Capital Inflows, Policy Responses, and Their Ill Consequences: Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia in the Decade Before the Crises

Capital inflows, especially when volatile, denominated in foreign currencies and not properly hedged against exchange rate risks, may pose macroeconomic and financial problems in the recipient economy. In this paper we analyze the mechanisms through which those problems arise; and we assess the policies that national authorities may resort to in order to prevent them, under the assumption that capital inflows are the result of previous stabilization and liberalization packages. Also, we study the use and effectiveness of policy responses to capital inflows in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia in the years prior to the 1997-98 financial crises. We conclude that policies that reinforce the stabilization and adjustment trends of the 1980s are more likely to be (at least partially) ineffective or even counterproductive, whereas the measures that depart from those trends appear to have a higher potential for effectiveness but face obstacles to implementation.

Exchange Market Pressure, Monetary Policy, and Economic Growth: Argentina in 1993 - 2004

The pressure in the exchange market against a particular currency has been frequently measured as the sum of the loss of international reserves plus the loss of nominal value of that currency. This paper follows the tradition of investigating the interactions between such measure of exchange market pressure (EMP) and monetary policy; but it also questions the usual omission of output growth in the empirical investigations of the interrelations between EMP, domestic credit, and interest rates. The focus of this work is Argentina between 1993 and 2004. As in previous studies, we found some evidence of a positive and double-direction relationship between EMP and domestic credit. But output growth also played a role in the determination of EMP, even more than domestic credit or interest rates. Also, there is some evidence that EMP affected growth negatively.exchange markets, international reserves, currency values, Argentine, exchange market pressure, monetary policy, output growth, domestic credit,

Global and Domestic Factors of Financial Crises in Emerging Economies: Lessons from the East Asian Episodes (1997-1999)

This paper suggests that a new approach is needed in order to identify the causes of the East Asian financial crises and that this new approach might be fruitful in reassessing the analyses and theories of financial crises in emerging economies. The first part of the paper presents a new empirical analysis of the state of fundamentals in East Asia before the crises. It suggests that the relevant fundamentals were both non-conventional and "intermediate" (or not "bad" enough to trigger the crises by themselves). Fundamentals were also different from those preceding previous turmoils in the 1990s, such as the ERM crisis in 1992-1993 and the Mexican crisis in 1994-1995. The second part highlights that existing theoretical models of currency crises miss some important points. Even second generation models, which stress self-fulfilling expectations and which acknowledge that crises might appear against the backdrop of non-conventional and intermediate fundamentals, explain only the role of fundamentals in relation to private expectations. But they do not explain how can it be that a shift in private agents' expectations turns out into a financial crisis. The third part suggests that the current process of globalization exacerbates failures in international capital markets and impinges upon capital flows and the pace and order of financial liberalization in emerging economies, increasing therefore uncertainty and rendering large domestic vulnerabilities. It also highlights how financial globalization was related to the East Asian crises. The main conclusion is that intermediate non-conventional fundamentals, shifts in private agents' expectations and financial globalization were arguably the main factors of the East Asian crisis. Therefore, in order to prevent future financial crises, governments in emerging economies should try to exit crises zones through improving their fundamentals, to proceed carefully with financial liberalization, to implement some kind of capital controls and to urge for the establishment of a new global financial architecture.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN OLIGOPOLISTIC MARKETS WITH HETEROGENEOUS GOODS

In this paper we study technology transfer (TT) in a duopoly model with heterogeneous goods under quantity and price competition. We prove that some but not all the properties of TT under homogeneous goods are preserved in our framework.

