Finance for a sustainable world. Three essays on sustainable finance.

111 p.This thesis is made up of three essays on sustainable finance, which aim to make a little contribution tothe environmental and social well-being of our world and the society as a whole. The order of thechapters follows the logical development of improvements in this area within sustainable finance:First, ESG data are needed. Companies are one of the main actors in the economy and can play a big rolein the achievement (or non-achievement) of sustainability. Therefore, we need companies to report ESGinformation. To learn how to foster the process of improvement in ESG reporting, we need to analyse thefactors that make wider reporting possible. In my study I find that reporting patterns are different forenvironmental and social information and governance information.Second, once data are available, they must be processed, because rough data are not very useful as a basisfor decision-making. Therefore, Chapter 2 proposes two measures: the Relative Sustainable PerformanceMeasure (RSPM) and the Measure of Commitment-failure (MC), which permit sustainable decisionmaking taking not just financial but environmental and social variables into consideration.Finally, it is also important to know whether those measures are actually being used in the real world. InChapter 3, I test whether credit ratings take the above-mentioned measures into account. I find thatcompanies with higher sustainability performance levels tend to have higher credit ratings, thoughperforming less consistently over time seems to have no effect

Do Credit Ratings Take into Account the Sustainability Performance of Companies?

In the last few decades, sustainability performance measuring has become a widely-studied issue, and various measurement proposals have been put forward. However, it is also important to know whether those measures are actually being used in the real world. In this case, we take one very important indicator used by investors when they make investment decisions: the credit rating of the potential investment. We test whether credit ratings take into account the above-mentioned measures. Following the literature, we conduct a fixed-effects ordered probit analysis, using as controls the variables usually found in the related literature on credit rating analysis. The dependent variables are S&P ratings. We find that companies with higher sustainability performance tend to have higher credit ratings, though having a less consistent performance over time seems to have no effect. To check the robustness of our results, we also perform the analysis for different sectors and sub-periods. In addition, we conduct the analysis using sustainability scores provided by ASSET4 (Datastream) as an explanatory variable and using Fitch credit ratings as the explained variable.M.C.-D. acknowledges research support from the University of the Basque Country, Grants PIF/UPV/12/258 and MOV 16/41. M.A.M.S. acknowledges support from the Basque Government, Grant IT-241-07. Both authors acknowledge research support from the Ministry of Economy and Competitivity, Grant ECO2014-51914-P

Finance for a sustainable world. Three essays on sustainable finance.

111 p.This thesis is made up of three essays on sustainable finance, which aim to make a little contribution tothe environmental and social well-being of our world and the society as a whole. The order of thechapters follows the logical development of improvements in this area within sustainable finance:First, ESG data are needed. Companies are one of the main actors in the economy and can play a big rolein the achievement (or non-achievement) of sustainability. Therefore, we need companies to report ESGinformation. To learn how to foster the process of improvement in ESG reporting, we need to analyse thefactors that make wider reporting possible. In my study I find that reporting patterns are different forenvironmental and social information and governance information.Second, once data are available, they must be processed, because rough data are not very useful as a basisfor decision-making. Therefore, Chapter 2 proposes two measures: the Relative Sustainable PerformanceMeasure (RSPM) and the Measure of Commitment-failure (MC), which permit sustainable decisionmaking taking not just financial but environmental and social variables into consideration.Finally, it is also important to know whether those measures are actually being used in the real world. InChapter 3, I test whether credit ratings take the above-mentioned measures into account. I find thatcompanies with higher sustainability performance levels tend to have higher credit ratings, thoughperforming less consistently over time seems to have no effect

Situación actual de la Educación Básica de Adultos en la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca y establecimiento de bases para su promoción desde la perspectiva de la Educación Permanente

