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The paper proposes a critical review of the debate on related versus unrelated diversification undergoing within and across Evolutionary Economic Geography. It remarks the accumulating evidence on related diversification in regions, but it is mainly concerned with the sources and implications of unrelated diversification. It is claimed that the scope for unrelated diversification is narrower for lagging regions and it develops this claim by focusing on two sets of regions: the old industrial areas and the peripheral regions. Accordingly, unrelated diversification is depicted as deeply embroiled with the broader question of uneven regional development, but also as a potential catalyst of economic and technological convergence. A similar theoretical proposition is then advanced with respect to sustainability transitions, where unrelated diversification is eligible to undermine the detrimental role played by dominant technological regimes. Finally, it advocates for a proper assessment of the role of public policies in fostering processes of regional diversification and discusses the theoretical and methodological implications of including public policies in the EEG approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses, for the first time, potential convergence patterns of hotel revenues across provinces in China. Through the club clustering methodology, the analysis uses a unique dataset of all hotels across all Chinese provinces. The findings document that these hotel revenues follow a diverging pattern on a national level, while a converging pattern is identified across certain provinces, thus forming specific clubs. When the analysis is extended to identify potential drivers for such diverging or converging behavior, the new results illustrate the role of productivity trends, management strategies and tax policies as those factors that drive such patterns. The results could be of substantial value, primarily for tourism policymakers to further improve the current framework of the Chinese hotel industry to introduce practices and policies that will allow the industry to catch up with the global market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic convergence was a goal of the European Union and financial integration was part of the tools to achieve this goal. After decades of successful convergence and closer financial integration, these movements have slowed since the Great Financial Crisis. In this paper, we contribute to explaining these stylized facts by showing, in a country panel setting, with 2SLS estimates, that the positive impact on productivity growth of financial flows, and in particular those intermediated by the banking system, depends on the quality of financial intermediation in the recipient country, but also on the quality of investors in the investor countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the meta-frontier Data Envelopment Analysis and the main concepts of convergence from the economic growth literature (β-convergence and σ-convergence) to analyze integration and convergence both in efficiency and in technology gap of European Union (EU) insurance markets. We evaluate 10 EU life insurance markets over the 17-year-period 1998–2014. Results show convergence in cost/revenue efficiency among major EU life insurance markets during the sample period. These findings indicate that the least efficient countries in 1998 have shown a higher improvement in cost/revenue efficiency than the most efficient countries in the same year as well as that the dispersion of the mean efficiency scores among EU life insurance markets decreased over the sample period. We also find convergence in cost/revenue technology gap among these markets, suggesting that they become more technologically homogeneous during the sample period. However, results show that the global financial crisis has led to a slowdown in the progress of integration and convergence in efficiency and technology gap of EU life insurance markets in terms of cost efficiency but not in terms of revenue efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a large panel for 95 countries and the 1972–2014 period, this paper analyses the interactions among globalization, political & civil rights and economic convergence, through a simultaneous estimation technique. We use a multi-dimensional, de facto, and continuous measures of Freedoms and Globalization. We find a two-way positive relationship between civil liberties & political rights and economic, political and social Globalization, as well as significant two-way relationships with the economic convergence (using as a proxy the ratio of GDP per capita to the US). In this way, we extend the test for the two-way relationship between Democracy and Globalization put forward by Eichengreen and Leblang (Econ Politics 20(3):289–334, 2008). Overall, we also find a virtuous cycle between Globalization, Freedoms and Economic convergence, except for non-OECD countries at early intermediate stages of development. This positive systemic effect can be put into question by the recent negative shocks on Globalization and Freedoms related to the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that currently face enormous healthcare challenges have implemented national health policies focusing on regional or international health commitments. These health commitments generally promote new healthcare financing policies (e.g., health insurance, user fee exemption and results-based financing) with the objective of providing ever-larger population cohorts with human capital and better health in particular. To achieve this, governments must involve themselves more fully in their respective healthcare sectors through the mobilisation of public funding. Objective: This paper aims to examine convergence