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Selected AbstractsPrenatal and family risks of children born to mothers with epilepsy: effects on cognitive developmentDEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2008Karl Titze PhD The offspring of mothers with epilepsy are considered to be at developmental risk during pregnancy from: (1) generalized maternal seizures (hypoxia); (2) teratogenicity of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs); and (3) adverse socio-familial conditions associated with having a chronically sick mother. Sixty-seven children of mothers with epilepsy and 49 children from non-affected mothers, matched for control variables, were followed from birth to adolescence (53 males, 63 females; mean age 14y 2mo, range 10-20y). Prediction of intellectual performance of these children during adolescence was calculated from the following variables: maternal generalized seizures, prenatal exposure to AEDs, and quality of family stimulation (HOME Inventory) assessed in children at 2 years of age. Children who were prenatally exposed to AEDs achieved lower IQs than control children at adolescence. This effect was moderately significant for children who had been exposed to monotherapy (6 IQ points lower), but was considerable in those exposed to polytherapy (12 IQ points lower). Generalized seizures during pregnancy, observed in half the mothers, did not exacerbate this effect. Relative to prenatal risk status, the quality of the family environment had varied effects on intellectual development. Children with prenatal risks appeared to be more vulnerable to environmental disadvantage than control children, but they also showed longer-lasting effects of environmental support. [source] Enhancing Security Value by Ownership Restrictions: Evidence from a Natural ExperimentFINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2005Amar Gande We present new evidence from a natural experiment to show circumstances in which ownership restrictions can enhance value. Our evidence is based on multiple restricted bond issues by an emerging market issuer at 150 basis points lower than comparable bonds, resulting in a billion dollars saving. This is intriguing: how can an emerging market issuer with junk bond ratings obtain such low yields? We argue ownership restrictions enhance value since they enable an issuer to precommit to renegotiate efficiently with a favored clientele in the potential default states, thereby circumventing deadweight costs of prolonged negotiations, particularly when the restricted clientele also values the underlying collateral higher than other investors. Ownership restrictions can also result in a transfer of value from holders of unrestricted bonds to holders of restricted bonds because of implicit seniority of the latter. We empirically test and find support for both value enhancement and value transfer and show robustness to several alternative explanations. Our evidence suggests that firms can benefit from designing securities with ownership restrictions, by offering new securities exclusively to investors who value them the most. [source] Meeting the Need for Personal Care among the Elderly: Does Medicaid Home Care Spending Matter?HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 1p2 2008Peter Kemper Objective. To determine whether Medicaid home care spending reduces the proportion of the disabled elderly population who do not get help with personal care. Data Sources. Data on Medicaid home care spending per poor elderly person in each state is merged with data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey for 1992, 1996, and 2000. The sample (n=6,067) includes elderly persons living in the community who have at least one limitation in activities of daily living (ADLs). Study Design. Using a repeated cross-section analysis, the probability of not getting help with an ADL is estimated as a function of Medicaid home care spending, individual income, interactions between income and spending, and a set of individual characteristics. Because Medicaid home care spending is targeted at the low-income population, it is not expected to affect the population with higher incomes. We exploit this difference by using higher-income groups as comparison groups to assess whether unobserved state characteristics bias the estimates. Principal Findings. Among the low-income disabled elderly, the probability of not receiving help with an ADL limitation is about 10 percentage points lower in states in the top quartile of per capita Medicaid home care spending than in other states. No such association is observed in higher-income groups. These results are robust to a set of sensitivity analyses of the methods. Conclusion. These findings should reassure state and federal policymakers considering expanding Medicaid home care programs that they do deliver services to low-income people with long-term care needs and reduce the percent of those who are not getting help. [source] EVIDENCE THAT GREATER DISCLOSURE LOWERS THE COST OF EQUITY CAPITALJOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 4 2000Christine A. Botosan The effect of corporate disclosure on the cost of equity capital is a matter of considerable interest and importance to both corporations and the investment community. However, the relationship between disclosure level and cost of capital is not well established and has proved difficult for researchers to quantify. As described in this article, the author's 1997 study (published in The Accounting Review) was the first to measure and detect a direct relationship between disclosure and cost of capital. After examining the annual reports of 122 manufacturing companies, the