The size of the core in assignment markets

Assignment markets involve matching with transfers, as in labor markets and housing markets. We consider a two-sided assignment market with agent types and stochastic structure similar to models used in empirical studies, and characterize the size of the core in such markets. Each agent has a randomly drawn productivity with respect to each type of agent on the other side. The value generated from a match between a pair of agents is the sum of the two productivity terms, each of which depends only on the type but not the identity of one of the agents, and a third deterministic term driven by the pair of types. We allow the number of agents to grow, keeping the number of agent types fixed. Let $n$ be the number of agents and $K$ be the number of types on the side of the market with more types. We find, under reasonable assumptions, that the relative variation in utility per agent over core outcomes is bounded as $O^*(1/n^{1/K})$, where polylogarithmic factors have been suppressed. Further, we show that this bound is tight in worst case. We also provide a tighter bound under more restrictive assumptions. Our results provide partial justification for the typical assumption of a unique core outcome in empirical studies

Itinerant G-type antiferromagnetism in D03_3-type V3_3Z (Z=Al, Ga, In) compounds: A first-principles study

Heusler compounds are widely studied due to their variety of magnetic properties making them ideal candidates for spintronic and magnetoelectronic applications. V$_3$Al in its metastable D0$_3$-type Heusler structure is a prototype for a rare antiferromagnetic gapless behavior. We provide an extensive study on the electronic and magnetic properties of V$_3$Al, V$_3$Ga and V$_3$In compounds based on state-of-the-art electronic structure calculations. We show that the ground state for all three is a G-type itinerant antiferromagnetic gapless semiconductor. The large antiferromagnetic exchange interactions lead to very high N\'eel temperatures, which are predicted to be around 1000 K. The coexistence of the gapless and antiferromagnetic behaviors in these compounds can be explained considering the simultaneous presence of three V atoms at the unit cell using arguments which have been employed for usual inverse Heusler compounds. We expect that our study on these compounds to enhance further the interest on them towards the optimization of their growth conditions and their eventual incorporation in devices.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review B, 8 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl

EU's copenhagen political criteria and the political culture of the western balkan countries: are they compatible?

The European Union considers the establishment of a stable democratic system as a precondition for the EU membership. Political culture of a country is regarded as one of the most important determinants of the consolidation of a democratic political regime in that country. This paper looks at the question of how compatible are the political cultures of the Western Balkan countries with democratic values and in turn with the EU's Copenhagen political criteria. The hypothesis that a democratic political system requires a democratic political culture has been tested. The individualsurvey data from the World Values Survey have been analyzed in the paper. Western Balkan political cultures are found to be compatible with democracyin some respects and not to be compatible in some others. However, somecountries which seem to have the least demoratic political culture such as Macedonia achieved more progress on democratization compared to othercountries which had more democratic political cultures that that of Macedonia

Linkages Between Value Based Performance Measurements and Risk Return Trade Off: Theory and Evidence

In this study we attempt to investigate the linkages between value-based performance measurements and risk-return trade off in a way to explain cross sectional asset returns. On the side of value based performance measurements, three groups of variables are used as a sorting factor: traditional measures which consist of accounting based and market based; recently popularized measures such as Economic Value Added and Market Value Added and theoretically sound measures such as foreign investor allocation and firm systematic risk indicators. The goals of the study are (i) to show how value based measurements techniques relate to risk return trade off and (ii) how these measures affect the cross sectional asset returns in manufacturing industry. Empirical results indicate that foreign investor allocation as a sorting factor produces much more meaningful risk return positive linear relation for cross sectional asset returns than traditional and recently popularized measures.Asset pricing; risk; Value Added Measures; emerging markets.