Price Expectations, Foreign Exchange and Interest Rates, and Demand for Money in an Open Economy

Traditional studies on demand for money have often ignored influence of foreign monetary developments. The literature on international capital mobility, on the other hand, focuses on the impact of adjustments in international reserves on domestic money supply with the implicit assumption that aggregate demand for money is inelastic with respect to foreign monetary developments such as changes in exchange and foreign interest rates. These two views have often led to the conclusion that domestic monetary policy is fairly ineffective, and domestic financial markets are highly vulnerable to changes in foreign monetary developments. In this paper, the formulation of a demand function for real cash balances generalizes the traditional demand functions for money which explicitly take into account changes in exchange rates, foreign interest rates, and inflationary expectations. The underlying theoretical model is a general portfolio mode of asset holding which specifies the channels through which the influence of monetary developments abroad are transmitted to the supply and demand for money in a particular country. The demand function for real cash balances derived from this model is estimated using the tile series data for the period 1960-75 for Canada, United States, United Kingdom, and Germany. The results indicate that foreign monetary developments affect demand for money significantly, and considerable misspecification occurs when they are ignored. The results indicate that demand for real cash balances is not, as the traditional theory suggests, inelastic with respect to changes in foreign financial developments, and is fairly stable over the stressful period of 1970-75 when significant international monetary crises came in succession.

Trial and Heirs: Antemortem Probate for the Changing American Family

The notion of the traditional American family has changed due to complex family structures formed through remarriages, cohabitation, and same-sex couples. Freedom of disposition is a guiding principle of inheritance law, whereby society recognizes the value in protecting one’s ability to acquire and transfer personal property at death. However, intestacy statutes are antiquated and have failed to keep pace with the rise of the modern American family, thus leaving the right to freedom of disposition uncertain and vulnerable for a large population. A will is a way of opting out of intestacy, but given that a will is frequently the subject of litigation, there is no guarantee that a court will uphold an executed will. This presents a conflict in probate law because courts are unable to honor an individual’s intent. Antemortem probate is one solution to close the gap in inheritance law, preserve the commitment to testamentary freedom of disposition embedded in inheritance law, and protect a growing population of Americans in nontraditional families who turn to wills as a means of opting out of the intestacy rules. This note examines the changing dynamics of the American family and how inheritance law could benefit from an antemortem probate procedure, and it encourages the drafters of the Uniform Probate Code to adopt an antemortem probate statute

Cold Atomic Collisions: Coherent Control of Penning and Associative Ionization

Coherent Control techniques are computationally applied to cold (1mK < T < 1 K) and ultracold (T < 1 microK) Ne*(3s,3P2) + Ar(1S0) collisions. We show that by using various initial superpositions of the Ne*(3s,3P2) M = {-2,-1,0,1,2} Zeeman sub-levels it is possible to reduce the Penning Ionization (PI) and Associative Ionization (AI) cross sections by as much as four orders of magnitude. It is also possible to drastically change the ratio of these two processes. The results are based on combining, within the "Rotating Atom Approximation", empirical and ab-initio ionization-widths.Comment: 4 pages, 2 tables, 2 figure

BlogForever D5.1: Design and Specification of Case Studies

This document presents the specification and design of six case studies for testing the BlogForever platform implementation process. The report explains the data collection plan where users of the repository will provide usability feedback through questionnaires as well as details of scalability analysis through the creation of specific log files analytics. The case studies will investigate the sustainability of the platform, that it meets potential users’ needs and that is has an important long term impact

From sensorimotor dependencies to perceptual practices: making enactivism social

Proponents of enactivism should be interested in exploring what notion of action best captures the type of action-perception link that the view proposes, such that it covers all the aspects in which our doings constitute and are constituted by our perceiving. This article proposes and defends the thesis that the notion of sensorimotor dependencies is insufficient to account for the reality of human perception, and that the central enactive notion should be that of perceptual practices. Sensorimotor enactivism is insufficient because it has no traction on socially dependent perceptions, which are essential to the role and significance of perception in our lives. Since the social dimension is a central desideratum in a theory of human perception, enactivism needs a notion that accounts for such an aspect. This article sketches the main features of the Wittgenstein-inspired notion of perceptual practices as the central notion to understand perception. Perception, I claim, is properly understood as woven into a type of social practices that includes food, dance, dress, music, etc. More specifically, perceptual practices are the enactment of culturally structured, normatively rich techniques of commerce of meaningful multi- and inter-modal perceptible material. I argue that perceptual practices explain three central features of socially dependent perception: attentional focus, aspects’ saliency, and modal-specific harmony-like relations