in health expenditure throughout SSA. The findings of club convergence will allow a robust comparison of health indicators between countries and will be suitable for the adjustment of health policies to foster the efficiency of such policies at the regional and/or country level. Such findings could also help with the conception and implementation of health policies at the regional level. Methods: We used the methodology of convergence analysis based on dynamic factor modelling leading to the logt regression to test for full convergence, club convergence and club clustering of health expenditure on a balanced panel of 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa spanning the period from 2000 to 2016. Results: Overall, our results do not support the hypothesis that all SSA countries converge to a single equilibrium state regarding public health expenditure. When testing for club convergence, the results highlight eight convergence clubs and one group of diverging countries. Indeed, performing the club clustering algorithm reveals the existence of three convergence clubs and the diverging group. The three clubs consist of 12, 14 and 14 members, respectively, where convergence is found to occur among different regional economic organisations. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that SSA governments should increase spending on healthcare in order to align their healthcare systems with a global convergence model. To foster the convergence to a single equilibrium state in public health expenditure, attention could be paid to strengthening integration within the various regional economic organisations and to the coordination and integration of healthcare policies within and across convergence clubs throughout SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an efficient alternating direction implicit (ADI) Galerkin method for solving the time-fractional partial differential equation with damping, where the fractional derivative is in the sense of Caputo with order in $(1,2)$ . The presented numerical scheme is based on the L2- $1_{\sigma}$ method in time and the Galerkin finite element method in space. The unconditional stability and convergence of the numerical scheme are both carefully proved. Numerical results are displayed for supporting the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is dedicated to the introduction a new class of equilibrium problems named generalized multivalued equilibrium-like problems which includes the classes of hemiequilibrium problems, equilibrium-like problems, equilibrium problems, hemivariational inequalities, and variational inequalities as special cases. By utilizing the auxiliary principle technique, some new predictor-corrector iterative algorithms for solving them are suggested and analyzed. The convergence analysis of the proposed iterative methods requires either partially relaxed monotonicity or jointly pseudomonotonicity of the bifunctions involved in generalized multivalued equilibrium-like problem. Results obtained in this paper include several new and known results as special cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the European Union (EU) and European Monetary Union (EMU) as club-governments after an analysis of the characteristics of the union of governments as clubs. Convergence among member countries regarding the parameters relevant for club homogeneity and stability is paramount. We develop empirical research on the convergence path in a model with the five main EU countries, with 15 parameters drawn from neoclassical growth theory and from EU-EMU rules. We examine convergence and stability in the EU club for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom by measuring their parametric spreads from 2003 (first year of normal circulation of the euro) to 2011. Convergence with growth developed before the great financial fluctuation, then divergence set in. Convergence then reappeared with partial stagnation. Gross domestic product (GDP) was the dominant parameter, while GDP per capita was the least important. The main focus of the paper is on measurement. The results signal the need for changes in institutions and policy tools consistent with the market economy models of the two clubs. Further integration will face the same issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of globalization has led some nations to attain higher rates of growth while others have shown declining growth, along with widening regional disparities within nations. The regional convergence (RC) thesis addresses this issue of measuring inequality among sub-national economies of a nation, and across nations over a long period of time. This thesis utilizes two measures beta and sigma convergence to analyze if poor nations catch up with developed nations, and if regions within a nation close the gap with developed regions. The Indian economy has witnessed increasing economic inequality since independence. Given this overview the objective of this paper is to review recent literature on RC and address the following four questions: (1) What insights do recent studies provide on convergence debate? (2) What are the various explanations and tools to understand and measure regional convergence? (3) What is the role of geography in explaining spatial convergence/divergence analysis of economies? (4) What are the trends of regional inequality in India during the 1961-2011 periods? Domestic Product of States in India (1960-1961 to 2006-2007) and Reserve Bank of India publications provide data for the past fifty years on per capita net state domestic product. Simple measures of dispersion reveal increase in regional inequality during the study period with moderate drops during 1970-1971 and 1980-1981 periods. Descriptive measures indicate persistence and limited upward mobility of states. Also, prosperous regions