How Conservative Does the Central Banker Have to Be? On the Treatment of Expectations under Discretionary Policymaking

This paper explores an issue that arises in the delegation process. The paper shows that a myopic central banker, one who treats expectations as constant in setting discretionary policy, can replicate the behavior of output and inflation under policy from a timeless perspective. For that to happen, society must delegate a price level target or a speed limit policy to a central banker who is more weight-conservative than society.New Keynesian Model; Price Level Targeting; Speed Limit Policy; Conservative Central Banker

On discretion versus commitment and the role of the direct exchange rate channel in a forward-looking open economy model

Irrespective of whether discretion or commitment to a binding rule guides the conduct of monetary policy, the existence of a direct exchange rate channel in the Phillips Curve causes the behavior of the key economic variables in the open economy to be dramatically different from that in the closed economy. In the open economy, the policymaker can no longer perfectly stabilize real output and the rate of inflation in the face of IS and UIP shocks as well as shocks to foreign inflation. If the exchange rate channel in the Phillips Curve is operative, then in the open economy the policymaker faces an output-inflation tradeoff that differs substantially from its counterpart in the closed economy. ; Our analysis of the conduct of monetary policy reveals that the stabilization bias under discretion is weaker in the open economy relative to the closed economy. In the open economy, a “less conservative central banker”, one that attaches a smaller weight to the variance of inflation in the loss function, can be appointed to replicate the behavior of real output that eventuates under optimal policy. Evaluating the social loss function under discretion and commitment, we find that the existence of a direct exchange rate channel in the Phillips Curve mitigates the pronounced differences between the two strategies that exist in case of high persistence in the stochastic shocks.Monetary policy ; Foreign exchange rates ; Econometric models

Mycoplasma Pneumoniae infections in the Maltese Islands

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a free living micro-organism which is classified in the family Mycoplasmataceae. It is primarily a human respiratory pathogen and the infection may vary from a mild pharyngitis to a pneumonia. M. pneumoniae infections are usually endemic in the community but periodic epidemics can also occur. These micro-organisms are sensitive to specific antibiotics such as tetracycline and erythromycin and a laboratory diagnosis using rapid methods is therefore important. Studies were carried out at the Virology Laboratory, St. Luke’s Hospital involving 1,022 cases during the period 1995 to 1998. These were examined for specific anti-mycoplasmal IgM antibodies using an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) technique. One hundred and forty samples or 13.7% were found to be reactive. Compared to the traditional cultural methods, EIA techniques are very rapid laboratory diagnostic methods, the result being communicated to the clinician within a few hours. The differential diagnosis of the particular case can thus be resolved quickly and appropriate antibiotic therapy instituted without much delay for the maximum benefit to the patient.peer-reviewe

Seroprevalence of Hepatitis A in Maltese adults

The objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) within the adult population of Malta. Serum from blood coincidentally taken for non-acute investigations in patients aged 20 - 85 visiting St. Luke’s Hospital over a three month period in 1996 (n = 320) was retrieved and tested for anti-HAV antibodies by Enzyme Immunoassay. The results obtained from these tests showed seroprevalence levels of anti-HAV antibody. Maltese adults fall into a pattern normally associated with low to intermediate prevalence countries.peer-reviewe

The Implementation of Monetary Policy in New Zealand: What Factors Affect the 90-Day Bank Bill Rate?

This paper discusses the implementation of monetary policy in New Zealand and its flow-on effects on the 90-day bank bill rate over the 1999-2005 period. The effects of external factors are considered as well. Our findings indicate that the maturity spectrum ratio exerted a positive effect on the 90-day rate while the allotment ratio did not. This interest rate had a tendency to revert to the level set by its Australian counterpart. No such link exists between the NZ 90-day rate and the US 90-day rate. Neither the maturity spectrum nor the allotment ratio contributed to the volatility of the New Zealand 90-day rate.90-Day Bank Bill Rate; Open-Market Operations; Allotment Ratio; Maturity Spectrum Ratio; Foreign Interest Rate Linkage

Is There an Exchange Rate Channel in the Forward-Looking Phillips Curve? A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

This paper shows how the exchange rate affects the price-setting behavior of monopolistically competitive firms in the sticky price framework that gives rise to a forward-looking Phillips Curve at the aggregate level. The open economy Phillips Curve differs from its closed economy counterpart in that the real exchange rate exerts a direct effect on domestic inflation. The exchange rate channel in the Phillips Curve is pivotal in determining the optimal policy setting in an open economy. On balance, we find only scant empirical evidence for the existence of a direct exchange rate channel in the Phillips Curve in a sample of six OECD countries. Indeed, the forward-looking Phillips Curve does not receive much backing from the data. The use of highly aggregated data may account for the poor fit.Open economy Phillips Curve; Exchange rate channel; Output gap

Reconciling Graphs and Sets of Sets

We explore a generalization of set reconciliation, where the goal is to reconcile sets of sets. Alice and Bob each have a parent set consisting of $s$ child sets, each containing at most $h$ elements from a universe of size $u$. They want to reconcile their sets of sets in a scenario where the total number of differences between all of their child sets (under the minimum difference matching between their child sets) is $d$. We give several algorithms for this problem, and discuss applications to reconciliation problems on graphs, databases, and collections of documents. We specifically focus on graph reconciliation, providing protocols based on set of sets reconciliation for random graphs from $G(n,p)$ and for forests of rooted trees

Hepatitis B prevalence in two Maltese sub-populations

Hepatitis B surface antigen was measured by enzyme immunoassay in a random sample of 1258 healthy pregnant women attending the ante-natal clinics of St. Luke’s Hospital, Malta and Gozo General Hospital, Gozo, and 364 intravenous drug users attending the detoxification centre, SLH. Eight of the pregnant women and ten of the drug addicts were positive for the surface antigen, accounting for a prevalence of 6/1000 and 30/1000 for each cohort, respectively. This would be consistent with low/intermediate prevalence rate in accordance with WHO criteria.peer-reviewe

A study of seroprevalence of rubella IgG in Maltese adolescents

The objective of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of rubella IgG antibodies in Maltese adolescents, through a cross-sectional study, with mailed questionnaire and blood sampling. The subjects tested were 172 individuals, aged 14-15 years from Malta and Gozo for the prevalence of vaccination and seropositivity (IgG) for rubella. The results of the 85% individuals vaccinated seropositivity was detected in 168 youths (97.7%). The study showed a high level of detectable humoral immunity to rubella but this could not be definitively attributed to vaccination alone.peer-reviewe