Impact of corpus callosum integrity on functional interhemispheric connectivity and cognition in healthy subjects

To examine the corpus callosum's (CC) integrity in terms of fractional anisotropy (FA) and how it affects resting-state hemispheric connectivity (rs-IHC) and cognitive function in healthy individuals. Sixty-eight healthy individuals were recruited for the study. The global FA (gFA) and FA values of each CC tract (forceps minor, body, tapetum, and forceps major) were evaluated using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequences. The homotopic functional connectivity technique was used to quantify the effects of FA in the CC tracts on bilateral functional connectivity, including the confounding effect of gFA. Brain regions with higher or lower rs-IHC were identified using the threshold-free cluster enhancement family-wise error-corrected p-value of 0.05. The null hypothesis was rejected if the p-value was <= 0.05 for the nonparametric partial correlation technique. Several clusters of increased rs-IHC were identified in relation to the FA of individual CC tracts, each with a unique topographic distribution and extension. Only forceps minor FA values correlated with cognitive scores. The integrity of CC influences rs-IHC differently in healthy subjects. Specifically, forceps minor anisotropy impacts rs-IHC and cognition more than other CC tracts do

Unemployment and Inflationary Finance Dynamics at the Early Stages of Transition.

The issues of economies in transition have been a central topic in recent macroeconomic modeling. The attention of researchers has concentrated particularly on the speed of transition, and the sequence of restructuring and privatising the state sector. What seems to have been neglected so far are the monetary and financial issues, and the interaction of inflationary finance and real variables at the early stages of transition. This paper is an attempt to address these issues. The theoretical set-up recently proposed by Aghion and Blanchard (1993) is modified to capture the lack of an efficient tax system, the absence of financial intermediaries, and the exploitation of seigniorage. Copyright 1996 by Royal Economic Society.

Bailouts and Bank Runs in a Model of Crony Capitalism

We present a simple multiple equilibria model that incorporates the functioning of crony capitalism. We find that a government which is keen to support the interests of the élite is ready to stand the risk of a bank run since this is part of an equilibrium where investments are heavily subsidized, which favors the élite. However, we find that the liaison between the government and the business community is not per se sufficient to induce vulnerability of financial institutions to panic: the willingness to favor the élite also provides an incentive to rescue the banking system in the event of a run. This stabilizing effect dominates when the élite is relatively large. We also study how a policy of banks recapitalization may contribute to the stability of the banking institution. In fact, such a policy can make credible an ex post recovery of the financial system, thus preventing the panic from generating a self-fulfilling bank crisis.

'Crony Capitalism', Bail Outs and Bank Runs

We present a simple model where bank runs are possible and we analyse the role of subsidization of future investment in this setting. We find that such a policy exacerbates the short-run liquidity problem for banks. Moreover, we highlight that a ‘shift in expectations’ about the keeping of the subsidization promises induces a bank run. We analyse the effects of a (partial) forced conversion of non liquidated deposits into banks equities, showing how a bank recapitalisation of this type may help solving the problem. In fact, the deposit to equity swap can make credible an ex post recovery of the banking system, thus preventing the shift in expectation from generating a self-fulfilling bank crisis. This commitment device may prove useful also in the case of ‘political uncertainty’.Bail Out; Bank Runs; Financial Crisis; International Lending

La ricerca incontra l’impresa

Intervengono: Andrea Calabrese, responsabile area vendite Nordest Schneider Electric, Fabrizio Dughiero, presidente SMACT, prorettore al trasferimento tecnologico ed ai rapporti con le imprese Università di Padova, Luigi Ruggerone, responsabile Research and Development Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. Conduce Filiberto Zovico, fondatore ItalyPos

Bail-outs and Bank Runs in a Model of Crony Capitalism

We present a simple multiple equilibria model that incorporates the functioning of crony capitalism. We find that a government which is keen to support the interests of the \ue9lite is ready to stand the risk of a bank run since this is part of an equilibrium where investments are heavily subsidized, which favors the \ue9lite. However, we find that the liaison between the government and the business community is not per se sufficient to induce vulnerability of financial institutions to panic: the willingness to favor the \ue9lite also provides an incentive to rescue the banking system in the event of a run. This stabilizing effect dominates when the \ue9lite is relatively large. We also study how a policy of banks recapitalization may contribute to the stability of the banking institutions. In fact, such a policy can make credible an ex post recovery of the financial system, thus preventing the panic from generating a self-fulfilling bank crisi