International Lessons for the Property Price Boom in South Africa

South Africa appears to share some of the characteristics (property price boom, easing of monetary policy, strong domestic demand growth) of asset price booms in industrial countries that were often followed by a period of weak growth. The international experience suggests that a number of practical obstacles need to be overcome before a more proactive role of monetary policy is warranted. However, a larger variety of available mortgage contracts, including longer-term fixed-rate contracts, should allow for a more efficient allocation of interest rate risks. Also, a more systematic nationwide collection of property price data, including data on commercial property price developments, would provide a more representative basis for analysis.Asset Prices,property prices,monetary policy,economic development

Die dimensionale Struktur von Autoritarismus

Mit »Autoritarismus« gibt man der Neigung des Menschen einen Namen, sich schon bei geringem situationalen Druck (vermeintlich) legitimierten Autoritäten zu unterwerfen, »Abweichler« drakonisch zu bestrafen und starr an festgefahrenen Normen festzuhalten, ohne sie kritisch infrage zu stellen. Den Forschungsansätzen zur Untersuchung dieses Phänomens ist gemein, daß sie einerseits als mehr-dimensional beschrieben, dessenungeachtet jedoch in der Regel eindimensional erhoben werden. Dies trägt der komplexen Struktur in keiner Weise Rechnung. Der vorliegende Aufsatz begründet inhaltlich den Sinn einer mehrdimensionalen Messung und entwickelt ein Prozedere zur Dekomposition sowie theoretisch fundierten Rekomposition der Zusammenhangsstruktur von Autoritarismusskalen. Auf der Basis mehrerer Studien werden alternative Meßmodelle in vielfältigen empirischen Zusammenhängen angewandt. Eine radikale Konsequenz aus der Kritik der derzeitigen internationalen Forschungspraxis wäre die Forderung nach einem mehrdimensionalen und bereichsspezifischen Meßinstrument, das sowohl differenzierte Aussagen über die einzelnen Facetten als auch die situationsabhängigen »Auslösungsbedingungen« ermöglicht. Die hier daher absichtsvoll gewählte Strategie nutzt zur Innovation scheinbar widersinnig zunächst einen konservativen Ansatz: es wird im ersten Schritt trotz der hier gezeigten bzw. unterstellten Mängel auf die etablierte RWA-Skala in ihrer originalen oder leicht modifizierten Form vertraut. Bei ihr handelt es sich um das Standardinstrument der modernen (quantitativen) Autoritarismusforschung, was ihr implizit den Charakter einer operationalen Definition von Autoritarismus verleiht. Das dadurch Gelernte erweist sich als vielverheißend: Bereits auf der Basis erster eigener dreidimensionaler Skalen zeigt sich eindrucksvoll die diskriminante Validität der Subdimensionen, was jenseits der Grenzen der Qualifikationsarbeit das Nachdenken über eine Skalenneukonstruktion ermutigt

Adolescents' attitudes towards foreigners: associations with perceptions of significant others' attitudes depending on sex and age

'The present study examines associations between adolescents' attitudes towards foreigners and their perceptions of the same attitudes among their parents, friends, and teachers. Questionnaire data from a sample of 518 students attending 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade of German high-track schools addressed students' own attitudes and their reports on the reference persons m their proximal contexts. Analyses of individual profile correlations suggest strong correspondences between adolescents and their perceived contexts which slightly decrease depending on age. Processes of projection are discussed as a possible explanation of the strong associations observed as well as to the age-graded pattern of correlations.' (author's abstract)

Does Tolerance Reflect a More Inclusive Self-Construal? A Comparison of Poland, East and West Germany

