Financial diversification before modern portfolio theory: UK financial advice documents in the late nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century

The paper offers textual evidence from a series of financial advice documents in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century of how UK investors perceived of and managed risk. In the world’s largest financial centre of the time, UK investors were familiar with the concept of correlation and financial advisers’ suggestions were consistent with the recommendations of modern portfolio theory in relation to portfolio selection strategies. From the 1870s, there was an increased awareness of the benefits of financial diversification - primarily putting equal amounts into a number of different securities - with much of the emphasis being on geographical rather than sectoral diversification and some discussion of avoiding highly correlated investments. Investors in the past were not so naïve as mainstream financial discussions suggest today

Single-field inflation constraints from CMB and SDSS data

We present constraints on canonical single-field inflation derived from WMAP five year, ACBAR, QUAD, BICEP data combined with the halo power spectrum from SDSS LRG7. Models with a non-scale-invariant spectrum and a red tilt n_s < 1 are now preferred over the Harrison-Zel'dovich model (n_s = 1, tensor-to-scalar ratio r = 0) at high significance. Assuming no running of the spectral indices, we derive constraints on the parameters (n_s, r) and compare our results with the predictions of simple inflationary models. The marginalised credible intervals read n_s = 0.962^{+0.028}_{-0.026} and r < 0.17 (at 95% confidence level). Interestingly, the 68% c.l. contours favour mainly models with a convex potential in the observable region, but the quadratic potential model remains inside the 95% c.l. contours. We demonstrate that these results are robust to changes in the datasets considered and in the theoretical assumptions made. We then consider a non-vanishing running of the spectral indices by employing different methods, non-parametric but approximate, or parametric but exact. With our combination of CMB and LSS data, running models are preferred over power-law models only by a Delta chi^2 ~ 5.8, allowing inflationary stages producing a sizable negative running -0.063^{+0.061}_{-0.049} and larger tensor-scalar ratio r < 0.33 at the 95% c.l. This requires large values of the third derivative of the inflaton potential within the observable range. We derive bounds on this derivative under the assumption that the inflaton potential can be approximated as a third order polynomial within the observable range.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figures. v2: additional references, some typos corrected, passed to JCAP style. v3: minor changes, matches published versio

Medicaid Enrollment among Prison Inmates in a Non-expansion State: Exploring Predisposing, Enabling, and Need Factors Related to Enrollment Pre-incarceration and Post-Release

Prison inmates suffer from a heavy burden of physical and mental health problems and have considerable need for healthcare and coverage after prison release. The Affordable Care Act may have increased Medicaid access for some of those who need coverage in Medicaid expansion states, but inmates in non-expansion states still have high need for Medicaid coverage and face unique barriers to enrollment. We sought to explore barriers and facilitators to Medicaid enrollment among prison inmates in a non-expansion state. We conducted qualitative interviews with 20 recently hospitalized male prison inmates who had been approached by a prison social worker due to probable Medicaid eligibility, as determined by the inmates’ financial status, health, and past Medicaid enrollment. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a codebook with both thematic and interpretive codes. Coded interview text was then analyzed to identify predisposing, enabling, and need factors related to participants’ Medicaid enrollment prior to prison and intentions to enroll after release. Study participants’ median age, years incarcerated at the time of the interview, and projected remaining sentence length were 50, 4, and 2 years, respectively. Participants were categorized into three sub-groups based on their self-reported experience with Medicaid_ (1) those who never applied for Medicaid before prison (n = 6); (2) those who unsuccessfully attempted to enroll in Medicaid before prison (n = 3); and (3) those who enrolled in Medicaid before prison (n = 11). The six participants who had never applied to Medicaid before their incarceration did not hold strong attitudes about Medicaid and mostly had little need for Medicaid due to being generally healthy or having coverage available from other sources such as the Veteran’s Administration. However, one inmate who had never applied for Medicaid struggled considerably to access mental healthcare due to lapses in employer-based health coverage and attributed his incarceration to this unmet need for treatment. Three inmates with high medical need had their Medicaid applications rejected at least once pre-incarceration, resulting in periods without health coverage that led to worsening health and financial hardship for two of them. Eleven inmates with high medical need enrolled in Medicaid without difficulty prior to their incarceration, largely due to enabling factors in the form of assistance with the application by their local Department of Social Services or Social Security Administration, their mothers, medical providers, or prison personnel during a prior incarceration. Nearly all inmates acknowledged that they would need health coverage after release from prison, and more than half reported that they would need to enroll in Medicaid to gain healthcare coverage following their release. Although more population-based assessments are necessary, our findings suggest that greater assistance with Medicaid enrollment may be a key factor so that people in the criminal justice system who qualify for Medicaid—and other social safety net programs—may gain their rightful access to these benefits. Such access may benefit not only the individuals themselves but also the communities to which they return

