Forecasting inflation and tracking monetary policy in the euro area: does national information help?

The ECB objective is set in terms of year on year growth rate of the Euro area HICP. Nonetheless, a good deal of attention is given to national data by market analysts when they try to anticipate monetary policy moves. In this paper we use the Generalized Dynamic Factor model to develop a set of core inflation indicators that, combining national data with area wide information, allow us to answer two related questions. The first is whether country specific data actually bear any relevance for the future path of area wide price growth, over and above that already contained in area wide data. The second is whether in order to track ECB monetary policy decisions it is useful to take into account national information and not only area wide statistics. In both cases our findings point to the conclusion that, once area wide information is properly taken into account, there is little to be gained from considering national idiosyncratic developments. JEL Classification: C25, E37, E52dynamic factor model, forecasting, inflation, monetary policy, Taylor rule

Holistic Approach to Revitalised Old Industrial Areas

AbstractOld industrial centers, especially those in the South-eastern Europe (SEE) which had developed in a different socio-economic system, did not respond to changes in global economic trends of the post-industrial production in a timely manner. Integration in the Common European Market and transition to market economy brought a rapid breakdown of traditional industry sectors. University of Maribor participated in the international project ReTInA – Revitalization of Traditional Industrial Areas within the SEE program. The main aim of the project was to develop a method of Revitalization of old industrial areas in SEE based on a model which results from good practice, case studies and includes engagement of local and regional stakeholders. Socio-political changes in the European area very often resulted in the open question of ownership and the conflict of interests between the public and private sectors. Social responsibility in the initiators of Revitalization is also not developed sufficiently for public funds to be allocated for the preparation of the area (planning, decontamination, spatial plan, etc.) to attract the investors. In the context of the project we came to the conclusion that the SEE countries do not pursue the implementation of the European spatial development perspective policies. We established that a majority of countries do not have adequate strategies to tackle the problem of brownfields. Problems also occur due to the lack of adequate experts. Only the holistic approach to Revitalization of old industrial areas will enable us to assure a new quality to managing urban environment of the degraded cities. The long-term aim of the project is Revitalization of old industrial areas in order to provide new jobs and assure sustainable development, as well as to create synergy between providing quality living, social security and sustainability

Euro area money demand and international portfolio allocation: a contribution to assessing risks to price stability

The long-run relationship between money and prices in the euro area embedded in traditional money demand models with income and interest rates broke down after 2001. We develop a money demand model where investors hold a diversified portfolio with money, domestic and foreign stocks and long-term bonds in which, in addition to the classical wealth effect, also a size and an international portfolio allocation effects arise. The estimated model identifies three cointegrating vectors stable over the sample 1980-2007: a long-run money demand, which depends on income and all risky assets' returns, and two equilibria for the euro area and the US financial markets. Steady state equilibrium of nominal M3 growth is estimated to be about 7% in 2007 with large standard errors mainly due to uncertainty in asset prices. The gap between actual euro area M3 growth and model-based fitted or predicted values helps forecast euro area inflation. JEL Classification: E41, E44, E52, G11, G15Euro area money demand, Inflation forecasts, monetary policy, portfolio allocation

Integración de ingeniería de usabilidad en el análisis y diseño de un sistema de gestión comercial

La tesis busca describir cómo mejorar la usabilidad de un aplicativo de software desde las fases tempranas de su desarrollo, para ello se propone la integración de las actividades y enfoques de un modelo de proceso orientado a la Usabilidad y Diseño Centrado en el Usuario al proceso de desarrollo de software habitual, la misma que se aplicará en las actividades de análisis y diseño de un sistema de gestión comercial orientado a las PyMES. Con ello, además se busca proporcionar un ejemplo referencial y de documentación, de manera que logre el entendimiento de los implicados del proyecto, facilite la gestión de cambios y mejore el proceso de desarrollo en general.Tesi

Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics in Superconducting Circuits

Achieving an efficient interface of light and matter has been a principal goal in the field of quantum optics. A burgeoning paradigm in the study of light-matter interface is waveguide quantum electrodynamics (QED), where quantum emitters are coupled to a common one-dimensional waveguide channel. In this scenario, cooperative effects among quantum emitters emerge as a result of real and virtual exchange of photons, giving rise to new ways of controlling matter. Superconducting quantum circuits offer an exciting platform to study quantum optics in the microwave domain with artificial quantum emitters interfaced to engineered photonic structures on chip. Beyond revisiting the experiments performed in atom-based platforms, superconducting circuits enable exploration of novel regimes in quantum optics that are otherwise prohibitively challenging to achieve. Moreover, the unprecedented level of control over individual quantum degrees of freedom and good scalability of the system provided by state-of-the-art circuit QED toolbox set a promising direction towards the study of quantum many-body phenomena. In this thesis, I discuss waveguide QED experiments performed in superconducting quantum circuits where transmon qubits are coupled to engineered microwave waveguides. Employing the high flexibility and controllability of superconducting quantum circuits, we realize and explore various schemes for generating waveguide-mediated interactions between superconducting qubits. We also demonstrate an intermediate-scale quantum processor based on a dispersive waveguide QED system involving ten superconducting qubits, exploring quantum many-body dynamics in a highly controllable fashion. The work described in the thesis marks an important step towards the construction of scalable architectures for quantum simulation of many-body models and realization of efficient coupling schemes for quantum computation.</p