The Determinants Of Cross-Border Equity Flows

We apply a new approach to a new panel data set on bilateral gross cross-border equity flows between 14 countries, 1989-96. The remarkably good results have strong implications for theories of asset trade. We find that the geography of information heavily determines the pattern of international transactions. Our model integrates elements of the finance literature on portfolio composition and the international macroeconomics and asset trade literature. Gross asset flows depend on market size in both source and destination country as well as trading costs, in which both information and the transaction technology play a role. The resulting augmented 'gravity' equation has equity market capitalisation representing market size and distance proxying some informational asymmetries, as well as a variable representing openness of each economy. But other variables explicitly represent information transmission (telephone call traffic and multinational bank branches), an information asymmetry between domestic and foreign investors (degree of insider trading), and the efficiency of transactions ('financial market sophistication'). This equation accounts for almost 70% of the variance of the transaction flows. Dummy variables (adjacency, language, currency or trade bloc, and a 'major financial centre' effect) do not improve the results, nor does a variable representing destination country stock market returns. The key role of informational asymmetries is confirmed. Our information transmission variables also substantially improve standard gravity equations for trade in goods.Equity flows, cross-border portfolio investment, information asymmetries, gravity model

Enterprises in Transition: Macroeconomic Influences on Enterprise Decision-Making and Performance

This paper analyses the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence linking enterprise performance in transition economies to the macroeconomic environment. Macroeconomic instability is traced to the unsustainability of the fiscal-financial and monetary programmes of the state and to regulatory and other failures leading to problems with the solvency of financial institutions. The importance of macroeconomic stability for enterprise performance is documented with a simulation study and by reviewing relevant microeconomic and aggregate empirical evidence from across the world, as well as from the transition economies themselves. Conclusions are reached about the speed of transition, about the synergy between macroeconomic stabilisation and market development and about the creation of institutions for achieving and maintaining macroeconomic stability.

Thermodynamics, transition dynamics, and texturing in polymer-dispersed liquid crystals with mesogens exhibiting a direct isotropic/smectic-A transition

Experimental and modeling/simulation studies of phase equilibrium and growth morphologies of novel polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) mixtures of PS (polystyrene) and liquid crystals that exhibit a direct isotropic/smectic-A (lamellar) mesophase transition were performed for PS/10CB (decyl- cyanobiphenyl) and PS/12CB (dodecyl-cyanobiphenyl). Partial phase diagrams were determined using polarized optical microscopy (POM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for different compositions of both materials, determining both phase separation (liquid/liquid demixing) and phase ordering (isotropic/smectic-A transition) temperatures. The Flory-Huggins theory of isotropic mixing and Maier-Saupe-McMillan theory for smectic-A liquid crystalline ordering were used to computationally determine phase diagrams for both systems, showing good agreement with the experimental results. In addition to thermodynamic observations, growth morphology relations were found depending on phase transition sequence, quench rate, and material composition. Three stages of liquid crystal-rich domain growth morphology were observed: spherical macroscale domain growth ("stage I"), highly anisotropic domain growth ("stage II"), and sub-micron spheroid domain growth ("stage III"). Nano-scale structure of spheroidal and spherocylindrical morphologies were then determined via two-dimensional simulation of a high-order Landau-de Gennes model. Morphologies observed during stage II growth are typical of di- rect isotropic/smectic-A phase transitions, such as highly anisotropic "batonnets" and filaments. These morphologies, which are found to be persistent in direct isotropic/smectic-A PDLCs, could provide new functionality and applications for these functional materials.Comment: First Revision, 21 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Macromolecules as an article 17JUL200

Exact stationary solutions of the parametrically driven and damped nonlinear Dirac equation

Two exact stationary soliton solutions are found in the parametrically driven and damped nonlinear Dirac equation. The parametric force considered is a complex ac force. The solutions appear when their frequencies are locked to half the frequency of the parametric force, and their phases satisfy certain conditions depending on the force amplitude and on the damping coe cient. Explicit expressions for the charge, the energy, and the momentum of these solutions are provided. Their stability is studied via a variational method using an ansatz with only two collective coordinates. Numerical simulations con rm that one of the solutions is stable, while the other is an unstable saddle point. Consequently, the stabilization of damped Dirac solitons can be achieved via time-periodic parametric excitations.Junta de Andalucía and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain FIS2017-89349-PMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain PGC2018-093998-BI0

Absolute continuity of Brownian bridges under certain gauge transformations

We prove absolute continuity of Gaussian measures associated to complex Brownian bridges under certain gauge transformations. As an application we prove that the invariant measure for the periodic derivative nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation obtained by Nahmod, Oh, Rey-Bellet and Staffilani in [20], and with respect to which they proved almost surely global well-posedness, coincides with the weighted Wiener measure constructed by Thomann and Tzvetkov [24]. Thus, in particular we prove the invariance of the measure constructed in [24].Comment: 12 pages. Submitte

Postflight analysis of the single-axis acoustic system on SPAR VI and recommendations for future flights

The single axis acoustic levitator that was flown on SPAR VI malfunctioned. The results of a series of tests, analyses, and investigation of hypotheses that were undertaken to determine the probable cause of failure are presented, together with recommendations for future flights of the apparatus. The most probable causes of the SPAR VI failure were lower than expected sound intensity due to mechanical degradation of the sound source, and an unexpected external force that caused the experiment sample to move radially and eventually be lost from the acoustic energy well