A Blotto Game with Incomplete Information

We consider a Blotto Game with Incomplete Information. A pure-strategy symmetric monotonic Bayesian equilibrium is found and its properties are discussed. Key words: Blotto Game, Imperfect Information. Journal of Economic Literature Classification: C72, D72.

Nicaragua: Without structural changes there´ll be no sustainable reduction of rural poverty

This is a contribution of the ENVIO-NITLAPAN. The author is member of the scientific council of the RCASAE, and he is a senior researcher of the CAU NITLAPAN.Poverty Reduction Strategies, Agriculture and Development, Food Security and Poverty, E24, E23, D43, D72,

Social information and bandwagon behaviour in voting: an economic experiment

We present an economic experiment on the impact of social information on voter behaviour and find strong support for bandwagon behaviour in voting decisions. In total, 418 subjects participated in the experiment. Bandwagon behaviour is found among both male and female subjects.C90, D72

SUSY-breaking Soft Terms in a MSSM Magnetized D7-brane Model

We compute the SUSY-breaking soft terms in a magnetized D7-brane model with MSSM-like spectrum, under the general assumption of non-vanishing auxiliary fields of the dilaton and Kahler moduli. As a particular scenario we discuss SUSY breaking triggered by ISD or IASD 3-form fluxes.Comment: Latex, 27 pages, v2: added reference

N=1 Type IIA brane configurations, Chirality and T-duality

We consider four-dimensional N=1 field theories realized by type IIA brane configurations of NS-branes and D4-branes, in the presence of orientifold six-planes and D6-branes. These configurations are known to present interesting effects associated to the appearance of chiral symmetries and chiral matter in the four-dimensional field theory. We center on models with one compact direction (elliptic models) and show that, under T-duality, the configurations are mapped to a set of type IIB D3-branes probing N=1 orientifolds of C^2/Z_N singularities. We explicitly construct these orientifolds, and show the field theories on the D3-brane probes indeed reproduces the field theories constructed using the IIA brane configurations. This T-duality map allows to understand the type IIB realization of several exotic brane dynamics effects on the type IIA side: Flavour doubling, the splitting of D6-branes and O6-planes in crossing a NS-brane and the effect of a non-zero type IIA cosmological constant turn out to have surprisingly standard type IIB counterparts.Comment: 39 pages, Latex, 7 eps figures. References adde

Should We Expect Government Policy to Be Pareto Efficient?: The Consequences of an Arrow-Debreu Economy with Violable Property Rights

To address the question, "Should we expect government policy to be efficient?" at its roots, I modify the well-known Arrow-Debreu private ownership economy, allowing property rights to be violable. The result is that equilibria tend to be Pareto inefficient.Pareto efficiency, property rights, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, D72, D78,

Political Business Cycles in Local Employment

Using employment data for municipalities, we find strong evidence of political business cycles. Employment increases shortly before elections mainly in municipalities where the mayor´s party has a majority of deputies in the municipal assembly and where she is running for reelection. Classification-JEL: D72, H7.Political business cycles, local governments, employment, Portugal.

Two-Field Quintom Models in the w-w' Plane

The w-w' plane, defined by the equation of state parameter for the dark energy and its derivative with respect to the logarithm of the scale factor, is useful to the study of classifying the dynamical dark energy models. In this note, we examine the evolving behavior of the two-field quintom models with w crossing the w=-1 barrier in the w-w' plane. We find that these models can be divided into two categories, type A quintom in which w changes from >-1 to <-1 and type B quintom in which w changes from -1 as the universe expands.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX, Accepted for publication as a Brief Report in Physical Review

Mutagenic and Spectroscopic Investigation of pH Dependent CooA DNA Binding

The carbon monoxide (CO) sensing heme protein, CooA, is a transcription factor which exists in several bacteria that utilize CO as an energy source. CooA positively regulates the expression of coo genes in the presence of CO such that the corresponding proteins may metabolize CO. The present studies have yielded the unexpected result that Fe(III) CooA binds DNA tightly at pH \u3c 7, deviating from all previously reported work which indicate that CooA DNA binding is initiated only when the exogenous CO effector reacts with the Fe(II) CooA heme. This observation suggests that the disruption of one or more salt bridges upon effector binding may be a critical feature of the normal CooA activation mechanism. To test this possibility, several protein variants that eliminated a selected salt bridge for the CooA homolog from Rhodospirillum rubrum were prepared via site-directed mutagenesis. Samples of these variant proteins, which were overexpressed in Escherichia coli, were then characterized by spectroscopic methods and functional assays to investigate the impact these mutations had on CooA heme coordination structure and DNA-binding activity. Results of this work are presented in light of the accepted CooA activation mechanism