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Dissecting the purchasing managers’ index
(2015)KOF Working PapersWe apply the novel approach of Siliverstovs (2015) to modelling data sampled at different frequencies in order to scrutinise the composition of one of the most influential economic indicators in Switzerland. The Purchasing Managers' Index consists of eight sub-indices out of which only five enter the total index with differentiated weights, which were specified for its American counterpart about thirty years ago. In this paper, we address ...Working Paper -
Numerical Steepest Descent for Overlap Integrals of Semiclassical Wavepackets
(2015)Research ReportIn this report we show that classical Gauss quadrature is not adequate for a large class of correlation and overlap integrals originating from quantum mechanics. These integrals are usually highly oscillatory and therefore special methods are necessary for accurate computations. We develop and test a new, highly efficient method based on some recent results about numerical steepest descent to solve the problem stated. Our approach is built ...Report -
Empirical Calibration of Adaptive Learning
(2015)KOF Working PapersAdaptive learning introduces persistence in the evolution of agents’ beliefs over time. For applied purposes this is a convenient feature to help explain why economies present sluggish adjustments towards equilibrium. The pace of learning is directly determined by the gain parameter, which regulates how quickly new information is incorporated into agents’ beliefs.<br/> We document renewed empirical calibrations of plausible gain values ...Working Paper -
Macro and micro level impulse responses: A survey experimental identification procedure
(2015)KOF Working PapersThis paper analyzes the effects of macroeconomic shocks on prices and output at different levels of aggregation using a bottom up approach. We show how to generate firm level impulse responses by incorporating experimental settings into surveys and by exposing firm executives to treatment scenarios. Aggregation then results in industry level and economy wide impulse responses. We further show that the effects obtained from survey experiments ...Working Paper -
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Numerical approximation of statistical solutions of incompressible flow
(2015)Research ReportWe present a finite difference-(Multi-level) Monte Carlo algorithm to efficiently compute statistical solutions of the two dimensional Navier-Stokes equations, with periodic bound- ary conditions and for arbitrarily high Reynolds number. We propose a reformulation of statistical solutions in the vorticity-stream function form. The vorticity-stream function for- mulation is discretized with a finite difference scheme. We obtain a convergence ...Report -
The causal impact of common native language on international trade: Evidence from a spatial regression discontinuity design
(2015)KOF Working PapersThis paper studies the effect of sharing a common native language on inter- national trade. Switzerland hosts three major native language groups which adjoin countries sharing the same native majority languages. In regions close to the internal language border the alternate major language is taught early on in school and not only understood but spoken by the residents. This setting allows for an assessment of the impact of common native ...Working Paper -
Making an impact? The relevance of information on aid effectiveness for charitable giving. A laboratory experiment
(2015)CRC-PEG Discussion PapersA considerable and increasing share of foreign aid stems from private donations. Hence, individual donors can increase social welfare in developing countries by directing their funds to the most effective NGOs. Surprisingly few studies have analyzed whether private donors care about aid effectiveness when they donate to an international charity. In a laboratory experiment, we investigate if private donors seek information about the exact ...Working Paper -
Auxiliary Space Preconditioners for SIP-DG Discretizations of H(curl)-elliptic Problems with Discontinuous Coefficients
(2015)Research ReportWe propose a family of preconditioners for linear systems of equations arising from a piecewise polynomial symmetric Interior Penalty Discontinuous Galerkin (IP-DG) discretization of H(curl, )- elliptic boundary value problems on conforming meshes. The design and analysis of the proposed preconditioners relies on the auxiliary space method (ASM) employing an auxiliary space of H(curl, )- conforming finite element functions together with ...Report