are located in the rich agricultural and industrial states of Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra, and lagging regions are the impoverished agricultural states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the catching-up hypothesis among the 29 transition countries using the time series approach to investigate income convergence. In this study, we propose a model which specifies a trend function incorporating both sharp and smooth breaks using dummy variables and Fourier functions, respectively. Our empirical results indicate that two convergence clubs are forming among the transition countries and one club is among the rich and the other club is among the poor countries, where most middle income countries will disappear and move into one of the two clubs. Also, our results indicate that the 1980s was an ominous decade for growth in the transition countries with income in most diverging from the USA. With recovery in the 1990s, we find that in the 2000s income per capita in most of these countries was catching up toward the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of different depreciation methods on the dynamic characteristics of the Greek regional net fixed capital series. Using annual data over the period from 1974 to 2006, Karpetis and Zikos (Int J Econ Res 11(2):333-354, 2014) constructed the series of nominal net fixed capital in the case of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece, applying four different depreciation methods of capital. In the context of the present analysis, these series were initially deflated, using the country's G.D.P. deflator (2005 = 100), and subsequently were exploited to investigate their dynamic characteristics through estimation of the best fitted ARIMA( p, d, q) models and determination of the roots of the characteristic polynomials. The statistical findings reveal, firstly, the impact of the employed depreciation methods of capital on the evolutionary pattern (monotonic or sinusoidal) of the series and secondly, the slow convergence of the Greek regional net fixed capital towards its long-run equilibrium value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a new pair trading method to detect inefficiencies in exchange rates movements and arbitrage opportunities using a convergence/divergence indicator (CDI) belonging to the oscillatory class. The proposed technique is applied to 11 exchange rates over the period 2010-2015, and trading rules based on CDI signals are obtained. The CDI indicator is shown to outperform others of the oscillatory class and in some cases (for EURAUD and AUDJPY) to generate profits. The suggested approach is of general interest and can be applied to different financial markets and assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the dynamic process of convergence among a set of real alternative (art, fine wine, gold, residential real estate) and financial assets in the US context over the period 2003–2019. The objective is to explore the time-varying behavior of their links considering structural breaks coming from exogenous economic and financial shocks that prevent market convergence from being a linear process. Using a procedure that determines endogenously multiple structural breaks and a rolling co-integration framework, we show that price co-movements depend on the global financial and economic environments. Our results confirm the existence of a long-term co-integration relationship among price series but with structural breaks. We find that exogenous shocks lead to a lower degree of convergence of real alternative and conventional assets, and expansion phases promote market convergence between them. Our results contribute to guiding investors in their efforts to diversify their wealth and portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of consumption externalities in a neoclassical growth model in which households have heterogeneous preferences. We find that a higher degree of average conformism accelerates the convergence speed of the economy toward the steady state as in the case of homogeneous conformism. Furthermore, we reveal that the wealth inequality expands or shrinks in the case of heterogeneous conformism, while it does not expand but shrinks in the case of homogeneous conformism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new iterative algorithm to approximate fixed points of total asymptotically nonexpansive mappings in $\operatorname{CAT}(0)$ spaces. We also provide two examples to illustrate the convergence behavior of the proposed algorithm and numerically compare the convergence of the proposed iteration scheme with the existing schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the contribution of dynamic technological specialization to aggregated growth and convergence. Certain theoretical approaches (Structuralism) maintain the view that being specialized in 'correct' technologies helps to achieve: i) sustainable rhythms of long-run growth; ii) accelerated catching up and higher rhythms of convergence in delayed countries. Using an endogenous growth model for a 23 countries sample between 1980 and 2010, the work contrasts those hypotheses by using static and dynamic approaches for technological specialization in comparison to other technological variables. Empirical results do not confirm that any 'good' specialization matters to growth and convergence at an aggregated level, neither under static nor dynamic approaches. The key elements to aggregated convergence and growth are more linked to spillovers of technological diffusion and to country-specificities (technological capabilities and capacities, domestic technical efforts, national innovation systems, industrial innovation processes, etc.) as it is pointed out by catching-up theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, based on the