WHAT IS A RECESSION?: A REPRISE.

This paper draws its title from a paper written over 30 years ago by Geoffrey H. Moore (1967). Why the need for a reprise? First, there would appear currently to be somewhat diverging views – particularly in Australia – as to what properly constitutes a recession. Second, largely as a result of this, in Australia and many other countries other than the US, there is no single widely-accepted business cycle chronology for the country in question. This paper will argue that in addition to an output dimension, there are other important dimensions to aggregate economic activity which need to be taken into account in determining the business cycle, viz., income, sales and employment. As such, our perspective would seem to be at odds with the apparent position taken by other recent Australian commentators on this issue who argue that GDP is all that is needed to represent Australia’s business cycle. We will also argue strongly against using the currently popular ‘two negative quarterly growth rate’ rule in dating the onset of a recession.

A time frequency analysis of wave packet fractional revivals

We show that the time frequency analysis of the autocorrelation function is, in many ways, a more appropriate tool to resolve fractional revivals of a wave packet than the usual time domain analysis. This advantage is crucial in reconstructing the initial state of the wave packet when its coherent structure is short-lived and decays before it is fully revived. Our calculations are based on the model example of fractional revivals in a Rydberg wave packet of circular states. We end by providing an analytical investigation which fully agrees with our numerical observations on the utility of time-frequency analysis in the study of wave packet fractional revivals.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Enhancement in thermoelectric power in lead telluride nanocomposite: role of oxygen vis-a-vis nanostruct

The present work reports enhanced power factor and reduced value of room temperature thermal conductivity in undoped PbTe nanocomposite, prepared from PbTe nanocrystals, synthesized via chemical route. The highest power factor is found to be 19.21 ´ 10 –4 Wm –1K –2 with room temperature thermal conductivity of 1.53 Wm –1K –1. The potential barrier at the sharp interfaces of the grains of the nanocomposites, occurred due to the adsorption of oxygen by the grain surfaces, have been found to play the main role to produce the high value of Seebeck coefficient (416 mV/K at 500 K) by preferentially scattering the lower energy electrons and thus enhancing the power factor. The lattice destruction at the grain interfaces has been found to cause the remarkable reduction in thermal conductivity, through scattering a wide spectrum of phonon wavelength. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2205

Universal Banking, Asymmetric Information and the Stock Market

This paper aims to explore the role of the universal banking system in contributing to the stock market bust in the wake of the financial crisis 2008–2009 when bankers might have incentive to hide information from shareholders. We set up a stylized model of consumption smoothing involving universal banks that undertake both investment and commercial banking activities. Banks have private information about the outcome of a project that it funds. In the wake of bad news about the project, the banker has an incentive to sell lemon shares in a secondary market with the pretence of a liquidity crunch. Our model shows that such an incentive results in (i) a sharp discounting of stock prices, (ii) greater loan demand (iii) higher fraction of bank ownership of the borrowing firms, and (iv) heightened consumption risk resulting in precautionary savings by households. The magnitude of these effects depends on the market's perception about the preponderance of lemons in the stock market. A credible punishment scheme implemented by the government in the form of fines may moderate the stock market decline and consumption volatility due to information friction. However, it imposes a deadweight loss on private citizens because of a fall in all banks' expected profit. On the other hand, a “ring-fenced” banking arrangement along the way suggested by the Vickers Commission may entail a first order welfare loss due to the lack of diversification opportunities

Borrower’s moral hazard, risk premium, and welfare : a comparison of universal and stand-alone banking systems

Does the unification of retail and investment banking necessarily heighten risk in financial markets? Using a simple two period intertemporal model with borrower's moral hazard and uninsured risk, we argue that the integration in financial service markets under universal banking could give rise to a greater risk sharing arrangement. This could eliminate the stock market premium attributed to borrower's moral hazard. Absent any other frictions, we show that there is an unambiguous output and welfare gain from switching to a universal banking system from retail banking because of this efficient risk sharing. This welfare gain is higher in economies prone to greater information friction caused by borrower's moral hazard