Equity crowdfunding has grown exponentially in the United States since the passage of the JOBS Act in 2013, yet it continues to be a research area that is relatively unexplored in the United States due to the limited availability of data. U.S equity crowdfunding campaigns are notoriously unsuccessful, and this paper develops a predictive model for equity crowdfunding success to determine whether the positivity of the language used, and the length of the campaign description influences an investor’s decision to invest. A model is developed on a balanced training set and applied to a test set, and the overall results are evaluated using a confusion matrix to determine the accuracy, precision, and recall of the model. Our overall results indicate that both the tone of sentiment and the length of the campaign description are predictive of an equity crowdfunding campaign’s success. Specifically, the potential investors appear to be attracted to positive campaign descriptions that are written with concise language.

Purpose This study aims to investigate how the language used in US Title II equity crowdfunding campaign descriptions relates to campaign success. Design/methodology/approach Data on >3,200 equity offerings from 12 Title II platforms was obtained from 2013 to 2016. The aspects of the campaign descriptions that are focused on are tone and two measures of readability: information quantity – the amount of information available to the investor and information quality – the ease of understanding of the passage of text. Tobit regressions with sector-clustered standard errors are used for estimation while controlling for company-specific variables, market sentiment and platform, regional, sector and time effects. Results are robust to alternative estimation approaches. Findings Inverse U-shaped relationships exist between information quantity, information quality and tone and Title II equity crowdfunding campaign success. Overall, less is more as it appears that an intermediate level of information – quantity, quality and tone – is optimal in terms of being a factor that contributes to equity crowdfunding campaign success. Originality/value Extends the use of textual analysis to the equity crowdfunding environment in the USA where such analysis is lacking and provides empirical evidence that the language used (e.g. sentiment) in US Title II equity-based crowdfunding campaign descriptions does influence campaign success. It provides empirical evidence of and extends the concept of information overload to the entrepreneurial finance sub-field and indicates tone may be an additional information attribute to consider in this context as contributing to overload.

Equity crowdfunding (ECF) is a relatively new financing model in the United States (U.S). Many investors and small business owners are exploring this new avenue of capital formation; however, it is a research area that is relatively unexplored due to the limited availability of data. This paper examines factors related to campaign funding success for companies seeking capital under Title II of the JOBS Act. Using a Tobit regression we find that firms which report their equity capitalization raise a higher percentage of their campaign ask. A lower minimum target amount is identified as a second factor related to funding success. This study also shows that firms not reporting a tagline raise a larger percent of their offer, underscoring the importance of quality text descriptions. In addition, we find that economic conditions such as equity market sentiment are important to ECF success.

The construction industry is recognized for its adversarial culture and frequency of conflict. Previous relationship conflict research has not been collectively summarized or categorized nor have the remaining gaps been identified. This literature review examines common themes and salient issues that emerge from the included studies and provides key insights that include the identification of sources, consequences, and mitigating factors of relationship conflict in the literature. Recommendations are made for the use of these findings to reduce the causes of relationship conflict in the construction industry, lower the negative impact on project performance, and foster efforts to mitigate relationship conflict.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of national culture on private credit availability. The authors particularly focus on the masculinity dimension, as previous studies have not been able to reconcile this dimension in terms of results aligning with expectations.Design/methodology/approachLeast-squares regression with country-cluster standard errors is used to estimate the impact of a nation’s cultural dimensions. Culture is assessed using Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions: masculinity, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, long-term orientation and indulgence. Estimation controls for country-level measures of economic growth and development, inflation, financial market development and the institutional, legal and bank environments. Data on more than 70 countries were collected from 2005 to 2014.FindingsThe authors find the masculinity dimension of culture has a significant negative impact on private credit access. Moreover, this result is driven by middle-income versus high-income countries. Interestingly, the authors also find the power distance dimension has a significant negative impact; however, this result is driven by high-income versus middle-income countries. Overall, these results are consistent with the authors’ argument that masculinity may be capturing traditionally defined gender roles, that masculinity (as the authors define it) is different from what power distance is capturing and that the impact of masculinity is influenced by a country’s economic stage.Originality/valueThe authors’ interpretation of masculinity, coupled with their results, presents researchers with an alternative perspective of a cultural dimension that previous studies have not been able to reconcile in terms of results aligning with expectations. Moreover, the authors show that the impact of the cultural dimensions on private credit differs for high- and middle-income countries, and thus has important implications.

