Panic behavior and the performance of circuit breakers: Empirical evidence

Stock Markets;Financial Crisis

Non-monotonicity of the frictional bimaterial effect

Sliding along frictional interfaces separating dissimilar elastic materials is qualitatively different from sliding along interfaces separating identical materials due to the existence of an elastodynamic coupling between interfacial slip and normal stress perturbations in the former case. This bimaterial coupling has important implications for the dynamics of frictional interfaces, including their stability and rupture propagation along them. We show that while this bimaterial coupling is a monotonically increasing function of the bimaterial contrast, when it is coupled to interfacial shear stress perturbations through a friction law, various physical quantities exhibit a non-monotonic dependence on the bimaterial contrast. In particular, we show that for a regularized Coulomb friction, the maximal growth rate of unstable interfacial perturbations of homogeneous sliding is a non-monotonic function of the bimaterial contrast, and provide analytic insight into the origin of this non-monotonicity. We further show that for velocity-strengthening rate-and-state friction, the maximal growth rate of unstable interfacial perturbations of homogeneous sliding is also a non-monotonic function of the bimaterial contrast. Results from simulations of dynamic rupture along a bimaterial interface with slip-weakening friction provide evidence that the theoretically predicted non-monotonicity persists in non-steady, transient frictional dynamics.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

AGGREGATE DEMAND AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES: A MACRO-ECONOMIC MODEL OF INDUCED INNOVATIONS

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Applying the Unmotivated Label to Clients in Social Service Agencies

This study, based on the responses of a sample of 245 public-sector social workers, explores the factors associated with labelling clients unmotivated. The variables examined relate to clients, workers, agencies, and the interactions among these elements. Multiple regression analysis reveals that the best predictor variables are client-related. The client most likely to be rated by the social worker as lacking in motivation is of lower socioeconomic status and is perceived as believing that he or she does not require much professional intervention. The research supports the argument that clients who workers believe are unreceptive to their professional styles are likely to be labelled unmotivated

The Willingness to Seek Help: Its Role in Social Workers\u27 Professional Commitment

Providing help to persons in need is the central theme of the social work profession. The three elements essential to this process are the person offering the assistance, the assistance itself, and the person receiving it. The focus here is on the person offering the help and to what degree that person is willing to request help when he or she needs it. Social workers differ with regard to their willingness to seek help, and this study employs a variety of research tools to explore the relevance of these differences to their commitment to the profession and to their professional advancement. The research, carried out in Israel with a sample of 180 professional social workers, found greater willingness to seek help to be directly associated with greater professional commitment and indirectly associated with enhanced upward career mobility

INVESTORS’ DECISION TO TRADE STOCKS – AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

This paper experimentally examines the behavior of investors when buying and selling stocks. This behavior was tested under different conditions, among them restrictions on asset holdings or different information conditions. Basic financial theory suggests that subjects buy and sell according to expectations regarding the future prices of assets. On the other hand, behavioral biases, such as the disposition effect, suggest that subjects are affected by past performance of assets. In a series of experiments, subjects were asked to allocate a given endowment among six assets. All the assets had the same normal distribution. The results show that when subjects were not restricted regarding the number of assets they were allowed to hold and were given information only on the asset they hold, the holding time for losing and winning assets was the same, indicating that there was no effect of past performance. On the other hand, when subjects were required to hold three assets at all times and replace one asset on each round, they tended to sell losing assets too soon and hold winning assets too long. The results also show that subjects who are given information on market returns tend to sell winning assets (relatively to the market) too soon and hold losing assets too long.Behavioral finance, Disposition effect, experimental economics, momentum, trading.