a investirem em projetos não lucrativos (superinvestimento). Em função de características operacionais, financeiras e administrativas, algumas empresas são mais sujeitas aos impactos de imperfeições de mercados e, por este motivo, seus investimentos devem ser mais sensíveis à geração interna de recursos. O objetivo deste estudo é investigar, no universo de empresas brasileiras de capital aberto, a sensibilidade do investimento em capital fixo - representado pela variação do imobilizado bruto - à geração interna de recursos - representada pelo fluxo de caixa operacional - bem como os fatores (características operacionais, financeiras e administrativas) que afetam essa sensibilidade. Foram considerados os seguintes fatores: tempo de negociação na bolsa de valores; tamanho da empresa; alavancagem financeira; percentual de ações em posse do(s) acionista(s) controlador(es); taxa de pagamento de dividendos e setor de atividade. A abordagem do estudo foi baseada em modelos de regressão múltipla. Dados em painel foram utilizados para estimar os coeficientes dos modelos. Na primeira parte do estudo, foi feita regressão do investimento sobre o fluxo de caixa e variáveis de controle. Na segunda parte do estudo, termos de interação entre o fluxo de caixa e os fatores corporativos foram introduzidos nos modelos. Os resultados da primeira parte deste estudo não mostraram evidências de que geração interna de recursos tem impacto sobre o investimento, sugerindo que nem todas as empresas preferem (ou dependem de) recursos internos para investir. Os resultados da segunda parte mostraram que, dependendo das características das empresas, a geração interna de recursos é bastante relevante para o investimento.Tamanho, alavancagem financeira e percentual de ações ordinárias em posse do(s) acionista(s) controlador(es) afetam a sensibilidade do investimento à geração interna de recursos. Quanto maior o tamanho da empresa, quanto maior sua alavancagem financeira e quanto maior o percentual de ações em posse do(s) acionista(s) controlador(es), menor será o impacto da geração interna de recursos sobre o investimento. Isso é coerente com a existência de custos de transação, custos de falência, assimetria de informações e problemas de agência. Os resultados relativos aos dois últimos fatores sugerem que o problema de superinvestimento é mais crítico que o de subinvestimento em empresas brasileiras de capital aberto. / In perfect capital markets, a firm´s investment decision can be considered independent from its financing decision, because external funds provide a perfect substitute for internal capital. However, in capital markets with imperfections, such as transaction costs, bankruptcy costs, information asymmetries and agency problems, the availability of internal capital tends to have an influence on investment decision. The shortage of internal funds may lead firms to pass up good investment opportunities (underinvestment) and the excess can encourage managers to invest in non-valuable projects (overinvestment). Due to operational, financial and managing features, some firms are more liable to the impacts of market imperfections than others and, for this reason, their investment should be more sensitive to internal funds generation. The aim of this study is to investigate, in the universe of brazilian public firms, the of fixed capital investment – represented by change in gross fixed assets – to internal funds generation – represented by cash flow from operations – as well as the corporate factors (operational, financial and managing features) that affect this sensitivity. The following factors were considered: length of time traded in the stock exchange market; firm size; financial leverage; percentage of common assets detained by controllers; dividend payment rate and industry. The study approach was based on multiple regression models. Panel data was used to estimate models coefficients. In the first part of the study, investment was regressed on cash flow and control variables. In the second part, interaction terms between cash flow and corporate factors were introduced in the models. The results of the first part of this study showed no evidence that internal funds generation has impact on investment, suggesting that not all firms prefer (or depend on) internal funds to invest. The results of the second part showed that, conditioned on firms features, internal funds generation is rather considerable for investment decision. Size, financial leverage and percentage of common assets detained by controllers affect investment sensitivity to internal funds generation. The larger the firm size, the larger its financial leverage and the larger the percentage of common assets detained by controllers, smaller will be the impact of internal funds generation on investment. This is consistent with the existence of transaction costs, bankruptcy costs, information asymmetries and agency problems. The results concerning the two latter factors suggest that the overinvestment problem is more serious than the underinvestment problem in brazilian public firms.

