3,158 research outputs found
Health Cost Risk: A Potential Solution to the Annuity Puzzle
We find that health cost risk lowers optimal annuity demand at retirement. If medical expenses can be
sizeable early in retirement, full annuitisation at retirement is no longer optimal because agents do not have
enough time to build a liquid wealth buffer. Furthermore, large deviations from optimal annuitisation levels
lead to small utility differences. Our results suggest that health cost risk can explain a large proportion of
empirically observed annuity choices. Finally, allowing additional annuitisation after retirement results in
welfare gains of at most 2.5% when facing health cost risk, and negligible gains without this risk
An Alternative Asymptotic Analysis of Residual-Based Statistics
This paper presents an alternative method to derive the limiting distribution of residual-based statistics. Our method does not impose an explicit assumption of (asymptotic) smoothness of the statistic of interest with respect to the model's parameters. and, thus, is especially useful in cases where such smoothness is difficult to establish. Instead, we use a locally uniform convergence in distribution condition, which is automatically satisfied by residual-based specification test statistics. To illustrate, we derive the limiting distribution of a new functional form specification test for discrete choice models, as well as a runs-based tests for conditional symmetry in dynamic volatility models.Le Cam's third lemma, Local Asymptotic Normality (LAN)
Bas-Relief Modeling from Normal Layers
Bas-relief is characterized by its unique presentation of intrinsic shape properties and/or detailed appearance using materials raised up in different degrees above a background. However, many bas-relief modeling methods could not manipulate scene details well. We propose a simple and effective solution for two kinds of bas-relief modeling (i.e., structure-preserving and detail-preserving), which is different from the prior tone mapping alike methods. Our idea originates from an observation on typical 3D models which are decomposed into a piecewise smooth base layer and a detail layer in normal field. Proper manipulation of the two layers contributes to both structure-preserving and detail-preserving bas-relief modeling. We solve the modeling problem in a discrete geometry processing setup that uses normal-based mesh processing as a theoretical foundation. Specifically, using the two-step mesh smoothing mechanism as a bridge, we transfer the bas-relief modeling problem into a discrete space, and solve it in a least-squares manner. Experiments and comparisons to other methods show that (i) geometry details are better preserved in the scenario with high compression ratios, and (ii) structures are clearly preserved without shape distortion and interference from details.Accepted author manuscriptMaterials and Manufacturin
Testing for Mean-Variance spanning with short sales constraints and transaction costs: The case of emerging markets.
Comparaison de trois tests statistiques pour le modèle linéaire :Wald, rapport de vraisemblance et multiplicateur de Lagrange
Doctorat en Sciencesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe
Duration models
Duration models appear when studying the moment in time that certain events occur. Next to general applications in economics and medical sciences, their financial applications are in the more specific field of market microstructure (transaction times of assets or derivatives in a given market), and also in corporate governance (tenure of management)
FM Transceiver for Wireless Communication: Audio and Intermediate Frequency Amplifiers
In this bachelor thesis the design process of the audio and intermediate frequency amplifiers for a wireless FM tranceiver is documented and explained. The project was done using only descrete components for educational purposes.2019 Ivor Bas, Victor hoedemakerElectrical Engineerin
Inventory for a Reverse Journey. Photographic Image and Found Object - An investigation of travel and material transformation as a paradigm of artist's practice: Ed Ruscha, Douglas Huebler, Bas jan Ader, Jimmie Durham, Gustav Metzger, Kurt Schwitters & Cian Quayle.
Inventory for Reverse Journey is the title of a collection of photographic artefacts and found objects, which I have collected over the last twenty years. The title refers to one specific type of artist's journey, which is applicable to the `chronotope' of my archive, as a `metaphorical journey in space and time' (Bakhtin 1981, p. 81). The `city',`provincial town', `road', `threshold' and `interior' are recurrent motifs, which Bakhtin fused together to describe the historical evolution of the novel in relation to its different genres. Bakhtin's motifs are expanded as the basis of an evolutionary nomenclature of the artist's-journey, as a form of spatial mapping and identity formation. Alongside other sources from literature (Alain Robbe-Grillet), cinema (Michelangelo Antonioni), psychoanalysis (Kierkegaard) and critical theory (Walter Benjamin) I have developed a theoretical framework, which initially originated in an empirical process, that is reflected in the antecedents of this project. The research process, as a journey itself, has concretised this approach within a systems-based practice. This is mirrored in the work of the artists under investigation, as their differences and similarities are highlighted within a broad contextual analysis. Accordingly the tone of the writing shifts its register at different points in the thesis.
My journey is just one example of several paradigmatic formations of `travel' as a strategy, which investigates the work of six different artists, as a voluntary or involuntary form of exile. A deskilled use of the photographic image is examined in the work of Ed Ruscha, Douglas Huebler and Bas jan Ader in the spatial mapping of their chosen locations. The work of these artists manifests travel, as a strategy, in a benign form of regional and expatriate exile. The investigation shifts its focus from the New World to Europe, where the work of Jimmie Durham, Gustav Metzger and Kurt Schwitters is analysed in relation to their transformation of found objects and materials, and their relationship with a former 'home'. Their position registers different degrees of the `impossibility of return' to a point of origin, which exists in the mind rather than as a physical location. The transience of their work, and use of disparate materials, is counterbalanced by their physical presence in the work. Conversely Ader, Huebler and Ruscha are linked by a scale of decreasing visibility, as they are sublimated within their work in the formation of, what is now construed as, a unique photographic presence. The starting point for which is a return to the formative years of conceptualism in the 1960's, which set the scene for Durham and Metzger from the 1970's onwards. The spectre of Schwitters practice of forming (Formung) and unforming (Entformung) is significant for my analysis of the dematerialisation of the art-work and artist, by processes of series and repetition, distance and proximity, movement and stasis. Although `travel' is a ubiquitous term, I continue to use it as a portmanteau, which carries with it the themes and `salient' features of a typology of artist's journeys. In a moment of perceived obsolescence as digital information systems engender a culture of `selective-amnesia', these thoughts have informed my work, which runs parallel to the artist case-studies, and the material transformation of the photographic image and found object
The Dynamics of the Impact of Past Performance on Mutual Fund Flows
This study reconsiders the determinants of flows into US growth funds, focusing in particular on the dynamics of the impact of past performance on flows.We model the flow-performance relationship at the monthly frequency, allowing for dependence of the sensitivity of flows to past performance on size and age of the fund.The dynamics of the impact of past performance is modelled using polynomial lag structures.Performance from 6 to 8 months ago seems to have thestrongest impact on net flows to US growth funds.We observe that performance during the most recent quarter is less important than performance during the remaining three quarters of the first year, suggesting that some investors react to fund performance with a certain lag.Specifications based on average past performance at annual or quarterly frequency are strongly rejected.The first three years of past performance history account for about 90 percent of the total impact of past performance on flows.The well-documented convexity of the flow-performance relationship appears robust to allowing for dependence of this relationship on size and age of the fund.The return on systematic risk factors has a small additional impact on top of the impact of risk-adjusted returns.investment trusts;return on investment;performance
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