Longitudinal double-spin asymmetry and cross section for inclusive neutral pion production at midrapidity in polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

We report a measurement of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry A_LL and the differential cross section for inclusive Pi0 production at midrapidity in polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV. The cross section was measured over a transverse momentum range of 1 < p_T < 17 GeV/c and found to be in good agreement with a next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculation. The longitudinal double-spin asymmetry was measured in the range of 3.7 < p_T < 11 GeV/c and excludes a maximal positive gluon polarization in the proton. The mean transverse momentum fraction of Pi0's in their parent jets was found to be around 0.7 for electromagnetically triggered events.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (RC

High pTp_{T} non-photonic electron production in pp+pp collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 200 GeV

We present the measurement of non-photonic electron production at high transverse momentum ($p_T >$ 2.5 GeV/$c$) in $p$ + $p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV using data recorded during 2005 and 2008 by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The measured cross-sections from the two runs are consistent with each other despite a large difference in photonic background levels due to different detector configurations. We compare the measured non-photonic electron cross-sections with previously published RHIC data and pQCD calculations. Using the relative contributions of B and D mesons to non-photonic electrons, we determine the integrated cross sections of electrons ($\frac{e^++e^-}{2}$) at 3 GeV/$c < p_T <~$10 GeV/$c$ from bottom and charm meson decays to be ${d\sigma_{(B\to e)+(B\to D \to e)} \over dy_e}|_{y_e=0}$ = 4.0$\pm0.5$({\rm stat.})$\pm1.1$({\rm syst.}) nb and ${d\sigma_{D\to e} \over dy_e}|_{y_e=0}$ = 6.2$\pm0.7$({\rm stat.})$\pm1.5$({\rm syst.}) nb, respectively.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure

Evolution of the differential transverse momentum correlation function with centrality in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

We present first measurements of the evolution of the differential transverse momentum correlation function, {\it C}, with collision centrality in Au+Au interactions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200$ GeV. {\it C} exhibits a strong dependence on collision centrality that is qualitatively similar to that of number correlations previously reported. We use the observed longitudinal broadening of the near-side peak of {\it C} with increasing centrality to estimate the ratio of the shear viscosity to entropy density, $\eta/s$, of the matter formed in central Au+Au interactions. We obtain an upper limit estimate of $\eta/s$ that suggests that the produced medium has a small viscosity per unit entropy.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, STAR paper published in Phys. Lett.

Longitudinal scaling property of the charge balance function in Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV

We present measurements of the charge balance function, from the charged particles, for diverse pseudorapidity and transverse momentum ranges in Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV using the STAR detector at RHIC. We observe that the balance function is boost-invariant within the pseudorapidity coverage [-1.3, 1.3]. The balance function properly scaled by the width of the observed pseudorapidity window does not depend on the position or size of the pseudorapidity window. This scaling property also holds for particles in different transverse momentum ranges. In addition, we find that the width of the balance function decreases monotonically with increasing transverse momentum for all centrality classes.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Measurement of the Bottom contribution to non-photonic electron production in p+pp+p collisions at s\sqrt{s} =200 GeV

The contribution of $B$ meson decays to non-photonic electrons, which are mainly produced by the semi-leptonic decays of heavy flavor mesons, in $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 200 GeV has been measured using azimuthal correlations between non-photonic electrons and hadrons. The extracted $B$ decay contribution is approximately 50% at a transverse momentum of $p_{T} \geq 5$ GeV/$c$. These measurements constrain the nuclear modification factor for electrons from $B$ and $D$ meson decays. The result indicates that $B$ meson production in heavy ion collisions is also suppressed at high $p_{T}$.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by PR