Exchange-Rate Dynamics

This paper discusses the dynamic behavior of exchange rates, focusing both on the exchange rate's response to exogenous shocks and the relation between exchange-rate movements and movements in important endogenous variables such as prices, interest rates, output, and the current account. Aspects of exchange-rate dynamics are studied in a variety of models, some of which are based on postulated supply and demand functions for assets and goods, and some of which are based on explicit individual utility-maximizing problems. Section 1 surveys the terrain. Section 2 explores the simplest model in which the relation among the exchange rate, price levels, and the terms of trade can be addressed -- a flexible-price small-country model in which wealth effects are absent and domestic and foreign goods are imperfect substitutes. Section 3 introduces market frictions so that the role of endogenous output fluctuations can be studied. Both sticky-price models and alternative market-friction models are discussed. Section 4 studies the link between the accumulation of foreign assets and domestic capital and the exchange rate.Section 5 examines deterministic and stochastic models in which individual behavior is derived from an explicit intertemporal optimization problem. Finally, section 6 offers concluding remarks.

SWITCH! Dynamic roles exchange among cooperative robots

In this article we propose a dynamic role exchange algorithm for mobile robots. The heuristics used to alternate among the different roles is based on utility functions. We have utilize the Sony Aibo ERS-7 for testing our design and implementation. The RoboCup 4-legged competition environment has been chosen for proving our wor

Consumption and cultural commodification : the case of the museum as commodity

Marketing theory has traditionally sought explanation of commodity consumption based upon psychological and economic assumptions of needs, utility and exchange value, a paradigm of understanding that is becoming increasingly problematic. An alternative perspective of commodity consumption is presented, drawing on contemporary social and cultural theory where the commodity form constitutes a cultural and social logic; a discourse of communication which consumers use to mediate and participate in daily life. Instead of defining commodities in terms of use value and economic value, the commodity is seen in terms of a specific subject-object relation experienced in late capitalism, manifest as sign value and sign exchange. Taking the case of the museum, a context that it increasingly applying the terminology of the market, consumer and commodity; a qualitative research project is undertaken to asses the credibility of the cultural theoretical approach. It is proposed that the museum functions as a site of commodification, presenting history and culture as a set of commodities for visitors consumption. Whilst sign value is a useful concept in explaining commodity consumption, it is suggested a clear distinction between use value, exchange value and sign value is unworkable in practice and that utility and exchange value can be most accurately represented as cultural conditions rather than economic ones. The study suggests that consumption should be conceptualised as a constructive, active and productive process which involves the consumer in a continual exchange, use and manipulation of signs. The role of marketing is thus most appropriately thought of as a facilitative capacity rather as a provisional or directive force that mediates consumption behaviour

Lo-Fi Matchmaking: A Study of Social Pairing for Backpackers

There is a new world emerging around mobile social networks and the technologies used to facilitate and mediate them. It is technically feasible for mobile social software such as pairing or matchmaking systems to introduce people to others and assist information exchange. However, little is known about the social structure of many mobile communities or why they would want pairing systems. When these systems are built, it is not clear what the social response by those communities will be or what the systems will be like to use in practice. While engaged in other work determining requirements for a mobile travel assistant we saw a potentially useful application for a pairing system to facilitate the exchange of travel information between backpackers. To explore this area, we designed two studies involving usage of a low-fidelity role prototype of a social pairing system for backpackers. Graphs of the resulting social pairings showed backpackers who were hubs in the network of travel information. It also demonstrated the effect of travel direction on information utility. Backpackers rated the utility of different pairing types, and provided feedback on the social implications of being paired based on travel histories. Practical usage of the social network pairing activity and the implications of broader societal usage are discussed

Stability and Distributed Power Control in MANETs with Outages and Retransmissions

In the current work the effects of hop-by-hop packet loss and retransmissions via ARQ protocols are investigated within a Mobile Ad-hoc NET-work (MANET). Errors occur due to outages and a success probability function is related to each link, which can be controlled by power and rate allocation. We first derive the expression for the network's capacity region, where the success function plays a critical role. Properties of the latter as well as the related maximum goodput function are presented and proved. A Network Utility Maximization problem (NUM) with stability constraints is further formulated which decomposes into (a) the input rate control problem and (b) the scheduling problem. Under certain assumptions problem (b) is relaxed to a weighted sum maximization problem with number of summants equal to the number of nodes. This further allows the formulation of a non-cooperative game where each node decides independently over its transmitting power through a chosen link. Use of supermodular game theory suggests a price based algorithm that converges to a power allocation satisfying the necessary optimality conditions of (b). Implementation issues are considered so that minimum information exchange between interfering nodes is required. Simulations illustrate that the suggested algorithm brings near optimal results.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, submitted to the IEEE Trans. on Communication

