Regional Convergence Clusters Across Europe

Per capita incomes across European regions are not equal and do not stay constant; regional income distributions fluctuate over time. Such a process could have many possible limiting outcomes: complete equality (convergence), stratification, and continually increasing inequality are but three distinct possibilities. This paper asks if nation-state, macro factors and physical-geography spillover effects help explain the observed distribution dynamics across European regions. Geographical factors are found to matter more than national ones; but both are important for explaining inequality dynamics.

Predictions and Observations in Theories with Varying Couplings

We consider a toy universe containing conventional matter and an additional real scalar field, and discuss how the requirements of gauge and diffeomorphism invariance essentially single out a particular set of theories which might describe such a world at low energies. In these theories, fermion masses and g-factors, as well as the electromagnetic coupling turn to be scalar field dependent; fermion charges and the gravitational coupling might be assumed to be constant. We then proceed to study the impact of a time variation of the scalar field on measurements of atomic spectra at high redshifts. Light propagation is not affected by a sufficiently slow change of the fine structure constant, but changes of the latter as well as variations of fermion masses and g-factors do affect the observed atomic spectra. Finally, we prove the independence of these predictions on the chosen conformal frame, in a further attempt to address differing views about the subject expressed in the literature.Comment: 19 pages, no figures; uses RevTeX

The effect of certain organic compounds on the time of set of silicic acid gels

When a sodium silicate solution and an acid are mixed, a gel is sooner or later formed. The spped of gelation is a variable, and it depends on a number of factors, of which there are four fundamental ones. There are as follows: (1) The concentration of water glass (2) The concentration of acid (3) Agitation (4) Temperature. In this investigation of time of set, these four elements were kept as constant as possible. There is a fifth factor of real importance. This is one that has to do with the addition of some impurity. Of course if the impurity added is acid or base, numbers (1) and (2) above enter in. The question arises, is it entirely due to neutralization of the acid, when for example, CH3NH3OH is the foreign matter added? In the first part of this work, the effect of CH3COOC2H5 and its products of hydrolosis was studied. This was followed by a more interesting group of compounds

Does Relative Income Matter?: Are the Critics Right?

Do other peoples' incomes reduce the happiness which people in advanced countries experience from any given income? And does this help to explain why in the U.S., Germany and some other advanced countries, happiness has been constant for many decades? The answer to both questions is "Yes". We provide 4 main pieces of evidence. 1) In the U.S. General Survey (repeated samples since 1972) comparator income has a negative effect on happiness equal in magnitude to the positive effect of own income. 2) In the West German Socio-Economic Panel since 1984 the same istrue but with life satisfaction as the dependant variable. We also use the Panel to compare the effect of income comparisons and of adaptation as factors explaining the stable level of life-satisfaction: income comparisons emerge as much the more important. 3) When in our U.S. analysis we introduce "perceived" relative income as a potential explanatory variable, its effect is as large as the effect of actual relative income - further supporting the view that comparisons matter. 4) Finally, for a panel of European countries since 1973 we estimate the effect of average income upon average lifesatisfaction, splitting income into two components: trend and cycle. The effect of trend income is small and illdefined. Our conclusions relate to time series and to advanced countries only. They differ from those drawn in recent studies by Deaton and Stevenson/Wolfers, but those studies are largely cross-sectional and mostly include non-advanced as well as advanced countries.Easterlin Paradox, happiness, relative income, growth

Does Relative Income Matter? Are the Critics Right?

Do other peoples' incomes reduce the happiness which people in advanced countries experience from any given income? And does this help to explain why in the U.S., Germany and some other advanced countries, happiness has been constant for many decades? The answer to both questions is 'Yes'. We provide 4 main pieces of evidence. 1) In the U.S. General Survey (repeated samples since 1972) comparator income has a negative effect on happiness equal in magnitude to the positive effect of own income. 2) In the West German Socio-Economic Panel since 1984 the same is true but with lifesatisfaction as the dependant variable. We also use the Panel to compare the effect of income comparisons and of adaptation as factors explaining the stable level of life-satisfaction: income comparisons emerge as much the more important. 3) When in our U.S. analysis we introduce "perceived" relative income as a potential explanatory variable, its effect is as large as the effect of actual relative income - further supporting the view that comparisons matter. 4) Finally, for a panel of European countries since 1973 we estimate the effect of average income upon average lifesatisfaction, splitting income into two components: trend and cycle. The effect of trend income is small and ill-defined. Our conclusions relate to time series and to advanced countries only. They differ from those drawn in recent studies by Deaton and Stevenson/Wolfers, but those studies are largely cross-sectional and mostly include non-advanced as well as advanced countries.Easterlin Paradox, happiness, relative income, growth

This Morning's Breakfast, Last Night's Game: Detecting Extraneous Factors in Judging

