Another Look to the Price-Dividend Ratio: A Markov-Switching Approach

This paper analyzes the stationarity of this ratio in the context of a Markov-switching model à la Hamilton (1989) where an asymmetric speed of adjustment is introduced. This particular specification robustly supports a nonlinear reversion process and identifies two relevant episodes: the post-war period from the mid-50’s to the mid-70’s and the so called “90’s boom” period. A three-regime Markov-switching model displays the best regime identification and reveals that only the first part of the 90’s boom (1985-1995) and the post-war period are near-nonstationary states. Interestingly, the last part of the 90’s boom (1996-2000), characterized by a growing price-dividend ratio, is entirely attributed to a regime featuring a highly reverting process.

How much efficiency gains and price reductions for an efficiency defense? 'Quanto Basta'

Potential efficiency gains due to a merger can be used by competition authorities to judge upon proposed mergers. In a world where agents’ efforts, observable or unobservable, affect the success of a production cost reducing project that may be conducted as a stand-alone firm or in a merger, we characterize the merger decision and the type of errors a competition authority may make when it relies on an efficiency defense. In addition, we show that the occurrence of either type of errors is always smaller under the unobservable efforts assumption, than under the observable efforts one.

Can the change in the composition of the US GDP explain the Great Moderation? A test via oil price shocks

The paper investigates whether the growing GDP share of the services sector can contribute to explain the great moderation in the US. We identify and analyze three oil price shocks and use a SVAR analysis to measure their economic impact on the US economy at both the aggregate and the sectoral level. We find mixed support for the explanation of the great moderation in terms of shrinking oil shock volatilities and observe that increases (decreases) in oil shock volatilities are contrasted by a weakening (strengthening) in their transmission mechanism. Across sectors, services are the least affected by any oil shock. As the contribution of services to the GDP volatility increases over time, we conclude that a composition effect contributed to moderate the conditional volatility to oil shocks of the US GDP.

Report on Knowledge Exchange workshop Price of keeping knowledge: financial streams for digital preservation

In contrast to cost modeling activities, the pricing of services must be simple and transparent. Calculating and thus knowing price structures, would not only help identify the level of detail required for cost modeling of individual instititutions, but also help develop a ”public” market for services as well as clarify the division of task and the modeling of funding and revenue streams for data preservation of public institutions. This workshop has built on the results from the workshop ”The Costs and Benefits of Keeping Knowledge” which took place 11 June 2012 in Copenhagen. This expert workshop aimed at: •Identifying ways for data repositories to abstract from their complicated cost structures and arrive at one transparent pricing structure which can be aligned with available and plausible funding schemes. Those repositories will probably need a stable institutional funding stream for data management and preservation. Are there any estimates for this, absolute or as percentage of overall cost? Part of the revenue will probably have to come through data management fees upon ingest. How could that be priced? Per dataset, per GB or as a percentage of research cost? Will it be necessary to charge access prices, as they contradict the open science paradigm? •What are the price components for pricing individual services, which prices are currently being paid e.g. to commercial providers? What are the description and conditions of the service(s) delivered and guaranteed? •What types of risks are inherent in these pricing schemes? •How can services and prices be defined in an all-inclusive and simple manner, so as to enable researchers to apply for specific amount when asking for funding of data-intensive projects?Please

Monopoly price discrimination with constant elasticity demand

This paper presents new results on the welfare e¤ects of third-degree price discrimination under constant elasticity demand. We show that when both the share of the strong market under uniform pricing and the elasticity di¤erence between markets are high enough,then price discrimination not only can increase social welfare but also consumer surplus.

Intrinsic correlation between fragility and bulk modulus in metallic glasses

A systematic study on the available data of 26 metallic glasses shows that there is an intrinsic correlation between fragility of a liquid and bulk modulus of its glass. The underlying physics can be rationalized within the formalism of potential energy landscape thermodynamics. It is surprising to find that the linear correlation between the fragility and the bulk-shear modulus ratio exists strictly at either absolute zero temperature or very high frequency. Further analyses indicate that a real flow event in bulk metallic glasses is shear dominant, and fragility is in inverse proportion to shear-induced bulk dilatation. Finally, extension of these findings to nonmetallic glasses is discussed.

