Price Formation under Small Numbers Competition: Evidence from Land Auctions in Singapore

This paper examines the price formation process under small numbers competition using data from Singapore land auctions. The theory predicts that bid prices are less than the zero-profit asset value in these first-price sealed-bid auctions. The model also shows that expected sales price increases with the number of bidders both because each bidder has an incentive to offer a higher price and because of a greater likelihood that a high-value bidder is present. The empirical estimates are consistent with auction theory and show that the standard land attributes are reflected in auction prices as expected. Working Paper No. 04-0

A quadtree-polygon-based scaled boundary finite element method for crack propagation modeling in functionally graded materials

This paper presents a method to improve the computational efficiency of the scaled boundary finite element formulation for functionally graded materials. Both isotropic and orthotropic functionally graded materials are considered. This is achieved using a combination of quadtree and polygon meshes. This hybrid meshing approach is particularly suitable to be used with the SBFEM for functionally graded materials because of the significant amount of calculations required to compute the stiffness matrices of the polygons/cells in the mesh. When a quadtree structure is adopted, most of the variables required for the numerical simulation can be pre-computed and stored in the memory, retrieved and scaled as required during the computations, leading to an efficient method for crack propagation modeling. The scaled boundary finite element formulation enables accurate computation of the stress intensity factors directly from the stress solutions without any special post-processing techniques or local mesh refinement in the vicinity of the crack tip. Numerical benchmarks demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method as opposed to using a purely polygon-mesh based approach

DECOLORIZATION OF ORANGE 16 BY BACTERIA

Joint Research on Environmental Science and Technology for the Eart