Macro-prudential policies, moral hazard and financial fragility

This paper presents a DSGE model with banks that face moral hazard in management. Banks receive demand deposits and fund investment projects. Banks are subject to potential withdrawals by depositors which may force them into early liquidation of their investments. The likelihood of this happening depends on the bank management efforts to keep the bank financially sound and the degree of bank leverage. We study the properties of this model under different monetary and macro-prudential policy arrangements. Our model is able to replicate the pro-cyclicality of leverage, and provides insights on the interplay between bank leverage and bank management incentives as a result of monetary, productivity and financial shocks. We find that a combination of pro-cyclical capital requirements and a standard monetary policy are well suited to contain the effects on output and prices of a downturn, keeping the financial system in check. Yet, in an expansionary phase (i.e. a productivity shock) this policy combination may produce desirable results for some macro-variables but at the expense of a deterioration in other macro-financial indicators

Liquefaction Evaluations at the Savannah River Site. A Case History

Over the past decade, liquefaction assessments have been performed for many existing and planned critical facilities at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS). The assessments incorporated site-specific Cyclic Resistance Ratio (CRR) and Ks with the use of the cone penetration test (CPT). The SRS-specific CRR and Ks were developed from laboratory testing of carefully collected samples. Test results show SRS soils have increased liquefaction resistance of two to three times when compared to standard literature for Holocene-age deposits. This increase in strength can be attributed to many factors such as aging and overconsolidation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss liquefaction methodologies used at the SRS. Specifically, 1) use of the CPT and correlations of CPT-derived results with that of high-quality undisturbed samples; 2) aging; and 3) Ks vertical confining stress factor

Associations between physical fitness and adiposity among school-age children from Monteria, Colombia

Los niveles bajos de condición física se han asociado con adiposidad elevada. Ambas condiciones pueden predecir alteraciones cardiovasculares y metabólicas. El objetivo fue analizar la relación entre la condición física y los indicadores antropométricos de adiposidad. Estudio transversal, en 534 escolares de 6 a 12 años de edad del municipio de Montería. Se midió la condición cardiorrespiratoria (CCR), flexibilidad, fuerza explosiva de miembros inferiores (FEMI), fuerza resistencia abdominal (FRA), Índice de Masa Corporal (IMC), masa adiposa (PMA), y perímetro abdominal (PA). Las asociaciones entre adiposidad y la condición física se analizaron con modelos de regresión logística. Se encontró que el sobrepeso está asociado a baja CCR (ORa = 2,7, p<0,0001); el PA elevado está asociado a baja FRA (ORa = 2,2, p<0,02), y a baja CCR (ORa = 3,3, p<0,001); el PMA elevado está asociado a baja CCR (ORa = 2,7, p<0,0001). Conclusión, la condición física está asociada a la adiposidadLow physical fitness levels have been associated with elevated adiposity. Both conditions may predict cardiovascular and metabolic alterations. The objective was to analyze the associations between health-related physical fitness and adipose. A cross-sectional study in 534 school-age children aged 6-12 in Monteria, Colombia. Measurements included cardiorespiratory fitness (CCR), flexibility, explosive strength of lower limbs (FEMI), abdominal strength endurance (ASE), body mass index (BMI), percentage of adipose mass (PAM), and waist circumference (WC). The associations between adiposity and physical fitness were calculated by logistic regression models. Results indicate that overweight is associated with low CCR (aOR = 2.7, p<0.0001). Elevated PA was associated with low ASE (aOR = 2.2, p<0.02), and with low CCR (aOR = 3.3, p<0.001). Elevated PMA was associated with low CCR (aOR=2.7, p<0.0001). In conclusion, physical fitness is associated with adiposity

BlogForever D5.3: User Questionnaires and Reports

This report presents the feedback gathered from third party users during the BlogForever Case Studies. Therefore, the research framework is defined and the case studies results are presented, followed by a summary of conclusions and remarks