Asymmetric Conditional Variance in Housing Prices - Testing for Downward Rigidity

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the volatility dynamics of housing markets in the United Kingdom and the United States in order to determine if market inefficiencies cause downward rigidity in housing prices. We hypothesize that the potential downward rigidity will prevent prices from appropriately adjusting downwards, and that positive shocks in housing prices will increase the conditional variance in the following period more than a corresponding negative shocks. We analyze the conditional variance in the housing prices by employing various autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (ARCH) models. Our results for the United Kingdom and the United States show that shocks in housing prices have a positively asymmetric effect on the conditional variance in the following period, and that the E-GARCH model is better than the GJR-GARCH model at modeling this asymmetry.I would like to thank my supervisors Fredrik NG Andersson and Klas Fregert for their support and insightful comments. I would also like to extend a special thanks to Milda Norkute, without whom this paper would never have been possible

"...to promote sustainable development..."

Sammanfattning År 1987, kom Brundtlandkommissionens rapport med titeln Vår gemensamma framtid. Enligt rapporten så kan hållbar utveckling definieras som: En utveckling som tillfredsställer dagens behov utan att äventyra kommande generationers möjligheter att tillfredsställa sina behov. Begreppet hållbar utveckling har ända sen dess varit en central del av alla internationella miljörättsliga dokument. År 1999, blev begreppet hållbar utveckling en del av svensk lagstiftning genom kapitel 1, paragraf 1 i Miljöbalken (SFS 1998:808). Den här uppsatsen presenterar begreppet hållbar utveckling i ett rättsutvecklingsperspektiv: hur det är formulerat i lagtexten och hur såg lagstiftaren på begreppet när lagstiftningen antogs. Rättslig litteratur på området är också betraktad. En undersökning och tolkning av relevant material utförs, och frågeställningen är formulerad på följande sätt: Vilken (eller vilka) miljöetisk teori kan ses som varande återspeglad i lagstiftarens idéer om hållbar utveckling i lagtexten och i förarbetena gällande portalparagrafen i Miljöbalken - och på vilket sätt återspeglas detta? För att besvara denna fråga presenteras olika miljöetiska teorier, både i ett historiskt perspektiv, och enligt systematiseringen gjord av Mikael Stenmark. Resultatet av tolkningen av det undersökta materialet har sedan jämförts med innehållet i de olika miljöetiska teorierna, för att reda ut vilken teori, eller teorier, som kan ses som återspeglad i lagstiftarens idéer om hållbar utveckling. Författaren når slutsatsen att vad som faktiskt återspeglas i kapitel 1, paragraf 1 i Miljöbalken är en blandning av holistisk intergenerationell antropocentrism och svag ekocentrism.Summary In 1987 the Brundtland commission presented its report entitled Our Common Future. According to the report, sustainable development can be defined as: A development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The term sustainable development has been a central part in all international environmental law documents ever since. In 1999, the term sustainable development was received into the Swedish legislation, in chapter 1, section 1 of the Swedish Environmental Code (SFS 1998:808). This thesis presents the term sustainable development in a legal development perspective: how it is formulated in the legal text, and what were the views of the legislator concerning the term when the legislation was enacted. Also, the legal literature in this field is reviewed. An examination and interpretation of the relevant material is performed, and the research question is formulated as follows: Which theory (or theories) of environmental ethics can be seen as being reflected in the legislator’s ideas of sustainable development in the legal text and in the preparatory works concerning the opening section of the Environmental Code - and reflected in what way? To answer this question, different theories of environmental ethics are presented, both in a historical perspective and according to the systemization by Mikael Stenmark. The result of the interpretation of the examined material is then compared with the essence of the different theories of environmental ethics, in order to find out which theory, or theories, can be seen as reflected in the legislator’s ideas of sustainable development. The author arrives at the conclusion that what actually is reflected in chapter 1, section 1 of the Swedish Environmental Code is a blend of holistic inter-generational anthropocentrism and weak ecocentrism

Microsoft and the European Union Face Off Over Internet Privacy Concerns

Amidst what appears to be a multi-faceted attack by the European Union on Microsoft, the newest angle is the European Commission\u27s announcement last month that it was considering a formal investigation of Microsoft\u27s .Net Passport data processing system for possible violations of the European Union Data Privacy Directive. This iBrief explores the European Data Privacy Directive and seeks to explain why the European Commission believes .Net Passport may be in violation of its privacy policies and a case for further investigation

Implementing a Component Based Parallel Distributed Finite Element Solver

Parallel computing is becoming more and more important in modern Finite Element Software. As problems grow larger, computation on a single processor may not be fast enough. To overcome this problem, one can utilize parallel programming using e.g SMP-machines or clusters. Furthermore, when local compute resources are scarce, it can be quite convenient to take advantage of non-local resources for performing the calculations. This thesis is a collaboration between the Division of Structural Mechanics, LTH and StruSoft AB in Malm¨o/Budapest. The aim is to address the issues above, specifically looking at the structural analysis program FEM-Design developed by StruSoft. There are several ways to parallelize code, focus will be on OpenMP, PETSc and Intel MKL. These methods have been studied in order to conclude which one is the most suitable for existing Finite Element applications. In the end Intel MKL was chosen and implemented. Regarding the distributed computations, a realistic client/server application was developedusing the Internet Communications Engine (Ice). The parallel properties of the implementation was studied and also, during a visit to the StruSoft Budapest branch, the implementation was integrated into FEM-Design. The results were astonishing, reaching speedups of a factor up to 360 compared to the original solver. Also, the scaling was almost linear for the implemented solver

”Det känns som att jag bara sitter och väntar på att det ska explodera” - politisk påverkan på de kommunala folkbibliotekens verksamhet i sex sydsvenska regioner.

