In this paper, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm was used to design the structure-specified H ∞ loop shaping controllers for balancing of bicycle robots. The structure-specified H ∞ loop shaping controller design normally leads to a complex optimization problem. PSO is an efficient meta-heuristic search which is used to solve multi-objectives and non-convex optimizations. A model-based systematic procedure for designing the particle swarm optimization-based structure-specified H ∞ loop shaping controllers was proposed in this research. The structure of the obtained controllers are therefore simpler. The simulation and experimental results showed that the robustness and efficiency of the proposed controllers was gained when compared with the proportional plus derivative (PD) as well as conventional H ∞ loop shaping controller. The simulation results also showed a better efficiency of the developed control algorithm compared to the Genetic Algorithm based one.

This paper uses a novel variant of identification through hetroscedacity to estimate spillovers across U.S., Euro area, Japanese, and UK government bond and equity markets in a vector autoregression. The results suggest that U.S. financial shocks reverberate around the world much more strongly than shocks from other regions, including the Euro area, while inward spillovers to the U.S. from elsewhere are minimal. There is also evidence of two-way spillovers between the UK and Euro area financial markets and spillovers from Europe to Japan. The results also suggest that the uncertainty about the direction of causality of contemporaneous correlations-an issue that other techniques cannot tackle-is the dominant source of uncertainty in the estimated impulse response functions.

Event studies are used to analyze the impact of U.S. financial, fiscal, and monetary policies from US to foreign asset prices across a range of G20 countries and Switzerland. The initial announcement that the Administration supported tighter regulation of banks led to a generalized fall in advanced economy bank shares compared to local equity markets. For later Dodd-Frank announcements, however, falls in U.S. bank equity prices were accompanied by increases in U.K. and Swiss valuations, implying a potential for regulatory arbitrage. Turning to macro policies, the 2008/9 fiscal and monetary stimulus packages generally supported foreign activity, while the impact of similar stimulus in 2010 is less clear.

No abstract

No abstract