Stock market and investment good prices: implications of macroeconomics

Stock market prices are procyclical, while investment good prices are countercyclical. A real business cycle model calibrated to these observations implies that 75% of the cyclical variation in aggregate output is due to an investment-specific technology shock, while the rest is due to an aggregate productivity shock. To test this conclusion, we investigate the model's implications for asset prices and business cycles. The model does not do significantly worse than existing models on these dimensions, and on two dimensions it does notably better. It is consistent with the facts: (i) employment and investment across different sectors comove over the business cycle: and (ii) high interest rates lead low aggregate output. Fact (ii) is often interpreted as reflecting the business cycle effects of monetary policy shocks. Our result suggest that (ii) may, at least to some extent, also reflect the effects of real shocks.Stock - Prices ; Investments

Control-structures Interaction Test of the LACE Satellite

It is clear that additional experience and validation of Control Structures Interaction (CSI) techniques are needed in controlling the structural dynamics of flexible spacecraft. It is also clear that the effects of the space environment such as weightlessness dictate that this be done in space. Unfortunately, orbital tests are difficult to achieve because of the high cost of the test article, the launch into orbit, the instrumentation, and communication systems. The Low-power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (LACE) Satellite has provided an opportunity to achieve a CSI test in space for very little cost. First, the CSI test rode piggy-back and did not interfere with the primary objective of LACE. Second, the novel technique of using ground based measurements of vibration of the orbiting satellite was employed. The LACE has a heavy central body to which is attached booms with lengths as long as 150 feet. The ground measurements were obtained using laser Doppler radar at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Firepond Facility. The initial tests demonstrated the accuracy of the vibration measurements and obtained structural responses for enhancing the accuracy of the mathematical model of the structural dynamics. Germanium corner-cube retroreflectors attached to the central body and a boom deployed to 18 feet ensured a high strength return signal. Subsequent tests demonstrated the ability of an open-loop damper to attenuate the vibrations of the orbiting satellite. The LACE test results are important in contributing to the validation of a CSI technique, and demonstrating a novel ground measurement technique for orbital tests that is accurate but which has very low cost

Algorithms for solving dynamic models with occasionally binding constraints

A description and comparison of several algorithms for approximating the solution to a model in which inequality constraints occasionally bind. Their performance is evaluated using various parameterizations of the one-sector growth model with irreversible investment.

Habit persistence and asset returns in an exchange economy

We examine asset prices and returns in the context of a version of the pure exchange economy studied in Lucas (1978) and Mehra and Prescott (1985). Our purpose is to identify the key channels by which changes in preferences affect the equity premium and the risk free rate and to develop intuition that is useful for understanding asset pricing in more complicated economies. Our analysis suggests that capital gains play a crucial role in generating empirically plausible mean equity premia.Capital assets pricing model ; Risk

When is diabetes distress clinically meaningful?: establishing cut points for the Diabetes Distress Scale.

ObjectiveTo identify the pattern of relationships between the 17-item Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS17) and diabetes variables to establish scale cut points for high distress among patients with type 2 diabetes.Research design and methodsRecruited were 506 study 1 and 392 study 2 adults with type 2 diabetes from community medical groups. Multiple regression equations associated the DDS17, a 17-item scale that yields a mean-item score, with HbA(1c), diabetes self-efficacy, diet, and physical activity. Associations also were undertaken for the two-item DDS (DDS2) screener. Analyses included control variables, linear, and quadratic (curvilinear) DDS terms.ResultsSignificant quadratic effects occurred between the DDS17 and each diabetes variable, with increases in distress associated with poorer outcomes: study 1 HbA(1c) (P < 0.02), self-efficacy (P < 0.001), diet (P < 0.001), physical activity (P < 0.04); study 2 HbA(1c) (P < 0.03), self-efficacy (P < 0.004), diet (P < 0.04), physical activity (P = NS). Substantive curvilinear associations with all four variables in both studies began at unexpectedly low levels of DDS17: the slope increased linearly between scores 1 and 2, was more muted between 2 and 3, and reached a maximum between 3 and 4. This suggested three patient subgroups: little or no distress, <2.0; moderate distress, 2.0-2.9; high distress, ≥3.0. Parallel findings occurred for the DDS2.ConclusionsIn two samples of type 2 diabetic patients we found a consistent pattern of curvilinear relationships between the DDS and HbA(1c), diabetes self-efficacy, diet, and physical activity. The shape of these relationships suggests cut points for three patient groups: little or no, moderate, and high distress

When you speak of God, do you think of God as a man or a woman?: inclusive language and God\u27s concept

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1627/thumbnail.jp

Some relations between the auditory system of the medulla and noise-intensity stimulus functions

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThis study was undertaken to determine the behavioral significance of certain anatomical structures. Lesions were produced in various auditory pathways of animals previously trained to respond to auditory and non-auditory stimuli. Postoperative behavior was compared to preoperative behavior and correlated with neuroanatomical data. On the basis of historical evidence ventral acoustic structures were divided into 3 major pathways. The large fiber pathway originated in the posterior division of the ventral cochlear nucleus, coursed as the large fiber component of the trapezoid body and terminated in the contralateral nucleus of the trapezoid body. The superior olivary pathway arose as collaterals of the large fibers of the trapezoid body coursing dorsally to enter the superior olive. The small fiber pathway arose in the anterior division of the ventral cochlear nucleus, coursed as the small fiber component of the trapezoid body, passed through the superior olive and entered the accessory superior olive of the same side. A portion of the small fibers of the trapezoid body appeared to pass under the superior olive and have been shown to enter the contralateral accessory superior olive [TRUNCATED

Asset pricing lessons for modeling business cycles.

We develop a model which accounts for the observed equity premium and average risk free rate, without implying counterfactually high risk aversion. The model also does well in aceounting for business cycle phenomena. With respect to the conventional measures of business cycle volatility and comovement with output, the model does roughly as well as the standard business cycle model. On two other dimensions, the model's business cycle implications are actually improved. Its enhanced internal propagation allows it to account for the fact that there is positive persistenee in output growth, and the model also provides a resolution to the "excess sensitivity puzzle" for consumption and income. Key features of the model are habit persistence preferences, and a multisector technology with limited intersectoral mobility of factors of production.

Tobin's q and Asset Returns: Implications for Business Cycle Analysis

The marginal cost of plant capacity, measured by the price of equity is significantly procyclical. Yet, the price of a major intermediate input into expanding plant capacity, investment goods, is coutercyclical. The ratio of these prices is Tobin's q. We interpret the fact that Tobin's q differs from unity at all reflects that there are diminishing returns to expanding plant capacity by installing investment goods (`adjustment costs'). Also, its numerator and denominator have such different cyclical properties. We find the sign switch in their covariation with output reflects interaction of our adjustment cost specification with the operation of two shocks: one which affects the demand for equity and another which shifts the technology for producing investment goods. The adjustment costs cause the two prices to respond differently to these two shocks which is why it is possible to choose the shock variances to reproduce the sign switch. These model features are incorporated into a modified version of a model analyzed in Boldrin, Christiano and Fisher (1995) which contains assumptions designed to account for the observed mean return on risk free and risky assets. We find various modifications not only account for the sign switch but also continue to account for the salient features of mean asset returns. We turn to business cycle implications of our model. The model does as well as standard models with respect to conventional business cycle measures of volatility and comovement with output, and on one dimension the model significantly dominates standard models. The factors that help it account for prices and rates of return on assets also help it account for the fact that employment across a broad range of sectors moves together over the cycle.

Texas minerals : trends in production

UT Librarie