Interest rate changes and stock returns in Spain: A wavelet analysis

This paper investigates the relationship between changes in interest rates and the Spanish stock market at the industry level over the period from January 1993 to December 2012 using a wavelet-based approach. The empirical results indicate that Spanish industries exhibit, in general, a significant interest rate sensitivity, although the degree of interest rate exposure differs considerably across industries and depending on the time horizon under consideration. Inparticular,regulated industries such as Utilities, highly indebted industries such as Real Estate, Utilities or Technology and Telecommunications, and the Banking industry emerge as the most vulnerable to interest rates. Further, the link between movements in interest rates and industry equity returns is stronger at the coarsest scales. This finding is consistent with the idea that investors with long-term horizons are more likely to follow macroeconomic fundamentals, such as interest rates, in their investmen decisions

Análisis empírico del coste del tiempo dedicado a mayores dependientes

Este trabajo determina el coste de los cuidados d elas personas con dependencia. El análisis empírico muestra que el coste medio de los cuidados asciende a 33.162,32?/año

Financial Catastrophism Inherent with Out-of-Pocket Payments in Long Term Care for Households: A Latent Impoverishment

Background: Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments are configured as an important source of financing long-term care (LTC). However, very few studies have analyzed the risk of impoverishment and catastrophic effects of OOP in LTC. To estimate the contribution of users to the financing of LTC and to analyze the economic consequences for households in terms of impoverishment and catastrophism after financial crisis in Spain. Methods: The database that was used is the 2008 Spanish Disability and Dependency Survey, projected to 2012. We analyze the OOP payments effect associated to the impoverishment of households comparing volume and financial situation before and after OOP payment. At the same time, the extent to which OOP payment had led to catastrophism was analyzed using different thresholds. Results: The results show that contribution of dependent people to the financing of the services they receive exceeds by 50% the costs of these services. This expenditure entails an increase in the number of households that live below the poverty. In terms of catastrophism, more than 80% of households dedicate more than 10% of their income to dependency OOP payments. In annual terms, the catastrophe gap generated by devoting more than 10% of the household income to dependent care OOP payment reached €3955, 1 million (0.38% of GDP). Conclusion: This article informs about consequences of OOP in LCT and supplements previous research that focus on health. Our results should serve to develop strategic for protection against the financial risk resulting from facing the costs of a situation of dependence

Effectiveness of a dog-assisted therapy programme to enhance quality of life in institutionalized dementia patients

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a dog-assisted therapy intervention to enhance quality of life in persons with dementia institutionalized in a public care home and to study its effect on the use of psychotropic medications. A dog-assisted therapy intervention was designed, in which 34 residents of a public care home in Cuenca (Spain) participated. The participants were assigned to two groups, an experimental and a control group. The program consisted of one 50-min session per week during 9months. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare post-training values between groups, using baseline values as covariates. Our findings do seem to support the hypothesis that Animal-Assisted Therapy may contribute to enhancing quality of life for residents in an aged care home. However, aspects such as the format, time, and content of the sessions as well as their possibilities of reducing psychotropic medication require more research

Catastrophic Household Expenditure Associated with Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Payments in Spain

Background. The financial effect of households’ out-of-pocket payments (OOP) on access and use of health systems has been extensively studied in the literature, especially in emerging or developing countries. However, it has been the subject of little research in European countries, and is almost nonexistent after the financial crisis of 2008. The aim of the work is to analyze the incidence and intensity of financial catastrophism derived from Spanish households’ out-of-pocket payments associated with health care during the period 2008–2015. Methods. The Household Budget Survey was used and catastrophic measures were estimated, classifying the households into those above the threshold of catastrophe versus below. Three ordered logistic regression models and margins effects were estimated. Results. The results reveal that, in 2008, 4.42% of Spanish households dedicated more than 40% of their income to financing out-of-pocket payments in health, with an average annual gap of EUR 259.84 (DE: EUR 2431.55), which in overall terms amounts to EUR 3939.44 million (0.36% of GDP). Conclusion. The findings of this study reveal the existence of catastrophic households resulting from OOP payments associated with health care in Spain and the need to design financial protection policies against the financial risk derived from facing these types of costs

Catastrophic long-term care expenditure: associated socio demographic and economic factors

Objective An increasing number of persons across the world require long-term care (LTC). In Spain, access to LTC involves individuals incurring out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure. There is a large body of literature on the incidence of catastrophic OOP payments in access and participation in health systems, but not in the field of LTC nor the determinants of these expenses. Our aim was to analyse the socio-demographic and economic factors associated with different levels of catastrophic LTC expenditure in the form of private out-of-pocket payments among dependent persons in Spain. Materials and methods The study used the Spanish Disability and Dependency Survey (SDDS) conducted by the Spanish National Statistics Institute to obtain the socioeconomic, demographic and health profiles. The households were classified into those below the poverty threshold and those above the threshold of catastrophe, using measures of impoverishment and catastrophe. We estimated two logistic regression models, one binary (impoverishment) and one ordinal (catastrophe). Results The results show that OOP expenditure on LTC increases the probability of impoverishment by 18.90%. The factors associated with higher probability of experiencing catastrophe were age, being single, widowed or separated, lower levels of household income and education, higher level of dependence and living in an autonomous community with lower per capita income. Conclusions These findings highlight the need to include exemptions or insurance in the design of LTC policies to protect dependent persons from the risk of financial burden

Costs of health services associated with fruit and vegetable consumption habits.