pressure project method, we consider an adaptive stabilized finite volume method for the Oseen equations with the lowest equal order finite element pair. Firstly, we develop the discrete forms in both finite element and finite volume methods, and establish the existence and uniqueness of numerical solutions by establishing the equivalence of linear terms in finite element and finite volume methods. Secondly, a residual type a posteriori error estimator is designed, and the computable global upper and local lower bounds between the exact solutions and the finite volume solutions are established. Thirdly, a discrete local lower bound between two successive finite volume solutions is obtained, convergence analysis of the adaptive stabilized finite volume method is also performed. Finally, some numerical results are presented to verify the performances of the developed error estimators and confirm the established theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a general one-sector model of optimal stochastic growth where the productivity of capital is bounded but may vary widely due to technology shocks, we derive a tight estimate of the slope of the optimal policy function near zero. We use this to derive a readily verifiable condition that ensures almost sure global conservation of capital (i.e., avoidance of extinction) under the optimal policy, as well as global convergence to a positive stochastic steady state for bounded growth technology; this condition is significantly weaker than existing conditions and explicitly depends on risk aversion. For a specific class of utility and production functions, a strict violation of this condition implies that almost sure long run extinction of capital is globally optimal. Conservation is non-monotonic in risk aversion; conservation is likely to be optimal when the degree of risk aversion (near zero) is either high or low, while extinction may be optimal at intermediate levels of risk aversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the literature on the convergence problem by studying whether there is β-convergence between the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean by analyzing the trend in beta convergence, calculating regressions between ten-year periods of economic growth and the logarithm of per capita income. Thus, the trend of convergence from 1950 can be studied and any sub-period in which absolute convergence has occurred can be detected. For that purpose, the current study uses data from the Penn World Tables between 1950 and 2019 for all economies in the region. Although wider sample empirical tests in the 1990s found little evidence of unconditional convergence of poor countries from the 1950s on, this study tests whether these results still hold for the subsample of Latin American and Caribbean economies. While the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries show a divergence pattern, the economic integration among the Caribbean Islands is yielding fruit in terms of σ-convergence. The main policy implication is that a major integration of Latin American countries would support convergence to a common steady state. Hence, all the countries should implement policies to develop their comparative advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by Clower's conjecture that the necessity of trading through money in monetised economies might hinder convergence to competitive equilibrium, and hence, for example, cause unemployment, we experimentally investigate behaviour in markets where trading has to be done through money. In order to evaluate the properties of these markets, we compare their behaviour to behaviour in markets without money, where money cannot intervene. As the trading mechanism might be a compounding factor, we investigate two kinds of market mechanism: the double auction, where bids, asks and trades take place in continuous time throughout a trading period; and the clearing house, where bids and asks are placed once in a trading period, and which are then cleared by an aggregating device. We thus have four treatments, the pairwise combinations of non-monetised/monetised trading with double auction/clearing house. We find that: convergence is faster under non-monetised trading, implying that the necessity of using money to facilitate trade hinders convergence; that monetised trading is noisier than non-monetised trading; and that the volume of trade and realised surpluses are higher with the double auction than the clearing house. As far as efficiency is concerned, monetised trading lowers both informational and allocational efficiency, and while the double auction outperforms the clearing house in terms of allocational efficiency, the clearing house is marginally better than the double auction in terms of informational efficiency when trade is through money. Crucially we confirm the conjecture that inspired these experiments: that the necessity to use money in trading hinders convergence to competitive equilibrium, lowers realised trades and surpluses, and hence may cause unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study undertakes a sector-by-sector account of economic growth, historically since the inception of economic planning, and analyses the spatiotemporal patterns of both rural and urban poverty in India. The services sector bypassed the successful completion of industrialization and prematurely emerged as the dominant driver and key lever of economic growth. The supremacy of services sector strengthened the resilience of the economy to the exogenous shocks of weather aberrations affecting agriculture. The regional disparities have tended to increase over time. The study finds support for unconditional divergence, rather than convergence, in the level of per capita real income across states. The cross-sectional and panel data models estimated