Search Results (85)

Purpose: The acquirer’s corporate environmental performance (CEP) in mergers and acquisitions has been a subject of debate, yielding mixed results. This paper uses the US firm-level data of 1437 M&A deals from 2002–2019 to examine the impact of overall CEP, resource use, emissions, and innovation on the acquirers’ post-merger market value. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs multi-level fixed effects panel regression using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and the instrumental variable (IV) 2SLS method to estimate the models and compare the results with those from robust estimation. Absorbing the multiple levels of fixed effects (i.e., firm, industry, and year) offers a novel and robust algorithm for efficiently accounting for unobserved heterogeneity. The results from IV (2SLS) are more convincing, as the method overcomes the problem of endogeneity due to reverse causality and sample selection bias. Findings: The authors find that CEP has a significant impact on market value, particularly in the long term. While both resource use and emissions performance have positive effects, emissions performance has a stronger impact, presumably because external stakeholders and market participants are more concerned about emissions reduction. The performance of environmental innovation is relatively weak compared to other pillars. Descriptive analysis shows low average scores in environmental innovation compared to the resource use and emissions performance of the acquirers. However, large deals yield significant returns from investing in environmental innovation in both the short and long term compared to small deals. Practical implications: This paper offers several practical implications. First, environmental performance can help improve the acquirer’s long-term market value. Second, managers can focus on the strategic side of environmental performance, based on its pillars, and benchmark their relative position against peers. Third, environmental innovation can be considered a new potential, as the market as a whole in this area is still lagging. Given the growing pressure to improve environmental technology and innovation, prospective acquirers should confidently prioritise actions on green revenue, product innovation, and capital expenditure now rather than ticking these boxes later. Originality value: The key contribution is offering valuable insights into the impact of acquirers’ environmental performance on long-term value creation in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). These results fill the gap in the literature focusing mainly on the effect of environmental pillar and sub-pillar scores on acquirer’s firm value. The authors claim that analysing sub-pillar-level granularity is crucial for accurately measuring the effects on firm-level performance. Full article

This study investigates the effects of unverifiable green signals—vague environmental claims, trust-substitute cues, and function-stacking—on consumer purchasing behaviors in e-commerce settings. Using detailed product-level data collected from two major Chinese online platforms, Taobao and Pinduoduo, during the peak shopping period in November 2023, we analyze the impact of these signals on product sales using ordinary least squares (OLS), instrumental variable (IV), and propensity score matching (PSM) methods. Results indicate that vague environmental language and function-stacking significantly boost sales across platforms, highlighting consumers’ preference for easily interpretable and seemingly comprehensive products. However, trust-substitute signals exhibit mixed effects, with them being beneficial on platforms with stronger credibility frameworks (Taobao) and less effective or even detrimental on platforms characterized by price competition and weaker governance (Pinduoduo). This study contributes to the literature on consumer trust and digital greenwashing by identifying platform-specific responses to unverifiable eco-claims and underscoring the importance of heuristic processing theories and trust formation mechanisms in digital marketing contexts. These findings underscore the complex dynamics of greenwashing strategies and stress the necessity for enhanced regulation and clearer communication standards to protect consumers and genuinely support sustainable consumption. Full article

Background: Intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is caused by an imbalance between the catabolic and anabolic processes within intervertebral disc tissue. Several studies have suggested a potential association between cerebrospinal fluid metabolites (CFMs) and the development of IVDD. However, the existing evidence on the relationship between CFM and IVDD is limited and inconsistent. Methods: The data on 338 cerebrospinal fluid metabolites and intervertebral disc degeneration analyzed in this study were sourced from their respective genome-wide association studies (GWAS). MR analysis employed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) closely associated with disease as instrumental variables (IVs). The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was employed as the primary statistical approach, complemented by MR-Egger, the Weighted median, Simple mode, and the Weighted mode for result validation. Comprehensive sensitivity analyses were performed to confirm the robustness of the results and assess for heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy. Results: Using the IVW method, this study revealed positive causal effects between 11 cerebrospinal fluid metabolites (CFMs) and intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD), indicating that elevated levels of these 11 CFMs increase the risk of IVDD. Conversely, negative causal effects were identified for 6 CFMs, suggesting that higher levels of these CFMs have a protective effect against IVDD. Reverse MR analysis indicated 1 positive and 18 negative causal relationships between IVDD and CFMs. Conclusions: Our bidirectional Mendelian analysis provides compelling evidence of a causal relationship between CFMs and IVDD. These findings enhance our understanding of IVDD pathogenesis and highlight the potential for preventive therapies targeting CFMs. Further research is needed to clarify the mechanisms of these CFMs on IVDD. Full article

