A surface with canonical map of degree 2424

We construct a complex algebraic surface with geometric genus $p_g=3$, irregularity $q=0$, self-intersection of the canonical divisor $K^2=24$ and canonical map of degree $24$ onto $\mathbb P^2$.Comment: Minor changes, according to the Referee comments. Final versio

Strategic truth and deception

We study strategic communication in a sender-receiver gamein which the sender sends a message about the observed quality ofthe good to the receiver who may accept or reject the good without knowing the true quality or the sender's type. The game has infinitely many perfect Bayesian Nash equilibria. An equilibrium refinement identifies a unique class of equilibria that are outcome equivalent to the equilibrium in which the neutral sender always tells the truth and the biased sender adopts a feigning strategy to disguise himself by not fully exaggerating about the quality of the good.Cheap Talk, Feigning Strategy, Strategic Information Transmission.

What helps households with children in leaving poverty? Evidence from Spain

In this paper we analyse the distinct effectiveness of demographic, labour market and welfare state transfers events in promoting exits from deprivation for childbearing households in Spain, a Southern European Country with high and persistent child poverty and a familial welfare regime. We undertake a thorough analysis of outflow rates and of the effect of events on them by household types using a detailed descriptive approach and a multivariate analysis to control for household heterogeneity. We find that, contrary to the descriptive results, a multivariate approach to the estimation of the outflow rate shows that the presence of children robustly reduces household’s chances to step out of poverty. In turn, both methodologies show that the effectiveness of labour market events is somewhat lower for childbearing households while their prevalence is particularly high. Also, both the prevalence and the effectiveness of events related to the beginning of state transfers are high for households without children.children, poverty dynamics, outflow rate, Spain, trigger events.

INSTITUTIONS INFLUENCE PREFERENCES: EVIDENCE FROM A COMMON POOL RESOURCE EXPERIMENT

We model the dynamic effects of external enforcement on the exploitation of a common pool resource. Fitting our model to the results of experimental data we find that institutions influence social preferences. We solve two puzzles in the data: the increase and later erosion of cooperation when commoners vote against the imposition of a fine, and the high deterrence power of low fines. When fines are rejected, internalization of a social norm explains the increased cooperation; violations (accidental or not), coupled with reciprocal preferences, account for the erosion. Low fines stabilize cooperation by preventing a spiral of negative reciprocation.Field experiments, common pool resources, cooperation, enforcement, regulation, social preferences, social norms, learning models

DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF FOREIGN IN DEBTEDNESS IN COLOMBIAN FIRMS

During the nineties the performance of many emerging economies was linked to their access to foreign capital and its impact on the real exchange rate. Colombia was not an exception, as it experienced a sharp boom and bust cycle during the period. Although a number of studies have attempted to explain the recent underperformance of the Colombian economy, few attempts have been made at analyzing firm-level data. In this paper, we rely on information for a large sample of firms during 1995-2001 (nearly 8000 firms on average) and examine the determinants of foreign indebtedness as well as the effects on firm performance of holding dollar debt amid changes in the real exchange rate (i.e. the so called balance sheet effect"). While size is the most robust determinant of dollar indebtedness, matching seems to take place, to the extent that firms in more open sectors and exporting firms have higher shares of dollar debt. In spite of the limited amount of dollar indebtedness of Colombian firms in general, our estimations suggest there is a negative balance sheet effect on firms´ performance (i.e. on profitability). On the other hand, the interaction of dollar indebtedness with the real exchange rate is generally not significant in our investment regressions."Colombia

Social security reform, income disribution, fiscal policy, and capital accumulation

The author explores the effects a transition from a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) social security system to a fully funded system may have on income distribution, fiscal policy, and capital accumulation. The author presents a heterogeneous agent model developed to study the transition from a state-managed pay-as-you-go social security system to a privately managed fully funded system. He assumesthat agents can differ in their human capital endowments and in their access to the financial system. The author finds that, for some initial distributions, when access to the financial system is restricted for some individuals, income distribution may improve with privatization of the pension system. Where there is complete access to the financial system before reform, however, income distribution deteriorates in all cases. Regardless of the initial distributions, reform of the type described here increases the level of physical capital in the economy. But the increase will be larger the larger the fraction of the population composed of poor individuals, or the higher their level of human capital. The author also finds that different initial distributions will have different effects on the fiscal policy needed to finance reform. Similarly, different forms of reform financing will have different effects on intragenerational distribution. In the case in which government decides to maintain a constant level of debt, generations alive when the reform takes place will have lower lifetime earnings than those born after them. The author also finds that the taxes needed to pay for transitional workers'pensions will be higher when the fraction of the population with access to the financial system in the PAYG equilibrium is higher.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Fiscal&Monetary Policy,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Governance Indicators,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism

When the remedy is worse than the disease: Adjusting survey income data for price differentials, with special reference to Mozambique

In using survey data for money metric analysis of poverty and well-being, it is customary to adjust either the data or the poverty line for spatial prices differentials where data exist to make such adjustment. In developing countries where recorded price differentials between regions or provinces are large, using the remedy of adjusting for price differentials may sometimes lead to very wrong conclusions about the spatial distribution of poverty. This may have severe consequences for policy and may be detrimental to the poor. The paper deals with a specific situation, that of Mozambique, where large price differentials are said to exist between the capital (Maputo City) on the one hand, and the rest of the country. Official data that adjust for this may heavily over-estimate poverty in Maputo City, with consequences for the targeting of poverty. We use an asset index based on Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to show that the spatial poverty profile derived from the price-adjusted income data exaggerates poverty in Maputo City, and undertake further empirical analysis to show that not adjusting for the estimated spatial price differentials may have given more reliable estimates of well-being, judging by asset holdings.Mozambique, poverty, prices differentials, multiple correspondence analysis