for a comprehensive set of 24 states—separately for the rural, urban, and combined rural–urban sectors—provide strong support to the poverty-reducing effects of economic growth. The income-elasticity of poverty hovers around − 2 for the number of persons living below the poverty line. The gains of economic growth are distributed unevenly across states and shared asymmetrically between rural and urban sectors. The economy witnessed a mixed picture of decline in rural–urban poverty, rise in regional disparities, and surge in income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory convergence and cooperation among the authorities in the field of medical products (medicines and medical devices) are essential to deliver safe and efficacious products quickly to patients. APEC established the Regulatory Harmonization Steering Committee (RHSC) to advance this cause among member economies. This paper identifies four areas of appropriate regulatory practice in which APEC economies could converge, and explores the feasible processes of how APEC economies could cooperate in order to bring about realization of a maximum level of regulatory convergence by 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Euro adoption, it is expected that a country's inflation rates and other macroeconomic variables will continue to converge to those of other members of the bloc. But fixed exchange rates can cause macroeconomic adjustment to take place through goods prices, and varying geographic and historic ties might lead to different degrees of inflation convergence among economic regions. This study examines monthly inflation series for five Central and Eastern European Euro members, testing for structural breaks before analyzing correlations and stationary inflation differentials versus four regional country groups. Overall, certain regional groupings have stronger connections than others post-Euro, such as Estonia with its Nordic neighbors and, more recently, with the largest EU economies. We find that no CEE inflation rate has a breakpoint that corresponds specifically to Euro adoption. Instead, all countries have multiple breaks, and four inflation series have a final structural break occurring in 2013, after which general convergence versus all four regions increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Justice is the most important principle in Islam and measures the extent to which decisions in Islamic countries comply with Islamic doctrine. Economic justice is a sub-domain of justice and is further subdivided to distributive justice. Distributive justice implies that improvement in economic well-being of an individual occurs to the detriment of another's. The present study investigates economic convergence of Islamic justice in selected Islamic countries (Albania, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Guinea, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Niger, Pakistan, Senegal, Tajikistan, Turkey, Yemen And Tunisia) during 1995–2015 using beta-type convergence and generalized method of moment. It is argued that growth rate of income distribution in communities that suffer from bad income distribution system will move in the long run towards fair distribution. Results of absolute beta convergence indicate convergence of Gini coefficient at rate of 0.31. The Gini coefficient is significant at 1%. Moreover, results of conditional beta convergence reveal convergence of Gini coefficient. Inflation rate and GDP positively affect this convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider strategic market games associated to exchange economies both in a framework with no uncertainty and with asymmetric information. We address the asymptotic convergence of active Nash equilibria of strategic market games to Walrasian ones for general sequences of economies whose distribution of characteristics has compact support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a notion of bargaining set for finite economies and show its convergence to the set of Walrasian allocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate that agent-based simulations can exhibit results in line with classic macroeconomic theory. In particular, we present an agent-based simulation of an Arrow-Debreu economy that accurately exhibits the Stolper-Samuelson effect as an emergent property. Absent of a Walrasian auctioneer or any other central coordination, we let firm and consumer agents of different types interact in an open, money-driven market. Exogenous preference shocks result in price and wage shifts that are in accordance with the general equilibrium solution, not only qualitatively but also quantitatively with high accuracy. Key to this achievement are three independent measures. First, we overcome the poor input synchronization of conventional price finding heuristics of firms in agent-based models by introducing sensor prices, a novel approach to price finding that decouples information exploitation from information exploration. Second, we improve accuracy and convergence by employing exponential search as exploration algorithm. Third, we normalize prices indirectly by fixing dividends, thereby stabilizing the system's dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article examines 10-year bond yields convergence between each of the new EU countries and Germany, including a structural break that embodies the effects of the current sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone. The analysis is based on a new definition of bond yields convergence that can be interpreted either as strong or weak monetary policy convergence, depending on whether the conditions of uncovered interest-rate parity and ex-ante purchasing power parity hold or are violated, respectively. The empirical results provide evidence of either strong or weak monetary policy convergence