author concluded that companies providing more extensive disclosure had a lower (forward-looking) cost of equity capital (measured using Value Line forecasts with an EBO valuation formula that derives from the dividend discount model). For companies with extensive analyst coverage, differences in disclosure do not appear to affect cost of capital. But for companies with small analyst followings, differences in disclosure do appear to matter. Among this group of companies, the firms judged to have the highest level of disclosure had a cost of equity capital that was nine-percentage points lower than otherwise similar firms with a minimal level of disclosure. Closer analysis of some of the specific disclosure practices also suggests that, for small firms with limited analyst coverage, there are benefits to providing more forward-looking information, such as forecasts of sales, profits, and capital expenditures, and enhanced disclosure of key non-financial statistics, such as order backlogs, market share, and growth in units sold. In closing, the article also discusses an interesting new study (by Lang and Lundholm) that suggests there is an important distinction between effective corporate disclosure and "hyping the stock." The findings of this study show that while higher levels of disclosures are associated with higher stock prices, sudden increases in the frequency of disclosure are viewed with skepticism. [source] Moody's and S&P Ratings: Are They Equivalent?JOURNAL OF MONEY, CREDIT AND BANKING, Issue 7 2010Conservative Ratings, Split Rated Bond Yields bond ratings; bond yields; reputation capital We examine the relative impact of Moody's and S&P ratings on bond yields and find that at issuance, yields on split rated bonds with superior Moody's ratings are about 8 basis points lower than yields on split rated bonds with superior S&P ratings. This suggests that investors differentiate between the two ratings and assign more weight to the ratings from Moody's, the more conservative rating agency. Moody's becomes more conservative after 1998 and the impact of a superior Moody's rating becomes stronger. Furthermore, the differential impact of the two ratings is more pronounced for the more opaque Rule 144A issues. [source] For richer or for poorer: Marriage as an antipoverty strategyJOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2002Adam Thomas This study examines the effects of changes in family structure on children's economic well-being. An initial shift-share analysis indicates that, had the proportion of children living in female-headed families remained constant since 1970, the 1998 child poverty rate would have been 4.4 percentage points lower than its actual 1998 level of 18.3 percent. The March 1999 Current Population Survey is then used to conduct a second analysis in which marriages are simulated between single mothers and demographically similar, unrelated males. The microsimulation analysis addresses some of the shortcomings of the shift-share approach by making it possible to account for the possibility of a shortage of marriageable men, to control for unobservable differences between married men and women and their unmarried counterparts, and to measure directly the effects of increases in marriage on the economic well-being of children. Results from the microsimulation analysis suggest that, had the proportion of children living in female-headed families remained constant since 1970, the child poverty rate would have been 3.4 percentage points lower than its actual 1998 level. Among children whose mother participated in a simulated marriage, the poverty rate would have fallen by almost two-thirds. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. [source] The Link Between Couples' Pregnancy Intentions And Behavior: Does It Matter Who Is Asked?PERSPECTIVES ON SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, Issue 4 2008Maureen R. Waller CONTEXT:,Previous studies have linked pregnancy intentions with some pregnancy-related behaviors and infant health outcomes. However, most have used only women's reports of intentions and examined only maternal behaviors. METHODS:,Baseline data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (1998,2000) are used to examine whether parents of newborns considered abortion upon learning of the pregnancy and whether this measure of pregnancy intention is associated with their behaviors during pregnancy or with infant birth weight. Associations between outcomes and each parent's pregnancy intention are explored with multivariate probit regressions or least squares regressions for 737 married and 2,366 unmarried couples. RESULTS:,If at least one parent considered abortion, unmarried mothers had a significantly reduced probability of initiating early prenatal care, and unmarried fathers had a significantly reduced probability of providing cash or in-kind support during the pregnancy. The proportion of mothers receiving care in the first trimester was 12 percentage points lower when the mother only or both parents considered abortion than when neither parent did; depending on which parent reported on fathers' support during pregnancy, the proportion of fathers who provided cash or in-kind assistance was 6,10 percentage points lower when the father only considered abortion and 6,14 points lower when both parents considered abortion than when neither did. CONCLUSIONS:,Future research on pregnancy intentions should incorporate both men and women. Understanding men's pregnancy intentions and their associations with early support of mothers may inform discussions of how to encourage men's involvement in family planning, prenatal health care and parenting. [source] | |||||||||||||