Asymmetric adjustment of unemployment and output in New Zealand: Rediscovering Okun’s law

Okun's law - the relationship between unemployment and output - is one of the best known empirical regularities in macroeconomics. It is an important relationship because the way in which unemployment reacts to changes in output has implications for labour market and monetary policies and for forecasting. Most specifications of Okun's law assume a symmetric relationship: expansions and contractions in output have the same absolute effect on unemployment. In this paper, we test this assumption against the alternative view that the relationship is asymmetric. We use New Zealand data from 1978 to 1999 and contemporary econometric techniques including asymmetric modelling. Our main finding is that changes in unemployment and output in New Zealand are related in both the long run and the short run but only if an asymmetric approach is taken

Testing for asymmetry in Okun's law: A cross-country comparison

Most specifications of Okun's law assume a symmetric relationship between changes in unemployment and real output. We test this assumption for seven OECD countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). We find that failure to take account of asymmetries would see a rejection of the hypothesis that there exists a long-run relationship between unemployment and output in countries such as the United States and New Zealand. We also find that short-run output and unemployment adjustments to disequilibrium usually differ according to whether up-turns or down-turns in the business cycle are considered. These results could not have been obtained using standard estimates of Okun''s law based on a symmetric approach.

The Trichoptera of Panama XIV. New species of microcaddisflies (Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae) from Omar Torrijos Herrera National Park

Abstract. In 2017, a new project was begun to assess the biodiversity of national parks and forest reserves in the Republic of Panama. Designated “Proyecto Sistema de Producción Sostenible Conservación de la Biodiversidad (PSPSCB)”, this project is managed by Panama’s Ministerio de Ambiente. The first park sampled in 2017 was Omar Torrijos Herrera National Park (OTHNP). Trichoptera (Insecta) were collected at four locations using both Malaise traps and UV light traps. The rugged terrain and lack of access in this remote park limited the sampled area. Sampling included streams in both the Caribbean and Pacific drainages. Seven new species of microcaddis­flies (Hydroptilidae: Alistotrichia coclensis Armitage and Harris, Cerasmatrichia akanthos Armitage and Harris, Metrichia corazones Armitage and Harris, Neotrichia espinosa Armitage and Harris, Neotrichia michaeli Armit­age and Harris, Neotrichia pierpointorum Armitage and Harris, and Neotrichia yayas Armitage and Harris) and one new country record, Metrichia macrophallata Flint, were identified from this preliminary survey and are re­ported herein. Other recently described species are reported here for the first time outside of their type localities. Based on other areas more extensively sampled compared to this modest survey, many more new species and new country records await discovery in OTHNP as are reported herein. There are now 439 species distributed among 15 families and 55 genera known from Panama. Resumen. En 2017, se inició un nuevo proyecto para evaluar la biodiversidad de parques nacionales y reservas forestales en la República de Panamá. Designado “Proyecto Sistema de Producción Sostenible Conservación de la Biodiversidad (PSPSCB)”, este proyecto es administrado por el Ministerio de Ambiente de Panamá. El primer parque muestreado en 2017 fue el Parque Nacional Omar Torrijos Herrera (OTHNP). Se recogieron Trichoptera en cuatro ubicaciones utilizando trampas Malaise y trampas de luz UV. El terreno accidentado y la falta de acceso en este parque remoto limitaron el área muestreada. El muestreo incluyó corrientes en los drenajes del Caribe y del Pacífico. Siete nuevas especies de micro-Trichoptera (Hydroptilidae: Alistotrichia coclensis Armitage and Harris, Cerasmatrichia akanthos Armitage and Harris, Metrichia corazones Armitage and Harris, Neotrichia es­pinosa Armitage and Harris, Neotrichia michaeli Armitage and Harris, Neotrichia pierpointorum Armitage and Harris, and Neotrichia yayas Armitage and Harris) y un nuevo registro de país, Metrichia macrophallata Flint, se identificaron a partir de esta encuesta preliminar y se informan aquí. Otras especies recientemente descritas se registran aquí por primera vez fuera de sus localidades tipo. Con base en otras áreas más extensamente mues­treadas, en comparación con esta modesta investigación, muchas más especies nuevas y nuevos registros para el país esperan ser descubiertos en el OTHNP como se informa aquí. Ahora en Panamá, hay 439 especies conocidas de Trichoptera distribuidas entre 15 familias y 55 géneros

