Assessment of early-age cracking of high-performance concrete in restrained ring specimens

High-performance concrete(HPC)is stronger and more durable than conventional concrete.However,shrinkage and shrinkage cracking are common phenomena in HPC,especially early-age cracking.This study assessed early-age cracking of HPC for two mixtures using restrained ring tests.The two mixtures were produced with water/binder mass ratio(mW/mB)of 0.22 and 0.40,respectively.The results show that,with greater steel thickness,the higher degree of restraint resulted in a higher interface pressure and earlier cracking.With steel thickness of 6 mm,19 mm,and 30 mm,the age of cracking were,respectively,12 days,8 days,and 5.4 days with the mW/mB=0.22 mixture;and 22.5 days,12.6 days,and 7.1 days with the mW/mB= 0.40 mixture.Cases of the same steel thickness show that the ring specimens with a thicker concrete wall crack later.With the mW/mB = 0.22 mixture,concrete walls with thicknesses of 37.5 mm,75 mm,and 112.5 mm cracked at 3.4 days,8.0 days,and 9.8 days,respectively;with the mW/mB= 0.40 mixture,the ages of cracking were 7.1 days,12.6 days,and 16.0 days,respectively.     

The Dynamic Effect of Devaluation on the Balance of Payments of a Small Debt-Ridden Open Economy*

This paper derives a precise necessary and sufficient condition for devaluation to eventually improve the balance of payments in domestic currency, using assumptions more appropriate for a small open economy than those of Marshall-Lerner. It will be shown that, following devaluation, the balance of payments deteriorates over a short period before it gradually improves– the so-called J-curve effect The duration of this short period will be shown to depend on the magnitude of trade elasticities, lag-coefficients, unhedged foreign debt denominated in foreign currency, interest rate and current account deficit     

Does Monetary Policy Affect Income Inequality in the Euro Area?

This paper examines how the ECB's expansionary monetary policy affects income inequality in 10 euro area countries over the period 1999–2014. We distinguish two channels—labor-market and financial—through which monetary policy can have distributional effects. The labor-market channel is captured by wages and employment and the financial channel by asset prices and returns. We find that expansionary monetary policy in the euro area reduces income inequality, especially in the periphery countries. The labor-market channel enhances the equalizing effect: monetary expansion reduces income inequality stronger by raising wages and employment. There is limited evidence for the financial channel.     

State Curriculum Mandates and Student Knowledge of Personal Finance

This study analyzes the relationship between high school students’ scores on a test of personal financial literacy and their state's personal finance curriculum mandate. At the time of the testing, twenty of the thirty‐one states included in the study had some kind of educational policy in the area of personal financial management. The results of the study show that curriculum mandates, broadly defined, are not generally associated with higher students’ scores. However, students in states that required specific financial education course work scored significantly higher than those in states with either a general mandate or with no mandate.     

水电站过渡过程计算中的反击式水轮机边界条件及迭代收敛条件

探讨了水电站过渡过程数值计算中水轮机边界条件基本方程及其迭代算法稳定性问题，从理论上推导出两种迭代算法的收敛判别条件。得到反映水流动能(或惯性)与势能比值的收敛判别变量T，当水流势能占优势时，即T≤1，第一迭代算法收敛；当水流惯性占优势时，即T>1，第二迭代算法收敛。这两个条件互补，从而证明反击式水轮机边界条件是全范围内可求解的。该判别条件已经在实际工程计算中得到验证和运用。     

法国Gironde河口盐水入侵与泥沙输送的三维数值研究

运用可计算河口流场的全三维数值模型研究Gironde河口的河口环流与盐水入侵问题。本模型应用有限差分法求解浅水方程,同时采用模态分裂技术获取关于水位的泊松方程。而湍流计算则采用二阶K-L模型求解。模型采用Gironde河口两次不同实测数据进行率定参数与验证。通过对潮汐与径流作用的详细分析以研究该河口动力结构及影响河口环流盐水入侵的主要影响因素。     

Amakudari: The Post‐Retirement Employment of Elite Bureaucrats in Japan

This paper analyzes the amakudari practice in Japan. Amakudari refers to a process in which government agencies contact the private firms that they regulate, asking them to provide employment for their retiring elite bureaucrats. Upon employment at the private firms, bureaucrats may collude with their former colleagues in the ministries they worked for to secure lucrative government contracts, avoid regulatory inspections, or obtain preferential treatment for their new employers. This paper provides an explicit formalization of the implicit collusion between the regulator and the regulated.     

Lazy Prices

Using the complete history of regular quarterly and annual filings by U.S. corporations, we show that changes to the language and construction of financial reports have strong implications for firms’ future returns and operations. A portfolio that shorts “changers” and buys “nonchangers” earns up to 188 basis points per month in alpha (over 22% per year) in the future. Moreover, changes to 10-Ks predict future earnings, profitability, future news announcements, and even future firm-level bankruptcies. Unlike typical underreaction patterns, we find no announcement effect, suggesting that investors are inattentive to these simple changes across the universe of public firms.