Global versus Country-Specific Shocks and International Business Cycles

This paper documents the relative importance of global and country-specific shocks for international business cycles. For this purpose, we rely on a symmetric two-country, dynamic, general-equilibrium model with costly, incomplete, international financial markets. We also relate exogenous technologies and government expenditures to unobservable common and idiosynchratic components, and apply a Kalman filter to extract the associated global and country-specific shocks. We show that the baseline parametrization of the model, including all shocks, closely matches the cyclical fluctuations of key macroeconomic variables for the United States and a non-US aggregate over the post-1975 period. We then experiment alternative parametrizations, isolating the effects of each shock, and find that country-specific technology shocks constitute a prime determinant of international business cycles. Also, global technology shocks have marginal contributions, whereas global and country-specific government-expenditure shocks have negligible effects on cyclical fluctuations.General Equilibrium, Kalman Filter, Symmetric Economies.

Global versus Country-Specific Shocks and International Business Cycles

This paper documents the relative importance of global and country-specific shocks for international business cycles. For this purpose, we rely on a symmetric two-country, dynamic, general-equilibrium model with costly, incomplete, international financial markets. We also relate exogenous technologies and government expenditures to unobservable common and idiosynchratic components, and apply a Kalman filter to extract the associated global and country-specific shocks. We show that the baseline parametrization of the model, including all shocks, closely matches the cyclical fluctuations of key macroeconomic variables for the United States and a non-US aggregate over the post-1975 period. We then experiment alternative parametrizations, isolating the effects of each shock, and find that country-specific technology shocks constitute a prime determinant of international business cycles. Also, global technology shocks have marginal contributions, whereas global and country-specific government-expenditure shocks have negligible effects on cyclical fluctuations.General Equilibrium, Kalman Filter, Symmetric Economies

Oedipus and the Stars

At OT 795 Oedipus’ recollection of measuring his fugitive course by the stars presents a double crux, concerning both the textual tradition’s dueling terms for that measurement and scholars’ related, opposed renderings of the phrase as literal or figurative. I argue Oedipus’ words can be taken literally to signify the techne of ancient celestial navigation, a metric of human knowhow versus the forces of fate and the divine

Expanding Trade within Africa: The Impact of Trade Facilitation

This paper examines the impact of trade facilitation on intra-African trade. The authors examine the role of trade facilitation reforms, such as increased port efficiency, improved customs, and regulatory environments, and upgrading services infrastructure on trade between African countries. They also consider how regional trade agreements relate to intra-African trade flows. Using trade data from 2003 to 2004, they find that improvement in ports and services infrastructure promise relatively more expansion in intra-African trade than other measures. They also show that, almost all regional trade agreements have a positive effect on trade flowsTrade; Africa; Regional Integration; Trade Facilitation

Unbiased taxonomic annotation of metagenomic samples

The classification of reads from a metagenomic sample using a reference taxonomy is usually based on first mapping the reads to the reference sequences and then, classifying each read at a node under the lowest common ancestor of the candidate sequences in the reference taxonomy with the least classification error. However, this taxonomic annotation can be biased by an imbalanced taxonomy and also by the presence of multiple nodes in the taxonomy with the least classification error for a given read. In this paper, we show that the Rand index is a better indicator of classification error than the often used area under the ROC curve and F-measure for both balanced and imbalanced reference taxonomies, and we also address the second source of bias by reducing the taxonomic annotation problem for a whole metagenomic sample to a set cover problem, for which a logarithmic approximation can be obtained in linear time.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Environment and Climate Through the Lens of Presidential Debates

