The Global Spread of Stock Exchange, 1980-1998

Nations opened local stock exchanges at a rapid pace during the late 1980s and 1990s, creating a channel for investment capital from wealthy industrial nations to "emerging markets" as well as a mechanism for institutional change in local economies. This study examines the local and global processes by which exchanges spread, examining all nations "at risk" during the 1980s and 1990s. We find that local factors influencing the creation of stock exchanges included the size of the economy (overall and relative to population size); the legacy of colonialism; and a recent transition to multi-party democracy. Global factors associated with creating exchanges included levels of prior investment by multinationals; IMF "structural adjustment" aid; centrality in trade flows; and regional "contagion." In contrast to prior work in financial economics, we find no evidence for the influence of legal tradition, and contrary to the implications of dependency theory, we find no sign that foreign capital penetration affects the creation of exchanges. We also find no consistent evidence for the influence of stock exchanges on inequality or human development at the national level, above and beyond their effect on economic and population growth. The results indicate that globalization is usefully construed as a process analogous to institutional diffusion at the organization level.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39725/3/wp341.pd

Sodium chloride transport of normal and dietary enlarged rat cecum in vitro

Sodium chloride transport across isolated cecum mucosa was investigated in normal rats and rats with adaptive cecum growth induced by dietary polyethylene glycol (PEG). The normal cecum absorbed CI in excess of Na with a small short-circuit current (Isc). Dietary adaptation led to large equivalent increments of Na and Cl net absorption without adequate Ise change. Inhibitor studies (mucosal amiloride 10(-3) and 10(-4) M; mucosal 4,4-diisolhiocyanatostilbene-2,2-disulfonic acid 5 x 10(-5) M;serosal furosemide 10(-3) M;serosal ouabain 10(-3) M) suggested that normal cecal NaCl absorption involves electroneutral Na/N and Cl/HCO3 exchange at the apical and Na-K-ATPase-mediated exit across the basolateral cell membrane. Dietary adaptation stimulates the loosely coupled antiports and possibly activates a small serosally located NaCl cotransport. Comparative histology showed flattening of all tissue layers and widening of crypts in PEG animals. Crypt widening may facilitate ion access to underutilized transport sites and, at least in part, explain the increased absorption of the enlarged cecum

Linguistic diversity and redistribution

This paper investigates the effect of linguistic diversity on redistribution in a broad cross-section of countries. We use the notion of "linguistic distances" and show that the commonly used fractionalization index, which ignores linguistic distances, yields insigni cant results. However, once distances between languages are accounted for, linguistic diversity has both a statistically and economically signi cant effect on redistribution. With an average level of redistribution of 9.5 percent of GDP in our data set, an increase by one standard deviation in the degree of diversity lowers redistribution by approximately one percentage point. We also demonstrate that other measures, such as polarization and peripheral heterogeneity, provide similar results when linguistic distances are incorporated.The authors wish to thank the nancial support of the Comunidad de Madrid (grant 06/HSE/0157/2004) and of the Fundación BBVAPublicad

Nuclear Masses in Astrophysics

Among all nuclear ground-state properties, atomic masses are highly specific for each particular combination of N and Z and the data obtained apply to a variety of physics topics. One of the most crucial questions to be addressed in mass spectrometry of unstable radionuclides is the one of understanding the processes of element formation in the Universe. To this end, accurate atomic mass values of a large number of exotic nuclei participating in nucleosynthesis are among the key input data in large-scale reaction network calculations. In this paper, a review on the latest achievements in mass spectrometry for nuclear astrophysics is given.Comment: Proceedings of the 10th Symposium on Nuclei in the Cosmos, NIC X - Mackinac Island, Michigan, USA (10 pages, 4 figures

The Global Spread of Stock Exchange, 1980-1998

Nations opened local stock exchanges at a rapid pace during the late 1980s and 1990s, creating a channel for investment capital from wealthy industrial nations to "emerging markets" as well as a mechanism for institutional change in local economies. This study examines the local and global processes by which exchanges spread, examining all nations "at risk" during the 1980s and 1990s. We find that local factors influencing the creation of stock exchanges included the size of the economy (overall and relative to population size); the legacy of colonialism; and a recent transition to multi-party democracy. Global factors associated with creating exchanges included levels of prior investment by multinationals; IMF "structural adjustment" aid; centrality in trade flows; and regional "contagion." In contrast to prior work in financial economics, we find no evidence for the influence of legal tradition, and contrary to the implications of dependency theory, we find no sign that foreign capital penetration affects the creation of exchanges. We also find no consistent evidence for the influence of stock exchanges on inequality or human development at the national level, above and beyond their effect on economic and population growth. The results indicate that globalization is usefully construed as a process analogous to institutional diffusion at the organization level.globalization, contagion, financial markets

