Lending relationships and monetary policy

Financial intermediation and bank spreads are important elements in the analysis of business cycle transmission and monetary policy. We present a simple framework that introduces lending relationships, a relevant feature of financial intermediation that has been so far neglected in the monetary economics literature, into a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with staggered prices and cost channels. Our main findings are: (i) banking spreads move countercyclically generating amplified output responses, (ii) spread movements are important for monetary policy making even when a standard Taylor rule is employed (iii) modifying the policy rule to include a banking spread adjustment improves stabilization of shocks and increases welfare when compared to rules that only respond to output gap and inflation, and finally (iv) the presence of strong lending relationships in the banking sector can lead to indeterminacy of equilibrium forcing the central bank to react to spread movements

Liquidity effects and cost channels in monetary transmission

We study liquidity effects and cost channels within a model of nominal rigidities and imperfect competition that gives explicit role for money-credit markets and investment decisions. We find that cost channels matter for monetary transmission, amplifying the impact of supply shocks and dampening the effects of demand shocks. Liquidity effects only obtain when the policy is specified by an interest rate policy rule and money-credit conditions are determined endogenously. We also find that determinacy issues are particularly relevant when models include the cost channel and explicit money-credit markets

Investment cost channel and monetary transmission

We show that a standard DSGE model with investment cost channels has important model stability and policy implications. Our analysis suggests that in economies characterized by supply side well as demand side channels of monetary transmission, policymakers may have to resort to a much more aggressive stand against inflation to obtain locally unique equilibrium. In such an environment targeting output gap may cause model instability. We also show that it is difficult to distinguish between the New Keynesian model and labor cost channel only case, while with investment cost channel differences are more significant. This result is important as it suggests that if one does not take into account the investment cost channel, one is underestimating the importance of supply side effects

Magnetic collapse of a neutron gas: Can magnetars indeed be formed

A relativistic degenerate neutron gas in equilibrium with a background of electrons and protons in a magnetic field exerts its pressure anisotropically, having a smaller value perpendicular than along the magnetic field. For critical fields the magnetic pressure may produce the vanishing of the equatorial pressure of the neutron gas. Taking it as a model for neutron stars, the outcome could be a transverse collapse of the star. This fixes a limit to the fields to be observable in stable neutron star pulsars as a function of their density. The final structure left over after the implosion might be a mixed phase of nucleons and meson condensate, a strange star, or a highly distorted black hole or black "cigar", but no any magnetar, if viewed as a super strongly magnetized neutron star. However, we do not exclude the possibility of a supersotrong magnetic fields arising in supernova explosions which lead directly to strange stars. In other words, if any magnetars exist, they cannot be neutron stars.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. European Physical Journal C in pres

Obtaining Au thin films in atmosphere of reactive nitrogen through magnetron sputtering

4d and 5d series of the transition metals are used to the obtaining nitrides metallic, due to the synthesis of PtN, AgN and AuN in the last years. Different nitrides are obtained in the Plasma Assisted Physics Vapour Deposition system, due to its ionization energy which is necessary for their formation. In this paper a Magnetron Sputtering system was used to obtain Au thin films on Si wafers in Nitrogen atmosphere. The substrate temperature was varied between 500 to 950°C. The samples obtained at high temperatures (>500°C) show Au, Si and N elements, as it is corroborated in the narrow spectrum obtained for X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy; besides the competition of orientation crystallographic texture between (111) and (311) directions was present in the X-Ray Diffraction analysis to the sample heated at 950°C

Alternative Buffer-Layers for the Growth of SrBi2Ta2O9 on Silicon

In this work we investigate the influence of the use of YSZ and CeO2/YSZ as insulators for Metal- Ferroelectric-Insulator-Semiconductor (MFIS) structures made with SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT). We show that by using YSZ only the a-axis oriented Pyrochlore phase could be obtained. On the other hand the use of a CeO2/YSZ double-buffer layer gave a c-axis oriented SBT with no amorphous SiO2 inter- diffusion layer. The characteristics of MFIS diodes were greatly improved by the use of the double buffer. Using the same deposition conditions the memory window could be increased from 0.3 V to 0.9 V. From the piezoelectric response, nano-meter scale ferroelectric domains could be clearly identified in SBT thin films.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, 13 refernece

Dynamics of a magnetic dimer with exchange, dipolar and Dzyalozhinski-Moriya interaction

We investigate the dynamics of a magnetic system consisting of two magnetic moments coupled by either exchange, dipole-dipole, or Dzyalozhinski-Moriya interaction. We compare the switching mechanisms and switching rates as induced by the three couplings. For each coupling and each configuration of the two anisotropy axes, we describe the switching modes and, using the kinetic theory of Langer, we provide (semi-)analytical expressions for the switching rate. We then compare the three interactions with regard to their efficiency in the reversal of the net magnetic moment of the dimer. We also investigate how the energy barriers vary with the coupling. For the dipole-dipole interaction we find that the energy barrier may either increase or decrease with the coupling depending on whether the latter is weak or strong. Finally, upon comparing the various switching rates, we find that the dipole-dipole coupling leads to the slowest magnetic dimer, as far as the switching of its net magnetic moment is concerned.Comment: 20 pages, 18 Figures, 2 table