Besides those durational differences due to the binary quantity opposition in both vowels and consonants, there are many systematic effects on segment durations within the domain of accentual F0 movement in Finnish. Some such effects are shown in this paper, and it is argued that their motivation is to contribute to a uniform realisation of accent irrespective of segmental word structure.

External finance is critical for less established entrepreneurs, so poor investor protection can hinder competition. We model how lobbying for weaker investor protection reduces access to finance and decreases competition in countries where politicians are less accountable to voters. Weaker accountability thus produces a smaller economic elite. As empirical support for this result, in a broad p...

Introduction Partnerships can vary in size, the nature of the parties involved, and the scope of their work. But at their core, partnerships share some fundamental elements. In the philanthropic world, partnerships are usually voluntary and bring together parties with mutual goals and some level of shared responsibility. Some foundations have partnered with other private philanthropies as well ...

So far the main body of the asset pricing literature has computed liquidity risk premia for either markets or single assets. The vast majority of these studies have been focused on fairly liquid assets, but recently a greater attempt to price such an important component of the asset pricing factors in markets with high illiquidity (especially in real estate) has also started to take place. The ...

This paper examines public-private partnerships in micro-finance, whereby NGOs can help in channelizing credit to the poor, both in borrower selection, as well as in project implementation. We argue that a distortion may arise out of the fact that the private partner, i.e. the NGO, is a motivated agent. We find that whenever the project is neither too productive, nor too unproductive, reducing ...

There has been little systematic discussion of the issues associated with private involvement in infrastructure. Analysis of the relative performance of the private and public sector in different phases of infrastructure provision suggests that in most cases, the private sector will be most efficient in the construction phase but the public sector will be best equipped to handle the risks assoc...