An agency model for trade credit policy

Documento de Trabajo 03/05 perteneciente a la colección de documentos de trabajo "Nuevas Tendencias en Dirección de Empresas", dentro del Máster en Investigación en Economía y Empresa.[EN]This article proposes an agency model to explain the trade credit offer to clients. Our model is based on the existence of asymmetric information between sellers and buyers, which results in the appearance of two phenomena known as adverse selection and moral hazard. The former has already been explored by other authors, but not the latter, i.e., the possibility of the buyer not paying the provider. The results obtained indicate that days of sales outstanding of firms are positively related to adverse selection and negatively related to moral hazard. In order to test the moral hazard hypothesis, we use three variables: variable cost, demand elasticity and bad debts. Variable cost and demand elasticity present the expected relation, but bad debts only presents the negative expected relation at low levels, which suggests that when a firm presents high levels of bad debts the risk of the portfolio of clients is also high. In this case, the clients are more likely to present a low liquidity situation and consequently do not take advantage of the use of cash discounts. Traditional models are also tested and compared with the proposed model. We did not find evidence to support tax theory or to support the operational argument of transaction cost theory. We find weak evidence to support the liquidity theory, while the asymmetric information theory was confirmed. A comparison between the agency model proposed and traditional models concluded that the Agency model reached better results in the explanation of the subject of study.This article proposes an agency model to explain the trade credit offer to clients. Our model is based on the existence of asymmetric information between sellers and buyers, which results in the appearance of two phenomena known as adverse selection and moral hazard. The former has already been explored by other authors, but not the latter, i.e., the possibility of the buyer not paying the provider. The results obtained indicate that days of sales outstanding of firms are positively related to adverse selection and negatively related to moral hazard. In order to test the moral hazard hypothesis, we use three variables: variable cost, demand elasticity and bad debts. Variable cost and demand elasticity present the expected relation, but bad debts only presents the negative expected relation at low levels, which suggests that when a firm presents high levels of bad debts the risk of the portfolio of clients is also high. In this case, the clients are more likely to present a low liquidity situation and consequently do not take advantage of the use of cash discounts. Traditional models are also tested and compared with the proposed model. We did not find evidence to support tax theory or to support the operational argument of transaction cost theory. We find weak evidence to support the liquidity theory, while the asymmetric information theory was confirmed. A comparison between the agency model proposed and traditional models concluded that the Agency model reached better results in the explanation of the subject of study

Automatic camera pose initialization, using scale, rotation and luminance invariant natural feature tracking

The solution to the camera registration and tracking problem serves Augmented Reality, in order to provide an enhancement to the user’s cognitive perception of the real world and his/her situational awareness. By analyzing the five most representative tracking and feature detection techniques, we have concluded that the Camera Pose Initialization (CPI) problem, a relevant sub-problem in the overall camera tracking problem, is still far from being solved using straightforward and non-intrusive methods. The assessed techniques often use user inputs (i.e. mouse clicking) or auxiliary artifacts (i.e. fiducial markers) to solve the CPI problem. This paper presents a novel approach to real-time scale, rotation and luminance invariant natural feature tracking, in order to solve the CPI problem using totally automatic procedures. The technique is applicable for the case of planar objects with arbitrary topologies and natural textures, and can be used in Augmented Reality. We also present a heuristic method for feature clustering, which has revealed to be efficient and reliable. The presented work uses this novel feature detection technique as a baseline for a real-time and robust planar texture tracking algorithm, which combines optical flow, backprojection and template matching techniques. The paper presents also performance and precision results of the proposed technique

Fully Automated Texture Tracking Based on Natural Features Extraction and Template Matching

ACE 134In this work we propose a novel approach to real-time texture tracking and registration, based on natural feature extraction from planar objects and template matching, Our method is oriented to planar objects with arbitrary textures but with rectangular topologies and well contrasted contours and does not require any external fiducial marker, either for the set-up or the tracking phases. Once the initial pose condition is obtained, previous planar object information is used to compute subsequent planar object’s pose, so that the time coherence of the input video stream is exploited. Our system is completely automated and produces real-time efficient tracking which can be applied to entertainment AR applications and other. The paper discusses also the novelty of the approach, in relation to other existing texture tracking algorithms.ADETTI/ISCT

África, el continente olvidado

Contiene: Actuaciones sobre el terreno (p. 6).-- La UC3M coopera con África (p. 7).-- Entrevista José Antonio Bastos (pp. 9-11).-- Entrevista Rafael Bengoa (pp. 12-13).-- Entrevista Susanna Griso (pp. 14-15

Musicalidade e ambientalismo na redescoberta do Eldorado e Caraíba: uma Antropologia do encontro Raoni-Sting

ln 1989, Raoni, Chief of the Txukahamae Indians of Brazil, and the rock star Sting traveled to Europe to raise funds for the protection of Indian rights in the Amazon. Thereafter, Raoni appeared in concerts with Sting and other popular music celebrities. ln this context, music appears as the signifier of a language that has in environmentalism its meanings. Ethically, thes encounters problematized the authenticity of their participants, while politically they raised the question of national sove reignty in the Amazon. This picture will be exarnined as an encounler between two socio-cultural uni erses through music; the capitalist Western nation/states and the Xinguano- Txukahainae. In the former, popular music will be exarnined as the codifier of individualist-universalist ideology. in the second, music will be seen as linked to politics. An analysis of Raoni's shamanic status will provide evidence of this Xinguano pertinence. The paper intends to contribute to the ethnography of the colonial encounter, seeing contradiction as its basic rationale.Em 1989. o chefe txukahamãe Raoni e o superstar Sting víajaram à Europa para levantar fundos para a proteção dos direitos indígenas na Amazônia. A partir daí, Raoni participou de show com Sting e outros músicos populares. Nesses, a musicalidade é o significante e o ambientalismo significado, num cenário onde a indústria do show business é proeminente e o Brasil é o sexto mercado fonográfico. O texto aborda o quadro como um encontro de dois universos socioculturais por meio da música: o sistema das Nações-Estados Ocidentais e o indígena xinguense. No primeiro, vê-se a música popular como codificadora da ideologia individualista-universalista. No segundo , evidencia-se a ligação da música com a política, estudando-se o acesso de Raoni a esta interconexão via xamanismo. A comunicação pretende contribuir para a etnografia do encontro colonial enquanto relação de contradição

GEOGRAFIA EXISTENCIALISTA: NOTAS PARA UMA FENOMENOLOGIA DA HUMANIDADE

Emerge nas últimas décadas no pensamento geográfico estudos voltados a decifrar fielmente as emoções, os significados e as representações que “contemplam” a condição existencial do homem-no-mundo. Este trabalho tem sido feito – especialmente – através dos geógrafos humanistas a partir de um sorteio teórico fundamentado na fenomenologia e no existencialismo. Com efeito, não economizaram um pensamento livre e engajado, para buscar geograficidades sobre uma geografia vivida em ato. Sem dúvida, foram eles quem melhor protagonizaram uma relação consistente entre Geografia e Filosofia; entre Geografia e Literatura. Aqui objetivamos apreender as proposições a partir de uma perspectiva existencialista, trabalhos que neste sentido não são muitos e ficando a cargo de poucos geógrafos

An alternative one parameter triangular distribution

Triangular distributions are well known but not so widely studied in the specialized literature. Despite of having few applications, triangular distributions are useful in finances, econometrics, risk analysis and hydraulics. However, triangular distributions are usually conceived using two or more parameters, what gives them flexibility but turns them less parsimonious, mainly for small samples. For that reason, this paper brings a new alternative of parsimonious triangular distribution