It is known that asset exchange models with symmetric interaction between agents show either a Gibbs/log-normal distribution of assets among the agents or condensation of the entire wealth in the hands of a single agent, depending upon the rules of exchange. Here we explore the effects of introducing asymmetry in the interaction between agents with different amounts of wealth (i.e., the rich be...

T o what extent does the separation of powers affect congressional roll call voting behavior? To answer this question, I offer a strategic model of congressional decision making that asserts members of Congress pursue public policy goals when casting roll call votes. From the equilibrium predictions of a formal model, I generate testable hypotheses by computing the expected net amount of sophis...

Detection of trace levels of persistent pollutants in the environment is difficult but significant. Organic pollutant homologues, due to their similar physical and chemical properties, are even more difficult to distinguish, especially in trace amounts. We report here a simple method to detect polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in soil and distilled spirit samples by the surface-enhanced Raman sc...

In this paper, we consider a continuous time risk model involving two types of dependent claims, namely main claims and by-claims. The by-claim is induced by the main claim and the occurrence of byclaim may be delayed depending on associated main claim amount. Using Rouché’s theorem, we first derive the closed-form solution for the Laplace transform of the survival probability in the dependent ...

Although an abundance of evidence shows that territorial disputes fundamentally shape relations among states, we know surprisingly little about when territorial claims are made. We use new data on the spatial distribution of historical borders and territorial claims across four centuries of European history to demonstrate that the majority of territorial claims are drawn following historical bo...

Abstract: Let {(Xn, Yn), n ≥ 1} be bivariate random claim sizes with common distribution function F and let {N(t), t ≥ 0} be a stochastic process which counts the number of claims that occur in the time interval [0, t], t ≥ 0. In this paper we derive the joint asymptotic distribution of randomly indexed order statistics of the random sample (X1, Y1), (X2, Y2), . . . , (XN(t), YN(t)) which is th...

The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) prohibits health claims for foods containing more than a certain amount of fat per serving. This disqualified level eliminates health claims for cooking oils since these products have approximately 14 grams of fat per serving, above the acceptable threshold. However, a number of scientific studies indicate that, from a heart-health perspective, co...

In an attempt to manage the risk of mismatch between the actual claims and the anticipated claim amounts in motor insurance pool, we introduce a few new concepts of motor loss ratelinked securities such as motor loss rate options and motor loss rate swaps. These hybrid derivatives can transfer the motor insurance loss rate risks to the capital markets. For the valuation of the motor loss rate-l...

We propose an efficient and accurate approximate Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo methodology for the estimation of event rates under an overdispersed Poisson distribution. A Gibbs sampling algorithm is derived, based on a log-normal/gamma mixture density that closely approximates the conditional distribution of the Poisson parameters. This involves a moment matching process, with the exact co...