"Architecture As A Three-Dimensional Language" is defined as a communication between architect and man manifested in form. It is useful to make an analogy between architecture and language since the purpose of both is to communicate. Communication requires the use of signs and symbols. In architecture form communicates meanings through signs and symbols. Some meanings communicated in architecture through signs and symbols demonstrate a sense of shelter, function, and movement. Function manifested in form anticipates the need for movement in the environment. Movement involves defining a direction. Direction can be established through the use of view and path as they relate to form. These elements create the approach, entrance, and circulation pattern of each building. As each individual building communicates movement by establishing a direction, the city also establishes a direction for movement in a universal way. Describing architecture as a language whose basic mode of communication is form suggests a design criteria based on how man perceives and responds to what the architect's design is trying to communicate. / Master of Architecture

The present study hypothesized a positive relationship between voluntary activity participation and life satisfaction with control for social class. Inverse relationships between voluntary activity participation and major life disruptions;, and between life satisfaction and life disruptions for the aged individual were also examined. None of the null hypotheses in the study were rejected. / Master of Science

We analyse the role played by data and specification choices as determinants of the size of the fiscal multipliers obtained using structural vector autoregressive models. The results, based on over twenty million fiscal multiplier estimated for European countries, indicate that many seemingly harmless modelling choices have a significant effect on the size and precision of fiscal multiplier estimates. In addition to the structural shock identification strategy, these modelling choices include the definition of spending and taxes, the national accounts system employed, the use of particular interest rates or inflation measures, or whether data are smoothed prior to estimation. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Lucio Godeiro.pdf: 2764843 bytes, checksum: c27a349337947bc5671ae909ca2237f6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The work aim to test the CAPM for the Brazilian Shares Market using the static was beta and the dynamic beta. The sample used is composed for 28 shares of the Ibovespa index in March 21, 2012 and that was traded long the period researched, between 01/01/1995 and 20/03/2012. Was estimated the static and dynamic betas, and that the dynamics betas has a larger explication power on the cross section returns excess. It was found that the parameters that measure relative risk aversion were significant, indicating that an increase in volatility negatively affects the expected return of the agents / A pesquisa objetiva testar o CAPM para o mercado de ações brasileiro utilizando o beta estático e o beta dinâmico. A amostra utilizada é composta por 28 ações do índice Ibovespa em vinte de março de 2012 e que foram negociados durante todo o período pesquisado, que vai de 01/01/1995 a 20/03/2012. Foram estimados os betas estáticos e dinâmicos, sendo que os betas dinâmicos tem um maior poder de explicação sobre os excessos de retornos cross section. Também foi constatado que os parâmetros que medem aversão a risco relativa foram significantes, indicando que um aumento de volatilidade afeta de forma negativa o retorno esperado dos agentes

In this paper we propose a time-varying parameter VAR model for the housing market in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and the Euro Area. For these four economies, we answer the following research questions: (i) How can we evaluate the stance of monetary policy when the policy rate hits the zero lower bound? (ii) Can developments in the housing market still be explained by policy measures adopted by central banks? (iii) Did central banks succeed in mitigating the detrimental impact of the financial crisis on selected housing variables? We analyze the relationship between unconventional monetary policy and the housing markets by using the shadow interest rate estimated by Krippner (2013b). Our findings suggest that the monetary policy transmission mechanism to the housing market has not changed with the implementation of quantitative easing or forward guidance, and central banks can affect the composition of an investors portfolio through investment in housing. A counterfactual exercise provides some evidence that unconventional monetary policy has been particularly successful in dampening the consequences of the financial crisis on housing markets in the United States, while the effects are more muted in the other countries considered in this study. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