I detect intra-judge variation in judicial decisions driven by factors completely unrelated 5 to the merits of the case, or to any case characteristic for that matter. Concretely, I show that asylum 6 grant rates in U.S. immigration courts differ by the success of the court city’s NFL team on the night 7 before, and by the city’s weather on the day of, the decision. My data including half a million decisions 8 spanning two decades allows me to exclude confounding factors, such as scheduling and seasonal effects. 9 Most importantly, my design holds the identity of the judge constant. On average, U.S. immigration 10 judges grant an additional 1.5% of asylum petitions on the day after their city’s NFL team won, relative 11 to days after the team lost. Bad weather on the day of the decision has approximately the opposite effect. 12 By way of comparison, the average grant rate is 39%. In contrast, I do not find comparable effects in 13 sentencing decisions of U.S. District Courts, and speculate that this may be due to higher quality of the 14 federal judges, more time for deliberation, or the constraining effect of the federal sentencing guidelines

Mood and the Malleability of Moral Reasoning

I detect intra-judge variation in judicial decisions driven by factors completely unrelated 5 to the merits of the case, or to any case characteristic for that matter. Concretely, I show that asylum 6 grant rates in U.S. immigration courts differ by the success of the court city’s NFL team on the night 7 before, and by the city’s weather on the day of, the decision. My data including half a million decisions 8 spanning two decades allows me to exclude confounding factors, such as scheduling and seasonal effects. 9 Most importantly, my design holds the identity of the judge constant. On average, U.S. immigration 10 judges grant an additional 1.5% of asylum petitions on the day after their city’s NFL team won, relative 11 to days after the team lost. Bad weather on the day of the decision has approximately the opposite effect. 12 By way of comparison, the average grant rate is 39%. In contrast, I do not find comparable effects in 13 sentencing decisions of U.S. District Courts, and speculate that this may be due to higher quality of the 14 federal judges, more time for deliberation, or the constraining effect of the federal sentencing guidelines

Towards More Realistic Estimates of DOM Decay in Streams: Incubation Methods, Light, and Non-Additive Effects

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is the largest pool of organic matter in aquatic ecosystems and is a primary substrate for microbial respiration in streams. However, understanding the controls on DOM processing by microbes remains limited, and DOM decay rates remain largely unconstrained. Many DOM decay rates are quantified with bioassays in dark bottles, which may underestimate DOM decay in streams because these bioassays do not include a benthic zone and do not account for abiotic factors of DOM loss, such as photodegradation and volatilization. We measured decay of labile and semi-labile DOM over 3 d in experimental streams and bottle bioassays. Incubations included 3 types of labile DOM (algal, light-degraded soil, and light-degraded plant leachates) and 2 types of semi-labile DOM (plant and soil leachates). We also quantified decay rates when labile and semi-labile DOM were mixed to test for non-additive effects, or priming, of semi-labile DOM by labile DOM. We converted dissolved organic carbon (DOC) decay rates to half-lives and uptake velocities and compared these metrics to previous studies that quantified DOC loss in bioassays or real streams. Percent DOC lost over time, or biodegradable DOC, was greater in experimental streams than in bioassays. DOC decay rates and uptake velocities did not differ between bioassays and experimental streams but were lower than in real streams. Mixing of labile and semi-labile DOM resulted in both positive and negative non-additive effects. Consistent non-additive effects were difficult to quantify because decay rates were not constant over the course of each incubation, as shown by faster decay rates calculated over the first 6 h of incubation compared to \u3e70 h. Decay rates of leachates from natural substrates (e.g., algae and soil) incubated over short periods of time (hours–days) are needed for models that aim to quantify organic matter transformation in aquatic ecosystems with short residence times, such as rivers and streams

K-mouflage Cosmology: Formation of Large-Scale Structures

We study structure formation in K-mouflage cosmology whose main feature is the absence of screening effect on quasilinear scales. We show that the growth of structure at the linear level is affected by both a new time dependent Newton constant and a friction term which depend on the background evolution. These combine with the modified background evolution to change the growth rate by up to ten percent since $z\sim 2$. At the one loop level, we find that the nonlinearities of the K-mouflage models are mostly due to the matter dynamics and that the scalar perturbations can be treated at tree level. We also study the spherical collapse in K-mouflage models and show that the critical density contrast deviates from its $\Lambda$-CDM value and that, as a result, the halo mass function is modified for large masses by an order one factor. Finally we consider the deviation of the matter spectrum from $\Lambda$-CDM on nonlinear scales where a halo model is utilized. We find that the discrepancy peaks around $1\ h{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ with a relative difference which can reach fifty percent. Importantly, these features are still true at larger redshifts, contrary to models of the chameleon-$f(R)$ and Galileon types.Comment: 24 page