Assessment Plan and Design: A Model for Enhancing Instruction in Economics Courses

This paper develops a systematic approach to course assessment that aims to identify strengths and weaknesses in student achievement and course design that can be addressed through instructional change. We develop seven distinct steps for course assessment and explain these procedures with an assessment tool that was developed for an economics foundation course. Our assessment tool includes twenty five common multiple-choice questions that were developed to evaluate student achievement and assess an economics course through yearly evaluation. During a seven year process, student data were collected first to revise the assessment tool and later to evaluate the program and student performance. The analysis of student data by topic, question, and level of difficulty enabled faculty to gain a better understanding of student weaknesses and address these in the classroom through the adoption of a variety of different teaching approaches. This process strengthened both the foundation course and individual lectures and resulted in a positive impact on student performance. Continuous reinforcement of these strategies by faculty is expected to benefit both the course and students.

A low-toxicity method for the separation of lanosterol and dihydrolanosterol from commercial mixtures

We describe an inexpensive, low-toxicity and high-yielding method for the production of pure lanosterol and dihydrolanosterol from the commercially available mixture. Optimum conditions are presented for the one-pot production of the intermediate 24,25 vicinal diol of lanosterol acetate (via either epoxidation or hydroxyhalogenation) which is readily separated from the unreacted dihydrolanosterol acetate. The lanosterol diol can then be converted to pure (>97%) lanosterol. Hypophosphorous acid was used for both the conversion of the epoxide to the diol, and as a catalyst for the hydroxyhalogenation by N-halosuccinimides of the olefinic bond

Active Promotion of Useful Arts: Considering the Government\u27s Role in Patent Enforcement

The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power “[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” To this end, Congress created the copyright system “[t]o promote the Progress of Science” and the patent system for promoting the progress of useful arts. The American patent system can be though of as a vehicle for converting an intangible idea into a form of property. Since the beginning of the American patent system, social benefit has been a key component of the decision to grant a patent. Some view patent rights as a form of monopoly, termed a “patent monopoly.” Because early Americans had strong anti-monopoly sentiments, their decision to institute a system that would allow for a patent monopoly demonstrates a recognition of the importance of furthering collective knowledge. However, a patent can be essentially worthless if its owner is unable to enforce it. While a patent confers the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling whatever the patent claims, this right has been restated by some to actually be more akin to “a right to try to exclude” others. One reason is that the right to exclude can only be exercised on the condition that the patent owner also has the financial means to exclude. There is no criminal penalty for patent infringement. Instead, patent infringement is strictly a civil matter and patent owners are responsible for the costs associated with enforcement. Thus, if a patent owner is unable to afford the cost of litigation, the right to exclude might as well not exist

SUSY Production Cross Sections

We summarize the status of next-to-leading order perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations of the cross sections for the production of squarks, gluinos, neutralinos, charginos, and sleptons as a function of the produced sparticle masses in proton-antiproton collisions at the hadronic center-of-mass energy 2 TeV.Comment: 7 pages, latex, plus one .eps figure; subgroup summary for the SUGRA working group of the Fermilab workshop Physics at Run II -- Supersymmetry/Higg

Music & Neuroscience as a Digital Therapeutic for Walking

With the advancement of both neuroscience and clinical research demonstrating the ability of music to enhance functional outcomes, there is an ever-growing need to identify opportunities to deliver and solutions to facilitate these improved outcomes to patients. This need is amplified in the face of a growing and aging population that faces rising healthcare costs and a fractured healthcare delivery system. Digital therapeutics will play an important role in bringing these interventions to the people who need and deserve to have them