Sectors May Use Multiple Technologies Simultaneously: The Rectangular Choice-of-Technology Model with Binding Factor Constraints (Revised)

We develop the rectangular choice-of-technology model with factor constraints, or RCOT, a linear programming input-output model for analysis of the economy of a single region. It allows for one or more sectors to operate more than one technology simultaneously, with the relatively lowest-cost one supplemented by others if it encounters a binding factor constraint. The RCOT model solves for sector outputs, goods prices that are set by the highest-cost technologies in use, and scarcity rents that correspond to binding factor constraints experienced by the lower-cost technologies. The model is motivated by the fact that mineral deposits of different qualities may be exploited simultaneously, as may primary and recycled sources for the same materials or irrigated and rainfed techniques for producing the same crop. RCOT generalizes Carter’s square choice-of-technology model, in particular adding the factor constraints that allow several alternatives to operate simultaneously. The Appendix gives a numerical example.

Perverse incentives at the banks? Evidence from a natural experiment

Incentive provision is a central question in modern economic theory. During the run up to the financial crisis, many banks attempted to encourage loan underwriting by giving out incentive packages to loan officers. Using a unique data set on small business loan officer compensation from a major commercial bank, we test the model’s predictions that incentive compensation increases loan origination, but may induce the loan officers to book more risky loans. We find that the incentive package amounts to a 47% increase in loan approval rate, and a 24% increase in default rate. Overall, we find that the bank loses money by switching to incentive pay. We further test the effects of incentive pay on other loan characteristics using a multivariate difference-in-difference analysis.Incentive awards

Sectors May Use Multiple Technologies Simultaneously - The Rectangular Choice-of-Technology Model with Binding Factor Constraints

We develop the rectangular choice-of-technology model with factor constraints, or RCOT, for analysis of the economy of a single region, or of multiple regions in the context of a model of the world economy. RCOT allows for one or more sectors to operate more than one technology simultaneously, using the relatively lowest-cost one first and adding another if and when the preceding one encounters a binding factor constraint. The model is motivated by the evident fact that oil wells and mineral deposits of different qualities may be exploited simultaneously, as may the use of both primary and recycled sources for the same materials. RCOT generalizes Carter’s choice-of-technology model, which allowed one of two choices to all sectors, for up to q choices and adds the factor constraints that allow several alternatives to operate simultaneously. The Appendix gives a numerical example.

Human Ecology: Industrial Ecology

Industrial Ecology aims to inform decision making about the environmental impacts of industrial production processes by tracking and analyzing resource use and flows of industrial products, consumer products and wastes. Quantifying the patterns of use of materials and energy in different societies is one area of research in Industrial Ecology. An extensive literature is devoted in particular to Material Flow Analysis (MFA), the collection of data describing the flows of specific materials from sources to sinks within some portion of the global industrial system. Industrial Ecologists are also concerned with the system-wide environmental impacts associated with products. Design for the Environment involves the design or redesign of specific products so as to reduce their impacts, while Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) quantifies resource use and emissions per unit of product from material extraction to the eventual disposal of the product. The LCA community has created a significant body of best-practice methods and shared data and increasingly incorporates their analyses within input-output models of entire economies to capture that portion of the impact that would otherwise be overlooked. Input-output models, often incorporating both MFA and LCA data, analyze the effects on the environment of alternative consumption and production decisions. Industrial Ecology makes use of this array of top-down and bottom-up approaches, all of which are grounded in its origins in the ecology of the industrial system.

