Can the Consumption-Free Nonexpected Utility Model Solve the Risk PremiumPuzzle? An Empirical Study of the Japanese Stock Market

This paper investigates whether the consumption-free two-beta intertemporal capital asset-pricing model developed by Campbell and Vuolteenaho (2004) is able to solve the risk premium puzzle in the Japanese stock market over the period 1984−@2002. Using the cash flow and discount rate betas as risk factors, themodel is able to explain about half of the market returns by selection of suitabe vector autoregression variables. On this basis, the model proposed solves therisk premium puzzle in Japan, thereby suggesting that Japanese investors are lessrisk averse than US investors. However, a model including only the cash flow beta better explains returns than a model with both betas. The analysis also tests and rejects the simple capital asset-pricing model in Japan.

Generalized Hyperbolic Discounting, Borrowing Aversion, and Debt Holding

Analysis of an original, broad, internet-based survey reveals that debt holding is related to three aspects of time discounting: (i) present bias, measured by the degree of declining impatience in the generalized hyperbolic discount function; (ii) borrowing aversion, captured by a sign effect - discounting future losses at a lower rate than future gains; and (iii) impatience, measured by the overall discount rate. Present-biased respondents are classified as naĩve if their answers reveal them to be time-inconsistent procrastinators, and classified as sophisticated otherwise. Naĩve respondents with more steeply declining impatience are more likely to be debtors, and are likely to have larger amounts of debt, whereas sophisticates display only insignificant positive association between declining impatience and debt holding. Responses indicative of a sign effect are negatively associated with debt holding. The marginal effect on debt of such a sign effect is larger in magnitude than the effect of one standard deviation increases both in declining impatience and in impatience. Survey responses indicative of high or declining impatience are associated with high debt-to-income ratios, borrowing on credit cards, and the experiences of having borrowed unsecured consumer loans, of having engaged in debt-restructuring, or of having declared personal bankruptcy.

Time Discounting and Smoking Behavior under Tax Hikes

By combining our broad panel survey of Japanese adults from 2005 to 2008 and actual cigarette tax data, we investigate how smoking behavior including responses to tax hikes depends on time discounting and its biases, such as hyperbolic discounting and the sign effect. Cigarette consumption displays significantly positive correlations with discount rates and the procrastinating tendency, and negative correlations with the sign effect. Hyperbolic, procrastinating, andna�ve respondents decrease their after-tax-hike cigarette consumption more than the others, implying that, irrespective of the preannouncement of a future tax hike, they postpone smoking moderation until the tax hike actually takes place. Finally, the government's revenue from cigarette tax peaks at a JPY 29.92 (around USD 0.28 using the conversion rate [107.16] in February 2008) higher tax per cigarette than the present actual level.

Ultrafast all-optically controlled 2×2 crossbar switch

All-optical packet switching using all-optical routing control, where both ultrafast address recognition and routing of photonic packets were all optically performed on a header with 4 picosecond bit period, was demonstrated. Packets were self-routed through a node with no need for optoelectronic conversion. Terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexer (TOAD) was used as an optically controlled 2×2 routing switch and as an all optical routing controller. TOAD read the individual address bits in the tightly compressed packet header and set the state of the routing switch. The bit-error rate at the switching element was measured to be less than 10-9

Can Sodium Abundances of A-Type Stars Be Reliably Determined from Na I 5890/5896 Lines?

An extensive non-LTE abundance analysis based on Na I 5890/5896 doublet lines was carried out for a large unbiased sample of ~120 A-type main-sequence stars (including 23 Hyades stars) covering a wide v_e sin i range of ~10--300 km/s, with an aim to examine whether the Na abundances in such A dwarfs can be reliably established from these strong Na I D lines. The resulting abundances ([Na/H]_{58}), which were obtained by applying the T_eff-dependent microturbulent velocities of \xi ~2--4 km/s with a peak at T_eff ~ 8000 K (typical for A stars), turned out generally negative with a large diversity (from ~-1 to ~0), while showing a sign of v_e sin i-dependence (decreasing toward higher rotation). However, the reality of this apparently subsolar trend is very questionable, since these [Na/H]_{58} are systematically lower by ~0.3--0.6 dex than more reliable [Na/H]_{61} (derived from weak Na I 6154/6161 lines for sharp-line stars). Considering the large \xi-sensitivity of the abundances derived from these saturated Na I D lines, we regard that [Na/H]_{58} must have been erroneously underestimated, suspecting that the conventional \xi values are improperly too large at least for such strong high-forming Na I 5890/5896 lines, presumably due to the depth-dependence of \xi decreasing with height. The nature of atmospheric turbulent velocity field in mid-to-late A stars would have to be more investigated before we can determine reliable sodium abundances from these strong resonance D lines.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan, Vol. 61, No. 5 (2009

Fat Debtors: Time Discounting, Its Anomalies, and Body Mass Index

In view of the finding that debtors are likely to be more obese than nondebtors, we investigate whether interpersonal differences in body mass are, as in the case of debt behavior, related to those in time discounting and time discounting anomalies. The effects of time discounting on body massindex (BMI) and the probabilities of being obese, severely obese, and underweightare detected by incorporating three properties of intertemporal preferences: (i) impatience, measured by the level of the respondentsf discountrate; (ii) hyperbolic discounting, where discount rates for the discountingof immediate future payoffs are higher than those of distant future payoffs; and (iii) the sign effect, wherein future negative payoffs are discounted ata lower rate than are future positive payoffs. We also find that body mass is non-monotonically correlated with age, income, and working hours. As a policy implication, body mass can potentially be controlled by changing the intertemporal structure of medical care costs.

Band Gap Closing in a Synthetic Hall Tube of Neutral Fermions

We report the experimental realization of a synthetic three-leg Hall tube with ultracold fermionic atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice. The legs of the synthetic tube are composed of three hyperfine spin states of the atoms, and the cyclic inter-leg links are generated by two-photon Raman transitions between the spin states, resulting in a uniform gauge flux $\phi$ penetrating each side plaquette of the tube. Using quench dynamics, we investigate the band structure of the Hall tube system for a commensurate flux $\phi=2\pi/3$. Momentum-resolved analysis of the quench dynamics reveals that a critical point of band gap closing as one of the inter-leg coupling strengths is varied, which is consistent with a topological phase transition predicted for the Hall tube system.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Can the Consumption-Free Nonexpected Utility Model Solve the Risk Premium Puzzle? An Empirical Study of the Japanese Stock Market

U ovom završnom radu bilo je potrebno na osnovu projektne dokumentacije izraditi dokaznicu mjera i troškovnik obiteljske kuće. U troškovniku su obuhvaćeni grubi i završni građevinski radovi.In this final paper it was necessary to draw up a proof of the measure and a bill of cost of the family house based on the project documentation. The cost sheet includes rough and finished construction works