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Daily Archives: June 17, 2014

OECD Factbook 2014

OECD (2014), OECD Factbook 2014: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics, OECD Publishing. doi: 10.1787/factbook-2014-en

“OECD’s dynamic and comprehensive statistical annual showing a wide range of key statistics for its member countries and major additional countries. For each indicator presented, there is explanatory text including a definition, explanation of long-term trends, and references; a table showing the indicator over a significant time span for all countries covered, and graphics showing the key messages contained in the data. Under each table is a link to an Excel spreadsheet enabling the user to access the data. This publication is available in print form, as an iPhone app, and in html form.”

The Oxford Handbook on Financial Regulation – draft chapter

Ferrarini, Guido A. and Saguato, Paolo, Regulating Financial Market Infrastructures (June 1, 2014). Forthcoming draft chapter, The Oxford Handbook on Financial Regulation, edited by Eilís Ferran, Niamh Moloney, and Jennifer Payne, (Oxford University Press).; European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) – Law Working Paper No. 259/2014. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2450095 “This paper focuses on the… Continue Reading

Community Fiber in Washington, D.C., Seattle, and San Francisco

“This report provides detailed accounts of planning carried out in connection with community fiber networks in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, CA, and Seattle, WA. It includes information about existing fiber assets that the cities identified, funding mechanisms that were considered, and roadblocks that were encountered. Our hope is that this report will be helpful to… Continue Reading

Impact of Fed Tapering Announcements on Emerging Markets

IMF Working Paper. Prachi Mishra ; Kenji Moriyama; Papa M’B. P. N’Diaye; Lam Nguyen. June 17, 2017. “This paper analyzes market reactions to the 2013–14 Fed announcements relating to tapering of asset purchases and their relationship to macroeconomic fundamentals and country economic and financial structures. The study uses daily data on exchange rates, government bond… Continue Reading

A Simple and Reliable Way to Compute Option-Based Risk-Neutral Distributions

Allan M. Malz: “This paper describes a method for computing risk-neutral density functions based on the option-implied volatility smile. Its aim is to reduce complexity and provide cookbook-style guidance through the estimation process. The technique is robust and avoids violations of option no-arbitrage restrictions that can lead to negative probabilities and other implausible results. I give… Continue Reading

How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally

The Commonwealth Fund: “The United States health care system is the most expensive in the world, but this report and prior editions consistently show the U.S. underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance. Among the 11 nations studied in this report—Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the… Continue Reading

New Way to Look at Law, With Data Viz and Machine Learning

Wired – [snipped] “As its creators [Daniel Lewis and Nik Reed] see it, Ravel’s visual search offers myriad improvements over the old columns of text results. It better lets you see how cases evolved over time, and potentially lets you see outliers that could be useful in crafting an argument–cases that would languish at the… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Combatting Terrorism, Recovery Act, Sequestration

COMBATING TERRORISM: State Department Can Improve Management of East Africa Program, GAO-14-502: Published: Jun 17, 2014. Publicly Released: Jun 17, 2014. RECOVERY ACT: USDA Should Include Broadband Program’s Impact in Annual Performance Reports, GAO-14-511: Published: Jun 17, 2014. Publicly Released: Jun 17, 2014. SEQUESTRATION: Comprehensive and Updated Cost Savings Would Better Inform DOD Decision Makers If Future Civilian Furloughs Occur, GAO-14-529: Published: Jun 17,… Continue Reading

Coalition to President: End NSA’s Bulk Collection Program Now

“EPIC and a coalition of 25 organizations urged the President and the Attorney General to end the NSA’s bulk record collection program when the current authority expires on June 20. In January, the President committed to “end the Section 215 bulk metadata program as it currently exists.” The coalition letter states, “[t]he NSA’s Bulk Metadata program is simply not… Continue Reading

Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros

Smart Growth America – Foot Traffic Ahead: Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros, this report, conducted by LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, a coalition of Smart Growth America, in conjunction with The George Washington University’s Center for Real Estate & Urban Analysis, identifies each metro’s WalkUPs and ranks the top 30 U.S. metropolitan… Continue Reading