Exotic Higgs Searches in CMS

We present some of the most recent results from the CMS Collaboration on searches for Higgs-like particles in models beyond the Standard Model. Several rare and exotic decay modes of the Higgs boson are explored. The results of the searches are relevant for establishing whether the 125 GeV particle observed in Higgs boson searches at the LHC has the properties expected for a Standard Model Higgs boson.Comment: Presentation at the DPF 2013 Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields, Santa Cruz, California, August 13-17, 201

Targeting social spending to the poor with proxy - means testing: Colombia's SISBEN system

While targeting can effectively channel resources to the poor, implementation details matter tremendously to distributive outcomes. Several key factors affect performance, including: data collection processes; information management; household assessment mechanisms; institutional arrangements; and monitoring and oversight mechanisms. This report conducts an in-depth assessment of key design and implementation factors and their potential impact on outcomes for the household targeting system SISBEN used in Colombia to target social programs to the poor and vulnerable.

Long Term Risk Assessment in a Defined Contribution Pension System

One of the most important consequences of the Chilean pension reform undertaken in the early 1980s was to transfer a significant portion of the risk associated to the financing of pensions, from the State, to the pension fund participants of the newly established compulsory pension system. This paper is concerned with the risk embedded in the portfolio strategies of pension fund portfolio managers. We develop an analytic framework that permits to incorporate the behavior of a pension fund manager in the long-term risk assessment of its investment strategy, where the latter is conducted from the point of view of the pension fund participant, who has preferences over his/her final pension. The pension fund manager’s problem is cast as a dynamic portfolio choice problem, and its solution is used afterwards to quantify the risk exposure of the pension fund participant. Our results from a simulation exercise show that the lower is the risk aversion of the participant, the higher is his/her Wealth-at-Risk —defined as the monetary compensation that leaves the participant indifferent with respect to his/her outside option— a result that is due to the fact that the outside option increases relatively more than the benefit derived from the pension provided by the fund manager. The same logic is behind the negative relationship between stock return volatility and pension risk.Dynamic convex risk measure; Pension system; Portfolio selection

DISCUSSION: CASTANEDA Y ASOCIADOS

Agribusiness,

Geodesic Deviation Equation in f(R) Gravity

In this paper we study the Geodesic Deviation Equation (GDE) in metric f(R) gravity. We start giving a brief introduction of the GDE in General Relativity in the case of the standard cosmology. Next we generalize the GDE for metric f(R) gravity using again the FLRW metric. A generalization of the Mattig relation is also obtained. Finally we give and equivalent expression to the Dyer-Roeder equation in General Relativity in the context of f(R) gravity.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitatio