937 research outputs found
Optimum Currency Areas Structural Changes and the Endogeneity of the OCA Criteria: Evidence from Six New EU Member States
No full textThe present paper has two aims. The first aim is to test whether six new member states of the European Union (the six Central and Eastern European Countries) form an optimum currency area (OCA) with the eurozone, in an attempt to assess their readiness for euro adoption. The second aim is to examine whether the introduction of the euro in 1999 and the decision of the countries to seek to join the euro area created any forces fostering their convergence, evidence which would be in line with the theory on the endogeneity of the OCA criteria. Our findings indicate that the introduction of the euro did promote integration of the six new member states and that, at present, they are quite well aligned with the eurozone.EU enlargement; OCA; real exchange rates; cointegration; GPPP.
Foreign Exchange Intervention and Equilibrium Real Exchange Rates
No full textMonetary authorities intervene in the currency markets in order to pursue a monetary rule and/or to smooth exchange rate volatility caused by speculative attacks. In the present paper we investigate for possible intervention effects on the volatility of nominal exchange rates and the estimated equilibrium behaviour of real exchange rates. The main argument of the paper is that omission of intervention effects -when they are significant- would bias the ability to detect any PPP-based behaviour of the real exchange rates in the long run. Positive evidence for this argument comes from the experience of six Central and Eastern European economies, whose exchange markets are characterised by frequent interventions.Foreign Exchange Market Intervention; Real Exchange Rates; PPP.
Precautions and responses
No full textThis chapter aims to explore the use of precautionary behaviors by public transit users. It distinguishes between two types of precautionary behavior: avoidance and risk management strategies. Following a literature review on precaution nary behaviors, the chapter draws data from five of the cities examined earlier in this book – Guangzhou (China), London (UK), Los Angeles (USA), Paris (France), and Vancouver (Canada) to examine how student riders in these cities respond to the risk of victimization in transit environments. This is followed by a discussion of the findings, conclusions, and an overall assessment of the findings
Placing, displacing, replacing the sacred: science, religion, and spirituality
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (page 205).This is a reply to a target article in this issue by Lisa Sideris, "Science as Sacred Myth? Ecospirituality in the Anthropcene Age." Lisa Sideris is right on target, concerned about scientism. Big-history-epic-of-evolution accounts, such as Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker in their Journey of the Universe direct us to awe, inviting us to see better what is going on at our local, personal scales by including microscales, ecosystemic, evolutionary, geological, and astronomical scales. Against local myths, a scientific account ("myth"?) can be definitive. Any contemporary culture must "incorporate" vast amounts of science. Journey of the Universe is an excellent video, though it would be better if it recognized that some native accounts are wrong
Testing for Long-Run PPP in a System Context: Evidence for the US, Germany and Japan
No full textThe present paper tests for the validity of long-run purchasing power parity (PPP) for the three key currencies of the recent floating exchange rate period, the US dollar, the German mark and the Japanese yen. The novelty of the paper is that the validity of the PPP conditions relating the economies of the US, Germany and Japan is tested in a system framework, which allows for possible interactions in the determination of the exchange rates and the prices of the three economies. Some form of causality among the variables of the system is also assessed empirically with the aid of weak exogeneity tests. The results illustrate the importance of the multilateral testing. Positive evidence for PPP is found: long-run PPP is supported for the US and Germany but also for the US and Japan, in contrast to evidence of earlier empirical studies. In addition, causality is found running from the US prices to the exchange rates and German and Japanese prices.Money demand; PPP, cointegration, causality
Robust Multi-signal Estimation Framework with Applications to Inertial Sensor Stochastic Calibration
No full textThe stochastic calibration of low-cost and consumer grade inertial sensors has recently become very important due to their wide-spread utilization in a multitude of mass-market applications like smartphone and drone navigation. The reason behind this is because if accurate stochastic modeling about the inertial sensor noise is obtained, then the estimation quality of the navigation solution may improve significantly. Generally, the mainstream methods for stochastic calibration consider only a single signal, collected under static conditions, to infer that knowledge. However, it has been observed that even though the stochastic model structure that characterizes each (static) calibration signal remains the same, its parameter values vary from one replicate to another. Even though techniques have been recently proposed to address this in a statistically efficient way, a very important factor has been neglected, namely the influence of outliers on the estimation process. In this paper, a robust multi-signal framework for the stochastic modeling of inertial sensor errors is proposed, which contains two layers of robustness: one that reduces the influence of outliers in each observed signal (data corruption) and one that safeguards the estimation process from the collection of calibration signal replicates with notably different stochastic behaviour compared to the majority (sample contamination). Furthermore, two estimators are defined from this framework, with each encompassing either one or both layers of robustness, and their efficiency in different data contamination scenarios is assessed in a simulation setting. Finally, real data collected from a consumer-grade MEMS-based device are used within a navigation simulator to evaluate the relationship between the quality of the stochastic models obtained by the two robust estimators in different data collection scenarios and the navigation solution stability
Lame science? Blind religion?
No full textThis is an electronic version of an article published in Zygon®: Journal of Religion and Science.Includes bibliographical references.In Consecrating Science, Lisa Sideris argues that an anthropocentric and science-based cosmology encourages human arrogance and diminishes a sense of wonder in human experience immersed in the natural world, found in diverse cultural and religious traditions. I agree with her that science elevated to a commanding world view, scientism, is a common and contemporary mistake, to be deplored, a lame science. But I further argue that science has introduced us to the marvels of deep nature, and vastly increased our human appreciation of nature as a wonderland at levels great and small. Sideris is right to fear consecrating science. She—and the humanists, sages, and saviors—need also to fear blindness to what science has to teach us about cosmogenesis and wonderland Earth
A Predictive Controler for Object Tracking of a Mobile Robot
No full textIn this paper a predictive controller for real-time target tracking in mobile robotics is proposed based on adaptive/evolving Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems, eTS. The predictive controller consists of two modules; i) a conventional fuzzy controller for robot motion control, and ii) a modelling tool for estimation of the target movements. The prediction of target movements enables the controller to be aware and to respond to the target movement in advance. Successful prediction will minimise the response delay of the conventional controller and improve the control quality. The model learning using eTS is fully automatic and performed ‘on fly’, ‘from scratch’. Data are processed in ‘one-pass’ manner, therefore it requires very limited computational resource and is suitable for on-board implementation on the mobile robots. Predictions are made in real-time. The same technique also has the potential to be used in the process control. Two reference controllers, a controller based on the Mamdani-Type fuzzy rule-base, and a controller based on the simple linear model, are also implemented in order to verify the proposed predictive controller. Experiments are carried out with a real mobile robot Pioneer 3DX. The performance of the three controllers is analyzed and compared
Long-run PPP in a system context: No favorable evidence after all for the U.S., Germany, and Japan
No full textIn a cointegration analysis of PPP in five-variable system for Germany, Japan, and the U.S., Sideris [Sideris, D., 2006. Testing for long-run PPP in a system context: evidence for the U.S., Germany and Japan. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money 16, 143-154] reports three cointegration vectors and concludes that they are consistent with some form of PPP for all three exchange rates. The present paper reconsiders Sideris's three-country analysis with special attention to the specification of deterministic terms in the cointegration testing. In addition, the passage of time since the Sideris paper allows the data set to be extended. The present paper also applies the Johansen approach and longer data set to traditional two-country models for the same exchange rates. In no case is any evidence in favor of PPP found.
Congestion minimisation by optimising merging behaviour through Intelligent Transportation Systems
No full textCivil Engineering and GeosciencesTransport & Plannin
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