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How effective are government policy attempts to boost firm exports in the short-run? We answer this question by conducting a review of 33 studies from 26 countries around the world, and provide nine findings. Export boosting policies are defined as a group of public policies that aim to increase firm exports in the short-run. These include policies such as export promotion, export-oriented public grants, public export guarantee schemes and subsidised export loans. Our review provides insights into policy effectiveness with respect to extensive and intensive export margins, as well as firms’ production function inputs and its outputs. The heterogeneity of effects across firm characteristics is emphasised, and the discussion is enriched with new evidence of spillover effects from export boosting policies. Finally, we summarise back-of-the-envelope calculations of the cost-benefit analysis and provide recommendations for future research.

Since 2016 the Journal of Economics and Statistics has the Data Observer section with descriptions of data that can be used in empirical research in economics and in the social sciences in general. This note gives a short overview of the first 50 contributions to the series published until 2022.

We provide second- to sixth-order virial coefficients of hard hyperspherocylinders in dependence on their aspect ratio ν. Virial coefficients of an anisotropic geometry in four dimensions are calculated employing an optimized Mayer-sampling algorithm. As the second virial coefficient of a hard particle is identical to its excluded hypervolume, the numerically obtained second virial coefficients can be compared to analytical relations for the excluded hypervolume based on geometric measures of the respective, convex geometry in dependence on its aspect ratio ν.

This article presents a review of the evolution of automatic post-editing, a term that describes methods to improve the output of machine translation systems, based on knowledge extracted from datasets that include post-edited content. The article describes the specificity of automatic post-editing in comparison with other tasks in machine translation, and it discusses how it may function as a complement to them. Particular detail is given in the article to the five-year period that covers the shared tasks presented in WMT conferences (2015–2019). In this period, discussion of automatic post-editing evolved from the definition of its main parameters to an announced demise, associated with the difficulties in improving output obtained by neural methods, which was then followed by renewed interest. The article debates the role and relevance of automatic post-editing, both as an academic endeavour and as a useful application in commercial workflows.

We provide highly accurate equation-of-state data for the isotropic phase of hard lenses obtained by means of cluster Monte Carlo simulations. This data is analyzed using a virial approach considering coefficients up to the order eight and Carnahan-Starling type closure relations for the virial series. The comparison with previously investigated systems consisting of hard, oblate ellipsoids of revolution allows insights into the detailed influence of the particle geometry. We propose a generalized Carnahan-Starling approach as a heuristic equation of state for the isotropic phase of hard lenses that in first approximation shows the same dependence on the excess part of the excluded volume as identified for oblate, hard lenses of revolution.

This paper uses firm level data from World Bank Enterprise surveys conducted in 2019, and COVID-19 follow-up surveys conducted in 2020, in ten European countries to investigate the link between the gender of the firm’s owner and the firm’s survival until 2020. The empirical investigation uses econometric models that control for the firm’s characteristics that are known to be related to firm survival. The estimated effect of female ownership is positive ceteris paribus. Furthermore, the size of this estimated effect can be considered to be large on average. Having a female owner helped firms to survive.

Applying the approach suggested by Gabaix (Econometrica 2011) this paper uses the newly available Top 100 Companies Panel Database for Germany to demonstrate that idiosyncratic shocks in the largest firms seem not to be important for an understanding of the aggregate volatility of the German economy. This evidence is in contrast with findings for other countries and it differs from earlier results for parts of the German economy.

We provide highly accurate equation-of-state data determined by means of cluster Monte Carlo simulations for the isotropic phase of oblate hard ellipsoids of revolution. Both equation-of-state data and phase boundaries of the isotropic phase are obtained from relatively large ensembles with typically 1000 particles. The comparison of simulation data with a virial approach gives evidence for the importance of high-order so-far-unknown virial coefficients and therewith many-particle interactions in dense, isotropic systems of anisotropic particles. While a virial approach with a rescaled Carnahan-Starling correction for the unknown, higher-order virial coefficients reproduces the simulation data of moderately anisotropic particles with high accuracy, we suggest for highly anisotropic shapes a simple, heuristic equation of state as a suitable approach.

