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Made in Europe: monetary–fiscal policy mix with financial frictions
Get PDFWe study the role of fiscal and monetary policies in a financially constrained economy.
An active monetary–passive fiscal regime amplifies technology shocks, mitigates
preference shocks, and neutralizes the expansionary effects of fiscal shocks through
“debt deflation” and “real interest rate” channels, compared to an active fiscal–passive
monetary policy regime. Several features of the data suggest that in the aftermath of
the 2007 Financial crisis, the monetary policy in the United States was more dovish
than in the Euro Area while fiscal policy seemed less concerned about the dynamics of
sovereign debt, implying that the distinct post-crisis dynamics of the United States and
the Euro area can be rationalized through different fiscal and monetary policy mixes
Haptic touch modulates size adaptation aftereffects on the hand
Get PDFWhen we interact with objects using our hands, we derive their size through our skin. Prolonged exposure to an object leads to a perceptual size aftereffect: adapting to a larger/smaller object makes a subsequently perceived object to appear smaller/larger than its actual size. This phenomenon has been described as haptic as tactile sensations with kinesthetic feedback are involved. However, the exact role of different haptic components in generating this aftereffect remains largely underexplored. Here, we investigated how different aspects of haptic touch influence size perception. After adaptation to a large sphere with one hand and a small sphere with the other, participants touched two test spheres of equal or different sizes and judged which one felt larger. Similar haptic size adaption aftereffects were observed 1) when participants repeatedly grasped on and off the adapters, 2) when they simply continued to grasp the adapters without further hand movements, and 3) when the adapters were grasped without involving the fingers. All these conditions produced stronger aftereffects than a condition where the palms were simply resting on the adapter. Our findings suggest that the inclusion of grasp markedly increased the aftereffects, highlighting the pivotal role of haptic interactions in determining perceptual size adaptation
Circular external difference families, graceful labellings and cyclotomy
Get PDF(Strong) circular external difference families (which we denote as CEDFs and SCEDFs) can be used to construct nonmalleable threshold schemes. They are a variation of (strong) external difference families, which have been extensively studied in recent years. We provide a variety of constructions for CEDFs based on graceful labellings (α-valuations) of lexicographic products Cn · K^c_ℓ, where C_n denotes a cycle of length n. SCEDFs having more than two subsets do not exist. However, we can construct close approximations (more specifically, certain types of circular algebraic manipulation detection (AMD) codes) using the theory of cyclotomic numbers in finite fields
Addressing longevity inequality: how retirement age differentiation can be implemented
Get PDFDifferences in life expectancy across socioeconomic groups create a serious problem of inequality
within the public part of the pension system. This paper considers two actuarially sound ways of addressing
longevity inequality. The first is to allow low life-expectancy workers to retire earlier and delay the retirement of
the high life-expectancy workers so that the two groups receive the same amount, equal to the expected discounted
value of future pension benefits received by the average worker under the current system. The second, and more
radical, is to delegate to occupational pension funds the task of paying out the public pension benefits to each
retiree, based on a lump sum transfer from the government to the pension funds of an amount for each retiree
equivalent to the payout in the first scenario
Anxiety, depression, working from home, and health-related behaviours during COVID-19: structural equation modelling and serial mediation of associations with angina, heart attacks and stroke
Get PDFBased on the vulnerability-stress model and coping theory, this study of 1,920 people in Scotland investigated how sex, age, occupational factors, anxiety, depression, and maladaptive coping behaviours are associated with cardiovascular health. Structural equation modelling and serial Sobel mediation tests were conducted. Anxiety was associated with past arrhythmia, whereas depression was associated with past heart attacks, stroke, and angina. Females reported more anxiety, past arrhythmia, confectionary and alcohol consumption, whereas males had more heart attacks. Confectionary consumption was associated with past arrhythmia, and alcohol consumption was associated with past heart attacks. Being older was associated with depression, past stroke, arrhythmia, and alcohol consumption. Being younger was associated with anxiety and smoking. Depression and smoking mediated the relationship between type of working and cardiovascular health history, potentially because of socioeconomic factors. Clinicians can use these results to advise clients about cardiovascular risks associated with anxiety, depression, demographics, and health-related coping behaviours
