The productivity gap: Monetary policy, the subprime boom, and the post-2001 productivity surge

It is widely believed that, in the wake of the dot.com crash, the Fed kept the federal funds target rate too low for too long, inadvertently contributing to the subprime boom. We attribute this and other Fed departures from a “neutral” policy stance to the Fed's failure to respond appropriately to exceptional rates of total factor productivity growth. We then show how the Fed, by adhering to a nominal GDP growth rate target, might have succeeded in maintaining such a neutral stance.pre-prin

Catching up or drifting apart: convergence of household and business credit in Europe

We provide evidence for convergence in the levels of household and business credit across European countries. The process is particularly strong for the transition countries that have a low initial level of private credit and are catching up with Western Europe. However, the convergence is associated mostly with household credit, including housing loans and consumer credit, which may limit its benefits for economic growth

Housing market dynamics with delays in the construction sector

Housing supply is subject to several types of delays. On average, it takes 6 months to get approved for a residential building permit and another 2–4 quarters to complete a construction project. We present a simple two-sector model that incorporates these observations and show that the effect of these delays is not uniform: while they amplify the response of house prices to demand shocks, they dampen the effects of housing supply shocks. Moreover, construction activity depends on the relative duration of the shocks and the construction delays: delays dampen construction booms following temporary shocks, but exaggerate building activity following permanent changes in demand or supply conditions. Our results highlight the importance of capturing the nature and the persistence of the shocks when studying the effects of construction sector delays on housing market dynamics

Credit decomposition and business cycles in emerging market economies

This paper analyzes the differential effects of household and business credit dynamics on business cycles in emerging market economies. We first provide evidence that existing results relating credit expansions to economic expansions, real exchange rate appreciations and trade deficits hold more strongly for household credit than business credit. Then, using a two-sector real business cycle model of a small open economy, we study the model dynamics generated by shocks to household credit and business credit, the latter further divided into credit to tradable and nontradable sectors. The results show that the three types of credit shocks generate different dynamics in sectoral input and output levels as well as the real exchange rate. The model successfully generates the comovement between the cycle and different credit types, matching the strong positive correlation of household credit with output and real exchange rate, and the negative correlation with net exports. Our results underline the importance of distinguishing between household and business credit in studying credit dynamics

Financial development convergence

We show that credit levels relative to GDP and other measures for financial development tend to converge across countries over time. The results are obtained using a broad sample of countries over many years and controlling for the quality of country-level institutions, the efficiency of financial institutions, and a range of macroeconomic variables. While we find evidence for convergence in the broad sample, we show that it levels off when countries reach a medium level of financial development. At high levels of financial development, convergence slows down even more and becomes negligible

Emerging market economies and the world interest rate

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.We use a Factor Augmented VAR model to estimate the dynamic responses of interest rates in emerging market economies to the ‘world’ interest rate, which we extract from a dynamic factor model of yields in industrialized countries. Our results provide evidence that many emerging market yields respond to world rate shocks, at least gradually, which is broadly consistent with capital market integration. Our findings also suggest that the world rate captures information about emerging market yields not contained in US rates, which are typically used to proxy for the world rate

The effect of stem applications on students 'perceptions and attitudes towards stem in the 6th grade science course

Bu çalışmada, Erzurum ilindeki bir ortaokulda 2017-2018 eğitim öğretim yılında 73, 6. sınıf öğrencisi ile yapılan STEM Eğitiminin, öğrencilerin STEM alanlarına yönelik algılarına ve tutumlarına etkisi araştırılmıştır. Deneysel yöntemin kullanıldığı bu nicel araştırmada ön test-son test kontrol gruplu yarı deneysel desen kullanılmıştır. Deney grubunda mevcut programa ek olarak araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilen 6 adet STEM etkinlikleri kontrol grubunda ise sadece mevcut program takip edilmiş olup her iki gruba da aynı ölçme araçları ön test-son test olarak uygulanmıştır. Uygulama bir dönem süresince gerçekleştirilmiştir. Yapılan STEM etkinlikleri, araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilerek hazırlanmıştır. Veriler, STEM alanlarına yönelik Algı ve Tutum Testi kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Deney ve kontrol grubu ön ve son test sonuçlarının karşılaştırılması için STEM algı testinde parametrik ve nonparametrik testlerden deney ve kontrol grubu ön ve son test sonuçlarının karşılaştırılmasında ilişkili örneklemler t-testi, Mann-Whitney U testi ve Wilcoxon İşaretli Sıralar Testi, tutum testinde ise parametrik testlerden ilişkili ve ilişkisiz örneklemler t-testi kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgulara göre, STEM etkinliklerinin öğrencilerin STEM’e yönelik algılarını geliştirdiği ancak öğrencilerin STEM’e yönelik tutumlarına etkisinin olmadığı tespit edilmiştir. Mühendislik tasarım süreci, etkinliklerde kullanılan bilgisayar teknolojileri, öğrencilerin STEM’e yönelik algılarının değişmesine imkân sağlamıştır. STEM alanlarına yönelik tutumlarının değişmemesi öğrencilerin bu alanlara yönelik tutumlarının çalışma öncesinde iyi düzeyde olması ya da tutumu ölçen ölçme aracının istediğimiz düzeyde ölçmeyi gerçekleştirmemesi sebebiyle olabilir.In this study, the effect of STEM education conducted with 73, 6th grade students in a secondary school in Erzurum province in the 2017-2018 academic year on students' perceptions and attitudes towards STEM fields was investigated. In this quantitative study in which experimental method was used, a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was used. In addition to the existing program in the experimental group, 6 STEM activities developed by the researchers, and only the current program was followed in the control group, and the same measurement tools were applied to both groups as pretest and posttest. The application was carried out for a period of time. STEM activities have been developed and prepared by researchers. The data were collected using the Perception and Attitude Test for STEM domains. In order to compare the pretest and posttest results of the experimental and control groups, comparison of the pretest and posttest results of the parametric and nonparametric tests in the perception test, the Experimental and Control Group, the related samples t-test; MannWhitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, correlated and unrelated samples t-test from parametric tests were used in the attitude test. According to the findings obtained, it was determined that STEM activities improve students 'perceptions of STEM, but do not affect students' attitudes towards STEM. The engineering design process and computer technologies used in the activities have enabled students to change their perception of STEM. The fact that their attitudes towards STEM fields do not change may be due to the students' attitudes towards these areas at a good level before the study or the measurement tool that measures the attitude did not perform at the level we want

