68 research outputs found
Condensation in an Economic Model with Brand Competition
We present a linear agent based model on brand competition. Each agent
belongs to one of the two brands and interacts with its nearest neighbors. In
the process the agent can decide to change to the other brand if the move is
beneficial. The numerical simulations show that the systems always condenses
into a state when all agents belong to a single brand. We study the
condensation times for different parameters of the model and the influence of
different mechanisms to avoid condensation, like anti monopoly rules and brand
fidelity.Comment: Accepted in: International Journal of Modern Physics
The distribution of wealth in the presence of altruism for simple economic models
We study the effect of altruism in two simple asset exchange models: the yard
sale model (winner gets a random fraction of the poorer player's wealth) and
the theft and fraud model (winner gets a random fraction of the loser's
wealth). We also introduce in these models the concept of bargaining
efficiency, which makes the poorer trader more aggressive in getting a
favorable deal thus augmenting his winning probabilities. The altruistic
behavior is controlled by varying the number of traders that behave
altruistically and by the degree of altruism that they show. The resulting
wealth distribution is characterized using the Gini index. We compare the
resulting values of the Gini index at different levels of altruism in both
models. It is found that altruistic behavior does lead to a more equitable
wealth distribution but only for unreasonable high values of altruism that are
difficult to expect in a real economic system.Comment: Accepted in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Application
Assessing symmetry of financial returns series
Testing symmetry of a probability distribution is a common question arising
from applications in several fields. Particularly, in the study of observables
used in the analysis of stock market index variations, the question of symmetry
has not been fully investigated by means of statistical procedures. In this
work a distribution-free test statistic Tn for testing symmetry, derived by
Einmahl and McKeague, based on the empirical likelihood approach, is used to
address the study of symmetry of financial returns. The asymptotic points of
the test statistic Tn are also calculated and a procedure for assessing
symmetry for the analysis of the returns of stock market indices is presented.Comment: Econophysics paper. 6 pages 2 figure
Extended States in a One-dimensional Generalized Dimer Model
The transmission coefficient for a one dimensional system is given in terms
of Chebyshev polynomials using the tight-binding model. This result is applied
to a system composed of two impurities located between sites of a host
lattice. It is found that the system has extended states for several values of
the energy. Analytical expressions are given for the impurity site energy in
terms of the electron's energy. The number of resonant states grows like the
number of host sites between the impurities. This property makes the system
interesting since it is a simple task to design a configuration with resonant
energy very close to the Fermi level .Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Comparative Network Analysis of Preterm vs. Full-Term Infant-Mother Interactions
Several studies have reported that interactions of mothers with preterm infants show differential characteristics compared to that of mothers with full-term infants. Interaction of preterm dyads is often reported as less harmonious. However, observations and explanations concerning the underlying mechanisms are inconsistent. In this work 30 preterm and 42 full-term mother-infant dyads were observed at one year of age. Free play interactions were videotaped and coded using a micro-analytic coding system. The video records were coded at one second resolution and studied by a novel approach using network analysis tools. The advantage of our approach is that it reveals the patterns of behavioral transitions in the interactions. We found that the most frequent behavioral transitions are the same in the two groups. However, we have identified several high and lower frequency transitions which occur significantly more often in the preterm or full-term group. Our analysis also suggests that the variability of behavioral transitions is significantly higher in the preterm group. This higher variability is mostly resulted from the diversity of transitions involving non-harmonious behaviors. We have identified a maladaptive pattern in the maternal behavior in the preterm group, involving intrusiveness and disengagement. Application of the approach reported in this paper to longitudinal data could elucidate whether these maladaptive maternal behavioral changes place the infant at risk for later emotional, cognitive and behavioral disturbance
Socio-Economic Instability and the Scaling of Energy Use with Population Size
The size of the human population is relevant to the development of a sustainable world, yet the forces setting growth or declines in the human population are poorly understood. Generally, population growth rates depend on whether new individuals compete for the same energy (leading to Malthusian or density-dependent growth) or help to generate new energy (leading to exponential and super-exponential growth). It has been hypothesized that exponential and super-exponential growth in humans has resulted from carrying capacity, which is in part determined by energy availability, keeping pace with or exceeding the rate of population growth. We evaluated the relationship between energy use and population size for countries with long records of both and the world as a whole to assess whether energy yields are consistent with the idea of an increasing carrying capacity. We find that on average energy use has indeed kept pace with population size over long time periods. We also show, however, that the energy-population scaling exponent plummets during, and its temporal variability increases preceding, periods of social, political, technological, and environmental change. We suggest that efforts to increase the reliability of future energy yields may be essential for stabilizing both population growth and the global socio-economic system
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The ability of analysts’ recommendations to predict optimistic and pessimistic forecasts
Previous researches show that buy (growth) companies conduct income increasing earnings management in order to meet forecasts and generate positive forecast Errors (FEs). This behavior however, is not inherent in sell (non-growth) companies. Using the aforementioned background, this research hypothesizes that since sell companies are pressured to avoid income increasing earnings management, they are capable, and in fact more inclined, to pursue income decreasing Forecast Management (FM) with the purpose of generating positive FEs. Using a sample of 6553 firm-years of companies that are listed in the NYSE between the years 2005–2010, the study determines that sell companies conduct income decreasing FM to generate positive FEs. However, the frequency of positive FEs of sell companies does not exceed that of buy companies. Using the efficiency perspective, the study suggests that even though buy and sell companies have immense motivation in avoiding negative FEs, they exploit different but efficient strategies, respectively, in order to meet forecasts. Furthermore, the findings illuminated the complexities behind informative and opportunistic forecasts that falls under the efficiency
versus opportunistic theories in literature
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