“Stock PIKs”- Taking a firm by its tails

Payment-in-kind bonds (PIKs) make interest payments in the form of an issue of additional bonds rather than cash. This research provides a rationale for the recent PIK issuance by firms with low credit ratings. PIKs offer a financially constrained firm in need of restructuring both an immediate automatic stay and a prepackaged bankruptcy procedure, features that make PIKs better than alternative debt instruments. In many instances PIKs are structured to facilitate a contingent transfer of control to PIK holders, and provide an avenue of obtaining equity in the firm whether the firm value is high or low in the future. The barbell strategy of acquisition that involves a deal with the equity holders (if the firm prospects improve), and a deal with the debt holders (if the firm defaults) dominates the cost of acquisition before the firm defaults, or after the firm goes bankrupt.Monetary Policy, Stock Market, Economic Development

Statistical study of the conductance and shot noise in open quantum-chaotic cavities: Contribution from whispering gallery modes

In the past, a maximum-entropy model was introduced and applied to the study of statistical scattering by chaotic cavities, when short paths may play an important role in the scattering process. In particular, the validity of the model was investigated in relation with the statistical properties of the conductance in open chaotic cavities. In this article we investigate further the validity of the maximum-entropy model, by comparing the theoretical predictions with the results of computer simulations, in which the Schroedinger equation is solved numerically inside the cavity for one and two open channels in the leads; we analyze, in addition to the conductance, the zero-frequency limit of the shot-noise power spectrum. We also obtain theoretical results for the ensemble average of this last quantity, for the orthogonal and unitary cases of the circular ensemble and an arbitrary number of channels. Generally speaking, the agreement between theory and numerics is good. In some of the cavities that we study, short paths consist of whispering gallery modes, which were excluded in previous studies. These cavities turn out to be all the more interesting, as it is in relation with them that we found certain systematic discrepancies in the comparison with theory. We give evidence that it is the lack of stationarity inside the energy interval that is analyzed, and hence the lack of ergodicity that gives rise to the discrepancies. Indeed, the agreement between theory and numerical simulations is improved when the energy interval is reduced to a point and the statistics is then collected over an ensemble. It thus appears that the maximum-entropy model is valid beyond the domain where it was originally derived. An understanding of this situation is still lacking at the present moment.Comment: Revised version, minor modifications, 28 pages, 7 figure

Extrasolar Planets in Mean-Motion Resonance: Apses Alignment and Asymmetric Stationary Solutions

In recent years several pairs of extrasolar planets have been discovered in the vicinity of mean-motion commensurabilities. In some cases, such as the Gliese 876 system, the planets seem to be trapped in a stationary solution, the system exhibiting a simultaneous libration of the resonant angle theta_1 = 2 lambda_2 - lambda_1 - varpi_1 and of the relative position of the pericenters. In this paper we analyze the existence and location of these stable solutions, for the 2/1 and 3/1 resonances, as function of the masses and orbital elements of both planets. This is undertaken via an analytical model for the resonant Hamiltonian function. The results are compared with those of numerical simulations of the exact equations. In the 2/1 commensurability, we show the existence of three principal families of stationary solutions: (i) aligned orbits, in which theta_1 and varpi_1 - varpi_2 both librate around zero, (ii) anti-aligned orbits, in which theta_1=0 and the difference in pericenter is 180 degrees, and (iii) asymmetric stationary solutions, where both the resonant angle and varpi_1 - varpi_2 are constants with values different of 0 or 180 degrees. Each family exists in a different domain of values of the mass ratio and eccentricities of both planets. Similar results are also found in the 3/1 resonance. We discuss the application of these results to the extrasolar planetary systems and develop a chart of possible planetary orbits with apsidal corotation. We estimate, also, the maximum planetary masses in order that the stationary solutions are dynamically stable.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Ap

The Forecasting Ability of a Cointegrated VAR Demand System with Endogeneous vs. Exogenous Expenditure Variable: An application to the UK imports of tourism from neighbouring countries

This paper uses Sims’s VAR methodology, as an alternative to Deaton and Muellbauer’s AIDS approach, to establish the long-run relationships between I(1) variables: tourism shares, tourism prices and UK tourism budget. The VAR deterministic components and sets of exogenous and endogenous variables are established, and the Johansen’s rank test is used to determine the cointegrated vectors in the system. The structural form of the cointegrated VAR is identified and the long-run parameters are estimated under several theoretical restrictions. The restricted cointegrated VAR reveals itself a theoretically consistent and statistically robust means to analyse the long-run demand behaviour of UK tourists and an accurate forecaster of the destinations’ shares.

Marine recreational fisheries statistics survey for northern and central California, Quarterly Report no. 1, July to September 1979

Field intercept Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) data for central and northern California, collected in July to September 1979, is presented in a data report format. Data in this quarterly report are subdivided into three categories: primarily by five geographical areas; secondarily by fishing modes and gear types within each area; and finally by catch definition for each area, mode, and gear type. Tables are presented for these categories, each with three sections: sampled effort, ranked catch, and catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE). Also, within each area, length-frequency histograms and tables are presented for select species. (168pp.

Marine recreational fisheries statistics survey for northern and central California, Quarterly Report no. 2, October to December, 1979

Field intercept Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) data for central and northern California, collected in October to December 1979, is presented in a data report format. Data in this quarterly report are subdivided into three categories: primarily by five geographical areas; secondarily by fishing modes and gear types within each area; and finally by catch definition for each area, mode, d gear type. Tables are presented for these categories, each with three sections: sampled effort, ranked catch, and catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE). Also, within each area, length-frequency histograms and tables are presented for select species. (139pp.

Essence and Cause: Making Something Be What It Is

Aristotle frequently describes essence as a “cause” or “explanation”, thus ascribing to essence some sort of causal or explanatory role. This explanatory role is often explicated by scholars in terms of essence “making the thing be what it is” or “making it the very thing that it is”. I argue that this is problematic, at least on the assumption that “making” expresses an explanatory relation, since it violates certain formal features of explanation. I then consider whether Aristotle is vulnerable to this problem by examining the explanatory role of essence in Posterior Analytics and Metaphysics Z 17