Interest in studying the relationship between economic institutions and economic phenomena has been increasing. Indeed, economists point to property rights as constituting one of the most interesting fields of study. Developing countries generally have a weak property rights system, and it is thought that such a system can function like a set of shackles that cripples economic progress. In contrast, developed countries have a strong property rights system, especially in the case of intellectual property rights (IPRs), and this encourages firms to invest in research and development (R&D). In the first two chapters, we study agents’ behavior and economic performance in a developing country. The developing country shares a common capital that everyone can access, and is not secured property. The common-pool problem is widely used to analyze such an economy. It is well known that excess use of the commons can be observed in the economy. This is called the tragedy of the commons. Excess use of the commons is also a cause of the voracity effect. This is defined as a positive technology shock in the common sector that leads to an increase in appropriation, thus stagnating the economy. In chapter 2, we explore a new interpretation of what causes voraciousness and investigate the effects of voracious behavior on a developing country. For this purpose, we introduce a new direction of capital flow. A government mandates that all groups invest their private capital in the common sector to mitigate the effects of excess use of the commons. We show that, while there is no standard voracity effect, an increase in the contribution of the private sector to the common sector causes more voracious behavior and thus slows economic growth. This implies that policies designed to preserve the commons can lead to harmful effects on the economy. Chapter 3 relaxes the assumption imposed in the existing literature to consider situations in which each interest group can observe and take an interest in opponents’ private capital stocks. Here, we find a new Markovian Nash equilibrium that shows the following: the opponents’

/pdf/economic-analysis-of-property-rights-4qoclb5hu4.pdf

Economic Analysis of Property Rights

Order Chiroptera is the second most diverse and abundant order of mammals with great physiological and ecological diversity. They play important ecological roles as prey and predator, arthropod suppression, seed dispersal, pollination, material and nutrient distribution, and recycle. They have great advantage and disadvantage in economic terms. The economic benefits obtained from bats include biological pest control, plant pollination, seed dispersal, guano mining, bush meat and medicine, aesthetic and bat watching tourism, and education and research. Even though bats are among gentle animals providing many positive ecological and economic benefits, few species have negative effects. They cause damage on human, livestock, agricultural crops, building, and infrastructure. They also cause airplane strike, disease transmission, and contamination, and bite humans during self-defense. Bat populations appear to be declining presumably in response to human induced environmental stresses like habitat destruction and fragmentation, disturbance to caves, depletion of food resources, overhunting for bush meat and persecution, increased use of pesticides, infectious disease, and wind energy turbine. As bats are among the most overlooked in spite of their economical and ecological importance, their conservation is mandatory.

/pdf/ecological-and-economic-importance-of-bats-order-chiroptera-4kwb6tt2cb.pdf

Ecological and Economic Importance of Bats (Order Chiroptera)

The rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, prolonged lockdowns, substantial restrictions on public life and an economic downturn negatively affect personal well-being. In this paper, we explore COVID- 19-related determinants of life dissatisfaction and feelings of anxiety using data collected from March 23 to April 30 2020 in 25 advanced and developing countries from four continents. We find that persons with better general health, with a paid job, living with a partner, daily exercising and those avoiding loneliness report less dissatisfaction and less anxiety. The presence of children and a pet in the household has no effect. Women report anxiety feelings more often than men. Older people report lower dissatisfaction and anxiety, remarkable given that the older population is among the most vulnerable in the current pandemic. Jobrelated changes due to COVID-19 such as income reduction and increase or decrease of workload are associated with more dissatisfaction and more anxiety. In reaction to the pandemic governments have adopted a range of measures. We show that restrictions on mobility and requirements to wear protective gear in public increase dissatisfaction and that the state-imposed emergency increase feelings of anxiety. We find that a growing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increases dissatisfaction and anxiety but that this effect levels off with a higher number of cases. Our findings support targeted government policies to preserve economic security, and increase stability of employment.

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/217053/1/GLO-DP-0544.pdf

Life Dissatisfaction and Anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic

Although the major white adipose depots evolved primarily to store energy, secrete hormones and thermo-insulate the body, multiple secondary depots developed additional specialized and unconventional functions. Unlike any other fat tissue, dermal white adipose tissue (dWAT) evolved a large repertoire of novel features that are central to skin physiology, which we discuss in this Review. dWAT exists in close proximity to hair follicles, the principal appendages of the skin that periodically grow new hairs. Responding to multiple hair-derived signals, dWAT becomes closely connected to cycling hair follicles and periodically cycles itself. At the onset of new hair growth, hair follicles secrete activators of adipogenesis, while at the end of hair growth, a reduction in the secretion of activators or potentially, an increase in the secretion of inhibitors of adipogenesis, results in fat lipolysis. Hair-driven cycles of dWAT remodelling are uncoupled from size changes in other adipose depots that are controlled instead by systemic metabolic demands. Rich in growth factors, dWAT reciprocally signals to hair follicles, altering the activation state of their stem cells and modulating the pace of hair regrowth. dWAT cells also facilitate skin repair following injury and infection. In response to wounding, adipose progenitors secrete repair-inducing activators, while bacteria-sensing adipocytes produce antimicrobial peptides, thus aiding innate immune responses in the skin.

Emerging nonmetabolic functions of skin fat

In searching for conceptualizations that offer an alternative perspective to entrepreneurial opportunities, the notion of external enablers has recently been suggested for capturing the influence o...