Adsorption of formaldehyde molecule on the intrinsic and Al-doped graphene: a first principle study

To search for a high sensitivity sensor for formaldehyde (H2CO), We investigated the adsorption of H2CO on the intrinsic and Al-doped graphene sheets using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Compared with the intrinsic graphene, the Al-doped graphene system has high binding energy value and short connecting distance, which are caused by the chemisorption of H2CO molecule. Furthermore, the density of states (DOS) results show that orbital hybridization could be seen between H2CO and Al-doped graphene sheet, while there is no evidence for hybridization between the H2CO molecule and the intrinsic graphene sheet. Therefore, Al-doped graphene is expected to be a novel chemical sensor for H2CO gas. We hope our calculations are useful for the application of graphene in chemical sensor.

Short-range-order effects on intrinsic plasticity of metallic glasses

Through a systematical analysis of the elastic moduli for 137 metallic glasses (MGs) and 56 polycrystalline metals, we use a simple model developed by Knuyt et al. [J. Phys. F: Met. Phys. 16 (1986) p.1989; Phil. Mag. B 64 (1991) p.299] based on a Gaussian distribution for the first-neighbor distance to reveal the short-range-order (SRO) structural conditions for plasticity of MGs. It is found that the SRO structure with dense atomic packing, large packing dispersion and a significant anharmonicity of atomic interaction within an MG is favorable for its global plasticity. Although these conditions seem paradoxical, their perfect matching is believed to be a key for designing large plastic bulk MGs not only in compression but also in tension.

Intrinsic correlation between dilatation and pressure sensitivity of plastic flow in metallic glasses

Taking shear-induced dilatation into consideration in shear transformation zone (STZ) operations, we derive a new yield criterion that reflects the pressure sensitivity in plastic flow in metallic glasses (MGs), which agrees well with experiments. Furthermore, an intrinsic theoretical correlation between the pressure sensitivity coefficient and the dilatation factor is revealed. It is found that the pressure sensitivity of plastic flow of MGs originates in the dilatation of microscale STZs.

Generation of plasma intrinsic oscillation at the front surface of a target irradiated by a circularly polarized laser pulse

In laser-target interaction, the effects of laser intensity on plasma oscillation at the front surface of targets have been investigated by one-dimensional particle in cell simulations. The periodical oscillations of the ion density and electrostatic field at the front surface of the targets are reported for the first time, which is considered as an intrinsic property of the target excited by the laser. The oscillation period depends only on initial plasma density and is irrelevant with laser intensity. Flattop structures with curves in ion phase space are found with a more intense laser pulse due to the larger amplitude variation of the electrostatic field. A simple but valid model is proposed to interpret the curves.

An Alternative View of the US Price-Dividend Ratio Dynamics

As a necessary condition for the validity of the present value model, the price-dividend ratio must be stationary. However, significant market episodes seem to provide evidence of prices significantly drifting apart from dividends while other episodes show prices anchoring back to dividends. This paper investigates the stationarity of this ratio in the context of a Markov- switching model à la Hamilton (1989) where an asymmetric speed of adjustment towards a unique attractor is introduced. A three-regime model displays the best regime identification and reveals that the first part of the 90’s boom (1985-1995) and the post-war period are characterized by a stationary state featuring a slow reverting process to a relatively high attractor. Interestingly, the latter part of the 90’s boom (1996-2000), characterized by a growing price-dividend ratio, is entirely attributed to a stationary regime featuring a highly reverting process to the attractor. Finally, the post-Lehman Brothers episode of the subprime crisis can be classified into a temporary nonstationary regime.

Long Run Trends in the Price of Energy and Energy Services

4 p.

Divergences in the Long Run Trends in the Price of Energy and of Energy Services

32 p.

Price Premium for High-Efficiency Refrigerators and Calculation of Price-Elasticities for Close-Substitutes: Combining Hedonic Pricing and Demand Systems

21 p.

Trends in Income and Price Elasticities of Transport Demand (1850-2010)

40 p.