The Other Debt Crisis

[Excerpt] Much public attention has focused on higher education for the growing debt burdens that students are amassing, the steadily increasing tuition levels, and their impact that these debt burdens, on students’ access to higher education and postgraduate educational, employment and lifestyle options. While students who have amassed six figure debt levels during college are publicized in the press, most graduating students’ debt levels are much smaller

University Endowment Growth: Assessing Policy Proposals

The growth of college and university endowments, particularly those of elite schools, have drawn the attention of policymakers and pundits. Using a decomposition of the growth of endowments between 1991 and 2010 we simulate the effects of three prominent proposed policies had they been implemented in 1991 on endowment payouts through 2010: (1) a minimum spending rule, (2) removing full income tax deductibility of donations, and (3) taxing total endowment sizes beyond a given size. We find that a minimum spending rule increases the average size of endowment payouts for all quartiles of the endowment distribution in nearly all years of the sample period and has a modestly larger relative impact on richer schools. Removing tax deductibility decreases endowment payouts with its effect increasing over time. It has a larger relative impact on schools with smaller endowments than on richer schools

Inertial Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Quantum Scale Invariance

Weyl invariant theories of scalars and gravity can generate all mass scales spontaneously, initiated by a dynamical process of "inertial spontaneous symmetry breaking" that does not involve a potential. This is dictated by the structure of the Weyl current, $K_\mu$, and a cosmological phase during which the universe expands and the Einstein-Hilbert effective action is formed. Maintaining exact Weyl invariance in the renormalised quantum theory is straightforward when renormalisation conditions are referred back to the VEV's of fields in the action of the theory, which implies a conserved Weyl current. We do not require scale invariant regulators. We illustrate the computation of a Weyl invariant Coleman-Weinberg potential

Noise addendum experimental clean combustor program, phase 1

The development of advanced CTOL aircraft engines with reduced exhaust emissions is discussed. Combustor noise information provided during the basic emissions program and used to advantage in securing reduced levels of combustion noise is included. Results are presented of internal pressure transducer measurements made during the scheduled emissions test program on ten configurations involving variations of three basic combustor designs

An ultra-weak sector, the strong CP problem and the pseudo-Goldstone dilaton

In the context of a Coleman-Weinberg mechanism for the Higgs boson mass, we address the strong CP problem. We show that a DFSZ-like invisible axion model with a gauge-singlet complex scalar field S, whose couplings to the Standard Model are naturally ultra-weak, can solve the strong CP problem and simultaneously generate acceptable electroweak symmetry breaking. The ultra-weak couplings of the singlet S are associated with underlying approximate shift symmetries that act as custodial symmetries and maintain technical naturalness. The model also contains a very light pseudo-Goldstone dilaton that is consistent with cosmological Polonyi bounds, and the axion can be the dark matter of the universe. We further outline how a SUSY version of this model, which may be required in the context of Grand Unification, can avoid introducing a hierarchy problem.Comment: 9 page

Ultra-weak sector, Higgs boson mass, and the dilaton

The Higgs boson mass may arise from a portal coupling to a singlet field $\sigma$ which has a very large VEV $f \gg m_\text{Higgs}$. This requires a sector of "ultra-weak" couplings $\zeta_i$, where $\zeta_i \lesssim m_\text{Higgs}^2 / f^2$. Ultra-weak couplings are technically naturally small due to a custodial shift symmetry of $\sigma$ in the $\zeta_i \rightarrow 0$ limit. The singlet field $\sigma$ has properties similar to a pseudo-dilaton. We engineer explicit breaking of scale invariance in the ultra-weak sector via a Coleman-Weinberg potential, which requires hierarchies amongst the ultra-weak couplings.Comment: 6 page

Inflation in a scale invariant universe

A scale-invariant universe can have a period of accelerated expansion at early times: inflation. We use a frame-invariant approach to calculate inflationary observables in a scale invariant theory of gravity involving two scalar fields - the spectral indices, the tensor to scalar ratio, the level of isocurvature modes and non-Gaussianity. We show that scale symmetry leads to an exact cancellation of isocurvature modes and that, in the scale-symmetry broken phase, this theory is well described by a single scalar field theory. We find the predictions of this theory strongly compatible with current observations.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures; v2: minor clarifications added, matches published versio

The Age Pattern of Retirement: A Comparison of Cohort Measures

Measures of retirement that take a cohort perspective are appealing since retirement patterns may change, and it would be useful to have consistent measures that would make it possible to compare retirement patterns over time and between countries or regions. We propose and implement two measures. One is based on administrative income tax records and relates to actual cohorts; the other is based on a time-series of cross sectional labour force surveys and relates to pseudo-cohorts. We conclude that while the tax-based observations for actual cohorts provide a richer data set for analysis, the estimated measures of retirement and transition from work to retirement based on the two data sets are quite similar.

The Age Pattern of Retirement: A Comparison of Cohort Measures

Measures of retirement that take a cohort perspective are appealing since retirement patterns may change, and it would be useful to have consistent measures that would make it possible to compare retirement patterns over time and between countries or regions. We propose and implement two measures. One is based on administrative income tax records and relates to actual cohorts; the other is based on a time-series of cross sectional labour force surveys and relates to pseudo-cohorts. We conclude that while the tax-based observations for actual cohorts provide a richer data set for analysis, the estimated measures of retirement and transition from work to retirement based on the two data sets are quite similar.Measures of retirement, cohort perspective

Income Replacement in Retirement: Longitudinal Evidence from Income Tax Records

We analyse a large longitudinal data file to determine who has retired and to assess how successful they are in maintaining their incomes after retirement. Our main conclusions are as follows. First, in the two years immediately after retirement the aftertax income replacement ratios average about two-thirds when calculated across all ages of retirement. Second, the ratios tend to increase with the age of retirement. Third, the ratios increase with years in retirement, at least in the first few years. Finally, income replacement ratios are highest in the lowest income quartile and generally decline as income increases; within each quartile the replacement ratios are higher for those who retired later than for those retired earlier.income replacement, retirement