Recent empirical studies suggest that there is a rising trend of market power across sectors in advanced economies. We contribute to this line of research by providing industry-specific evidence for German manufacturing industries, based on representative high-quality firm-level data from official statistics that cover firms from all size classes with more than 20 employees (2005–2013). We compare firm-specific markups and industry concentration as market power indicators that reflect a market structure and a performance perspective, respectively. Our results do not suggest an overall average increase in market power in German manufacturing, but increasing markups and an increasing concentration in many industries. We demonstrate the complementarity of the indicators, as predicted by industrial organization theory. We also evaluate the competitive impact of digitization and find no clear evidence that digital transformation and market power go hand in hand.

We compare two orthogonal semi-supervised learning techniques, namely tri-training and pretrained word embeddings, in the task of dependency parsing. We explore language-specific FastText and ELMo embeddings and multilingual BERT embeddings. We focus on a low resource scenario as semi-supervised learning can be expected to have the most impact here. Based on treebank size and available ELMo models, we select Hungarian, Uyghur (a zero-shot language for mBERT) and Vietnamese. Furthermore, we include English in a simulated low-resource setting. We find that pretrained word embeddings make more effective use of unlabelled data than tri-training but that the two approaches can be successfully combined., Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, to be published at EMNLP 2021

BACKGROUND The transsphenoidal approach to the skull base has enjoyed increasing popularity for surgery of the sellar region avoiding brain retraction and causing few severe complications. While vitally important vessels in this region show a high degree of variability, some anatomical variants might be involved in characteristic complications. OBSERVATIONS We present the case of a 40-year-old female patient with acromegaly due to a pituitary adenoma that was transsphenoidally operated. Postoperatively, the patient presented with bilateral unresponsive mydriasis, loss of consciousness and tetraparesis. An MRI showed well-circumscribed bilateral paramedian thalamic infarctions which indicated a rare Percheron-like artery. At 2-year follow-up examination the patient was dramatically improved but with a profound impact on her ability to interact with the world. LESSONS The basilar artery or perforators might be injured during dissection of suprasellar lesions. This vascular territory is essential to interaction of the brain with the outside world. We conclude that we will approach future suprasellar adenomas strictly intracapsularly.

We provide third to eighth virial coefficients of oblate, hard ellipsoids of revolution and hard lenses in dependence on their aspect ratio $\ensuremath{\nu}$. Employing an algorithm optimized for hard anisotropic shapes, highly accurate data are accessible with comparatively small numerical effort. For both geometries, reduced virial coefficients ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{B}}_{i}(\ensuremath{\nu})={B}_{i}(\ensuremath{\nu})/{B}_{2}^{i\ensuremath{-}1}(\ensuremath{\nu})$ are in first approximation proportional to the inverse excess contribution ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ of their excluded volume. The latter quantity is directly accessible from second virial coefficients and analytically known for convex bodies.

We describe the DCU-EPFL submission to the IWPT 2021 Shared Task on Parsing into Enhanced Universal Dependencies. The task involves parsing Enhanced UD graphs, which are an extension of the basic dependency trees designed to be more facilitative towards representing semantic structure. Evaluation is carried out on 29 treebanks in 17 languages and participants are required to parse the data from each language starting from raw strings. Our approach uses the Stanza pipeline to preprocess the text files, XLMRoBERTa to obtain contextualized token representations, and an edge-scoring and labeling model to predict the enhanced graph. Finally, we run a post-processing script to ensure all of our outputs are valid Enhanced UD graphs. Our system places 6th out of 9 participants with a coarse Enhanced Labeled Attachment Score (ELAS) of 83.57. We carry out additional post-deadline experiments which include using Trankit for pre-processing, XLM-RoBERTa-LARGE, treebank concatenation, and multitask learning between a basic and an enhanced dependency parser. All of these modifications improve our initial score and our final system has a coarse ELAS of 88.04., Submitted to the IWPT 2021 Shared Task: From Raw Text to Enhanced Universal Dependencies: the Parsing Shared Task at IWPT 2021

