Trinity Restoration Inc.: Southside Cultural Center Economic Impact Study

Economic development has shifted from location-oriented business models towards a more all-encompassing model that recognizes the advancement of human capital or intellectual property as continuously increasing in value. This microcosmic characteristic of development extends to aid in the growth of society as a whole. The Arts and Culture attract a demographic of inspired and motivated people to the area. It results in the development of the society surrounding art venues. The general population will always seek out entertainment, by installing a venue of artistic expression in South Providence that will motivate the community and propel development. This phenomena has been proven, as denoted through the historical evaluation of artistic venues across America that have generated economic growth in their respective communities

Using genetic algorithms to model the evolution of heterogeneous beliefs

Genetic algorithms have been used by economists to model the process by which a population of heterogeneous agents learn how to optimize a given objective. However, most general equilibrium models in use today presume that agents already know how to optimize. If agents face any uncertainty, it is typically with regard to their expectations about the future. In this paper, we show how a genetic algorithm can be used to model the process by which a population of agents with heterogeneous beliefs learns how to form rational expectation forecasts. We retain the assumption that agents optimally solve their maximization problem at each date given their beliefs at each date. Agents initially lack the ability to form rational expectations forecasts and have, instead, heterogeneous beliefs about the future. Using a genetic algorithm to model the evolution of these beliefs, we find that our population of artificial adaptive agents eventually coordinates their beliefs so as to achieve a rational expectations equilibrium of the model. We also report the results of a number of computational experiments that were performed using our genetic algorithm model.Econometrics ; Time-series analysis

Inflation and Price Setting in a Natural Experiment

We analyze the behaviour of prices using a large disaggregated data set for Poland during transition from a planned to a market economy. The size of price changes and the frequency of adjustment both fall as the inflation rate declines. Price setters follow a mixture of state- and time-contingent policies. We find that price setters are forward-looking. Intermarket price variability increases with inflation and the effect of expected inflation is much stronger than the effect of unexpected inflation. So the bottom line is this: it takes sellers of sausage, eggs, toothpaste, vacuum cleaners, car-wash operators etc. just a few years to figure out how to adjust prices in a market environment. Our results support both the menu cost, and the rational expectations, hypotheses.

Faculty and staff newsletter.

Holiday closure -- Sitka holiday -- Glory Hole donations -- Soundings goes electronic -- Ohler’s latest book -- Staff Alliance -- Employee Nov. anniversaries -- Employee Dec. anniversaries -- FY04 Initiatives -- Students volunteering -- Student leaders -- Juneau campus -- Faculty -- Scholarships available -- $4 million donation to UA Foundation -- Regents -- Juneau Calenda

An Evolutionary Theory of Inflation Inertia

We provide a simple theory of inflation inertia in a staggered price setting framework a la Calvo (1983). Contrary to Calvo's formulation, the frequency of price changes is allowed to vary according to an evolutionary criterion. Inertia is the direct result of gradual adjustment in this frequency following a permanent change in the rate of money growth.Inflation inertia, evolutionary game theory, staggered price setting,

An Alternative Approach to the Existence of Sunspot Equilibria

This paper offers an alternative approach to the existence of sunspot equilibria. The economy has a single perishable good and fiat money within an overlapping generations framework with two possible extraneous events. The analysis uses the dynamic adjustment of market prices during voluntary trade to establish paths of current spot prices whose limit points are rational expectations equilibria. The paper shows that there is a sub-set of paths whose limit points are self-fulfilling if they are perfectly correlated with extraneous events. It is this sub-set that constitutes sunspot equilibria. Two implications of this approach follow: (a) the likelihood of this existence is generally low; and (b) adding an asset (or a commodity) to the economy invalidates the demonstration of existence.Sunspot equilibria, extrinsic uncertainty, dynamic stability

An index for dynamic product promotion and the knapsack problem for perishable items

This paper introduces the knapsack problem for perishable items (KPPI), which concerns the optimal dynamic allocation of a limited promotion space to a collection of perishable items. Such a problem is motivated by applications in a variety of industries, where products have an associated lifetime after which they cannot be sold. The paper builds on recent developments on restless bandit indexation and gives an optimal marginal productivity index policy for the dynamic (single) product promotion problem with closed-form indices that yield estructural insights. The performance of the proposed policy for KPPI is investigated in a computational study.Dynamic promotion, Perishable items, Index policies, Knapsack problem, Festless bandits, Finite horizon, Marginal productivity index

The Crescent Student Newspaper, October 28, 2009

Student newspaper of George Fox University.https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/the_crescent/2327/thumbnail.jp

Sharing economy vs sharing cultures? Designing for social, economic and environmental good

This paper explores the story behind a crowdfunding service as an example of sharing technology. Research in a small neighborhood of London showed how locally-developed initiatives can differ in tone, scale, ambition and practice to those getting attention in the so-called sharing economy. In local accounts, we see an emphasis on organizing together to create shared spaces for collaborative use of resources and joint ownership of projects and places. Whereas, many global business models feature significant elements of renting, leasing and hiring and focus only on resource management, sometimes at the expense of community growth. The service we discuss is based in the area we studied and has a collective model of sharing, but hopes to be part of the new global movement. We use this hybridity to problematize issues of culture, place and scalability in developing sharing resources and addressing sustainability concerns. We relate this to the motivation, rhetoric and design choices of other local sharing enterprises and other global sharing economy initiatives, arguing, in conclusion, that there is no sharing economy, but a variety of new cultures being fostered