ACE Research Vignette 057: External enablement of new venture creation: A framework

We analyze the long-term impact of the resettlement of the
Sudetenland after World War II on residential migration. This
event involved expulsion of ethnic Germans and almost complete
depopulation of an area of a country and its rapid resettlement
by 2 million Czech inhabitants. Results based on nearest
neighbor matching and regression discontinuity design show a
higher population churn in resettled areas that continues
today. The populations in resettled areas and in the remainder
of the country share similar values and do not differ
statistically in terms of their propensity to give donations,
attend social events, and participate in voluntary work.
However, we observe that resettled settlements have fewer local
club memberships, lower turnout in municipal elections, and
less frequently organized social events. This finding indicates
substantially lower local social capital in the resettled
settlements that is likely to have caused higher residential
migration. This explanation is consistent with theoretical
models of the impact of social capital on migration decisions.

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/214867/1/WP-MUNI-ECON-2019-07.pdf

Old Sins Cast Long Shadows: The Long-Term Impact of the Resettlement of the Sudetenland on Residential Migration

The implementation of Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) has radically changed the regulatory environment for providing payment services in the European Economic Area. The main objective of the study is to determine the impact of PSD2 on the number of newly established PayTech companies. The second objective is to explain the factors driving the distribution of PSD2-licensed entities across the European Union countries. The difference-in-difference method and the Poisson regression model served our empirical analysis. The results show that the adoption of PSD2 in November 2015 caused a rapid but temporary surge in PayTech start-ups in Europe. After national transpositions of the directive, the number of new entrants fell in 2018; however, it remained at a higher level than before the adoption of PSD2, which indicates its positive impact. The analysis has proved that market potential, the characteristics of payment systems, including the popularity of payment cards, and the public environment for FinTech start-ups provided by the authorities significantly affected the number of PSD2 licences issued. The introduction of the PSD2 has made the size of the domestic market play a smaller role, as PayTechs can operate on a pan-European level also while based in a smaller country. The importance of an open business environment has increased and offering regulatory sandboxes has proven to effectively support the development of the PayTech sector.

The impact of Payment Services Directive 2 on the PayTech sector development in Europe

The bat skin shows an unusual morphology that corresponds to adaptations to flying but also performs multiple functions like thermoregulation; gas exchange and water control and provides a protective barrier against the impact of environment and parasites. Here, we compare the microscopic structure of skin collected from the wing and tail membrane with other body parts in the Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus)in relation to parasite availability. Statistical analysis of whole skin thickness revealed two main groups of body regions: the first with thin skin (wing membrane and tail membrane) and the second with thick skin (abdomen, footpad, head and dorsum), with thickness differing significantly between these groups. The stratum corneum of the footpad was thicker than that found in other body regions. We also focus on the distribution of hairs and mast cells in the bat skin as well as their scale morphology. Furthermore, we established a new exact method of hair density evaluation in bats. We found that the density of hairs in the dorsal and ventral area was similar but it was significantly higher in the head region. The highest density of hair in the area between the ears may be a factor in choosing the preferential location by parasites. The scale morphology was found variable along axis. In the first to fourth sections of a hair, the scales were long and narrow and their upper margin was wider than their lower margin. In the fifth section of a hair, the scales were smaller and square in transverse section. On other hand, hair morphology did not varied between body regions. Mast cells were numerous in the hairy areas of the dorsum and abdomen or wing trabeculae. These were mainly located around vessels and hair follicles in the skin, which are easily accessible to ectoparasites; therefore, the accumulation of mast cells is essential in this area.

Skin structure and hair morphology of different body parts in the Common Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus)

Theoretical models of local social capital predict that communities may find themselves in one of two equilibria: one with a high level of local social capital and low migration or one with a low level of local social capital and high migration. There is empirical literature suggesting that immigrants who join communities high in social capital are more likely to invest in local social capital and that the whole community will then end up in the equilibrium with high local social capital and low migration. However, this literature suffers from the selection of immigrants, which makes the identification challenging. In order to test the causal influence of the initial level of local social capital, we take the setup used in the theoretical models into the laboratory. We treat some communities by increasing the initial level of social capital without affecting the equilibrium outcomes. We find that while most communities end up in one of the two equilibria predicted by the theoretical models, the treated communities are more likely to converge to the equilibrium with a high level of local social capital and low migration.

/pdf/social-capital-and-mobility-an-experimental-study-2yhqvx3n.pdf

Social capital and mobility: An experimental study

Abstract Through a correspondence study, this paper investigates whether employers discriminate job applicants based on their living conditions. Exploiting the natural setting provided by a Rapid Re-housing Program, we sent 1347 job applications for low-qualified front-desk jobs in Brno, Czech Republic. The resumes exogenously differed in only one main aspect represented by the address of the applicants, signaling both the quality of the neighborhood and the quality of the housing conditions in which they were living. We found that while the higher quality of the district has a strong effect in increasing the hiring chances (+20%) the actual improvement of the living conditions standards, per se, does not generate any significant positive effect.

/pdf/residential-based-discrimination-in-the-labor-market-25tiswn0.pdf

Štěpán Mikula

Papers

Old Sins Cast Long Shadows: The Long-Term Impact of the Resettlement of the Sudetenland on Residential Migration

The impact of Payment Services Directive 2 on the PayTech sector development in Europe

Skin structure and hair morphology of different body parts in the Common Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus)

Social capital and mobility: An experimental study

Residential-Based Discrimination in the Labor Market