BACKGROUND:Research is emerging suggesting that fitness not only improves health, but enhances academic achievement in children. Many studies have found the strongest correlation with academic achievement to be aerobic fitness. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of aerobic fitness and academic ranking on the association between improvements in students' aerobic fitness and their academic achievement.METHODS:Data were collected from 1152 second- through fifth-grade students enrolled in 10 Midwestern schools. School-fixed effects models were used to estimate the impact of improved aerobic fitness from the fall to the spring semester on students' spring percentile rankings in math and reading.RESULTS:Students whose progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run improved from the fall to spring semester moved up the national spring math percentile rankings by 2.71 percentiles (p < .001) for all students, 4.77 (p < .001) for less-fit students, and 3.53 (p < .05) for lower performing math students. No statistically significant relationship was found between improved aerobic fitness and reading achievement.CONCLUSIONS:Improving fitness could potentially have the greatest academic benefit for those elementary students who need it the most-the less fit and the lower academic performers.

Abstract The current real average selling price of a thoroughbred broodmare is nearly half its peak value in 2000. While annual price changes are influenced by economic performance, different prices at an auction are influenced by physical and genetic characteristics of broodmares. We use auction data from the 2013 November Keeneland Breeding Stock Sales to estimate a hedonic pricing model. We find prices are positively influenced by earnings of the covering sire, earnings of the broodmare, pedigree, and the racing performance of broodmare progeny. Conversely, the age of a broodmare and the day on which the horse sold have dampening effects on broodmare prices.

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)1.IntroductionWorldwide ethanol production has more than quadrupled since 2000 with the U.S. and Brazil leading in production (RFA n.d.a). Brazil, who has been a long time global leader in ethanol production, attributes its main reason to the high oil prices in the 1970s (Dias de Moraes 2007). Other countries who boosted their production in the mid-2000 justified their decision based on ethanol's positive impact on rural development, reducing reliance on unfriendly nations for energy, and environmental stewardship (Rosill°Calle & Johnson 2010), the last of which is often criticized because of the perceived negative energy balance of ethanol. The United States, with the help of government support (e.g., capital investment, blenders' subsidies, and tariffs), surpassed Brazil to become the leading producer of ethanol in 2006. Besides the negative energy balance of ethanol production, one of the major criticisms against ethanol is the impact on food prices. Since 2000, world food prices have more than doubled (World Bank n.d.).The high food prices, especially in poor countries, led to calls to curtail ethanol production (Grunwald 2008; Sharma 2008), and subsequently triggered many studies to examine the relationship between the ethanol market and the food market. Monteiro, et al. (2012) studied the impact of ethanol production in the U.S. and Brazil on food prices by focusing on the 1980-2007 time period. They found the share of Brazilian ethanol in the world market, the value of the U.S. dollar, and the price of oil have significantly affected food prices. Literature reviewed by Armah, et al. (2009) attributes the rise in food prices to increased energy cost, the devaluation of the U.S. dollar, and the increased energy demand by developing countries such as India and China. Other studies have found the price of ethanol to be influenced by food and energy prices (Serra, et al. 2011a; Serra, et al. 2011b; Kristoufek, et al. 2012), confirming a connection between the food and ethanol markets.In response to the outcry against ethanol production, policies such as import tariffs and blenders' subsidies have been discontinued in the U.S., and ethanol use mandates have been reduced in the U.S.1 and Europe (Taylor 2013 & Kenny 2014). Although ethanol production in the U.S. and Brazil has slowed as a result of these policy changes, it increased more than 9% from 2012 to 2014, while food prices dropped by nearly 14% over the same time period. Moreover, from 2012 to 2014, energy prices fell by more than 7%, which begs the question, is ethanol production responsible for high food prices? The purpose of our study is to investigate the impact of U.S. and Brazilian ethanol production on global food prices by estimating food demand and food supply equations simultaneously. We include data from 1980 to 2014 and control for the increased demand for food by developing countries due to improving economies and increasing populations, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, energy prices, and technological advancement in agricultural production.2.Ethanol Production in the U.S. and BrazilThe U.S. and Brazil are the leading producers of ethanol in the world, accounting for over 80% of production (RFA). In response to the higher oil prices in the early 1970s, Brazil embarked on a massive ethanol production program. Policies implemented in Brazil include mandatory blending, capital subsidies, flex-fuel vehicle subsidies, and a 20% import tariff (Monteiro et al. 2012). Production has grown from about 0.16 billion gallons in the mid-1970s to 6.2 billion gallons in 2014 (RFA). In addition to the government programs, the success of Brazilian ethanol production is owed to the abundant supply of sugarcane, a very cost- and environmentally-efficient feedstock. Brazil is now a leader in sugarcane-based ethanol production. Currently, pure gasoline (i.e. zero ethanol blend) is no longer available in Brazil (Rico 2008). …