Public libraries are one of several institutions that uphold Swedish democracy. The representative liberal democratic model, expressed in the Library Act, is increasingly being questioned and challenged. Political actors, mainly from the radical right, advocate a democracy focused on the will of the people at the expense of the rights of individuals. With the notion of plural agonistics, public libraries can be seen as important arenas for debates and meetings between people, offering ways to handle conflicts within democratic institutions. Methodologically, this study employs the perspective of institutional ethnography, and the aim of this paper is to develop knowledge about public libraries’ experiences of political pressure and how this is enacted in a time of political turbulence. This paper reports findings from the first stage of a survey study directed at public library managers in 77 municipalities from the six southernmost regions of Sweden. Based on replies in these surveys, interviews were conducted with seven of the participating library managers. Findings show that the interplay between libraries and the local political level, and between national and local political levels, generally functions without notable opposition. Illegitimate political pressure is uncommon, but when it occurs, it is primarily triggered by issues connected to cultural diversity. Results further indicate that local public libraries tend to respond to illegitimate political pressure by development and use of professional policy documents, but also, in some cases, by avoiding certain activities

Neolitisk Matkultur

During the first two decades of the 2000s, new perspectives on feasts and their social functions have been brought to the forefront by proponents of ethnoarchaeology. Concerns about diet, subsistence and reciprocity have been present in archaeology for a long time but recently the perspective has shifted somewhat, to include theories of the cultural symbolism and function of food and the importance of feasts as a force of social change in prehistoric societies. Theories about ritualized feasting have been used by archaeologists to interpret south-western Scanian sites from the TRB (funnel beaker culture). This thesis will discuss how general theories about feasting have been implemented to interpret these sites, and try to determine what type of finds from the south-western Scanian TRB that can be indicative of feasts. Interpretations of south-western Scanian TRB sites have been made by discussing and analyzing criteria set by ethnoarchaeologists. These criteria are not to be seen in a contextual vacuum, but have to be applied by technical and methodological analysis customized to the TRB-culture to be efficient in determining the extent of feasts in this particular prehistoric context

Host-dependent larval migration and parasitism risk in a polyphagous moth

Female herbivorous insects are expected to oviposit on the host plant providing the best performance of the offspring. However, in some insects the larvae are mobile and are not totally dependent on the mother's choice. They can change host plant when conditions for development or exposure to natural enemies vary between individual plants within a patch. Here we study larval migration and preference between two host plants, cotton and alfalfa, in the Egyptian leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Previous studies have shown that although larval performance is better on cotton, females prefer to oviposit on alfalfa, and this preference corresponds to a higher survival of the eggs. In this study, S. littoralis larvae showed directed movement between host plants and were found to prefer alfalfa over cotton in field test in Egypt, as well as in laboratory selection of feeding site assays. To determine effects by natural enemies, the parasitism rates and various life-history traits were measured for one larval parasitoid, Microplitis rufiventris Kokujev (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), on several host plants including cotton and clover (equivalent host plant to alfalfa). Overall, parasitism was higher on cotton and parasitoid performance (cocoon mass, adult longevity, and female egg load) was better on cotton compared to clover. This fact suggests an enemy-free space on clover and alfalfa, as parasitism rate is higher on cotton, and the parasitoid performance is also better on cotton-fed larvae.Larval migration was investigated in the Egyptian leafworm, Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Larvae showed directed movement between host plants and were found to prefer alfalfa over cotton in field and laboratory tests, even though larval performance is better on cotton. However, parasitism rates were higher and parasitoid performance (cocoon mass, adult longevity, and female egg load) was better for the larval parasitoid Microplitis rufiventris (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) on cotton, suggesting enemy-free space on alfalfa.imag

Ownership and use of wireless telephones: a population-based study of Swedish children aged 7–14 years

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the use of mobile phones and other sources of microwave radiation, raising concerns about possible adverse health effects. As children have longer expected lifetime exposures to microwaves from these devices than adults, who started to use them later in life, they are a group of special interest.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We performed a population-based study to assess ownership and use of mobile phones and cordless phones among children aged 7–14 years. A questionnaire comprising 24 questions was sent to 2000 persons selected from the Swedish population registry using a stratified sampling scheme.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The response rate was 71.2%. Overall, 79.1% of the respondents reported mobile phone access, and 26.7% of them talked for 2 minutes or more per day. Of those who reported mobile phone access, only 5.9% reported use of hands-free equipment. Use of cordless phones was reported by 83.8% of the respondents and 38.5% of them talked for 5 minutes or more per day. Girls generally reported more frequent use than boys.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study showed that most children had access to and used mobile and cordless phones early in life and that there was a rapid increase in use with age. It also showed very low use of hands-free equipment among children with mobile phone access, and finally that girls talked significantly more minutes per day using mobile and cordless phones than boys did.</p