Exchange Rates and Monetary Policy in Emerging Market Economies

This paper investigates the effects of exchange rate regimes and alternative monetary policy rules for an emerging market economy that is subject to a volatile external environment in the form of shocks to world interest rates and the terms of trade. In particular, we highlight the impact of financial frictions and the degree of exchange rate pass through in determining the relative performance of alternative regimes in stablizing the economy in the face of external shocks. Our results are quite sharp. When exchange rate pass-through is high, a policy of non-traded goods inflation targeting does best in stablizing the economy, and is better in welfare terms. When exchange rate pass-through is low, however, a policy of strict CPI inflation targeting is better. In all cases, a fixed exchange rate is undesirable. In addition, financial frictions have no implications for the ranking of alternative policy rules.

Differential Astrometry of Sub-arcsecond Scale Binaries at the Palomar Testbed Interferometer

We have used the Palomar Testbed Interferometer to perform very high precision differential astrometry on the 0.25 arcsecond separation binary star HD 171779. In 70 minutes of observation we achieve a measurement uncertainty of approximately 9 micro-arcseconds in one axis, consistent with theoretical expectations. Night-to-night repeatability over four nights is at the level of 16 micro-arcseconds. This method of very-narrow-angle astrometry may be extremely useful for searching for planets with masses as small as 0.5 Jupiter Masses around a previously neglected class of stars -- so-called ``speckle binaries.'' It will also provide measurements of stellar parameters such as masses and distances, useful for constraining stellar models at the 10^-3 level.Comment: 19 pages including 6 figures. Submitted to ApJ. Typos corrected, several parts reworded for clarificatio

Exchange Rates and Monetary Policy in Emerging Market Economies

This paper investigates the effects of exchange rate regimes and alternative monetary policy rules for an emerging market economy that is subject to a volatile external environment in the form of shocks to world interest rates and the terms of trade. In particular, we highlight the impact of financial frictions and the degree of exchange rate pass through in determining the relative performance of alternative regimes in stablizing the economy in the face of external shocks. Our results are quite sharp. When exchange rate pass-through is high, a policy of non-traded goods inflation targeting does best in stablizing the economy, and is better in welfare terms. When exchange rate pass-through is low, however, a policy of strict CPI inflation targeting is better. In all cases, a fixed exchange rate is undesirable. In addition, financial frictions have no implications for the ranking of alternative policy rules.

Lunar Surface Rovers

Many questions of lunar science remain unanswered because of a lack of specific data. With the potential for returning humans to the Moon and establishing a long-term presence there, a new realm of exploration is possible. Numerous plans have been outlined for orbital and surface missions. The capabilities and objectives of a small class of rovers to be deployed on the lunar surface are described. The objective of these small rovers is to collect detailed in situ information about the composition and distribution of materials on the lunar surface. Those data, in turn, would be applied to a variety of lunar geoscience questions and form a basis for planning human activities on the lunar surface

Integrating Diversity Training into Doctoral Programs in Mathematics Education

There exists a need to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in mathematics education (Wilson and Franke, 2008). Being cognizant that there are few underrepresented groups that obtain doctoral degrees in mathematical sciences or mathematics education (AMS, 2014; Reys and Dossey, 2008), focused training is needed to prepare doctoral students on diversity issues that may arise in higher education and the means by to address such issues. An advance seminar course or colloquium that would be helpful to mathematics education doctoral students who seek a career position in higher education should be entitled, “Gaining a better perspective of diversity in higher education”. This course would addresses issues related to establishing and sustaining an equitable and inclusive environment in classroom environments and throughout the university. “Climate can be examined through various components…structural diversity (the number of underrepresented students on a campus), the psychological climate (prejudice), and behavioral dimensions (relations among students, an instructors’ pedagogical approach)” (Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pedersen, and Allen, 1999, p. x). The climate is often enacted in the hidden curriculum that complements the overt curriculum of the university. Admittedly, diversity courses taught at many universities might address diversity climate issues, however it is not a requirement for a doctorate in mathematics education, and hence most doctoral students in mathematics education never enroll in such courses. Considering that by the year 2044, more than half of the U.S. population will be individuals of color (Colby & Ortman, 2015) and the academy is becoming increasingly diverse, it is imperative that we train educators to work within such diverse contexts. Thus, gaining an understanding of the complexities of diversity, and how to incorporate it into their practice will be vital to mathematics education doctoral students’ success in academia. Therefore, we propose that an advance seminar course or colloquium in mathematics education be dedicated to the teaching of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education: We will first discuss the content that should be covered, and subsequently describe how the training should be organized. By first shedding light on what ought to be learned, faculty members can strategically incorporate pedagogical strategies to promote the learning of the desired content

Vacuum Alignment in Technicolor Theories-I. The Technifermion Sector

We have carried out numerical studies of vacuum alignment in technicolor models of electroweak and flavor symmetry breaking. The goal is to understand alignment's implications for strong and weak CP nonconservation in quark interactions. In this first part, we restrict our attention to the technifermion sector of simple models. We find several interesting phenomena, including (1) the possibility that all observable phases in the technifermions' unitary vacuum-alignment matrix are integer multiples of \pi/N' where N' \le N, the number of technifermion doublets, and (2) the possibility of exceptionally light pseudoGoldstone technipions.Comment: 19 pages, Latex with one postscript figur