Smuggler's Blues at the Central Bank: Lessons from Sudan

The ineffectiveness of real devaluation as stabilization policy does not imply that the nominal exchange rate should be held constant in the face of a domestic inflation. In this circumstance, import duties and export subsidies would have to be escalated to counter the potential erosion of the trade balance. This escalation of trade barriers generates a rising black market premium and offers increasing incentives to smuggling, already a pervasive problem in the African countries. As a consequence, the central bank would find it more and more difficult to hold the nominal exchange rate constant. This leads us to consider a passive exchange rate policy of stabilizing the exchange rate by moving the nominal rate in line with domestic inflation. If such passive policy is not accompanied by the elimination of trade barriers, however, the black market premium will not disappear. Unless exchange rate policy and trade policy are consistent with each other, the smuggler's blues will reach the central bank. Indeed, this is not just a theoretical possibility, it is the major lesson from the recent experience of Sudan.

"The Keynesian Roots of Stock-flow Consistent Macroeconomic Models: Peering Over the Edge of the Short Period"

This paper argues that institutionally rich stock-flow consistent models—that is, models in which economic agents are identified with the main social categories/institutional sectors of actual capitalist economies, the short period behavior of these agents is thoroughly described, and the "period by period" balance sheet dynamics implied by the latter is consistently modeled—are (1) perfectly compatible with John Maynard Keynes's theoretical views, (2) the ideal tool for rigorous post-Keynesian analyses of the medium run, and (3) therefore crucial to the consolidation of the broad post-Keynesian research program.

"Revisiting (and Connecting) Marglin-Bhaduri and Minsky--An SFC Look at Financialization and Profit-led Growth"

Many heterodox strands of thought share both a concern with the study of different phases or growth regimes in the history of capitalism and the use of formal short-run models as an analytical tool. This text suggests that (1) this strategy is potentially misleading; (2) that the stock-flow consistent (SFC) approach, while providing a general framework that may facilitate the dialogue among those currents, is particularly well suited to all those who think that macroeconomic models may illuminate historical quests; and (3) that the main intuitions may be conveyed through the "benchmark" Post Keynesian SFC model presented by Dos Santos and Zezza (2008), dispensing with the complex computer simulations that are normally employed by SFC authors.

From the periphery to the centre: Community engagement and justice in conservation decision making

Conservation nowadays is understood as a broad concept that considers objects as contextual and contingent. The social dimensions of the conservation object, however, have been successively overlooked in most conservation endeavours. Although communities are considered an important stakeholder in conservation decision-making processes, engagement with communities in practice is clearly deficient. The lack of communication with these communities can be understood as a symptom of the overall misrecognition of this peripheral stakeholder that raises questions concerning the justice of the conservation process in its social context. The aim of this paper is to explore how the notion of justice can be applied to conservation decision-making through the example of two performance-based artworks. Finally, a reflective approach that acknowledges the ‘documentation of absence’ is suggested

The aim of documentation: Micro-decisions in the documentation of performance-based artworks

The preservation of performance-based artworks, such as installations and performances, is often accompanied by frequent discussions regarding their documentation. How can performance- based artworks, which are unrepeatable and contextual, be documented after the event? This paper aims to reflect upon the purpose of the documentation of performance-based artworks and about how the micro-decisions conservators make during the documentation process can influence and are influenced by their intentions. In this context, the concepts and practices of documentation are critically examined. With this goal in mind, the artwork Identificación (1975) by the Portuguese artist Manoel Barbosa (b. 1953) and the documentation produced in two different contexts by two different people (a choreographer and a conservator) are discussed

Weighted automata as coalgebras in categories of matrices

The evolution from non-deterministic to weighted automata represents a shift from qual- itative to quantitative methods in computer science. The trend calls for a language able to reconcile quantitative reasoning with formal logic and set theory, which have for so many years supported qualitative reasoning. Such a lingua franca should be typed, poly- morphic, diagrammatic, calculational and easy to blend with conventional notation. This paper puts forward typed linear algebra as a candidate notation for such a unifying role. This notation, which emerges from regarding matrices as morphisms of suitable categories, is put at work in describing weighted automata as coalgebras in such categories. Some attention is paid to the interface between the index-free (categorial) language of matrix algebra and the corresponding index-wise, set-theoretic notation.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Gravitational wave recoil in Robinson-Trautman spacetimes

We consider the gravitational recoil due to non-reflection-symmetric gravitational wave emission in the context of axisymmetric Robinson-Trautman spacetimes. We show that regular initial data evolve generically into a final configuration corresponding to a Schwarzschild black-hole moving with constant speed. For the case of (reflection-)symmetric initial configurations, the mass of the remnant black-hole and the total energy radiated away are completely determined by the initial data, allowing us to obtain analytical expressions for some recent numerical results that have been appeared in the literature. Moreover, by using the Galerkin spectral method to analyze the non-linear regime of the Robinson-Trautman equations, we show that the recoil velocity can be estimated with good accuracy from some asymmetry measures (namely the first odd moments) of the initial data. The extension for the non-axisymmetric case and the implications of our results for realistic situations involving head-on collision of two black holes are also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, final version to appear in PR

O potencial do mercado de software para o agronegócio.

Discutir o potencial do mercado de software aplicado ao agronegócio no Brasil a partir de análises quantitativas e cruzamentos de dados de fontes do setor, como órgãos governamentais e instituições de pesquisa.Trabalho apresentado na V Mostra de Trabalhos de Estagiários e Bolsistas, Campinas, out. 2009