Publications
In pharmaceutical studies, the Quality by Design (QbD) approach is increasingly being implemented to improve product development. Product quality is tested at each step of the manufacturing process, allowing a better process understanding and a better risk management, thus avoiding manufacturing defects. A key element of QbD is the construction of a Design Space (DS), i.e., a region in which the specifications on the output parameters should be met. Among the various possible construction methods, Designs of Experiments (DoE), and more precisely Response Surface Methodology, represent a perfectly adapted tool. The DS obtained may have any geometrical shape; consequently, the acceptable variation range of an input may depend on the value of other inputs. However, the experimenters would like to directly know the variation range of each input so that their variation domains are independent. In this context, we developed a method to determine the “Proven Acceptable Independent Range” (PAIR). It consists of looking for all the hyper polyhedra included in the multidimensional DS and selecting a hyper polyhedron according to various strategies. We will illustrate the performance of our method on different DoE cases.
Background
Numeracy, or the ability to understand and use numbers, has been associated with obtaining better health and financial outcomes. Studies in high-income countries suggest that low numeracy is associated with older age—perhaps especially among individuals with lower education. Here, we examined whether findings generalize to the rest of the world.
Methods
Gallup surveyed >150,000 participants for the 2019 Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll, from 21 low-income, 34 lower-middle income, 42 upper-middle income, and 43 high-income countries. Low numeracy was operationalized as failing to correctly answer, “Is 10% bigger than 1 out of 10, smaller than 1 out of 10, or the same as 1 out of 10?”
Results
Regressions controlling for participants’ education, income, and other characteristics found that, worldwide, low numeracy was associated with older age, lower education, and their interaction. Findings held in each country-income category, although low numeracy was more common in low-income countries than in high-income countries.
Limitations
Age differences may reflect cohort effects and life span–developmental changes.
Discussion
Low numeracy is more common among people who are older and less educated. We discuss the need for education and interventions outside of the classroom.
Highlights
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We analyzed a global survey conducted in 21 low-income, 34 lower-middle income, 42 upper-middle income, and 43 high-income countries.
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Low numeracy was associated with older adult age, even after accounting for age differences in education.
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Low numeracy was more common in older people with lower education.
Purpose
Although the solid empirical proof of momentum is documented in various stock markets, there are many debates among academics with respect to the source of momentum profit. The first aim of this paper is intensively re-examine the momentum profit in Vietnam, an important emerging market. Secondly, the authors study the return predictability of a measure of investors’ overreaction, then examine whether the momentum effect in Vietnam is explained by overreaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the weekly data of more than 300 non-financial Vietnamese stocks during 2009–2019, the authors build a measure of investors’ overreaction, which is based on trading volume and the sign of stock returns. Consequently, to investigate whether momentum exits after controlling for overreaction, the authors carefully compare trading strategies based on overreaction with price momentum strategies using adjusted returns and double sorts on past returns and levels of overreaction.
Findings
The article makes three main findings. Firstly, the authors discover the empirical evidence of momentum in the Vietnamese equity market. Secondly, the measure of overreaction could be a predictor of Vietnamese stock returns. Stocks that have experienced a stronger upward overreaction provide a higher average return. Finally, returns on trading strategies based on overreaction are robust after adjusting for momentum, while returns on momentum portfolios become insignificant after adjusting for overreaction. By double-sorting, the authors document that holding past returns constant, the average returns of portfolios rise monotonically with their measure of overreaction. Hence, the momentum profit in Vietnam arises from investors’ overreaction.
Originality/value
The paper extends previous research on the behavioral explanation of momentum in emerging stock markets, which has not been fully exploited in the literature.
In this paper, we provide systematic evidence of how historical religious institutions affect the rule of law. In a difference-in-differences framework, we show that districts in Pakistan where the historical presence of religious institutions is higher, rule of law is worse. This deterioration is economically significant, persistent, and likely explained by religious leaders gaining political office. We explain these findings with a model where religious leaders leverage their high legitimacy to run for office and subvert the Courts. We test for and find no evidence supporting several competing explanations: the rise of secular wealthy landowners, dynastic political leaders and changes in voter attitudes are unable to account for the patterns in the data. Our estimates indicate that religious leaders expropriate rents through the legal system amounting to about 0.06 percent of GDP every year.
The objective of this study was to explore and describe the specificities of the occupational life of infertile endometriotic women treated by in vitro fertilization. We conducted a qualitative monocentric study between December 2020 and June 2021. Twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews using a theme-based interview guide with open questions were undertaken with infertile women with deep infiltrating endometriosis. Data analysis was conducted using an inductive approach according to the grounded theory method. Three main themes emerged from the interviews: (i) barriers to reconciling illness and work life, (ii) facilitating factors for well-being at work, and (iii) consequences and outlooks. It appeared that the time of infertility treatment represents a particular period of change in the working lives of women with endometriosis. For most women, these changes are experienced negatively, often with a renunciation of goals. For others, this is the time to communicate the difficulties linked to their illness to their professional entourage. There is a long path ahead to finally achieving recognition of endometriosis in the context of professional life.
We document the emergence of spatial polarisation in the United States during the 1980–2008 period. This phenomenon is characterised by stronger employment polarisation in larger cities, both at the occupational and the worker levels. We quantitatively evaluate the role of technology in generating these patterns by constructing and calibrating a spatial equilibrium model. We find that faster skill-biased technological change in larger cities can account for a substantial fraction of spatial polarisation in the United States. Counterfactual exercises suggest that the differential increase in the share of low-skilled workers across city size is due mainly to the large demand by high-skilled workers for low-skilled services and, to a smaller extent, to the higher complementarity between low- and high-skilled workers in production relative to middle-skilled workers.
This paper investigates how labour market regulations alter the adverse impact of rising import competition from China in European local labour markets between 1997 and 2006. The paper constructs measures of regional exposure to Chinese imports based on previous literature and on regional labour market frictions exploiting involuntary labour reallocations. Taking into account the endogeneity of import competition and its interaction with labour market regulations, the paper finds that regions more exposed to the rise of China have suffered from a reduction in manufacturing employment shares. This shock grows larger with regional labour market frictions; hence, it exacerbates the impact of trade shock on employment. Moreover, the paper finds that employment in public services, and not in construction or private services sector, absorbed the negative shock to the manufacturing sector. The unemployment rate, the labour force participation rate and wages in all sectors are unresponsive to import competition from China.
The current health crisis has particularly affected the elderly population. Nursing homes have unfortunately experienced a relatively large number of deaths. On the basis of this observation and working with European data (from SHARE), we want to check whether nursing homes were lending themselves to excess mortality even before the pandemic. Controlling for a number of important characteristics of the elderly population in and outside nursing homes, we conjecture that the difference in mortality between those two samples is to be attributed to the way nursing homes are designed and organized. Using matching methods, we observe excess mortality in Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Estonia but not in the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Italy and Spain. This raises the question of the organization and management of these nursing homes, but also of their design and financing.
