EFFECTS OF FINANCIAL CAPITAL ON COLOMBIAN BANKING EFFICIENCY

In this paper we discuss cost and profit efficiency on the Colombian financial market in the period 1989-2003, using stochastic frontier efficiency analysis. During the period, the cost efficient frontier deteriorates, but profit efficient frontier is relatively stable. We found significant difference when we compare the efficiency scores among different types of financial intermediaries. Additionally, our analysis shows that the scores for profit and cost efficiency have different distributions. Also, we found big differences between profit and cost efficiency among the different type of banks. This is evidence in favor of the existence of collusive behavior of some banks, which allows them to capture oligopoly rents.frontier, efficiency, cost, profit, financial capital.

Effects of Financial Capital on Colombian Banking Efficiency

In this paper we discuss cost and profit efficiency for a sample of financial institutions on the Colombian financial market in the period 1989-2003, using stochastic frontier efficiency analysis. During the period, the cost efficient frontier deteriorates, but profit efficient frontier is relatively stable. We found significant difference when we compare the efficiency scores between types of financial intermediaries. Additionally, our analysis show that the scores for profit and cost efficiency have different distribution. We found big differences between profit and cost efficiency among the different type banks. This is evidence in favor of some banks behaving collusively and capturing oligopoly rents.Frontier; Effficiency; Cost; Profit;Financial Capital

Magnetic properties of some rare earth-iron-cobalt and rare earth-cobalt-nickel compounds ;

The design and construction of a high field pulse magnetometer are described. This instrument was used for investigating the magnetic properties of the various pseudobinary compounds in the alloy systems Y(_x)(Fe,Co)(_I-X) and Y(_x)(Co,Ni), as well as the systems Gd(_3)(Fe,Co) and Gd(_3)(Co,Ni), over the entire ranges of solid solubility. The variation of spontaneous moment in the yttrium compounds as a function of 3d electron concentration shows a continuous change in form from the YB(_2) compounds to the transition metal rich Y(_2)B(_17) compounds, Where B denotes(Fe,Co) or (Co,Ni). This change indicates a gradual progression to the well-known (Fe, Co) and (Co,Ni) moment variation of the Slater-Pauling curve. In the Y(_2)Co,Ni)(_7) and Y(_2)(Co,Ni)(_7) compounds the spontaneous moment decreases with increasing 3d electron concentration, becoming zero for about 80% Ni, and then reappears with a small value for the compounds YNi(_3)and Y(_2)Ni(_7). This phenomenon is very similar to that found in the compounds Y(_x) Ni(_1-x) as x is increased. The results are interpreted within the rigid band model and it is suggested that the disappearance of ordering in the Y(Co,Ni)(_3) and Y(_2)(Co,Ni)(_7) systems is due to a deep minimum in the density of states curve. The 3d moment in the Gd(_x)B(_1-x) and Y(_x)B(_1-x) compounds is deduced and an attempt is made, for B = Co or Ni, to isolate it from the moment contribution due to the conduction electron polarization. A unified picture is presented in which the 3d band is gradually populated by some of the valence electrons from the tripositive Gd and Y ions, as x is increased. The compounds for which the 3d band is filled are indicated, not by the absence of any spontaneous moment in the yttrium compounds, but rather, by the inability of gadolinium to induce a 3d moment when Gd is substituted for Y. The magnetic results of the Gd(_3)(Fe, Co) and Gd(_3)(Co,Ni) systems indicate that these compounds are antiferromagnetic and the results are interpreted quantitatively in terms of the Neel two-sublattice theory of antiferromagnetism. Values are deduced for the anisotropy arid the inter- and intra-sublattice exchange coefficients. There is a close correlation between structural stability and the existence of antiferromagnetism. When the latter disappears (at 10% Fe) the structure becomes unstable for higher concentrations of iron. From this correlation, a rule is deduced for predicting when a structure might become unstable. This rule is found to be applicable also to the other stoichiometries of the gadolinium-rich compounds

Effects of Financial Capital on Colombian Banking Efficiency

In this paper we discuss cost and profit efficiency for a sample of financial institutions on the Colombian financial market in the period 1989-2003, using stochastic frontier efficiency analysis. During the period, the cost efficient frontier deteriorates, but profit efficient frontier is relatively stable. We found significant difference when we compare the efficiency scores between types of financial intermediaries. Additionally, our analysis show that the scores for profit and cost efficiency have different distribution. We found big differences between profit and cost efficiency among the different type banks. This is evidence in favor of some banks behaving collusively and capturing oligopoly rents.Finanzas públicas,Inflación, Impuesto inflacionario, Señoreaje.

