Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue: The Co-Evolution of Popular and Art Music in the United States during World War II

World War II was a watershed event in twentieth century American history. All aspects of life, including music, both found roles to play in the war effort and were forever altered by the conflict. Past work on the subject of American music in World War II tends to focus heavily on the nature and impact of popular music during this time period. While this paper will review and build upon this scholarship, art music during the war will also be considered. Using two distinctly different, yet complementary, autobiographies – those of army band musician Frank Mathias and composer Gunther Schuller – the functions and impacts of both popular and art music on the American war effort will be analyzed and compared. Their stories will then be contextualized within the larger narrative of twentieth century American music, showcasing how World War II – through the increased influence of jazz – shaped the evolution of both popular and art music in the United States during the early 1940s

Specialisation and employment development in Germany: Analysis at regional level

While the number of employees subject to social insurance contributions in Germany remained nearly constant from 1998 to 2007, there have been strong differences in regional and sectoral growth rates. The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of the sector structure of a region on employment growth in Germany during this period. It will provide new findings about the impact of sector specific localisation effects on employment growth. If specialisation affects regional employment growth it is expected to be important for regional and labour market policies. Moreover, the paper deals with the question weather the sectoral structure of the regions fosters convergence or divergence, i.e. increasing specialisation of the regions. The empirical results show that the economic structures in Germany slowly converge. --regional specialisation,German regions,shift-share regression

When are multinational banks getting a bang for their buck on their subsidiaries abroad?

This paper investigates whether foreign subsidiaries outperform their parent banks in terms of profitability and what determines this outcome. Using a large sample of multinational banks and their subsidiaries in a large number of countries, this study shows that, on average, foreign subsidiaries are less profitable than their parent banks are. At the same time, however, foreign subsidiaries have higher net interest margins but also higher overhead costs relative to their parent banks. One explanation for the results is that parent banks transfer income banks using overhead costs, what may explain the existing results. Moreover, the results show that foreign subsidiaries tend to perform better than their parent banks if the latter are underperforming in the home market. Finally, the results show that the determinants of the profitability of the subsidiary in relation to its parent bank are strongly determined by the origins of the parent bank and, to a lesser extent, by the host market’s characteristics as well as the distance to the home country of the multinational bank.international banking, foreign banks, subsidiary, performance

Comment on "Self-Referenced Coherent Diffraction X-Ray Movie of \AA ngstrom- and Femtosecond-Scale Atomic Motion"

This submission is a comment on an article that had previously appeared in Phys. Rev. Lett.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press

Monitoring Nonadiabatic Avoided Crossing Dynamics in Molecules by Ultrafast X-Ray Diffraction

We examine time-resolved X-ray diffraction from molecules in the gas phase which undergo nonadiabatic avoided-crossing dynamics involving strongly coupled electrons and nuclei. Several contributions to the signal are identified, representing (in decreasing strength) elastic scattering, contributions of the electronic coherences created by nonadiabatic couplings in the avoided crossing regime, and inelastic scattering. The former probes the charge density and delivers direct information on the evolving molecular geometry. The latter two contributions are weaker and carry spatial information of the transition charge densities (off-diagonal elements of the charge-density operator). Simulations are presented for the nonadiabatic harpooning process in the excited states of sodium fluoride

Estimating total factor productivity in a generalized cost system

A description of two ways of adding an equation for total factor productivity to the generalized cost system of Atkinson and Halvorsen; includes a discussion of testing for regulatory biases.Electric utilities ; Industrial policy

The Economic Determinants and Engagement Models of Foreign Banks in Central Europe

In the last fifteen years foreign banks have expanded their presence significantly in almost all developing economies. The transition countries are among those economies that have experienced one of the highest levels of banking internationalization in the world. The foreign controlled banking asset in these countries ranges from 70 per cent in Poland to almost 100 per cent in Slovakia. With our study using panel data we examine the economic determinants of foreign bank engagement in the four local banking markets in Central Europe during the period 1994-2004. In addition, we study whether the economic determinants affect different entry vehicles of foreign banks into the Central European markets. Our results show that the most important factors determining foreign bank engagements were (i) large potential of the Central European banking markets and low degree of their financial sophistication (ii) the legal origin of the home country, (iii) the size of the economic growth rates differentials between host and home markets, and (iv) finally the distance between the host country and the foreign bank headquarter. We also find that most foreign banks investments occurred in the period of poor creditor rights protection. Moreover, our results present that the economic determinants had an impact on the decision of the organization form of the foreign banks entering the Central European banking markets. Our results are robust to several controls, including the lack of independence of investment decisions.international banking, foreign direct investment, foreign bank, vehicle of foreign bank entry, Central Europe

Why do Foreign Banks Withdraw from other Countries? A Panel Data Analysis

This paper describes the trends in foreign bank ownership across the world and presents, for the first time, empirical evidence of the causes of multinational banks’ exits from other countries. Using panel data for 149 closed or divested foreign bank subsidiaries across 54 countries from 1997 to 2009, we show that the problems encountered by subsidiaries were not the main cause of divestment by parent banks. Based on data for the parent banks of the closed subsidiaries, our results show that those parent banks reported significant financial weaknesses prior to closing their international operations. Therefore, we assume that a multinational bank’s decision to close or sell a subsidiary in another country is based mainly on problems in the home country, with a lesser factor being the weak performance of the foreign subsidiary.foreign banks, subsidiary, divestment, performance

An adaptive interpolation scheme for molecular potential energy surfaces

The calculation of potential energy surfaces for quantum dynamics can be a time consuming task -- especially when a high level of theory for the electronic structure calculation is required. We propose an adaptive interpolation algorithm based on polyharmonic splines combined with a partition of unity approach. The adaptive node refinement allows to greatly reduce the number of sample points by employing a local error estimate. The algorithm and its scaling behavior is evaluated for a model function in 2, 3 and 4 dimensions. The developed algorithm allows for a more rapid and reliable interpolation of a potential energy surface within a given accuracy compared to the non-adaptive version