Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue: The Co-Evolution of Popular and Art Music in the United States during World War II

World War II was a watershed event in twentieth century American history. All aspects of life, including music, both found roles to play in the war effort and were forever altered by the conflict. Past work on the subject of American music in World War II tends to focus heavily on the nature and impact of popular music during this time period. While this paper will review and build upon this scholarship, art music during the war will also be considered. Using two distinctly different, yet complementary, autobiographies – those of army band musician Frank Mathias and composer Gunther Schuller – the functions and impacts of both popular and art music on the American war effort will be analyzed and compared. Their stories will then be contextualized within the larger narrative of twentieth century American music, showcasing how World War II – through the increased influence of jazz – shaped the evolution of both popular and art music in the United States during the early 1940s

European Jazz: A Comparative Investigation into the Reception and Impact of Jazz in Interwar Paris and the Weimar Republic

Both Paris and the Weimar Republic were fascinated with American jazz in the interwar period. Because of jazz\u27s connection to African American culture, this fascination is linked with the themes of identity and race relations. This work will demonstrate that interwar Parisians were not always receptive of African Americans that played jazz, and that the citizens of the Weimar Republic were more aware of and interested in the African American culture that permeated jazz in the 1920s and 30s

A mean value theorem for systems of integrals

More than a century ago, G. Kowalewski stated that for each n continuous functions on a compact interval [a,b], there exists an n-point quadrature rule (with respect to Lebesgue measure on [a,b]), which is exact for given functions. Here we generalize this result to continuous functions with an arbitrary positive and finite measure on an arbitrary interval. The proof relies on a version of Caratheodory's convex hull theorem for a continuous curve, that we also prove in the paper. As applications, we give a representation of the covariance for two continuous functions of a random variable, and a most general version of Gruess' inequality.Comment: 7 page

When are multinational banks getting a bang for their buck on their subsidiaries abroad?

This paper investigates whether foreign subsidiaries outperform their parent banks in terms of profitability and what determines this outcome. Using a large sample of multinational banks and their subsidiaries in a large number of countries, this study shows that, on average, foreign subsidiaries are less profitable than their parent banks are. At the same time, however, foreign subsidiaries have higher net interest margins but also higher overhead costs relative to their parent banks. One explanation for the results is that parent banks transfer income banks using overhead costs, what may explain the existing results. Moreover, the results show that foreign subsidiaries tend to perform better than their parent banks if the latter are underperforming in the home market. Finally, the results show that the determinants of the profitability of the subsidiary in relation to its parent bank are strongly determined by the origins of the parent bank and, to a lesser extent, by the host market’s characteristics as well as the distance to the home country of the multinational bank.international banking, foreign banks, subsidiary, performance

Methodology of the input-output analysis

In the near future consequences of the anthropogenic climate change will be more and more perceptible all over the world. But the regional distribution will differ substantially even between regions within the same country. Thus, local authorities need to adapt their regions individually to the risks resulting from the new climatic conditions. By implementing climate change in specific regional models the small scale economic impacts of climate change and the economic usefulness of adaptation measures can be evaluated. The input-output method presented in this paper delivers insight into the impact chain through which endogenous shocks affect the economy. The methodology is relatively uncomplex compared to other model types. Thus, the results are quite easy to understand and to communicate to the public. On the other hand the results underlie several restrictive assumptions. In the empirical environmental literature the input-output method is common for the assessment of economic damages after disasters. But models, which implement economic effects of adaptation measures, are very scarce. --input-output model,sectoral interdependencies,impact analysis

Specialisation and employment development in Germany: Analysis at regional level

While the number of employees subject to social insurance contributions in Germany remained nearly constant from 1998 to 2007, there have been strong differences in regional and sectoral growth rates. The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of the sector structure of a region on employment growth in Germany during this period. It will provide new findings about the impact of sector specific localisation effects on employment growth. If specialisation affects regional employment growth it is expected to be important for regional and labour market policies. Moreover, the paper deals with the question weather the sectoral structure of the regions fosters convergence or divergence, i.e. increasing specialisation of the regions. The empirical results show that the economic structures in Germany slowly converge. --regional specialisation,German regions,shift-share regression

Stochastic interest rates in the aggregate life cycle of permanent income cum rational expectations model

An estimation of a life cycle cum rational expectations model that allows for uncertain future interest rates. The results show that the model is strongly rejected using post World War II U.S. data.Rational expectations (Economic theory) ; Consumption (Economics) ; Income