45 research outputs found
Progress of Negro Education In Grimes County, Texas
No full textThis outline is intended to give a brief idea of the progress of Negro education in Grimes County from 1887 to 1957. The author of this study has identified with Negro Public Schools of Grimes County for a period of more than fifty years, and have worked steadily and earnestly as a Negro educator in various schools of Grimes County since 1887. This interest impels him to attempt to develop this subject. For a period of twenty years from 1887 to 1907, the progress in Negro education in Grimes County had an upward trend, although the progress has been very slow. The principal agency by and through which education was sought was the public school. Prom 1908 to the present time, progress in a larger way has been made, and in this outline the writer shall try to develop these facts
The dynamics of short- and long-term CDS-spreads of banks
No full textThis paper studies 'Stylised Facts' and 'Determinants' of short-and long-term CDS-spreads of banks. As short-term spreads we choose 6M-, as long-term spreads we choose 5Y-spreads. In the section 'Stylised Facts' we found that the correlation between short-and long-term spreads for the total period is high (97%). However, the correlation in sub-periods varies across all possible correlations. Particularly, spreads can have negative correlation. In contrast to [Covitz and Downing, 2007], we find high positive (Covitz/Downing: high negative) correlation for turbulent market circumstances. In the section 'Deteminants' we confirm the Merton-factors (stock price, stock price volatility, interest rate level) for the 5Y-segment, but not for the 6M-segment. Furthermore, we do not find any empirical support that short-term spreads are particularly sensitive to illiquidity factors. In that sense, we also contrast [Covitz and Downing, 2007]. --Liquidity,insolvency,banks
Foreign aid's impact on public spending
No full textUsing a model of aid fungibility, the authors examine the relationship between foreign aid and public spending. Based on a panel of cross-country and time-series data, their results show that roughly 75 cents of every dollar given in net development assistance goes to current spending and 25 cents to capital spending in the recipient countries. But concessionary loans - a component of development assistance - stimulate far more government spending. Their results also show that aid increases both public and private investment. To test aid fungibility across both public spending categories, they use a newly constructed data series on the net disbursement of concessionary loans. They find that concessionary loans given to the transport and communication sector are fully nonfungible. But loans to the energy sector are converted into fungible monies and part of the funds leak into transport and communications. Loans to agriculture and education are also fungible. There is no evidence of concessionary funds being diverted for military purposes. Their results show that total public spending in the health sector has no impact on reducing infant mortality, but concessionary loans to the health sector do. This finding leads the authors to conclude that linking foreign aid to an agreed-upon public spending program in areas critical to development might be an effective way to transfer resources to developing countries.Decentralization,Gender and Development,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Inequality,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Public Sector Economics&Finance,National Governance,Economic Stabilization
Credit gap risk in a first passage time model with jumps
No full textThe payoff of many credit derivatives depends on the level of credit spreads. In particular, credit derivatives with a leverage component are subject to gap risk, a risk associated with the occurrence of jumps in the underlying credit default swaps. In the framework of first passage time models, we consider a model that addresses these issues. The principal idea is to model a credit quality process as an Itô integral with respect to a Brownian motion with a stochastic volatility. Using a representation of the credit quality process as a time-changed Brownian motion, one can derive formulas for conditional default probabilities and credit spreads. An example for a volatility process is the square root of a Lévy-driven Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. The model can be implemented efficiently using a technique called Panjer recursion. Calibration to a wide range of dynamics is supported. We illustrate the effectiveness of the model by valuing a leveraged credit-linked note. --gap risk,credit spreads,credit dynamics,first passage time models,stochastic volatility,general Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes
Psychotic symptoms in young adults exposed to childhood trauma - A 20 year follow-up study
