Education choices in Mexico: using a structural model and a randomised experiment to evaluate PROGRESA

In this paper we evaluate the effect of a large welfare program in rural Mexico. For such a purpose we use an evaluation sample that includes a number of villages where the program was not implemented for evaluation purposes. We estimate a structural model of education choices and argue that without such a framework it is impossible to evaluate the effect of the program and, especially, possible changes to its structure. We also argue that the randomized component of the data allows us to identify a more flexible model that is better suited to evaluate the program. We find that the program has a positive effect on the enrollment of children, especially after primary school. We also find that an approximately revenue neutral change in the program that would increase the grant for secondary school children while eliminating for the primary school children would have a substantially larger effect on enrollment of the latter, while having minor effects on the former

Recursion relations for multi-gluon off-shell amplitudes on the light-front and Wilson lines

We analyze the off-shell scattering amplitudes in the framework of the light-front perturbation theory. It is shown that the previously derived recursion relation between tree level off-shell amplitudes in this formalism actually resums whole classes of graphs into a Wilson line. More precisely, we establish a correspondence between the light-front methods for the computation of the off-shell amplitudes and the approach which makes use of the matrix elements of straight infinite Wilson lines, which are manifestly gauge invariant objects. Furthermore, since it is needed to explicitly verify the gauge invariance of light-front amplitudes, it is demonstrated that the Ward identities in this framework need additional instantaneous terms in the light-front graphs.Comment: 26 pages, a few figure

Extraction of nuclear matter properties from nuclear masses by a model of equation of state

The extraction of nuclear matter properties from measured nuclear masses is investigated in the energy density functional formalism of nuclei. It is shown that the volume energy $a_1$ and the nuclear incompressibility $K_0$ depend essentially on $\mu_n N+\bar{\mu}_p Z-2E_N$, whereas the symmetry energy $J$ and the density symmetry coefficient $L$ as well as symmetry incompressibility $K_s$ depend essentially on $\mu_n-\bar{\mu}_p$, where $\bar{\mu}_p=\mu_p-\partial E_C/\partial Z$, $\mu_n$ and $\mu_p$ are the neutron and proton chemical potentials respectively, $E_N$ the nuclear energy, and $E_C$ the Coulomb energy. The obtained symmetry energy is $J=28.5MeV$, while other coefficients are uncertain within ranges depending on the model of nuclear equation of state.Comment: 12 pages and 7 figure

Modified Green's Functions for Shallow Water Acoustic Wave Propagation

This article presents an assessment of alternative forms of the Green’s function for boundary element simulations of acoustic wave propagation in shallow water. It is assumed that the problem is two-dimensional, the source of acoustic disturbance is time-harmonic, the velocity of sound is constant and the medium in the absence of perturbations is quiescent. Efficient implementations of the boundary element method for underwater acoustics should employ Green's functions which directly satisfy the boundary conditions on the free surface and the horizontal parts of the bottom boundary. In the present work, these Green's functions are constructed by using different techniques, namely the method of images, eigenfunction expansions and the Ewald’s method

Effective nucleon-nucleon interactions and nuclear matter equation of state

Nuclear matter equations of state based on Skyrme, Myers-Swiatecki and Tondeur interactions are written as polynomials of the cubic root of density, with coefficients that are functions of the relative neutron excess $\delta$. In the extrapolation toward states far away from the standard one, it is shown that the asymmetry dependence of the critical point ($\rho_c, \delta_c$) depends on the model used. However, when the equations of state are fitted to the same standard state, the value of $\delta_c$ is almost the same in Skyrme and in Myers-Swiatecki interactions, while is much lower in Tondeur interaction. Furthermore, $\delta_c$ does not depend sensitively on the choice of the parameter $\gamma$ in Skyrme interaction.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure