Interbank market liquidity and central bank intervention

We develop a simple model of the interbank market where banks trade a long term, safe asset. When there is a lack of opportunities for banks to hedge idiosyncratic and aggregate liquidity shocks, the interbank market is characterized by excessive price volatility. In such a situation, a central bank can implement the constrained efficient allocation by using open market operations to fix the short term interest rate. It can be constrained efficient for banks to hoard liquidity and stop trading with each other if there is sufficient uncertainty about aggregate liquidity demand compared to idiosyncratic liquidity demand.     

The Coatings Industry—Beautifying,Protecting, and Preserving the Nation’s Assets

Paints and coatings preserve and beautify structures, equipment, and other objects. Although coatings have been used for millennia, the modern coatings industry began in the industrial revolution. The past 30 years have seen a great deal of consolidation in the industry, but there are still a number of niche and regional firms. There are three market segments. In the order of their size, by both value and volume, they are: architectural, original equipment manufacturer, and special purpose. This paper describes the factors determining the market for each, the critical role of coatings in preventing economic loss owing to corrosion, and technological change in the industry.     

The First Great Whale Extinction: The End of the Bowhead Whale in the Eastern Arctic

In this paper we argue that the bowhead whale stock resident off the east coast of Greenland was hunted to the brink of extinction by 1828 due to the rapid increase in British productivity levels after 1750. A delay-difference recruitment model is used to reconstruct the size of the whale population and establish the chronology of its demise. A simulation model is used to determine the role played by subsidy policies, climate change, and international competition in the extinction.     

Complex Systems and the Merger Process

This paper considers how some of the generic principles that have emerged in the course of recent study and thinking around complex systems might be applied in a helpful way to the particular context of understanding the nature of the merger process. Theoretically, the paper stresses the connections between the processual and time-dependent nature of learning and knowledge acquisition and the systemic nature of socio-economic development and transformation. When carried into the substantive domain of mergers and their contribution to restructuring in the pharmaceuticals industry, we suggest that the complex systems approach provides a fruitful complement to alternative conceptual frameworks, albeit one which is still at an early stage of development in terms of this particular application.