Limiting Fiscal Procyclicality: Evidence from Resource-Dependent Countries

We provide evidence that fiscal policy in resource-dependent countries is procyclical. The empirical analysis reveals that on average real government consumption in these countries tends to significantly rise (fall) in good (bad) times. To control for endogeneity we use an instrumental variable for GDP growth that arises naturally, namely the growth in commodity prices of the main natural resource export. We also find that fiscal policy procyclicality is lower in more democratic regimes, and in countries with stronger checks and balances on the executive. Operating a sovereign wealth fund can help limit fiscal policy procyclicality in some instances, while we find no such evidence for fiscal rules

Case Studies in Teaching

This chapter will:; ; ; Present a final set of three teaching case studies to illustrate the points that we have made throughout this volume;; ; ; Discuss extensive tasks designed for business students to enable them to practise and develop the skills of negotiating, relationship-building, decision-making, and problem-solving, as these are used by business professionals;; ; ; Conclude with recommendations for further readings based on research into spoken and written business discourse

Testing the Properties of Beam-Dose Monitors for VHEE-FLASH Radiation Therapy

Very High Energy Electrons (VHEE) of 50 - 250 MeV are an attractive choice for FLASH radiation therapy (RT). Before VHEE-FLASH RT can be considered for clinical use, a reliable dosimetric and beam monitoring system needs to be developed, able to measure the dose delivered to the patient in real-time and cut off the beam in the event of a machine fault to prevent overdosing the patient. Ionisation chambers are the standard monitors in conventional RT; however, their response saturates at the high dose rates required for FLASH. Therefore, a new dosimetry method is needed that can provide reliable measurements of the delivered dose in these conditions. Experiments using 200 MeV electrons were done at the CLEAR facility at CERN to investigate the properties of detectors such as diamond beam loss detectors, GEM foil detectors, and Timepix3 ASIC chips. From the tests, the GEM foil proved to be the most promising

Performance of photon reconstruction and identification with the CMS detector in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

A description is provided of the performance of the CMS detector for photon reconstruction and identification in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the CERN LHC. Details are given on the reconstruction of photons from energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) and the extraction of photon energy estimates. The reconstruction of electron tracks from photons that convert to electrons in the CMS tracker is also described, as is the optimization of the photon energy reconstruction and its accurate modelling in simulation, in the analysis of the Higgs boson decay into two photons. In the barrel section of the ECAL, an energy resolution of about 1% is achieved for unconverted or late-converting photons from Hγγ decays. Different photon identification methods are discussed and their corresponding selection efficiencies in data are compared with those found in simulated events

Measurement of jet multiplicity distributions in [Formula: see text] production in pp collisions at [Formula: see text].

The normalised differential top quark-antiquark production cross section is measured as a function of the jet multiplicity in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7[Formula: see text] at the LHC with the CMS detector. The measurement is performed in both the dilepton and lepton+jets decay channels using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0[Formula: see text]. Using a procedure to associate jets to decay products of the top quarks, the differential cross section of the [Formula: see text] production is determined as a function of the additional jet multiplicity in the lepton+jets channel. Furthermore, the fraction of events with no additional jets is measured in the dilepton channel, as a function of the threshold on the jet transverse momentum. The measurements are compared with predictions from perturbative quantum chromodynamics and no significant deviations are observed

Measurement of WZ and ZZ production in pp collisions at [Formula: see text] in final states with b-tagged jets.

Measurements are reported of the WZ and ZZ production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at [Formula: see text][Formula: see text] in final states where one Z boson decays to b-tagged jets. The other gauge boson, either W or Z, is detected through its leptonic decay (either [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], or [Formula: see text]). The results are based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.9 fb[Formula: see text] collected with the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measured cross sections, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], are consistent with next-to-leading order quantum chromodynamics calculations

Measurement of differential cross sections for the production of a pair of isolated photons in pp collisions at [Formula: see text].

A measurement of differential cross sections for the production of a pair of isolated photons in proton-proton collisions at [Formula: see text] is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0[Formula: see text] collected with the CMS detector. A data-driven isolation template method is used to extract the prompt diphoton yield. The measured cross section for two isolated photons, with transverse energy above 40 and 25[Formula: see text] respectively, in the pseudorapidity range [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and with an angular separation [Formula: see text], is [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]. Differential cross sections are measured as a function of the diphoton invariant mass, the diphoton transverse momentum, the azimuthal angle difference between the two photons, and the cosine of the polar angle in the Collins-Soper reference frame of the diphoton system. The results are compared to theoretical predictions at leading, next-to-leading, and next-to-next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics