Ensuring Multimodal Course Consistency

The growth of online, hybrid, and distance courses challenges institutions to maintain content consistency across multiple platforms. This report examines the policies, standards, and practices that guide course consistency initiatives.

Comparing two multivariate unit root tests

In this essay, a method for comparing the asymptotic power of the multivariate unit root tests proposed in Phillips & Durlauf (1986) and Flˆores, Preumont & Szafarz (1996) is proposed. In order to determine the asymptotic power of the tests the asymptotic distributions under the null hypothesis and under the set of alternative hypotheses described in Phillips (1988) are determined. In addition, a test which combines characteristics of both tests is proposed and its distributions under the null hypothesis and the same set of alternative hypotheses are determined. This allows us to determine what causes any difference in the asymptotic power of the two tests against the set of alternative hypotheses considered

Purchasing power parity and the unit root tests: a robust analysis

Empirical evidence suggests that real exchange rate is characterized by the presence of near-unity and additive outliers. Recent studeis have found evidence on favor PPP reversion by using the quasi-differencing (Elliott et al., 1996) unit root tests (ERS), which is more efficient against local alternatives but is still based on least squares estimation. Unit root tests basead on least saquares method usually tend to bias inference towards stationarity when additive out liers are present. In this paper, we incorporate quasi-differencing into M-estimation to construct a unit root test that is robust not only against near-unity root but also against nonGaussian behavior provoked by assitive outliers. We re-visit the PPP hypothesis and found less evidemce in favor PPP reversion when non-Gaussian behavior in real exchange rates is taken into account.

The consistency of welfare judgements with a representative consumer

This paper is about economies with a representative consumer. In general a representative consumer need not exist, although there are several well known sets of sufficient conditions under which Qne will. It is common practice, however, to use the representative consumer hypothesis without specifically assuming any of these. We show, firstly, that it is possible for the utility of the representative consumer to increase when every actual consumer is made worse off. This shows a serious shortcoming of welfare judgements based on the representatíve consumer. Secondly, in economies where this does not occur, there exists a social welfare function, which we construct, which is consistent with welfare judgements based on the utility of the representative consumer. Finally we provide a converse to Samuelson' s 1956 representative consumer result, which relates it to Scitovsky's community indifference curves.

Testing unit root based on partially adaptive estimation

This paper proposes unit tests based on partially adaptive estimation. The proposed tests provide an intermediate class of inference procedures that are more efficient than the traditional OLS-based methods and simpler than unit root tests based on fully adptive estimation using nonparametric methods. The limiting distribution of the proposed test is a combination of standard normal and the traditional Dickey-Fuller (DF) distribution, including the traditional ADF test as a special case when using Gaussian density. Taking into a account the well documented characteristic of heavy-tail behavior in economic and financial data, we consider unit root tests coupled with a class of partially adaptive M-estimators based on the student-t distributions, wich includes te normal distribution as a limiting case. Monte Carlo Experiments indicate that, in the presence of heavy tail distributions or innovations that are contaminated by outliers, the proposed test is more powerful than the traditional ADF test. We apply the proposed test to several macroeconomic time series that have heavy-tailed distributions. The unit root hypothesis is rejected in U.S. real GNP, supporting the literature of transitory shocks in output. However, evidence against unit roots is not found in real exchange rate and nominal interest rate even haevy-tail is taken into a account.

On the consistency of arbitrary money-demand functions with the Sidrauski and the shopping-time models

This paper investigates which properties money-demand functions have to satisfy to be consistent with multidimensional extensions of Lucasí(2000) versions of the Sidrauski (1967) and the shopping-time models. We also investigate how such classes of models relate to each other regarding the rationalization of money demands. We conclude that money demand functions rationalizable by the shoppingtime model are always rationalizable by the Sidrauski model, but that the converse is not true. The log-log money demand with an interest-rate elasticity greater than or equal to one and the semi-log money demand are counterexamples.