to Germany only for five new countries, namely Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia. In contrast, for the rest of the new EU countries the empirical evidence suggests lack of monetary policy convergence to Germany. The latter result could be probably explained by the increased risk premia in these countries, as a result of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An adaptive gravitational search algorithm (GSA) that switches between synchronous and asynchronous update is presented in this work. The proposed adaptive switching synchronous-asynchronous GSA (ASw-GSA) improves GSA through manipulation of its iteration strategy. The iteration strategy is switched from synchronous to asynchronous update and vice versa. The switching is conducted so that the population is adaptively switched between convergence and divergence. Synchronous update allows convergence, while switching to asynchronous update causes disruption to the population's convergence. The ASw-GSA agents switch their iteration strategy when the best found solution is not improved after a period of time. The period is based on a switching threshold. The threshold determines how soon is the switching, and also the frequency of switching in ASw-GSA. ASw-GSA has been comprehensively evaluated based on CEC2014's benchmark functions. The effect of the switching threshold has been studied and it is found that, in comparison with multiple and early switches, one-time switching towards the end of the search is better and substantially enhances the performance of ASw-GSA. The proposed ASw-GSA is also compared to original GSA, particle swarm optimization (PSO), genetic algorithm (GA), bat-inspired algorithm (BA) and grey wolf optimizer (GWO). The statistical analysis results show that ASw-GSA performs significantly better than GA and BA and as well as PSO, the original GSA and GWO.12 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We define a measure of network cohesion and show how it arises naturally in a broad class of dynamic models of endogenous perpetual growth with network externalities. Via a standard growth model, we show why network cohesion is crucial for conditional convergence and explain that as cohesion increases, convergence is faster. We prove properties of network cohesion and define a network aggregator that preserves network cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study an electoral competition model in which each voter is characterized by income level and non-economic characteristics, and where two vote share maximizing candidates, with fixed non-economic characteristics (differentiated candidates), strategically promise a level of redistribution. We prove existence of a unique Nash equilibrium which is characterized by policy convergence or divergence depending on whether candidates redistribution technologies are symmetric or not. Perhaps more importantly, we show that, independently of whether the equilibrium is convergent or divergent, there are three predominant effects on equilibrium tax rates: the group-size effect (the larger an income group, the larger its influence on equilibrium tax rate), the income effect (poor voters are more responsive to a redistributive transfer) and the within-group homogeneity effect (the degree to which voters of the same income group have similar non-economic characteristics). The latter drags redistribution toward the preferred level of redistribution of the less 'divided'-in terms of non-economic characteristics-income group and may dominate over the other two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is substantial evidence that the decisions of experienced and inexperienced agents differ in ways that impact both individual earnings and aggregate market outcomes. Typically, such evidence is gathered by studying experience as it accumulates within subjects over time. We examine a new question; whether behaviors associated with experience can be transferred directly to new market participants. Specifically, we study the intergenerational transmission of information, including direct advice, in experimental asset markets. Empirical results suggest that advice is a substitute for experience. Prices in sessions with advised traders shift towards fundamentals-a pattern consonant with prior work exploring the impact of own-experience on pricing dynamics. Further, convergence is observed in mixed-markets where only a subset of traders are advised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a proof that the computational solution from discretized value function iteration will converge uniformly to the true solution for both the value function and the optimal policy function. We allow for non-differentiable value functions, non-concave return functions, and non-convexities in the feasible choice set. This result fills an important gap in the literature for this commonly used numerical method as existing results assume differentiability of the value function, concavity of the return function, convexity of feasible choice sets, or simply do not consider the optimal policy function. Our results thus extend the existing literature to cover cases in which value function iteration becomes a common solution method and allow for economic applications such as modelling of technology adoption and payroll taxes not covered by previous results. Results on the convergence of the value function and optimal policy function allow for their use as the basis of studying convergence of computational solution, simulation, and estimation of more advanced Macroeconomic models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, each peer acts as the role of client and server. As a client, each peer is regarded as a service customer. It sends requests to other peers to download files and obtains resource allocation from them. As