Exploring the rationale of enlightened shareholder value in the realm of UK company law – the path dependence perspective

Despite conventional beliefs in the predominance of shareholder value, a broader agenda of stakeholder consideration has been advocated in the UK by the recently-introduced ESV principle – the overriding corporate objective in the new company law regime. In this paper, the efficiency of this principle in terms of stakeholder enhancement is challenged through an interdisciplinary analysis. Through a critical review of the ESV principle, it is discovered that stakeholder enhancement practices in the context of the 2006 company law regime are still for the fundamental goal of shareholder value maximisation, and that their enlightened impact has been fairly limited in practice. Furthermore, by revisiting the interrelationships between UK economic, political and cultural factors with the predominance objective of shareholder value maximisation in the Companies Act 2006, it is discovered that the enlightened effect of this new approach in the company law regime is in fact impeded by strong, persistent forces deriving from shareholder-oriented particulars. Providing insight into the future direction of corporate governance practice, the paper concludes the rationale behind the shareholder-oriented ESV principle, and further suggests the continuing predominance of shareholder value in UK corporate governance

DEMAND SUBSTITUTION BETWEEN NATURAL, FLAVORED, AND SYNTHETIC CITRUS JUICES

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The tangent splash in \PG(6,q)

Let B be a subplane of PG(2,q^3) of order q that is tangent to $\ell_\infty$. Then the tangent splash of B is defined to be the set of q^2+1 points of $\ell_\infty$ that lie on a line of B. In the Bruck-Bose representation of PG(2,q^3) in PG(6,q), we investigate the interaction between the ruled surface corresponding to B and the planes corresponding to the tangent splash of B. We then give a geometric construction of the unique order-$q$-subplane determined by a given tangent splash and a fixed order-$q$-subline.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1303.550

POOLED TIME-SERIES AND CROSS-SECTION DATA FROM THE CONSUMER EXPENDITURE SURVEY

Consumer/Household Economics,

CO2 per se activates carbon dioxide receptors.

Carbon dioxide has been used in traps for more than six decades to monitor mosquito populations and help make informed vector management decisions. CO2 is sensed by gustatory receptors (GRs) housed in neurons in the maxillary palps. CO2-sensitive GRs have been identified from the vinegar fly and mosquitoes, but it remains to be resolved whether these receptors respond to CO2 or bicarbonate. As opposed to the vinegar fly, mosquitoes have three GR subunits, but it is assumed that subunits GR1 and GR3 form functional receptors. In our attempt to identify the chemical species that bind these receptors, we discovered that GR2 and GR3 are essential for receptor function and that GR1 appears to function as a modulator. While Xenopus oocytes coexpressing Culex quinquefasciatus subunits CquiGR1/3 and CquiGR1/2 were not activated, CquiGR2/3 gave robust responses to sodium bicarbonate. Interestingly, CquiGR1/2/3-coexpressing oocytes gave significantly lower responses. That the ternary combination is markedly less sensitive than the GR2/GR3 combination was also observed with orthologs from the yellow fever and the malaria mosquito. By comparing responses of CquiGR2/CquiGR3-coexpressing oocytes to sodium bicarbonate samples (with or without acidification) and measuring the concentration of aqueous CO2, we showed that there is a direct correlation between dissolved CO2 and receptor response. We then concluded that subunits GR2 and GR3 are essential for these carbon dioxide-sensitive receptors and that they are activated by CO2 per se, not bicarbonate

WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR NON-GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD: EVIDENCE OF HYPOTHETICAL BIAS FROM AN AUCTION EXPERIMENT IN JAPAN

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/05/04.Consumer/Household Economics,

Econometric Analysis of Rising Body Mass Index in the U.S.: 1996 versus 2002

Currently over 30% of American adults are obese, more than twice the percentage prevalent in 1980 (American Obesity Association). At the same time, almost 65% adult Americans are said to be overweight. Such high prevalence levels are a major public health concern. Both overweight and obesity are associated with increased health risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, fatty liver disease and some forms of cancer. In this paper we explore the factors that contribute to increasing rates of obesity and overweight, and study the differences in years 1996 and 2002. We use a multilevel econometric approach to model the four classifications of body mass index (BMI) obese, overweight, healthy and underweight - as a function of individual characteristics, lifestyle indicators and external environment. The results are reasonably consistent within the two years and with findings from previous studies. However, three significant differences are found between the two years at the state-level. Two of them are completely new findings. Higher urban residency is associated with lower rates of overweight and obesity. On the other hand, higher participation in food-stamp programs in the more recent year is associated with increasing prevalence of obesity. Excise tax on cigarettes also has a positive association with obesity only. Previous studies have uses either per-capita sales of restaurants, or price of meals available in fast-food and full-service restaurants. We explored a new variable density of fast-food and full-service restaurants serving meals over a wide price range. Such a variable is used to not only capture the importance of difference between fast-food restaurants and full-service restaurants, but to also distinguish between the effects of lower-priced and higher-priced meals. We find that lower-priced food from fast-food restaurants has positive effect, and higher-priced food from full-service restaurants has negative effect. Three new individual-level lifestyle predictors have been added, and they all seem to be significant in explaining the weight outcomes. Inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables, irregular or no exercise, and poor self-reported health status are all significantly associated with increasing rates of overweight and obesity.Health Economics and Policy,