6. Sınıf Fen Bilimleri Dersinde STEM Uygulamalarının Öğrencilerin STEM’e Yönelik Algılarına ve Tutumlarına Etkisi

Bu çalışmada, Erzurum ilindeki bir ortaokulda 2017-2018 eğitim öğretim yılında 73, 6. sınıf öğrencisi ile yapılan STEM Eğitiminin, öğrencilerin STEM alanlarına yönelik algılarına ve tutumlarına etkisi araştırılmıştır. Deneysel yöntemin kullanıldığı bu nicel araştırmada ön test-son test kontrol gruplu yarı deneysel desen kullanılmıştır. Deney grubunda mevcut programa ek olarak araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilen 6 adet STEM etkinlikleri kontrol grubunda ise sadece mevcut program takip edilmiş olup her iki gruba da aynı ölçme araçları ön test-son test olarak uygulanmıştır. Uygulama bir dönem süresince gerçekleştirilmiştir. Yapılan STEM etkinlikleri, araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilerek hazırlanmıştır. Veriler, STEM alanlarına yönelik Algı ve Tutum Testi kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Deney ve kontrol grubu ön ve son test sonuçlarının karşılaştırılması için STEM algı testinde parametrik ve nonparametrik testlerden deney ve kontrol grubu ön ve son test sonuçlarının karşılaştırılmasında ilişkili örneklemler t-testi, Mann-Whitney U testi ve Wilcoxon İşaretli Sıralar Testi, tutum testinde ise parametrik testlerden ilişkili ve ilişkisiz örneklemler t-testi kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgulara göre, STEM etkinliklerinin öğrencilerin STEM’e yönelik algılarını geliştirdiği ancak öğrencilerin STEM’e yönelik tutumlarına etkisinin olmadığı tespit edilmiştir. Mühendislik tasarım süreci, etkinliklerde kullanılan bilgisayar teknolojileri, öğrencilerin STEM’e yönelik algılarının değişmesine imkân sağlamıştır. STEM alanlarına yönelik tutumlarının değişmemesi öğrencilerin bu alanlara yönelik tutumlarının çalışma öncesinde iyi düzeyde olması ya da tutumu ölçen ölçme aracının istediğimiz düzeyde ölçmeyi gerçekleştirmemesi sebebiyle olabilir.In this study, the effect of STEM education conducted with 73, 6th grade students in a secondary school in Erzurum province in the 2017-2018 academic year on students' perceptions and attitudes towards STEM fields was investigated. In this quantitative study in which experimental method was used, a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group was used. In addition to the existing program in the experimental group, 6 STEM activities developed by the researchers, and only the current program was followed in the control group, and the same measurement tools were applied to both groups as pretest and posttest. The application was carried out for a period of time. STEM activities have been developed and prepared by researchers. The data were collected using the Perception and Attitude Test for STEM domains. In order to compare the pretest and posttest results of the experimental and control groups, comparison of the pretest and posttest results of the parametric and nonparametric tests in the perception test, the Experimental and Control Group, the related samples t-test; MannWhitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test, correlated and unrelated samples t-test from parametric tests were used in the attitude test. According to the findings obtained, it was determined that STEM activities improve students 'perceptions of STEM, but do not affect students' attitudes towards STEM. The engineering design process and computer technologies used in the activities have enabled students to change their perception of STEM. The fact that their attitudes towards STEM fields do not change may be due to the students' attitudes towards these areas at a good level before the study or the measurement tool that measures the attitude did not perform at the level we want

The effects of tadalafil and pentoxifylline on apoptosis and nitric oxide synthase in liver ischemia/reperfusion injury

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of tadalafil (TDF) and pentoxifylline (PTX) on hepatic apoptosis and the expressions of endothelial and inducible nitric oxide synthases (eNOS and iNOS) after liver ischemia/reperfusion (IR). Forty Wistar albino rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 8) as follows: sham group; IR group with ischemia/reperfusion alone; low-dose and high-dose TDF groups received 2.5 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg TDF, respectively; and PTX group received 40 mg/kg PTX. Blood was collected for the analysis of serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, ?-glutamyl transferase, uric acid, malondialdehyde (MDA), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). MDA and TAC also were measured in liver tissue. Histopathological examination was performed to assess the severity of hepatic injury. Apoptosis was evaluated using the apoptosis protease-activating factor 1 (APAF-1) antibody; the expressions of eNOS and iNOS were also assessed by immunohistochemistry in all groups. Serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, ?-glutamyl transferase, uric acid, MDA, and TAC, tissue MDA and TAC levels, hepatic injury, and score for extent and for intensity of eNOS, iNOS, and apoptosis protease-activating factor 1 were significantly different in TDF and PTX groups compared to the IR group. High dose-TDF and PTX have the best protective effect on IR-induced liver tissue damage. This study showed that TDF and PTX supplementation may be helpful in preventing free oxygen radical damage, lipid peroxidation, hepatocyte necrosis, and apoptosis in liver IR injury and minimizing liver damage. © 201