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This paper examines the determinants of gender differences in educational attainment using data for all graduates from universities in England and Wales in 1993. We find that although women students perform better on average than their male counterparts, controlling for a range of individual and institutional attributes, they are significantly less likely to obtain a first class degree. There is, however, no evidence that this arises either because of differences in the types of subjects male and female students study in the institutions they attend. Nor is there evidence that it reflects differences in personal attributes, such as academic ability. Rather it is differences in the way these factors affect academic achievement that give rise to gender differences in performance. In addition, although evidence is found of subjectspecific effects, there is no support for the idea that women under-perform in male dominated subject areas.

The present paper examines the effects of ownership structures on capital structure and firm valuation. It argues that the effects of separation of control from cash flow rights on capital structure and firm value also depend on the separation of control from management as well as on legal rules and enforcement defining investors' protection. We obtain firm-level panel data (three stage least squares, 3SLS) estimates from four of the East Asian countries worst affected by the last crisis. There is evidence that the general wisdom that higher control than cash flow rights may lower firm value may be reversed among owner-managed family firms in the sample countries.JEL classifications: G32, L25. Keywords: Asian crisis, corporate governance, separation of control and cash flow rights, separation of control and management, owner managed family firms, capital structure, firm value, 3SLS estimates with error components, simultaneity bias. 269786. The research is funded by the ESRC grant number RES-000-22-0200. We are very grateful to Stijn Claessens for the ownership data and also for his very helpful comments on an earlier draft. We owe extensive gratitude to the editor Erik Berglöf and an anonymous referee of this Journal for very constructive comments at different stages. We would also like to thank John Bennett, Tomek Mickiewicz, Kunal Sen, Ajit Singh and the participants in the ESRC workshop on 'Corporate Governance, Corporate Restructuring and Corporate Finance in Transition Economies' held in Brunel University, London in September 2005 for their comments and advice. We are however solely responsible for any errors. 536 D riffield, M ahambare and P al

The conductivity and magnetoresistance of La0.5Pb0.5Mn1−xCrxO3 (0.0⩽x⩽0.45) measured at 0.0 and 1.5 T magnetic field have been reported. All the oxide samples except x=0.45, showed metal insulator transition (MIT) between 158–276 K, depending on x. In contrast to the behavior of a similar sample La0.7Ca0.3Mn1−xCrxO3 showing no (MIT) for x⩾0.3, the Pb doped samples showed MIT even with x=0.35. The MIT peak temperature (Tp) shifts towards lower temperature with increasing x while magnetic field shifts Tp to the high temperature regime. The metallic (ferromagnetic) part of the temperature dependent resistivity (ρ) curve (below Tp) is well fitted with ρ(T)=ρ0+ρ2.5T2.5 indicating the importance of electron–magnon interaction (second term). We have successfully fitted the high temperature (T>θD/2, θD is Debye temperature) conductivity data, both in presence and in absence of magnetic field, with small polaron hopping conduction mechanism. Adiabatic small polaron hopping conduction mechanism is followed by the samples showing MIT while nonadiabatic hopping conduction mechanism is obeyed by the samples showing no MIT. The lower temperature (between Tp and θD/2) conductivity data of all the samples can be well fitted to the variable range hopping (VRH) model similar to the case of many semiconducting transition metal oxides. Temperature dependent Seebeck coefficient data also support the small polaron hopping conduction mechanism above Tp.

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Abstract:In the wake of the global financial crisis, several macroeconomic contributions have highlighted the risks of excessive credit expansion. In particular, too much finance can have a negative impact on growth. We examine the microeconomic foundations of this argument, positing a non-monotonic relationship between leverage and firm-level productivity growth in the spirit of the trade-off theory of capital structure. A threshold regression model estimated on a sample of Central and Eastern European countries confirms that TFP growth increases with leverage until the latter reaches a critical threshold beyond which leverage lowers TFP growth. This estimate can provide guidance to firms and policy makers on identifying "excessive" leverage. We find a similar non-monotonic relationship between leverage and proxies for firm value. Our results are a first step in bridging the gap between the literature on optimal capital structure and the wider macro literature on the finance-growth nexus.

Formation of condensed films of nanoparticles having small ratio of metal-corediameter to organic-shell-thickness is desired for several applications in nanotechnology. We report here results of a X-ray scattering study carried out to understand structure and morphology of monolayer of such nanoparticles having gold-core and thiol-shell directly on the water surface before the monolayer undergoes a continuous transition to a bilayer. Our results demonstrate buckling of the monolayer over a large surface pressure range (1 to 15 mN/m). The buckled state exhibits reversibility on decompression and can be annealed with temperature. We also show that condensed monolayer films of nanoparticles can be formed by annealing the buckled monolayer before transferring to solid substrates.

We report the results of thermoelectric power ͑TEP͒ of a Cr doped La 0.5 Pb 0.5 Mn 1Ϫx Cr x O 3 (xϭ0 -0.45) system measured both in the presence and the absence of magnetic field (Bϭ1.5 T). The small field dependence of the Seebeck coefficient is observed around the metal-semiconductor transition ͑MST͒ temperature (T p ) of the samples. The field dependence of TEP is stronger in the undoped sample. It is noticed from the TEP data that the small polaron hopping conduction mechanism is valid for all these samples ͑for TϾT p ). The polaron radius r p is found to decrease with increase of magnetic field. Low-temperature ͑below T p ) fielddependent and field-independent TEP data can be fitted with SϭS 0 ϩS 3/2 T 3/2 ϩS 4 T 4 suggesting that the electron-magnon scattering strongly affects the low-temperature ͑ferromagnetic phase͒ TEP data of the manganites. Activation energy gradually increases with increasing Cr concentration both in the presence and the absence of magnetic field. Field-dependent thermopower also indicates the importance of spin fluctuations affecting the phonon scattering. Power factor (S 2 /) estimated from the Seebeck coefficient ͑S͒ and resistivity () ͑at zero and 1.5 T field͒ showed a minimum around the MST temperature similar to the field-dependent thermal conductivity data.