To what extent financial development is important in promoting economic growth in OECD countries

This paper revisits the relationship between economic growth and the main determinants of financial development in The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries during the period 1990-2016. Using a random effects model, we provide empirical evidence of different aspects of financial development in order to show which of these characteristics of financial development help to explain economic growth in OEDC countries in terms of finances through a panel data model for the period examined. We pay special attention to the main determinants of the financial system and verify their influence on economic growth even when we control for other key country-level factors relating to economic growth. Results show that an increase in domestic credit provided by financial-sector, in market capitalization and in the turnover ratio of domestic shares entails a significant positive effect on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Among other socioeconomic determinants related to economic growth, expenditure in education, the inflation and unemployment rates appear highly significant in the economic growth of the analysed countries.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The Impact of Prescribed Fire on Moth Assemblages in the Boston Mountains and Ozark Highlands, in Arkansas

In addition to the impacts of prescribed fires on forest vegetation, this ecosystem process also has dramatic impacts on associated insect assemblages. For herbivorous, terrestrial insects, fire predictably results in a cycle of initial insect population reduction followed by recovery and growth, in which these insect populations exceed pre-fire abundances. We sought to examine if fire-induced disturbance cycles make prescribed burned areas more or less suitable specifically for moths (order Lepidoptera), which is a major food source for, among others, multiple bat species. We surveyed moth assemblages at 20 burned and 20 unburned sites in the Boston Mountain and Ozark Highland ecoregions of Arkansas, to determine if biomass or abundance of moths differed between areas that had been burned in the past 10 years, and those areas that had never been burned. Samples were collected early (April to July) and late (August to November) in the growing season of 2017 (hereafter early season and late season, respectively). We compared biomass and abundance of all moths, and of five representative moth species, between burned and unburned sites. The five moth species were chosen and considered to be representative due to their high relative abundance, and ease of identification. The five chosen moth species included the banded tussock moth (Halysidota tessellaris), white-dotted prominent moth (Nadata gibbosa), ailanthus moth (Atteva aurea), grape leaffolder (Desmia funeralis), and painted lichen moth (Hypoprepia fucosa). Results from paired t-tests showed no significant difference in total biomass, or abundance of representative species between burned and unburned sites. However, generalized linear regression models showed significantly higher abundance of moths in areas with high basal area that had been previously burned (β = -0.038 ± 0.004 SE,

Breakdown and asymptotic properties of resampled estimates

In this paper we study the breakdown and asymptotic properties of resampled t-estimates. We find that they retain the finite breakdown point of the exact estimator. We also study their consistency and their order of convergence under nonstandard assumptions on the loss functions