Inequality, Transfers and Growth: New Evidence from the Economic Transition in Poland

This paper challenges the conventional wisdom that inequality in Poland increased markedly during the economic transition that began in 1989-90. Using micro data from the Household Budget Surveys, we find that, after a brief spike in 1989, income and consumption inequality actually declined to below pre-transition levels during 1990-92 and then increased gradually, rising only moderately above pre-transition levels by 1997. In sharp contrast, inequality in labor earnings increased markedly and consistently throughout the 1990-97 period. We find that social transfer mechanisms, including pensions, played an important role in mitigating increases in both overall inequality and poverty. We argue that, from a political economy perspective, transfer mechanisms were well-designed to reduce political resistance to market-oriented reforms in the early years of transition, paving the way for rapid growth. Finally, we provide cross-country evidence from the transition economies that is consistent with our interpretation of the Polish experience and is also consistent with recent work in growth theory which suggests that redistribution that reduces inequality can enhance growth.

Relationship banking and the credit market in India: An empirical analysis

Relationship banking based on Okun's "customer credit markets" has important implications for monetary policy via the credit transmission channel. Studies of LDC credit markets from this point of view seem to be scanty and this paper attempts to address this lacuna. Relationship banking implies short-term disequilibrium in credit markets, suggesting the VECM (vector error-correction model) as an appropriate framework for analysis. We develop VECM models in the Indian context (for the period April 1991- December 2004 using monthly data) to analyse salient features of the credit market. An analysis of the ECMs (error-correction mechanisms) reveals that disequilibrium in the Indian credit market is adjusted via demand responses rather than supply responses, which is in accordance with the customer view of credit markets. Further light on the working of the model is obtained through the "generalized" impulse responses and "generalized" error decompositions (both of which are independent of the variable ordering). Our conclusions point towards firms using short-term credit as a liquidity buffer. This fact, together with the gradual adjustment exhibited by the "persistence profiles" provides substantive evidence in favour of "customer credit markets".customer credit markets, monetary policy, co-integration, impulse response, persistence profiles

"RELATIONSHIP BANKING" AND THE CREDIT MARKET IN INDIA : AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Relationship banking based on Okun's "customer credit markets" has important implications for monetary policy via the credit transmission channel. Studies of LDC credit markets from this point of view seem to be scanty and this paper attempts to address this lacuna. Relationship banking implies short-term disequilibrium in credit markets, suggesting the VECM (vector error-correction model) as an appropriate framework for analysis. We develop VECM models in the Indian context (for the period April 1991- December 2004 using monthly data) to analyse salient features of the credit market. An analysis of the ECMs (error-correction mechanisms) reveals that disequilibrium in the Indian credit market is adjusted via demand responses rather than supply responses, which is in accordance with the customer view of credit markets. Further light on the working of the model is obtained through the "generalized" impulse responses and "generalized" error decompositions (both of which are independent of the variable ordering). Our conclusions point towards firms using short-term credit as a liquidity buffer. This fact, together with the gradual adjustment exhibited by the "persistence profiles" provides substantive evidence in favour of "customer credit markets".

Elasticity-mediated self-organization and colloidal interactions of solid spheres with tangential anchoring in a nematic liquid crystal

Using laser tweezers and fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy, we study colloidal interactions of solid microspheres in the nematic bulk caused by elastic distortions around the particles with strong tangential surface anchoring. The particles aggregate into chains directed at about 30 degrees to the far field director and, at higher concentrations, form complex kinetically trapped structures. We characterize the distance and angular dependencies of the colloidal interaction forces.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

New forms of BRST symmetry in rigid rotor

We derive the different forms of BRST symmetry by using the Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky formalism in a rigid rotor. The so called "dual-BRST" symmetry is obtained from usual BRST symmetry by making a canonical transformation in the ghost sector. On the other hand, a canonical transformation in the sector involving Lagrange multiplier and its corresponding momentum leads to a new form of BRST as well as dual-BRST symmetry.Comment: 10 Pages, revtex, No Fig

Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope observations of an M2.8 flare: insights into the initiation of a flare-coronal mass ejection event

We present the first observations of a solar flare with the GMRT. An M2.8 flare observed at 1060 MHz with the GMRT on Nov 17 2001 was associated with a prominence eruption observed at 17 GHz by the Nobeyama radioheliograph and the initiation of a fast partial halo CME observed with the LASCO C2 coronograph. Towards the start of the eruption, we find evidence for reconnection above the prominence. Subsequently, we find evidence for rapid growth of a vertical current sheet below the erupting arcade, which is accompanied by the flare and prominence eruption.Comment: Accepted for publication in Solar Physic

A Monopole-Antimonopole Solution of the SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs Model

As shown by Taubes, in the Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield limit the SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs model possesses smooth finite energy solutions, which do not satisfy the first order Bogomol'nyi equations. We construct numerically such a non-Bogomol'nyi solution, corresponding to a monopole-antimonopole pair, and extend the construction to finite Higgs potential.Comment: 11 pages, including 4 eps figures, LaTex format using RevTe

The congruence kernel of an arithmetic lattice in a rank one algebraic group over a local field

Let k be a global field and let k_v be the completion of k with respect to v, a non-archimedean place of k. Let \mathbf{G} be a connected, simply-connected algebraic group over k, which is absolutely almost simple of k_v-rank 1. Let G=\mathbf{G}(k_v). Let \Gamma be an arithmetic lattice in G and let C=C(\Gamma) be its congruence kernel. Lubotzky has shown that C is infinite, confirming an earlier conjecture of Serre. Here we provide complete solution of the congruence subgroup problem for \Gamm$ by determining the structure of C. It is shown that C is a free profinite product, one of whose factors is \hat{F}_{\omega}, the free profinite group on countably many generators. The most surprising conclusion from our results is that the structure of C depends only on the characteristic of k. The structure of C is already known for a number of special cases. Perhaps the most important of these is the (non-uniform) example \Gamma=SL_2(\mathcal{O}(S)), where \mathcal{O}(S) is the ring of S-integers in k, with S=\{v\}, which plays a central role in the theory of Drinfeld modules. The proof makes use of a decomposition theorem of Lubotzky, arising from the action of \Gamma on the Bruhat-Tits tree associated with G.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, to appear in J. Reine Angew. Mat

Molybdenum(III) Complexes with Unidentate Nitrogen Donors

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