3,180 research outputs found
Exploring the CDS-Bond Basis
Markets for credit default swaps (CDS) and bonds of the same reference entity and maturity are bound by no-arbitrage conditions. Indeed, using a large data set we show that CDS premia and par asset swap spreads are mostly cointegrated. Nonetheless, the average CDS-bond basis (i.e. the difference between both measures) is positive in the period 2004-2005. We detect fourteen different economic basis drivers, which make the basis firm-specific and time-dependent. Furthermore, we describe the basis smile, and illustrate that the average basis is the lowest for five year maturities of corporate credits denominated in euro.Bond, Co integration, Credit, Risk Neutrality
Do Small Businesses Create More Jobs? New Evidence for Europe
In this paper we argue why, in our view, the so-called dynamic classification method should be favored when determining the contribution of small businesses towards job creation. First, it is the only method that consistently attributes job creation or loss to the size class in which it actually occurs. In addition, dynamic classification has two other advantages: (i) it is not vulnerable to the so-called regression to the mean bias and (ii) only a small number of aggregated data are required for its application. Using the dynamic classification we analyze job creation within the different size classes for the 27 Member States of the European Union. Our main findings are as follows: For the EU as a whole, smaller firms contribute on a larger scale towards job creation than larger firms do. Net job creation rates decrease with each firm size class. This pattern occurs in most industries however, not in all: the manufacturing industry and trade industry show different patterns. At the level of individual countries, the net job creation rate also tends todecrease with each firm size class. However, this relation is not perfect.
Why regionality is an important value in organic agriculture: the case of the Netherlands
Organic agriculture is a system of production and consumption in which values play a prominent role. The new IFOAM principles reflect the current worldwide consensus on the most important values of organic agriculture. Regionality or proximity is not explicitly mentioned in these principles. Also in the present EU-regulation on organic agriculture hardly any standards are formulated concerning this issue. On the other hand, some private organic labels do have extra standards - concerning for instance the origin of organic feed - while both producers and consumers of organic products often mention regional production as an important value. The question is whether, and if so why regionality is an important issue to be dealt with in the upcoming reformed EU-regulation on organic agriculture. To answer this question, the consequences are evaluated of the de-velopment of intensive, large-scale organic animal production in the Netherlands in the light of the value of regionality
Open and Closed Supermembranes with Winding
Motivated by manifest Lorentz symmetry and a well-defined large-N limit
prescription, we study the supersymmetric quantum mechanics proposed as a model
for the collective dynamics of D0-branes from the point of view of the
11-dimensional supermembrane. We argue that the continuity of the spectrum
persists irrespective of the presence of winding around compact target-space
directions and discuss the central charges in the superalgebra arising from
winding membrane configurations. Along the way we comment on the structure of
open supermembranes.Comment: Contribution to the proc. Strings '97, 10 pages, LaTeX, uses espcrc
SMEs as job engine of the Dutch private economy
The main objective of this study is to determine to what extent small and medium-sized enterprises can be seen as the main source of employment growth for the Dutch private sector during the period 1993-1998. To this end, we will decompose the employment growth over this period into size classes. ďż˝
Dusty Blue Supergiants: News from High-Angular Resolution Observations
An overview is presented of the recent advances in understanding the B[e]
phenomenon among blue supergiant stars in light of high-angular resolution
observations and with an emphasis on the results obtained by means of long
baseline optical stellar interferometry. The focus of the review is on the
circumstellar material and evolutionary phase of B[e] supergiants, but recent
results on dust production in regular blue supergiants are also highlighted.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Published in "Advances in Astronomy" by Hindawi
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On the Spectrum of PP-Wave Matrix Theory
We study the spectrum of the recently proposed matrix model of DLCQ M-theory
in a parallel plane (pp)-wave background. In contrast to matrix theory in a
flat background this model contains mass terms, which lift the flat directions
of the potential and renders its spectrum discrete. The supersymmetry algebra
of the model groups the energy eigenstates into supermultiplets, whose members
differ by fixed amounts of energy in great similarity to the representation of
supersymmetry in AdS spaces. There is a unique and exact zero-energy
groundstate along with a multitude of long and short multiplets of excited
states. For large masses the quantum mechanical model may be treated
perturbatively and we study the leading order energy shifts of the first
excited states up to level two. Most interestingly we uncover a protected short
multiplet at level two, whose energies do not receive perturbative corrections.
Moreover, we conjecture the existence of an infinite series of similar
protected multiplets in the pp-wave matrix model.Comment: 18 pages, 2 tables, v2: typos corrected and references added, v3: one
reference adde
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