National and international freight transport models: overview and ideas for further development

This paper contains a review of the literature on freight transport models, focussing on the types of models that have been developed since the nineties for forecasting, policy simulation and project evaluation at the national and international level. Models for production, attraction, distribution, modal split and assignment are discussed in the paper. Furthermore, the paper also includes a number of ideas for future development, especially for the regional and urban components within national freight transport models

The Rocky Ride of Break-even-inflation rates.

The correlation matrix between break-even inflation rate movements and real interest rate movements across several countries shows puzzling features. Correlation is significantly positive for nearly all cross-border pairs whereas it is nil, positive or negative unsystematically within countries. By means of a correlation matrix decomposition, we provide an explanation for this puzzle.Inflation-linked bonds ; Break-even inflation rates

The Causality of Supply Relationships

This study examines the 'logic' or underlying causality of supply relationships. It develops and tests hypotheses, in a LISREL model, on detailed data for 553, 450 and 226 supply relationships in the US, Japanese and European automobile industries. The differences found between the three regions seem small, given the received view that there are fundamental differences between 'Japanese' and 'Western' contracting. However, the differences that remain suggest that in the US perhaps the 'Japanese system' has been surpassed, in a 'third way' that combines the advantages of sufficiently durable relations with the advantages of an open system with great variety.Automobile industries;Learning theory;Social exchange theory;Supply relationships;commitment

On Nonconservative Stability Problems of Elastic Systems with Slight Damping

Equilibrium stability of linear two degree of freedom system with slight viscous damping subjected to nonconservative loadin

How the Republic of Korea's financial structure affects the volatility of four asset prices

The authors explore how Korea's financial structure affects the volatility of asset prices. Documented empirical evidence of the relationship between financial structure and financial crisis, sheds light on the relationship between asset price volatility - extreme variations in price - and financial structure. And the volatility of financial and non-financial asset prices provides an indirect link between an economy's financial structure and the likelihood of financial crisis. Using time-series data on a se of indicators measuring financial structure, the authors examine how Korea's financial structure affects the volatility of the real effective exchange rate, the money market rate, government bond yields, and stock prices. They find: 1) There is a stable long-term relationship between financial structure and volatility in the real effective exchange rate, the money market rate, stock prices, and the yield on government housing bonds. 2) Financial structure affects asset price variables asymmetrically. Some variables'volatility increases, and others'diminish, suggesting that monetary policies should target different asset markets to achieve different goals. If the goal of the monetary authority is to stabilize the money market rate, for example, intervening in the banking sector is more efficient than intervening in other financial sub-sectors. 3) The higher volatility of stock prices reflects the thin stock market in Korea. 4) The stability of the yield on government housing bonds reflects the Korean government's policy of stabilizing the nation's housing supply by isolating the housing market from the impact of Korea's financial structure. 5) Restrictions on foreigners'ownership of domestic stock in Korea during the periodanalyzed, and the fact that most capital flows through commercial banks, affect the exchange rate, which is determined (at least in the short run) by capital flows in the foreign exchange market.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Markets and Market Access,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Economics,Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access,Banks&Banking Reform

The asymptotic regimes of tilted Bianchi II cosmologies

In this paper we give, for the first time, a complete description of the dynamics of tilted spatially homogeneous cosmologies of Bianchi type II. The source is assumed to be a perfect fluid with equation of state $p = (\gamma -1) \mu$, where $\gamma$ is a constant. We show that unless the perfect fluid is stiff, the tilt destabilizes the Kasner solutions, leading to a Mixmaster-like initial singularity, with the tilt being dynamically significant. At late times the tilt becomes dynamically negligible unless the equation of state parameter satisfies $\gamma > {10/7}$. We also find that the tilt does not destabilize the flat FL model, with the result that the presence of tilt increases the likelihood of intermediate isotropization

Jamming transition in a highly dense granular system under vertical vibration

The dynamics of the jamming transition in a three-dimensional granular system under vertical vibration is studied using diffusing-wave spectroscopy. When the maximum acceleration of the external vibration is large, the granular system behaves like a fluid, with the dynamic correlation function G(t) relaxing rapidly. As the acceleration of vibration approaches the gravitational acceleration g, the relaxation of G(t) slows down dramatically, and eventually stops. Thus the system undergoes a phase transition and behaves like a solid. Near the transition point, we find that the structural relaxation shows a stretched exponential behavior. This behavior is analogous to the behavior of supercooled liquids close to the glass transition.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Determinants of poverty in Kenya : a household level analysis

poverty;statistical analysis;measurement;Kenya;household surveys

Lattice study of trapped fermions at unitarity

We present a lattice study of up to N=20 unitary fermions confined to a harmonic trap. Our preliminary results show better than 1% agreement with high precision solutions to the many-body Schrodinger equation for up to N=6. We are able to make predictions for larger N which were inaccessible by the Hamiltonian approach due to computational limitations. Harmonic traps are used experimentally to study cold atoms tuned to a Feshbach resonance. We show that they also provide certain benefits to numerical studies of many-body correlators on the lattice. In particular, we anticipate that the methods described here could be used for studying nuclear physics.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, presented at the XXVIII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory (Lattice 2010), Villasimius, Italy, June 14-19 201