In this paper we compare the transmission of a conventional monetary policy shock with that of an unexpected decrease in the term spread, which mirrors quantitative easing. Employing a time-varying vector autoregression with stochastic volatility, our results are two-fold: First, the spread shock works mainly through a boost to consumer wealth growth, while a conventional monetary policy shock affects real output growth via a broad credit / bank lending channel. Second, both shocks exhibit a distinct pattern over our sample period. More specifically, we find small output effects of a conventional monetary policy shock during the period of the global financial crisis and stronger effects in its aftermath. This might imply that when the central bank has left the policy rate unaltered for an extended period of time, a policy surprise might boost output particularly strongly. By contrast, the spread shock has affected output growth most strongly during the period of the global financial crisis and less so thereafter. This might point to diminishing effects of large scale asset purchase programs. (authors' abstrct) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

In this study we examine the dynamic interactions between credit growth and output growth using the spillover index approach of Diebold and Yilmaz (2012). Based on quarterly data on credit growth and GDP growth over the period 1957Q1 -2012Q4 for the G7 countries we find that: (i) spillovers between credit growth and GDP growth evolve rather heterogeneously over time and across countries, and increase during extreme economic events. (ii) Spillovers between credit growth and GDP growth are of bidirectional nature, indicating bidirectional spillovers of shocks between the financial and the real sector. (iii) In the period shortly before and during the global financial crisis, the link between credit growth and GDP growth becomes more pronounced. In particular, the financial sector plays a dominant role during the early stages of the crisis, while the real sector quickly takes over as the dominant source of spillovers. (iv) Interestingly, credit growth in the US is the dominant transmitter of shocks to the G7 countries, and especially to other G7 countries' real sectors in the run up period to (and during) the global financial crisis. Overall, our results suggest that the magnitude and direction of spillovers between financial cycles and business cycles vary over time along with changes in the economic environment in the G7 countries. (authors' abstract)

In this study, we examine the dynamic link between returns and volatility of commodities and currency markets. Based on weekly data over the period from January 6, 1987 to July 22, 2014, we find the following empirical regularities. First, our results suggest that the information contents of gold, silver, platinum, and the CHF/USD and GBP/USD exchange rates can help improve forecast accuracy of returns and volatilities of palladium, crude oil and the EUR/CHF and GBP/USD exchange rates. Second, gold (CHF/USD) is the dominant commodity (currency) transmitter of return and volatility spillovers to the remaining assets in our model. Third, the analysis of dynamic spillovers shows time{ and event{specific patterns. For instance, the dynamic spillover effects originating in gold and silver (platinum) returns and volatility intensified (degraded) in the period marked by the global financial crisis. After the global financial crisis, the net transmitting role of gold and silver (platinum) returns shocks weakened (strengthened), while the net transmitting role of gold, silver and platinum volatility shocks remained relatively high. Overall, our findings reveal that, while the static analysis clearly classifies the aforementioned variables into net transmitters and net receivers, the dynamic analysis denotes episodes wherein the role of transmitters and receivers of return (volatility) spillovers can be interrupted or even reversed. Hence, even if certain commonalities prevail in each identified category of commodities, such commonalities are time - and event - dependent. (authors' abstract)

This article identifies the best models for forecasting the volatility of daily exchange returns of developing countries. An emerging consensus in the recent literature focusing on industrialized countries has noted the superior performance of the Fractionally Integrated Generalized Autoregressive Conditionally Heteroscedastic (FIGARCH) model in the case of industrialized countries, a result that is reaffirmed here. However, we show that when dealing with developing countries' data the IGARCH model results in substantial gains in terms of the in-sample results and out-of-sample forecasting performance. (authors' abstract)

This paper develops a Bayesian Global VAR (GVAR) model to track the international transmission dynamics of two stylized shocks, namely a supply and demand shock to US-based safe assets. Our main findings can be summarized as follows. First, we find that (positive) supply-sided shocks lead to pronounced increases in economic activity which spills over to foreign countries. The impact of supply-sided shocks can also be seen for other quantities of interest, most notably equity prices and exchange rates in Europe. Second, a demand-sided shock leads to an appreciation of the US dollar and generally lower yields on US securities, forcing investors to shift their portfolios towards foreign fixed income securities. This yields sizable positive effects on US output, equity prices and a general decrease in financial market volatility. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series