The Financial Deepening-Productivity Nexus in China: 1987-2001

The financial intermediation-growth nexus is a widely studied topic in the literature of development economics. Deepening financial intermediation may promote economic growth by mobilizing more investments, and lifting returns to financial resources, which raises productivity. Relying on provincial panel data from China, this paper attempts to examine if regional productivity growth is accounted for by the deepening process of financial development. Towards this end, an appropriate measurement of financial depth is constructed and then included as a determinant of productivity growth. It finds that a significant and positive nexus exists between financial deepening and productivity growth. Given the divergent pattern of financial deepening between coastal and inland provinces, this finding also helps explain the rising regional disparity in China.growth, financial development, productivity, China

Information Cascades on Arbitrary Topologies

In this paper, we study information cascades on graphs. In this setting, each node in the graph represents a person. One after another, each person has to take a decision based on a private signal as well as the decisions made by earlier neighboring nodes. Such information cascades commonly occur in practice and have been studied in complete graphs where everyone can overhear the decisions of every other player. It is known that information cascades can be fragile and based on very little information, and that they have a high likelihood of being wrong. Generalizing the problem to arbitrary graphs reveals interesting insights. In particular, we show that in a random graph $G(n,q)$, for the right value of $q$, the number of nodes making a wrong decision is logarithmic in $n$. That is, in the limit for large $n$, the fraction of players that make a wrong decision tends to zero. This is intriguing because it contrasts to the two natural corner cases: empty graph (everyone decides independently based on his private signal) and complete graph (all decisions are heard by all nodes). In both of these cases a constant fraction of nodes make a wrong decision in expectation. Thus, our result shows that while both too little and too much information sharing causes nodes to take wrong decisions, for exactly the right amount of information sharing, asymptotically everyone can be right. We further show that this result in random graphs is asymptotically optimal for any topology, even if nodes follow a globally optimal algorithmic strategy. Based on the analysis of random graphs, we explore how topology impacts global performance and construct an optimal deterministic topology among layer graphs

An Empirical Analysis about Population, Technological Progress, and Economic Growth in Taiwan

This paper empirically analyzed the relationship between population, technological progress, and economic growth in Taiwan from 1954 to 2005, using the LA-VAR (lag-augmented vector autoregression) model. The empirical results reveal that a major conformational change in the economic development of Taiwan after 2000.

Localization of Fermions on a Thick Brane in Six-Dimensional Spacetime

This paper investigates the localization of fermions in six or higher-dimensional braneworld models. We study the relationship between higher-dimensional fermions and four-dimensional ones in general braneworld models, and give some common calculations. In a conformally flat extra-dimensional spacetime, fermions cannot be localized through minimal coupling with gravity. Therefore, we propose using a coupling mechanism with $\bar{\Psi} \Gamma^{M}\Gamma^{N}\Gamma^{P}\cdots T_{MNP\cdots} \Psi$ to preserve Lorentz symmetry and decouple the components of higher-dimensional spinors to obtain a four-dimensional effective free field theory. For the manifold with a topology of $\mathcal{M}_4\times{\mathcal{R}_2}$, the minimal coupling between fermions and gravity will distinguish left and right chiralities, while a reasonable localization mechanism is still needed to realize a four-dimensional chiral theory.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure

γ-MYN: a new algorithm for estimating Ka and Ks with consideration of variable substitution rates

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Over the past two decades, there have been several approximate methods that adopt different mutation models and used for estimating nonsynonymous and synonymous substitution rates (Ka and Ks) based on protein-coding sequences across species or even different evolutionary lineages. Among them, MYN method (a Modified version of Yang-Nielsen method) considers three major dynamic features of evolving DNA sequences–bias in transition/transversion rate, nucleotide frequency, and unequal transitional substitution but leaves out another important feature: unequal substitution rates among different sites or nucleotide positions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We incorporated a new feature for analyzing evolving DNA sequences–unequal substitution rates among different sites–into MYN method, and proposed a modified version, namely <it>γ </it>(gamma)-MYN, based on an assumption that the evolutionary rate at each site follows a mode of <it>γ</it>-distribution. We applied <it>γ</it>-MYN to analyze the key estimator of selective pressure ω (Ka/Ks) and other relevant parameters in comparison to two other related methods, YN and MYN, and found that neglecting the variation of substitution rates among different sites may lead to biased estimations of ω. Our new method appears to have minimal deviations when relevant parameters vary within normal ranges defined by empirical data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results indicate that unequal substitution rates among different sites have variable influences on ω under different evolutionary rates while both transition/transversion rate ratio and unequal nucleotide frequencies affect Ka and Ks thus selective pressure ω.</p> <p>Reviewers</p> <p>This paper was reviewed by Kateryna Makova, David A. Liberles (nominated by David H Ardell), Zhaolei Zhang (nominated by Mark Gerstein), and Shamil Sunyaev.</p

Dielectric Behavior of Nonspherical Cell Suspensions

Recent experiments revealed that the dielectric dispersion spectrum of fission yeast cells in a suspension was mainly composed of two sub-dispersions. The low-frequency sub-dispersion depended on the cell length, whereas the high-frequency one was independent of it. The cell shape effect was qualitatively simulated by an ellipsoidal cell model. However, the comparison between theory and experiment was far from being satisfactory. In an attempt to close up the gap between theory and experiment, we considered the more realistic cells of spherocylinders, i.e., circular cylinders with two hemispherical caps at both ends. We have formulated a Green function formalism for calculating the spectral representation of cells of finite length. The Green function can be reduced because of the azimuthal symmetry of the cell. This simplification enables us to calculate the dispersion spectrum and hence access the effect of cell structure on the dielectric behavior of cell suspensions.Comment: Preliminary results have been reported in the 2001 March Meeting of the American Physical Society. Accepted for publications in J. Phys.: Condens. Matte