A reformulation of the Ponzano-Regge quantum gravity model in terms of surfaces

We reformulate the Ponzano-Regge quantum gravity model in terms of surfaces on a 3-dimensional simplex lattice. This formulation (1) has a clear relation to the loop representation of the canonical quantum general relativity in 3-dimensions, (2) may have a 4-dimensional analogue, in contrast to the 6-j symbolic formalism of the Ponzano-Regge model, and (3) is purely a theory of surfaces, in the sense that it does not include any field variables; hence it is coordinate-free on the surface and background-free in spacetime. We discuss implications and applications of this formulation.Comment: latex 11 page

Study of Black Holes with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

We evaluate the potential of the ATLAS detector for discovering black holes produced at the LHC, as predicted in models with large extra dimensions where quantum gravity is at the TeV scale. We assume that black holes decay by Hawking evaporation to all Standard Model particles democratically. We comment on the possibility to estimate the Planck scale.Comment: 27 page

Capital outflow from the agricultural sector in Thailand

Certain Thai policies have facilitated economic development in Thailand: i) Raising agricultural productivity even during the early period of import substitution. ii) The relatively equal distribution of land. iii) Decentralized industrial growth. iv) The labor-intensive export orientation of both rural and urban industries. v) Generally open, merit-based access to education. The author studies capital flows between Thailand's agriculture and nonagriculture sectors, focusing especially on government policy for agriculture, which shapes government-based flows. He measures government- and market-based flows of both the agriculture sector and agricultural regions. Until the 1960s, Thailand's economy depended heavily on agriculture and most of the workforce was agricultural. Since the 1960s, Thailand has promoted industry. Between 1961 and 1991, agriculture continued to grow but because nonagriculture sectors grew even faster, agriculture's share of GDP fell from 37 percent to 13 percent. But agriculture still employs the majority of the labor force and still receives the third largest budget allocations (after education and national defense). Many believe that Thai development was made possible by capital accumulation based on an agricultural surplus. To some extent, the role of that surplus before 1975 should not be underestimated. But the government-based flow of capital from agriculture (measured as a percentage of GDP) was less than 6 percent in the 1960s and early 1970s (except for three years), and the market-based flow was only 3 percent of GDP in 1971, 2.5 percent in 1981, and 1.9 percent in 1991(measured as deposits minus commercial bank lending). So capital flows from agriculture have not been as large as is typically assumed. Since the 1970s, the government has adopted an export-oriented policy emphasizing labor-intensive light industry, and investments to promote labor-intensive industries in rural areas has created jobs for rural people. With a fair level of investment in rural areas, the environment in rural areas is not drastically worse than that in urban areas (unlike Latin American and African countries), and migration to urban areas has been limited in Thailand. The government-based inflow (government credit for, and investment in, agriculture) was significantly greater for large farms areas than for small-farm areas. This might be attributable less to the political power of large-farm owners than to industrialization in Thailand's central region.Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Land Use and Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction,Land Use and Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Research

Economic Preconditions for Monetary Integration in East Asia

Asian Financial Crisis gave a devastating impact on East Asian countries, which had been enjoying good economic performance. As a result, there emerged various initiatives for monetary cooperation in order to avoid the next crisis in the region. However, there are pros and cons on the regional financial integration and cooperation in Asia. Some argue that in order to avoid the next Asian Financial Crisis, Asian countries must closely united with each other, and others argues that regional attempts, whether financial cooperation or trading arrangement, may undermine the global efforts. In view of the above, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether East Asian countries (or subset of them) constitute a preferable grouping for monetary cooperation and integration. I examine the degree of interdependence of East Asia in terms of trade, labor and macroeconomic variables. The results of the examination suggest that economic preconditions for monetary integration are met, and there is indeed a case for financial integration and cooperation in East Asia.

Effects of the multifibre arrangement on developing countries : a survey

The purpose of this paper is to review the major findings of existing studies on the Multifibre Arrangement's (MFA) effect, with emphasis on the effects to LDCs, and to suggest the directions for further studies that are needed for a better understanding of the MFA. The paper is composed of six sections. Following the introduction, section 2 examines the dominant features of textile and clothing (T&C)exports from the LDCs. In section 3, the essence of the MFA provisions and their actual development is briefly summarized. These two sections provide a background to the discussion in the later part of the paper. Section 4 surveys the effects of the MFA on importing countries. The effects of the MFA on exporting LDCs are discussed in section 5. Finally, in section 6, a summary and conclusions are given, as well as the directions for further studies which are needed on the subject.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade Policy,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness

Land Use Regulation as a Barrier to Entry: Evidence from the Texas Lodging Industry

I empirically examines the anticompetitive effects of land use regulation by using microdata on midscale chain hotels in Texas. I construct a dynamic entry-exit model of midscale hotel chains. By endogenizing their entry decisions, the model explicitly considers hotel chains' reactions to the stringency of land use regulation. Estimation results indicate that imposing stringent regulation increases cost enough to affect hotel chains' entry decisions. Although hotel chains are the immediate payers of the increased entry cost, incumbents shift a part of their cost increase onto consumers by exploiting their increased market power. (JEL: R3, L1, L5)Land use regulation, zoning, barrier to entry, lodging industry

Weak scale from Planck scale -- Mass Scale Generation in Classically Conformal Two Scalar System --

In the standard model, the weak scale is the only parameter with mass dimensions. This means that the standard model itself can not explain the origin of the weak scale. On the other hand, from the results of recent accelerator experiments, except for some small corrections, the standard model has increased the possibility of being an effective theory up to the Planck scale. From these facts, it is naturally inferred that the weak scale is determined by some dynamics from the Planck scale. In order to answer this question, we rely on the multiple point criticality principle as a clue and consider the classically conformal $\mathbb{Z}_2\times \mathbb{Z}_2$ invariant two scalar model as a minimal model in which the weak scale is generated dynamically from the Planck scale. This model contains only two real scalar fields and does not contain any fermions and gauge fields. In this model, due to Coleman-Weinberg-like mechanism, one scalar field spontaneously breaks the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry with a vacuum expectation value connected with the cutoff momentum. We investigate this using the 1-loop effective potential, renormalization group and large N limit. We also investigate whether it is possible to reproduce the mass term and vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field by coupling this model with the standard model in the Higgs portal framework. In this case, the one scalar field that does not break $\mathbb{Z}_2$ can be a candidate for dark matter, and have a mass of about several TeV in appropriate parameters. On the other hand, the other scalar field breaks $\mathbb{Z}_2$ and has a mass of several tens of GeV. These results can be verified in near future experiments.Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures, minor mistakes in Section VI.B and typos correcte