Search

This empirical study examines the dividend policy of insurance companies in Italy after the Global Financial Crisis. There is clear evidence for dividend signaling in this period of time. Moreover, the relationship between stock prices and dividend payments is analyzed in more detail. Additionally, the paper also discusses macroeconomic and regulatory issues that could be of relevance for the dividend policy of the Italian insurance industry. In this context the study exemplarily discusses the possible role of inflation and of regulatory restrictions on dividend payouts in the financial services industry.

This paper examines dividend policy issues in the European pharmaceutical industry. This sector is of particular interest because of the high research and development expenditures and the associated risks characterizing the business models of many firms in this industry. In fact, from the perspective of corporate finance theory, this is a particular challenge for the managers of these corporations that may also have implications for the dividend policy implemented by the firms forming this sector. Moreover, the level of internal financing and litigation risks also seem to be high in the pharmaceutical industry. These facts could also affect the payout policy of the firms. Employing techniques of time series analysis, there is no evidence for dividend signaling and clear evidence for dividend smoothing in the European pharmaceutical industry. Given that dividend increases under certain assumptions can negatively affect the firms' ability to finance new investments in general and research and development projects in particular, these results of our empirical investigations could be described as highly plausible.

Differences in vertical and horizontal structures of the atmospheric wind circulation and its diurnal variation between wet and dry spells over West Africa are studied. CHIRPS products are used to detect the wet and dry spells and Era-Interim reanalysis data to characterize the synoptic conditions during wet and dry spells. The analysis of the zonal wind shows a stronger monsoon flux over the Northern Sahel and the Guinea region during wet spells than that during dry spells, which coincides with a weaker (stronger) and northward (southward) displaced African easterly jet (AEJ) during wet (dry) spells. This strengthening of the monsoon is consistent with the intensification of the Saharan heat low (SHL) observed during wet spells. The vertical velocity analysis also shows an intensification of the southern updraft core associated with deep convection during wet spells than during dry spells. At higher levels, the TEJ intensity is stronger (weaker) during wet (dry) spells. The analysis also showed that the activity of the African easterly waves (AEWs) and the relative humidity are stronger during wet spells than those during dry spells, suggesting that the monsoon flux brings enough moisture to promote the convective activity during wet sequences. This finding is consistent with the weakening of the low-level geopotential height during wet spells over the Sahel region. The diurnal variation analysis shows that the monsoon flux magnitude strongly intensifies during the nighttime and reaches its maximum value at 06:00 during both spells. When considering the difference between the spells, the monsoon flow is stronger (weaker) over the Gulf of Guinea and the Northern Sahel for all synoptic hours during wet (dry) spells. At mid-levels, the AEJ strongly decreases over the Sahel region at 18:00 and 00:00 in both spells. This jet is stronger and southward during dry spells. As for the TEJ, its intensity increases during nighttime and reaches its maximum at 00:00 during both periods. However, the upper levels’ jet magnitude is stronger during wet spells than that during dry spells, especially at 00:00 and 12:00. The analysis of the activity of 3–5-day AEWs shows a more vigorous activity over the Western Sahel at 00:00 during both spells, especially during wet spells.

Home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) can improve hypertension management. Digital tools to facilitate routinized HBPM and patient self-care are underutilized and lack evidence of effectiveness. MyBP provides video-based education and automated text messaging to support continuous BP self-monitoring with recurring feedback. In this pragmatic trial, we sought to generate preliminary evidence of feasibility and efficacy in community-dwelling adults ≥55 y/o with hypertension recruited from primary care offices. Enrollees were provided a standard automatic BP cuff and randomized 2:1 to MyBP vs treatment-as-usual (control). Engagement with MyBP was defined as the proportion of BP reading prompts for which a reading was submitted, tracked over successive 2-week monitoring periods. Preliminary measures of efficacy included BP readings from phone-supervised home measurements and a self-efficacy questionnaire. Sixty-two participants (40 women, 33 Blacks, mean age 66, mean office BP 164/91) were randomized to MyBP (n = 41) or a control group (n = 21). Median follow-up was 22.9 (SD = 6.7) weeks. In the MyBP group, median engagement with HBPM was 82.7% (Q1 = 52.5, Q3 = 89.6) and sustained over time. The decline in systolic [12 mm Hg (SD = 17)] and diastolic BP [5 mm Hg (SD = 7)] did not differ between the two treatment groups. However, participants with higher baseline systolic BP assigned to MyBP had a greater decline compared to controls [interaction effect estimate −0.56 (−0.96, −0.17)]. Overall hypertension self-efficacy improved in the MyBP group. In conclusion, trial results show that older hypertensive adults with substantial minority representation had sustained engagement with this digital self-monitoring program and may benefit clinically.

