Universality for conditional measures of the sine point process

The sine process is a rigid point process on the real line, which means that for almost all configurations $X$, the number of points in an interval $I = [-R,R]$ is determined by the points of $X$ outside of $I$. In addition, the points in $I$ are an orthogonal polynomial ensemble on $I$ with a weight function that is determined by the points in $X \setminus I$. We prove a universality result that in particular implies that the correlation kernel of the orthogonal polynomial ensemble tends to the sine kernel as the length $|I|=2R$ tends to infinity, thereby answering a question posed by A.I. Bufetov.Comment: 26 pages, no figures, revised version with Appendix

Malmquist and Törnqvist Productivity Indexes: Returns to Scale and Technical Progress with Imperfect Competition

Caves, Christensen and Diewert proposed a method for estimating a theoretical productivity index for a firm using Törnqvist input and output indexes, augmented by exogenous estimates of local returns to scale. However, in order to implement their method, they assumed that the firm maximized revenue in each period, conditional on the observed input vector in each period, taking output prices as fixed. This assumption is not warranted when there are increasing returns to scale. Thus in the present paper, it is assumed that the firm solves a monopolistic profit maximization problem when there are increasing returns to scale and the results of Caves, Christensen and Diewert are modified in accordance with this assumption.Productivity, index numbers, Malmquist indexes, Törnqvist indexes, returns to scale, non-competitive behavior, flexible functional forms.

The Normalized Quadratic Expenditure Function

A concise introduction to the Normalized Quadratic expenditure or cost function is provided so that the interested reader will have the necessary information to understand and use this functional form. The Normalized Quadratic is an attractive functional form for use in empirical applications as correct curvature can be imposed in a parsimonious way without losing the desirable property of flexibility. We believe it is unique in this regard. Topics covered included the problem of cardinalizing utility, the modeling of nonhomothetic preferences, the use of spline functions to achieve greater flexibility and the use of a “semiflexible†approach to make it feasible to estimate systems of equations with a large number of commodities.Normalized Quadratic, expenditure function, flexible functional forms, elasticities.

Kings and Vikings: On the Dynamics of Competitive Agglomeration

This paper studies the Viking age – the roughly 300 year period beginning in 800 AD – from the perspective of the economics of conflict. The Viking age is interesting because throughout the time period, the scale of conflict increased – small scale raiding behaviour eventually evolved into large scale clashes between armies. With this observation in mind, we present a theoretical model describing the incentives both the defending population and the invading population had to agglomerate into larger groups to better defend against attacks, and engage in attacks, respectively. The result is what might be called a theory of competitive agglomeration. We also apply our model in assessing the factors behind the onset of Vikings raids at the end of the 8th century.

Lyapunov Exponents of Two Stochastic Lorenz 63 Systems

Two different types of perturbations of the Lorenz 63 dynamical system for Rayleigh-Benard convection by multiplicative noise -- called stochastic advection by Lie transport (SALT) noise and fluctuation-dissipation (FD) noise -- are found to produce qualitatively different effects, possibly because the total phase-space volume contraction rates are different. In the process of making this comparison between effects of SALT and FD noise on the Lorenz 63 system, a stochastic version of a robust deterministic numerical algorithm for obtaining the individual numerical Lyapunov exponents was developed. With this stochastic version of the algorithm, the value of the sum of the Lyapunov exponents for the FD noise was found to differ significantly from the value of the deterministic Lorenz 63 system, whereas the SALT noise preserves the Lorenz 63 value with high accuracy. The Lagrangian averaged version of the SALT equations (LA SALT) is found to yield a closed deterministic subsystem for the expected solutions which is found to be isomorphic to the original Lorenz 63 dynamical system. The solutions of the closed chaotic subsystem, in turn, drive a linear stochastic system for the fluctuations of the LA SALT solutions around their expected values.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, comments always welcome