Noisy Financial Signals and Persistent Effects of Nominal Shocks in Open Economies

Floating exchange rates display substantial short-run volatility causing a nontrivial information problem in disentangling temporary from permanent changes. Although agents observe current market signals they are imperfectly informed about the future, but they accumulate information and learn over time. We analyze how this basic information problem in the presence of one-period nominal contracts affects the dynamic adjustment process to nominal shocks. Specifically we use a general equilibrium two-country model with specialized production and one-period nominal contracts and consider the propagation of nominal shocks. Informational problems are shown to have important qualitative and potentially strong quantitative importance for the propagation of nominal shocks.

Identifying monetary policy in a small open economy under fixed exchange rates

We demonstrate how to identify monetary policy under fixed exchange rates in a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) using Denmark as a case study. The identifying restrictions are compared to SVARs for flexible exchange-rate regimes. Our basic model generates a plausible central-bank reaction function, and the responses to monetary shocks are in accordance with theory. We extend the basic model and econometric approach to incorporate the central bank's interventions on the foreign-exchange market

International transmission of transitory and persistent monetary shocks under imperfect information

We analyze the transmission of monetary shocks in a new openeconomy macroeconomics model with one-period nominal contracts and imperfect information. Shocks may have transitory and persistent components, which only through accumulation of information over time becomes known. Responses to shocks are altered compared to the case of full information. There are persistent effects on international relative prices, and delayed exchange-rate overshooting is possible following a persistent shock. In some cases, there are (ex post) excess returns as a positive interest rate spread is accompanied by an appreciating currency (or vice versa). Lastly, it is demonstrated that staggering re-inforce persistence

Propagation of nominal shocks in open economies

Empirical evidence documents substantial persistence in the adjustment process to nominal shocks. Existing open-economy models have failed either to generate interesting dynamics or found that the mechanisms are quantitatively weak. We consider the propagation of nominal shocks in a fully specified stochastic intertemporal open-economy model with incomplete capital markets and staggered nominal wage contracts. It is shown that persistence depends on wage-price interdependencies (spiral), which in turn in a general-equilibrium setting depends on structural parameters characterizing both the demand and the supply side of markets. Parameter choices strengthening wage-price interdependencies thus strengthen persistence as is demonstrated analytically and illustrated numerically. A further product of the paper is that it develops a method by which to solve explicitly for a stochastic intertemporal version of the New Open-Economy Macroeconomics model in which the expenditure switching effect is effective

Propagation of Nominal Shocks in Open Economies

The propagation of nominal shocks is analyzed in a fully specified stochastic intertemporal two-country model. We show how to solve for the equilibrium analytically and analyze the role of real and nominal propagation mechanisms. First we consider the dynamic implications of nominal shocks having an impact effect due to one-period nominal contracts when the propagation over time runs via a basic real propagation mechanism in open economies (current account). We find that this case is characterized by strong persistency in the real effects of nominal shocks, but the dynamic adjustment path is strongly at odds with empirical evidence. Secondly, we introduce a nominal propagation mechanism in the form of staggered nominal contracts. This turns out to imply a radical change in the dynamic response to nominal shocks, and to generate a dynamic adjustment path of the form observed empirically.Persistence, staggering, exchange rates, nominal shocks, current account

Efficient Cryopreservation of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells by Surface-Based Vitrification

Efficient cryopreservation of human stem cells is crucial for guaranteeing a permanent supply of high-quality cell material for drug discovery or regenerative medicine. Conventionally used protocols usually employing slow freezing rates, however, result in low recovery rates for human pluripotent stem cells due to their complex colony structure. In this chapter, a surface-based vitrification protocol for pluripotent stem cells is presented based on a procedure for human embryonic stem cells developed by Beier et al. (Cryobiology 63:175-185, 2011). This simple and highly efficient cryopreservation method allows cryopreservation of large numbers of ready-to-use adherent cells that maintain pluripotency