As relações entre liderança, cultura organizacional e clima organizacional da criminalística da Polícia Federal

As organizações estão conscientes que enfrentarão complexa mudança organizacional, pois as demandas individuais na participação das decisões têm alterado os papéis desempenhados pelos gestores e seus subordinados. Neste contexto, a comunicação torna-se essencial para o exercício da influência social, para a coordenação das atividades e para a efetivação da liderança. A literatura aponta que as atitudes e os comportamentos dos funcionários são regidos por uma distribuição justa das recompensas conforme às contribuições de cada um. Assim, satisfação e atitudes positivas podem ser alcançadas por meio de um ambiente organizacional com boa comunicação, autonomia, participação, justiça distributiva e confiança. Portanto, este trabalho teve o objetivo de identificar as dimensões de Liderança e Cultura Organizacional na Criminalística da Polícia Federal, suas relações com o Clima Organizacional e como estes construtos contribuem para explicação dos problemas gerenciais. Para a coleta dos dados, foi realizada uma pesquisa quantitativa composta de 4 questionários. Dos 722 formulários enviados, 150 (20,8 %) foram respondidos: 21 (14 %) por Peritos Criminais Federais (PCF) do órgão central, 126 (84 %) por PCF das descentralizadas e 3 (2 %) por PCF de outras unidades. Os entrevistados tinham de 30 a 64 anos de idade (μ = 40,9; dp = 6,8), de 1 a 32 anos de serviço público (μ = 12,6; dp = 6,5) e de 1 a 27 anos de nomeação (μ = 7,9; dp = 3,9), e a função de chefia foi exercida por 79 (52,7 %) respondentes. Os resultados revelaram que não há diferença nas percepções de Liderança, Cultura e Clima Organizacional entre as regiões do país, rejeitando a hipótese H6 deste trabalho. Em um estudo longitudinal entre 2011 e 2013 também não houve mudanças significativas na percepção de Liderança, mostrando consistência entre as populações. Além disso, os resultados mostraram que a idade, o tempo de trabalho e o tempo de nomeação não estão associados com o Clima, logo servidores de diferentes épocas têm a mesma percepção do clima da organização. Os modelos de equações estruturais demonstraram que a Liderança, as Práticas de Liderança e o Clima são explicados fortemente por suas dimensões, e que a Cultura Organizacional afeta a Liderança e as Práticas de Liderança porém, mais significativamente, o Clima Organizacional. Tais resultados corroboram a teoria e explicam hipóteses deste trabalho. Observou-se, também, que na organização há predomínio da subcultura burocrática, baseada em controle e poder, que impacta o Clima Organizacional e, frequentemente, resulta em menor comprometimento e desempenho do servidor. A pesquisa apontou que os líderes devem encorajar a comunicação aberta para alcançar o entendimento dialógico na organização. Os achados deste estudo podem fornecer à gestão uma visão melhor para gerir seus recursos com base na legitimidade, na referência, no conhecimento e na informação, obedecendo os pressupostos do discurso ideal habermasiano.

Multivariate unit root tests

A new multivariate test for the detection ofunit roots is proposed. Use is made ofthe possible correlations between the disturbances of difIerent series, and constrained and unconstrained SURE estimators are employed. The corresponding asymptotic distributions, for the case oftwo series, are obtained and a table with criticai vaIues is generated. Some simulations indivate that the procedure performs better than the existing alternatives.

Unit roots and the welfare gains of cycle smoothing

li consumption is log-Normal and is decomposed into a linear deterministic trend and a stationary cycle, a surprising result in business-cycle research is that the welfare gains of eliminating uncertainty are relatively small. A possible problem with such calculations is the dichotomy between the trend and the cyclical components of consumption. In this paper, we abandon this dichotomy in two ways. First, we decompose consumption into a deterministic trend, a stochastic trend, and a stationary cyclical component, calculating the welfare gains of cycle smoothing. Calculations are carried forward only after a careful discussion of the limitations of macroeconomic policy. Second, still under the stochastic-trend model, we incorporate a variable slope for consumption depending negatively on the overall volatility in the economy. Results are obtained for a variety of preference parameterizations, parameter values, and different macroeconomic-policy goals. They show that, once the dichotomy in the decomposition in consumption is abandoned, the welfare gains of cycle smoothing may be substantial, especially due to the volatility effect.

A unit root test based on partially adaptive estimation

This paper constructs a unit root test baseei on partially adaptive estimation, which is shown to be robust against non-Gaussian innovations. We show that the limiting distribution of the t-statistic is a convex combination of standard normal and DF distribution. Convergence to the DF distribution is obtaineel when the innovations are Gaussian, implying that the traditional ADF test is a special case of the proposed testo Monte Carlo Experiments indicate that, if innovation has heavy tail distribution or are contaminated by outliers, then the proposed test is more powerful than the traditional ADF testo Nominal interest rates (different maturities) are shown to be stationary according to the robust test but not stationary according to the nonrobust ADF testo This result seems to suggest that the failure of rejecting the null of unit root in nominal interest rate may be due to the use of estimation and hypothesis testing procedures that do not consider the absence of Gaussianity in the data.Our results validate practical restrictions on the behavior of the nominal interest rate imposed by CCAPM, optimal monetary policy and option pricing models.