State of Iowa Directory of certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, September 2007

The Iowa DOT takes affirmative action to ensure that Disadvantaged Business Enterprises have the maximum practical opportunity to get Iowa DOT contracts for construction, professional, and technical service. The Iowa DOT also has taken specific steps to ensure there is no discrimination in the awarding and administering of contracts. The department's DBE Program, which has been developed under this policy, is administered by the Office of Contracts.

Teaching metaheuristics in business schools

In this work we discuss some ideas and opinions related with teaching Metaheuristics in Business Schools. The main purpose of the work is to initiate a discussion and collaboration about this topic,with the final objective to improve the teaching and publicity of the area. The main topics to be discussed are the environment and focus of this teaching. We also present a SWOT analysis which lead us to the conclusion that the area of Metaheuristics only can win with the presentation and discussion of metaheuristics and related topics in Business Schools, since it consists in a excellent Decision Support tools for future potential users.

Business cycle measurement with some theory

A method to evaluate cyclical models not requiring knowledge of the DGP and the exact specificationof the aggregate decision rules is proposed. We derive robust restrictions in a class of models; use someto identify structural shocks in the data and others to evaluate the class or contrast sub-models. Theapproach has good properties, even in small samples, and when the class of models is misspecified. Themethod is used to sort out the relevance of a certain friction (the presence of rule-of-thumb consumers)in a standard class of models.

Fiscal Year 2007 Workforce, Business Service Training Annual Report

Annual Report

Relative price riddles in international business cycle theory: Are transport costs the explanation?

We study relative price behavior in an international business cyclemodel with specialization in production, in which a goods marketfriction is introduced through transport costs. The transporttechnology allows for flexible transport costs. We analyze whetherthis extension can account for the striking differences betweentheory and data as far as the moments of terms of trade and realexchange rates are concerned. We find that transport costs increaseboth the volatility of the terms of trade and the volatility of thereal exchange rate. However, unless the transport technology isspecified by a Leontief technology, transport costs do not resolvethe quantitative discrepancies between theory and data. Asurprising result is that transport costs may actually lower thepersistence of the real exchange rate, a finding that is in contrastto much of the emphasis of the empirical literature.

Sexual associations for two species of mutillid wasps (Hymenoptera, Mutillidae), with the description of a new species of Anomophotopsis

The sexes of Pseudometocha melanocephala (Perty, 1833) and of a new species of Anomophotopsis are associated based on mating pairs found in the field and also in laboratory mating trials. The previously unknown male of Pseudomethoca melanocephala (Perty, 1833) and both sexes of Anomophotopsis quinteroi Cambra, sp. nov., are described. We present the first distribution record of P. melanocephala from Argentina. Anecdotal data on their mating behavior are also discussed.

Credit rationing and crowding out during the Industrial Revolution: Evidence from Hoare's Bank, 1702-1862

Crowding-out during the British Industrial Revolution has long been one of the leadingexplanations for slow growth during the Industrial Revolution, but little empirical evidence exists to support it. We argue that examinations of interest rates are fundamentally misguided, and that the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century private loan market balanced through quantity rationing. Using a unique set of observations on lending volume at a London goldsmith bank, Hoare s, we document the impact of wartime financing on private credit markets. We conclude that there is considerable evidence that government borrowing, especially during wartime, crowded out private credit.

Audit report on the Iowa State Center Business Office of Iowa State University of Science and Technology for the year ended June 30, 2007

Audit report on the Iowa State Center Business Office of Iowa State University of Science and Technology for the year ended June 30, 2007

The impact of interest-rate subsidies on long-term household debt: Evidence from a large program

The responsiveness of long-term household debt to the interest rate is acrucial parameter for assessing the effectiveness of public policies aimedat promoting specific types of saving. This paper estimates the effect ofa reform of Credito Bonificado, a large program in Portugal that subsidizedmortgage interest rates, on long-term household debt. The reform establisheda ceiling in the price of the house that could be financed through theprogram, and provides plausibly exogenous variation in incentives. Usinga unique dataset of matched household survey data and administrative recordsof debt, we document a large decrease in the probability of signing a newloan after the removal of the subsidy.

Aphid parasitoids (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae) and their associations related to biological control in Brazil

This study evaluated the parasitoid-aphid-plant associations in Brazil with the objective of developing a useful research database for further studies of aphid parasitoid ecology and aphid management. The original material was obtained from collections made in Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo states. The published information on the Aphidiinae in Brazil is revised. The general features of the target parasitoid fauna of Central and South America is summarized and promising biological control programs of some aphid species in Brazil is discussed.

Targeted Small Business Program Report, 2008

Targeted Small Business (TSB) compliance is authorized by Iowa Code Chapter 19B.7. Iowa Code Chapters 73.16-73.19 requires the establishment of TSB procurement provisions through the Departments of Management, Inspections and Appeals and Economic Development. This report will provide an overview of the State of Iowa’s Targeted Small Business Program and efforts to assure equal opportunity through targeted small business procurement during FY 2007.

Is lumpy investment really irrelevant for the business cycle?

New-Keynesian (NK) models can only account for the dynamic effects of monetary policy shocks if it is assumed that aggregate capital accumulation is much smoother than it would be the case under frictionless firm-level investment, as discussed in Woodford (2003, Ch. 5). We find that lumpy investment, when combined with price stickiness and market power of firms,can rationalize this assumption. Our main result is in stark contrast with the conclusions obtained by Thomas (2002) in the context of a real business cycle (RBC) model. We use our model to explain the economic mechanism behind this difference in the predictions of RBC and NK theory.

Disability, capacity for work and the business cycle: An international perspective

An important policy issue in recent years concerns the number of people claimingdisability benefits for reasons of incapacity for work. We distinguish between workdisability , which may have its roots in economic and social circumstances, and healthdisability which arises from clear diagnosed medical conditions. Although there is a linkbetween work and health disability, economic conditions, and in particular the businesscycle and variations in the risk of unemployment over time and across localities, mayplay an important part in explaining both the stock of disability benefit claimants andinflows to and outflow from that stock. We employ a variety of cross?country andcountry?specific household panel data sets, as well as administrative data, to testwhether disability benefit claims rise when unemployment is higher, and also toinvestigate the impact of unemployment rates on flows on and off the benefit rolls. Wefind strong evidence that local variations in unemployment have an importantexplanatory role for disability benefit receipt, with higher total enrolments, loweroutflows from rolls and, often, higher inflows into disability rolls in regions and periodsof above?average unemployment. Although general subjective measures of selfreporteddisability and longstanding illness are also positively associated withunemployment rates, inclusion of self?reported health measures does not eliminate thestatistical relationship between unemployment rates and disability benefit receipt;indeed including general measures of health often strengthens that underlyingrelationship. Intriguingly, we also find some evidence from the United Kingdom and theUnited States that the prevalence of self?reported objective specific indicators ofdisability are often pro?cyclical that is, the incidence of specific forms of disability arepro?cyclical whereas claims for disability benefits given specific health conditions arecounter?cyclical. Overall, the analysis suggests that, for a range of countries and datasets, levels of claims for disability benefits are not simply related to changes in theincidence of health disability in the population and are strongly influenced by prevailingeconomic conditions. We discuss the policy implications of these various findings.