3,116 research outputs found
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 , for the right value of
, the number of nodes making a wrong decision is logarithmic in . That
is, in the limit for large , 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
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 , 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
Effects on Soil Fertility and Microbial Populations of Broadcast-Transplanting Rice Seedlings in High Standing-Stubble Under No-Tillage in Paddy Fields
Îł-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 sequencesâbias 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 sequencesâunequal substitution rates among different sitesâinto MYN method, and proposed a modified version, namely <it>Îł </it>(gamma)-MYN, based on an assumption that the evolutionary rate at each site follows a mode of <it>Îł</it>-distribution. We applied <it>Îł</it>-MYN to analyze the key estimator of selective pressure Ï (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 Ï. 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 Ï under different evolutionary rates while both transition/transversion rate ratio and unequal nucleotide frequencies affect Ka and Ks thus selective pressure Ï.</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
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