Optimal Central Bank Transparency

Should central banks increase their degree of transparency any further? We show that there is likely to be an optimal intermediate degree of central bank transparency. Up to this optimum more transparency is desirable: it improves the quality of private sector inflation forecasts. But beyond the optimum people might: (1) start to attach too much weight to the conditionality of their forecasts, and/or (2) get confused by the large and increasing amount of information they receive. This deteriorates the (perceived) quality of private sector inflation forecasts. Inflation then is set in a more backward looking manner resulting in higher inflation persistence. By using a panel data set on the transparency of 100 central banks we find empirical support for an optimal intermediate degree of transparency at which inflation persistence is minimized. Our results indicate that while there are central banks that would benefit from further transparency increases, some might already have reached the limit.central bank transparency;monetary policy;inflation persistence

The Impact of Newspapers on Consumer Confidence: Does Spin Bias Exist?

It is sometimes argued that news reports in the media suffer from biased reporting. Mullainathan and Shleifer (2002) argue that there are two types of media bias. One bias, called ideology, reflects a news outlet’s desire to affect reader opinions in a particular direction. The second bias, referred to as spin, reflects the outlet’s attempt to simply create a memorable story. Competition between outlets can eliminate the effect of ideological bias, but increases the incentive to spin stories. We examine whether we find some evidence of spin in Dutch newspaper reporting on the state of the economy. If newspapers are indeed able to create memorable stories this should, according to our hypothesis, affect the opinion of readers with respect to the state of the economy. Sentiments about the actual state of the economy could be magnified by spin. As a result, consumer confidence – a variable that routinely measures the opinion on the state of the economy – can be expected to be affected not only by economic fundamentals, but also by the way these fundamentals are reported. We construct a variable that reflects the way consumers perceive economic news reported in newspapers. We find that this variable indeed has a significant impact on consumer confidence, which is short-lived.

The Quest for Stability: The View of Financial Institutions

On September 3-4, 2009 SUERF and Utrecht University School of Economicsorganized the Colloquium "The Quest for Stability" in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The papers included in this SUERF Study are based on contributions to the Colloquium

Characterization of Tryptophanase from Vibrio cholerae O1

AbstractTryptophanase (Trpase) encoded by the tnaA gene catalyzes the conversion of tryptophan to indole, which is an extracellular signaling molecule detected in various bacteria including Vibrio cholerae. Indole has been demonstrated to regulate biofilm formation, drug resistance, plasmid maintenance and spore formation of bacteria. In the present study, the tnaA gene from V. cholerae O1 (VcTrpase) was cloned and expressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) tn5:tnaA (a Trpase-deficient competent). VcTrpase was purified by Ni2+-NTA chromatography. The obtained VcTrpase had a molecular mass of approximately 49 kDa, a specific activity of 3 U/mg protein, and absorption peaks at 330 and 435nm. Using a site-directed mutagenesis technique, replacement of Arg419 by Val resulted in a VcTrpase completely devoid of activity. Thus, this site can be a target for drug design for controlling V. cholerae

The Value of Banks and Their Business Models to Society

Banks play a central role in the functioning of the economy. Not only do they allocate financial resources, they also collectively create money in the process of granting loans. In this way, they have a considerable impact on the type of activities that are financed in society. During the financial crisis, it became clear that the banking sector at large was not sufficiently stable and customer-focused. Since then, banks and regulators alike have been busy reviewing bank business models, and several committees have been installed to investigate the desired scale and scope of banking activities

7 T renal MRI: challenges and promises

The progression to 7 Tesla (7 T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) yields promises of substantial increase in signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. This increase can be traded off to increase image spatial resolution or to decrease acquisition time. However, renal 7 T MRI remains challenging due to inhomogeneity of the radiofrequency field and due to specific absorption rate (SAR) constraints. A number of studies has been published in the field of renal 7 T imaging. While the focus initially was on anatomic imaging and renal MR angiography, later studies have explored renal functional imaging. Although anatomic imaging remains somewhat limited by inhomogeneous excitation and SAR constraints, functional imaging results are promising. The increased SNR at 7 T has been particularly advantageous for blood oxygen level-dependent and arterial spin labelling MRI, as well as sodium MR imaging, thanks to changes in field-strength-dependent magnetic properties. Here, we provide an overview of the currently available literature on renal 7 T MRI. In addition, we provide a brief overview of challenges and opportunities in renal 7 T MR imaging