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We study the exchange rate effects of monetary policy in a balanced macroeconometric two-country model for the United States and United Kingdom. In contrast to the empirical literature, which consistently treats the domestic and foreign countries unequally in the modeling process, we consider full model feedback, allowing for a thorough analysis of the system dynamics. The problem of model dimensionality is tackled by invoking the approach by Aoki (1981). Assuming country symmetry in the long run allows to decouple the two-country macrodynamics of country averages and differences such that the cointegration analysis can be applied to smaller systems. Second, the econometric modeling is general-to-specific, a graph-theoretic approach for the contemporaneous effects combined with automatic general-to-specific model selection. We find delayed overshooting of the exchange rate in the case of a Bank of England monetary shock but instantaneous response to a Fed shock. Altogether the response is more pronounced in the former case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper assesses whether Chapter 11 is a form of subsidy for US airlines. US airlines have used Chapter 11 to restructure their operations. This has been criticized as a subsidy by major non US airlines and governments for a long time and recently, in the "level playing field" debate. Applying legal and economic perspectives of subsidy, we examine the different opportunities of Chapter 11 to reduce airlines' costs. It is argued that most of the forms available, such as the modification of collective bargaining, do not constitute a subsidy. Only the termination of pension plans might involve a subsidy, but only using a legal definition of doubtful relevance since there is normally no use of public funds. Highlights • Major non US airlines and governments criticize Chapter 11 as a subsidy. • However, most of the forms of Chapter 11 do not constitute a subsidy. • Even the termination of pension plans does not normally involve a subsidy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determination of the US dollar/UK pound sterling exchange rate is studied in a small symmetric macroeconometric model including UK-US differentials in inflation, output gap, and short- and long-term interest rates for the four decades since the breakdown of Bretton Woods. The key question addressed is the possible presence of a 'delayed overshooting puzzle' in the dynamic reaction of the exchange rate to monetary policy shocks. In contrast to the existing literature, we follow a data-driven modeling approach combining (i) a vector autoregression (VAR)-based cointegration analysis with (ii) a graph-theoretic search for instantaneous causal relations and (iii) an automatic general-to-specific approach for the selection of a congruent parsimonious structural vector equilibrium correction model. We find that the long-run properties of the system are characterized by four cointegration relations and one stochastic trend, which is identified as the long-term interest rate differential and that appears to be driven by long-term inflation expectations as in the Fisher hypothesis. It cointegrates with the inflation differential to a stationary 'real' long-term rate differential and also drives the exchange rate. The short-run dynamics are characterized by a direct link from the short-term to the long-term interest rate differential. Jumps in the exchange rate after short-term interest rate variations are only significant at 10%. Overall, we find strong evidence for delayed overshooting and violations of uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) in response to monetary policy shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raltegravir is a recently, Food and Drug Administration-approved, small-molecule drug that inhibits retroviral integrase, thereby preventing HIV DNA from inserting itself into the human genome. We report here that the activity profile of raltegravir on the replication of murine leukemia virus is similar to that for HIV, and that the drug specifically affects autoimmune disease in mice, in which endogenous retroelements are suspected to play a role. While NZW and BALB/c mice, which do not succumb to autoimmune disease, are not affected by raltegravir, lupus-prone (NZBx- NZW) F1 mice die of glomerulonephritis more than a month earlier than untreated mice. Raltegravir-treated NZB mice, which share the H-2 haplotype with BALB/c mice, but which are predisposed to autoimmune hemolytic anemia, develop auto-antibodies to their red blood cells >3 months earlier than untreated mice of the same strain. Because nonautoimmune mice are not affected by raltegravir, we consider off-target effects unlikely and attribute the exacerbation of autoimmunity to the inhibition of retroviral integrase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education reforms during the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) have traditionally been perceived as having been strongly shaped by U.S. American influence. The occupation bureaucracy, as the dominant element of a triangle of power together with the Ministry of Education and the Japanese Education Reform Committee, has been seen as the main author of the most important reforms. The influence of the U.S. side, however, hardly reached beyond the point of passing laws. Implementation, in contrast, was effected by the schools themselves. This is particularly true for higher education, where universities had a relatively strong standing and influenced the outcome of reform to no small degree. The weight of the universities and their members was especially visible in the failed attempt to institute a reform of university administration. Opposition by manifold actors on the Japanese side prevented this reform, which had been initiated by members of the Civil Information and Education Section of the Occupation. An analysis of the negotiation processes at work in the discussion about administration reform shows how influence on the outcome of reforms was balanced between the U.S. occupation authorities and the various Japanese actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dismissals of allegedly Communist teaching staff at Japanese universities between 1948 and 1950 (‘red purge’) as one example of developments usually attributed to a ‘reverse course’ in occupation policy. It argues that the red purge came about less as a result of a change in US policy than through Japanese initiative. Based on primary source material, this paper shows that anti-Communism had been an integral part of the thinking of the Occupation's education administrators since 1946. They were, however, careful not to translate this thinking into victimizing action. Rather, a quantitative analysis indicates that, in bringing about an individual's dismissal, factors such as low academic standing were more decisive than political involvement, implying that the purges were not simply ordered from above. Two case studies of purgees, one a philosophy lecturer from Hirosaki Higher School and the other a professor of anatomy at Kyoto Prefectural School of Medicine, serve to corroborate these findings. Assumptions about a reverse course have led to false conceptions about the respective contribution of US and Japanese administrators to late occupation policies. An accurate assessment of the occupation period requires that historians take into account lower-level events and decisions in order to gauge better Japan's role in shaping occupation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tests for business cycle asymmetries are developed for Markov-switching autoregressive models. The tests of deepness, steepness, and sharpness are Wald statistics, which have standard asymptotics. For the standard two-regime model of expansions and contractions, deepness is shown to imply sharpness (and vice versa), whereas the process is always nonsteep. Two and three-state models of U.S. GNP growth are used to illustrate the approach, along with models of U.S. investment and consumption growth. The robustness of the tests to model misspecification, and the effects of regime-dependent heteroscedasticity, are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tests for business cycle asymmetries are developed for Markov-switching autoregressive models. The tests of deepness, steepness, and sharpness are Wald statistics, which have standard asymptotics. For the standard two-regime model of expansions and contractions, deepness is shown to imply sharpness (and vice versa), whereas the process is always nonsteep. Two and three-state models of U.S. GNP growth are used to illustrate the approach, along with models of U.S. investment and consumption growth. The robustness of the tests to model misspecification, and the effects of regime-dependent heteroscedasticity, are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider whether oil prices can account for business cycle asymmetries. We test for asymmetries based on the Markov switching autoregressive model popularized by Hamilton (1989), using the tests devised by Clements and Krolzig (2000). We find evidence against the conventional wisdom that recessions are more violent than expansions: while some part of the downturn in economic activity that characterises recessionary periods can be attributed to dramatic changes in the price of oil, post-War US economic growth is characterized by the steepness of expansions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a peer-reviewed report about a non-medical paper case for training in problem-based learning. This report is an innovative approach to medical education in the U.S. In this context, an overview of the importance of this teaching method is highlighted. It has been believed that problem-based learning is an integral part of the medical curriculum.

In 1927, Fritz Jahr, a Protestant pastor, philosopher, and educator in Halle an der Saale, published an article entitled "Bio-Ethics: A Review of the Ethical Relationships of Humans to Animals and Plants" and proposed a "Bioethical Imperative," extending Kant's moral imperative to all forms of life. Reviewing new physiological knowledge of his times and moral challenges associated with the development of secular and pluralistic societies, Jahr redefines moral obligations towards human and nonhuman forms of life, outlining the concept of bioethics as an academic discipline, principle, and virtue. Although he had no immediate long-lasting influence during politically and morally turbulent times, his argument that new science and technology requires new ethical and philosophical reflection and resolve may contribute toward clarification of terminology and of normative and practical visions of bioethics, including understanding of the geoethical dimensions of bioethics.