Firm Dynamics and Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations: Does Trade Openness Matter? Evidence from Mexico’s Manufacturing Sector

In this paper we study the effect of NAFTA on the responsiveness of Mexican economy to real exchange rate shocks. We argue that, by opening the U.S. and Canadian markets to Mexican goods, NAFTA made it easier for domestic producers to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the depreciation of the real exchange rate. To identify this mechanism, we use plant-level data and compare the behavior of employment, production and investment after two big real exchange rate shocks: the first observed in the mid 1980s, the second the Tequila Crisis of 1994-5. The evidence indicates that after passage of NAFTA exporting firms exhibited higher growth rates of employment, sales, and investment vis-á-vis non-exporters. We confirm our results by analyzing the behavior of a control group of firms, that had complete access to the U.S. market during both devaluations, and we show that they responded in a similar way in both events. Finally, we also provide direct evidence on the relationship between exports and tariff reductions brought by NAFTA. Our results support the view that NAFTA has allowed Mexican producers to respond more quickly to real exchange shocks.NAFTA, RER Shocks, Tequila Crisis, external adjustment, firm-level evidence of effects of RER Shocks

Firm Dynamics and Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations: Does Trade Openness Matter? Evidence from Mexico’s Manufacturing Sector

In this paper we study the effect of NAFTA on the responsiveness of the Mexican economy to real exchange rate shocks. We argue that, by opening the U.S. and Canadian markets to Mexican goods, NAFTA made it easier for domestic producers to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the depreciation of the real exchange rate. To identify this mechanism, we use plant-level data and compare the behavior of employment, production and investment after two big real exchange rate shocks: the firrst observed in the mid 1980s, and the second the Tequila Crisis of 1994-5. The evidence indicates that after the passage of NAFTA exporting firms exhibited higher growth rates of employment, sales, and investment vis-á-vis non-exporters. We confirm our results by analyzing the behavior of a control group of firms, that had complete access to the U.S. market during both devaluations, and we show that they responded in a similar way in both events. Finally, we also provide direct evidence on the relationship between exports and tariff reductions brought by NAFTA. Our results support the view that NAFTA has allowed Mexican producers to respond more quickly to real exchange shocks.

Firm Dynamics and Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations: Does Trade Openness Matter? Evidence from Mexico´s Manufacturing Sector.

In this paper we study the effect of NAFTA on the responsiveness of the Mexican economy to real exchange rate shocks. We argue that, by opening the U.S. and Canadian markets to Mexican goods, NAFTA made it easier for domestic producers to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the depreciation of the real exchange rate. To identify this mechanism, we use plant-level data and compare the behavior of employment, production and investment after two big real exchange rate shocks: the first observed in the mid 1980s, the second the Tequila Crisis of 1994-1995. The evidence indicates that after passage of NAFTA exporting firms exhibited higher growth rates of employment, sales, and investment vis-à-vis non-exporters. We confirm our results by analyzing the behavior of a control group of firms, that had complete access to the U.S. market during both devaluations, and we show that they responded in a similar way in both events. Finally, we also provide direct evidence on the relationship between exports and tariff reductions brought about by NAFTA. Our results support the view that NAFTA has allowed Mexican producers to respond more quickly to real exchange rate shocks.

Analytical solution of a double-well Bose-Einstein Condensate

We introduce a microscopic computation which shows that the Hamiltonian of a Bose-Einstein Condensate can be analytically solved in the two-mode approximation, in particular, in the case of an asymmetric double-well condensate in the dilute regime. Our model is exactly diagonalisable when the overlap of the quasilocalized modes in each well is small enough with respect to the trap asymmetry. For larger overlaps or highly symmetric traps, our diagonalisable Hamiltonian acquires extra terms that we treat within perturbation theory.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. I. F. previously published as I. Fuentes-Guridi and Fuentes-Schulle

Hamlet es Hamlet

Indexación: Revista UNABEl presente ensayo ofrece una lectura de Harnlet de Shakespeare, centrada en la dislocada relación entre su personaje principal y el sentido dramático de la obra. Como se ha de mostrar, esta aparente disociación entre trama y personaje está lejos de constituir una falencia artística, y ha de entenderse como un elemento interno de la obra, que en su intento por mostrar lo que no puede decir, desplaza los límites de su propio sentido. Abstract: The current essay offers a reading of Shakespeare's Hamlet, focusing on the somehow loose relation between the protagonist and its dramatic sense. As it will be suggested, this apparent gap between plot and character, far from an artistic failure, is better understood as an internal element of the play, which displace the bounds of sense by dint of showing what cannot be said

Hecho semántico y respuesta humana

Indexación: Revista UNABResumen El artículo arroja luz sobre las nociones de hecho semántico y respuesta humana implícitas en la visión comunitaria de significado lingüístico, desplegada por Wittgenstein en las consideraciones sobre seguimiento de reglas de sus Investigaciones Filosóficas. Mi tesis principal es que la propuesta más reciente de Crispin Wright en torno al orden de determinación entre los hechos y los juicios óptimos de un dominio constituye la mejor perspectiva para conciliar el cúmulo de intuiciones filosóficas que da forma a dicha concepción, si bien las respuestas humanas aludidas en las ecuaciones básicas de Wright debiesen formularse bajo una construcción comunitaria. Abstract The paper clarifies the notions of semantic fact and human re¬sponses that are implicit in the communitarian view on linguis¬tic meaning, developed by Wittgenstein in his considerations on rule following in Philosophical Investigations. My main thesis is that Crispin Wright’s recent proposal, concerning the order-of-determination between facts and best judgments of a domain, offers the best perspective to elucidate the philosophical intu¬itions of such a view, if the human responses alluded in Wright’s basic equations are formulated in a communitarian framework

Firm Strategy and Foreign Direct Investment: An Examination of the Economic Performance of U.S. Multinational Firms

International Relations/Trade, Production Economics,

Priming of SARS-CoV-2 S protein by several membrane-bound serine proteinases could explain enhanced viral infectivity and systemic COVID-19 infection

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has already caused over a million deaths worldwide, and this death toll will be much higher before effective treatments and vaccines are available. The causative agent of the disease, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, shows important similarities with the previously emerged SARS-CoV-1, but also striking differences. First, SARS-CoV-2 possesses a significantly higher transmission rate and infectivity than SARS-CoV-1 and has infected in a few months over 60 million people. Moreover, COVID-19 has a systemic character, as in addition to the lungs, it also affects the heart, liver, and kidneys among other organs of the patients and causes frequent thrombotic and neurological complications. In fact, the term "viral sepsis" has been recently coined to describe the clinical observations. Here I review current structure-function information on the viral spike proteins and the membrane fusion process to provide plausible explanations for these observations. I hypothesize that several membrane-associated serine proteinases (MASPs), in synergy with or in place of TMPRSS2, contribute to activate the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Relative concentrations of the attachment receptor, ACE2, MASPs, their endogenous inhibitors (the Kunitz-type transmembrane inhibitors, HAI-1/SPINT1 and HAI-2/SPINT2, as well as major circulating serpins) would determine the infection rate of host cells. The exclusive or predominant expression of major MASPs in specific human organs suggests a direct role of these proteinases in e.g., heart infection and myocardial injury, liver dysfunction, kidney damage, as well as neurological complications. Thorough consideration of these factors could have a positive impact on the control of the current COVID-19 pandemic