Rb-85 tunable-interaction Bose-Einstein condensate machine

We describe our experimental setup for creating stable Bose-Einstein condensates of Rb-85 with tunable interparticle interactions. We use sympathetic cooling with Rb-87 in two stages, initially in a tight Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap and subsequently in a weak, large-volume crossed optical dipole trap, using the 155 G Feshbach resonance to manipulate the elastic and inelastic scattering properties of the Rb-85 atoms. Typical Rb-85 condensates contain 4 x 10^4 atoms with a scattering length of a=+200a_0. Our minimalist apparatus is well-suited to experiments on dual-species and spinor Rb condensates, and has several simplifications over the Rb-85 BEC machine at JILA (Papp, 2007; Papp and Wieman, 2006), which we discuss at the end of this article.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Australia’s Resource Use Trajectories

Australia’s export oriented large natural resources sectors of agriculture and mining, the ways in which large scale services such as nutrition, water, housing, transport and mobility, and energy are organized, as well as the consumption patterns of Australia’s wealthy urban households, create a unique pattern of overall resource use in Australia. In an attempt to contribute to a new environmental information system compatible with economic accounts, we represent Australia’s resource use by employing standard biophysical indicators for resource use developed within the OECD context. We are looking at the last three decades of resource use and the economic, social and environmental implications. We also discuss scenarios of future resource use patterns based on a stocks and flows model of the Australian economy. We argue that current extractive economic patterns have contributed to the recent economic boom in Australia but will eventually lead to negative social and environmental outcomes. While there is currently little evidence of political support for changing the economic focus on export-oriented agriculture and mining industries, there is significant potential for improvements in socio-technological systems, and room for more sustainable household consumption.natural resources, resource use patterns and dynamics, physical accounting, resource productivity, social and environmental impacts of resource use, Australia

Single Atom Detection With Optical Cavities

We present a thorough analysis of single atom detection using optical cavities. The large set of parameters that influence the signal-to-noise ratio for cavity detection is considered, with an emphasis on detunings, probe power, cavity finesse and photon detection schemes. Real device operating restrictions for single photon counting modules and standard photodiodes are included in our discussion, with heterodyne detection emerging as the clearly favourable technique, particularly for detuned detection at high power.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PRA, minor changes in Secs. I and IVD.2, and revised Fig.

Measurement of inelastic losses in a sample of ultracold Rb-85

We report on the observation and characterisation of an inelastic loss feature in collisions between ultracold Rb-85 |F=2, m_F=-2> atoms at a magnetic field of 220 G. Our apparatus creates ultracold Rb-85 clouds by sympathetic cooling with a Rb-87 reservoir, and can produce pure Rb-87 condensates of 10^6 atoms by a combination of evaporative cooling in a quadrupole-Ioffe magnetic trap and further evaporation in a weak, large-volume optical dipole trap. By combining Rb-85 and Rb-87 atoms collected in a dual-species magneto-optical trap and selectively evaporating the heavier isotope, we demonstrate strong sympathetic cooling of the Rb-85 cloud, increasing its phase space density by three orders of magnitude with no detectable loss in number. We have used ultracold samples created in this way to observe the variation of inelastic loss in ultracold Rb-85 as a function of magnetic field near the 155 G Feshbach resonance. We have also measured a previously unobserved loss feature at 219.9(1) G with a width of 0.28(6) G, which we associate with a narrow Feshbach resonance predicted by theory.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, content change

Atom-photon interactions in a system of coupled cavities

We give a theoretical treatment of single atom detection in an compound, optical micro cavity. The cavity consists of a single mode semiconductor waveguide with a gap to allow atoms to interact with the optical field in the cavity. Optical losses, both in the semiconductor and induced by the gap are considered and we give an estimate of the cavity finesse. We also compute the cooperativity parameter and show how it depends on the gap width and cavity length. Maximization of the cooperativity does not always correspond to maximization of the coupling