Three years of experience with the STELLA robotic observatory

Since May 2006, the two STELLA robotic telescopes at the Izana observatory in Tenerife, Spain, delivered an almost uninterrupted stream of scientific data. To achieve such a high level of autonomous operation, the replacement of all troubleshooting skills of a regular observer in software was required. Care must be taken on error handling issues and on robustness of the algorithms used. In the current paper, we summarize the approaches we followed in the STELLA observatory

Modeling electricity spot prices - Combining mean-reversion, spikes and stochastic volatility

Starting with the liberalization of electricity trading, this market grew rapidly over the last decade. However, while spot and future markets are rather liquid nowadays, option trading is still limited. One of the potential reasons for this is that the spot price process of electricity is still puzzling researchers and practitioners. In this paper, we propose an approach to model spot prices that combines mean-reversion, spikes and stochastic volatility. Thereby we use different mean-reversion rates for 'normal' and 'extreme' (spike) periods. Another feature of the model is its ability to capture correlation structures of electricity price spikes. Furthermore, all model parameters can easily be estimated with help of historical data. Consequently, we argue that this model does not only extend academic literature on electricity spot price modeling, but is also suitable for practical purposes, e.g. as underlying price model for option pricing. --Electricity,Energy markets,Lévy processes,Mean-reversion,Spikes,Stochastic volatility,GARCH

Documentation of the Central and Eastern European Countries Agricultural Simulation Model (CEEC-ASIM Version 1.0)

The Central and Eastern European Countries Agricultural Simulation Model (CEEC-ASIM) has been developed at IAMO. It is a partial equilibrium model for the agricultural sectors of 14 countries including demand of domestic consumers and is designed to analyse the impacts of agricultural policies on important target variables like producer and consumer prices, supply and input demand of agriculture, food demand, net trade and welfare. Particular efforts were undertaken to implement also the policy instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. These besides the market price support measures also include the different forms of domestic support as for example area payments and beef premiums. Also the set-aside obligations and production quotas can be taken into account. This discussion paper serves as a model documentation and describes the structure of the model along with the basic modelling assumptions. The model is essentially based on neoclassical theory. The main hypotheses are perfect markets, profit maximisation of producers and utility maximisation of consumers. -- G E R M A N V E R S I O N: Das Central and Eastern European Countries Agricultural Simulation Model (CEEC-ASIM) ist am IAMO entwickelt worden. Es ist ein partiales Gleichgewichtsmodell für die Agrarsektoren von 14 Ländern und umfasst auch die Nachfrage der Verbraucher. Insbesondere ist es für die Analyse der Auswirkungen von Agrarpolitiken auf wichtige Zielgrößen wie die Erzeuger- und Verbraucherpreise, Angebots- und Faktornachfragemengen der Landwirtschaft, Konsumentennachfrage, Nettohandel und Wohlfahrt erstellt worden. Besondere Anstrengungen sind unternommen worden, die Instrumente der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik der Europäischen Union in das Modell einzubeziehen. Diese umfassen neben den Maßnahmen der Marktpreisstützung auch verschiedene Formen der internen Stützung wie zum Beispiel die Flächenzahlungen und Prämien im Rindfleischbereich. Auch können Flächenstilllegungsverpflichtungen sowie Produktionsquoten berücksichtigt werden. Dieses Diskussionspapier dient als Dokumentation und beschreibt die Struktur des Modells sowie die grundlegenden Modellannahmen. Das Modell basiert im Wesentlichen auf der neoklassischen Theorie. Die zentralen Hypothesen sind vollständige Märkte, gewinnmaximierende Produzenten und nutzenmaximierende Konsumenten.Sector Modelling,Agricultural Sector,Partial Equilibrium Model,Policy Analyses,Sektormodellierung,Agrarsektor,partielles Gleichgewichtsmodell,Politik Analyse

High efficiency n-type silicon solar cells featuring passivated contact to laser doped regions

Minimizing carrier recombination at cell contacts becomes increasingly important for reaching high efficiency. In this work, the passivated contact concept is implemented into n-type silicon solar cells with laser-processed local back surface fields. The passivation and contact characteristics of the SiO2/amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) stack on localized laser doped n+ regions are investigated. We find that the SiO2/a-Si:H stack provides not only good passivation to laser doped n+ regions but also allows a low contact resistivity after thermal annealing. With the implementation of the SiO2/a-Si:H passivated contact, an absolute efficiency gain of up to 1.5% is achieved for n-type solar cells

Linguistic diversity and redistribution.

This paper investigates the effect of linguistic diversity on redistribution in a broad cross-section of countries. We use the notion of "linguistic distances" and show that the commonly used fractionalization index, which ignores linguistic distances, yields insigni cant results. However, once distances between languages are accounted for, linguistic diversity has both a statistically and economically signi cant effect on redistribution. With an average level of redistribution of 9.5 percent of GDP in our data set, an increase by one standard deviation in the degree of diversity lowers redistribution by approximately one percentage point. We also demonstrate that other measures, such as polarization and peripheral heterogeneity, provide similar results when linguistic distances are incorporated.Linguistic diversity; Redistribution; Polarization; Peripheral heterogeneity;