Analizar la situacion actual de la Educación de Adultos en la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca y su evolución desde la Ley de Educación de 1970. 281 profesores de la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca pertenecientes tanto al ámbito público como privado, y 789 alumnos que asisten a centros de EPA de dicha Comunidad en el año 1984-85. Estudio descriptivo dividido en cinco grandes apartados: el primer capítulo está dedicado a aclaraciones conceptuales, en el segundo capítulo se lleva a cabo un estudio de la Educación de Adultos tanto en lo relativo a los centros y alumnado, como al desarrollo legislativo, en el tercer capítulo se expone la tipología psicosocial del alumnmo-adulto y las funciones a desarrollar por el formador de adultos, el cuarto capítulo integra el proceso y resultados de una investigación entorno a los motivos, proceso instructivo, intereses y expectativas tanto de los profesores como de los alumnos, siendo las variables estudiadas similares, con el fin de comparar los resultados aportados por dos perspectivas diferenciadas -profesor/alumno-, y el último capítulo responde al intento de marcar líneas abiertas al futuro a corto y largo plazo en materia de adultos. Dos inventarios: uno para los profesores y otro para los alumnos. Tablas de contingencia, análisis de correspondencias, Cluster jerárquico. El tratamiento de datos fué realizado por un ordenador Fujitsu 400-M3, utilizándose el paquete Estin. De un total de 281 profesores pertenecientes a las tres provincias, se observa que el 53,3 por ciento -150- son profesores definitivos en Educación Permanente de Adultos, un 27 por ciento -76- son interinos, un 5,3 por ciento -15- son contratados y un 6 por ciento -17- se encuentran en otras situaciones. De un total de 789 alumnos, el 63,9 por ciento cursan sus estudios en Vizcaya, el 21,3 por ciento en Álava y el 14,8 por ciento en Guipúzcoa. Sobre los estudios que realizan actualmente los alumnos se observa que un 60,3 por ciento se encuentra en graduado, un 1 por ciento en alfabetización, un 8,7 por ciento en neolectura, un 14,6 por ciento en certificado y un 13,7 por ciento en pregraduado. Mencionar algunos temas que a lo largo del trabajo han ido surgiendo, no pudiendo abordarlos por exceder de los objetivos preestablecidos, pero que sería interesante trabajar sobre ellos: propuestas curriculares para los distintos niveles de la Educación de Adultos, análisis cuantitativo y cualitativo del éxito y/o fracaso de los adultos en los niveles de Enseñanza Media, etc.. Fecha finalización tomada del código del documento.País VascoES

Global variation in postoperative mortality and complications after cancer surgery: a multicentre, prospective cohort study in 82 countries

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licenseBackground: 80% of individuals with cancer will require a surgical procedure, yet little comparative data exist on early outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared postoperative outcomes in breast, colorectal, and gastric cancer surgery in hospitals worldwide, focusing on the effect of disease stage and complications on postoperative mortality. Methods: This was a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of consecutive adult patients undergoing surgery for primary breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer requiring a skin incision done under general or neuraxial anaesthesia. The primary outcome was death or major complication within 30 days of surgery. Multilevel logistic regression determined relationships within three-level nested models of patients within hospitals and countries. Hospital-level infrastructure effects were explored with three-way mediation analyses. This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03471494. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and Jan 31, 2019, we enrolled 15 958 patients from 428 hospitals in 82 countries (high income 9106 patients, 31 countries; upper-middle income 2721 patients, 23 countries; or lower-middle income 4131 patients, 28 countries). Patients in LMICs presented with more advanced disease compared with patients in high-income countries. 30-day mortality was higher for gastric cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (adjusted odds ratio 3·72, 95% CI 1·70–8·16) and for colorectal cancer in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (4·59, 2·39–8·80) and upper-middle-income countries (2·06, 1·11–3·83). No difference in 30-day mortality was seen in breast cancer. The proportion of patients who died after a major complication was greatest in low-income or lower-middle-income countries (6·15, 3·26–11·59) and upper-middle-income countries (3·89, 2·08–7·29). Postoperative death after complications was partly explained by patient factors (60%) and partly by hospital or country (40%). The absence of consistently available postoperative care facilities was associated with seven to 10 more deaths per 100 major complications in LMICs. Cancer stage alone explained little of the early variation in mortality or postoperative complications. Interpretation: Higher levels of mortality after cancer surgery in LMICs was not fully explained by later presentation of disease. The capacity to rescue patients from surgical complications is a tangible opportunity for meaningful intervention. Early death after cancer surgery might be reduced by policies focusing on strengthening perioperative care systems to detect and intervene in common complications. Funding: National Institute for Health Research Global Health Research Unit

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licenseBackground: Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide. Methods: A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study—a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital. Findings: Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3·85 [95% CI 2·58–5·75]; p<0·0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63·0% vs 82·7%; OR 0·35 [0·23–0·53]; p<0·0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer. Interpretation: Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised. Funding: National Institute for Health and Care Research