Redeeming marriage? Bittersweet intimacy and the dialectics of liberation among Haredi Jews in London
Get PDFThis article intervenes in feminist anthropological debates about marriage within Western cosmopolitan, ‘post-traditional’ contexts through a close ethnographic examination of food and ritualised meals among Haredi Jews in London. We focus on this diasporic religious Jewish minority, whose marital practices have been the object of debates over marriage, gender, and cultural difference in cosmopolitan London. Learning from ethnographic and conjugal instances of hunger around Haredi dining tables, we explore the broader question of how heterosexual marriages endure in the face of struggles for intimacy and freedom between different genders. By focusing on what can be learnt about marriage through mealtime rituals with religious significance, we develop a response rooted in a form of Jewish relational ethics that has been repressed within ‘Western’ liberal culture. This approach addresses some tenacious dualisms at play in the anthropology and politics of marriage and articulates a vernacular dialectical grammar of desire, tradition, freedom, and love
Asymptomatic behaviour of the noisy voter model density process
Get PDFGiven a transition matrix P indexed by a finite set V of vertices, the voter model is a discrete-time Markov chain in
{
0
,
1
}
V
where at each time-step a randomly chosen vertex x imitates the opinion of vertex y with probability
P
(
x
,
y
)
. The noisy voter model is a variation of the voter model in which vertices may change their opinions by the action of an external noise. The strength of this noise is measured by an extra parameter
p
∈
[
0
,
1
]
.
In this work we analyse the density process, defined as the stationary mass of vertices with opinion 1, that is,
S
t
=
∑
x
∈
V
π
(
x
)
ξ
t
(
x
)
, where π is the stationary distribution of P, and
ξ
t
(
x
)
is the opinion of vertex x at time t. We investigate the asymptotic behaviour of
S
t
when t tends to infinity for different values of the noise parameter p. In particular, by allowing P and p to be functions of the size
|
V
|
, we show that, under appropriate conditions and small enough p a normalised version of
S
t
converges to a Gaussian random variable, while for large enough p,
S
t
converges to a Bernoulli random variable. We provide further analysis of the noisy voter model on a variety of specific graphs including the complete graph, cycle, torus, and hypercube, where we identify the critical rate p (depending on the size
|
V
|
) that separates these two asymptotic behaviours
Pastures new: atmospheres, mud, and moods
No full textBook synopsis: Computational media govern our experiences by externalizing our knowledge and memories, mining data from our behaviour to influence our decision-making, and creating emotionally rewarding and sensory pleasures. But does that mean human perception is becoming a product of human-machine symbiosis in this new media ecology?
This ground-breaking collection explores the ways in which digital information technologies form and influence human perception and experience. Examining the relationship between technological reductionism and the body, it takes on board discursive perspectives from the humanities and brings digital media, affect, and body studies into conversation with one another.
Written by pioneering authors in the field, this book expands our understanding of human perception, animation, technology, and the body
How Safe Are Digital Journals? A Study of 7m Articles
No full textA talk at Leeds about my digital preservation work
Preservation as a Memento Mori and Matter of Ethics
No full textDigital preservation is crucial to ensuring the decadal- and centuries-long accessibility of scholarship. In other words, it asks us to consider how the conversation around a piece of work will continue, beyond the lifespan of its creator. It asks us to consider that point when a work enters the public domain and is no longer under the author’s copyright, it asks us to consider a purpose for scholarship that is greater than self-advancement. Digital preservation is a memento mori in the scholarly world – our own anamorphic skull – that assumes the oblivion of the individual and the continuity of the artefact. Perhaps that is why so few people want to look it in the face
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