Aviation turbulence is modelled as an interaction between an aircraft and a vortex tube. The vortex tube can have an arbitrary orientation/offset with respect to the aircraft. We compare modelling the aircraft (i) as a point and (ii) having a finite area (wing and fuselage). We consider both vertical and horizontal accelerations experienced by the aircraft. The baseline vortex tube has an area which is of the order of the aircraft area.

This empirical study uses techniques of time series analysis to examine how government bond yield spreads in France, Italy and Spain (relative to Germany) react to central bank actions in the European Monetary Union. More specifically, fixed income securities with maturities of 10 and 30 years are considered. These long term bonds should be of special importance for the European life insurance industry because of the liability structure of these financial services firms. Other central banks already have hiked interest rates and financial markets, as a consequence, now financial markets seem to be waiting for an increase to the Main Refinancing Operations Announcement Rate. Six bivariate VAR models are estimated. Our results imply that in general there is no strong positive reaction of the bond yield spreads to a contractionary monetary policy shock. Furthermore, there seems to be a negative reaction of the monetary policy rate to a positive shock to the government bond yield spread in the first months. In some cases (10 year bonds of France and Italy) this empirical finding is statistically significant. Therefore, the empirical evidence reported here is not only interesting from the viewpoint of economic theory but also has practical implications for asset managers in the European insurance industry.

This paper re-examines the dividend policy of European insurance companies by also considering inflation. More specifically, a variant of the approach introduced by Goddard et al. (2006)—which was suggested by Reddemann et al. (2010)—is used. The data sample examined here is adjusted to avoid possible problems with structural change. Additionally, more recent data (of course) is also considered. Thereby, this empirical study is focussing more strongly on the experiences in crisis and post-crisis times. This seems to affect the results.

In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), compressed sensing (CS) enables the reconstruction of undersampled sparse data sets. Thus, partial acquisition of the underlying k-space data is sufficient, which significantly reduces measurement time. While 19F MRI data sets are spatially sparse, they often suffer from low SNR. This can lead to artifacts in CS reconstructions that reduce the image quality. We present a method to improve the image quality of undersampled, reconstructed CS data sets. Two resampling strategies in combination with CS reconstructions are presented. Numerical simulations are performed for low-SNR spatially sparse data obtained from 19F chemical-shift imaging measurements. Different parameter settings for undersampling factors and SNR values are tested and the error is quantified in terms of the root-mean-square error. An improvement in overall image quality compared to conventional CS reconstructions was observed for both strategies. Specifically spike artifacts in the background were suppressed, while the changes in signal pixels remained small. The proposed methods improve the quality of CS reconstructions. Furthermore, because resampling is applied during post-processing, no additional measurement time is required. This allows easy incorporation into existing protocols and application to already measured data.

To investigate the difference in clinical efficacy in AD patients between two topical PDE4 inhibitors using dermal open flow microperfusion and cAMP as a pharmacodynamic read-out in fresh human skin explants. Clinical formulations were applied to intact or barrier disrupted human skin explants and both skin biopsy samples and dermal interstitial fluid was sampled for measuring drug concentration. Furthermore, cAMP levels were determined in the skin biopsies as a measure of target engagement. Elevated cAMP levels were observed with LEO 29102 while no evidence of target engagement was obtained with LEO 39652. In barrier impaired skin the dISF concentration of LEO 29102 was 2100 nM while only 33 nM for LEO 39652. For both compounds the concentrations measured in skin punch biopsies were 7–33-fold higher than the dISF concentrations. Low unbound drug concentration in dISF in combination with minimal target engagement of LEO 39652 in barrier impaired human skin explants supports that lack of clinical efficacy of LEO 39652 in AD patients is likely due to insufficient drug availability at the target. We conclude that dOFM together with a pharmacodynamic target engagement biomarker are strong techniques for establishing skin PK/PD relations and that skin biopsies should be used with caution.

Low interest rates have been a major problem for the European life insurance industry. The implementation of Solvency II certainly has forced European life insurers to improve their risk management procedures and to buy long term bonds in order to handle the interest rate risk inherent to their liabilities. As a consequence, the industry meanwhile more or less seems to be able to cope with the problem of low interest rates. However, now the US central bank has started to hike rates. The Bank of Canada meanwhile has followed its southern neighbor. The changed monetary policy environment in North America might create new challenges for asset managers in the European life insurance industry. This paper provides some additional thoughts and empirical evidence about the linkages between US monetary policy and the European bond market employing techniques of time series analysis.