No full textChildhood adversity has been shown to increase the risk of psychotic symptoms in adult life. However, there are no previous studies looking at the association between experiencing a natural disaster during childhood and the development of psychotic symptoms in young adulthood. Eight hundred and six bushfire-exposed children and 725 control children were evaluated following the 1983 South Australian bushfires. Five hundred and twenty nine (65.6%) of the bushfire group and 464 (64%) controls participated in a follow up study 20 years later. Childhood data on emotional and behavioural disorders and dysfunctional parenting was available. The adult assessment included the Australian National Health and Well-Being psychosis screen and detailed information about trauma, childhood adversity and alcohol and cannabis abuse. 5.6% of subjects responded positively to the psychosis screen and 2.6% responded positively to a further probe question. Psychotic symptoms were more common in subjects exposed to a greater number of traumas, and were associated with higher rates of childhood adversity, emotional and behavioural disturbance, dysfunctional parenting, and alcohol and cannabis abuse. Subjects exposed to bushfires as children did not have a greater risk of psychosis. Our results indicate that exposure to multiple traumas, rather than a single major trauma, increases the risk of later psychosis.Cherrie Galletly, Miranda Van Hooff, Alexander McFarlan
Credit dynamics in a first passage time model with jumps
No full textThe payoff of many credit derivatives depends on the level of credit spreads. In particular, the payoff of credit derivatives with a leverage component is sensitive to jumps in the underlying credit spreads. In the framework of first passage time models we extend the model introduced in [Overbeck and Schmidt, 2005] to address these issues. In the extended a model, a credit quality process is driven by an Itô integral with respect to a Brownian motion with stochastic volatility. Using a representation of the credit quality process as a time-changed Brownian motion, we derive formulas for conditional default probabilities and credit spreads. An example for a volatility process is the square root of a Lévy-driven Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. We show that jumps in the volatility translate into jumps in credit spreads. We examine the dynamics of the OS-model and the extended model and provide examples. --gap risk,credit spreads,credit dynamics,first passage time models,Lévy processes,general Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes
Structural evolution of the Potosí uplift, Sierra Madre Oriental, northeastern Mexico
No full text2019 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.The Jurassic Minas Viejas Formation is host to a Late Cretaceous to early Paleogene-aged décollement in the Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico. The Minas Viejas Formation is dominated by rheologically-weak evaporite that accommodated thin-skinned deformation, forming the Sierra Madre Oriental fold-thrust belt with minimal deformation to the underlying Triassic-Jurassic red beds. Thin-skinned shortening above the décollement temporally transitioned to thick-skinned shortening, resulting in exhumation of the décollement and development of the Potosí uplift, one of the largest and well exposed thick-skinned uplifts in the orogen. Detailed geologic mapping and structural analysis provide insight into the geometry and kinematics of the Potosí uplift, and (U-Th)/He thermochronometry and vitrinite reflectance record the burial history and timing of exhumation associated with the uplift. Thick-skinned deformation involved folding of sub-décollement strata into a NNW-SSE-striking anticlinorium, development of cleavage, ENE-WSW directed thrust faulting, conjugate strike-slip faulting, and formation of ENE-WSW-striking extension fractures associated with barite mineralization. These structures consistently record ENE-directed subhorizontal shortening. Shortening is directed ~062° in the southern part of the uplift and ~077° in the northern part of the uplift. Thick-skinned deformation modified pre-existing geometries of thin-skinned folds involving Cretaceous overburden strata above the Jurassic evaporite décollement. Zircon (U-Th)/He cooling dates (ZHe) and vitrinite reflectance data indicate that the entire evaporite décollement was buried to ≥185°C, consistent with development of phyllitic fabrics in the basal part of the Minas Viejas Formation. Paleocene to mid-Eocene zircon (U-Th)/He cooling dates in the Triassic-Jurassic red beds below the evaporite décollement directly record the timing of exhumation associated with thick-skinned deformation, and suggest that the thick-skinned uplift was a continuation of earlier thin-skinned shortening as opposed to a distinct tectonic event. A zircon (U-Th)/He date from the southern Potosí uplift is ~66 Ma, whereas ZHe dates in the northern part of the uplift range from ~49–43 Ma. Two samples from the nearby Aramberri uplift to the south of the Potosí uplift have mean ZHe dates of ~63–54 Ma. The transition from thin- to thick-skinned shortening may be attributed to the evolution of mechanical stratigraphy in the décollement. Thin-skinned detachment folding resulted in significant migration of evaporite away from synclinal keels, effectively eliminating a planar weak zone at the base of the décollement and creating salt welds between carbonates or shales within the décollement with underlying red beds. The along-strike differences in