Inflation, Market Structure and Globalization. A Sectoral Study for Mexico

This article discusses the importance of market structure as a determinant of inflation. The research analyzes part of those called „necessary structural reforms” announced in recent years in Mexico. Taking into account the long tradition in openness generated in recent decades, I capture the sectoral level differences between openness and competition by considering 15 of 23 manufacturing sectors into the OECD industrial classification over the period 1990-2009. Estimations using panel data models shows that openness has a positive effect on inflation, this is, firms that import the most tend to increase the costs on their final products. However, inflation decreases when market competition increase

El rezago social en áreas metropolitanas de México

En México existen grandes lagunas en la producción y análisis de datos a nivel de pequeña escala territorial. Este trabajo propone una metodología que permite estimar el grado de rezago social para las manzanas de las áreas metropolitanas de México. Se retoma la propuesta del Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social (Coneval) y se utiliza el Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010 para ejemplificar su uso para el área metropolitana de Monterrey. Se ofrecen dos versiones complementarias y se encuentra que, en ambos casos, la proporción de la población que sufre de un grado de rezago social muy alto es considerablemente mayor a la presentada por el Coneval. ABSTRACT Large gaps exist in Mexico about production and analysis of smallscale territorial units. The paper addresses a new methodology for estimating the social backwardness for blocks of the metropolitan areas in Mexico. Based on The National Council for Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval) methodology and using the 2010 Population and Housing Census, as an example, we estimate the index of social backwardness for blocks in the Monterrey metropolitan area. We have implemented two versions to compute the index and both of them suggest the rate of the population suffering from Very High social backwardness is substantially different rate from that presented by Coneva

The Natural Gas Cash-Out Problem: A Bilevel Optimal Control Approach

The aim of this paper is threefold: first, it formulates the natural gas cash-out problem as a bilevel optimal control problem (BOCP); second, it provides interesting theoretical results about Pontryagin-type optimality conditions for a general BOCP where the upper level boasts a Mayer-type cost function and pure state constraints, while the lower level is a finite-dimensional mixed-integer programming problem with exactly one binary variable; and third, it applies these theoretical results in order to find possible local minimizers of the natural gas cash-out problem

Demonstrating engineering schools’ commitment to the achievement of the SDGs: The ALCAEUS Evaluation Program / 2030 Agenda. A case study

ALCAEUS is a voluntary evaluation scheme developed by the Spanish agency ACPUA, designed to provide visibility to institutions and centers that demonstrate commitment and contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) / 2030 Agenda. It is a pioneering international external evaluation program within the European Higher Education Area, open to faculties and schools that have successfully undergone an IQAS certification review (institutional accreditation). The ALCAEUS pilot program was carried out last year and two Engineering Schools (Escuela de Ingeniería y Arquitectura and Escuela Politécnica Superior) of the University of Zaragoza (Spain) participated in it. The evaluation was based on a site visit conducted by an international review team. The two schools demonstrated a firm commitment to SDGs and were awarded a 2030 Agenda quality label valid for 6 years