Power Dependence in Individual Bargaining: The Expected Utility of Influence

This study examines the impact of certain dimensions of dependence on the expected effectiveness of an influence attempt in a two-person bargaining situation. Assuming the role of employer, employee, or outside observer, 1,056 college students estimated the utility of an attempt by an employee to influence his employer with respect to a pay raise under various conditions of dependence. The results show that respondents attributed greatest utility to the attempt when the employee had many alternatives (other job possibilities) and valued highly the outcomes at issue (a pay raise) and when the employer had few alternatives (other workers) and ascribed low value to the outcomes. The authors find that the power-capability hypotheses derived from power-dependence theory are supported by the two outcome-alternative dimensions but not by the two outcome-value dimensions. The latter are found to support commitment hypotheses

Il turista della società post-moderna: la cultura del new life tourism Spazio, luogo e non luogo Turismo, paesaggio, spazi pubblici e rigenerazione urbana Tematismi e tematizzazione. Itinerari culturali e strade turistiche per una ricomposizione spaziale.

I materiali sono composti dalle prime tre presentazioni, i contributi dedicati al tema dell'autenticità, della diversa interpretazione di spazio, luogo e non luogo e degli itinerari culturali. Completano questo primo deposito di materiale didattico due approfondimenti sulla Consumer Culture Theory e Service Dominat Logic

Balanced trade reduction for dual-role exchange markets

We consider dual-role exchange markets, where traders can offer to both buy and sell the same commodity in the exchange but, if they transact, they can only be either a buyer or a seller, which is determined by the market mechanism. To design desirable mechanisms for such exchanges, we show that existing solutions may not be incentive compatible, and more importantly, cause the market maker to suffer a significant deficit. Hence, to combat this problem, following McAfee's trade reduction approach, we propose a new trade reduction mechanism, called balanced trade reduction, that is incentive compatible and also provides flexible trade-offs between efficiency and defici

A Multi-User, Single-Authentication Protocol for Smart Grid Architectures

open access articleIn a smart grid system, the utility server collects data from various smart grid devices. These data play an important role in the energy distribution and balancing between the energy providers and energy consumers. However, these data are prone to tampering attacks by an attacker, while traversing from the smart grid devices to the utility servers, which may result in energy disruption or imbalance. Thus, an authentication is mandatory to efficiently authenticate the devices and the utility servers and avoid tampering attacks. To this end, a group authentication algorithm is proposed for preserving demand–response security in a smart grid. The proposed mechanism also provides a fine-grained access control feature where the utility server can only access a limited number of smart grid devices. The initial authentication between the utility server and smart grid device in a group involves a single public key operation, while the subsequent authentications with the same device or other devices in the same group do not need a public key operation. This reduces the overall computation and communication overheads and takes less time to successfully establish a secret session key, which is used to exchange sensitive information over an unsecured wireless channel. The resilience of the proposed algorithm is tested against various attacks using formal and informal security analysis

FECES STANDARD MONEY: BEYOND TRANSACTIONS

Department of Urban and Environmental Engineering (Convergence of Science and Arts)Feces Standard Money (fSM), is a complementary currency that is different from other currencies in a number of ways. It is the first currency to adopt feces as its standard. In a world where objects and people are thought of as "goods and services," reality is compressed into conceptions of "use value" or "utility???. However, in the fSM system, feces and food waste that have traditionally and culturally been classified as ???human waste??? are used to produce biogas, creating value. Feces then becomes a representation of a new conception of value - one based on abundance instead of scarcity. This study aims to explore how the use of fSM can facilitate a redefinition of sustainable wealth. It begins by exploring neoclassical and modern theories of money and their relationship to the current state of money. It argues that economics??? failure to adequately account for the role of money as a basis of social relations contributes to the current unsustainable economic system. Building on the background and philosophical underpinnings of fSM, it postulates that money based on a feces standard might be a possible solution to developing a monetary system that can serve as the basis of social relations and facilitation of exchange as a means of instigating social change in attitudes towards global challenges like inequality and climate change. Social network analysis is used to investigate the social footprint of fSM in a game simulation of the fSM system. It is found that the mechanisms of fSM has the potential to imbue the network with tight knit connections -knots- that can contribute to a more inclusive monetary system.clos