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)1.IntroductionWorldwide ethanol production has more than quadrupled since 2000 with the U.S. and Brazil leading in production (RFA n.d.a). Brazil, who has been a long time global leader in ethanol production, attributes its main reason to the high oil prices in the 1970s (Dias de Moraes 2007). Other countries who boosted their production in the mid-2000 justified their decision based on ethanolu0027s positive impact on rural development, reducing reliance on unfriendly nations for energy, and environmental stewardship (Rosill°Calle u0026 Johnson 2010), the last of which is often criticized because of the perceived negative energy balance of ethanol. The United States, with the help of government support (e.g., capital investment, blendersu0027 subsidies, and tariffs), surpassed Brazil to become the leading producer of ethanol in 2006. Besides the negative energy balance of ethanol production, one of the major criticisms against ethanol is the impact on food prices. Since 2000, world food prices have more than doubled (World Bank n.d.).The high food prices, especially in poor countries, led to calls to curtail ethanol production (Grunwald 2008; Sharma 2008), and subsequently triggered many studies to examine the relationship between the ethanol market and the food market. Monteiro, et al. (2012) studied the impact of ethanol production in the U.S. and Brazil on food prices by focusing on the 1980-2007 time period. They found the share of Brazilian ethanol in the world market, the value of the U.S. dollar, and the price of oil have significantly affected food prices. Literature reviewed by Armah, et al. (2009) attributes the rise in food prices to increased energy cost, the devaluation of the U.S. dollar, and the increased energy demand by developing countries such as India and China. Other studies have found the price of ethanol to be influenced by food and energy prices (Serra, et al. 2011a; Serra, et al. 2011b; Kristoufek, et al. 2012), confirming a connection between the food and ethanol markets.In response to the outcry against ethanol production, policies such as import tariffs and blendersu0027 subsidies have been discontinued in the U.S., and ethanol use mandates have been reduced in the U.S.1 and Europe (Taylor 2013 u0026 Kenny 2014). Although ethanol production in the U.S. and Brazil has slowed as a result of these policy changes, it increased more than 9% from 2012 to 2014, while food prices dropped by nearly 14% over the same time period. Moreover, from 2012 to 2014, energy prices fell by more than 7%, which begs the question, is ethanol production responsible for high food prices? The purpose of our study is to investigate the impact of U.S. and Brazilian ethanol production on global food prices by estimating food demand and food supply equations simultaneously. We include data from 1980 to 2014 and control for the increased demand for food by developing countries due to improving economies and increasing populations, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, energy prices, and technological advancement in agricultural production.2.Ethanol Production in the U.S. and BrazilThe U.S. and Brazil are the leading producers of ethanol in the world, accounting for over 80% of production (RFA). In response to the higher oil prices in the early 1970s, Brazil embarked on a massive ethanol production program. Policies implemented in Brazil include mandatory blending, capital subsidies, flex-fuel vehicle subsidies, and a 20% import tariff (Monteiro et al. 2012). Production has grown from about 0.16 billion gallons in the mid-1970s to 6.2 billion gallons in 2014 (RFA). In addition to the government programs, the success of Brazilian ethanol production is owed to the abundant supply of sugarcane, a very cost- and environmentally-efficient feedstock. Brazil is now a leader in sugarcane-based ethanol production. Currently, pure gasoline (i.e. zero ethanol blend) is no longer available in Brazil (Rico 2008). …

