Impact of Stratigraphic Heterogeneity on Hydrocarbon Recovery in Carbonate Reservoirs: Effect of Fluid Properties and Development Strategy

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Mangetic phase transition for three-dimensional Heisenberg weak random anisotropy model: Monte Carlo study

Magnetic phase transition (MPT) to magnetic quasi-long-range order (QLRO) phase in a three-dimensional Heisenberg weak (D/J=4) random anisotropy (RA) model is investigated by Monte Carlo simulation. The isotropic and cubic distributions of RA axes are considered for simple-cubic-lattice systems. Finite-size scaling analysis shows that the critical couplings for the former and latter are K_c= 0.70435(2) and K_c=0.70998(4), respectively. While the critical exponent 1/\nu =1.40824(0) is the same for both cases. A second-order MPT to the QLRO phase is therefore evidenced to be possible in favor with the existence of the QLRO predicted by recent functional renormalization group theories.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. to be appeared in Journal of Applied Physics Volume 105 Issue 7 on April 1, 200

Dynamics of health insurance ownership in Vietnam, 2004 – 06

Vietnam is undertaking health financing reform in an attempt to achieve universal health insurance coverage by 2014. Changes in health insurance policies have doubled the overall coverage between 2004 and 2006. However, close examination of Vietnam Living Standard Surveys during this period reveals that about one fifth of the insured in 2004 dropped out of the health insurance system by 2006. This paper uses longitudinal data from VHLSS 2004 and 2006 to investigate the characteristics of those who joined and those who left the health insurance system. We model the static and dynamic health insurance choices allowing for heterogeneity of choices. The results from both static and dynamic models highlight the importance of income and education in determining the movement in or out of a particular scheme. The results from the static models of health insurance determinants show significant adverse selection in the current health insurance system where individuals with bad health are more likely to be insured. The findings from the dynamic models of health insurance ownership also suggest that the current health insurance system entails significant adverse selection where people with worse health are more likely to join or stay in and less likely to move out of the system. Some policy implications to increase coverage and to maintain financial sustainability of the health insurance system are drawn.health insurance, adverse selection, Vietnam

Credit constraints and the north-south transmission of crises

Adverse shocks to rich countries often have a large and persistent negative impact on investment and output in developing countries. This paper examines a transmission mechanism that can account for this stylized fact. The mechanism is based on the existence of international financial frictions. Specifically, if a small, developing country has to collateralize its assets to borrow funds to invest, falling asset prices caused by a negative shock in an advanced economy worsen the developing country's collateral value and reduce its ability to borrow and reinvest. Hence, investment in the developing country declines, and international investors repatriate capital to the advanced country. As less capital now can be pledged as collateral, the developing country's credit constraint is further tightened, which leads to another round of decline in investment. This generates a downward spiral that may cause large output losses to the developing country. The mechanism finds empirical support in the 2008-2009 crisis data.Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Investment and Investment Climate,Country Strategy&Performance