Reserves Over the Transitions to Floating and to Inflation Targeting: Lessons From the Developed World

This paper highlights the evolution of official international reserves in developed countries that transited towards Inflation Targeting (IT) and/or floating exchange rates. We find several results that are of interest to policymakers in emerging countries, such as Brazil, Chile and Mexico, which have revamped their monetary and exchange rate arrangements along those lines. First, the adoption of a floating exchange rate and an IT framework are associated with a persistent 10% to 20% reduction in real official reserves held at the Central Bank. Second, this reduction in official reserves corresponds mainly to a reallocation of international liquidity towards the private financial sector, that accommodates part of the effect on the level or composition of the net foreign asset position of the countries. Third, there is a clear change in the correlation between interest rate differentials and the dynamics of official reserves, strongly supporting the Mundell-Fleming result regarding the exogeneity of money supply under floating exchange rates. Fourth, the latter also shows that, once constraints on exchange rate volatility are removed, the stock of reserves can be determined independently by the Central Bank, according to cost-benefit analysis, without hindering the credibility of the combination of a floating regime and inflation targeting.

The structural assembly switch of cell division protein FtsZ probed with fluorescent allosteric inhibitors

FtsZ is a widely conserved tubulin-like GTPase that directs bacterial cell division and a new target for antibiotic discovery. This protein assembly machine cooperatively polymerizes forming single-stranded filaments, by means of self-switching between inactive and actively associating monomer conformations. The structural switch mechanism was proposed to involve a movement of the C-terminal and N-terminal FtsZ domains, opening a cleft between them, allosterically coupled to the formation of a tight association interface between consecutive subunits along the filament. The effective antibacterial benzamide PC190723 binds into the open interdomain cleft and stabilizes FtsZ filaments, thus impairing correct formation of the FtsZ ring for cell division. We have designed fluorescent analogs of PC190723 to probe the FtsZ structural assembly switch. Among them, nitrobenzoxadiazole probes specifically bind to assembled FtsZ rather than to monomers. Probes with several spacer lengths between the fluorophore and benzamide moieties suggest a binding site extension along the interdomain cleft. These probes label FtsZ rings of live Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus, without apparently modifying normal cell morphology and growth, but at high concentrations they induce impaired bacterial division phenotypes typical of benzamide antibacterials. During the FtsZ assembly-disassembly process, the fluorescence anisotropy of the probes changes upon binding and dissociating from FtsZ, thus reporting open and closed FtsZ interdomain clefts. Our results demonstrate the structural mechanism of the FtsZ assembly switch, and suggest that the probes bind into the open clefts in cellular FtsZ polymers preferably to unassembled FtsZ in the bacterial cytosol

Herramientas para la mitigación de riesgos financieros para proyectos para prestación de servicios (PPS) a nivel estatal

Presentación expuesta durante el tercer Encuentro Técnico sobre la Estructuración de Proyectos de Asociación Público-Privada, llevado a cabo en Mérida, Yucatán, México, el 20, 21 y 22 de enero de 2010. Desde 2005, Protego Finanzas Públicas e Infraestructura (FPI) está involucrado en el desarrollo de Proyectos para Prestación de Servicios (PPS) en las entidades federativas. FPI ha asesorado a la mayoría de los estados que han adecuado su marco jurídico para permitir el desarrollo de PPS. El objetivo de esta presentación es describir los mecanismos bajo los cuales se desarrollan los Proyectos para Prestación de Servicios. Se incluyen los riesgos financieros asociados a este esquema, riesgos de cobro, riesgos de pago y otros temas relevantes a estas asociaciones

Micro-econometric studies of how government programs affect labor supply and saving in Mexico

