Inequality, Transfers and Growth: New Evidence from the Economic Transition in Poland

This paper challenges the conventional wisdom that inequality in Poland increased markedly during the economic transition that began in 1989-90. Using micro data from the Household Budget Surveys, we find that, after a brief spike in 1989, income and consumption inequality actually declined to below pre-transition levels during 1990-92 and then increased gradually, rising only moderately above pre-transition levels by 1997. In sharp contrast, inequality in labor earnings increased markedly and consistently throughout the 1990-97 period. We find that social transfer mechanisms, including pensions, played an important role in mitigating increases in both overall inequality and poverty. We argue that, from a political economy perspective, transfer mechanisms were well-designed to reduce political resistance to market-oriented reforms in the early years of transition, paving the way for rapid growth. Finally, we provide cross-country evidence from the transition economies that is consistent with our interpretation of the Polish experience and is also consistent with recent work in growth theory which suggests that redistribution that reduces inequality can enhance growth.

Stochastic parameterization: uncertainties from convection

In 2005, the ECMWF held a workshop on stochastic parameterisation, at which the convection was seen as being a key issue. That much is clear from the working group reports and particularly the statement from working group 1 that “it is clear that a stochastic convection scheme is desirable”. The present note aims to consider our current status in comparison with some of the issues raised and hopes expressed in that working group report

A Cosmic Census of Radio Pulsars with the SKA

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will make ground breaking discoveries in pulsar science. In this chapter we outline the SKA surveys for new pulsars, as well as how we will perform the necessary follow-up timing observations. The SKA's wide field-of-view, high sensitivity, multi-beaming and sub-arraying capabilities, coupled with advanced pulsar search backends, will result in the discovery of a large population of pulsars. These will enable the SKA's pulsar science goals (tests of General Relativity with pulsar binary systems, investigating black hole theorems with pulsar-black hole binaries, and direct detection of gravitational waves in a pulsar timing array). Using SKA1-MID and SKA1-LOW we will survey the Milky Way to unprecedented depth, increasing the number of known pulsars by more than an order of magnitude. SKA2 will potentially find all the Galactic radio-emitting pulsars in the SKA sky which are beamed in our direction. This will give a clear picture of the birth properties of pulsars and of the gravitational potential, magnetic field structure and interstellar matter content of the Galaxy. Targeted searches will enable detection of exotic systems, such as the ~1000 pulsars we infer to be closely orbiting Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Centre. In addition, the SKA's sensitivity will be sufficient to detect pulsars in local group galaxies. To derive the spin characteristics of the discoveries we will perform live searches, and use sub-arraying and dynamic scheduling to time pulsars as soon as they are discovered, while simultaneously continuing survey observations. The large projected number of discoveries suggests that we will uncover currently unknown rare systems that can be exploited to push the boundaries of our understanding of astrophysics and provide tools for testing physics, as has been done by the pulsar community in the past.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, to be published in: "Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array", Proceedings of Science, PoS(AASKA14)04

Where Are We Going? Parent-child television reality programmes in China

This article looks at the role of format television in the People’s Republic of China. It juxtaposes two key ideas: the ‘one format policy’ and the One Child Policy. Both are government restrictions intended to kerb reproduction. Formats provide a means for the reproduction of programming ideas, that is, they are generative. When formats ‘fit’ cultural understandings they can be remarkably successful, as with family oriented formats. Yet there is something unusual about China: in comparison to many international markets, China offers a unique demographic – those people born after 1978. The article examines a formatted programme called Where Are We Going, Dad? introduced into China from South Korea, which illustrates a subgenre known as the ‘parent-child caring’ (qinzi) format. The article shows how this genre has capitalised on the interest in the health and future well-being of the One Child in China, as well as spinning off its own formatted offspring

