Financial liberalization, market discipline and bank risk

In the literature on systemic banking crises, two common themes are: (1) Risky lending often follows bank liberalization. (2) Lack of market discipline encourages risky lending. That not all liberalizations are followed by financial crisis and that financial systems without market discipline sometimes operate without incident invites examination of these themes. In a test of six countries, we find that our measure of bank risk increases significantly in the wake of financial liberalizations, but only where depositors fail to discipline banks. Our measures of market discipline and bank risk, however, are persistently inversely related

Measuring a Circle: A Math Lesson for Grades 5-10

This article is designed to promote teaching methods that engage students in active learning and result in deep conceptual understanding by offering a sample lesson to help students (grades 5-10, ages 10-15) answer questions about and gain a deeper understanding of how to measure the circumference and area of a circle

When does financial liberalization make banks risky? : an empirical examination of Argentina, Canada and Mexico

In the literature on systemic banking crises, two common themes are: (1) lack of market discipline encourages risky lending and (2) financial liberalization or privatization lead to risky lending. However, there is evidence to suggest that neither financial liberalization nor weak market discipline always precedes risky lending. We test for depositor discipline and, separately for post-liberalization or post-privatization risky lending in Argentina, Canada, and Mexico. In the countries without market discipline, lending risk increases significantly in the wake of liberalization. Where depositors discipline banks, banks neither behave riskily nor does their risk increase in the wake of privatization. ; Economic Research Working Paper 9905Banks and banking - Argentina ; Banks and banking - Canada ; Banks and banking - Mexico ; Financial crises

RIACS

The Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) was established by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) at the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) on June 6, 1983. RIACS is privately operated by USRA, a consortium of universities that serves as a bridge between NASA and the academic community. Under a five-year co-operative agreement with NASA, research at RIACS is focused on areas that are strategically enabling to the Ames Research Center's role as NASA's Center of Excellence for Information Technology. The primary mission of RIACS is charted to carry out research and development in computer science. This work is devoted in the main to tasks that are strategically enabling with respect to NASA's bold mission in space exploration and aeronautics. There are three foci for this work: (1) Automated Reasoning. (2) Human-Centered Computing. and (3) High Performance Computing and Networking. RIACS has the additional goal of broadening the base of researcher in these areas of importance to the nation's space and aeronautics enterprises. Through its visiting scientist program, RIACS facilitates the participation of university-based researchers, including both faculty and students, in the research activities of NASA and RIACS. RIACS researchers work in close collaboration with NASA computer scientists on projects such as the Remote Agent Experiment on Deep Space One mission, and Super-Resolution Surface Modeling

Modeling soil organic carbon change in croplands of China

Using 1990 conditions, we modeled carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) biogeochemical cycles in croplands of China (and, for comparison, the United States) to estimate the annual soil organic-carbon (SOC) balance for all cropland. Overall, we estimate that China\u27s croplands lost 1.6% of their SOC (to a depth of 0.3 m) in 1990, and that U.S. cropland lost 0.1%. A key element in this difference was that ∼25% of aboveground crop residue in China was returned to the soil, compared to ∼90% in the United States. In China, SOC losses were greatest in the northeast (∼103 kg C·ha–1·yr–1), and were generally smaller (\u3c0.5 × 103 kg C·ha–1·yr–1) in regions with a longer cultivation history. Some regions showed SOC gains, generally \u3c103 kg C·ha–1·yr–1. Reduced organic-matter input to China\u27s cropland soils, and lower overall SOC levels in those soils, led to lower levels of N mineralization in the simulations, consistent with higher rates of synthetic-fertilizer application in China. C and N cycles are closely linked to soil fertility, crop yield, and non-point-source environmental pollution