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, c1999.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis analyzes the micro-economic effects of different government programs on the savings and labor supply behavior of Mexican households and individuals. The first two chapters deal with household saving behavior and government intervention. Chapter 1 assesses the impact of increasing financial access on low-income people saving rates and on different informal savings instruments. It considers an exogenous expansion of a Mexican savings institute that targets low-income people and uses the 1992 and 1994 National Surveys of Income and Expenditures. Results show that the expansion increased the average saving rate of affected households by more than 3 to almost 5 percentage points of income. Evidence of crowding out of informal savings instruments caused by the expansion is limited. Chapter 2 investigates the effects of the country's financial reform in the early 1990's on households' saving rates. It uses the 1989 and 1992 Mexican National Surveys of Income and Expenditures. Households had different degrees of exposure to the financial reform depending on their income level and location. Results indicate that households located in cities, which are more likely to have financial intermediaries, reduced their saving rate significantly after the financial reform. The effects were significantly stronger among richer households. Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the financial reform reduced borrowing constraints among younger households. Finally, chapter 3 evaluates the effects of a Mexican training program of the unemployment spells of trainees. This program consists of training courses on several types of activities. Non-parametric estimations and different hazard rate models are estimated. To tackle selection biases, a propensity score procedure was calculated. Parametric results for the complete database show that training increaser. the hazard rate of leaving unemployment by 20 percent to 60 percent, depending on the type of training. Average effects hide substantial variation among men and women. The training effect is in general non-significant for men, while it is highly significant for women.by Fernando Aportela.Ph.D

Herramientas para la mitigación de riesgos financieros para proyectos para prestación de servicios (PPS) a nivel estatal

Presentación expuesta durante el tercer Encuentro Técnico sobre la Estructuración de Proyectos de Asociación Público-Privada, llevado a cabo en Mérida, Yucatán, México, el 20, 21 y 22 de enero de 2010. Desde 2005, Protego Finanzas Públicas e Infraestructura (FPI) está involucrado en el desarrollo de Proyectos para Prestación de Servicios (PPS) en las entidades federativas. FPI ha asesorado a la mayoría de los estados que han adecuado su marco jurídico para permitir el desarrollo de PPS. El objetivo de esta presentación es describir los mecanismos bajo los cuales se desarrollan los Proyectos para Prestación de Servicios. Se incluyen los riesgos financieros asociados a este esquema, riesgos de cobro, riesgos de pago y otros temas relevantes a estas asociaciones

Efectos de los ciclos de crédito en México sobre la tasa de ahorro de los hogares, 1989-1996

This paper deals with households saving behavior during 1989-1996, when Mexico experienced a financial reform and a financial crisis. This work considers explicitly the role of fragmented financial markets in the country. Using the Mexican National Surveys of Income and Expenditures, it is shown that households had different degrees of exposure to the financial market depending on their income level and location. Specifically, the paper analyzes the effects of the credit expansion of the early 1990’s and the credit contraction after the financial crisis at the end of 1994 in Mexico, on the households’ saving rate. In the financial reform case, results indicate that households with greater exposure to the financial system reduced their saving rate after the reform. This effect was stronger among younger households. In the case of the credit contraction, results show that households with higher access to the financial system increased their saving rate. In the former event, the effect was stronger among older households. This indicates different motives for the changes in the saving rate in the two episodes.fragmented financial markets; credit; households’ savings

Herramientas para la mitigación de riesgos financieros para proyectos para prestación de servicios (PPS) a nivel estatal

Presentación expuesta durante el tercer Encuentro Técnico sobre la Estructuración de Proyectos de Asociación Público-Privada, llevado a cabo en Mérida, Yucatán, México, el 20, 21 y 22 de enero de 2010. Desde 2005, Protego Finanzas Públicas e Infraestructura (FPI) está involucrado en el desarrollo de Proyectos para Prestación de Servicios (PPS) en las entidades federativas. FPI ha asesorado a la mayoría de los estados que han adecuado su marco jurídico para permitir el desarrollo de PPS. El objetivo de esta presentación es describir los mecanismos bajo los cuales se desarrollan los Proyectos para Prestación de Servicios. Se incluyen los riesgos financieros asociados a este esquema, riesgos de cobro, riesgos de pago y otros temas relevantes a estas asociaciones.Alianzas público-privadas, Riesgo financiero, Sector público