Relativistic spin precession in the binary PSR J1141−-6545

PSR J1141$-$6545 is a precessing binary pulsar that has the rare potential to reveal the two-dimensional structure of a non-recycled pulsar emission cone. It has undergone $\sim 25 \deg$ of relativistic spin precession in the $\sim18$ years since its discovery. In this paper, we present a detailed Bayesian analysis of the precessional evolution of the width of the total intensity profile, to understand the changes to the line-of-sight impact angle ($\beta$) of the pulsar using four different physically motivated prior distribution models. Although we cannot statistically differentiate between the models with confidence, the temporal evolution of the linear and circular polarisations strongly argue that our line-of-sight crossed the magnetic pole around MJD 54000 and that only two models remain viable. For both these models, it appears likely that the pulsar will precess out of our line-of-sight in the next $3-5$ years, assuming a simple beam geometry. Marginalising over $\beta$ suggests that the pulsar is a near-orthogonal rotator and provides the first polarization-independent estimate of the scale factor ($\mathbb{A}$) that relates the pulsar beam opening angle ($\rho$) to its rotational period ($P$) as $\rho = \mathbb{A}P^{-0.5}$ : we find it to be $> 6 \rm~deg~s^{0.5}$ at 1.4 GHz with 99\% confidence. If all pulsars emit from opposite poles of a dipolar magnetic field with comparable brightness, we might expect to see evidence of an interpulse arising in PSR J1141$-$6545, unless the emission is patchy.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Killing tensors in pp-wave spacetimes

The formal solution of the second order Killing tensor equations for the general pp-wave spacetime is given. The Killing tensor equations are integrated fully for some specific pp-wave spacetimes. In particular, the complete solution is given for the conformally flat plane wave spacetimes and we find that irreducible Killing tensors arise for specific classes. The maximum number of independent irreducible Killing tensors admitted by a conformally flat plane wave spacetime is shown to be six. It is shown that every pp-wave spacetime that admits an homothety will admit a Killing tensor of Koutras type and, with the exception of the singular scale-invariant plane wave spacetimes, this Killing tensor is irreducible.Comment: 18 page

Tracing Slow Winds from T Tauri Stars via Low Velocity Forbidden Line Emission

Using Keck/HIRES spectra {\Delta}v ~ 7 km/s, we analyze forbidden lines of [O I] 6300 {\AA}, [O I] 5577 {\AA} and [S II] 6731 {\AA} from 33 T Tauri stars covering a range of disk evolutionary stages. After removing a high velocity component (HVC) associated with microjets, we study the properties of the low velocity component (LVC). The LVC can be attributed to slow disk winds that could be magnetically (MHD) or thermally (photoevaporative) driven. Both of these winds play an important role in the evolution and dispersal of protoplanetary material. LVC emission is seen in all 30 stars with detected [O I] but only in 2 out of eight with detected [S II] , so our analysis is largely based on the properties of the [O I] LVC. The LVC itself is resolved into broad (BC) and narrow (NC) kinematic components. Both components are found over a wide range of accretion rates and their luminosity is correlated with the accretion luminosity, but the NC is proportionately stronger than the BC in transition disks. The FWHM of both the BC and NC correlates with disk inclination, consistent with Keplerian broadening from radii of 0.05 to 0.5 AU and 0.5 to 5 AU, respectively. The velocity centroids of the BC suggest formation in an MHD disk wind, with the largest blueshifts found in sources with closer to face-on orientations. The velocity centroids of the NC however, show no dependence on disk inclination. The origin of this component is less clear and the evidence for photoevaporation is not conclusive

Measurement of collective flow in heavy ion collisions using particle pair correlations

We present a new type of flow analysis, based on a particle-pair correlation function, in which there is no need for an event-by-event determination of the reaction plane. Consequently, the need to correct for dispersion in an estimated reaction plane does not arise. Our method also offers the option to avoid any influence from particle misidentification. Using this method, streamer chamber data for collisions of Ar+KCl and Ar+BaI2 at 1.2 GeV/nucleon are compared with predictions of a nuclear transport model