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Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to engage the ecological model as a conceptual tool to examine the ethics of conducting research on LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace. In particular, it focuses on outness and the act of outing in research.


Design/methodology/approach
Established methodologies for studying LGBTQ+ persons in the workplace are examined using a critical outness lens. The ecological model is used to identify a critical path forward for researchers working with LGBTQ+ participants and to improve LGBTQ+ workplace experiences more broadly.


Findings
The tension between the ethics of coming out of the closet and the ethics of outing someone for the greater good is problematized. It suggests that organizational and diversity scholars approach research methods with an understanding of the role played by the body and sexuality in LGBTQ+ workplace research.


Practical implications
Researchers should recognize that workers may have varying degrees of outness within their organization and/or across their private and public lives.


Originality/value
Research on LGBTQ+ persons in the workplace is limited, and research examining the ethics of relevant methods is scarcer still. This paper begins a discussion on how researchers can trouble current hegemonic approaches to LGBTQ+-centered research in organizations.

This paper examines asymmetries in the dynamic relationship between foreign exchange fluctuations and stock market volatility in Pacific basin countries. The methodology is based on a dynamic covariance modelling that accounts for leverage effects and the asymmetric impact of currency fluctuations. There is evidence that appreciations are more conducive to lower volatility in currency markets than depreciations of equal magnitude. Market volatility tends to be ceteris paribus, more sensitive to bad news about equity than good news and more responsive to currency depreciations than appreciations. The results also suggest that bad news about equity accompanied with currency depreciations are likely to generate higher volatility in currency markets and have the potential of affecting the significance of leverage effects in stock markets.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between export performance and firm size.Design/methodology/approachAnalysing a large sample of firms in the Vietnamese manufacturing sector, the authors employ a quantile regression approach to asses whether or not the relationship between exporting and firm size is dependent upon the extent of exporting that firms already undertake.FindingsThe authors find that increased firm size leads to higher export volumes. However, in sharp contrast to literature that largely focuses on considering a linear relationship between these two variables, the authors further find that the positive relationship becomes weaker as the extent of exporting activity increases.Originality/valueIn contrast to the earlier literature, a key novelty of the approach is that the authors obtain new insights in terms of establishing a nonlinear relationship between firm size and export performance in the case of Vietnamese manufacturing.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to consider whether or not the introduction of inflation targeting (IT) impacts on the mean-reversion properties of inflation and output growth.Design/methodology/approachFocusing on eight Asian countries of which four are inflation-targeters, the authors employ a two-state Markov-switching model which characterizes the behavior of inflation and output growth as regime-dependent based on periods of stationarity or non-stationarity.FindingsIn contrast to a literature that offers mixed findings, the authors find the presence of stationary inflation and output growth in one regime for all IT countries, except for South Korea which is characterized by stationary output growth in both regimes. In the cases of South Korea and Thailand, IT reduces the probability of inflation remaining in a non-stationary regime. IT increases the probability of South Korea remaining in a regime of low persistence output growth. While IT is important in understanding behavior, so are other considerations such as exchange rate volatility, as well as the Asian and global financial crises.Originality/valueIn contrast to other unit root tests of inflation and output growth, a novelty of the approach is that the authors obtain new insights in terms of two concepts of stationarity that allow for inflation and output growth to switch between stationary and non-stationary regimes (partial stationarity), or between stationary regimes of differing degrees of persistence (varied stationarity).

Applying a stochastic production frontier we examine the extent to which industrial countries' R&D contributes to East Asian economies' total factor productivity (TFP) growth in manufacturing sectors, via foreign trade as the channel for technological spillovers, based on a sample of nine manufacturing sectors for eight East Asian economies from 1973 to 1998. Our findings provide evidence that foreign R&D spillovers through imports are the main determinant of these economies' TFP growth, with output elasticity standing at an average of 0.09, consistent with many earlier studies. Both technological progress and efficiency gains are found to be key factors for sustainable economic growth in this region.

This study examines the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), institutional quality and human development) in host countries from 2002 to 2019, using the Human Development Index [HDI] as the measure of human development. This study utilized a panel dataset of 143 countries, including both developed and developing economies, over a 17-year period. Additionally, the study employed a GMM (generalized method of moments) estimator to address unobservable heterogeneity and simultaneity. This study reveals a significant positive relationship between FDI and human development, with a stronger effect observed in developing countries compared to in developed countries. Notably, the impact of FDI-HDI nexus is larger in countries with moderately high-quality institutions, irrespective of their income level. Furthermore, good governance plays a crucial role in enhancing human development, as developing economies with high governance quality experience a greater impact of FDI on HDI compared to other countries. The findings of this study suggest that attracting FDI can be beneficial for enhancing the HDI, especially in developing countries. Additionally, the study highlights governance as a moderating factor in the relationship between FDI and HDI. Improving governance quality can enhance the positive impact of FDI on human development in host countries, especially in developing countries.

$\textit{Staphylococcus aureus}$ carriers are at higher risk of $\textit{S. aureus}$ infection and are a reservoir for transmission to others. Detection of nasal $\textit{S. aureus}$ carriage is important for both targeted decolonization and epidemiological studies. Self-administered nasal swabbing has been reported previously, but the effects of posting swabs prior to culture on $\textit{S. aureus}$ yield have not been investigated. A longitudinal cohort study was performed in which healthy volunteers were recruited, trained in the swabbing procedure and asked to take weekly nasal swabs for 6 weeks (median: 3 weeks, range 1-6 weeks). Two swabs were taken at each sampling episode and randomly assigned for immediate processing on arrival to the laboratory (Swab A) or second class postage prior to processing (Swab B). $\textit{S. aureus}$ was isolated using standard methods. A total of 95 participants were recruited, who took 944 swabs (472 pairs) over a median of 5 weeks. Of these, 459 swabs were positive for $\textit{S. aureus}$. We found no significant difference (P=0.25) between 472 pairs of nasal self-swabs processed immediately or following standard postage from 95 study participants (51.4 % vs. 48.6 %, respectively). We also provide further evidence that persistent carriers can be detected by two weekly swabs with high degrees of sensitivity [92.3 % (95 % CI 74.8-98.8 %)] and specificity [95.6 % (95 % CI 84.8-99.3 %)] compared with a gold standard of five weekly swabs. Self-swabbing and postage of nasal swabs prior to processing has no effect on yield of $\textit{S. aureus}$, and could facilitate large community-based carriage studies. ; This work was supported by UKCRC Translational Infection Research (TIR) Initiative and the Medical Research Council (Grant Number G1000803) with contributions to the Grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research on behalf of the Department of Health, and the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorate and by a Medical Research Council Partnership grant (G1001787/1) held between the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge (M. A. H.), the School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge (S. J. P.), the Moredun Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Reducing postdischarge Medicare expenditures is a key focus for hospitals. Early follow-up care is an important piece of this focus, but it is unclear whether there are rural–urban differences in the impact of follow-up care on Medicare expenditures. To assess this difference, we use the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, Cost and Use Files, 2000-2010. We conduct a retrospective analysis of 30-day postdischarge Medicare expenditures using two-stage residual inclusion with a quantile regression, where the receipt of 7-day follow-up care was the main independent variable. Postdischarge follow-up care increased the 25th percentile of 30-day expenditures, decreased the 75th percentile, and there were no rural–urban differences. Partial effects show postdischarge follow-up care resulted in higher 30-day expenditures among low-cost rural beneficiaries. Ensuring early follow-up care for high-cost beneficiaries may be advantageous to both rural and urban providers in helping reduce postdischarge Medicare expenditures.

This work was supported by UKCRC Translational Infection Research (TIR) Initiative, and the Medical Research Council (Grant Number G1000803) with contributions to the Grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research on behalf of the Department of Health, and the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorate and by a Medical Research Council Partnership grant (G1001787/1) held between the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge (M.A.H.), the School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge (S.J.P.), the Moredun Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. ; This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Oxford University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkv317