Unparalleled Increase Research Articles

Boom in, bust out: Young households and the housing price cycle

The UK experienced a major residential real estate boom–bust cycle from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, accompanied by unprecedented shifts in the owner occupancy rate of young households. Previous empirical analyses have pointed toward income changes and financial deregulation as the likely causes of this episode, with little to say about the differential effects on various age groups. We show that, in a life-cycle model with income heterogeneity and credit constraints, the observed co-movements of housing prices and owner occupancy rates can be explained as an equilibrium response to income and credit market shocks. Our findings suggest that the financial liberalisation of the early 1980s was crucial for the unparalleled increase in the owner occupancy rate of young households during the boom.

THE CHALLENGE OF HEALTH CARE DELIVERY TO THE ELDERLY PATIENT WITH CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE: Demographic, Epidemiologic, Fiscal, and Health Policy Implications

Old age as our society is experiencing it is a new phenomenon. Never before in history have societies of developed countries enjoyed such longevity of life. In the next several decades the United States will face an unparalleled increase in the absolute number of elderly persons in our population. How will health care professionals, policy-makers, and society in general face the mammoth task of providing quality cardiovascular care for the elderly in an environment of limited financial resources? This article discusses the demographic, fiscal, and health policy implications of our aging society with particular emphasis on existing and anticipated impediments to the delivery of cardiovascular care to this rapidly expanding segment of our population.

Sect, Subsidy, and Sacrifice: An Economist's View of Ultra-Orthodox Jews*

Israeli Ultra-Orthodox men study full-time in yeshiva until age 40 on average. Why do fathers with families in poverty choose yeshiva over work? Draft deferments subsidize yeshiva attendance, yet attendance typically continues long after exemption. Fertility rates are high (TFR = 7.6) and rising. A social interaction approach explains these anomalies. Yeshiva attendance signals commitment to the community, which provides mutual insurance to members. Prohibitions strengthen communities by effectively taxing real wages, inducing high fertility. Historically, the incursion of markets into traditional communities produces Ultra-Orthodoxy. Subsidies induce dramatic reductions in labor supply and unparalleled increases in fertility, illustrating extreme responses social groups may have to interventions.

Boom In, Bust Out: Young Households and the Housing Price Cycle

The UK experienced a major residential real estate boom-bust cycle from the mid-Eighties to the mid-Nineties, accompanied by unprecedented shifts in the owner occupancy rate of young households. Previous empirical analyses have pointed toward income changes and financial deregulation as the likely causes of this episode, with little to say about the differential effects on various age groups. We show that, in a life-cycle model with income heterogeneity and credit constraints, the observed co-movements of housing prices and owner occupancy rates can be explained as an equilibrium response to income and credit market shocks. Our findings suggest that the financial liberalisation of the early Eighties was crucial for the unparalleled increase in the owner occupancy rate of young households during the boom.

Antifungal drugs and resistance.

From the late 1950’s, extending for two decades thereafter, amphotericin B was the only broad spectrum antifungal drug which could be systemically administered. Because it was the only option, and because systemic mycoses were relatively infrequent, there was little interest in understanding the mechanism of action of amphotericin B, or expanding options for antifungal therapy. The advent of AIDS and our increasing use of broad spectrum antibacterials, immunosuppressive agents, and prosthetic devices have all acted to create large niches which have been vigorously exploited by fungal pathogens. Consequently the past decade has seen unparalleled increases in opportunistic mycoses, and belatedly in efforts to combat them. The advent of new antifungal drugs has been followed by the appreciation of the limitations of each agent, including those imposed by toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and development of resistance on the part of some fungal pathogens. From amphotericin B we have expanded to multiple new classes of drugs, with multiple alternatives within those classes. However, we have still not reached the optimal agents which are fungicidal, minimally toxic, and can be administered either orally or parenterally. The coming years will see additional classes of drugs introduced as we try to identify this ideal antifungal agent. The following in part documents our present understanding of antifungal drug actions and the mechanism by which some fungi can thwart them. The mycoses contrast dramatically with other microbial pathogens, in which elegant molecular biological techniques have been used to probe resistance mechanisms. This is in part because the fungi have been among the last of the major pathogens to achieve an important role in modern medicine. One example of our tardiness is the very slow development of susceptibility testing, and the only recently seen correlations between in vitro results and clinical outcome.1 Only in the last year has come agreement on a method for testing antifungal azole susceptibility, and this applies only to some yeasts.2,3 Considerable gaps yet require filling.

Paper 5: Development of a Single-Stage Boiler Feed Pump for Nuclear Power Stations

An unparalleled increase in the output of power-generating units in the last decade has made it necessary to reconsider the established boiler feed pump design philosophy. This paper deals with a number of design aspects which are of vital importance for the future development of a modern high head per stage boiler feed pump. The paper discusses the pressure and depression pulses that are generated when impeller vanes travel past the stationary vanes of guide equipment. It is considered that these pressure fluctuations can cause cavitational damage in the impeller and other parts, and also the uneven running of a pump. The influence of geometrical and hydraulic non-symmetry on radial forces in a double volute casing is dealt with. Test results of a double suction model boiler feed pump are presented, including descriptions of durability runs with paint-coated hydraulic surfaces.

The Declaration and Yield of Stockholders' Rights

Everyone is aware of the great expansion of America's leading railroad and industrial properties within the last fifteen years. During this time, much has been published concerning the unparalleled increase in mileage, earnings and profits, but few persons have definite knowledge of the exact return to a stockholder who has held capital stock for any length of time in these corporations. It will be the purpose of this article to show what would have been the yield to the stockholder who bought his shares at any given period in the open market. A right is a privilege issued by a corporation to its stockholders to subscribe to its stock and occasionally to its bonds, at a price below the market quotation. This is what is meant when rights or warrants are referred to in our financial journals. But this is by no means the only benefit extended by corporations to their stockholders, since where stock is issued free or in the form of a dividend, an even greater distribution is made. In such instances it is the company itself that pays the par value of the stock from its accumulated profits, and the issue amounts substantially to the capitalization of a previously earned surplus. Where the surplus is not as large as the dividend declared, the company is usually capitalizing its future earnings. For example, at the close of the fiscal year of I904, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company had a surplus of approximately $13,5oo,ooo. In December, I904, an extra dividend of twenty-five per cent (twenty per cent in stock and five per cent in four per cent certificates pf the Atlantic Coast Line Company of Connecticut) was declared, reducing this surplus to about $4,500,000. Clearly, this was merely giving the stockholders what had been withheld from them in previous years. On the other hand, in December, I868, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, with a capital (554)