Do Public Banks have a Competitive Advantage?

Private banks often blame state guarantees to distort competition by giv- ing public banks the advantage of lower funding costs. In this paper I show that if borrowers perceive the public bank as supporting economic develop- ment, private banks may be able to separate firms by self selection, enter the market, and obtain profits in equilibrium despite their cost disadvantage. The public bank's competitive advantage may be offset, independently of what its true objective function is. Even perfect competition between private banks does not lead to zero profits.public banks, state guarantee, self-selection

Imitation with Intention and Memory: an Experiment

Three results emerge from a simple experiment on imitation. First, I find behavior which strongly suggests an intention to imitate. Second, players im- itate successful other players rather than repeating successful actions. Third, to find imitation examples, players use several periods of memory. This lends support to learning models with a non-trivial role of memory. The experiment analyzes imitation in an individual learning context. It sup- plements the results obtained for imitation in evolutionary processes.Imitation, Learning, Memory, Experiments

Codescent theory I: Foundations

Consider a cofibrantly generated model category $S$, a small category $C$ and a subcategory $D$ of $C$. We endow the category $S^C$ of functors from $C$ to $S$ with a model structure, defining weak equivalences and fibrations objectwise but only on $D$. Our first concern is the effect of moving $C$, $D$ and $S$. The main notion introduced here is the ``$D$-codescent'' property for objects in $S^C$. Our long-term program aims at reformulating as codescent statements the Conjectures of Baum-Connes and Farrell-Jones, and at tackling them with new methods. Here, we set the grounds of a systematic theory of codescent, including pull-backs, push-forwards and various invariance properties.Comment: 48 pages (minor changes in the presentation and the references

Model theoretic reformulation of the Baum-Connes and Farrell-Jones conjectures

The Isomorphism Conjectures are translated into the language of homotopical algebra, where they resemble Thomason's descent theorems.Comment: 4 page

CHAPTER 8: DWIGHT READ: TOWARDS A NEW PARADIGM: FOLLOWED BY A DISCUSSION BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND DWIGHT READ

Here I report on Dwight Read’s theory for a paradigm change in kinship anthropology which entails kinship terminologies being interpreted as symbolic computational systems based on kin-term products. I also report on how Read argues that different conceptualizations of sibling, either sibling resulting by descent from parent, or sibling viewed in terms of shared parentage, two cultural conceptions that are rendered – here exemplifying the masculine side – by the kin-term products, S o F = B [son of father = brother] or F o B = F [father of brother = father), lead to respectively building up a descriptive or a classificatory terminology. The chapter also deals with how Dwight Read accounts for the relationship between genealogical tracing and the working out of kin terms using kin-term products and how the logic of kin-term products is consistent with the extension of kin terms to kin-type categories beyond the primary ones.The paper also reports on a discussion between Dwight Read and the author, initiated by questions and observations from the latter, regarding different aspects of Read’s reasoning. Not exhaustively, to be mentioned here is the way kin relationships are concretely worked out using kin-term products, the model of the family space and the nuclear family, group marriage,  how the conceptualization of sibling in terms of shared parentage expressed through the kin-term product F o B = F [father o brother = father] relates to ethnographic data, the nature of the logic of kinship terminologies, the status of the structural equation S o F = B [son o father = brother] when used within the context of a classificatory terminology, the axiomatic nature of a number of kin-term products pertaining to specific kin terminologies, the equations pertaining to classificatory kinship terminologies that are  likely to algebraically reduce chains of kin-terms products, mapped from corresponding kin type strings, like “son of son of father of father of father” (S o S o F o F o F) is mapped from the collateral genealogical relations, father’s father’s father’s son’s son (fffss or fffbss) to an irreducible kin term, here father, which is the one native speakers use for the said genealogical connection.The discussion also addresses, taking the example of ancient Chinese dialects, the question of what should be the structural prerequisites for a transition from classificatory (Dravidian) terminologies into bifurcate collateral and descriptive terminologies, a transition that is often posited by a number of linguists and anthropologists. Finally, the discussion deals with the question as to whether the kinship terminologies of the world all ultimately derive from a pre-dispersal African Proto-Sapiens kinship terminology. Throughout these lines of discussion, the central question is raised as to why different cultural choices on how siblings are conceptualized were made that led to different human kinship terminologies and social structures

Homological realization of prescribed abelian groups via KK-theory

Using algebraic and topological K-theory together with complex C^*-algebras, we prove that every abelian group may be realized as the centre of a strongly torsion generated group whose integral homology is zero in dimension one and isomorphic to two arbitrarily prescribed abelian groups in dimensions two and three.Comment: 10 page

Don’t aim too high: the potential costs of high aspirations

The higher our aspirations, the higher the probability that we have to adjust them downwards when forming more realistic expectations later on. This paper shows that the costs induced by high aspirations are not trivial. We first develop a theoretical framework to identify the factors that determine the effect of aspirations on expected utility. Then we present evidence from a lab experiment on the factor found to be crucial: the adjustment of reference states to changes in expectations. The results suggest that the costs of high aspirations can be significant, since reference states do not adjust quickly. We use a novel, indirect approach that allows us to infer the determinants of the reference state from observed behavior, rather than to rely on cheap talk.aspirations, reference state, expectations, individual utility, experiments

Thermal Optimization of Injection Molds Produced by Layered Manufacturing Techniques

Producing injection tooling with cooling channels of almost any form seems to be one of the most promising advantages of Layered Manufacturing Techniques (like Selective Laser Sintering). It could be efficiently exploited to achieve higher productivity or better quality parts in injection molding. Unfortunately, at the present time, the lack of data-processing tools to design optimal cooling systems still prevents us from fully benefiting from this new potential. The first objective of this paper is to present a methodology for the optimal design of cooling systems in three-dimensional injection molds. Our optimization process is based on a finite element model of the mold and on the standard gradient method. In the second part of this paper, we compare a conventional mold and a mold equipped with a cooling system optimized by means of the proposed methodology. The comparison is carried out thanks to an appropriate protocol. The conclusion is that the optimization of the cooling system doubled the productivity of the mold.Mechanical Engineerin