Quantifying the Inefficiency of the US Social Security System

We quantify the inefficiency of the retirement component of the US social security system within a model where agents receive idiosyncratic labor-productivity shocks that are privately observedsocial security, efficient allocations, idiosyncratic shocks

Quantitative Stability and Optimality Conditions in Convex Semi-Infinite and Infinite Programming

This paper concerns parameterized convex infinite (or semi-infinite) inequality systems whose decision variables run over general infinite-dimensional Banach (resp. finite-dimensional) spaces and that are indexed by an arbitrary fixed set T . Parameter perturbations on the right-hand side of the inequalities are measurable and bounded, and thus the natural parameter space is $l_{\infty}(T)$. Based on advanced variational analysis, we derive a precise formula for computing the exact Lipschitzian bound of the feasible solution map, which involves only the system data, and then show that this exact bound agrees with the coderivative norm of the aforementioned mapping. On one hand, in this way we extend to the convex setting the results of [4] developed in the linear framework under the boundedness assumption on the system coefficients. On the other hand, in the case when the decision space is reflexive, we succeed to remove this boundedness assumption in the general convex case, establishing therefore results new even for linear infinite and semi-infinite systems. The last part of the paper provides verifiable necessary optimality conditions for infinite and semi-infinite programs with convex inequality constraints and general nonsmooth and nonconvex objectives. In this way we extend the corresponding results of [5] obtained for programs with linear infinite inequality constraints

You never surf alone. Ubiquitous tracking of users' browsing habits

In the early age of the internet users enjoyed a large level of anonymity. At the time web pages were just hypertext documents; almost no personalisation of the user experience was o ered. The Web today has evolved as a world wide distributed system following specific architectural paradigms. On the web now, an enormous quantity of user generated data is shared and consumed by a network of applications and services, reasoning upon users expressed preferences and their social and physical connections. Advertising networks follow users' browsing habits while they surf the web, continuously collecting their traces and surfing patterns. We analyse how users tracking happens on the web by measuring their online footprint and estimating how quickly advertising networks are able to pro le users by their browsing habits

Long-wavelength limit of gyrokinetics in a turbulent tokamak and its intrinsic ambipolarity

Recently, the electrostatic gyrokinetic Hamiltonian and change of coordinates have been computed to order $\epsilon^2$ in general magnetic geometry. Here $\epsilon$ is the gyrokinetic expansion parameter, the gyroradius over the macroscopic scale length. Starting from these results, the long-wavelength limit of the gyrokinetic Fokker-Planck and quasineutrality equations is taken for tokamak geometry. Employing the set of equations derived in the present article, it is possible to calculate the long-wavelength components of the distribution functions and of the poloidal electric field to order $\epsilon^2$. These higher-order pieces contain both neoclassical and turbulent contributions, and constitute one of the necessary ingredients (the other is given by the short-wavelength components up to second order) that will eventually enter a complete model for the radial transport of toroidal angular momentum in a tokamak in the low flow ordering. Finally, we provide an explicit and detailed proof that the system consisting of second-order gyrokinetic Fokker-Planck and quasineutrality equations leaves the long-wavelength radial electric field undetermined; that is, the turbulent tokamak is intrinsically ambipolar.Comment: 70 pages. Typos in equations (63), (90), (91), (92) and (129) correcte

Sources of intrinsic rotation in the low flow ordering

A low flow, $\delta f$ gyrokinetic formulation to obtain the intrinsic rotation profiles is presented. The momentum conservation equation in the low flow ordering contains new terms, neglected in previous first principles formulations, that may explain the intrinsic rotation observed in tokamaks in the absence of external sources of momentum. The intrinsic rotation profile depends on the density and temperature profiles and on the up-down asymmetry.Comment: 20 page

Electrostatic potential variations on stellarator magnetic surfaces in low collisionality regimes

The component of the neoclassical electrostatic potential that is non-constant on the magnetic surface, that we denote by $\tilde\varphi$, can affect radial transport of highly charged impurities, and this has motivated its inclusion in some modern neoclassical codes. The number of neoclassical simulations in which $\tilde\varphi$ is calculated is still scarce, partly because they are usually demanding in terms of computational resources, especially at low collisionality. In this paper the size, the scaling with collisionality and with aspect ratio, and the structure of $\tilde\varphi$ on the magnetic surface are analytically derived in the $1/\nu$, $\sqrt{\nu}$ and superbanana-plateau regimes of stellarators close to omnigeneity; i. e. stellarators that have been optimized for neoclassical transport. It is found that the largest $\tilde\varphi$ that the neoclassical equations admit scales linearly with the inverse aspect ratio and with the size of the deviation from omnigeneity. Using a model for a perturbed omnigeneous configuration, the analytical results are verified and illustrated with calculations by the code KNOSOS. The techniques, results and numerical tools employed in this paper can be applied to neoclassical transport problems in tokamaks with broken axisymmetry.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures, 1 table. Published versio