Essays In International Finance And Macroeconomics

This thesis consists of three essays in international finance and macroeconomics to study the link between money and economic activity.;The first essay, entitled Liquidity, Exchange Rates, and Business Cycles, presents a two-country, two-good, two-currency model to study the role of liquidity effects in exchange rate determination and the international transmission of economic fluctuations. The monetary authority\u27s injections of cash are funneled into the economy through financial markets. The asymmetry of economic agents\u27 access to the newly injected cash induces liquidity effects. The model provides an exchange rate equation which is different from the simple purchasing-power-parity law of exchange rate determination. Both monetary injections and real disturbances can lead to exchange rate fluctuations and comovements of interest rates, prices and output of the two economies. Whether the covariances of variables in the two countries are positive, negative, or zero depends critically upon the substitutability of the two consumption goods in consumers\u27 preferences.;The second essay, Capital Controls, Foreign Exchange Controls, and Liquidity, continues the study of liquidity effects. By using a similar model to that constructed in the first essay, this essay analyses the liquidity effects generated by restrictions on international financial markets. Taxes on international financial transactions induce redistribution of liquidity in international financial markets which results in comovements of macroeconomic aggregates in the two economies, fluctuations in exchange rates and interest rates, and changes in welfare of economic agents of each country.;The third essay, Imperfect Information, Money, and Economic Growth, presents an endogenous growth model with financial market imperfections to study the effects of money on economic growth, and to examine the role of informational imperfections in the determination of the equilibrium growth path. It is found that the economy will grow slower if there is imperfect information. Changes in money growth have qualitatively similar effects on the economies with and without private information. However, the economy with private information will be less responsive to monetary shocks. The results contradict the popular view that informational imperfections in credit markets or borrowing constraints tend to amplify the impacts of policy interventions

Simple Monetary Policy Rules in an Open-Economy, Limited-Participation Model

The authors assess the stabilization properties of simple monetary policy rules within the context of a small open-economy model constructed around the limited-participation assumption and calibrated to salient features of the Canadian economy. By relying on limited participation as the main nominal friction that affects the artificial economy, the authors provide an important check of the robustness of the results obtained using alternative environments in the literature on monetary policy rules, most notably the now-standard "New Keynesian" paradigm that emphasizes rigidities in the price-setting mechanism. The authors' analysis identifies general principles to which a rule should adhere to possess favourable stabilization properties. The rule should direct monetary authorities to increase nominal interest rates significantly when lagged interest rates are already high. By contrast, upward pressures on output (and perhaps also on inflation) should lead to decreases in interest rates. Further, monetary policy should be essentially unconcerned with exchange rate movements. In addition, responding to future inflation, rather than the current rate, does not generate significant welfare improvements. While some of these principles are similar to those obtained using alternative environments, the recommendation that monetary policy should lower rates when output or inflation is pushing upward is more specific to limited-participation models. This recommendation is linked to the fact that, in such models, expected rises in inflation lead the financial system to contract aggregate loanable funds and push economic activity downward, thus embedding a negative correlation between inflationary and output pressures in the model economy. In that sense, the authors' analysis might be interpreted as the study of an economy in which financial markets have limited flexibility to react to shocks and how this limited flexibility impinges on the choice of a "good" monetary policy rule.

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Polarized thermal radiation by layer-by-layer metallic emitters with sub-wavelength grating

Metallic thermal emitters consisting of two layers of differently structured nickel gratings on a homogeneous nickel layer are fabricated by soft lithography and studied for polarized thermal radiation. A thermal emitter in combination with a sub-wavelength grating shows a high extinction ratio, with a maximum value close to 5, in a wide mid-infrared range from 3.2 to 7.8 µm, as well as high emissivity up to 0.65 at a wavelength of 3.7µm. All measurements show good agreement with theoretical predictions. Numerical simulations reveal that a high electric field exists within the localized air space surrounded by the gratings and the intensified electric-field is only observed for the polarizations perpendicular to the top sub-wavelength grating. This result suggests how the emissivity of a metal can be selectively enhanced at a certain range of wavelengths for a given polarization

Soft lithography microlens fabrication and array for enhanced light extraction from organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs)

Provided are microlens arrays for use on the substrate of OLEDs to extract more light that is trapped in waveguided modes inside the devices and methods of manufacturing same. Light extraction with microlens arrays is not limited to the light emitting area, but is also efficient in extracting light from the whole microlens patterned area where waveguiding occurs. Large microlens array, compared to the size of the light emitting area, extract more light and result in over 100% enhancement. Such a microlens array is not limited to (O)LEDs of specific emission, configuration, pixel size, or pixel shape. It is suitable for all colors, including white, for microcavity OLEDs, and OLEDs fabricated directly on the (modified) microlens array

Soft holographic interference lithography microlens for enhanced organic light emitting diode light extraction

Very uniform 2 μm-pitch square microlens arrays (μLAs), embossed on the blank glass side of an indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-coated 1.1 mm-thick glass, are used to enhance light extraction from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) by ~100%, significantly higher than enhancements reported previously. The array design and size relative to the OLED pixel size appear to be responsible for this enhancement. The arrays are fabricated by very economical soft lithography imprinting of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold (itself obtained from a Ni master stamp that is generated from holographic interference lithography of a photoresist) on a UV-curable polyurethane drop placed on the glass. Green and blue OLEDs are then fabricated on the ITO to complete the device. When the μLA is ~15 × 15 mm2, i.e., much larger than the ~3 × 3 mm2 OLED pixel, the electroluminescence (EL) in the forward direction is enhanced by ~100%. Similarly, a 19 × 25 mm2μLA enhances the EL extracted from a 3 × 3 array of 2 × 2 mm2 OLED pixels by 96%. Simulations that include the effects of absorption in the organic and ITO layers are in accordance with the experimental results and indicate that a thinner 0.7 mm thick glass would yield a ~140% enhancement

Fabrication of photonic band gap materials using microtransfer molded templates

A method of manufacturing photonic band gap structures operable in the optical spectrum has been presented. The method comprises the steps of creating a patterned template for an elastomeric mold, fabricating an elastomeric mold from poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or other suitable polymer, filling the elastomeric mold with a second polymer such as epoxy or other suitable polymer, stamping the second polymer by making contact with a substrate or multilayer structure, removing the elastomeric mold, infiltrating the multilayer structure with ceramic or metal, and heating the multilayer structure to remove the second polymer to form a photonic band gap structure

Crystal structure of 3-ethyl-1-[(E)-[(2E)-3-phenylprop-2-en-1-ylidene]amino]thiourea, C12H15N3S

C12H15N3S, orthorhombic, Pbca (no. 61), a = 11.9612(5) Å, b = 8.1215(3) Å, c = 27.5865(12) Å, V = 2679.83(19) Å3, Z = 8, Rgt(F) = 0.0520, wRref(F2) = 0.1514, T = 293(2) K