This paper develops and empirically implements an arbitrage-free, dynamic term structure model with "priced" factor and regime-shift risks. The risk factors are assumed to follow a discrete-time Gaussian process, and regime shifts are governed by a discrete-time Markov process with state-dependent transition probabilities. This model gives closed-form solutions for zero-coupon bond prices and an analytic representation of the likelihood function for bond yields. Using monthly data on U.S. Treasury zero-coupon bond yields, we document notable differences in the behaviours of the market prices of factor risk across high and low volatility regimes. Additionally, the state-dependence of the regime-switching probabilities is shown to capture an interesting asymmetry in the cyclical behaviour of interest rates. The shapes of the term structures of bond yield volatilities are also very different across regimes, with the well-known hump in volatility being largely a low-volatility regime phenomenon.

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We study the number of connected spanning subgraphs f d,b (n) on the generalized Sierpinski gasket SG d,b (n) at stage n with dimension d equal to two, three and four for b = 2, and layer b equal to three and four for d = 2. The upper and lower bounds for the asymptotic growth constant, defined as z SG d,b = lim v→∞ ln f d,b (n)/v where v is the number of vertices, on SG 2,b (n) with b = 2, 3, 4 are derived in terms of the results at a certain stage. The numerical values of z SG d,bare obtained.

Although business strategy plays a fundamental role in firm operations, whether and how business strategy affects firms' environmental protection behaviors remain unclear. On the basis of a typical emerging market, we show that firms following prospector strategies take more environmental protection actions than do those following defender strategies. Our findings are robust to endogeneity checks and alternative measures of business strategy. We further find that prospectors engage in more environmental activities than do defenders when the degree of financial constraint or earning management is high. Our results are particularly pronounced in state-owned enterprises, heavy-polluting industries, and firms located in regions with strict environmental regulations. Overall, this study provides clear policy implications for regulators concerned with environmental protection.

The foremost broadly utilized strategy for the valuation of the overall performance of a set of identical decision-making units (DMUs) that use analogous sources to yield related outputs is data envelopment analysis (DEA). However, the witnessed values of the symmetry or asymmetry of different types of information in real-world applications are sometimes inaccurate, ambiguous, inadequate, and inconsistent, so overlooking these conditions may lead to erroneous decision-making. Neutrosophic set theory can handle these occasions of data and makes an imitation of the decision-making procedure with the aid of thinking about all perspectives of the decision. In this paper, we introduce a model of DEA in the context of neutrosophic sets and sketch an innovative process to solve it. Furthermore, we deal with the problem of healthcare system evaluation with inconsistent, indeterminate, and incomplete information using the new model. The triangular single-valued neutrosophic numbers are also employed to deal with the mentioned data, and the proposed method is utilized in the assessment of 13 hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences of Iran. The results exhibit the usefulness of the suggested approach and point out that the model has practical outcomes for decision-makers.