Science and Subpoenas: When do the Courts Become Instruments of Manipulation?

Fischer says he believes that the uneasy relationship between law and science is likely to continue regarding disclosure of scientific research materials

Aspects of quark mass generation on a torus

In this talk we report on recent results for the quark propagator on a compact manifold. The corresponding Dyson-Schwinger equations on a torus are solved on volumes similar to the ones used in lattice calculations. The quark-gluon interaction is fixed such that the lattice results are reproduced. We discuss both the effects in the infinite volume/continuum limit as well as effects when the volume is small.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures; talk given by CF at QNP06, Madrid, June 200

European hoarding: currency use among immigrants in Switzerland

Do immigrants have a higher demand for large denominated banknotes than natives? This study examines whether cash orders for CHF 1000 notes, a banknote not used for daily transactions, is concentrated in Swiss cities with a high foreign-to-native ratio. Controlling for a range of socio-economic indicators across 250 Swiss cities, European immigrants in Switzerland are found to hoard less CHF 1000 banknotes than natives. A 1 percent increase in the immigrant-to-native ratio leads to a reduction in currency orders by CHF 4000. This negative correlation between immigrant-to-native ratio and currency orders for CHF 1000 notes holds irrespective of the European immigrants' country of origin. Hoarding of large denominated banknotes by natives is attributed tax avoidance.Money ; Immigrants ; Bank notes ; Monetary policy

On the Inadequacy of Newswire Reports for Empirical Research on Foreign Exchange Interventions

Newswire reports have become an accepted tool for empirical studies analyzing informational asymmetries in FX markets. This paper tests the accuracy of such reports for Swiss interventions in the foreign exchange market. The evidence finds that the time stamp of the reports does not always lie near the recorded time of the first intervention trade as is commonly assumed in market microstructure studies. The standard deviation of the time difference is measured in hours and not in minutes. These and other regression results question the accuracy of newswire reports for Swiss interventions.Central Bank Interventions, Intra-Daily Data, Newswire Reports

Measuring Income Elasticity for Swiss Money Demand: What do the Cantons say about Financial Innovation?

Recent time-series evidence has re-confirmed the forecasting ability of Swiss broad money. The same money demand studies and others, however, find that the income elasticity is greater than one. Such parameter estimates are difficult to reconcile with transactions demand theory. This study re-examines the estimates for income elasticity in money demand based on cross-regional evidence for Switzerland. Particular attention is given to the influence of regional financial sophistication. The cross-cantonal results find that the income elasticity lies between 0.4 and 0.6. This discrepancy between the two empirical methodologies has important consequences for the conduct of Swiss monetary policy.Money Demand, Cross-Regional Estimates, Regional Financial Sophistication

The innovation process and network activities of manufacturing firms: Conceptual considerations and empirical evidence from the metropolitan region of Vienna

Innovation networks of manufacturers are currently receiving much attention as a competitive strategy. The contribution represents a response to the growing recognition that there are very important reasons why we need a better understanding of the relationship between innovation and networking. This response is conceptual in form, but enriched with some empirical evidence from the metropolitan region of Vienna. The paper demonstrates unambiguously the importance of external network activities during the innovation process that are organized around five types of networks: customer networks, manufacturing supplier networks, producer service supplier networks, producer networks and co-operation with research institutions and departments of universities. The data clearly indicate that networking is not only and primarily a metropolitan phenomenon. Spatial proximity is just one, but evidently not the decisive criterion for innovation-oriented relationships. The geography of networking largely extends to national and international levels.

REGIONS, TECHNOLOGICAL INTERDEPENDENCE AND GROWTH IN EUROPE

This paper presents a theoretical neoclassical growth model with two kinds of capital, and technological interdependence among regions. Technological interdependence is assumed to operate through spatial externalities caused by disembodied knowledge diffusion between technologically similar regions. The transition from theory to econometrics yields a reduced-form empirical model that in the spatial econometrics literature is known as spatial Durbin model. Technological dependence between regions is formulated by a connectivity matrix that measures closeness of regions in a technological space spanned by 120 distinct technological fields. We use a system of 158 regions across 14 European countries over the period from 1995 to 2004 to empirically test the model. The paper illustrates the importance of an impact-based model interpretation, in terms of the LeSage and Pace (2009) approach, to correctly quantify the magnitude of spillover effects that avoid incorrect inferences about the presence or absence of significant capital externalities among technologically similar regions.Economic growth, augmented Mankiw-Romer-Weil model, disembodied knowledge diffusion, technological similarity between regions, spatial econometrics, European regions