Exploring the CDS-Bond Basis

Markets for credit default swaps (CDS) and bonds of the same reference entity and maturity are bound by no-arbitrage conditions. Indeed, using a large data set we show that CDS premia and par asset swap spreads are mostly cointegrated. Nonetheless, the average CDS-bond basis (i.e. the difference between both measures) is positive in the period 2004-2005. We detect fourteen different economic basis drivers, which make the basis firm-specific and time-dependent. Furthermore, we describe the basis smile, and illustrate that the average basis is the lowest for five year maturities of corporate credits denominated in euro.Bond, Co integration, Credit, Risk Neutrality

Do Small Businesses Create More Jobs? New Evidence for Europe

In this paper we argue why, in our view, the so-called dynamic classification method should be favored when determining the contribution of small businesses towards job creation. First, it is the only method that consistently attributes job creation or loss to the size class in which it actually occurs. In addition, dynamic classification has two other advantages: (i) it is not vulnerable to the so-called regression to the mean bias and (ii) only a small number of aggregated data are required for its application. Using the dynamic classification we analyze job creation within the different size classes for the 27 Member States of the European Union. Our main findings are as follows: For the EU as a whole, smaller firms contribute on a larger scale towards job creation than larger firms do. Net job creation rates decrease with each firm size class. This pattern occurs in most industries however, not in all: the manufacturing industry and trade industry show different patterns. At the level of individual countries, the net job creation rate also tends todecrease with each firm size class. However, this relation is not perfect.

Why regionality is an important value in organic agriculture: the case of the Netherlands

Organic agriculture is a system of production and consumption in which values play a prominent role. The new IFOAM principles reflect the current worldwide consensus on the most important values of organic agriculture. Regionality or proximity is not explicitly mentioned in these principles. Also in the present EU-regulation on organic agriculture hardly any standards are formulated concerning this issue. On the other hand, some private organic labels do have extra standards - concerning for instance the origin of organic feed - while both producers and consumers of organic products often mention regional production as an important value. The question is whether, and if so why regionality is an important issue to be dealt with in the upcoming reformed EU-regulation on organic agriculture. To answer this question, the consequences are evaluated of the de-velopment of intensive, large-scale organic animal production in the Netherlands in the light of the value of regionality

Open and Closed Supermembranes with Winding

Motivated by manifest Lorentz symmetry and a well-defined large-N limit prescription, we study the supersymmetric quantum mechanics proposed as a model for the collective dynamics of D0-branes from the point of view of the 11-dimensional supermembrane. We argue that the continuity of the spectrum persists irrespective of the presence of winding around compact target-space directions and discuss the central charges in the superalgebra arising from winding membrane configurations. Along the way we comment on the structure of open supermembranes.Comment: Contribution to the proc. Strings '97, 10 pages, LaTeX, uses espcrc

SMEs as job engine of the Dutch private economy

The main objective of this study is to determine to what extent small and medium-sized enterprises can be seen as the main source of employment growth for the Dutch private sector during the period 1993-1998. To this end, we will decompose the employment growth over this period into size classes. �

Dusty Blue Supergiants: News from High-Angular Resolution Observations

An overview is presented of the recent advances in understanding the B[e] phenomenon among blue supergiant stars in light of high-angular resolution observations and with an emphasis on the results obtained by means of long baseline optical stellar interferometry. The focus of the review is on the circumstellar material and evolutionary phase of B[e] supergiants, but recent results on dust production in regular blue supergiants are also highlighted.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Published in "Advances in Astronomy" by Hindawi Publishing Corporatio

On the Spectrum of PP-Wave Matrix Theory

We study the spectrum of the recently proposed matrix model of DLCQ M-theory in a parallel plane (pp)-wave background. In contrast to matrix theory in a flat background this model contains mass terms, which lift the flat directions of the potential and renders its spectrum discrete. The supersymmetry algebra of the model groups the energy eigenstates into supermultiplets, whose members differ by fixed amounts of energy in great similarity to the representation of supersymmetry in AdS spaces. There is a unique and exact zero-energy groundstate along with a multitude of long and short multiplets of excited states. For large masses the quantum mechanical model may be treated perturbatively and we study the leading order energy shifts of the first excited states up to level two. Most interestingly we uncover a protected short multiplet at level two, whose energies do not receive perturbative corrections. Moreover, we conjecture the existence of an infinite series of similar protected multiplets in the pp-wave matrix model.Comment: 18 pages, 2 tables, v2: typos corrected and references added, v3: one reference adde