Mapping Mass in the Local Universe

We only see a small fraction of the matter in the universe, but the rest gives itself away by the impact of its gravity. Peculiar velocities have the potential to be a powerful tool to trace this matter however previous peculiar velocity surveys have struggled to meet their potential because of the large errors on individual measurements, poor statistics and uneven sky coverage. The 2MASS Tully-Fisher (2MTF) survey will make use of existing high quality rotations widths, new HI widths and 2MASS (2 Micron All-Sky Survey) photometry to measure Tully-Fisher distances/peculiar velocities for all bright inclined spirals in the 2MASS redshift survey (2MRS). This survey based on the 2MASS galaxy catalog will provide a qualitatively better sample. It will provide significant improvements in sky coverage especially near the plane of our Galaxy which crosses the poorly understood "great attractor" region. I will give a progress report on the 2MTF survey including a look at over 300 hours of HI observations from the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and a report on ongoing southern hemisphere observations with the Parke s Radio Telescope. The new spiral I-band field (SFI++) sample is currently the best available peculiar velocity survey for use in the local universe. I will also report on some preliminary results from this sample.Comment: To appear in ASP Conference Series as proceedings of NRAO 50th Anniversary Symposium, "Frontiers of Astrophysics", June 18-21, 2007, A. Bridle, J. Condon and G. Hunt eds. 10 pages including 4 figure

Money in a Model of Prior Production and Imperfectly Directed Search

This paper considers the effect of monetary policy and inflation on retail markets. It analyzes a model in which: goods are dated and produced prior to being retailed, buyers direct their search on the basis of price and general quality and, buyers' match specific tastes are their private information. Sellers set the same price for all buyers but some do not value the good highly enough to purchase it. The market economy is typically inefficient as a social planner would have the good consumed. The Friedman rule represents optimal policy as long as there is free-entry of sellers. When the upper bound on the number of participating sellers binds sufficiently, moderate levels of inflation can be welfare improving.

Directed Search without Wage Commitment and the Role of Labor Market Institutions

An urn-ball matching model of directed search is analyzed in which the usual assumption of commitment to posted wages is dropped. One-on-one matches lead to a Nash bargained wage but when multiple applicants arrive competition drives the workers down to their continuation value. A minimum wage can act as a commitment device when (as in the USA) willful underpayment carries a stiffer penalty than "inadvertetn underpayment. The theory sheds new light on why firms appear to voluntarily bind themselves into paying higher wages than they would otherwise pay. Robustness to various sources of heterogeneity is considered

Firm level hiring policy with culturally biased testing

This paper explores the implications for labor market outcomes of systematic testing of applicants in the hiring process. A matching model in which productivity is a worker's private information is used. Both wages and hiring rates are endogenous. A minority is defined as a group for whom the test is less precise in identifying individual productivity. Welfare and employment outcomes across various hiring policies are compared. Simulations suggest that tests are typically too accurate so that in a laissez faire economy minority group members fair better than the majority group members. Rules requiring equity in hiring reverse this result.

Verão em Portugal (Text)

This text and translation into English accompanies an illustrated podcast in European Portuguese was created by Will Masters, a student of Applied Languages at the School of Languages and Area Studies, University of Portsmouth, as a part of a research project entitled ‘The Role of Student Audio Casting and Production in the Language Learning Curriculum’. The recording presents a refelction on the student's first experiences of Portugal, and of learning Portuguese. The podcast can be used as a learning resource in several different ways: as a focus for discussion or aural comprehension by students of the Portuguese language