Subprime consumer credit demand: evidence from a lender's pricing experiment

We test the interest rate sensitivity of subprime credit card borrowers using a unique panel data set from a UK credit card company. What is novel about our contribution is that we were given details of a randomized interest rate experiment conducted by the lender between October 2006 and January 2007. We find that individuals who tend to utilize their credit limits fully do not reduce their demand for credit when subject to increases in interest rates as high as 3 percentage points. This finding is naturally interpreted as evidence of binding liquidity constraints. We also demonstrate the importance of truly exogenous variation in interest rates when estimating credit demand elasticities. We show that estimating a standard credit demand equation with nonexperimental variation leads to seriously biased estimates even when conditioning on a rich set of controls and individual fixed effects. In particular, this procedure results in a large and statistically significant 3-month elasticity of credit card debt with respect to interest rates even though the experimental estimate of the same elasticity is neither economically nor statistically different from zero. JEL Classification: D11, D12, D14liquidity constraints, randomized trials, subprime credit

Strange duality of weighted homogeneous polynomials

We consider a mirror symmetry between invertible weighted homogeneous polynomials in three variables. We define Dolgachev and Gabrielov numbers for them and show that we get a duality between these polynomials generalizing Arnold's strange duality between the 14 exceptional unimodal singularities.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur

Labor market institutions and the business cycle Unemployment rigidities vs. real wage rigidities

This paper investigates the importance of labor market institutions for inflation and unemployment dynamics. Using the New Keynesian framework we argue that labor market institutions should be divided into those institutions that cause Unemployment Rigidities (UR) and those that cause Real Wage Rigidities (RWR). The two types of institutions have opposite effects and their interaction is crucial for the dynamics of inflation and unemployment. We estimate a panel VAR with deterministically varying coefficients and find that there is a profound difference in the responses of unemployment and inflation to shocks under different constellations of the labor market. JEL Classification: E32, E24, E52business cycle, Labor Market Search, monetary policy, Real Wage Rigidity, Unemployment

Stress-dependent local oxidation of silicon

The two-dimensional isolation oxidation of silicon is considered for stress-dependent reaction and diffusion coefficients. The influence of such parameters is investigated numerically and asymptotically in the bird's beak problem and for curved geometries arising in the oxidation of cylindrical and spherical structures. In the bird's beak problem, the limit of large activation volume is described for a stress-dependent reaction coefficient, illustrating the significant growth retardation of the silicon/silicon oxide interface and reduced stresses in the silicon oxide. Novel high-order nonlinear evolution-type PDEs are derived and investigated using asymptotic and numerical techniques

Research Regarding Connections between Risks and Processes within Small and Medium Enterprises

AbstractBusiness process approach is a current concern for many scholars and practitioners as the performance of any organization is directly influenced on how the objectives of these activities are achieved. The methodology framework consists of a literature review regarding the main concepts which are underlying the connection between risk and process. Main findings of the study will comprise of identifying the risks along with the trigger causes or circumstances and their potential effect not only on the activity, but also on the overall process. The importance to detect the risks whose impact has critical effect on the SMEs activity in terms of sustainable development and business continuity will be emphasized. In this respect, the potential processes highly exposed to risks are the most reliable indicators highlighting where an SME is vulnerable and to where should resources be directed to. A clear understanding of the types and intensity of the relationships and interactions between processes and their particular risks leads to cost effective decisions regarding undertaking long term mitigating strategies. The awareness of the link between different types of processes with their specific risks has become highly important as the overall vulnerability of an enterprise is enlarging in line with the business development

Enzymatic Conversion of Glycerol to Glyceric Acid with Immobilised Laccase in Na-Alginate Matrix

AbstractIn this study, enzymatic oxidation of glycerol was performed for the production of glyceric acid. The effectiveness of immobilised laccase in Na-Alginate matrix was also verified. Glycerol was incubated at 25oC with 30mM of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPO), which acted as a mediator, in the presence of immobilized laccase from Trametes versicolor. Glyceric acid was quantified using HPLC, while the activity of enzyme was measured using ABTS assay. The yield of laccase activity was 90%. On the other hand, glyceric acid obtained was around 7 wt% from the total product at 24h. In conclusion, enzymatic oxidation is able to produce comparable amount of glyceric acid through a more environmental friendly method

Regional Variety of Biotechnology Development in Asia

AbstractToday's biotechnology is widely regarded as a one of the most important sectors of the technology, a new wave of knowledge- based economy. It is characterized by innovation and a very fast pace of development, which is connected with the involvement of highly qualified specialists, research centers, varied sources of information, investments, as well as interconnections to guarantee the flow of information. Potentially, biotechnology has a wide range of applications, such as the food industry, production of genetically modified organisms, pharmaceutics, healthcare, detergents and bioremediation, forestry and agriculture. There is a huge variety in the world when it comes to the structure and space where the biotech development occurs. According to the collected data, there is an obvious dominant role of highly developed countries such as the United States and European countries: the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Sweden as well as Canada. Nevertheless the dynamic expansion of biotechnology occurs in new centers of biotech development in eastern European countries such as Lithuania and Slovakia as well as in Asian countries, including Turkey, India, South Korea and Japan. Furthermore, biotech development is determined by several factors. A distance from scientific centers, location of universities, financial sources and international cooperation must be taken into consideration. Country policies also come as the major determinants. With the Internet and common access to a very sophisticated piece of information and a very fast-developing technology, it's even easier for the biotech to make a step forward