Measurements of Collins and Sivers asymmetries at COMPASS

COMPASS is a fixed target experiment presently running at CERN. In 2002, 2003, and 2004 the experiment used a 160 GeV polarized muon beam coming from SPS and scattered off a $^6$LiD target. The nucleons in the target can be polarized either longitudinally or transversely with respect to the muon beam and 20% of the running time has been devoted to transverse polarization. From the transverse polarization data collected in 2002, which correspond to a total integrated luminosity of about 200 pb$^{-1}$, the Collins and the Sivers asymmetries have been determined separately and the preliminary results are presented here.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, presented at SPIN2004 International Symphosium, October 10-16 2004, Trieste, Ital

Cultural Diversity, European Integration and the Welfare State

According to the “Neoclassical” approach, stemming from the Tiebout model, the main advantage of federalism lies in the possibility that individuals with similar tastes, including those related to risk-aversion and the provision of public goods, can cluster in the same jurisdictions. The starting point of this paper is a criticism of this approach. While the main advantage of federalism is related to the possibility of clustering heterogeneous individuals, the assumption of costless movement from one State to the other implicitly implies that individuals are homogeneous in some of other important characteristics. For instance, individuals, facing low mobility costs must have very minor cultural and linguistic differences. This hypothesis may approximate the U. S. situation but clashes with the case of European Union. Since Cultural-linguistic standardisation and the social protection can be regarded as two alternative insurance devices (one increasing the probability of alternative employment and the second providing some assistance in case of dismissal from the present employment) a culturally diverse Europe must necessary rely more on the Welfare State than the United States. The comparison with the U. S. clarifies the paradoxical problem of European integration. On the one hand, social protection is more necessary when cultural-linguistic differences make it expensive to cultural standardisation as a substitute for it. On the other hand, social insurance among different regions is more unlikely to be accepted when these cultural differences prevail. We argue that a possible way out of this dilemma is a system of mutual insurance among the European national welfare systems

An empirical investigation of the relationship between inequality and growth

This paper studies the correlation between inequality, measured by the Gini coefficent of incomes, and the growth rate of per capita GDP in a panel of countries between the late 1950s and late 1990s. Inequality Granger causes growth with a negative coefficient, while growth Granger causes inequality with a positive sign. Quantitatively, the former effect appears much larger than the latter. Once I allow for the effect to differ between rich and poor countries interesting differences emerge. While lagged inequality appears positively correlated with growth in the subgroup of rich countries, in poor countries besides a negative and significant effect of lagged inequality on growth there is a negative and significant effect of lagged growth on inequalitygrowth; inequality; panel; GMM; Granger causality

Marrying in the Cathedral: a Framework for the Analysis of Corporate Governance

The firm can be seen as a centralization of market transactions and as a decentralization of a public ordering which allows the management of joint liabilities. The paper advances the view that the main reason for the firm’s existence is the unification and the internalization of liabilities. From this perspective, Coase's and Fuller's contributions to the theory of the firm can be married within the architecture of Calabresi's Cathedral. Because of specific (dis)investments, fundamental transformations from competition to managed bilateral monopoly take place either in the public or the private sphere and provide an explanation for the ultimate nature of the firm

Handling Confidential Data on the Untrusted Cloud: An Agent-based Approach

Cloud computing allows shared computer and storage facilities to be used by a multitude of clients. While cloud management is centralized, the information resides in the cloud and information sharing can be implemented via off-the-shelf techniques for multiuser databases. Users, however, are very diffident for not having full control over their sensitive data. Untrusted database-as-a-server techniques are neither readily extendable to the cloud environment nor easily understandable by non-technical users. To solve this problem, we present an approach where agents share reserved data in a secure manner by the use of simple grant-and-revoke permissions on shared data.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, Cloud Computing 201

Financial market integration under EMU

The single most important policy-induced innovation in the international financial system since the collapse of the Bretton-Woods regime is the institution of the European Monetary Union. This paper provides an account of how the process of financial integration has promoted financial development in the euro area. It starts by defining financial integration and how to measure it, analyzes the barriers that can prevent it and the effects of their removal on financial markets, and assesses whether the euro area has actually become more integrated. It then explores to which extent these changes in financial markets have influenced the performance of the euro-area economy, that is, its growth and investment, as well as its ability to adjust to shocks and to allow risk-sharing. The paper concludes analyzing further steps that are required to consolidate financial integration and enhance the future stability of financial markets