Past research suggests that Poland and Germany differ in the inclusiveness of their “moral universe”, i.e. the breadth of the community to which people apply moral values and rules of fairness (Schwartz, 2007). It seems likely that this difference is reflected in a more or less inclusive definition of one’s ingroup. The present study investigated (1) whether there are indeed differences in ingroup inclusiveness as manifested in differential construals of the self in East and West Germany and Poland and (2) whether those differences are reflected in differences in tolerance. As expected, participants in West Germany had the most inclusive self-construal, followed by participants from East Germany and then Poland – both in terms of their absolute scores on the most inclusive level (being a member of humanity), and in terms of the relative importance of the different levels. A relationship between a more inclusive self-construal and tolerance was observed in West Germany, but not in East Germany and Poland. The results suggest that more inclusive and abstract levels of the self-construal are more closely linked to other abstract constructs such as values rather than a true reflection of people’s ingroup. In countries with a communist past where universal values or the concern for humanity at large have been used for ideological purposes, these values may have lost their original meaning and psychological significance, and are less linked to intergroup attitudes such as tolerance towards immigrants

The {\eta}'-carbon potential at low meson momenta

The production of $\eta^\prime$ mesons in coincidence with forward-going protons has been studied in photon-induced reactions on $^{12}$C and on a liquid hydrogen (LH$_2$) target for incoming photon energies of 1.3-2.6 GeV at the electron accelerator ELSA. The $\eta^\prime$ mesons have been identified via the $\eta^\prime\rightarrow \pi^0 \pi^0\eta \rightarrow 6 \gamma$ decay registered with the CBELSA/TAPS detector system. Coincident protons have been identified in the MiniTAPS BaF$_2$ array at polar angles of $2^{\circ} \le \theta _{p} \le 11^{\circ}$. Under these kinematic constraints the $\eta^\prime$ mesons are produced with relatively low kinetic energy ($\approx$ 150 MeV) since the coincident protons take over most of the momentum of the incident-photon beam. For the C-target this allows the determination of the real part of the $\eta^\prime$-carbon potential at low meson momenta by comparing with collision model calculations of the $\eta^\prime$ kinetic energy distribution and excitation function. Fitting the latter data for $\eta^\prime$ mesons going backwards in the center-of-mass system yields a potential depth of V = $-$(44 $\pm$ 16(stat)$\pm$15(syst)) MeV, consistent with earlier determinations of the potential depth in inclusive measurements for average $\eta^\prime$ momenta of $\approx$ 1.1 GeV/$c$. Within the experimental uncertainties, there is no indication of a momentum dependence of the $\eta^\prime$-carbon potential. The LH$_2$ data, taken as a reference to check the data analysis and the model calculations, provide differential and integral cross sections in good agreement with previous results for $\eta^\prime$ photoproduction off the free proton.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1608.0607

Measurement of the Beam Asymmetry Σ\Sigma in the Forward Direction for pi0 Photoproduction

Photoproduction of neutral pions has been studied with the CBELSA/TAPS detector for photon energies between 0.92 and 1.68~GeV at the electron accelerator ELSA. The beam asymmetry~$\Sigma$ has been extracted for $115^\circ < \theta_{\rm c.m.} < 155^\circ$ of the $\pi^0$~meson and for $\theta_{\rm c.m.} < 60^\circ$. The new beam asymmetry data improve the world database for photon energies above 1.5~GeV and, by covering the very forward region, extend previously published data for the same reaction by our collaboration. The angular dependence of $\Sigma$ shows overall good agreement with the SAID parameterization.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, published in Phys. Rev. C, included LEPS data and MAID 2007 predictions for comparison with our dat

Measurement of polarisation observables in Ks0Σ+K^0_s\Sigma^+ photoproduction off the proton

The reaction $\gamma \, p \rightarrow K^0_S\,\Sigma^+$ is studied in the photon energy range from threshold. Linearly polarised photon beams from coherent bremsstrahlung enabled the first measurement of photon beam asymmetries in this reaction up to $E_\gamma = 2250$ MeV. In addition, the recoil hyperon polarisation was determined through the asymmetry in the weak decay $\Sigma^+ \rightarrow p \pi^0$ up to $E_\gamma = 1650$ MeV. The data are compared to partial wave analyses, and the possible impact on the interpretation of a recently observed cusp-like structure near the $K^*$ thresholds is discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. References [8,9,10,11] which were not on the original submission are now include