Brand prominence describes the conspicuousness of a brand on a product. This study seeks to understand the unique ways in which consumers engage in online brand prominence behaviors. A survey was administered to a nationally representative sample of 300 U.S. adults. Participants were shown photographs of two pairs of clothing articles for three brands: Abercrombie & Fitch, Lacoste, and Armani. For each pair, one clothing article displayed the brand logo prominently whereas the other did not, and participants were asked which article of clothing they would prefer to wear. This study shows that factors such as gender, race, age, education, and household income are indicators of future brand prominence behaviors.

Ethanol production in the United States has increased significantly due to government support, which has begun to dwindle. Ethanol now seems to compete with gasoline for vehicle fuel but because ethanol is mostly sold as a blend, gasoline and ethanol could be complementary fuel sources. The study investigates the true relationship between these fuels since it has policy implications. Results of LA/AIDS estimation show the two fuels were substitutes before the rapid expansion of ethanol production but have become complements overtime due to increasing share of ethanol in fuel consumption.

This paper estimates the association between salary dispersion and the probability that an NBA team leading two minutes before the end of a playoff game won the game. Economic theory indicates the a priori relationship is ambiguous and the existing empirical literature finds mixed results as to the direction of the relationship. We use game-level data from the 2012 and 2013 NBA playoffs and allow the association to be nonlinear. Overall, our results indicate there may be U-shaped relationship between salary dispersion and win probabilities; however, the point estimates individually and jointly are not statistically significant. Thus, we conclude there is no evidence in our sample that salary dispersion and NBA win probabilities are related.

This study examines how smoke-free laws influence cross-border keno shopping in Nebraska. We exploit smoke-free law variation in timing and location to identify keno revenue gains and losses between neighboring smoke-free and smoke-friendly areas. We find the Lincoln municipal smoke-free law reduced keno revenue by 23.5% in Lincoln and increased keno revenue by 30.0% in smoke-friendly Surrounding Lincoln counties. The Omaha municipal smoke-free law reduced keno revenue by 14.8% in Omaha and increased keno revenue by 7.1% in smoke-friendly Surrounding Omaha counties. Following the Nebraska statewide law, no Nebraska areas had a smoke-friendly advantage and keno revenue fell by an insignificant 1.0% and 5.2% in the surrounding Lincoln and Omaha counties, respectively. Our results may be of interest to local policy makers interested in understanding the amount of business activity and tax revenue that may be migrating out of a community or even the state. (JEL l18, K32)

Beginning with the 2006–2007 academic year, the U.S. government required that all federally funded schools have local wellness policies to promote healthful living and reduce obesity among their students; however, little evidence exists on which school food policies are effective. This article finds evidence that prohibiting à la carte junk food sales during meals reduces the likelihood that students will be overweight or obese by 18 percentage points. The data are merged student–parent–school survey responses collected from a small sample of schools in one Great Plains state. The estimation controls for students’ activity levels, genetics, and socioeconomic factors; parents’ activity levels and attitudes; and the overall mix of school marketing policies that promote healthful eating and drinking habits. The results indicate that banning à la carte junk food sales is a potentially effective policy to reduce the likelihood of students being overweight and obese.

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