We analyze stock price behavior around reconstitutions of the German DAX index family from 1990 to 2013. The strong price run-up of added stocks in the 2 months preceding the announcement date remains robust until 2 months after the effective date (ED), and is fully reversed 5 months later. Conversely, stock prices of deleted firms are under pressure until 10 months after the ED. Unlike most previous studies, we find that outright entries and exits have temporary price effects, as do additions to and deletions from better-known indices; however, promotions and demotions related to lesser-known indices command permanent stock price responses. Rather surprisingly, deleted stocks consistently earn higher abnormal returns than added stocks in the 5-year post-event period. Specifically, the return differential levels out at 77.3%. We establish that this differential in permanent stock prices is attributable to differences in operating performance and media coverage. In practice, index reconstitutions do not appear to give unambiguous signals about the long-run investment appeal of affected firms. However, index fund managers not constrained by tracking error minimization would be better off holding deleted stocks for 5 years after the ED.

Background Protein recoding by RNA editing is required for normal health and evolutionary adaptation. However, de novo induction of RNA editing in response to environmental factors is an uncommon phenomenon. While APOBEC3A edits many mRNAs in monocytes and macrophages in response to hypoxia and interferons, the physiological significance of such editing is unclear. Results Here, we show that the related cytidine deaminase, APOBEC3G, induces site-specific C-to-U RNA editing in natural killer cells, lymphoma cell lines, and, to a lesser extent, CD8-positive T cells upon cellular crowding and hypoxia. In contrast to expectations from its anti-HIV-1 function, the highest expression of APOBEC3G is shown to be in cytotoxic lymphocytes. RNA-seq analysis of natural killer cells subjected to cellular crowding and hypoxia reveals widespread C-to-U mRNA editing that is enriched for genes involved in mRNA translation and ribosome function. APOBEC3G promotes Warburg-like metabolic remodeling in HuT78 T cells under similar conditions. Hypoxia-induced RNA editing by APOBEC3G can be mimicked by the inhibition of mitochondrial respiration and occurs independently of HIF-1α. Conclusions APOBEC3G is an endogenous RNA editing enzyme in primary natural killer cells and lymphoma cell lines. This RNA editing is induced by cellular crowding and mitochondrial respiratory inhibition to promote adaptation to hypoxic stress. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13059-019-1651-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

We examine whether, and how, investor relations (IR) quality affects managerial malfeasance by exploring the potential effects on the value, accumulation, and uses of cash holdings. Using European data, we find that an increase in the IR quality rank from the lower quartile to the upper quartile raises the marginal value of cash, on average, by €0.40 to €0.69. The effect is more pronounced for firms with weaker (stronger) external (internal) governance structures. We further document an inverted J-shaped relationship between IR quality and the propensity of firms to hoard cash. Specifically, higher-quality IR initially constrain the propensity of firms to accumulate cash; however, the effect is partially reversed as IR quality rank exceeds 0.69. Cash-rich firms with lower-rated IR programs are also more likely to dissipate cash through value-decreasing capital expenditures. Unexpectedly, IR quality seems not to matter for acquisitions and R&D spending nor for repurchases. Instead, IR quality has a negative impact on the propensity of firms to pay dividends, which attests to the shareholder power hypothesis. Overall, we show that higher-quality IR are a market-based approach to increased investor protection that effectively constrain both the profusion and insiders’ negligent allocation of corporate liquid assets. Actually, visibility improves firm transparency, making possible processes of managerial subjection to investor rights.

I find limited evidence of firm learning from stock prices in Europe and uncover multifaceted complementarities between firm informational and operating environments in determining investment sensitivity to stock prices. Specifically, European firms seemingly do not shift away from their own (peer) stock prices even in instances in which their peers’ (own) stock prices become relatively more informative about firms’ fundamentals. This is consistent with European managers adopting more conservative strategies relative to their U.S.-based peers, and stock prices being less revealing in Europe than in the U.S. Furthermore, while a firm may attach equal weight to both its own stock prices and peer price innovations when peer firms are relatively smaller, investment responds more positively to peers’ price shocks than to that firm’s own stock prices when peers are relatively larger. Interestingly, investment sensitivity to peers’ stock prices decreases in peers’ market share, operating performance, and capital intensity. The decrease is accentuated when peer firms have more informative stock prices and are industry leaders or more capital intensive, thereby signaling perceived reduced growth opportunities. Broadly, these results imply that the specifics of the interaction between stock prices and firm behavior in the U.S. do not necessarily generalize to Europe. More important, these different learning patterns are partly attributable to differences in the amount of internal information, which in turn depends on country-level institutional infrastructures.

