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in: III WOCMAP Congress on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - Volume 4: Targeted Screening of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Economics and Law

Le " Principe divin ", la Bible du Moonisme. Son analyse revele que la secte de Sun Myung Moon est le fruit de l'influence d'une ideologie etrangere, le protestantisme fondamentaliste, sur la conception du monde sino-coreenne : taoisme, neo-confucianisme et chamanisme. Un messianisme nationaliste (les epoux Moon comme messie), un millenarisme seculier (faire du monde une seule famille). L'influence du chamanisme est particulierement evident dans la conception mooniste de la Chute : Eve a eu une relation sexuelle avec le Serpent

A partir de trois exemples pris dans la Chine du XIXe s. (Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, le fondateur du mouvement religieux anti-etranger " T'ai-p'ing "), a Taiwan au XXe s. et en Coree (S. M. Moon, le fondateur de l'Eglise de l'Unification), l'A. tente de montrer le caractere normatif de l'interpretation de la Bible en Extreme-Orient. Dans les trois cas, en effet, les interpretations sont quasiment identiques. Elles privilegient l'experience religieuse au detriment des dogmes et rejettent le monotheisme au profit d'une communaute divine

This study examines whether and when credit rating agencies (CRAs) take negative rating actions against issuers committing accounting fraud before the fraud is publicly revealed and the economic impact of such rating actions. Our findings show that these fraud firms experience a greater number of negative rating actions during the four quarters prior to the public fraud revelation, including lower ratings, more rating downgrades, and more negative credit watch additions, compared to firms with similar economic fundamentals and stock performance. Our findings also show that such negative rating actions are not limited to fraud firms in financial distress, suggesting that our effect reflects CRA responses to accounting fraud per se. In addition, we find CRAs take more timely actions when frauds are more severe, when they involve accounts more often scrutinized by CRAs during their credit analysis, and when short sellers target firms. Last, we find that CRAs’ negative rating actions against fraud firms are informative to the market and are associated with shorter fraud duration. Overall, we conclude that CRAs possess private information about accounting fraud prior to the public revelation of this fraud and that they incorporate this information into negative ratings actions, accelerating fraud discovery.

[EN] The aim of this paper is to show how the number of conjugacy classes appearing in the product of classes affect the structure of a finite group. The aim of this paper was to show several results about solvability concerning the case in which the power of a conjugacy class is a union of one or two conjugacy classes. Moreover, we show that the above conditions can be determined through the character table of the group., Part of this paper was written during the stay of C.Melchor at the University of Cambridge in autumn 2017, which was financially supported by the grant E-2017-02, Universitat Jaume I of Castellón. C. Melchor would like to thank R. Camina and the Department of Mathematics for their warm hospitality. A. Beltrán, M.J. Felipe and C. Melchor are supported by Proyecto PGC2018-096872-B-100, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades.

This paper explores the effects of online customer ratings on debt capacity. Using a large sample of Parisian restaurants, we find a positive and economically significant relation between customer ratings and bank debt. We use the locally exogenous variation in customer ratings resulting from the rounding of scores in regression discontinuity tests to establish causality. Customer ratings affect financial policy through a reduction in cash flow risk and higher resilience to demand shocks. Restaurants with good ratings use their extra debt capacity to invest in tangible assets. Finally, favorable online ratings relax credit constraints mostly for moderately constrained restaurants.

This paper develops an analytical model to investigate the impact of governmental funding of higher education on educational outcomes including tuition, graduation rates, and enrollment. Assuming that students make an enrollment decision based on tuition, graduation rate, and labor market prospects, we show that push and pull funding strategies are equally effective in lowering net tuition and in increasing enrollment, the expected graduation rate, and social welfare without compromising the academic standards. We also show that a policy change from enrollment-based funding to performance-based funding raises graduation rates but does not necessarily improve the performance of the education system.

International audience; What causes adolescents to develop consumer’ ethical beliefs? Prior research has largely focused on the negative influence of peers and negative patterns of parent–child interactions to explain risky and unethical consumer behaviors. We take a different perspective by focusing on the positive support of parents and peers in adolescent social development. An integrative model is developed that links parental and peer support with adolescents’ self-worth motives, their materialistic tendencies, and their consumer ethical beliefs. In a study of 984 adolescents, we demonstrate support for a sequential mediation model in which peer and parental support is positively related to adolescents’ self-esteem and feelings of power, which are each associated with decreased materialism as a means of compensating for low self-worth. This reduced materialism is, in turn, associated with more ethical consumer beliefs.

French Abstract: Les economistes ont coutume de distinguer entre une composante positive et une composante normative de leurs travaux, ce qui est une singularite de leur discipline, car cette distinction n'a pas de repondant exact dans les autres sciences sociales. Elle a fortement evolue au cours du temps et les differentes manieres de la concevoir aujourd'hui en refletent l'histoire. On se propose ici d'en retracer les origines et les premieres formes, de l'economie politique classique anglaise de la premiere moitie du XIXe siecle jusqu'a l'apparition de l'economie du bien-etre dans la premiere moitie du XXe siecle. Ce parcours sequentiel vise aussi a identifier les positions les plus representatives et les arguments invoques pour les soutenir, en preparant ainsi une discussion qui serait moins historique et plus strictement conceptuelle. English Abstract: Economists are accustomed to distinguishing between a positive and a normative component of their work, a distinction that is peculiar to their field, having no exact counterpart in the other social sciences. The distinction has substantially changed over time, and the different ways of understanding it today are reflective of its history. Our objective is to trace the origins and initial forms of the distinction, from the English classical political economy of the first half of the 19th century to the emergence of welfare economics in the first half of the 20th century. This sequential account will also serve to identify the main representative positions along with the arguments used to support them, and it thus prepares the ground for a discussion that will be less historical and more strictly conceptual.

This paper presents an analysis of four case studies in order to elaborate the theory of functional music therapy. In the Czech Republic, the practices of functional music therapy are often used as a type of complementary rehabilitation. Although functional music therapy is based on sound and scientifically substantiated bases, practical applications lack comprehensive and systematic methodology. The aim of this paper is to deepen the knowledge of the links between the application of musical practices and functional development. On the basis of an interpretative approach to case studies (using a content analysis) we identified the objectives in the motor area, types of musical activities, and music therapy practices in persons with cerebral palsy. We also analysed the correlation between therapeutic objectives and musical activities, and set out methodological principles of their application. The outcomes of this study were compared with the results of a previous study by the author focusing on persons with severe multiple disabilities in order to develop a comprehensive theory of functional music therapy. Concerning the results of this comparison, this paper discusses the impact of intellectual disability on the flexibility of application of musical activities during functional training.

