Kinetic market models with single commodity having price fluctuations

We study here numerically the behavior of an ideal gas like model of markets having only one non-consumable commodity. We investigate the behavior of the steady-state distributions of money, commodity and total wealth, as the dynamics of trading or exchange of money and commodity proceeds, with local (in time) fluctuations in the price of the commodity. These distributions are studied in markets with agents having uniform and random saving factors. The self-organizing features in money distribution are similar to the cases without any commodity (or with consumable commodities), while the commodity distribution shows an exponential decay. The wealth distribution shows interesting behavior: Gamma like distribution for uniform saving propensity and has the same power-law tail, as that of the money distribution, for a market with agents having random saving propensity.Comment: RevTeX4, 6 pages, 5 eps figures, accepted in Eur. Phys. J.

Ideal-gas like market models with savings: quenched and annealed cases

We analyze the ideal gas like models of markets and review the different cases where a `savings' factor changes the nature and shape of the distribution of wealth. These models can produce similar distribution of wealth as observed across varied economies. We present a more realistic model where the saving factor can vary over time (annealed savings) and yet produces Pareto distribution of wealth in certain cases. We discuss the relevance of such models in the context of wealth distribution, and address some recent issues in the context of these models.Comment: 2-col RevTeX4, 4 pages, 1 eps figure; Proc. APFA5 Conference, Torino, 200

Explaining Filipino Households’ Declining Saving Rate

From 1994 to 2006, the average household saving rate in the Philippines declined by 5.2 percentage points to about a mere 5% of disposable income. Using data from income and expenditure survey at the household level, this paper explains why households' consumption growth had been higher than income growth during this period. Tracing cohorts shows that saving declined across all demographic groups. A simple test that provides the strength of the precautionary saving motive yields a plausible explanation that households are financially constrained and less prudent in the recent years. This paper argues that these patterns are best explained by the extended coverage of social security system during the 1990s in the Philippines. Less prudent behavior may have been amplified by the severe financial constraint leading to the sharp fall in the saving rate

Kinetic Exchange Models for Income and Wealth Distributions

Increasingly, a huge amount of statistics have been gathered which clearly indicates that income and wealth distributions in various countries or societies follow a robust pattern, close to the Gibbs distribution of energy in an ideal gas in equilibrium. However, it also deviates in the low income and more significantly for the high income ranges. Application of physics models provides illuminating ideas and understanding, complementing the observations.Comment: 15 pages, 20 eps figures, EPJ class; To be published as "Colloquium" in Eur Phys J

DNA resection in eukaryotes: deciding how to fix the break

DNA double-strand breaks are repaired by different mechanisms, including homologous recombination and nonhomologous end-joining. DNA-end resection, the first step in recombination, is a key step that contributes to the choice of DSB repair. Resection, an evolutionarily conserved process that generates single-stranded DNA, is linked to checkpoint activation and is critical for survival. Failure to regulate and execute this process results in defective recombination and can contribute to human disease. Here, I review recent findings on the mechanisms of resection in eukaryotes, from yeast to vertebrates, provide insights into the regulatory strategies that control it, and highlight the consequences of both its impairment and its deregulation

The Nature of Financial and Real Business Cycles: The Great Moderation and Banking Sector Pro-Cyclicality

This paper takes a fresh look at the nature of financial and real business cycles in OECD countries using annual data series and shorter quarterly and monthly economic indicators. It first analyses the main characteristics of the cycle, including the length, amplitude, asymmetry and changes of these parameters during expansions and contractions. It then studies the degree of economic and financial cycle synchronisation between OECD countries but also of economic and financial variables within a given country, and gauges the extent to which cycle synchronisation changed over time. Finally, the paper provides some new evidence on the drivers of the great moderation and analyses the banking sector's pro-cyclicality by using aggregate and bank-level data. The main findings show that the amplitude of the real business cycle was becoming smaller during the great moderation, but asset price cycles were becoming more volatile. In part this was linked to developments in the banking sector which tended to accentuate pro-cyclical behaviour

Vesnarinone, a differentiation inducing drug, directly activates p21waf1 gene promoter via Sp1 sites in a human salivary gland cancer cell line

We previously demonstrated that a differentiation inducing drug, vesnarinone induced the growth arrest and p21waf1 gene expression in a human salivary gland cancer cell line, TYS. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism of the induction of p21waf1 gene by vesnarinone in TYS cells. We constructed several reporter plasmids containing the p21waf1 promoter, and attempted to identify vesnarinone-responsive elements in the p21waf1 promoter. By the luciferase reporter assay, we identified the minimal vesnarinone-responsive element in the p21waf1 promoter at −124 to −61 relative to the transcription start site. Moreover, we demonstrated by electrophoretic mobility shift assay that Sp1 and Sp3 transcription factors bound to the vesnarinone-responsive element. Furthermore, we found that vesnarinone induced the histone hyperacetylation in TYS cells. These results suggest that vesnarinone directly activates p21waf1 promoter via the activation of Sp1 and Sp3 transcription factors and the histone hyperacetylation in TYS cells

Entrepreneurs, Chance, and the Deterministic Concentration of Wealth

In many economies, wealth is strikingly concentrated. Entrepreneurs–individuals with ownership in for-profit enterprises–comprise a large portion of the wealthiest individuals, and their behavior may help explain patterns in the national distribution of wealth. Entrepreneurs are less diversified and more heavily invested in their own companies than is commonly assumed in economic models. We present an intentionally simplified individual-based model of wealth generation among entrepreneurs to assess the role of chance and determinism in the distribution of wealth. We demonstrate that chance alone, combined with the deterministic effects of compounding returns, can lead to unlimited concentration of wealth, such that the percentage of all wealth owned by a few entrepreneurs eventually approaches 100%. Specifically, concentration of wealth results when the rate of return on investment varies by entrepreneur and by time. This result is robust to inclusion of realities such as differing skill among entrepreneurs. The most likely overall growth rate of the economy decreases as businesses become less diverse, suggesting that high concentrations of wealth may adversely affect a country's economic growth. We show that a tax on large inherited fortunes, applied to a small portion of the most fortunate in the population, can efficiently arrest the concentration of wealth at intermediate levels