The inflation-output nexus:empirical evidence from India, Brazil and South Africa

In this paper we study the relationship between output and inflation for India, Brazil, and South Africa using the EGARCH model. For India and South Africa, we find evidence for: (1) the Cukierman and Meltzer hypothesis that inflation volatility raises inflation; (2) the Friedman hypothesis that inflation raises inflation volatility; and (3) the Black hypothesis that output volatility raises output growth, and that output volatility reduces inflation. For Brazil, we do not find any evidence of a systematic relationship between inflation and output growth.Output, inflation, EGARCH model, volatility

Has the structural break slowed down growth rates of stock markets?

In this paper, we use the common structural break test suggested by Bai et al. (1998) to test for a common structural break in the stock prices of the US, the UK, and Japan. On the basis of the structural break, we divide each country‟s stock price series into sub-samples and investigate whether or not the structural break had slowed down the growth of stock markets. Our main findings are that when stock markets are modeled in a trivariate sense the common structural break turns out to be 1990:02, with the confidence interval including several episodes, such as the asset price bubble when housing prices and stock prices in Japan reached a peak in 1988/1989, the early 1990s recession in the UK, the business cycle peak of July 1990, the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the March 1991 business cycle trough. Annual average growth rates suggest that the structural break has slowed down the growth rate of the US, UK and Japanese stock markets.Common Structural Break Test, Stock Markets

Did the US macroeconomic conditions affect Asian stock markets?

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of US macroeconomic conditions—namely, exchange rate and short-term interest rate—on the stocks of seven Asian countries (China,India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and South Korea). Using daily data for the period 2000 to 2010, we divide the sample into pre-crisis period (pre-August 2007) and crisis period (post-August 2007) we find that in the short-run interest rate has a statistically insignificant effect on returns for all countries except the Philippines in the crisis period,while except for China, regardless of the crisis, depreciation had a statistically significant negative effect on returns. When the long-run relationship among the variables is considered,for four of the seven countries (India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) while there was cointegration in the pre-crisis period, in the crisis period there was no such relationship, implying that the financial crisis has actually weakened the link between stock prices and economic fundamentals.Interest Rate; Exchange Rate; Financial Crisis; Depreciation

The importance of real and nominal shocks on the UK housing market

The goal of this paper is to examine the responsiveness of the UK housing market to real and nominal shocks. To achieve this goal, we use a structural VAR model, based on quarterly data for the period 1957:1-2009:4. We find that in response to an interest rate shock, house prices (aggregate house price and modern house price) fall sharply over the first 4 years and do not recover to their pre-shock level. In response to a real GDP shock, both house prices react in a positive inverted U-shaped manner. Finally, we find that an inflation shock has a U-shaped negative impact on aggregate and modern house prices in the UK.real shock, nominal shock, UK housing market, VAR model

Investigating the Relationship between Health and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from a Panel of 5 Asian Countries

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between health and economic growth through including investment, exports, imports, and research and development (R&D), for 5 Asian countries using panel unit root, panel cointegration with structural breaks and panel long-run estimator for the period 1974-2007. We model this relationship within the production function framework, and unravel two important results. First, we find that in three variants of the growth model, variables share a long-run relationship; that is, they are cointegrated. Second, we find that in the long-run, while health, investment, exports, and R&D have contributed positively to economic growth, imports have had a statistically significant negative effect while education has had an insignificant effect. We draw important policy implications from these findings.Health; Economic Growth; Panel Unit Root; Panel Cointegration.

Task irrelevant external cues can influence language selection in voluntary object naming: evidence from Hindi-English bilinguals

We examined if external cues such as other agents’ actions can influence the choice of language during voluntary and cued object naming in bilinguals in three experiments. Hindi– English bilinguals first saw a cartoon waving at a color patch. They were then asked to either name a picture in the language of their choice (voluntary block) or to name in the instructed language (cued block). The colors waved at by the cartoon were also the colors used as language cues (Hindi or English). We compared the influence of the cartoon’s choice of color on naming when speakers had to indicate their choice explicitly before naming (Experiment 1) as opposed to when they named directly on seeing the pictures (Experiment 2 and 3). Results showed that participants chose the language indicated by the cartoon greater number of times (Experiment 1 and 3). Speakers also switched significantly to the language primed by the cartoon greater number of times (Experiment 1 and 2). These results suggest that choices leading to voluntary action, as in the case of object naming can be influenced significantly by external non-linguistic cues. Importantly, these symbolic influences can work even when other agents are merely indicating their choices and are not interlocutors in bilingual communicatio

Information Seeking Behavior of Under Graduate Students of English Discipline: A Comparative Study of Miranda House College and Vivekananda College, University of Delhi

The paper overtly attempts to investigate the information seeking behavior of UG students of English discipline from library for their different academic purposes. The scope of the study is limited to UG students of Department of English of two colleges of University of Delhi, i.e., Vivekananda College and Miranda House College. The study is based on Survey method of research and used questionnaire and interview methods for collection of data. The study revealed that both libraries are well equipped with quality sources, services and modern technology which reflects their strong potential to provide good environment for quenching the quest of students. But usage is not up to the mark because of various reasons which include unawareness about different sources related to their field (35%),lack of ICT skills among students(96% students are unaware of metasearch engines), lack of interaction between students and library staff (only 26% students approach library staff for help), visiting library occasionally (36%) etc. Major problems faced by English discipline UG students are:- insufficient time to visit library because of lectures(43%), information overload on Internet (35%) etc. LIS professionals have to come forward with different strategies to attract UG students to the library. Information literacy programmes, ICT skills training programmes must be organized in order to spread awareness and usage of library among undergraduate students

Role of LLD, a new locus for leaflet/pinna morphogenesis in Pisum sativum

Properties of a mutant at theLLD (LEAF-LET DEVELOPMENT) locus in pea Pisum sativum L. are reported in this paper. Plants homozygous for the Mendelian recessive mutationlld bear leaves in which a few to many leaflets are incompletely developed. Opposite pinnae of rachis nodes often formed fused incompletely developed leaflets. Thelld mutation was observed to abort pinna development at almost all morphogenetic stages. Thelld mutation demonstrated high penetrance and low expressivity. The phenotypes oflld plants intl, tac, tl tac, tl af andtl af tac backgrounds suggested that LLD function is involved in the separation of lateral adjacent blastozones differentiated on primary, secondary and tertiary rachides and lamina development in leaflets. The aborted development of tendrils and leaflets inlld mutants was related to deficiency in vascular tissue growth. The morphological and anatomical features of the leaflets formed on atl lld double mutant permitted a model of basipetal leaflet development. The key steps of leaflet morphogenesis include origin of the lamina by splitting of a radially symmetrical growing pinna having abaxial outer surface, opposite to the vascular cylinder, through an invaginational groove, differentiation of adaxial surface along the outer boundary of split tissue in the groove and expansion of the lamina ridges so formed into lamina spans

Uterine rupture a retrospective analysis of referral cases at a tertiary care centre in Kanpur city

Background: Uterine rupture a retrospective analysis of referral cases at a tertiary care centre in Kanpur city.Method: Observational study was conducted on 40 patients admitted Upper India Sugar Exchange Maternity Hospital, Kanpur.Result: Majority of patients presented with rupture uterus belongs to age group 30-35 years were multigravida came from rural setup and were unbooked among patients with lower segment rupture, 66.7% needed operative hysterectomy while 33% needed rent repair alone and were treated successfully.Conclusion: Uterine rupture is a catastrophic complication associated with high fetal and maternal morbidity and mortality