Growth Effects of Fiscal Decentralization: Empirical Evidence from China's Provinces

In this paper, we revisit the fiscal decentralization-economic growth nexus in the case of China's provinces using autoregressive distributed lag bounds tests and pooled mean group estimators with time series data from the period 1979-2009. Using principal component analysis, we build a novel composite fiscal decentralization indicator consisting of five different fiscal decentralization measures and use it in the models in addition to conventional fiscal decentralization variables. The results suggest that there is a strong, positive, and statistically significant relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth in most provinces in China in both the short run and the long run.     

Isolated gastric varices: Ultrasound detection

Isolated gastric varices (IGV) (resulting from varying etiologies) were diagnosed in six patients using ultrasound examination of the wall of the fluid-filled stomach. Small gastric varices are seen as circular or linear anechoic channels within the gastric wall without a significant intraluminal projection. Large varices are seen as anechoic, lobulated “bulging masses” projecting into the fluid-filled lumen of the stomach. Doppler technique assists in confirming the vascular nature of these lesions and thus avoids confusion with other hypoanechoic lesions of the gastric wall. The technique is simple, noninvasive, and extremely useful in diagnosing IGV in patients investigated for recurrent undiagnosed gastrointestinal bleeding.     

Roundworm obstruction: Sonographic diagnosis

We describe the sonographic findings in five pediatric patients with roundworm obstruction. All patients were referred with a clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis. On ultrasonography (US), an individual worm, when viewed along its longitudinal axis, appeared as a hypoechoic tubular structure with well-defined, echogenic walls. Frequently, the individual body segments could be distinctly visualized. The alimentary canal of the worm was seen either as a single central echogenic line (when in a collapsed state) or as two parallel hyperechoic bands with a hypoechoic center (when distended). When examined transaxially, the individual worm resembled a target with its circular, echogenic body wall and its central dot-like alimentary canal. On prolonged scanning, the worms always showed curling movements. In two patients, a bolus of worms mixed with fecal matter and air produced an unusual appearance of a complex, echogenic mass (helminthoma). Although, an individual worm occasionally resembled an inflammed appendix, visualization of the alimentary canal and individual body segments along with its curling movements helped establish the correct diagnosis. All patients promptly responded to a hypertonic saline enema and no patient was subjected to surgery. Sonographic findings in roundworm obstruction are fairly characteristics to advocate the routine use of sonography for diagnosing this entity.     

CREDIBLY IDENTIFYING SOCIAL EFFECTS: ACCOUNTING FOR NETWORK FORMATION AND MEASUREMENT ERROR

Understanding whether and how connections between agents (networks) such as declared friendships in classrooms, transactions between firms, and extended family connections, influence their socio‐economic outcomes has been a growing area of research within economics. Early methods developed to identify these social effects assumed that networks had formed exogenously, and were perfectly observed, both of which are unlikely to hold in practice. A more recent literature, both within economics and in other disciplines, develops methods that relax these assumptions. This paper reviews that literature. It starts by providing a general econometric framework for linear models of social effects, and illustrates how network endogeneity and missing data on the network complicate identification of social effects. Thereafter, it discusses methods for overcoming the problems caused by endogenous formation of networks. Finally, it outlines the stark consequences of missing data on measures of the network, and regression parameters, before describing potential solutions.     

Moral imagination or heuristic toolbox? Events and the risk assessment of structured financial products in the financial bubble

The paper uses the example of the failure of bankers and financial managers to understand the risks of dealing in structured financial products, before the financial collapse, to investigate how people respond to crises. It focuses on whether crises cause people to challenge their habitual frames by the application of moral imagination. It is proposed that the structure of financial products and their markets triggered the use of heuristics that contributed to the underestimation of risks. It is further proposed that such framing heuristics are highly specialised to specific contexts and are part of a wider set of heuristics that people carry in their cognitive ‘adaptive toolboxes’. Consequently, it is argued, when a crisis occurs, the heuristics are not challenged, but are simply put away, and other more appropriate heuristics are put to use until a sense of normality returns, and the use of the old heuristics is resumed.