It is well known that the colour preferences of ganglion and LGN cells do not match the four perceptually simple colours red, green blue and yellow. It is also known that although colour perception is distorted in the peripheral visual field, there are four hues that appear stable with eccentricity. These are defined as peripherally invariant hues. Both of these observations must in some way reflect the physiological substrate of neurons at different stages of the primary visual pathway. The experiments described here are aimed at understanding the link between the physiology and the perception of colour by studying the characteristics of peripheral colour visionThe following questions have been addressed; i) to what extent does colour matching rely on the retinal physiological substrate? ii) what is the reason for the discrepancy between invariant and unique green and how is cone contrast linked to this paradox? iii) how are the `special' hues (invariant and unique) related to human evolution? iv) how does peripheral colour vision vary between males and females?An asymmetric colour matching paradigm and a colour naming task have been employed. In the colour matching task, 24 chromatic axes of variable purity are used. Observers match the chromaticity of a 3 degree peripheral spot with that of a 1 degree parafoveal spot. The results are expressed in terms of hue rotation, saturation match and cone contrast. In the colour naming experiment the observers name 40 chromatic axes as either red, blue, green or yellow and colour naming functions are derived. The central maxima of these functions are defined as the unique hues. The results suggest that colour matching and cone opponency reflect the characteristics of the retinal neural network as they exhibit nasal-temporal asymmetries, similar to known physiological asymmetries. Although three of the peripherally invariant hues match the unique counterparts, invariant and unique green are markedly different for all observers. In an important control experiment unique hues are shown to be stable with eccentricity and purity. This confirms that these attributes are not confounding factors for the observed discrepancy between invariant and unique green. Unlike for the other 'special' hues the RMS cone contrast of invariant green differs markedly between parafoveal and peripheral targets. It is likely that the cone contrast remains unchanged only if the stimuli excite the same number of cones. Two invariant and two unique hues (blue and yellow) fall on the daylight locus suggesting that discrimination in these regions of the colour space is strongly influenced by terrestrial illumination. Moreover, the inter-individual variability is found to be minimised around the daylight locus showing that the blue-yellow system is more stable across colour normal populations than the red-green system. A statistically significant difference is demonstrated between the peripheral colour vision of males and females. This may be attributed to the M-cone polymorphism which in addition to X-chromosome inactivation, results in more than three cone types in the female retina.

This thesis investigates how proximity to parks, historic district designations, and water quality are valued at residential housing prices. The first essay argues that the negative influences of parks and historic districts, if not noticed, could promote negative externalities and unincentivized investments. I find a negative impact on housing values for a close proximity to a park, suggesting disamenities in park features. When the boundary discontinuity and park amenities are considered, I find a positive valuation for a park. Overall, these results imply a mixed influence of parks on homeowners. From the historic district standpoint, I find a positive valuation of the local historic districts over the surrounding neighborhoods. The latter findings indicate that the benefits of locally designated areas outweigh the negative impacts. The second essay researches a probable lead risk in the water supply on the residential market. I argue strongly for the possibility of hidden-type information relative to lead in water supplies. I find that the influence of lead risk in their water supply is not statistically significant. The test for asymmetric information validates the expectation that homes in the relatively high lead-risk neighborhoods might not be informed of the level of lead-risk in their water supply.

<p>This thesis relates modern speciation theory to the effects of sudden changes in the range and size of populations. Special reference is made to the climatic oscillations during the Quaternary ice ages. A meta-analysis of laboratory experiments showed that support for allopatric speciation is weak, especially for the peripatric type of allopatric speciation. Furthermore, factors traditionally believed to increase the likelihood of speciation have had little effect on the generation of reproductive isolation in speciation experiments. However, the method of testing reproductive isolation appeared important, in the sense that experimentally derived sister populations were likely to demonstrate reproductive isolation from each other but not from the unaffected mother population. Raw data from mating tests showed that the poor isolation between mother and daughter populations was an effect of asymmetric mate preferences towards males from the mother population. This suggests that peripatric speciation can be effective in generating reproductive isolation between sister populations. The proposed mechanism is that males become less attractive to females by losing certain secondary sexual traits during population bottlenecks, and that females shift their preferences towards other male traits. Support for this mode of speciation is found in the widespread bird genus <i>Motacilla</i> (wagtails). This genus is characterised by extensive plumage variation and contains a large number of widely distributed taxa in the northern parts of its distribution. This thesis shows that taxonomic diversity of wagtails is inversely related to complexity in song and to diversity in molecular and mitochondrial markers. The northern taxa seem to be descendants of southern populations, which were subjected to bottlenecks during expansions into re-opened habitats after the last ice age. The bottlenecks would not only reduce genetic diversity but also inhibit cultural transmission of song to the leading edge of colonisers, allowing sexual selection on other traits, such as plumage. Rapid plumage differentiation among wagtail taxa appears to be a recurrent process and has lead to convergent evolution, making the currently recognised species <i>Motacilla flava</i> (Yellow Wagtail) polyphyletic.</p>

The aims of this thesis were to describe the verbal interaction in workplace meetings and to relate them to the order of gender. The material consists of five workplace meetings with both female and male participants and was transcribed using a system developed for the purposes of the study. Both the videotapes and transcripts were used in the analyses. Three main studies were carried out. The first study aimed at describing the structuring of the verbal interaction during the meetings, especially in comparison with ordinary conversation. The second study tested the hypothesis that the men in the meetings would dominate the verbal interaction. The third study aimed at describing narratives in the material, especially two narratives told by a male participant in one of the meetings. The methods used in the studies combined qualitative analysis of small sections of talk with quantitative analysis of variables, coded in the material as a whole. The first study showed many similarities between the five meetings in the way interaction was structured, which indicated the possibility that the workplace meeting represents an activity type of its own. One main result was that although the meetings were managed with almost no formal procedures, the verbal interaction was still very structured, and handled with practices belonging to ordinary conversation used in an activity-specific way. The quantitative analysis showed no great differences between the men and the women and the hypothesis was not clearly verified. Two variables indicated that the men dominated the interaction and one variable indicated that the women dominated the interaction, but on the whole the similarities between the men and the women were greater than the differences. The qualitative analysis of the narratives showed how the narratives in the meetings were an interactional achievement and how their meaning was negotiated in the interaction. The analyses also showed how the meaning of the narratives was influenced by normative conceptions about masculinity and thus could be a means of doing gender.

