"The German language and literature special collections at the University library of Frankfurt am Main and the work of the subject specialist" : paper delivered in Göttingen, 4. 9. 2007, at the annual conference of the German Studies Library Group (GSLG)

Contents - BIX: pole position and runner-up - Frankfurt University Library: its responsibilities, its collections, its databases, its supra-regional collecting responsibilities – and some statistics - The "Sondersammelgebiet" Germanistik: its scope and contents, its principal strengths, present situation, and budget - Sammlung Deutscher Drucke: the 1801-1870 segment of the "Distributed National Library" - Information Services: Bibliographie der deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (BDSL), Neuerwerbungsliste Germanistik, Bibliographie germanistischer Bibliographien (BgB), DigiZeitschriften, information bulletins - Work of the Subject Specialist: exhibitions, publicity material"Das Sondersammelgebiet und Fachreferat Germanistik an der Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main" : Vortrag am 4. 9. 2007 in Göttingen ; Ort: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen ; Anlass: Annual conference of the German Studies Library Group (GSLG) Inhalt - BIX: Pole position and Runner-up - UB Frankfurt: Funktionen, Zahlen, Sammlungen, Datenbanken, Sondersammelgebiete - SSG Germanistik: Bestand, Schwerpunkte, Gegenwart, Budget, Sammelauftrag - Sammlung Deutscher Drucke: "Verteilte Nationalbibliothek", Zeitsegment 1801-1870 - Informationsdienste: Bibliographie der deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (BDSL), Neuerwerbungsliste Germanistik, Bibliographie germanistischer Bibliographien (BgB), DigiZeitschriften, Flyer - Fachreferat: Literaturausstellungen, Begleithef

The Size Distribution across all "Cities": A Unifying Approach

In this paper we show that the double Pareto lognormal (DPLN) parameterization provides an excellent fit to the overall US city size distribution, regardless of whether “cities” are administratively defined Census places or economically defined area clusters. We then consider an economic model that combines scale-independent urban growth (Gibrat’s law) with endogenous city creation. City sizes converge to a DPLN distribution in this model, which is much better in line with the data than previous urban growth frameworks that predict a lognormal or a Pareto city size distribution (Zipf’s law).Zipf’s law, Gibrat’s law, city size distributions, double Pareto-Lognormal

The Size Distribution Across All "Cities": A Unifying Approach

In this paper we show that the double Pareto lognormal (DPLN) parameterization provides an excellent fit to the overall US city size distribution, regardless of whether "cities" are administratively defined Census places or economically defined area clusters. We then consider an economic model that combines scale-independent urban growth (Gibrat's law) with endogenous city creation. City sizes converge to a DPLN distribution in this model, which is much better in line with the data than previous urban growth frameworks that predict a lognormal or a Pareto city size distribution (Zipf's law).Zipf's law, Gibrat's law, city size distributions, double Pareto-Lognormal

Zipf's Law for Cities in the Regions and the Country

The salient rank-size rule known as Zipf's law is not only satisfied for Germany's national urban hierarchy, but also for the city size distributions in single German regions. To analyze this phenomenon, we build on the insights by Gabaix (1999) that Zipf's law follows from a stochastic growth process. In particular, Gabaix shows that if the regions follow Gibrat's law, we should observe Zipf at both the regional and the national level. This theory has never been addressed empirically. Using non-parametric techniques we find that Gibrat's law holds in each German region, irrespective of how "regions" are defined. In other words, Gibrat's law and therefore Zipf's law tend to hold everywhere in space.city size distributions, city growth, Zipf's law, Gibrat's law, rank-size rule

Money and Inflation: The Role of Persistent Velocity Movements

While the long run relation between money and inflation is well established, empirical evidence on the adjustment to the long run equilibrium is very heterogeneous. In the present paper we use a multivariate state space framework, that substantially expands the traditional vector error correction approach, to analyze the short run impact of money on prices. We contribute to the literature in three ways: First, we distinguish changes in velocity of money that are due to institutional developments and thus do not induce inflationary pressure, and changes that reflect transitory movements in money demand. This is achieved with a newly developed multivariate unobserved components decomposition. Second, we analyze whether the high volatility of the transmission from monetary pressure to inflation follows some structure, i.e., if the parameter regime can assumed to be constant. Finally, we use our model to illustrate the consequences of the monetary policy of the Fed that has been employed to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis, simulating different exit strategy scenarios.velocity, multivariate state space model, inflation, money

A fussy revisitation of antiprotons as a tool for Dark Matter searches

Antiprotons are regarded as a powerful probe for Dark Matter (DM) indirect detection and indeed current data from PAMELA have been shown to lead to stringent constraints. However, in order to exploit their constraining/discovery power properly and especially in anticipation of the exquisite accuracy of upcoming data from AMS, great attention must be put into effects (linked to their propagation in the Galaxy) which may be perceived as subleasing but actually prove to be quite relevant. We revisit the computation of the astrophysical background and of the DM antiproton fluxes fully including the effects of: diffusive reacceleration, energy losses including tertiary component and solar modulation (in a force field approximation). We show that their inclusion can somewhat modify the current bounds, even at large DM masses, and that a wrong interpretation of the data may arise if they are not taken into account. The numerical results for the astrophysical background are provided in terms of fit functions; the results for Dark Matter are incorporated in the new release of the PPPC4DMID.Comment: v3: small comments and references added, matches journal versio