Will the Adoption of Basel II Encourage Increased Bank Merger Activity? Evidence from the United States

This study presents two tests of the hypothesis that adoption of an internal ratings-based approach to determining minimum capital requirements, proposed as part of the Basel II capital accord, would cause adopting banking organizations to increase their acquisition activity. The study employs U.S. data and focuses on the advanced internal ratings-based approach, as proposed for banking organizations in the United States. The first test estimates the relationship between excess regulatory capital and subsequent merger activity, including organization and time fixed effects, while the second test employs a " difference in difference" analysis of the change in merger activity that occurred the last time U.S. regulatory capital standards were changed. Estimated coefficients and observed differences have signs consistent with the hypothesis, but results are either statistically insignificant or imply differences that are small in magnitude.

Will the Adoption of Basel II Encourage Increased Bank Merger Activity? Evidence from the United States

This study presents two tests of the hypothesis that adoption of an internal ratings-based approach to determining minimum capital requirements, proposed as part of the Basel II capital accord, would cause adopting banking organizations to increase their acquisition activity. The study employs U.S. data and focuses on the advanced internal ratings-based approach, as proposed for banking organizations in the United States. The first test estimates the relationship between excess regulatory capital and subsequent merger activity, including organization and time fixed effects, while the second test employs a " difference in difference" analysis of the change in merger activity that occurred the last time U.S. regulatory capital standards were changed. Estimated coefficients and observed differences have signs consistent with the hypothesis, but results are either statistically insignificant or imply differences that are small in magnitude

FAST CARS: Engineering a Laser Spectroscopic Technique for Rapid Identification of Bacterial Spores

Airborne contaminants, e.g., bacterial spores, are usually analyzed by time consuming microscopic, chemical and biological assays. Current research into real time laser spectroscopic detectors of such contaminants is based on e.g. resonant Raman spectroscopy. The present approach derives from recent experiments in which atoms and molecules are prepared by one (or more) coherent laser(s) and probed by another set of lasers. The connection with previous studies based on "Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy" (CARS) is to be noted. However generating and utilizing maximally coherent oscillation in macromolecules having an enormous number of degrees of freedom is much more challenging. This extension of the CARS technique is called FAST CARS (Femtosecond Adaptive Spectroscopic Techniques for Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy), and the present paper proposes and analyses ways in which it could be used to rapidly identify pre-selected molecules in real time.Comment: 43 pages, 21 figures; replacement with references added. Submitted to the Proceedings of National Academy of Science

Will the proposed application of Basel II in the United States encourage increased bank merger activity? evidence from past merger activity

This paper presents two tests of the hypothesis that adoption of the internal ratings-based approach to determining minimum capital requirements, as proposed in applying the Basel II capital accord in the United States, will cause adopting banking organizations to increase acquisition activity. The first test estimates the relationship between excess regulatory capital and subsequent merger activity, including organization and time fixed effects, while the second test employs a "difference in difference" analysis of the change in merger activity that occurred the last time regulatory capital standards were changed. Estimated coefficients and observed differences have signs consistent with the hypothesis, but results are either statistically insignificant or imply differences that are small in magnitude.Bank capital - Law and legislation ; Bank mergers

Dual-frequency optical pumping for spin-polarizing a lithium atomic beam

Baum G, Caldwell C, Schröder W. Dual-frequency optical pumping for spin-polarizing a lithium atomic beam. Appl.Phys. A. 1980;21(2):121-126