Q investment models, factor complementary and monopolistic competition

The observed fact that firms invest even if capacities are not fully employed does not fit well into most standard formalizations of optimal firm behavior. In this paper, the q investment approach is adapted to an imperfectly competitive economy where the representative firm is assumed to face demand uncertainty. Nominal rigidities and short-run factor complementarity are imposed as sufficient conditions to allow for the coexistence of investment and excess capacity. Since capacities are underemployed, marginal q is shown to diverge from average q. Finally, excess capacity subsists at steady state which makes it more than a shortrun phenomeno

(1+1)-Dirac bound states in one-dimension; position-dependent Fermi velocity and mass

We extend Panella and Roy's [13] work on one-dimensional heterostructure for massless Dirac particles with position-dependent (PD) velocity. We consider Dirac particles where both the mass and velocity are position-dependent. Bound states in the continuum (BIC)-like and discrete bound state solutions are reported. It is observed that BIC-like solutions are not only feasible for the ultra-relativistic (massless) Dirac particles but also for Dirac particles with PD-mass and PD-velocity that satisfy the condition m(x)v(x)v(x)=A, where A is constant. (1+1)-Dirac Poschl-Teller and harmonic oscillator models are also reported.Comment: 8 page

Colonialism and Malay masculinity: Malay satire as observed in the novel Kawin-Kawin

This article evaluates the novel Kawin-Kawin as a satire, and as a mode for forming social criticism on Malay society. An assessment of such a genre must consider the target audience and the Islamic cultural context of the novel. The discussion seeks to identify male domination that through legal frameworks such as the mut’ah, and reduces women to objects of male sexual pleasure. The reading of cultural domination includes what may perhaps be considered a postcolonial analysis of notions of hegemonic masculinity, and of colonialism pertaining to Malay writings. Both notions share similarities in their functions and effects on marginalized groups and are debated under the categories of Islam and women. The discussion concludes with an evaluation of the literariness of Malay writings and the need for their detachment from Western literary frameworks if they are to break away from lingering aspects of colonialis

Demand uncertainy and unemployement in a monopoly union model

The main concern of this paper is to show the importance of demand uncertainty in the determination of the "natural rate of unemployment". In the goods market there is demand heterogeneity -coming from preferences, and demand uncertainty -related solely to heterogeneity. Demand uncertainty is introduced in a monopoly union model where unions set wages at the first stage of the game, without knowing with certainty the demand for the good produced by the firm. Because the union assigns a positive probability at the event "underemployment equilibrium", it expects that the expected unemployment rate be positive. Since all the uncertainty is firm specific (i.e., there is not aggregate uncertainty), aggregate employment is equal to the union expected employment and then there is unemployment at equilibrium. In some islands the idiosyncratic demand shock is high and firms produce constrained by its full-employment capacity, but at the same time in the other islands the idiosyncratic demand shock is low and firms optimally produce less than its full-employment output