Monetary Information and Macroeconomic Fluctuations

This paper introduces contemporaneously available monetary data into an "equilibrium" model that combines rational expectations, market clearing, and incomplete information about monetary disturbances. Data on the current money stock involve a preliminary estimate that is subject to a subsequent process of gradual revision. The model implies the testable hypothesis that aggregate output and employment are uncorrelated with the contemporaneous measure of money growth implied by the difference between the currently available estimates of current and past money shocks. Rejection of this hypothesis provides strong evidence again at the equilibriums approach to modeling the relation between monetary disturbances and macro-economic fluctuations.

Employment Effects of the Federal Minimum Wage

This paper describes an empirical study of the effects of federal minimum wage policy on aggregate employment, on the employment of various demographic groups, and on employment in low-wage industries. The analytical framework permits separate testing both for direct employment effects of the level and coverage of the minimum wage and for indirect employment effects resulting from a possible role for the minimum wage as a cause of monetary nonneutrality. Another innovation in this study is the inclusion of rational expectations of expected future relative minimum wages as determinants of the demands and supplies of labor services. The study finds that minimum-wage policy seems not to affect aggregate employment or average wages either directly or indirectly. Minimum-wage policy, however, has large and statistically significant effects on the industrial and demographic composition of employment, with employment decreasing in certain low-wage industries and for teenagers and for young men but increasing for young women and for adults. A major part of these effects are associated with anticipated future changes in the level of the minimum wage.

Tests of Equilibrium Macroeconomics Using Contemporaneous Monetary Data

This paper uses contemporaneous monetary data to carry out econometric tests of the "equilibrium" approach to modeling the relation between monetary disturbances and macroeconomic fluctuations. The theoretical analysis introduces into an equilibrium macroeconomic model the availability of preliminary data on current monetary aggregates and the process of accumulation of revised monetary data. The econometric analysis tests two hypotheses derived from this extended model. One hypothesis concerns the neutrality of perceived monetary policy. The other hypothesis concerns the nonneutrality of errors in preliminary monetary data. The econometric results imply rejection of both of these hypotheses. These tests provide strong evidence against the reality of the equilibrium approach.

Phospholipides containing amino acids other than serine. I. Detection

In view of the widespread occurrence of the amino acid-containing lipides and the unique course of their metabolism during development of Drosophila, we have carried out extensive investigations concerned with their isolation and chemical nature. The present report is concerned primarily with techniques and procedures developed to insure removal of non-lipide contaminants from preparations of these lipides

Seigniorage, Inflation, and Reputation

This paper derives a reputational equilibrum for inflation in a model in which the government obtains valuable seigniorage by issuing fiat money in echange for real resources. One insightful result is that , with contemporaneous perceptionof actual government behavior and immediate adjustment of real cash balences to new information , the Friedman elasticity solution for maximal seigniorage is the reputatoinal equilibrium. More generally , the analysis shows that the objective of maximal seigniorage produces an equilibrium inflation rate equal either to a generalization of the Friedman elasticity solution or to the rate at which the government discounts future seigniorage adjusted for the growth rate, whichever is larger. Thus, the model formalizes the conjecture that epizodes of inflation rates in excess of the Friedman solution are attributable to high discounts rates for future seigniorage. Adding aversion to high expected inflation to the model, this analysis also rationalizes the observation that inflation rates are usually less than Friedman's elasticity solution.

Sovereign Debt as a Contingent Claim: Excusable Default, Repudiation, and Reputation

History suggests the following stylized facts about default on sovereign debt:(1) Defaults are associated with identifiably bad states of the world. (2) Defaults are usually partial, rather than complete.(3) Sovereign states usually are able to borrow again soon after a default. Motivated by these facts, this paper analyses a reputational equilibrium in a model that interprets sovereign debts as contingent claims that both finance investments and facilitate risk shifting. Loans are a useful device to facilitate risk shifting because they permit the prepayment of indemnities. Nevertheless, because the power to abrogate commitments without having to answer to a higher enforcement authority is an essential aspect of sovereignty, a decision by a sovereign to validate lender expectations about debt servicing depends on the sovereign's concern for its trust worthy reputation. A trustworthy reputationis valuable because it provides continued access to loans. A key aspect of the analysis is that lenders differentiate excusable default, which is associated with implicitly understood contingencies, from unjustifiable repudiation. In the reputational equilibrium, the short-run benefits from repudiation are smaller than the long-run costs from loss of a trustworthy reputation. Thus, although sovereigns sometimes excusably default, they never repudiate their debts. The reputational equilibrium can involve efficient risk shifting and efficient investment or it can involve a binding lending ceiling that limits risk shifting and can also restrict investment. The factors that tend to produce a binding lending ceiling include a high time discount rate for the sovereign, low-risk aversion forthe sovereign, and a low net return from the sovereign's investments.

History of District Twenty-one, United Mine Workers of America

The purpose of this work is to discuss the rise and decline of District Twenty-one of the United Mine Workers of America. The district became a major force in Oklahoma after successfully gaining recognition by the mine owners of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas in 1903. Its greatest moment came in the Oklahoma constitutional convention of 1907 where Pete Hanraty of the miners served as vice-president. For two decades, the union was a major factor in the Oklahoma Federation of Labor and helped to gain significant benefits for the working men and women of the state. In the 1920s, the miners' organization began the long period of decline in which the lessening demand for coal and internal and external problems resulted in the loss of the district's autonomy in 1929. After that year, the district became dependent for its survival on the strength of the national organization. The history of District Twenty-one is important because the union was so influential in the early development of the state and because it reflects national trends in the United Mine Workers of America. This work will illustrate how the miners, economically strong and supported by Oklahomans, created a state which reflected their interests, and how economic, political, and social changes promoted that union's collapse.Histor

Readership Survey of the Oklahoma Banker

This study was concerned with reader interests in The Oklahoma Banker magazine, an organizational publication of the Oklahoma Bankers Association. The study primarily focused upon reader preference for several regular features of the magazine and upon specific subject areas of content. This study was exploratory in nature, attempting to identify commonalities among readers and subject areas.Mass Communicatio

Solar Cell Measurement System for NPS Spacecraft Architecture and Technology Demonstration Satellite, NPSAT1

Rapid changes in semiconductor technologies over the last decade have spawned new interest in developing higher efficiency solar cells which are capable of using a broader part of the light spectrum. The Naval Postgraduate School’s NPSAT1, launching in the Spring of 2006, will include a subsystem which can be used to measure the performance of the new solar cells, providing an ability to combine functions previously available on only individual discrete components onto a single chip. The ability can help make space more accessible by reducing cost and complexity. The Solar Cell Measurement System (SMS) is a radiation hardened microcontroller based system using a radiation hardened FPGA that drives and monitors a collection of sun angle sensors, temperature sensors, a current sink/differential amplifier circuit combination for each of the 22 test cells and 2 control cells to be used in the experiment. The test cells are Triple Junction InGaP/GaAs/Ge cells and the control cells are Dual Junction cells. Triple Redundant Analog-to-Digital Converters, Digital-to-Analog Converters, and memory and interrupt logic will be implemented in the FPGA. The error budget developed for the circuits predicts a maximum error of 0.28%. The controller provides a common controller architecture for NPSAT1’s Electrical Power System and Attitude Control System. Future versions of the system will be able to further reduce costs by implementing a processor core into the FPGA