BACKGROUND: The biological mechanisms by which cleaning products and disinfectants-an emerging risk factor-affect respiratory health remain incompletely evaluated. Studying genes by environment interactions (G × E) may help identify new genes related to adult-onset asthma. OBJECTIVES: We identified interactions between genetic polymorphisms of a large set of genes involved in the response to oxidative stress and occupational exposures to low molecular weight (LMW) agents or irritants on adult-onset asthma. METHODS: Our data came from three large European cohorts: Epidemiological Family-based Study of the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA), Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Disease in Adults (SAPALDIA), and European Community Respiratory Health Survey in Adults (ECRHS). A candidate pathway-based strategy identified 163 genes involved in the response to oxidative stress and potentially related to exposures to LMW agents/irritants. Occupational exposures were evaluated using an asthma job-exposure matrix and job-specific questionnaires for cleaners and healthcare workers. Logistic regression models were used to detect G × E interactions, adjusted for age, sex, and population ancestry, in 2,599 adults (mean age, 47 years; 60% women, 36% exposed, 18% asthmatics). p-Values were corrected for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: Ever exposure to LMW agents/irritants was associated with current adult-onset asthma [OR = 1.28 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.58)]. Eight single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) by exposure interactions at five loci were found at p < 0.005: PLA2G4A (rs932476, chromosome 1), near PLA2R1 (rs2667026, chromosome 2), near RELA (rs931127, rs7949980, chromosome 11), PRKD1 (rs1958980, rs11847351, rs1958987, chromosome 14), and PRKCA (rs6504453, chromosome 17). Results were consistent across the three studies and after accounting for smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Using a pathway-based selection process, we identified novel genes potentially involved in adult asthma by interaction with occupational exposure. These genes play a role in the NF-κB pathway, which is involved in inflammation. Citation: Rava M, Ahmed I, Kogevinas M, Le Moual N, Bouzigon E, Curjuric I, Dizier MH, Dumas O, Gonzalez JR, Imboden M, Mehta AJ, Tubert-Bitter P, Zock JP, Jarvis D, Probst-Hensch NM, Demenais F, Nadif R. 2017. Genes interacting with occupational exposures to low molecular weight agents and irritants on adult-onset asthma in three European studies. Environ Health Perspect 125:207-214; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP376. We thank all study members and staff involved in data collections in each cohort: EGEA: We thank the Epidemiological Study on Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA) cooperative group members as follows. Coordination: V. Siroux [epidemiology, principal investigator (PI) since 2013]; F. Demenais (genetics); I. Pin (clinical aspects); R. Nadif (biology); F. Kauffmann (PI 1992–2012). Respiratory epidemiology: Inserm U 700, Paris: M. Korobaeff (EGEA1), F. Neukirch (EGEA1); Inserm U 707, Paris: I. Annesi-Maesano (EGEA1–2); Inserm U1168 (ex-CESP/U 1018), Villejuif: F. Kauffmann, N. Le Moual, R. Nadif, M.P. Oryszczyn (EGEA1–2), R. Varraso; Inserm U 823, Grenoble: V. Siroux. Genetics: Inserm U 393, Paris: J. Feingold; Inserm U 946, Paris: E. Bouzigon, F. Demenais, M.H. Dizier; CNG, Evry: I. Gut (now CNAG, Barcelona, Spain), M. Lathrop (now McGill University, Montreal, Canada). Clinical centers: Grenoble: I. Pin, C. Pison; Lyon: D. Ecochard (EGEA1), F. Gormand, Y. Pacheco; Marseille: D. Charpin (EGEA1), D. Vervloet (EGEA1–2); Montpellier: J. Bousquet; Paris Cochin: A. Lockhart (EGEA1), R. Matran (now in Lille); Paris Necker: E. Paty (EGEA1–2), P. Scheinmann (EGEA1–2); Paris Trousseau: A. Grimfeld (EGEA1–2), J. Just. Data and quality management: Inserm ex-U155 (EGEA1): J. Hochez; Inserm U1168 (ex-CESP/U 1018), Villejuif: N. Le Moual; Inserm ex-U780: C. Ravault (EGEA1–2); Inserm ex-U794: N. Chateigner (EGEA1–2); Grenoble: J. Quentin-Ferran (EGEA1–2). SAPALDIA: We thank the team of the Swiss study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA). Study directorate: N.M. Probst-Hensch (PI; e/g); T. Rochat (p), C. Schindler (s), N. Künzli (e/exp), J.M. Gaspoz (c). Scientific team: J.C. Barthélémy (c), W. Berger (g), R. Bettschart (p), A. Bircher (a), C. Brombach (n), P.O. Bridevaux (p), L. Burdet (p), D. Felber Dietrich (e), M. Frey (p), U. Frey (pd), M.W. Gerbase (p), D. Gold (e), E. de Groot (c), W. Karrer (p), F. Kronenberg (g), B. Martin (pa), A. Mehta (e), D. Miedinger (o), M. Pons (p), F. Roche (c), T. Rothe (p), P. Schmid- Grendelmeyer (a), D. Stolz (p), A. Schmidt-Trucksäss (pa), J. Schwartz (e), A. Turk (p), A. von Eckardstein (cc), E. Zemp Stutz (e). Scientific team at coordinating centers: M. Adam (e), I. Aguilera (exp), S. Brunner (s), D. Carballo (c), S. Caviezel (pa), I. Curjuric (e), A. Di Pascale (s), J. Dratva (e), R. Ducret (s), E. Dupuis Lozeron (s), M. Eeftens (exp), I. Eze (e), E. Fischer (g), M. Foraster (e), M. Germond (s), L. Grize (s), S. Hansen (e), A. Hensel (s), M. Imboden (g), A. Ineichen (exp), A. Jeong (g), D. Keidel (s), A. Kumar (g), N. Maire (s), A. Mehta (e), R. Meier (exp), E. Schaffner (s), T. Schikowski (e), M. Tsai (exp). Abbreviations: (a) allergology, (c) cardiology, (cc) clinical chemistry, (e) epide - miology, (exp) exposure, (g) genetic and molecular biology, (m) meteorology, (n) nutrition, (o) occupational health, (p) pneumology, (pa) physical activity, (pd) pediatrics, (s) statistics. The study could not have been done without the help of the study partici - pants, technical and administrative support and the medical teams and field workers at the local study sites. Local fieldworkers: Aarau: S. Brun, G. Giger, M. Sperisen, M. Stahel; Basel: C. Bürli, C. Dahler, N. Oertli, I. Harreh, F. Karrer, G. Novicic, N. Wyttenbacher; Davos: A. Saner, P. Senn, R. Winzeler; Geneva: F. Bonfils, B. Blicharz, C. Landolt, J. Rochat; Lugano: S. Boccia, E. Gehrig, M.T. Mandia, G. Solari, B. Viscardi; Montana: A.P. Bieri, C. Darioly, M. Maire; Payerne: F. Ding, P. Danieli, A. Vonnez; Wald: D. Bodmer, E. Hochs, R. Kunz, C. Meier, J. Rakic, U. Schafroth, A. Walder. Administrative staff: N. Bauer Ott, C. Gabriel, R. Gutknecht. ECRHS: The ECRHS data incorporated in this analysis would not have been available without the collaboration of the following individuals and their research teams. ECRHS Co-ordinating Centre. P. Burney, D. Jarvis, S. Chinn, J. Knox (ECRHS II), C. Luczynska†, J. Potts. Steering Committee for ECRHS II. P. Burney, D. Jarvis, S. Chinn, U. Ackermann-Liebrich, J.M. Anto, I. Cerveri, R. deMarco†, T. Gislason, J. Heinrich, C. Janson, N. Kunzli, B. Leynaert, F. Neukirch, J. Schouten, J. Sunyer; C. Svanes, P. Vermeire†, M. Wjst. Principal Investigators and Senior Scientific Teams for ECRHS II centers within this analysis: Estonia: Tartu (R. Jogi, A. Soon); France: Paris (F. Neukirch, B. Leynaert, R. Liard, M. Zureik), Grenoble (I. Pin, J. Ferran-Quentin); Germany: Erfurt (J. Heinrich, M. Wjst, C. Frye, I. Meyer), Hamburg (K. Richter, D. Nowak); Norway: Bergen (A. Gulsvik, E. Omenaas, C. Svanes, B. Laerum); Spain: Barcelona (J.M. Anto, J. Sunyer, M. Kogevinas, J.P. Zock, X. Basagana, A. Jaen, F. Burgos), Huelva (J. Maldonado, A. Pereira, J.L. Sanchez), Albacete (J. Martinez-Moratalla Rovira, E. Almar), Galdakao (N. Muniozguren, I. Urritia), Oviedo (F. Payo); Sweden: Uppsala (C. Janson, G. Boman, D. Norback, M. Gunnbjornsdottir), Umeå (E. Norrman, M. Soderberg, K. Franklin, B. Lundback, B. Forsberg, L. Nystrom); Switzerland: Basel (N. Kunzli, B. Dibbert, M. Hazenkamp, M. Brutsche, U. Ackermann-Liebrich); United Kingdom: Norwich (D. Jarvis, B. Harrison), Ipswich (D. Jarvis, R. Hall, D. Seaton). Sí

French Abstract: Cet article decrit une methode d'Action Learning pour enseigner l'intelligence situationnelle. Elle vise a aider les managers a trouver des reponses appropriees aux situations complexes de management qu'ils rencontrent. Apres avoir revu les differentes ecoles de pensee concernant le leadership et les meilleurs pratiques de management, nous definissons l'intelligence situationnelle comme l'intelligence des situations, de soi et des autres, et la capacite a reconcilier autant que possible les interets des differents acteurs impliques dans la situation. Nous utilisons les contradictions sous jacentes au management de conquete et au management de finesse comme cadre de reference. La methode "Fidelio", evolution de l'approche "Solfi" utilisee a HEC depuis 1999, utilise les theories du leadership et met l'accent sur des concepts recents ou recemment renouveles comme l'intelligence emotionnelle, la theorie des roles, les contradictions et les paradoxes, l'incertitude et l'ambiguite dans le management, etc. Les ressources pedagogiques consistent en un questionnaire, des ateliers, des entretiens individuels, et des rapports post-ateliers. Elles contribuent au developpement personnel, a la decouverte des concepts du management et a l'animation des equipes. Les participants experimentent differentes facon de se representer leurs situations et par consequent font evoluer leurs comportements de leadership. Ils prennent conscience que le leadership est contextuel et qu'il est necessaire d'utiliser des references theoriques. Ils travaillent aussi leur capacite a manager les contradictions.English Abstract: This article describes an Action Learning resource teaching situational intelligence. It aims to help managers find appropriate responses to complex management situations that they encounter. After reviewing different schools of thought concerning leadership and best management practice, we define situational intelligence as the intelligence of situations, others and oneself, and the ability to reconcile as well as possible the interests of the different actors involved in a situation. We use the contradictions underlying conquest management and finesse management as a reference framework. The "FIDELIO" method, an extension of the "SOLFI" approach used at HEC since 1999, uses leadership theories and stresses recent or newly revived concepts such as emotional intelligence, role theory, contradictions and paradoxes, uncertainty and ambiguity in management, etc. The teaching resource consists of a questionnaire, workshops, individual interviews and post-workshop reports. It contributes to personal development, to the discovery of management concepts and the communication of skills to staff. Participants experiment with different ways to represent their situations and consequently their leadership behaviors evolve. They become aware that leadership is contextual and that it is necessary to used conceptual references. They also work on their own ability to manage contradictions.