Background/Objectives: Sepsis remains one of the most serious and possibly fatal complications encountered in intensive care units. Considering the frequent use of narcotic analgesics in this setting, we investigated whether the cardiovascular and peripheral and central inflammatory features of sepsis could be modified by morphine. Methods: Rats were instrumented with femoral and intracisternal (i.c.) indwelling catheters and sepsis was induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Results: The i.v. administration of morphine (3 and 10 mg/kg) significantly and dose-dependently aggravated septic manifestations of hypotension and impaired cardiac autonomic activity, as reflected by the reductions in indices of heart rate variability (HRV). Cardiac contractility (dP/dtmax) was also reduced by morphine in septic rats. The morphine effects were mostly eliminated following (i) blockade of μ-opioid receptors by i.v. naloxone and (ii) inhibition of central PI3K, MAPK-ERK, MAPK-JNK, NADPH oxidase (NADPHox), or Rho-kinase (ROCK) by i.c. wortmannin, PD98059, SP600125, diphenyleneiodonium, and fasudil, respectively. Further, these pharmacologic interventions significantly reduced the heightened protein expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP1) in brainstem rostral ventrolateral medullary (RVLM), but not cardiac, tissues of CLP/morphine-treated rats. Conclusions: Morphine worsens cardiovascular and autonomic disturbances caused by sepsis through a mechanism mediated via μ-opioid receptors and upregulated central inflammatory, chemotactic, and oxidative signals. Clinical studies are warranted to re-affirm the adverse cardiovascular interaction between opioids and the septic challenge. Full article

Carbon lock-in (CLI), defined as the structural persistence of fossil-fuel-based systems, poses a significant barrier to decarbonization. As CLI continues to impede China’s progress toward carbon neutrality, understanding the role of next-generation productive forces (NGPFs) in breaking this path dependence has become increasingly urgent; however, it remains underexplored in empirical research. This study examines the impact of NGPFs on CLI using provincial panel data from 2012 to 2022. Composite indices for NGPFs and CLI are constructed using the entropy weight method. The analysis applies instrumental variable estimation (IV-GMM) to address potential endogeneity, feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) to account for heteroskedasticity, and spatial Durbin models (SDMs) to capture spatial dependence. In addition, quantile regression is used to explore distributional effects, and subsample regressions are conducted to assess regional heterogeneity. The results show that (1) a 1% increase in NGPFs leads to approximately a 0.9643% reduction in CLI, effectively mitigating CLI. (2) NGPF levels are high in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, while being constrained in Heilongjiang, Gansu, and Qinghai. Provinces like Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong are rapidly catching up. (3) Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Shandong struggle with high comprehensive CLI from carbon-heavy industries; in contrast, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hainan show low CLI. (4) As CLI levels increase (90th percentile), the effectiveness of NGPFs in reducing CLI gradually diminishes (−0.2724). (5) The impact of NGPFs on CLI is not significant in the Eastern region, while in the Central and Western regions, the effects are −1.1365 and −1.0137, respectively. This study offers vital insights for shaping policies that promote sustainable growth and mitigate CLI in China. Full article

Integrating causal inference and estimation methods, especially in Natural Language Processsing (NLP), is essential to improve interpretability and robustness in deep learning (DL) models. The objectives are to present the IV-NLP methodology and its application. IV-NLP integrates two approaches. The first defines the process of the inference and estimation of the causal effect in original, predicted, and synthetic data. The second one includes a validation method of the results obtained by the selected Large-Language Model (LLM). IV-NLP proposes to use synthetic data in predictive tasks only if the causal effect pattern of the synthetic data is aligned with the causal effect pattern of the original data. DL models, the Instrumental Variable (IV) method, statistical methods, and GPT-3.5-turbo-0125 were used for its application, including an intervention method using a variation of the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technique. Our findings reveal notable discrepancies between the original and synthetic data, highlighting that the synthetic data do not fully capture the underlying causal effect patterns of the original data, evidencing homogeneity and low diversity in the synthetic data. Interestingly, when evaluating the causal effect in the predictions made by our three best DL models, it was verified that the model with the lowest accuracy (84.50%) was fully aligned with the overall causal effect pattern. These results demonstrate the potential of integrating DL and LLM models with causal inference methods. Full article