Embodied Resource Flows and Product Flows: Combining the Absorbing Markov Chain with the Input-Output Model

We develop the absorbing Markov chain (AMC) for describing in detail the network of paths through an industrial system taken by an embodied resource from extraction through intermediate products and finally consumer products.  We refer to this as a resource-specific network. This work builds on a recent literature in industrial ecology that uses an AMC to quantify the number of times a resource passes through a recycling sector before ending up in a landfill.  Our objective is to incorporate into that analysis an input-output (IO) table so that the resource paths explicitly take account of the interdependence of sectors through their reliance on intermediate products.  This feature makes it possible to track multiple resources simultaneously and consistently and to represent both resources and products in mixed units. Hypothetical scenarios about technological changes and changes in consumer demand are analyzed using an IO model, and model solutions generate the AMC database. A numerical example is provided.  AMC analysis describes the resource-specific networks using matrices that are derived not from the Leontief inverse but from a generalized variant of the Ghosh inverse matrix.  The Leontief inverse and especially the Ghosh inverse (although often not identified as such) have been used extensively to analyze ecological systems, and this paper extends these approaches for use in studying material cycles in industrial systems.  Constructing the AMC formalizes the resource-specific network analysis and generalizes the content and interpretation of the Ghosh matrix.  Path-based analyses derived from AMC theory are discussed in relation to the set of techniques called Structural Path Analysis (SPA). The paper concludes by identifying the three most critical enhancements to the IO model needed for analyzing material cycles: the simultaneous incorporation of waste-processing sectors, stock and flow relationships, and international trade.  The idea is to implement an AMC after each model extension. The modeling framework is intended for analyses such as: tracking a resource extracted in one region to landfills in other regions, evaluating ways to intensify secondary recovery at key junctures in-between.  There are other ways, of course, to approach such an analysis, but the combination of an extended IO model and an AMC, representing both resources and products in mixed units, provides a comprehensive, systematic and standardized approach that includes many features that are valued in industrial ecology and builds directly on a number of active research programs.

Heat transfer and pressure distributions at M equals 8 on 0.029 scale models of the Viking entry vehicle

An investigation in the Langley Research Center Mach-8 Variable Density Hypersonic Tunnel was made of the pressure distributions and heat transfer rate distributions on two 0.029 scale Viking Entry Vehicle models. Comparable ranges of test Reynolds number were exercised for the two tests between run conditions around 4 million and conditions of about 1.6 million. At angles of attack less than 20 degrees the pressure ratio distribution referenced to stagnation pressure appeared invariant with Reynolds number. Increasing angle of attack results in a flatter distribution of both the windward and leeward pressure distributions; in addition, the stagnation point shifted into the windward plane. A subsequent rise in the heating rate profile on the leeward side with further increase in angle of attack is attributed to boundary layer natural transition to turbulent flow. Schlieren photographs were taken for flow field visualization and to correct model angle of attack

Search for Effect of Influence from Future in Large Hadron Collider

We propose an experiment which consists of drawing a card and using it to decide restrictions on the running of Large Hadron Collider (LHC for short) at CERN, such as luminosity, and beam energy. There may potentially occur total shut down. The purpose of such an experiment is to search for influence from the future, that is, backward causation. Since LHC will produce particles of a mathematically new type of fundamental scalars, i.e., the Higgs particles, there is potentially a chance to find unseen effects, such as on influence going from future to past, which we suggest in the present paper.Comment: 18pp, comments added, change of title and corrections of main text; v4:minor typos correcte

Shareholder Liability for Postdissolution Claims in California: Pacific Scene, Inc. v. Penasquitos, Inc.

The trust fund doctrine traditionally has been applied to allow satisfaction of predissolution claims out of the distribution of corporate assets to shareholders. In Pacific Scene, Inc. v. Penasquitos, Inc., the California Supreme Court held that the California Legislature had precluded the availability of that equitable remedy to postdissolution claims when it amended the California Corporations Code in 1975. This Note reviews the equitable remedy traditionally allowed under the trust fund theory and the statutory corporate scheme in place in California. The analysis will discuss the policy reasons behind the Court\u27s decision concluding that, in light of the Pacific Scene decision, there is a need for the legislature to address the issue. The legislature should allow a limited period of time, after dissolution, in which creditors can recover from the dissolved corporation on claims which have arisen after the dissolution of the corporation