Optimal Credit Rationing in Not-For-Profit Financial Institutions

We examine the dynamic optimization problem for not-for-profit financial institutions (NFPs) that maximize consumer surplus, not profits. We characterize the optimal dynamic policy and find that it involves credit rationing. Interest rates set by mature NFPs will typically be more favorable to customers than market rates, as any surplus is distributed in the form of interest rate subsidies, with credit rationing being required to prevent these subsidies from distorting loan volumes from their optimal levels. Rationing overcomes a fundamental problem in NFPs; it allows them to distribute the surplus without distorting the volume of activity from the efficient level.

Time-Varying Liquidity and Momentum Profits

A basic intuition is that arbitrage is easier when markets are most liquid. Surprisingly, we find that momentum profits are markedly larger in liquid market states. This finding is not explained by variation in liquidity risk, time-varying exposure to risk factors, or changes in macroeconomic condition, cross-sectional return dispersion, and investor sentiment. The predictive performance of aggregate market illiquidity for momentum profits uniformly exceed that of market return and market volatility states. While momentum strategies are unconditionally unprofitable in US, Japan, and Eurozone countries in the last decade, they are substantial following liquid market states.

'Not Forsworn with Pink Ribbons': Hannah More, Thomas De Quincey, and the Literature of Power

De Quincey's conception of the literature of "power" as opposed to that of "knowledge," has proved to be one of the most influential of romantic theories of literature, playing no small part in the canonization of Wordsworth. De Quincey's early acquaintance with the Lyrical Ballads was made through the Evangelical circles of his mother, who was a follower of Hannah More and a member of the Clapham sect. In later years, however, De Quincey repudiated his early Evangelical upbringing and wrote quite scathingly of the literary pretensions of Hannah More. This paper attempts to uncover the revisionary nature of De Quincey's later reminiscences of More and to indicate thereby the covert influence of Evangelical thinking on his literary theorizing. Far from absolving literature of politics, however, colonialist and nationalist imperatives typical of Evangelical thinking may be seen to operate within the spiritualized and aesthetic sphere to which literary power is arrogated by De Quincey.

Psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer's disease are not influenced by polymorphic variation at the dopamine receptor DRD3 gene

It has been suggested that genetic influences unmasked during neurodevelopment to produce schizophrenia may appear throughout neurodegeneration to produce AD plus psychosis. Risk of schizophrenia and psychosis in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been linked to polymorphic variation at the dopamine receptor DRD3 gene implying similar causative mechanisms. We tested this association in a large cohort of Alzheimer's disease patients with a diagnosis of probable AD of 3 years or more duration from the relatively genetically homogenous Northern Irish population. We assessed relationships between genotypes/alleles of the DRD3 BalI polymorphism and the presence or absence of psychotic symptoms (delusions, hallucinations) in AD patients during the month prior to interview and at any stage during the dementia. No significant associations were found when delusions and hallucinations were cross-tabulated against S and G alleles and SS, SG and GG genotypes. Logistic regression failed to detect any influence of APOE, gender, family history or prior psychiatric history. In conclusion, we were unable to confirm previously reported associations between the DRD3 BalI polymorphism and psychotic symptoms in AD.

Outgrown asthma does not mean no airways inflammation

Although some asthmatic children seem to recover from their asthma, 30–80% develop asthma again in later life. The underlying risk factors are unknown. The hypothesis for this study was that children with apparently outgrown asthma would have underlying airway inflammation. Nonbronchoscopic bronchoalveolar lavage was performed on normal children (n=35) and children who had wheezed previously (n=35). Eosinophils were raised in the lavage fluid of atopic children who had apparently outgrown asthma (median (interquartile range) 0.36 (0.05–0.74) compared to controls 0.10 (0–0.18), p=0.002). There was no relationship between length of remission and degree of airways eosinophilia. Thus, there is persistent airways inflammation in some children with outgrown asthma and this may be a risk factor for future relapse.