Borrowing to Make Ends Meet: The Rapid Growth of Credit Card Debt in America

Americans carry over $800 Billion in credit card debt. Using most recent data from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances, Borrowing to Make Ends Meet exposes this and other disturbing trends, and also provides detailed data based on age, race and income demographics

In the Red or In the Black?: Understanding the Relationship Between Household Debt and Assets

In the Red or In the Black? looks at whether household savings serve to protect families from incurring unsecured debt, and in turn, whether the presence of unsecured debt acts as a barrier to savings and wealth accumulation

A comparison of general-purpose optimization algorithms forfinding optimal approximate experimental designs

Several common general purpose optimization algorithms are compared for findingA- and D-optimal designs for different types of statistical models of varying complexity,including high dimensional models with five and more factors. The algorithms of interestinclude exact methods, such as the interior point method, the Nelder–Mead method, theactive set method, the sequential quadratic programming, and metaheuristic algorithms,such as particle swarm optimization, simulated annealing and genetic algorithms.Several simulations are performed, which provide general recommendations on theutility and performance of each method, including hybridized versions of metaheuristicalgorithms for finding optimal experimental designs. A key result is that general-purposeoptimization algorithms, both exact methods and metaheuristic algorithms, perform wellfor finding optimal approximate experimental designs

The attempted merger between General Electric and Honeywell, a case study of transatlantic conflict

\cf1\f1 This paper analyzes how State aid affects and distorts competition and trade within and across jurisdictions. We identify the circumstances in which state aid is likely to involve the largest distortions. In the context of the paper distortion of competition" is interpreted as the effect on rivals\f2\rquote\f1 profits. We consider three types of state intervention, namely subsidies which affect marginal cost, entry and quality and analyse whether particular market characteristics are robust indicators of the magnitude of the distortions. We obtain the following results: (i) it appears that concentration is a fairly robust indicator; (ii) A high degree of substitution across differentiated products is not a robust indicator of the magnitude of the distortions. Its effect depends on the type of state intervention; (iii) The substitution among domestic products may have opposite effects respectively on domestic and foreign firms. In particular, when the market is not concentrated and state aid takes the form of a production subsidy, a stronger substitution among domestic products will reduce the distortions felt by the foreign firm (but increase that felt by domestic rivals); Finally, (iv) the paper demonstrates that the impact of selective State aid on market prices and competitors can depend on the particular characteristics of the market JEL Classification numbers: K21; L10; L40State aids; EU Antitrust; distortions of competition

Study of the Effect of Hot Rolling Processing Parameters on the Variability of HSLA Steels

The effect of different hot mill processing parameters and their influence on the variability of mechanical properties of HSLA steels has been studied. This work presents an analysis of the relative contribution of the different hot mill processing parameters to the variability of HSLA steels. The experimental design includes variation of Reheating, Roughing, Finishing, and Coiling temperatures, as well as Cooling Rate through the austenite to ferrite transformation, and from coiling to room temperature. The variation in finishing and coiling temperature results in an average variation of 12% in mechanical properties. The variation of the cooling rate, through the austenite to ferrite transformation, and from coiling to room temperature, has the largest impact on the variability of microstructure and properties. A correlation between the various microstructural features, dislocation densities and precipitation behavior, with mechanical properties is presented