Green innovation plays a crucial role in sustainable development, yet its financial impact on high-pollution industries remains underexplored. This study analyzes the short- and long-term financial effects of green innovation using 30,108 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies in high-pollution industries (2009–2022). Employing fixed-effects regression models, green innovation is measured through environmental patents (EnvrPats) and environmentally innovative patents (EnvrInvPats), with Return on Assets (ROA) as the financial performance metric. To address endogeneity concerns, instrumental variable (IV) techniques are applied using digital transformation (DT) as an instrument, alongside a two-stage Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) approach for validation. This study explores the moderating roles of Sustainable Liquidity Reserves (cash flow) and the Sustainable Development Index (ESG performance), while a channel test examines the influence of R&D expenditures and financial constraints. A heterogeneity analysis reveals that firms in high-pollution industries experience greater short-term financial benefits from green innovation, driven by regulatory pressures and public scrutiny. A pre- and post-COVID-19 analysis highlights the increased importance of green innovation in firm resilience during economic disruptions. Robustness checks, including alternative financial performance measures and nonlinear modeling, confirm the reliability of the findings. While green innovation imposes initial financial costs, firms with stronger cash reserves and ESG performance can better absorb these costs and achieve long-term financial gains, emphasizing the need for targeted policy support to facilitate sustainable growth. Full article

Background: Laryngeal cancer affects quality of life (QoL), speech, and swallowing. Total laryngectomy (TL) causes severe impairments, while partial laryngectomy (PL) and chemoradiotherapy (CRT) preserve the organ but yield variable outcomes. This study assesses QoL, speech rehabilitation, swallowing, and social reintegration across these treatments. Methods: This prospective observational cohort study was conducted at the ENT Clinic, Victor Babeș University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timișoara; recruitment was conducted between October 2019 and January 2024. Seventy-five patients diagnosed with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) were initially enrolled but only 15 patients (20%) completed the 12-month follow-up, with an attrition rate of 80%. Tumor stages ranged from T1 to T4a, with TL patients having a higher proportion of advanced-stage disease (Stage III–IV: 76%) compared to PL (45%) and CRT (50%). Validated instruments, including the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire for Head and Neck Cancer (EORTC QLQ-H&N35), the Voice Handicap Index-30 (VHI-30), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Dysphagia Outcome and Severity Scale (DOSS), were used to assess QoL, voice function, swallowing function, and psychological impact. Results: At 12 months, the global QoL score from the EORTC QLQ-H&N35 was lowest in TL patients (49.8 ± 10.9), significantly lower than both PL (61.2 ± 9.6, p = 0.002) and CRT (64.1 ± 7.8, p < 0.001). Post hoc Bonferroni analysis confirmed significant pairwise differences between TL vs. PL (p = 0.002) and TL vs. CRT (p < 0.001), while the difference between PL and CRT was non-significant (p = 0.14). TL patients had higher speech-related disability (VHI: 88.3 ± 12.6) and dysphagia prevalence (DOSS: 4.0 ± 1.2), with 16% remaining enteral feeding-dependent. Anxiety (HADS-A: 7.5 ± 2.9) and depression (HADS-D: 9.0 ± 3.2) were highest in TL patients, with 36% meeting clinical depression criteria at 12 months. Multivariable regression identified TL (OR = 3.92, 95% CI: 2.14–5.79, p < 0.001) and advanced tumor stage (OR = 2.85, 95% CI: 1.79–4.21, p = 0.002) as strong predictors of poor QoL. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed no significant OS differences (p = 0.12), but CRT patients had lower DFS (78%) compared to TL (82%) and PL (85%) (p = 0.048). Conclusions: TL patients experience the most significant impairments in QoL, speech, and social reintegration despite rehabilitation. CRT patients show higher recurrence rates but better QoL, while PL offers the best balance of function and survival. These findings highlight the need for long-term survivorship support tailored to treatment type. Full article