This paper examines how accounting quality affects the degree of debt concentration in corporate capital structures (i.e., a firm’s tendency to predominantly rely on only a few types of debt). Motivated by theoretical and empirical research that supports a strong link between creditors’ coordination costs and debt concentration and the importance of accounting quality in reducing these coordination costs, we hypothesize that firms with low accounting quality have a more concentrated debt structure. Measuring financial reporting quality by the disclosure of material internal control weaknesses over financial reporting (ICWs), we find that ICWs lead to a significantly more concentrated debt structure. We also show that the effect of ICWs on the degree of debt concentration is stronger for more severe ICW disclosures and for firms with a higher credit risk, further reinforcing the importance of financial reporting quality in determining debt concentration.

Background : Ensuring a good life for all parts of the population, including children, is high on the public health agenda in most countries around the world. Information about children’s perception of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its socio-demographic distribution is, however, limited and almost exclusively reliant on data from Western higher income countries. Objectives : To investigate HRQoL in schoolchildren in Tonga, a lower income South Pacific Island country, and to compare this to HRQoL of children in other countries, including Tongan children living in New Zealand, a high-income country in the same region. Design : A cross-sectional study from Tonga addressing all secondary schoolchildren (11–18 years old) on the outer island of Vava’u and in three districts of the main island of Tongatapu (2,164 participants). A comparison group drawn from the literature comprised children in 18 higher income and one lower income country (Fiji). A specific New Zealand comparison group involved all children of Tongan descendent at six South Auckland secondary schools (830 participants). HRQoL was assessed by the self-report Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0. Results : HRQoL in Tonga was overall similar in girls and boys, but somewhat lower in children below 15 years of age. The children in Tonga experienced lower HRQoL than the children in all of the 19 comparison countries, with a large difference between children in Tonga and the higher income countries (Cohen’s d 1.0) and a small difference between Tonga and the lower income country Fiji (Cohen’s d 0.3). The children in Tonga also experienced lower HRQoL than Tongan children living in New Zealand (Cohen’s d 0.6). Conclusion : The results reveal worrisome low HRQoL in children in Tonga and point towards a potential general pattern of low HRQoL in children living in lower income countries, or, alternatively, in the South Pacific Island countries. Keywords : adolescent health; child health; community health; Epidemiology; low-income population; mental health; quality of life (Published: 20 August 2014) Citation : Glob Health Action 2014, 7 : 24896 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.24896