timing of thick-skinned exhumation and the shortening directions may also be attributed to differences in mechanical stratigraphy. Thicker intervals of evaporite in the northern part of the uplift allowed thin-skinned shortening to continue while the southern part of the uplift transitioned to thick-skinned shortening as the weak evaporite décollement was exhausted. As a result, stress-strain trajectories in the northern part of the uplift refracted clockwise towards the area with more propagation of deformation. Our findings provide a new insight into the geometry, kinematics, and timing of deformation associated with the Potosí uplift, and may provide a framework for studying other thick-skinned uplifts in the Sierra Madre Oriental, and more generally orogenic belts that record a transition in deformation styles
On the valuation of fader and discrete barrier options in Heston's Stochastic Volatility Model
No full textWe focus on closed-form option pricing in Hestons stochastic volatility model, in which closed-form formulas exist only for few option types. Most of these closed-form solutions are constructed from characteristic functions. We follow this approach and derive multivariate characteristic functions depending on at least two spot values for different points in time. The derived characteristic functions are used as building blocks to set up (semi-) analytical pricing formulas for exotic options with payoffs depending on finitely many spot values such as fader options and discretely monitored barrier options. We compare our result with different numerical methods and examine accuracy and computational times. --exotic options,Heston Model,Characteristic Function,Multidimensional Fast Fourier Transforms
Non-default Component of Sovereign Emerging Market Yield Spreads and its Determinants: Evidence from Credit Default Swap Market
No full textThis article shows that a sizable component of emerging market sovereign yield spreads is due to factors other than default risk, such as liquidity. The author estimates the non-default component of the yield spreads as the basis between the actual credit default swap (CDS) premium and the hypothetical CDS premium implied by emerging market bond yields. On average, the basis is large and positive for speculative-grade bonds and slightly negative for investment-grade bonds. The large positive basis for speculative-grade bonds supports the existence of speculation in the CDS market when the underlying's credit quality is bad. The author studies the effects of bond liquidity, liquidity in the CDS market, equity market performance, and macroeconomic variables on the non-default component of the emerging market yield spreads. The results show that bond liquidity has a significant and positive effect on the CDS–bond basis of investment-grade bonds. The results suggest that the liquid bonds of investment-grade bonds are more expensive relative to the prices implied their CDS premiums. However, the results are somewhat mixed and even contrary for the speculative-grade bond sample.Emerging Market Sovereign Bonds, Credit Risk, Credit Default Swaps, Basis, Liquidity, Emerging Market Equity Markets
Landscape and Crisis in Northern England: The Representation of Communal Trauma in Film and Photography
No full textCommunal trauma is a culturally constructed ascription. Social agents propose that disastrous events have had traumatic effects upon the communities affected. If this proposition is convincing, then these events become acknowledged as communal traumas, and those affected as traumatised. This thesis examines how two crises in northern England: the Foot and Mouth Disease (F.M.D.) epidemic in Cumbria in 2001, and the demise of the mining industry in County Durham from the late 1970s onwards, have been constructed as communal traumas. While the F.M.D. epidemic in Cumbria has been explicitly studied, and therefore constructed as traumatic in sociological studies, the crisis was also broadcast through landscape imagery in press and documentary photography. This thesis examines such imagery in the work of photographers Nick May, John Darwell and Ian Geering, and in the printed and television media, and assesses how it has also contributed to the idea of F.M.D. as a communal trauma. This is one of the original contributions of this thesis. Another is the examination of the disappearance of the mining industry in County Durham since the rationalisation of the late 1970s, as communal trauma. This demise also had devastating economic, social and cultural effects for the communities involved, but has seldom been construed as communally traumatic. However, the film and photography of Newcastle’s Amber art collective creates a narrative that suggests precisely this, and fundamental to that narrative is landscape imagery. Their collaboration with the communities experiencing the effects of this demise, and the exhibition of their films and photography back to that community has created a vision of traumatic social change that is both corroborated and constructed by those most affected. With a detailed examination of the imagery of these two specific crises
in Northern England, this thesis examines how landscape has contributed to the cultural construction of trauma