An efficient legal system facilitates the enforcement of guarantees, enables the recovery of non-performing loans and increases trust between creditors and borrowers. This study examines the effect of the legal environment and the profitability of the Angolan banking sector. Specifically, it analyses the influence of property rights and the rule of law on bank profitability in Angola. The study employs various econometric methods for analyzing panel data, such as Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), and instrumental variables models such as Two-Stage Least Squares (IV-2SLS), Generalized Method of Moments (IV-GMM) and Quantile Regression (MQREG). The study concludes that improving the legal environment by strengthening property rights and promoting the rule of law favours the profitability of Angolan banks. In terms of practical implications, this study shows that the legal environment in Angola is an important barrier to the promotion of credit in Angola, and, above all, to improving the profitability of banks. This study contributes to the scarce literature highlighting the relationship between the legal system and the Angolan banking sector, a topic that has been little explored in the context of African countries. Furthermore, the study awakens the dormant debate on the legal system and finance. Full article

This study examines the impact of firms’ overall corporate policy risk on stock liquidity. This study constructs a novel overall corporate policies risk index (PRI) for firms by capturing risk embedded in managers’ different policy decisions, such as investment, financing, diversification, and cash management, by weighting each policy risk through the regression decomposition method. Using a large sample of 466 India-listed firms from the financial year 2003–2004 to 2022–2023, this study finds that there is a negative association between PRI and stock liquidity. The study further explores the information environment heterogeneity and finds that the adverse impact of a PRI is a more prominent firm that is hard to value or in a less transparent environment as compared to the transparent firms. Moreover, the adverse impact of PRI on stock liquidity is significantly more pronounced during financial crises, while its effect is less substantial during non-crisis periods. The robustness of these results is confirmed even after addressing endogeneity issues using various techniques, such as propensity score matching (PSM), two-stage least squares instrumental variable approach (2 SLS IV), and the system-generalized method of moments (System GMM). Full article

DNA damage repair (DDR) plays a key role in maintaining genomic stability and developing inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, no report about the causal association between DDR and IBD exists. Whether DDR-related genes are the precise causal association to IBD in etiology remains unclear. Herein, we employed a multi-omics summary data-based Mendelian randomization (SMR) approach to ascertain the potential causal effects of DDR-related genes in IBD. Methods: Summary statistics from expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL), DNA methylation QTL (mQTL), and protein QTL (pQTL) on European descent were included. The GWAS summarized data for IBD and its two subtypes, Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), were acquired from the FinnGen study. We elected from genetic variants located within or near 2000 DDR-related genes in cis, which are closely associated with DDR-related gene changes. Variants were selected as instrumental variables (IVs) and assessed for causality with IBD and its subtypes using both SMR and two-sample MR (TSMR) approaches. Colocalization analysis was employed to evaluate whether a single genetic variant simultaneously influences two traits, thereby validating the pleiotropy hypothesis. Results: We identified seven DDR-related genes (Arid5b, Cox5a, Erbb2, Ube2l3, Gpx1, H2bcl2, and Mapk3), 33 DNA methylation genes, and two DDR-related proteins (CD274 and FCGR2A) which were all causally associated with IBD and its subtypes. Beyond causality, we integrated the multi-omics data between mQTL-eQTL and conducted druggability values. We found that DNA methylation of Erbb2 and Gpx1 significantly impacted their gene expression levels offering insights into the potential regulatory mechanisms of risk variants on IBD. Meanwhile, CD247 and FCGR2A could serve as targets for potential pharmacological interventions in IBD. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the causal role of DDR in IBD based on the data-driven MR. Moreover, we found potential regulatory mechanisms of risk variants on IBD and potential pharmacological targets. Full article

High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a marker of systemic inflammation and is associated with developing dyslipidemia. However, the causality between hs-CRP and dyslipidemia remains unresolved. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between hs-CRP concentrations and dyslipidemia and to explore the potential causal link using Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. A nested case–control study was conducted with 1174 participants, and genotype data were analyzed using the Korean Chip. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) identified rs76400217 as a suitable instrumental variable (IV) due to its significant association with hs-CRP (p < 10⁻⁸). Logistic regression models, adjusted for confounders, were used to evaluate the association between hs-CRP and dyslipidemia. An MR analysis was performed using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) method, with rs76400217 as the IV to assess causality. Logistic regression showed a significant association between hs-CRP concentrations and dyslipidemia (OR 2.08, 95% CI: 1.81–2.39, p < 0.001). This association remained significant after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, alcohol consumption, and BMI. The MR analysis using rs76400217 as the IV confirmed the strong associations with hs-CRP concentrations (p < 0.001) in all models, but the causality between hs-CRP and dyslipidemia was not statistically significant. Thus, no evidence of a causal relationship between hs-CRP and the risk of dyslipidemia was found in the Korean population. The strong association observed between hs-CRP and dyslipidemia may be due to other contributing factors rather than a direct cause. Full article

