Light-meson properties from the Bethe-Salpeter equation

We discuss how to extract observables from an inhomogeneous vertex Bethe-Salpeter equation without resorting to the corresponding homogeneous equation. As an example we present a prediction for the $e^+e^-$ decay width of the $\rho(1450)$ or $\rho'$ meson. We also attempt to identify the momentum range contributing to a vector meson's decay constant.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at the conference "Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum IX", Madrid, Spain, 30th of August-3rd of September 2010; submitted to the proceeding

Long range action in networks of chaotic elements

We show that under certain simple assumptions on the topology (structure) of networks of strongly interacting chaotic elements a phenomenon of long range action takes place, namely that the asymptotic (as time goes to infinity) dynamics of an arbitrary large network is completely determined by its boundary conditions. This phenomenon takes place under very mild and robust assumptions on local dynamics with short range interactions. However, we show that it is unstable with respect to arbitrarily weak local random perturbations.Comment: 15 page

Promoting banking services among low-income customers

Many low-income people rely on payday lenders, check cashers, and other alternative financial service providers to get by. But the high costs make it hard for families to save. A 2008 Brookings Institution report highlights the reasons that the so-called unbanked turn to such services. It also suggests solutions-including both expanded bank offerings and increased access to government programs that stabilize incomes and reduce the need for emergency, high-cost credit.Unbanked

Why are Wages Cyclical in the 1970's?

This paper investigates cyclicality in real wages between 1969 and 1982, using 14 years of data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics. First, it investigates the extent to which movements in and out of the labor market created apparent wage cyclicality. Second, it investigates whether cyclical movements of workers between heterogeneous wage sectors within the labor market created cyclicality. Little evidence of the first effect is found. The second effect is much more important, and cyclicality clearly occurs in the movement of workers between different labor market sectors. However, sector selection is not correlated with wage determination. Thus, individual wage change estimates of cyclicality need to control for sector location, but need not account for sector selection. The third conclusion of the paper is that cyclicality is present in real wages even within sectors over this time period, and is the result of both cyclicality in overall wage levels (cyclicality in the constant term in wage equations), as well as in the coefficients associated with particular worker characteristics.