Introducción: los buenos hábitos de alimentación, como el consumo de frutas y verduras, permiten tener una mejor salud y, consecuentemente, minorar el consumo de recursos sanitarios. Es importante establecer una asociación entre consumo de frutas y verduras y el uso de los servicios sanitarios en la población española para considerar la necesidad de intervenir. Métodos: se empleó la Encuesta Europea de Salud en España del año 2014 y, mediante la utilización de modelos Hurdle, se valoró si existían diferencias en el acceso y la frecuentación al médico de familia, especialista y urgencias, dependiendo de los hábitos de consumo de frutas y verduras. Posteriormente, mediante la técnica propensity score matching se generaron dos grupos con los que poder comparar las diferencias en la frecuentación de los servicios sanitarios dependiendo del consumo de frutas y/o verduras y otras covariables de ajuste. Finalmente, se estima el coste de dichas diferencias por grupos de consumo. Resultados: se revela la existencia de diferencias en el acceso al servicio de urgencias, tanto por los sujetos que no consumen nunca fruta como por parte de los sujetos que no consumen nunca verdura. En el primer caso hay un incremento de 420 visitas al año por cada 1.000 personas con un coste atribuible de 75.000 €, mientras que en el segundo caso se observa un incremento de 780 visitas al año por cada 1.000 personas, con un coste equivalente de 139.000 €. Conclusiones: determinados hábitos de alimentación de la población española como no consumir nunca fruta o verdura producen importantes gastos evitables en el sistema sanitario. Es de gran interés implementar políticas de prevención para minorar dichos gastos y emplear los recursos de forma adecuada./ Introduction: healthy eating habits, such as the consumption of fruits and vegetables, allow better health and, consequently, reduce the con sumption of health resources. It is important to establish a relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and the use of health services in the Spanish population to consider the need to intervene. Methods: the European Health Survey in Spain for 2014 was used, and the possible existence of differences in access and visit frequency to the family physician, specialist physician and emergency services depending on fruits and vegetables consumption habits was assessed through Hurdle models. Subsequently, two groups were generated through the propensity score matching technique in order to compare the differences in the frequenting of services depending on the consumption of fruits and/or vegetables and other adjustment covariates. Finally, the cost generated by such differences was estimated according to consumption groups. Results: there are differences in access to the emergency services, both in subjects who never consume fruit and in subjects who never consume vegetables. In the fi rst case, there is an increase of 420 visits per year for every 1,000 persons with attributable costs of €75,000, whereas in the second case, an increase of 780 visits per year for every 1,000 persons, with a cost of €139,000, is observed. Conclusions: certain eating habits of the Spanish population, such as never consuming fruits or vegetables, produce important avoidable expenses in the health system. It would be of interest to implement prevention policies to reduce such costs and use resources appropriately

Gasto público en visitas a servicios sanitarios ocasionados por los hábitos de alimentación de personas mayores

Los hábitos de alimentación en las personas mayores constituyen un factor a tener en cuenta a la hora de analizar la calidad de vida. El objetivo del presente trabajo es valorar los costes sanitarios derivados de las visitas a servicios de salud y hospitalizaciones ocasionados por los hábitos de alimentación de las personas mayores. Para ello se utilizó la Encuesta Europea de Salud en España de 2014, y a través de diferentes modelos se observa la asociación estadísticamente significativa entre el número de visitas a urgencias y el incumplimiento de unos criterios mínimos de alimentación saludable. El gasto público total anual estimado de dichas visitas asciende a 731M€, de los que el 5,6% podría ser debido a una alimentación no saludable

La renta fija arriesgada en España: situación y factores que influyen en la formación de precios

El mercado de renta fija arriesgada es uno de los que cuentan con mayores posibilidades de crecimiento, constituyendo una pieza fundamental para el buen funcionamiento del sistema financiero español en el futuro. A lo largo de la década de los noventa este mercado ha experimentado una profunda transformación para adecuarse a las nuevas necesidades. El objetivo de este trabajo es ofrecer un mayor y mejor conocimiento de este mercado que facilite su uso por emisores e inversores. Así, en la primera parte del artículo se analiza la situación de la renta fija arriesgada en España y en la segunda se recogen los factores que influyen en el precio de los activos sujetos al riesgo de insolvencia, como paso previo para profundizar en su valoración y en la gestión de carteras que contengan dichos activos

La gestión del riesgo de interés de renta fija sujetos al riesgo de insolvencia.

El objetivo de la tesis es analizar el efecto que tiene la inclusión del riesgo de insolvencia y su efecto en el riesgo de interés, analizar el efecto de la inclusión de activos sujetos al riesgo de insolvencia en la gestión del riesgo de interés, y aportar herramientas y modelos validos para la gestión de carteras que contengan dichos activos y sean apropiados al mercado español. Para alcanzar los objetivos descritos, el trabajo de investigación se ha estructurado en tres partes que comprende seis capítulos, destinándose un capitulo adicional a las conclusiones. La primera de ellas, se dedica a la descripción de los mercados de renta fija arriesgada de España, los aspectos claves de este mercado y una clasificación de los modelos de valoración de activos que incorporan el riesgo de insolvencia. La segunda parte estudia la gestión del riesgo de interés para carteras de rente fija arriesgada, a través de los distintos modelos que utilizan la duración arriesgada como herramienta útil. A partir de las limitaciones que tiene el uso de la duración, que considera movimientos paralelos de la estructura temporal de los tipos de interés y variaciones de pequeño tamaño en los mismos, se propone un modelo alternativo que supera las limitaciones de la duración de tercera parte, de naturaleza empírica, se aplica al modelo propuesto al mercado español utilizando distintas metodologías. De esta manera se determina si la sensibilidad de los bonos arriesgados del mercado español durante el periodo analizado, frente a las variaciones de los tipos de interés, es mayor o menor que la de los títulos no sujetos al riesgo de insolvencia