Constructing an alternative measure of changes in reserve requirement ratios

Bank reserves

Evidence on the two monetary base measures and economic activity

Monetary policy ; Economic indicators

Measuring the policy effects of changes in reserve requirement ratios

The monetary base is the sum of high-powered money and an adjustment factor that measures changes in reserve requirement ratios. This adjustment factor is calculated so that it responds to changes in deposit levels in addition to changes in reserve requirements. Consequently, researchers and policymakers using the monetary base are seeing a mixture of changes implemented through open market operations, discount window borrowings, and reserve requirements, together with nonpolicy actions acting on deposit flows. ; Joseph Haslag and Scott Hein calculate the reserve step index (RSI) to separate changes in one of the available adjustment factors-the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank's Reserve Adjustment Measure (RAM)-into pure reserve-requirement effects and deposit-flow effects. RSI would give analysts a measure that responds only to changes in reserve requirement ratios. Haslag and Hein also provide statistical evidence suggesting that combining RSI and the deposit-flow effect, as RAM does, is not justifiable in simple reduced-form models of nominal GNP growth, output growth, or inflation.Bank reserves

General description and operation of the agro-environmental system: Crop management modeling

Input for a data management system to provide farmers with information to improve crop management practices in Virginia requires monitoring of control crops at field stations, crop surveys derived from remotely sensed aircraft data, meteorological data from synchronous satellites, and details of local agricultural conditions. Presently models are under development for determining pest problems, water balance in the soil, stages of plant maturity, and optimum planting date. The status of the Cerospora leafspot model for peanut crop management is considered. Other models under development planned relate to Cylindtocladium Blackrot and Sclerotinia blight of peanuts, cyst nematode (Globerdena solanacearum) of tobacco, and red crown rot of soybeans. A software for program for estimating precipitation and solar radiation on a statewise basis is also being developed

MULTIPLE COMPARISONS WITH THE BEST: BAYESIAN PRECISION MEASURES OF EFFICIENCY RANKINGS

A large literature exists on measuring the allocative and technical efficiency of a set of firms. A segment of this literature uses data envelopment analysis (DEA), creating relative efficiency rankings that are nonstochastic and thus cannot be evaluated according to the precision of the rankings. A parallel literature uses econometric techniques to estimate stochastic production frontiers or distance functions, providing at least the possibility of computing the precision of the resulting efficiency rankings. Recently, Horrace and Schmidt (2000) have applied sampling theoretic statistical techniques known as multiple comparisons with control (MCC) and multiple comparisons with the best (MCB) to the issue of measuring the precision of efficiency rankings. This paper offers a Bayesian multiple comparison alternative that we argue is simpler to implement, gives the researcher increased exibility over the type of comparison made, and provides greater, and more in-tuitive, information content. We demonstrate this method on technical efficiency rankings of a set of U.S. electric generating firms derived within a distance function framework.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Outgassing, Temperature Gradients and the Radiometer Effect in LISA: A Torsion Pendulum Investigation

Thermal modeling of the LISA gravitational reference sensor (GRS) includes such effects as outgassing from the proof mass and its housing and the radiometer effect. Experimental data in conditions emulating the LISA GRS are required to confidently predict the GRS performance. Outgassing and the radiometer effect are similar in characteristics and are difficult to decouple experimentally. The design of our torsion balance allows us to investigate differential radiation pressure, the radiometer effect, and outgassing on closely separated conducting surfaces with high sensitivity. A thermally controlled split copper plate is brought near a freely hanging plate-torsion pendulum.We have varied the temperature on each half of the copper plate and have measured the resulting forces on the pendulum. We have determined that to first order the current GRS model for the radiometer effect, outgassing, and radiation pressure are mostly consistent with our torsion balance measurements and therefore these thermal effects do not appear to be a large hindrance to the LISA noise budget. However, there remain discrepancies between the predicted dependence of these effects on the temperature of our apparatus.Comment: 6th International LISA Symposiu

Nominal GNP growth and adjusted reserve growth: nonnested tests of the St. Louis and Board measures

Gross national product ; Monetary policy

Simultaneous polymerization and molding of Pyrrone polymers

Simultaneous polymerization and hot pressing of Pyrrone polymer

Does it matter how monetary policy is implemented?

Monetary policy

Federal Reserve System reserve requirements: 1959-88--a note

Federal Reserve System ; Bank reserves