Resonances of the Unknown

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of second-order cybernetics for a theory of architectural design and related discourse. Design/methodology/approach – First, the relation of architectural design to the concept of “poiesis” is clarified. Subsequently, selected findings of Gotthard Günther are revisited and related to an architectural poetics. The last part of the paper consists of revisiting ideas mentioned previously, however, on the level of a discourse that has incorporated the ideas and offers a poetic way of understanding them

Myths of Complexity

The following article takes up a dialogue that was initiated in the first issue of Design Ecologies, evolving in relation to questions of design within a context of concepts of complexity. As the first part of the article shows, this process of taking up a dialogue – through reading and writing – can be considered a question of design. This is elaborated alongside de Certeau’s concepts of ‘tactics’ and ‘strategies’. Further, in relation to questions emerging from the previous issue of the Design Ecologies journal, the article addresses the notion of complexity through the conceptual lens of poiesis. It leads complexity to the borders of language

Did One Veil Give Women a Better Life?

Unfortunately, a young woman in Renaissance Florence did not have many options for her future. A woman\u27s family usually decided whether she would be able to get married or would have to enter the convent, but sometimes she was able to make this choice. In this paper, I look at the lives of wives and nuns to analyze how their lives differed in responsibilities and freedoms, but also to see how all women had similar restrictions and expectations placed upon them

Models of atypical development must also be models of normal development

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of developmental disorders and normal cognition that include children are becoming increasingly common and represent part of a newly expanding field of developmental cognitive neuroscience. These studies have illustrated the importance of the process of development in understanding brain mechanisms underlying cognition and including children ill the study of the etiology of developmental disorders

Equity Price Dynamics Before and After the Introduction of the Euro

Daily data from the German and U.S. equity markets before and after the introduction of the Euro are used to study the effect of exchange rate regime choices on equity markets. It is found that, since the introduction of the Euro, the volatility and the persistence of the German stock index have fallen significantly relative to those of the U.S. index. However, the switch in exchange rate arrangement appears to have no significant implication for the causal relationships - both the mean and varianc causalities - between the two equity markets

Boom-Bust Cycles in Middle Income Countries: Facts and Explanation

In this paper we characterize empirically the comovements of macro variables typically observed in middle income countries, as well as the boom-bust cycle that has been observed during the last two decades. We find that many countries that have liberalized their financial markets, have witnessed the development of lending booms. Most of the time the boom gradually decelerates, but sometimes the boom ends in twin currency and banking crises and is followed by a protracted credit crunch that outlives a short-lived recession. We also find that during lending booms there is a real exchange rate appreciation, and the nontradables (N) sector grows faster than the tradables (T) sector. Meanwhile, the opposite is true in the aftermath of crisis. We argue that these comovements are generated by the interaction of two characteristics of financing typical of middle income countries: risky currency mismatch and asymmetric financing opportunities across the N and T sectors Copyright 2002, International Monetary Fund

How Strong is the Case for Dollarization in Costa Rica? A Note on the Business Cycle Comovements with the United States

We evaluate the proposal for official dollarization in Costa Rica by applying a new approach to measure the business cycle comovements with the United States. While the literature often focuses on the correlation of shocks, we point out that the response of each country to the shocks is also an important aspect of stabilization policy. We analyze whether Costa Rica and the United States share a common synchronized response to shocks, i.e. a common business cycle, using the Engle and Kozicki (1993) and Cubadda (1999, 2007) serial correlation common features tests, in a quarterly GDP data set from 1991 to 2008. Although we find some tendency towards common AR(p) structures and common long run trends, we reject the hypothesis that the two countries share a common business cycle. Based on this evidence, we conclude that official dollarization in Costa Rica would impede the efforts of its stabilization policy, despite the relatively high contemporaneous correlation of shocks.Dollarization, Business Cycle Comovement, Serial Correlation Common Feature, Central America, Costa Rica

A Note on the Time Series Measure of Conservatism

Asymmetric persistence of accounting income is often tested in a regression of changes in earnings on lagged changes in earnings, including an interaction term for negative changes (see Basu [1997] or Ball et al. [2009] for a recent overview). In this note we propose an alternative, but closely related measure of conservatism - regressing the changes in earnings on the lagged levels, similar to the threshold-unit root test specification of Enders and Granger [1998]. We argue that this approach has three distinct advantages compared to the conventional setup: (i) a smooth, non-oscillating impulse response pattern to an unexpected shock in earnings (ii) a return to the old equilibrium of earnings in the long run and (iii) it can be extended to higher order autoregressive processes. We illustrate the differences between the two approaches, when applied to a common data set of firms, as well as a data set from a Monte Carlo simulation.Timely loss recognition, Asymmetric persistence, Conservatism

Credit market imperfections, financial market regulation and business cycles in Eastern Europe

Credit market imperfections give rise to boom-bust cycle episodes in emerging markets. In the present paper, we aim to provide a comprehensive analysis for Eastern Europe. We focus on documenting credit market imperfections, asymmetric financing opportunities across sectors, and business cycle fluctuations at the aggregate and sectoral level. The results will be discussed in the policy context of the re-regulation of the financial system. We will propose in an unconventional way to think about the early introduction of the Euro currency. --asymmetric financing opportunities,currency mismatch,sectoral business cycles

Financial Development and Sectoral Output Growth in 19th Century Germany

In this paper we re-evaluate the hypothesis that the development of the financial sector was an essential factor behind economic growth in 19th century Germany. We apply a structural VAR framework to a new annual data set from 1870 to 1912 that was initially recorded by Walther Hoffmann (1965). With respect to the literature, the distinguishing characteristic of our analysis is the focus on different sectors in the economy and the interpretation of the findings in the context of a two-sector growth model. We find that all sectors were affected significantly by shocks from the banking system. Interestingly, this link is the strongest in sectors with small, non-tradable goods producing firms, such as services, transportation and agriculture. In this regard, the growth patterns in 19th century Germany are reminiscent to those in today\'s emerging markets.Economic Growth, Financial Development, Sectoral asymmetries