De tous les problèmes conçus par la théorie de la décision, le paradoxe d'Allais est peut-être celui qui aura suscité l'intérêt le plus persistant. La théorie y a consacré assez de travaux techniques remarquables pour qu'il soit désormais possible à l'histoire et à la philosophie des sciences de l'examiner réflexivement. Dans sa partie historique, l'article restitue le contexte d'apparition du paradoxe - le colloque de Paris, en 1952, auquel assistaient les principaux théoriciens de la décision du moment. L'axiomatique de von Neumann et Morgenstern en 1947 leur avait donné des raisons nouvelles d'approuver l'hypothèse de l'utilité attendue, et le contre-exemple d'Allais visait précisément à ébranler leur conviction. Les questions de la controverse étaient de type normatif, mais elles se perdirent quand le "paradoxe d'Allais" gagna tardivement la célébrité dans des travaux des années 1980 qui le traitaient comme une simple réfutation empirique. Ils en firent l'enjeu de "théories de l'utilité non-espérée" qu'ils développaient de même sous le seul angle empirique. Dans sa partie philosophique, l'article cherche à évaluer ce déplacement d'interprétation. D'un certain côté, les théoriciens de la décision firent bien de libérer leur travail expérimental des complications du normatif, car ils parvinrent ainsi à des résultats éclairants : l'hypothèse de l'utilité espérée était empiriquement réfutée, la responsabilité principale en revenait à l'axiome d'indépendance de von Neumann-Morgenstern, et l'étape suivante était de transformer adéquatement cet axiome. D'un autre côté, ils eurent tort de négliger un trait fondamental de leur domaine : les comportements observés ne sont informatifs que si les agents sont prêts à les assumer de manière réfléchie, c'est-à-dire à leur prêter une certaine valeur normative. D'après la reconstruction proposée ici, Allais ne voulait faire porter les expériences de choix que sur des sujets rationnels, ou bien sélectionnés au départ, ou bien révélés comme tels par l'expérience. L'article développe ces intuitions en revenant aux travaux des années 1970, aujourd'hui très peu connus, qui, sous l'influence d'Allais, proposèrent des traductions expérimentales de la rationalité, et il invite finalement la théorie de la décision à diversifier ses méthodes en s'inspirant de ces tentatives originales. Few problems in decision theory have raised more persisting interest than the Allais paradox. It appears that sufficiently many brilliant works have addressed it from within decision theory proper for history and philosophy of science now to enter stage. In its historical side, the paper recounts the paradox as it arose, i.e., in 1952, at a Paris conference attended by the main decision theorists of the time. They had drawn renewed confidence in expected utility theory (EUT) from the way von Neumann and Morgenstern had axiomatized it in 1947, and Allais devised his puzzle precisely to shaken their confidence. The issues between the two camps were normative, but they became lost in the developments of the 1980s that belatedly brought fame to the "Allais paradox". These works restricted the paradox to be a straightforward empirical refutation, turning it into a stake of also exclusively empirically oriented non-EU theories. In its philosophical vein, the paper tries to evaluate this shift of interpretation. To an extent, decision theorists were right because their experimental work was thus freed from a major complication and amenable to illuminating results: EUT was empirically refuted, the independence axiom of von Neumann and Morgentern was the main culprit, and the next theoretical stage was to modify this axiom appropriately. However, they were also wrong in not addressing an essential feature of their field, i.e., that observed behaviour is informative only if agents are prepared to endorse it reflectingly, i.e., to endow it with some normative value. As reconstructed here, Allais meant to reserve choice experiments to rational subjects, who were either selected at the outset, or identified as such by the experimental results. The paper tries to flesh out Allais's intuitions by turning to by now little known works of the 1970s, which under his influence provided experimental renderings of rationality, and it eventually suggests that decision theory might diversify its methods by taking inspiration from these original attempts.

Regulation and subsequent deregulation significantly affect firms’ debt decisions. Prior to deregulation, regulated firms depend significantly more on long-term and public debt but reduce this dependence considerably during deregulation. Cross-sectional analysis shows that the reduction in the use of long-term and public debt results from changing firm sensitivities to determinants of debt decisions triggered by deregulation. Consistent with credit and liquidity risk theories of debt maturity, the concave relation between firm quality and debt maturity is significantly attenuated among regulated firms. Inconsistent with these theories, the convex relation between firm quality and the preference for public debt exists only among regulated firms. I find limited support for other theories.