The current financial crisis has reduced government bond yields in Germany, the U.S., the UK and other countries. Low interest rates do create some problems for the European insurance industry. Especially life insurers seem to face some difficulties. The empirical results reported in this paper give support to the point of view that the relationship among German long-term interest rates, consumer price inflation and industrial production has changed significantly in the year 2009. Turning to the important question under which circumstances an increase to interest rates is likely to occur the empirical evidence reported in this paper does indicate that higher inflation rates should be a cause for rising bond yields.

The present work introduces an alternative to the conventional $$B_{0}$$ -gradient spatial phase encoding technique. By applying far off-resonant radiofrequency (RF) pulses, a spatially dependent phase shift is introduced to the on-resonant transverse magnetization. This so-called Bloch–Siegert (BS) phase shift has been recently used for $$B_{1}^{ + }$$ -mapping. The current work presents the theoretical background for the BS spatial encoding technique (BS-SET) using RF-gradients. Since the BS-gradient leads to nonlinear encoding, an adapted reconstruction method was developed to obtain undistorted images. To replace conventional phase encoding gradients, BS-SET was implemented in a two-dimensional (2D) spin echo sequence on a 0.5 T portable MR scanner. A 2D spin echo (SE) measurement imaged along a single dimension using the BS-SET was compared to a conventional SE 2D measurement. The proposed reconstruction method yielded undistorted images. BS-gradients were demonstrated as a feasible option for spatial phase encoding. Furthermore, undistorted BS-SET images could be obtained using the proposed reconstruction method.

This paper investigates capital market reactions to announcements of corporate strategic transactions in the clean technology, or cleantech, industry. Using the event study method in a multi-country setting, we exploit a dataset of 328 hand-collected announcements of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and asset disposals that took place between 2001 and 2011. We provide strong evidence of significant wealth gains from cleantech deals. On average, cleantech companies earn significantly higher abnormal returns than non-cleantech companies, confirming the beneficial idiosyncrasies of the cleantech industry. These high premia are likely driven by government interventions that are believed to be a necessary pre-condition for development of clean technology. Alternatively, the premia are commanded by the acquisition of cutting-edge environmental innovations and the positive credibility spillover inherent in cleantech deals.

The current sovereign debt crisis in the Euro-Zone is a cause of major concern for European insurers. Especially the fears about increased sovereign credit risk in Italy—leading to higher risk premia—may result in major difficulties because many insurance companies have invested in Italian government bonds. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between German and Italian government bond yields using techniques of cointegration analysis. Furthermore, implications for insurance companies and regulators (focussing on Solvency II) are discussed.

The financial crisis has led to controversial discussions about the capital base of the insurance industry. Dividend cuts and capital increases have been suggested to counter diminishing equity. However, some observers seem to fear that investors could interpret a reduction of dividends as a sign for future problems. The empirical evidence from the Italian insurance sector reported here does indeed indicate that dividend smoothing is a relevant economic phenomenon. Therefore, Italian insurance companies should rethink dividend policy rather carefully due to the possible negative consequences of dividend cuts.

Rac1 has a role in proliferation and survival of tumor cells in vitro. The exact effects of Rac1 on growth, apoptosis and corresponding signaling pathways during tumorigenesis in vivo, however, have not been explored yet. Using mice with a keratinocyte-restricted deletion of the Rac1 gene, we found that Rac1 is essential for DMBA/TPA-induced skin tumor formation. This corresponded to a decreased keratinocyte hyperproliferation, although apoptosis was not detectably altered. Activated Rac1 promoted Erk-dependent hyperproliferation by Pak1-mediated Mek activation independent of Mek1 phosporylation at serine 298. Rac1 was furthermore required for Pak2-dependent hyperactivation of Akt, which under in vivo condition was restricted to the suprabasal cell layers corresponding to a suprabasal-specific expression of Pak2. It is surprising that none of these signaling pathways was altered in untreated Rac1-deficient skin, indicating a hyperproliferation-specific function of Rac1 in vivo. These data suggest that blocking of Rac1 function might allow tumor-specific growth repression, as Rac1 is not required for normal growth and growth signaling controlling pathways in skin in vivo.

This paper reviews the existing literature on investor relations. The purpose of investor relations is consistently to provide market participants with decision-relevant information as a result of either mandatory or voluntary information-disclosure policies. A causation chain between investor relations and stock prices is established through the liquidity hypothesis with respect to the depth of analyst coverage. Though a positive association is documented, it is not perfectly linear. After presenting the taxonomy of corporate disclosures, we elaborate on how well the full-disclosure and the discretionary disclosure models fit into reality. In addition, the extant theoretical and empirical literature reports that investor relations policies vary over time, across firms and jurisdictions.