Lending relationships and credit rationing: the impact of securitization

Do lending relationships mitigate credit rationing? Does securitization influence the impact of lending relationships on credit rationing? If so, is its impact differently in normal periods versus crisis periods? This paper combines several unique data sets to address these questions. Employing a disequilibrium model to identify credit rationing, we find that more intense lending relationships, measured through their length and lower number, considerable improve credit supply and reduce the degree of credit rationing. In general, we find that a relationship with a bank that is more involved in securitization activities relaxes credit constraints in normal periods; however, it also increases credit rationing during crisis periods. Finally, we study the impact of different types of securitization – covered bonds and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) – on credit rationing. While both types of securitization reduce credit rationing in normal periods, the issuance of MBS by a firm’s main bank aggravates these firm’s credit rationing in crisis periods.lending relationships;financial crisis;securitization

A critical analysis of Peru's HIV grant proposals to the Global Fund.

Peru has applied to six of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) rounds for funding, achieving success on four occasions. The process of proposal development has, however, been criticised, especially concerning the use of evidence, relevance/consistency and performance indicators. We aimed to analyse the Peruvian Global Fund proposals according to those dimensions, providing feedback to improve future local efforts and inform global discussions around Global Fund procedures. We analysed the content of four HIV-focused proposals (rounds 2, 5, 6 and 8) regarding epidemic context, needs identification and prioritisation and monitoring and evaluation systems. Peruvian proposals submitted after round 1 were described as resulting from collaborative inputs involving formerly unrepresented sectors, principally 'vulnerable populations'. However, difficulties arose regarding the amount and quality of evidence about the epidemiological context; limited consideration of social determinants of the epidemic; lack of theory-driven interventions, and little synergy across projects and the inclusion of weak monitoring and evaluation systems, with poor indicators and measurement procedures. Prioritising the development of analytical and technical skills to generate Global Fund proposals would enhance the country's capacity to produce and utilise evidence, improve the technical-political interface, strengthen information systems and lead to more informed decision making and accountability

Bank lending, financing constraints and SME investment

SME investment opportunities depend on the level of financing constraints that firms face. Earlier research has mainly focused on the controversial argument that cash flow-investment correlations increase with the level of these constraints. We focus on bank loans rather than cash flow. Our results show that investment is sensitive to bank loans for unconstrained firms but not for constrained firms, and trade credit predicts investment, but only for constrained firms. We also find that unconstrained firms use bank loans to finance trade credit provided to other firms. Our results illustrate alternative mechanisms that firms employ both as borrowers and lenders.Bank loans ; Investments

MGS accelerometer data analysis with the LMD GCM

Mars Global Surveyor aerobreaking phases, required to achieve its mapping orbit, have yielded vertical profiles of thermospheric densities, scale heights and temperatures covering a broad range of local times, seasons and spatial coordinates [Keating et al. 1998, 2001]. Phase I covered local times from 11 to 16 h (assuming 24 "martian hours” per martian day or sols), with a latitude coverage of approximately 40deg to 60deg N. Seasons observed during this phase were centered around winter solstice and altitudes of periapsis range from 115 to 135 km. The altitudes for Phase II were lower, with a minimum around 100 km and a maximum around 120. Martian spring was the season covered during this phase and the local time was between 15 and 16 h. The latitude covered by Phase II, however, was more extense than that seen during Phase I, with a coverage from 60deg N to basically the South Pole

Sustainable growth in complex networks

Based on the empirical analysis of the dependency network in 18 Java projects, we develop a novel model of network growth which considers both: an attachment mechanism and the addition of new nodes with a heterogeneous distribution of their initial degree, $k_0$. Empirically we find that the cumulative degree distributions of initial degrees and of the final network, follow power-law behaviors: $P(k_{0}) \propto k_{0}^{1-\alpha}$, and $P(k)\propto k^{1-\gamma}$, respectively. For the total number of links as a function of the network size, we find empirically $K(N)\propto N^{\beta}$, where $\beta$ is (at the beginning of the network evolution) between 1.25 and 2, while converging to $\sim 1$ for large $N$. This indicates a transition from a growth regime with increasing network density towards a sustainable regime, which revents a collapse because of ever increasing dependencies. Our theoretical framework is able to predict relations between the exponents $\alpha$, $\beta$, $\gamma$, which also link issues of software engineering and developer activity. These relations are verified by means of computer simulations and empirical investigations. They indicate that the growth of real Open Source Software networks occurs on the edge between two regimes, which are either dominated by the initial degree distribution of added nodes, or by the preferential attachment mechanism. Hence, the heterogeneous degree distribution of newly added nodes, found empirically, is essential to describe the laws of sustainable growth in networks.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Towards a global model of the martian atmosphere

In an effort to continuously improve the capabilities of the Martian atmospheric predictions at LMD, the GCM has been extended into thermospheric heights thus creating the first model to self-consistently couple the lower and upper regions of the Martian atmosphere. The behaviour of the Martian thermosphere is strongly influenced by lower atmospheric processes and has complex dynamics. Such a fully coupled model will certainly aid in the preparation of future missions and on the analysis of future high altitude data, as well as serve as a base for the simulation of ionospheric processes, escape, etc

Controlling Excitations Inversion of a Cooper Pair Box Interacting with a Nanomechanical Resonator

We investigate the action of time dependent detunings upon the excitation inversion of a Cooper pair box interacting with a nanomechanical resonator. The method employs the Jaynes-Cummings model with damping, assuming different decay rates of the Cooper pair box and various fixed and t-dependent detunings. It is shown that while the presence of damping plus constant detunings destroy the collapse/revival effects, convenient choices of time dependent detunings allow one to reconstruct such events in a perfect way. It is also shown that the mean excitation of the nanomechanical resonator is more robust against damping of the Cooper pair box for convenient values of t-dependent detunings.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Modeling of the general circulation with the LMD-AOPP-IAA GCM: Update on model design and comparison with observations

The LMD-AOPP GCM is developed conjointly by LMD in Paris and AOPP in Oxford, with the collaboration of IAA in Granada for the physical processes specific to the upper atmosphere. The collaboration between the two teams is based on the use of two different dynamical core (gridpoint at LMD, spectral at AOPP), which allow us to estimate the likely uncertainty arising from certain types of modeling errors. Similarly, we use different schemes to compute tracer transport, etc. The work has benefited from support from ESA (since 1995) and CNES (since 2000). Within that context, the GCMs are used to produce a Martian climate 'database' which is used by more than 30 teams around the world for mission design and scientific studies (see Bingham et al., this issue and Lewis et al., 1999). The baseline version of the GCM is described in detail in Forget et al. (1999). Here we describe the recent improvement and design changes since this publication. Compared to this previous version, the new GCM covers a wider range of altitude, from 0 to 120km in the vertical, it uses improved topography and thermal inertia surface maps from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), and includes a new 'dust scenario' to describe the distribution of airborne dust in the atmosphere

Osteosarcoma extraesquelético. Caso clínico.

El osteosarcoma extraesquelético es un tumor maligno de partes blandas poco frecuente. Es una causa rara de osificación en partes blandas que se distingue de otras entidades por las características clínicas, los estudios de imagen y los exámenes anatomopatológicos. Presentamos un caso clínico en un varón de 64 años, a nivel de muslo. Se realiza una revisión de la bibliografía, señalando las principales características de esta entidad.Extraskeletal osteosarcoma is a rare malignant soft-tissue neoplasm. The clinical feature, imaging studies findings and histologic patterns allow the diferential diagno- sis with other entities. We report a case of a 64 years old man who had this tumour in his thigh. We make a review of litera- ture