Electromagnetic fields and environmental health

Invisible electromagnetic fields (EMFs) permeate the modern living environment. They emanate from sources such as electric power lines, home appliances, medical devices, mobile phones and their base stations. Microwave power transmission, a near-future technology that could soon be in practical use, may become a major producer of EMFs. Therefore, electromagnetic environments, including static magnetic fields and low- and high-frequency EMFs, are likely to increase worldwide. In late May 2011, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a subagency of the World Health Organization (WHO), met to evaluate the carcinogenicity of radiofrequency (RF) EMFs from mobile phones. This meeting1 provided a good opportunity for deliberation on the effects of EMFs on human health and to consider future approaches to this issue. The report conclusions, outlined in this paper, suggest there is limited evidence for the carcinogenic effect of RF-EMFs, resulting in RF-EMFs being classified as possibly carcinogenic, but that more studies are necessary to draw quantitative conclusions

The Dynamic Welfare Cost of Stagnation: An Alternative Measure to the Lucas-Obstfeld Model

This paper proposes an alternative measure to the Lucas-Obstfeld model to analyze the welfare costs of stagnation, and provides a practical illustration of both the Lucas-Obstfeld model and the alternative model. Compared with the Lucas-Obstfeld model, the alternative model can evaluate: (i) whether the policy was implemented in a timely fashion, (ii) whether the policy cost was expensive compared with the cost of stagnation, and (iii) whether the policy implemented was effective or whether an additional policy is required.Lucas model; dynamic welfare cost; time-varying parameters

The Dynamic Welfare Costs of the 1997 Asian Crisis

This paper has measured the welfare cost, investigated the effects of and the recovery process of the 1997 Asian crisis, and evaluated the IMF-supported programs. The paper finds: (i) the ratios of ewhole costf to the consumption level of the hypothetical economy are large: 30% for Thailand, 50% for Indonesia, 36% for Korea, 18% for Malaysia and 39% for Hong Kong; (ii) the dynamic process of ecost at period tf quickly converges to 40% right after the crisis, but the costs for Indonesia and Hong Kong gradually increase towards 100%; (iii) the IMF-supported programs for Thailand, Indonesia and Korea have been implemented right after the cost hits peaks; (iv) the cost of the IMF-supported program was not expensive compared with the corresponding welfare cost of crisis.dynamic welfare cost; time-varying model;1997 Asian crisis

The Effects of IMF Supported-Program on the Asian Crisis

We assess the IMF supported program on the structural reforms after the Asian crisis in 1997 in terms of the before-after, with-without and event study approaches with applying a time varying parameter model to the nine Asian stock markets. All the supported countries except for Thailand ( Indonesia, Korea and Philippine) remarkably improve market efficiency after the implementation of the program, implying positive assessment of the program in the before-after approach. Among the non-supported countries, China, Taiwan, and Malaysia do not improve efficiency after the breakout of the crisis, providing partially positive assessment in the with-without approach. The Thailand, Indonesia and Korean markets show the positive abnormal returns at the dates or at the next dates of programfs announcement, providing partially positive assessment of announcement effects in the event study approach.IMF supported-programs; Asian crisis; structural reforms; assessment

Asymmetric International Transmission in the Conditional Mean and Volatility to the Japanese Market from the U.S.:EGARCH vs. SV Models

This paper investigates whether the upturns and downturns of the U.S. market exert asymmetric influence on the conditional mean and volatility of the Japanese market using the daily returns on stock price indices. Using both the EGARCH and SV models, which simultaneously allow two kinds of asymmetric international transmissions across the markets, the result reconfirms the symmetric transmission in the conditional mean obtained by Bahng and Shin (2003) and the asymmetric transmission in the conditional volatility obtained by Koutmos and Booth (1995) although each of them analyzed the only one spillover effect separately. Although the EGARCH and SV models lead to similar results about the spillover effects, the SV model is preferred to the EGARCH model in terms of the Lagrange Multiplier test of the EGARCH against the SV models. The shock to volatility in the U.S. market with the SV model is asymmetrically transmitted to the volatility in the Japanese market.asymmetric transmission; conditional mean and volatility; Japan and the U.S. stock markets; EGARCH and SV models;