Background: The association between coffee and pancreatic cancer risk has reported inconsistent results. Therefore, a Mendelian randomization (MR) study was undertaken to investigate the association between coffee and pancreatic cancer from a genetic perspective. Methods: In East Asian and European populations, independent genetic variants strongly associated with coffee were chosen as instrumental variables (IVs) from relevant genome-wide association studies (GWASs). GWAS data for pancreatic cancer were obtained from the JENGER (Japanese Encyclopedia of Genetic Associations by Riken) project and GWAS catalog database. Two-sample (TSMR) and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR) analyses were conducted to investigate the genetically predicted causal relationship between coffee consumption and pancreatic cancer. A fixed-effect meta-analysis was employed to aggregate estimates from the two populations to reveal the overall association. Results: Both in East Asian and European populations, an increase in coffee intake of a cup per day was not associated with pancreatic cancer risk, regardless of coffee type (including caffeine drinks, instant coffee, decaffeinated coffee, ground coffee, etc.). The results aligned with the findings of the meta-analysis (OR = 1.100, 95%CI = 0.862–1.403, p = 0.450). Also, for coffee intake with positive results in the TSMR analysis (OR = 1.739, 95%CI 1.104–2.739, p = 0.017), consistent negative results were observed after adjusting for potential confounders (smoking traits, drinking, type 2 diabetes, body mass index) in the MVMR analyses. Conclusions: This study found no genetically predicted causal relationship between coffee consumption and pancreatic cancer risk. Full article

In recent years, China’s financial markets have come under increasing scrutiny. In order to explore the impact of financial literacy on urban household investment in the risk financial market, this paper used the micro-data of the 2019 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) to start from two perspectives: household risk financial investment and the number of investment financial products, namely the breadth of investment. By constructing a probit model and ordered probit model for empirical analysis, the main conclusions are as follows. Benchmark regression results show that the improvement of financial literacy can significantly promote urban households to make risky financial investments and can significantly broaden the types of risky financial investments. Based on the IV-probit model and two-stage least square method, the endogeneity test using the economic and financial information attention degree as the instrumental variable showed that the model results were credible. The robustness test showed that the model results were basically correct. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis found that the use of fintech played an intermediary effect in the process of financial literacy affecting urban household risky financial investment and the amount of investment. This indicates that the improvement of financial literacy can improve the probability of using fintech, thus promoting the household risky financial investment behavior. Heterogeneity analysis based on risk attitude showed that financial literacy had a greater effect on the improvement in the risky financial investment behavior of risk-inclined families, followed by risk-neutral families, and had the least effect on risk-averse families. The research conclusions of this paper are of practical significance to solve the problems related to urban household financial market investment. Therefore, this paper puts forward some suggestions for reference, especially in terms of financial education and the digital economy. Full article

Background: Previous studies reported screen time in association with unhealthy dietary behaviors, such as excessive intake of sugar-sweetened beverages leading to dental caries. Thus, we aimed to explore the association between screen time on mobile devices and dental caries experience in adolescents, as well as whether sugar-sweetened beverages would mediate the association. Methods: We analyzed 24,374 junior and senior high school students of age 12 to 17 years from the 2021 “Surveillance for common diseases and health risk factors among students” Project in Jiangsu Province of China. Dental caries experience was determined by the designated dentists. Screen time and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages were self-reported and treated as a priori risk. We employed an instrumental variable (IV) approach for the current cross-sectional setting. We used the lasso technique to shortlist covariates from a range of confounding factors. Binary logistic regression or ordered logistic regression was performed where appropriate to explore the associations of screen time on mobile devices with dental caries and sugar-sweetened beverages. Results: The prevalence rate of dental caries was 38.4% in the study population. In comparison with <2 h/d screen time on mobile devices, extended screen time (≥2 h/d) was associated with higher dental caries risk (coefficient: 1.27, 95%; confidence interval: 0.80–1.75). Mediation analysis suggested that sugar-sweetened beverage intake might be an independent risk factor for dental caries, instead of the mediator between screen time on mobile devices and dental caries. None of the interaction terms under investigation was statistically significant. Conclusions: Exposure to mobile device screens and sugar-sweetened beverages was associated with dental caries in adolescents. These findings highlighted the importance of increasing awareness of potential risks owing to mobile device usage and sugar-sweetened beverages and the necessity to develop appropriate intervention strategies for school-aged adolescents. Full article