Although it is well known that appearance-based impressions affect labor market and election outcomes, little is known about the role appearance plays in financial transactions. We address this ...question using photographs of potential borrowers from a peer-to-peer lending site. Consistent with the trust-intensive nature of lending, we find that borrowers who appear more trustworthy have higher probabilities of having their loans funded. Moreover, borrowers who appear more trustworthy indeed have better credit scores and default less often. Overall, our findings suggest that impressions of trustworthiness matter in financial transactions as they predict investor, as well as borrower, behavior.
We investigate the link between birth order and the career outcome of becoming Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company. CEOs are more likely to be the first-born, i.e., oldest, child of their ...family relative to what one would expect if birth order did not matter for career outcomes. Both male and female CEOs are more likely to be first-born. However, the first-born advantage seems to largely reflect the absence of an older brother, but not of an older sister. These results are more pronounced for family firms, where traditionally the oldest child is appointed to run the family business, but also hold for non-family firms.
Using data on identical and fraternal twins’ complete financial portfolios, we decompose the cross-sectional variation in investor behavior. We find that a genetic factor explains about one-third of ...the variance in stock market participation and asset allocation. Family environment has an effect on the behavior of young individuals, but this effect is not long-lasting and disappears as an individual gains experience. Frequent contact among twins results in similar investment behavior beyond a genetic factor. Twins who grew up in different environments still display similar investment behavior. Our interpretation of a genetic component of the decision to invest in the stock market is that there are innate differences in factors affecting effective stock market participation costs. We attribute the genetic component of asset allocation—the relative amount invested in equities and the portfolio volatility—to genetic variation in risk preferences.
We propose an exogenous measure of a country's growth opportunities by interacting the country's local industry mix with global price to earnings (PE) ratios. We find that these exogenous growth ...opportunities predict future changes in real GDP and investment in a large panel of countries. This relation is strongest in countries that have liberalized their capital accounts, equity markets, and banking systems. We also find that financial development, external finance dependence, and investor protection measures are much less important in aligning growth opportunities with growth than is capital market openness. Finally, we formulate new tests of market integration and segmentation by linking local and global PE ratios to relative economic growth.
Summary
The epigenome is often deregulated in cancer and treatment with inhibitors of bromodomain and extra‐terminal proteins, the readers of epigenetic acetylation marks, represents a novel ...therapeutic approach. Here, we have characterized the anti‐tumour activity of the novel bromodomain and extra‐terminal (BET) inhibitor BAY 1238097 in preclinical lymphoma models. BAY 1238097 showed anti‐proliferative activity in a large panel of lymphoma‐derived cell lines, with a median 50% inhibitory concentration between 70 and 208 nmol/l. The compound showed strong anti‐tumour efficacy in vivo as a single agent in two diffuse large B cell lymphoma models. Gene expression profiling showed BAY 1238097 targeted the NFKB/TLR/JAK/STAT signalling pathways, MYC and E2F1‐regulated genes, cell cycle regulation and chromatin structure. The gene expression profiling signatures also highly overlapped with the signatures obtained with other BET Bromodomain inhibitors and partially overlapped with HDAC‐inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors and demethylating agents. Notably, BAY 1238097 presented in vitro synergism with EZH2, mTOR and BTK inhibitors. In conclusion, the BET inhibitor BAY 1238097 presented promising anti‐lymphoma preclinical activity in vitro and in vivo, mediated by the interference with biological processes driving the lymphoma cells. Our data also indicate the use of combination schemes targeting EZH2, mTOR and BTK alongside BET bromodomains.
The genetics of investment biases Cronqvist, Henrik; Siegel, Stephan
Journal of financial economics,
08/2014, Letnik:
113, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
For a long list of investment “biases,” including lack of diversification, excessive trading, and the disposition effect, we find that genetic differences explain up to 45% of the remaining variation ...across individual investors, after controlling for observable individual characteristics. The evidence is consistent with a view that investment biases are manifestations of innate and evolutionary ancient features of human behavior. We find that work experience with finance reduces genetic predispositions to investment biases. Finally, we find that even genetically identical investors, who grew up in the same family environment, often differ substantially in their investment behaviors due to individual-specific experiences or events.
Inhibiting the interaction of menin with the histone methyltransferase MLL1 (KMT2A) has recently emerged as a novel therapeutic strategy. Beneficial therapeutic effects have been postulated in ...leukemia, prostate, breast, liver and in synovial sarcoma models. In those indications, MLL1 recruitment by menin was described to critically regulate the expression of disease associated genes. However, most findings so far rely on single study reports. Here we independently evaluated the pathogenic functions of the menin-MLL interaction in a large set of different cancer models with a potent and selective probe inhibitor BAY-155. We characterized the inhibition of the menin-MLL interaction for anti-proliferation, gene transcription effects, and for efficacy in several in vivo xenografted tumor models. We found a specific therapeutic activity of BAY-155 primarily in AML/ALL models. In solid tumors, we observed anti-proliferative effects of BAY-155 in a surprisingly limited fraction of cell line models. These findings were further validated in vivo. Overall, our study using a novel, highly selective and potent inhibitor, shows that the menin-MLL interaction is not essential for the survival of most solid cancer models. We can confirm that disrupting the menin-MLL complex has a selective therapeutic benefit in MLL-fused leukemia. In solid cancers, effects are restricted to single models and more limited than previously claimed.
The Origins of Savings Behavior Cronqvist, Henrik; Siegel, Stephan
The Journal of political economy,
02/2015, Letnik:
123, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Analyzing the savings behavior of a large sample of identical and fraternal twins, we find that genetic differences explain about 33 percent of the variation in savings propensities across ...individuals. Individuals are born with a persistent genetic predisposition to a specific savings behavior. Parenting contributes to the variation in savings rates among younger individuals, but its effect decays over time. The environment when growing up (e.g., parents’ wealth) moderates genetic effects. Finally, savings behavior is genetically correlated with income growth, smoking, and obesity, suggesting that the genetic component of savings behavior reflects genetic variation in time preferences or self-control.
We examine the role of cultural heritage in shaping U.S. CEOs’ attitudes toward uncertainty, in the context of their corporate acquisition decisions. We find that CEOs with a more ...uncertainty-avoiding cultural heritage are less likely to engage in acquisitions. Conditional on making an acquisition, uncertainty-averse CEOs prefer targets in familiar industries and targets that can be more easily integrated. The emphasis on cultural identity by CEOs’ parents and the ethnic composition of CEOs’ early life environment significantly influence the cultural transmission process. Cultural differences about uncertainty attitudes persist over multiple generations, but become less pronounced over time.
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