After Johnny Came Marching Home: The Political Economy of Veterans' Benefits in the Nineteenth Century

This paper explores new estimates of the number of veterans and the value of veterans' benefits -- both cash benefits and land grants -- from the Revolution to 1900. Benefits, it turns out, varied substantially from war to war. The veterans of the War of 1812, in particular, received a smaller amount of benefits than did the veterans of the other nineteenth century wars. A number of factors appear to account for the differences across wars. Some are familiar from studies of other government programs: the previous history of veterans' benefits, the wealth of the United States, the number of veterans relative to the population, and the lobbying efforts of lawyers and other agents employed by veterans. Some are less familiar. There were several occasions, for example, when public attitudes toward the war appeared to influence the amount of benefits. Perhaps the most important factor, however, was the state of the federal treasury. When the federal government ran a surplus, veterans were likely to receive additional benefits; when it ran a deficit, veterans' hopes for additional benefits went unfilled. Veterans' benefits were, to use the terms a bit freely, more like a luxury than a necessity.

Central limit theorems and diffusion approximations for multiscale Markov chain models

Ordinary differential equations obtained as limits of Markov processes appear in many settings. They may arise by scaling large systems, or by averaging rapidly fluctuating systems, or in systems involving multiple time-scales, by a combination of the two. Motivated by models with multiple time-scales arising in systems biology, we present a general approach to proving a central limit theorem capturing the fluctuations of the original model around the deterministic limit. The central limit theorem provides a method for deriving an appropriate diffusion (Langevin) approximation.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/13-AAP934 the Annals of Applied Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aap/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Observation of wall-vortex composite defects in a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate

We report the observation of spin domain walls bounded by half-quantum vortices (HQVs) in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate with antiferromagnetic interactions. A spinor condensate is initially prepared in the easy-plane polar phase, and then, suddenly quenched into the easy-axis polar phase. Domain walls are created via the spontaneous $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry breaking in the phase transition and the walls dynamically split into composite defects due to snake instability. The end points of the defects are identified as HQVs for the polar order parameter and the mass supercurrent in their proximity is demonstrated using Bragg scattering. In a strong quench regime, we observe that singly charged quantum vortices are formed with the relaxation of free wall-vortex composite defects. Our results demonstrate a nucleation mechanism for composite defects via phase transition dynamics.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, reference update

Pressure effects on the superconducting thin film Ba1−x_{1-x}Kx_{x}Fe2_{2}As2_{2}

We report electrical resistivity measurements on a high-quality Ba$_{1-x}$K$_{x}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ thin film ($x=0.4$) under pressure. The superconducting transition temperature (=39.95 K) of the optimally-doped thin film shows a dome shape with pressure, reaching a maximal value 40.8 K at 11.8 kbar. The unusually high superconducting transition temperature and its anomalous pressure dependence are ascribed to a lattice mismatch between the LaAlO$_3$ substrate and the thin film. The local temperature exponent of the resistivity ($n=d\text{ln}\Delta\rho/d\text{ln}T$) shows a funnel shape around the optimal pressure, suggesting that fluctuations associated with the anomalous normal state are responsible for high-temperature superconductivity.Comment: To appear in Appl. Phys. Let

The Effect of Credit Guarantees on Survival and Performance of SMEs in Korea

This study evaluates the impact of provision of credit guarantee in Korea at the firm level. The data is assembled from two public funds providing credit guarantees covering the period 2000 to 2003. The sample firms consist of SMEs mainly. To measure the effects of credit guarantee, the relationship between credit guarantees, survival of firms, and their productive performance is analyzed. Since the data is collected as repeated cross sections and firms are not identified over time, the analysis is carried out by using a pseudo panel data approach. The pseudo panel data is created using time invariant firm characteristics. The result from regression analysis conducted indicates that the amounts of credit guarantee and the number of times a firm receives credit guarantees have effects on their survival and growth. The amounts of credit guarantee increase the growth of sales and productivity while frequency of credit guarantees decreases business failure. Size and age play a decisive role in survival of firms and their employment growth as well. Moreover, survival and performance of firms are different across periods, industries, and locations.Credit guarantee; SMEs; Pseudo panel data; survival; performance