Forward premium puzzle and term structure of interest rates: the case of New Zealand

Using monthly data for the United States dollar – New Zealand dollar exchange rate, this paper revisits the forward premium puzzle and applies a discrete no-arbitrage affine model of the term structure of interest rates to obtain historical estimates of the time-varying foreign exchange risk premium. The two-factor model is estimated via maximum likelihood for the period 1995-2006. The results of this study demonstrate that the modeled risk premium satisfies the required Fama’s conditions, and its inclusion in an extended GARCH(1,1) model is significant in explaining both the mean and the volatility of the exchange rate. However, consistently with the extant literature, the estimated risk premium does not preclude the presence of the forward premium anomaly. Lastly, out-of-sample forecasts of the exchange rate for different specifications and time periods reveal that predictions of the proposed model for the exchange rate are far from the accuracy of a simple random walk specification.

Label de calidad e indicaciones geográficas protegidas como estrategia empresarial: El caso Brandy de Jerez desde una perspectiva de las RR.PP

La Indicación Geográfica Protegida (IGP), como label de calidad, supone una doble perspectiva: un valor añadido a la marca del producto, al tiempo que es una garantía de calidad mínima. Sirve para hacer alusión a productos de la industria agroalimentaria que se identifican por unas características diferentes y propias que se derivan de su procedencia geográfica, añadiendo percepción pública del mismo, controles y normativas estrictas de elaboración y un marco legal específico. En este sentido, las indicaciones geográficas protegidas juegan un importante papel en la gestión empresarial y, desde una óptica comunicacional, un rol fundamental en la gestión de las RR.PP. En este estudio realizamos un estudio del Consejo Regulador de la indicación geográfica protegida Brandy de Jerez a través del estudio de caso combinado con otras técnicas de investigación como son la entrevista, la observación directa y la consulta de fuentes de datos secundarios. Consideramos, pues, a partir de las veinte memorias anuales que el Consejo Regulador de la indicación geográfica protegida Brandy de Jerez emitió desde 1989 hasta 2008, la relación existente entre el label de calidad IGP y la gestión de las RR.PP. de las empresas y productos que quedan bajo el amparo esta protección.‘Indicación Geográfica Protegida’ (IGP) as quality label have a double perspective: value to the product brand and quality assurance that it is add to the product. Used to make reference to the food industry products that are identified by different characteristics and own derived from their geographical origin, adding public perception thereof, strict controls and regulations development and a specific legal framework. In this sense, geographical indications play an important role in business management from a communication perspective, a fundamental role in the management of PR in this study conducted a study of the ‘Consejo Regulador’ of the protected geographical indication ‘Brandy de Jerez’ (Sherry) through the case study combined with other investigative techniques such as interviews, direct observation and consultation of secondary data sources. We believe, therefore, from the twenty annual reports to the ‘Consejo Regulador de la indicación geográfica protegia del Brandy de Jerez’ issued from 1989 to 2008, the relationship between the IGP quality label and management of PR companies and products that fall under the umbrella protection

Metodología de la Encuesta sobre Condiciones Generales y Estándares en el Mercado de Crédito Bancario

This paper describes the structure of senior loan officer survey on bank lending practices applied by the Central Bank of Chile to the banking industry since April 2003. Additionally, a number of indicators from this survey are constructed to improve the understanding of the credit market. Finally, this paper presents a complete description of these indicators for 2003 - 2006 period.

Measuring Equity Volatility: the case of Chilean Stock Index

This paper reviews the traditional ways to measure volatility which are based only on closing prices, and introduces alternative measurements suggested in Parkinson (1980), Garman and Klass (1980), and Rogers and Satchell (1991). Those measurements use additional information of prices throughout the day, which makes them more efficient than the traditional ones. We consider this property relevant for financial stress episodies, when traditional measurements fail. In an empirical application for the Chilean stock market, we confirm the theoretical results and provide an index of price volatility based on daily highs and lows.

Volatilidad de Indices Accionarios: El caso del IPSA

This paper reviews the traditional ways to measure volatility which are based only on closing prices, and introduces alternative measurements that use additional information of prices during the day: opening, minimum, maximum, and closing prices. Using thVolatilidad, modelo binomial, GARCH, VIX, sesgo y eficiencia

EL MICROCRÉDITO COMO INSTRUMENTO DE SUPERACIÓN DE LA POBREZA Y FORTALECIMIENTO DE CAPACIDADES EN COLOMBIA

Los crecientes niveles de desigualdad social y pobreza que en la actualidad se evidencian globalmente, no sólo en países en vías de desarrollo sino también en aquellos considerados desarrollados, reflejan la imperante necesidad de crear políticas incluyentes, que dejen de lado enfoques utilitaristas, los cuales, generalmente, reducen el bienestar social a un incremento de los ingresos en una forma que sea suficiente para satisfacer las necesidades básicas, dejando de lado las capacidades del individuo, además de desconocer la libre elección de alcanzar lo deseado. En ese sentido, herramientas como el microcrédito, empoderan y potencializan a las personas en condición de pobreza, promoviendo la acción colectiva para construir capital social, en la medida en que implica el impulso de pequeños sistemas productivos, mejora el ingreso y por ende las posibilidades de ahorro e inversión, haciendo menos vulnerable a las personas, frente a carencias de tipo monetario, permitiendo así el ejercicio libre de las capacidades y libertades, lo cual se traduce en un aspecto favorable para la superación de la pobreza

Portuguese Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire - validation and cross-cultural comparison

Objective: to validate the Portuguese version of the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ-PT) and compare it to the versions from other countries. Methods: the questionnaire was previously adapted to the Portuguese language according to international guidelines. 500 questionnaires were delivered to the parents of a Portuguese community sample of children aged 2 to 10 years old. 370 (74\%) valid questionnaires were obtained, 55 children met exclusion criteria and 315 entered in the validation study. Results: the CSHQ-PT internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.78 for the total scale and ranged from 0.44 to 0.74 for subscales. The test-retest reliability for subscales (Pearson's correlations, n=58) ranged from 0.59 to 0.85. Our data did not adjust to the original 8 domains structure in Confirmatory Factor Analysis but the Exploratory Factor Analysis extracted 5 factors that have correspondence to CSHQ subscales. Conclusion: the CSHQ-PT evidenced psychometric properties that are comparable to the versions from other countries and adequate for the screening of sleep disturbances in children from 2 to 10 years old. (C) 2013 Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.publishersversionpublishe

Multicritical Bifurcation and First-order Phase Transitions in a Three-dimensional Blume-Capel Antiferromagnet

We present a detailed study by Monte Carlo simulations and finite-size scaling analysis of the phase diagram and ordered bulk phases for the three-dimensional Blume-Capel antiferromagnet in the space of temperature and magnetic and crystal fields (or two chemical potentials in an equivalent lattice-gas model with two particle species and vacancies). The phase diagram consists of surfaces of second- and first-order transitions that enclose a ``volume'' of ordered phases in the phase space. At relatively high temperatures, these surfaces join smoothly along a line of tricritical points, and at zero magnetic field we obtain good agreement with known values for tricritical exponent ratios [Y. Deng and H.W.J. Bl{\"o}te, Phys. Rev. E {70}, 0456111 (2004)]. In limited field regions at lower temperatures (symmetric under reversal of the magnetic field), the tricritical line for this three-dimensional model bifurcates into lines of critical endpoints and critical points, connected by a surface of weak first-order transitions {inside} the region of ordered phases. This phenomenon is not seen in the two-dimensional version of the same model. We confirm the location of the bifurcation as previously reported [Y.L. Wang and J.D. Kimel, J. Appl. Phys. {69}, 6176 (1991)], and we identify the phases separated by this first-order surface as antiferromagnetically (three-dimensional checker-board) ordered with different vacancy densities. We visualize the phases by real-space snapshots and by structure factors in the three-dimensional space of wave vectors.Comment: 18 pages, 20 figures. Fig4 correcte