What Role Does Religion Have in Shaping Human Consumption?

Religious belief, as an informal social institution, has a significant impact on all aspects of human civilization. Previous literature has studied the effects of religious belief on economic growth, income, education, etc. Therefore, using the case of China as an example, this paper aims to investigate the effect of religious belief on human consumption. An empirical review of cross-sectional data from China’s 28 provinces reveals that religious belief has a detrimental impact on human consumption. Meanwhile, two-stage least squares and substituting the dependent variable (hc2) are employed to perform robustness tests. The new results also support the conclusion that religious belief negatively affects human consumption. In addition, this paper also discusses the heterogeneous effect of religious belief on human consumption in terms of geographical location, income level, and marketization degree. The results demonstrate the existence of the heterogeneous effect. Specifically, in the western area, low income level, and low marketization degree, religious belief negatively affects human consumption the most. On the contrary, in the eastern area, high income level, and high marketization degree, religious belief negatively affects human consumption the least.

Simulation Study of Coaxial Treatment Chambers for PEF Pasteurization: A Critical Review

A pulsed electric field (PEF) produces pasteurized liquid foods with fresh and nutritional properties. The treatment chamber is a crucial part of the PEF processing system where a high voltage is applied, producing an electric field to treat the liquid foods. The proper construction of the treatment chamber regulates the distribution of the electrical field inside the treatment zone. Mixing of liquid inside the treatment zone is an effective tool to overcome this heterogeneous effect. The coaxial treatment chamber offers a heterogeneous electric field and temperature distribution inside the treatment zone. A helical insulator inside the coaxial treatment chamber provides a mixing effect. In this research, a numerical simulation was done to measure the electric field in different geometries of treatment chambers at different flow rates. The simulation aimed to optimize the new coaxial treatment chamber design. The modelling findings showed homogeneous electrical field strength in the helical treatment chamber. This study provides new insights for industrial-scale setup using multiple helical chambers in a continuous flow PEF treatment.

The relationship between sense of coherence and psychopathological symptoms from childhood to early adulthood: a meta-analysis

Sense of coherence (SOC) as the key component of the salutogenesis framework is negatively correlated with psychopathological symptoms in adults but also in children and adolescents. Since SOC is conceptualized to develop and stabilize from childhood to early adulthood, these life phases are of critical importance for the salutogenesis concept. Individual studies examining SOC during this life period have yielded heterogeneous effect size estimates. Thus, the current meta-analysis quantified the current state of evidence on the association between SOC and psychopathological symptoms. The random-effects multi-level meta-analysis followed PRISMA guidelines and was based on 58 studies (71 samples) comprising 41,577 participants. Weighted mean age of participants was 15.36 years (SD = 3.32) and 51% were female. The mean correlation (r) between SOC and psychopathological symptoms was M(r) = -0.46, z = -12.67, p < 0.001, 95% CI [-0.53, -0.39]. However, there was substantial heterogeneity between studies after correction of sampling error. Subsequent moderator analyses showed that older sample age was associated with stronger negative relationships and higher internal consistency of SOC measures. Moreover, internalizing symptoms, depressive symptoms, and feelings of loneliness showed a stronger association with SOC than somatic symptoms. Results based on (repeated) cross-sectional data yielded a negative association between SOC and psychopathological symptoms with increasing magnitude from childhood to early adulthood. Future studies need to focus on the longitudinal bidirectional associations between SOC and psychopathological symptoms over the lifespan.

The Effects of Technology Innovation Activity on CSR: Emphasizing the Nonlinear and Heterogenous Effects

In this study, we systematically investigate several effects of technology innovation activity (TIA)—proxied by Korean listed corporations’ research and development investment—on the performance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for sustainable corporate growth and value. We find that corporate TIA positively contributes to an increase in CSR performance. Furthermore, our quantile regression estimations point to a heterogeneous effect of TIA, with a significant positive impact on CSR performance at the middle and higher quantiles of the distribution of the dependent variable of CSR performance. Interestingly, we capture a U-shaped nonlinear effect of TIA on the CSR performance of Korean listed corporations. Our findings alert researchers and managers to the importance of a better understanding of the relationship between CSR and TIA for sustainable corporate growth and value.

Quantile Regression for Panel Data and Factor Models

For nearly 25 years, advances in panel data and quantile regression were developed almost completely in parallel, with no intersection until the work by Koenker in the mid-2000s. The early theoretical work in statistics and economics raised more questions than answers, but it encouraged the development of several promising new approaches and research that offered a better understanding of the challenges and possibilities at the intersection of the literatures. Panel data quantile regression allows the estimation of effects that are heterogeneous throughout the conditional distribution of the response variable while controlling for individual and time-specific confounders. This type of heterogeneous effect is not well summarized by the average effect. For instance, the relationship between the number of students in a class and average educational achievement has been extensively investigated, but research also shows that class size affects low-achieving and high-achieving students differently. Advances in panel data include several methods and algorithms that have created opportunities for more informative and robust empirical analysis in models with subject heterogeneity and factor structure.

The heterogeneous effect of governance mechanisms on zero-leverage phenomenon across financial systems

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the effect of country and corporate governance mechanisms on zero leverage is heterogeneous across market- and bank-based financial systems. Design/methodology/approach Using logit regression methods and a sample of listed firms from 14 Western European countries for the 2002–2016 period, this study examines the propensity of firms having zero leverage in different financial systems. Findings Country governance mechanisms have a heterogeneous effect on zero leverage, with higher quality mechanisms increasing zero-leverage propensity in bank-based countries and decreasing it in market-based countries. Board dimension and independency have no impact on zero leverage. A higher ownership concentration decreases the propensity for zero-leverage policies in bank-based countries. Research limitations/implications This study’s findings show the importance of considering both country- and firm-level governance mechanisms when studying the zero-leverage phenomenon and that the effect of those mechanisms vary across financial and legal systems. Practical implications For managers, this study suggests that stronger national governance makes difficult (favours) zero-leverage policies in market (bank)-based countries. In bank-based countries, it also suggests that the presence of shareholders that own a large stake makes the adoption of zero-leverage policies difficult. This last implication is also important for small shareholders by suggesting that investing in firms with a concentrated ownership reduces the risk that zero-leverage policies are adopted by entrenched reasons. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to consider simultaneously the effects of both country- and firm-level governance mechanisms on zero leverage and to allow such effects to vary across financial systems.

Context Dependency as a Predictor of Replicability

We scrutinize the argument that unsuccessful replications—and heterogeneous effect sizes more generally—may reflect an underappreciated influence of context characteristics. Notably, while some of these context characteristics may be conceptually irrelevant (as they merely affect psychometric properties of the measured/manipulated variables), others are conceptually relevant as they qualify a theory. Here, we present a conceptual and analytical framework that allows researchers to empirically estimate the extent to which effect size heterogeneity is due to conceptually relevant versus irrelevant context characteristics. According to this framework, contextual characteristics are conceptually relevant when the observed heterogeneity of effect sizes cannot be attributed to psychometric properties. As an illustrative example, we demonstrate that the observed heterogeneity of the “moral typecasting” effect, which had been included in the ManyLabs 2 replication project, is more likely attributable to conceptually relevant rather than irrelevant context characteristics, which suggests that the psychological theory behind this effect may need to be specified. In general, we argue that context dependency should be taken more seriously and treated more carefully by replication research.