Rainfall Variability and Macroeconomic Performance:A Case Study of India, 1952–2013 <Preliminary Version>

The present and emerging climate change highlights the need to understand the impact of weather shocks on the economy in the context of macroeconomic dynamism. In this regard, the present paper develops an empirical framework applicable to macro-data such as GDP to distinguish the impact of weather shocks on agricultural production, the indirect impact on non-agricultural production through its impact on agriculture, and the direct impact on non-agricultural production. For policymakers, distinguishing the direct and indirect impact on non-agriculture is critical in deciding the proper and efficient allocation of limited resources to adaptation and mitigation efforts. The present paper applies the developed framework to assess the impact of rainfall variability on India’s macroeconomic performance during 1952 to 2013 as a case study, finding that rainfall’s impact on non-agriculture is mostly rooted in its impact on agriculture. In this way, the paper contributes to the growing climate-economy literature

Rainfall Variability and Macroeconomic Performance:A Case Study of India, 1952–2013 <Preliminary Version>

The present and emerging climate change highlights the need to understand the impact of weather shocks on the economy in the context of macroeconomic dynamism. In this regard, the present paper develops an empirical framework applicable to macro-data such as GDP to distinguish the impact of weather shocks on agricultural production, the indirect impact on non-agricultural production through its impact on agriculture, and the direct impact on non-agricultural production. For policymakers, distinguishing the direct and indirect impact on non-agriculture is critical in deciding the proper and efficient allocation of limited resources to adaptation and mitigation efforts. The present paper applies the developed framework to assess the impact of rainfall variability on India’s macroeconomic performance during 1952 to 2013 as a case study, finding that rainfall’s impact on non-agriculture is mostly rooted in its impact on agriculture. In this way, the paper contributes to the growing climate-economy literature

WHY HAS JAPAN’S MASSIVE GOVERNMENT DEBT NOT WREAKED HAVOC (YET)?

October 2013, Revised January 201

GEOTAIL observation of the SGR1806-20 Giant Flare: The first 600 ms

On December 27, 2004, plasma particle detectors on the GEOTAIL spacecraft detected an extremely strong signal of hard X-ray photons from the giant flare of SGR1806-20, a magnetar candidate. While practically all gamma-ray detectors on any satellites were saturated during the first ~500 ms interval after the onset, one of the particle detectors on GEOTAIL was not saturated and provided unique measurements of the hard X-ray intensity and the profile for the first 600 ms interval with 5.48 ms time resolution. After ~50 ms from the initial rapid onset, the peak photon flux (integrated above ~50 keV) reached the order of 10^7 photons sec^{-1} cm^{-2}. Assuming a blackbody spectrum with kT=175 keV, we estimate the peak energy flux to be 21 erg sec^{-1} cm^{-2} and the fluence (for 0-600 ms) to be 2.4 erg cm^{-2}. The implied energy release comparable to the magnetic energy stored in a magnetar (~10^{47} erg) suggests an extremely efficient energy release mechanism.Comment: 6 pages, 2 color figures, submitted to Natur

Explaining Foreign Holdings of Asia\u27s Debt Securities: The Feldstein-Horioka Paradox Revisited

In this paper, we find that home bias is still present in all economies and regions, especially in the case of short-term debt securities, but that there are substantial variations among economies and regions in the strength of home bias, with the Eurozone economies, the US, and developing Asia showing relatively weak home bias and advanced Asia, especially Japan, showing relatively strong home bias. We then examine trends over time in foreign holdings of debt securities and find that capital has been flowing from the US and the Eurozone economies to both advanced Asia (especially Japan) and developing Asia and that foreign holdings of debt securities have been increasing in advanced as well as developing Asia but for different reasons. The main reason in the case of advanced Asia (especially Japan) appears to be higher risk-adjusted returns, whereas the main reason in the case of developing Asia appears to be the growth of debt securities markets combined with relatively weak home bias and (in the case of short-term securities) lower exchange rate volatility. Finally, we find that since the Global Financial Crisis, foreign holdings of debt securities have declined (i.e., that home bias has strengthened) in all economies and regions except developing Asia, where they have increased (except for a temporary decline in 2008) but where their share is still much lower than the optimal share warranted by the capital asset pricing market model

Final design and manufacturing progress of the current feeders and coil terminal boxes for JT-60SA

The construction of a full-superconducting tokamak referred as JT-60 Super Advanced (JT-60SA) is in progress under the JA-EU broader approach projects. The magnet system of JT-60SA consists of 18 toroidal field (TF) coils, 4 modules of central solenoid (CS) and 6 equilibrium field (EF) coils. TF coils are procured by EU and CS, EF coils and current feeding system are procured by JA.The current feeding system consists in-cryostat superconducting feeders and coil terminal boxes (CTBs). High Temperature Superconductor Current Leads (HTSCLs) are installed to the CTBs between room temperature busbars and superconducting current feeders to reduce the heat load for the cryoplant. There are five separated CTBs (CTB1-CTB5) to be installed to JT-60SA magnet system because of the small available space in torus building. Since the maximum allowable magnetic field of HTSCL is 33 mT, CTB main body is more than 12 m away from tokamak center.Design of in-cryostat feeders are complicated because they are required to have flexibility and rigidity. In-cryostat feeders need to withstand large displacement of coils up to 38 mm in vertical direction, 20 mm in radial direction and 16 mm in toroidal direction due to shrinkage during cooling down and electromagnetic force during operation. Therefore some in-cryostat feeders have loop shape parts to increase the flexibility of in-cryostat feeders. On the other hand, in-cryostat feeders are required to withstand acceleration due to earthquake of 0.4 G (+1.0 G) in vertical direction and 0.6 G in horizontal direction. Therefore we added the supports at suitable position to increase the rigidity and keep the flexibility of in-cryostat feeders. The design of in-cryostat feeders for JT-60SA were fixed using FEM calculation.Manufacturing of CTBs and in-cryostat current feeders started in 2014. First CTB (CTB1) was completed in February 2017 and CTB1 was used for the cold tests to validate the manufacturing design. CTB4 and CTB5 were completed in December 2017 and in-cryostat current feeders were also completed in May 2018. Manufacturing of remaining 2 CTBs (CTB2 and CTB3) will be finished in October 2018. CTBs and in-cryostat current feeders will be installed to the tokamak in 2019.In this paper, the final design of CTBs and in-cryostat current feeders are described. And the results of cold test of CTB1 is reported.Applied Superconductivity Conference 2018 (ASC2018