Hybrid fault detection and isolation in an heater bank of an HVAC system

In this work a hybrid technique that includes probabilistic and optimization based methods is presented. The method is applied, both in simulation and by means of real-time experiments, to the heating unit of a Heating, Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. It is shown that the addition of the probabilistic approach improves the fault diagnosis accuracy.

Production, hidden action, and the payment system

In this paper, we study a model economy that examines the optimal intraday rate. In Freeman’s (1996) paper, he shows that the efficient allocation can be implemented by adopting a policy in which the intraday rate is zero. We modify the production set and show that such a model economy can account for the non-uniform distribution of settlements within a day. In addition, by modifying both the consumption set and the production set, we show that the central bank may be able to implement the planner’s allocation with a positive intraday interest rate.

State ownership, bank loans, and corporate investment

We study the effect of bank loans on Chinese publicly listed firms' investment decisions based on the underinvestment and overinvestment theories of leverage. Evidence from China is of particular importance because China is the world's largest emerging and transitional economy. At first we show that there is a negative relationship between bank loan ratios and investment for Chinese publicly listed firms. And this negative relationship is much stronger for firms with low growth than firms with high growth. Secondly, we find that both short-term and long-term loan ratios are negatively correlated with investment. However, the higher the long-term loan ratios are, the weaker the negative relationship between long-term loan ratios and investment is. Thirdly, firm ownership only matters to the effect of short-term bank loans on investment in our sample. That is, the negative relationship between short-term loan ratios and investment is weaker for SOEs than for non-SOEs. Lastly, we show that the reform of China's banking system in 2003 has not strengthened the negative relationship between bank loans and investment. Our findings suggest that although Chinese state-owned banks are severely intervened by government policies, they still have a disciplining role on firms' investment, especially in firms with low growth.