This thesis relates modern speciation theory to the effects of sudden changes in the range and size of populations. Special reference is made to the climatic oscillations during the Quaternary ice ages. A meta-analysis of laboratory experiments showed that support for allopatric speciation is weak, especially for the peripatric type of allopatric speciation. Furthermore, factors traditionally believed to increase the likelihood of speciation have had little effect on the generation of reproductive isolation in speciation experiments. However, the method of testing reproductive isolation appeared important, in the sense that experimentally derived sister populations were likely to demonstrate reproductive isolation from each other but not from the unaffected mother population. Raw data from mating tests showed that the poor isolation between mother and daughter populations was an effect of asymmetric mate preferences towards males from the mother population. This suggests that peripatric speciation can be effective in generating reproductive isolation between sister populations. The proposed mechanism is that males become less attractive to females by losing certain secondary sexual traits during population bottlenecks, and that females shift their preferences towards other male traits. Support for this mode of speciation is found in the widespread bird genus Motacilla (wagtails). This genus is characterised by extensive plumage variation and contains a large number of widely distributed taxa in the northern parts of its distribution. This thesis shows that taxonomic diversity of wagtails is inversely related to complexity in song and to diversity in molecular and mitochondrial markers. The northern taxa seem to be descendants of southern populations, which were subjected to bottlenecks during expansions into re-opened habitats after the last ice age. The bottlenecks would not only reduce genetic diversity but also inhibit cultural transmission of song to the leading edge of colonisers, allowing sexual selection on other traits, such as plumage. Rapid plumage differentiation among wagtail taxa appears to be a recurrent process and has lead to convergent evolution, making the currently recognised species Motacilla flava (Yellow Wagtail) polyphyletic.

Introduktion: Historiskt sett har de svenska företagens lånebaserade finansiering mestadels utgjorts av banklån. Efter finanskrisen 2008 har bankerna tvingats till att minska utlåningen när de numera jobbar utefter det nya regelverket Basel III. Rapporter från bland annat riksbanken och svenskt näringsliv menar att detta regelverk kommer att slå hårdast mot svenska små bolag. Forskning inom området menar att den svenska marknaden för företagsobligationer inte fått den utveckling den borde haft. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att söka en förståelse till varför den svenska marknaden för företagsobligationer förefaller att vara underutvecklad bland små bolag, samt att undersöka urvalets lämplighet för ett framtida inträde på den svenska företagsobligationsmarknaden. För att styrka uppsatsens resultat kommer studien även att inkludera ett jämförelseindex hämtat från Large Cap.   Metod: För att infria studiens syfte har en metodtriangulering tillämpats. Empirin har delvis samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med aktörer listade på svenska Small Cap.  En intervjuguide utformades på basis av studiens förda problematik och teoretiska referensram. Empirin har även samlats in genom en multipel regressions analys i syfte att undersöka urvalets lämplighet för ett framtida inträde på den svenska företagsobligationsmarknaden.  Slutsats: Resultatet vi erhöll från studien är att den svenska marknaden för företagsobligationer fortfarande är underutvecklad. Studien visade att de mindre bolagens kunskap till marknaden är bristfällig och att bankernas nya roll som intermediär skapar informationsasymmetrier och således stora transaktionskostnader. Studien kan även konkludera att företags storlek, mätt i totala tillgångar, skulle kunna utgöra en företagsspecifik variabel som kan förklara en otillräcklig kreditvärdighet för ett eventuellt inträde på företagsobligationsmarknaden. / Introduction: Historically, the Swedish companies' loan-based financing mostly consists of bank loans. After the 2008 financial crisis, banks have been forced to reduce lending as they now work along the new Basel III regulations. The Swedish Riksbank and the Swedish business community believe that this regulation will hit hardest towards smaller companies. Researches in the field believe that the Swedish corporate bond market did not receive the development it ought to have been. Aim: The purpose of this study is to seek an understanding of why the Swedish corporate bond market seems to be underdeveloped among small companies and also to examine the future suitability regarding a future entry on the Swedish corporate bond market, for the selection. To put the study results into perspective, the study will include a benchmark gathered from the Large Cap. Method: To meet the study objective, a method triangulation is applied. The empirical data has partly been collected through semi-structured interviews with actors listed on the Swedish Small Cap. An interview guide was designed on the basis of the study´s problematization and theoretical framework. The empirical data is also collected through a multiple regression analysis, in order to examine the sample suitability for future entry into the Swedish corporate bond market. Conclusion: The results we obtained from this study is that the Swedish corporate bond market is still underdeveloped. The study showed that the smaller companies knowledge of the market is insufficient and that the banks' new role as intermediate are creating information asymmetries and henceforth high transaction costs. The study may also conclude that the company's size, measured in total assets, could provide a firm-specific variable that can explain an inadequate credit rating for a possible entry into the corporate bond market.