Denne oppgaven utforsker utviklingen av Amerikansk klima- og miljødiskurs med utgangspunkt i TV-sendte amerikanske presidentdebatter. Formålet med oppgaven er todelt. Først å utforske amerikanske presidentdebatter med det for å finne egnede vinklinger og tematikker som videre kunne utforskes. Da valget falt på klima- og miljødiskurs som overordnet tema viste gjennomgangen av tilgjengelig forskning at denne tematikken i liten grad har blitt forsket på i lys av Amerikanske presidentdebatter. Gjennom en kombinasjon av kvalitativ og kvantitative tilnærminger har det andre målet med denne oppgaven vært å utvide kjennskapen til hvordan Amerikanske presidentkandidater snakker, og har snakket om miljø- og klima i kontekst av sin tid. Videre forsøker oppgaven å besvare hvordan ulike trender har utviklet seg gjennom tidsperioden 1960 til 2020. Dette innebærer en komparativ analyse både i tid, men også mellom enkeltkandidater og partier. Oppgaven forsøker også å besvare spørsmål som blir reist i mindre arbeider knyttet til hvorvidt Republikanere snakker annerledes om denne tematikken enn Demokrater, i hvilken grad kandidatene får spørsmål om klima- og miljø og hvordan de velger å besvare slike spørsmål. Funnene underbygger tidligere forskning som peker på at Republikanske kandidater har en større tendens til å være negativt innstilt mot prioriteringer av klima og miljø, man ser en større skepsis til innvirkningen mennesker har på miljøet og en mindre interesse for tematikken enn sine Demokratiske motstandere. Oppgaven fant også igjen typiske trekk fra politiske narrativer som at Demokrater tendenserer til å beskrive klima- og miljøpolitikk som en økonomisk mulighet, mens Republikanere ser på det som en økonomisk byrde. Demokrater er også mer positivt innstilt til internasjonalt samarbeid for å bekjempe klimaendringer. Samtidig viser også resultatene at klima- og miljødiskurs er en liten del av Amerikanske presidentdebatter. I en historisk kontekst ser man en jevn, men lav interesse for tematikken med 2020 som eneste store avvik fra denne normen. 2000 og 1988 kan også vise til en viss interesse for tematikken. Oppgaven kan også bidra til å øke innsikten i hvordan klima- og miljønarrativer er en del av den politiske diskursen i verdens største økonomi. Den kan også være til hjelp i formidlingen av kunnskap i møte med klimaendringer og dets sosioøkonomiske konsekvenser.Engelsk mastergradsoppgaveENG350MAHF-ENGMAHF-LÆF

Achieving supply chain integration using RFID technology: The case of emerging intelligent B-to-B e-commerce processes in a living laboratory

Purpose: Despite the high operational and strategic potentials of RFID technology, very little studies have been conducted about its role as enabler of supply chain integration to achieve high-level operational efficiency. Therefore, this study is an initial effort towards bridging the existing knowledge gap in the literature. Design/methodology: This exploratory research was conducted in one retail supply chain. A multi-method approach combining a longitudinal real-life case study and a methodology integrating several steps, including a “Living Laboratory” strategy was used and involved all members of a product line to analyze in terms of their contributing activities and their interface with other supply chain members, the aim being to explore the impact of RFID technology on inter- and intra-organizational processes and information systems. Findings: Our results provide support to the role of RFID as enabler of better integration of timeliness and accuracy data flows into information systems, business process optimization through automation, better system-to-system communication and better inter- and-intra-organizational business process integration. Furthermore, they also validate the unique characteristics of RFID technology such as enabler of realtime multiple tags items data collection and exchange within the supply chain and the read-and-write capability that may help, for example, to reuse some RFID tags within the supply chain and therefore reduce the cost related to the purchase of the said RFID tags. Finally, the study also reveals the importance of business process renovation and complementary investments during the adoption of RFID technology in order to achieve high level of business value from the technology

Confinement Effects of Solvation on a Molecule Physisorbed on a Metal Particle

We describe and present results of the implementation of the surface and volume polarization for electrostatics~(SVPE) and the iso-density surface solvation models. Unlike most other implementation of the solvation models where the solute and the solvent are described with multiple numerical representation, our implementation uses a multiresolution, adaptive multiwavelet basis to describe both solute and the solvent. This requires reformulation to use integral equations throughout as well as a conscious management of numerical properties of the basis. Likewise, we investigate the effects of solvation on the static properties of a molecule physisorbed on a spherical particle, modeled as a polarizable continuum colloid with a static dielectric constant. The effective polarizability of the physisorbed molecule is enhanced by a factor of 105 in vacuo and by only 102 when solvated. The variation of the polarizability of the molecules with respect to the changes in their environment illustrates the importance of electrostatic interaction in the enhancement of the effective polarizability. Finally, we investigated the optical properties of 1.4-phenylenedinitrene and 4,4\u27-stilbenedinitrene biraradical molecules. Using our computational model, we establish the structure property relationship in biradical organic compounds. The spin splitting is shown to be inversely proportional to the separation between the two spin carrying centers and is partly driven by the Coulombic interaction. The intense peaks on the absorption spectra is the result of the mixing of transitions from the spin carrying centers with those of pi origin