Thursday, January 11, 2018

The economics of corporate lobbying: Lobbying does not appear to bring significant tangible benefits in terms of award of government contracts or the success in getting bills passed by the US Congress

The economics of corporate lobbying. lZhiyan Cao et al. Journal of Corporate Finance, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.12.012

Highlights
•    Corporate lobbying is negatively associated with firm performance in an average firm.
•    Performance effects of corporate lobbying vary by firm characteristics
•    Firms with complex operations appear to lose when spend more on lobbying
•    Firms with high growth opportunities are likely to benefit from lobbying
•    Lobbying does not appear to bring significant tangible benefits in terms of award of government contracts or the success in getting bills passed by the US Congress.
•    Political alignment between a firm and the party in government appear to bring some benefits to the firm contributing to PACs associated with the party in power.
•    Primary results are robust to various econometric methods that are used to mitigate potential endogeneity concerns, sensitivity analyses and sample selection concerns.

Abstract: Prior literature examines motivations and impact of corporate lobbying and presents inconclusive evidence. We examine the association of corporate lobbying with firm performance by focusing on how this relationship varies by firm characteristics. Addressing various endogeneity concerns, our analysis shows that corporate lobbying has a negative association with firm performance. We find that the negative association of corporate lobbying on firm performance is largely driven by operationally complex firms. On the other hand, firms with high growth opportunities benefit more from lobbying than low-growth firms. Lobbying seems to provide limited tangible benefits in terms of government contracts obtained or the success of congressional bills passed. These results suggest that agency costs dominate the strategic benefits of lobbying activities. However, there is some evidence that firms benefit when there is political alignment between the firm and the party in power.

The robot is designed to induce lengthening of tubular organs (esophagus, intestines) by traction forces. Testing in swine shows cell proliferation and lengthening of the organ without a reduction in diameter, while the animal is awake, mobile, and able to eat normally

In vivo tissue regeneration with robotic implants. Dana D. Damian et al. Science Robotics, Vol. 3, Issue 14, eaaq0018. DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aaq0018

Abstract: Robots that reside inside the body to restore or enhance biological function have long been a staple of science fiction. Creating such robotic implants poses challenges both in signaling between the implant and the biological host, as well as in implant design. To investigate these challenges, we created a robotic implant to perform in vivo tissue regeneration via mechanostimulation. The robot is designed to induce lengthening of tubular organs, such as the esophagus and intestines, by computer-controlled application of traction forces. Esophageal testing in swine demonstrates that the applied forces can induce cell proliferation and lengthening of the organ without a reduction in diameter, while the animal is awake, mobile, and able to eat normally. Such robots can serve as research tools for studying mechanotransduction-based signaling and can also be used clinically for conditions such as long-gap esophageal atresia and short bowel syndrome.

No Evidence That Women’s Facial Attractiveness, Femininity, or Averageness Are Valid Health Cues

Cai, Ziyi, Amanda Hahn, Weiqing Zhang, Iris J Holzleitner, Anthony J Lee, Lisa M DeBruine, and Benedict C Jones. 2018. “No Evidence That Women’s Facial Attractiveness, Femininity, or Averageness Are Valid Health Cues.” Open Science Framework. January 11. https://osf.io/f9tu2/

Description: Previous reports that women with attractive faces are healthier have been widely cited as evidence that sexual selection has shaped human mate preferences. However, evidence for correlations between women’s physical health and facial attractiveness is equivocal. Moreover, positive results on this issue have generally come from studies of self-reported health in small samples. The current study took standardized face photographs of women who completed three different health questionnaires (Ns=582, 583, 572). Of these women, 221 also provided a saliva sample that was assayed for immunoglobulin A (a marker of immune function). Analyses showed no significant correlations between rated facial attractiveness and either scores on any of the health questionnaires or salivary immunoglobulin A. Furthermore, there was no compelling evidence that objective measures of sexual dimorphism or averageness of face shape were correlated with health. These null results do not support the prominent and influential assumption that women’s facial attractiveness is a health cue.

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Ronald Fisher's Sexy Son Hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexy_son_hypothesis

Respondents who are given an antinuclear climate of opinion are more likely to support the reduction of nuclear power plants when their answer is known to interviewers and respondents are prone to project “socially desirable” answers

The Spiral of Silence and the Crescendo of Voices -- Opinion Expression after Fukushima Nuclear Crisis. Ryosuke Imai, Airo Hino and Masahisa Endo. http://rubenson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/hino.pdf

Abstract: This paper examines the seminal spiral of silence hypothesis through a survey experiment  conducted in Japan. While the existing studies either rely on hypothetical questions in surveys or  experiments with selected samples, we tested the hypothesis with a real ongoing issue in Japan regarding the future of nuclear power plants after the Fukushima crisis based on nationwide random samples. In our experiment, different stimuli of climates of opinion and survey modes were randomly assigned to respondents based on a computer assisted survey program. We hypothesized that respondents who are given an antinuclear climate of opinion are more likely to support the reduction of nuclear power plants and that this only holds in the CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) mode where their answer is known to interviewers and respondents are prone to project “socially desirable” answers. We expected that this also applies to respondents who are not given a climate of opinion and have to rely on their “quasi-statistical sense” in the midst of anti-nuclear atmosphere. Our results demonstrate the spiral of silence (and the crescendo of voicing a majority view) phenomenon for above groups of respondents and this was only confirmed in the CAPI mode while not in the CASI (Computer Assisted Self-administered Interview) mode where respondents complete the questionnaire in privacy by themselves.

The Amount and Source of Millionaires’ Wealth (Moderately) Predict Their Happiness

The Amount and Source of Millionaires’ Wealth (Moderately) Predict Their Happiness. Grant E. Donnell et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217744766

Abstract: Two samples of more than 4,000 millionaires reveal two primary findings: First, only at high levels of wealth—in excess of US$8 million (Study 1) and US$10 million (Study 2)—are wealthier millionaires happier than millionaires with lower levels of wealth, though these differences are modest in magnitude. Second, controlling for total wealth, millionaires who have earned their wealth are moderately happier than those who inherited it. Taken together, these results suggest that, among millionaires, wealth may be likely to pay off in greater happiness only at very high levels of wealth, and when that wealth was earned rather than inherited.

Keywords: happiness, income, money, wealth, well-being