Volatile capital flows: Interactions between de jure and de facto financial liberalization

Utilizing a panel data set for 13 developed economies, this paper examines the volatility of capital flows following the liberalization of financial markets. The paper focuses on the response of foreign direct investment, portfolio flows, and other debt flows to both financial liberalization and increased capital flows. The regression analysis examines how capital volatility is affected by the interaction between de jure financial liberalization (an index of liberalization) and de facto liberalization (the volume of capital flows). At average and high volumes of capital, financial liberalization is found to increase capital volatility as expected. At lower volumes of capital, financial liberalization reduces capital volatility, particularly for foreign direct investment and other flows, indicating there may be a threshold level of capital flows below which financial liberalization reduces volatility.volatility

Micro Wild Initiative: An Education Through the Rejuvenation and Reclamation of Malden’s Forgotten Urban Spaces

A city’s ability to sustain a flourishing population is linked to multilayered subjective understandings of its cultural identities (Fincher and Jacobs 1998). As we understand it, Malden, Massachusetts is a rapidly densifying urban area distinguished by a near-majority immigrant population and a landscape fractured by vacated spaces (U.S. Census Bureau 2021). It has a rich socioeconomic footing but lacks public resources for its growing family population. Because current green space is inaccessible or otherwise compromised, our project explores ways that the community can transform idle lots, backyards, and urban poché into wilding spaces, agricultural learning spaces, pollinator connectivity corridors, and spaces for other forms of prefigurative activism (Kato 2020). Using an existing residential yard as a case study, we will investigate the limits of a confined urban space’s ability to host this variety of programs and test access for the growing population. We will collaborate with local schools and foundations to develop a curriculum that best complements the current Malden population through a flexible set of identifying factors specific to the community ecology, such as native food production practices, local artist initiatives, and cultural traditions (Rose 2016, 223–249). Our goal for the Micro Urban Discovery Lab, or MUD Lab, is to develop this methodology in the hopes that it could be replicated for the ongoing reactivation of other post-industrialized cities (Drake & Lawson 2014)

The hydrogeochemistry of pond and rice field recharge : implications for the arsenic contaminated aquifers in Bangladesh

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, February 2010.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis. Page 290 blank.Includes bibliographical references.The shallow aquifers in Bangladesh, which provide drinking water for millions and irrigation water for innumerable rice fields, are severely contaminated with geogenic arsenic. Water mass balance calculations show that groundwater-irrigated rice fields and man-made ponds are the primary sources of recharge to the contaminated aquifers. We studied the hydrology and chemistry of these anthropogenic recharge sources to determine the impact they have on groundwater arsenic concentrations. Our hydrogeochemical investigation involved fieldwork, laboratory analyses, and modeling. The field research spanned three years and included the deployment of a sensor network to continually monitor soil moisture and water potential, tracer tests to visualize flow patterns, soil cores to determine soil properties, and soil and water samples to ascertain chemical characteristics. The large amount of generated data were synthesized with hydrologic, geochemical and mass-balance models. The study showed that physical and chemical differences between rice fields and ponds explain the spatial patterns of arsenic in the Bangladeshi aquifers. Recharge from rice fields is both temporally and spatially heterogeneous. It is focused through bunds (the raised boundaries around the perimeter of fields) and depends on irrigation intervals. Flow from ponds is constant and uniform through the pond sediments. These distinct hydrologic behaviors produce different water chemistries. Ponds contribute anoxic recharge elevated in labile organic carbon, while rice fields contribute semi-oxic recharge that lacks labile organic carbon.(cont.) The labile organic carbon in the pond recharge stimulates microbial respiration that mobilizes sediment-bound arsenic, contributing dissolved arsenic to the aquifers. Conversely, rice-field recharge does not mobilize arsenic. In fact, rice fields act as an arsenic sink. Irrigation moves arsenic-rich groundwater from the aquifers and deposits it on the rice fields. Most of the deposited arsenic does not return to the aquifers; it is sorbed by the field's surface soil and bunds, and is swept away in the monsoon floods. The results demonstrate how land-use changes in Bangladesh have impacted groundwater arsenic concentrations.by Rebecca B. Neumann.Ph.D

Follow the Money: Remittance Responses to FDI Inflows

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investment and remittance flows. Using a panel of 79 countries, we estimate a random effects model and find a positive and significant relationship between the two capital flows. We account for the potential endogeneity of FDI to remittances by utilize a two-stage Instrumental Variables approach. These findings are indicative of a desire among the emigrant community to invest their income earned abroad in their home countries. We also explore regional characteristics to examine whether this relationship differs across regions. Consequently, we find this effect to be particularly important for Sub-Saharan African (SSA) and Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries

Follow the Money: Remittance Responses to FDI Inflows

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investment and remittance flows. Using a panel of 79 countries, we estimate a random effects model and find a positive and significant relationship between the two capital flows. We account for the potential endogeneity of FDI to remittances by utilize a two-stage Instrumental Variables approach. These findings are indicative of a desire among the emigrant community to invest their income earned abroad in their home countries. We also explore regional characteristics to examine whether this relationship differs across regions. Consequently, we find this effect to be particularly important for Sub-Saharan African (SSA) and Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries

Follow the Money: Remittance Responses to FDI Inflows

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investment and remittance flows. Using a panel of 79 countries, we estimate a random effects model and find a positive and significant relationship between the two capital flows. We account for the potential endogeneity of FDI to remittances by utilize a two-stage Instrumental Variables approach. These findings are indicative of a desire among the emigrant community to invest their income earned abroad in their home countries. We also explore regional characteristics to examine whether this relationship differs across regions. Consequently, we find this effect to be particularly important for Sub-Saharan African (SSA) and Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries

Interaction between Experiment, Modeling and Simulation of Spatial Aspects in the JAK2/STAT5 Signaling Pathway

Fundamental progress in systems biology can only be achieved if experimentalists and theoreticians closely collaborate. Mathematical models cannot be formulated precisely without deep knowledge of the experiments while complex biological systems can often not be understood fully without mathematical interpretation of the dynamic processes involved. In this article, we describe how these two approaches can be combined to gain new insights on one of the most extensively studied signal transduction pathways, the Janus kinase (JAK)/ signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) pathway. We focus on the parameters of a model describing how STAT proteins are transported from the membrane to the nucleus where STATs regulate gene expression. We discuss which parameters can be measured experimentally in different cell types and how the unknown parameters are estimated, what the limits of these techniques and how accurate the determinations are