The ‘optical fold’ of Evermanella balbo covers the ventro-lateral cornea and is presumed to capture illumination that would otherwise remain undetected by the tubular eye of this mesopelagic teleost. It contains alternating bands of cellular and acellular material, running approximately perpendicular to the lateral surface of the eye. Only parts of this lamellar body lie within the eyelid-like structure. The cellular lamellae are 2–2.5 μm thick centrally and composed of fibroblast-like cells. The extracellular bands (4.5–5 μm thick) contain regular arrays of collagen fibrils, with layers of thin fibrils sandwiching a region of thicker fibrils. The thin fibrils are organised in alternating sheets where fibrils, although all parallel, change their orientation by 90° between each sheet. All thick fibrils are oriented parallel to the lateral surface of the ‘optical fold’. In the main retina, small bundles of rod inner/outer segments are separated by the processes of the retinal pigment epithelium (rpe) laterally. Centrally, the length of tightly packed rods increases, but rpe processes no longer divide them into bundles. Medially, rod length increases further, but packing is less dense. The accessory retina is significantly thinner, and less well-developed than the main retina. Ventrally, the rods show no regular arrangement and are not grouped. Dorsally, however, rods are arranged into bundles, separated by melanosome-filled rpe processes. The thickness of the retina increases as it approaches the crystalline lens. It is on this dorsal accessory retina that light traversing the ‘optical fold’ most likely falls, facilitating the detection of moving objects in the ventro-lateral field of view.

This study uses strictly comparable data for small and medium sized enterprises from industry or services in 25 European countries to test for links between credit restrictions and export activities of firms (participation in exports and share of exports in total sales). Data were collected in the Survey on Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE) conducted on behalf of the European Commission and the European Central Bank. Credit restrictions are measured by the importance of problems related to access to finance reported by the firms. Contrary to the big picture revealed by a comprehensive literature survey a statistically significant negative relationship between more severe problems in access to finance and exports is only rarely found.

Based on the exponentially growing literature in recent years on international trade and firm performance, this paper develops a general theory for this area based on systemic logic and game theory. After developing two theorems on the dynamics of the domestic market, we direct our attention to establishing results on exports to either less developed or advanced markets. Finally, a general theory is formulated regarding international trade (exports and imports) that includes selected indices of firm performance (productivity, profitability, wages, and survival). In addition to confirming empirical findings in the literature, we also delineate some suggestions for future research. This paper introduces systemic thinking into the study of international trade that is expected to provide a much needed framework for public debates and policy decision making.

Background: Postsurgical hypoparathyroidism (PH) is the most common side effect of bilateral thyroid resections. Data regarding the time course of recovery from PH are currently unavailable. Therefore, a detailed analysis of the time course of PH recovery and conditions associated with rapid recovery was conducted. Methods: This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively documented data. Patients with biochemical signs of PH or need for calcium supplementation were followed-up for 12 months. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify covariates of early as opposed to late recovery from PH. Results: There were 1097 thyroid resections performed from 06/2015 to 07/2016 with n = 143 PH. Median recovery time was 8 weeks and six patients (1.1% of total thyroid resections) required calcium supplementation > 12 months. Recovery of PH within 4 and 12 weeks was characterized by high PTH levels on the first postoperative day (4 weeks: OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.06–1.20; 12 weeks: OR 1.08, 95%CI 1.01–1.16). Visualization of all PTGs emerged as an independent predictor of recovery within 12 months (OR 2.32, 95% CI 1.01–4.93) and 24 weeks (OR 2.69, 95% CI 1.08–6.69). Conclusion: In the setting of specialized high-volume endocrine surgery, permanent PH is rare. However, every second patient will require more than 2 months of continued medical surveillance. Early recovery was associated with only moderately decreased postsurgical PTH-levels. Successful late recovery appeared to be associated with the number of parathyroid glands visualized during surgery.