a server, each peer is thought as a service provider. It receives service requests from other peers and allocates its resources to them. To encourage cooperation between peers, fairness is very important in P2P networks since it fosters an incentive to the peers to offer resources to the network. We formulate a fair resource allocation model for P2P networks and investigate the utility optimization problem by Lagrangian method. In order to realize the optimal resource allocation, we present a novel price-based resource allocation scheme by applying the first order Lagrangian method and low-pass filtering scheme, so that a service provider can allocate its resources to its customers based on offered prices, achieving the efficient and fair allocation of the available resources to the serviced customers. Simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithm can achieve the optimum within reasonable convergence times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a model of endogenous party platforms with stochastic membership. The parties' proposals depend on their membership, while the membership depends both on the proposals of the parties and on the unobserved idiosyncratic preferences of citizens over parties. An equilibrium of the model obtains when the members of each party prefer the proposal of the party to which they belong to, rather than the proposal of the other party. We prove the existence of such an equilibrium and study its qualitative properties. For the cases in which parties use either the average or the median to aggregate the preferences of their members, we show that if the unobserved idiosyncratic characteristics of the parties are similar, then parties make different proposals in the stable equilibria. Conversely, we argue that if parties differ substantially in their unobserved idiosyncratic characteristics, then the unique equilibrium is convergent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the co-movement patterns of European business cycles during the period 1986-2011, with an obvious focal point the year 1999 that marked the introduction of the common currency, the euro. The empirical analysis is performed within the context of Graph Theory where we apply a rolling window approach in order to dynamically analyze the evolution of the network that corresponds to the GDP growth rate cross-correlations of 22 European economies. The main innovation of our study is that the analysis is performed by introducing what we call the threshold-minimum dominating set (T-MDS). We provide evidence at the network level and analyze its structure and evolution by the metrics of total network edges, network density, isolated nodes and the cardinality of the T-MDS set. Next, focusing on the country level, we analyze each individual country's neighborhood set (economies with similar growth patterns) in the pre- and post-euro era in order to assess the degree of convergence to the rest of the economies in the network. Our empirical results indicate that despite a few economies' idiosyncratic behavior, the business cycles of the European countries display an overall increased degree of synchronization and thus convergence in the single currency era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tests the convergence hypothesis across 22 Indian states for the time period from 1980-1981 to 2010-2011. Using second order Gaussian Kernel density function, results reveal a multi-modal behavior of income distribution with significant signs of club formation across different income strata over the transitional process. The results from quantile estimation shows that Indian states are diverging in absolute sense however converging on conditional basis. Moving from lower to higher quantile the strength of absolute divergence weakens whereas the conditional convergence is getting stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let r≥1, 1≤p<2, and α,β>0 with 1/α+1/β=1/p. Let {ank,1≤k≤n,n≥1} be an array of constants satisfying supn≥1n−1∑k=1n|ank|α<∞, and let {Xn,n≥1} be a sequence of identically distributed ρ∗-mixing random variables. For each of the three cases α, α=rp, and α>rp, we provide moment conditions under which ∑n=1∞nr−2P{max1≤m≤n|∑k=1mankXk|>εn1/p}<∞,∀ε>0. We also provide moment conditions under which ∑n=1∞nr−2−q/pE(max1≤m≤n|∑k=1mankXk|−εn1/p)+q<∞,∀ε>0, where q>0. Our results improve and generalize those of Sung (Discrete Dyn. Nat. Soc. 2010:630608, 2010) and Wu et al. (Stat. Probab. Lett. 127:55-66, 2017). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying global patterns of terrestrial nitrogen (N) cycling is central to predicting future patterns of primary productivity, carbon sequestration, nutrient fluxes to aquatic systems, and climate forcing. With limited direct measures of soil N cycling at the global scale, syntheses of the 15N:14N ratio of soil organic matter across climate gradients provide key insights into understanding global patterns of N cycling. In synthesizing data from over 6000 soil samples, we show strong global relationships among soil N isotopes, mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), and the concentrations of organic carbon and clay in soil. In both hot ecosystems and dry ecosystems, soil organic matter was more enriched in 15N than in corresponding cold ecosystems or wet ecosystems. Below a MAT of 9.8°C, soil δ15N was invariant with MAT. At the global scale, soil organic C concentrations also declined with increasing MAT and decreasing MAP. After standardizing for variation among mineral soils in soil C and clay concentrations, soil δ15N showed no consistent trends across global climate and latitudinal gradients. Our analyses could place new constraints on interpretations of patterns of ecosystem N cycling and global budgets of gaseous N loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]