Amenities, local conditions and fiscal determinants of factor growth in rural America

This paper examines how amenities, asset indicators, and fiscal factors influence the growth in factors of production from 1972 to 1999 in the 466 non-metropolitan labor market areas in the continental United States. In developing our model of non-metropolitan factor markets, we combine the emphasis of Brown et al. (2003) on the affect of taxes and public expenditure policy on labor and capital formation with the emphasis of Beeson et al. (2001) on the importance of climate and natural features on localized population growth. We develop our own measure of capital stock in non-metropolitan areas using data from the Census of Manufacturing for 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, and 1992. Results indicate that local taxes discourage both employment growth and manufacturing capital formation, but that local public infrastructure investment and the level of local entrepreneurship encourages employment growth. Amenities such as a favorable climate and the presence of surface water encourage the growth of employment, and greater local wealth, as measured by dividend, interest, and rent income, encourages the formation of manufacturing capital stock. Results fail to support an “export base” approach for rural economies where greater manufacturing capital stock encourages greater employment in a region.Rural areas ; Rural development

The Greek financial crisis: growing imbalances and sovereign spreads

We discuss the origins of the Greek financial crisis as manifested in the growing fiscal and current-account deficits since euro-area entry in 2001. We then provide an investigation of spreads on Greek relative to German long-term government debt. Using monthly data over the period 2000 to 2010, we estimate a cointegrating relationship between spreads and their long-term fundamental determinants, and compare the spreads predicted by this estimated relationship with actual spreads. We find periods of both undershooting and overshooting of spreads compared to what is predicted by the economic fundamentals.Greek financial crisis; sovereign spreads

Stable Marriages and Search Frictions

We embed a two-sided matching market with non-transferable utility, a marriage market, into a random search model. We study steadystate equilibria and characterize the limit of the corresponding equilibrium matchings as exogenous search frictions become small. The central question is whether the set of such limit matchings coincides with the set of stable matchings for the underlying marriage market. We show that this is the case if and only if there is a unique stable matching. Otherwise, the set of limit matchings contains the set of all stable deterministic matchings, but also contains unstable random matchings. These unstable random matchings are Pareto dominated. Thus, vanishing frictions do not guarantee the eciency of decentralized marriage markets

Rational expectations and near rational alternatives: How best to form expectations

Learning rules are increasingly being used in macroeconomic models. However one criticism that has been levelled at this assumption is that the choice of variables for inclusion in the learning rule, and the actual specification of the learning rule itself, is arbitrary. In this paper we test how important the particular learning rule specification is by incorporating a battery of learning rules into a large-scale macro model. The model's dynamics are then compared to those from a version of the model simulated under rational expectations (RE). The results indicate that although there are large differences between the RE solution and each of the solutions under learning, differences amongst the learning rule solutions are minor JEL Classification: C53, E43, F33

Rational expectations and near rational alternatives: How best to form expectations

Learning rules are increasingly being used in macroeconomic models. However one criticism that has been levelled at this assumption is that the choice of variables for inclusion in the learning rule, and the actual specification of the learning rule itself, is arbitrary. In this paper we test how important the particular learning rule specification is by incorporating a battery of learning rules into a large-scale macro model. The model's dynamics are then compared to those from a version of the model simulated under rational expectations (RE). The results indicate that although there are large differences between the RE solution and each of the solutions under learning, differences amongst the learning rule solutions are mino

Pressure-tuned magnetic interactions in honeycomb Kitaev materials

A range of honeycomb-lattice compounds has been proposed and investigated in the search for a topological Kitaev spin liquid. However, sizable Heisenberg interactions and additional symmetry-allowed exchange anisotropies in the magnetic Hamiltonian of these potential Kitaev materials push them away from the pure Kitaev spin-liquid state. Particularly the Kitaev-to-Heisenberg coupling ratio is essential in this respect. With the help of advanced quantum-chemistry methods, we explore how the magnetic coupling ratios depend on pressure in several honeycomb compounds (Na$_2$IrO$_3$, $\beta$-Li$_2$IrO$_3$, and $\alpha$-RuCl$_3$). We find that the Heisenberg and Kitaev terms are affected differently by uniform pressure or strain: the Kitaev component increases more rapidly than the Heisenberg counterpart. This provides a scenario where applying pressure or strain can stabilize a spin liquid in such materials.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Effect of native gastric mucus on in vivo hybridization therapies directed at Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori infects more than 50% of the worldwide population. It is mostly found deep in the gastric mucus lining of the stomach, being a major cause of peptic ulcers and gastric adenocarcinoma. To face the increasing resistance of H. pylori to antibiotics, antimicrobial nucleic acid mimics are a promising alternative. In particular, locked nucleic acids (LNA)/2'-OMethyl RNA (2'OMe) have shown to specifically target H. pylori, as evidenced by in situ hybridization. The success of in vivo hybridization depends on the ability of these nucleic acids to penetrate the major physical barriers-the highly viscoelastic gastric mucus and the bacterial cell envelope. We found that LNA/2'OMe is capable of diffusing rapidly through native, undiluted, gastric mucus isolated from porcine stomachs, without degradation. Moreover, although LNA/2'OMe hybridization was still successful without permeabilization and fixation of the bacteria, which is normally part of in vitro studies, the ability of LNA/2'OMe to efficiently hybridize with H. pylori was hampered by the presence of mucus. Future research should focus on developing nanocarriers that shield LNA/2'OMe from components in the gastric mucus, while remaining capable of diffusing through the mucus and delivering these nucleic acid mimics directly into the bacteria

Appraisal of traditional and recently proposed relationships between the hard and soft dimensions of the nose in profile

This paper tests six methods of predicting external nasal profile proportions, using the form and dimensions of the bony nasal (piriform) aperture. A sample of 122 lateral cephalograms was measured and traced before each method was attempted, under blind conditions where appropriate. Error was assessed by comparing predicted to actual proportions. Methods used by the following authors were tested: Krogman and Iscan (1986 The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine, Springfield: C.C. Thomas), Gerasimov (1955 The Reconstruction of the Face on the Skull), Prokopec and Ubelaker (2002 Forensic Sci. Commun. 4:1–4), Macho (1986 J. Forensic Sci. 31:1391–1403), George (1987 J. Forensic Sci. 32:1305–1330), and Stephan et al. (2003 Am J. Phys. Anthropol. 122:240–250). The two-tangent method by Gerasimov (1955 The Reconstruction of the Face on the Skull) was found to perform best at predicting a point on the nasal tip on male and female preoperative subjects. The method of Krogman and Iscan (1986 The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine, Springfield: C.C. Thomas) performed poorly, as did the nasal profile determination method (Prokopec and Ubelaker 2002 Forensic Sci. Commun. 4:1–4). The other methods, all derived by a process of regression calculations, were shown to perform with variable accuracy on this sample, despite the age range and ethnicity of this sample closely resembling that of the samples from which these methods were derived