Apprendendo a guardare attraverso il paesaggio quotidiano

The way we understand landscape shows how we interpret reality and perceive everything around us. The first step in learning about concepts related to both landscape study and planning is to be proactive about how do we use our senses. This means becoming aware of the feelings and attitudes awakened by the spatial configuration of the places we frequent. Our introduction to Landscape Urbanism begins with a specific practical activity aimed at awakening the senses, with a two-fold purpose: analytical and design-based.Nuestra comprensión del paisaje muestra la manera en que interpretamos la realidad, es decir la manera en que percibimos aquello que nos rodea. Un primer paso en el aprendizaje de los conceptos relacionados, bien con el análisis, bien con el proyecto de paisaje, es poner nuestros sentidos a trabajar de manera proactiva, tomando conciencia de los sentimientos y actitudes que en nosotros despierta, en este caso, la configuración espacial de los lugares que recorremos. Inauguramos el curso de Urbanismo 4 con una práctica encaminada a despertar los sentidos, con una doble finalidad: analítica y proyectual

Structural view on 60S ribosome biogenesis

Eukaryotic ribosomes undergo a complex maturation process through which the ribosomal RNA (rRNA) must bind to ribosomal proteins (r-proteins) and fold into its native state. This requires numerous auxiliary factors responsible of rRNA processing, remodeling, intracellular transport and quality control checkpoints. Impairments in the process of ribosome production can lead to different diseases known as ribosomopathies. However, little is known about which defects in the ribosome biogenesis pathway can escape all quality checkpoints and what targets these faulty ribosomes and their putative products for degradation. The first part of this thesis constitutes a first attempt to address these questions, focusing on a specific impairment of the 60S biogenesis pathway that leads to the production of structurally deficient 80S ribosomes. Here, using cryo-EM and biochemical analysis, it is shown that large structural defects in the ribosome may bypass all quality control mechanisms in the nucleus, but are recognized in the cytoplasm after faulty ribosomes engage in translation. Then, the resulting proteins are targeted for degradation by the ribosome quality-control complex (RQC) after subunit splitting is carried out. The second part of this thesis focuses on a nucleoplasmic step of 60S ribosome biogenesis in which both the Rix1 complex and the dynein related AAA+ ATPase Rea1 bind to maturing pre-60S particles. Rea1 is required for the ATP-dependent dissociation of the assembly factor Rsa4 and may be involved in rearranging the Central Protuberance (CP). Several cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of native pre-60S particles bound to the Rix1-Rea1 machinery are presented in this thesis. Overall, the Rix1-Rea1 particle is similar to the earlier intermediate, the socalled Arx1 particle. However, a 180° rotation of the CP required to reach the final conformation of the 60S, has already happened in the Rix1-Rea1 state, constituting the largest remodeling step at the end of the maturation pathway. By performing cryo-EM analysis on two similar particles that were mutated on either Rix1 or Rea1 and by comparing the structures of the Arx1 and Rix1-Rea1 particles, a mechanistic model for the transition between the two intermediates is provided

Aplicación de los indicadores de complejidad urbana a través de las redes sociales y TIG: El caso de los paseos marítimos de Levante y Poniente en Benidorm

La complejidad, entendida desde un punto de vista urbano y puesta en relación con la idea de conseguir ciudades más sostenibles, estudia la cantidad y diversidad de actividades que confluyen en un espacio urbano concreto. Con el fin de realizar un estudio aplicado de los indicadores de complejidad urbana en el ámbito turístico , dado el interés que este concepto tiene en relación a la mejora de la experiencia turística, se escoge la ciudad de Benidorm como ejemplo paradigmático del turismo de sol y playa en el litoral mediterráneo español. Así, se plantea el análisis de dos espacios funcionales relevantes en cuanto al turismo como son los paseos marítimos de Levante y Poniente. Como metodología se utiliza la información recogida en la red Google Places para elaborar un modelo descriptivo de la complejidad de dichas áreas y así poder comparar la complejidad funcional que configura ambos espacios. La obtención de información georreferenciada servirá para dos propósitos: en primer lugar, estudiar las pciones que existen de aplicar los indicadores urbanos elaborados para la ciudad convencional en base a los datos y; en segundo lugar, establecer una categorización que permita evaluar en qué medida existe diversidad de actividades. Los resultados obtenidos, en general, simplificarán el análisis de la complejidad urbana y, en particular, facilitarán, la toma de decisiones en cuanto a la planificación de usos turísticos