Financial Intermediation, Variability and the Development Process

In this paper we have built a model of financial intermediation that explains the GDP variability pattern of an economy during the development process. In our model, per capita is more volatile in the middle-income economies than in both low and high-income economies. We show that, if the model economy is in the early or in the mature stages of development there is a unique equilibrium. However, in the middle stages of development multiple equilibria arise. Moreover, we find that in economies with imperfect credit markets, per capita output volatility tends to be higher than in economies with perfect or non-existent credit markets.Externalities, market imperfections, growth, multiple equilibria, sunspot equilibria

Financial Intermediation, Variability and the Development Process

In this paper we build a model of financial intermediation that explains the GDP variability pattern of an economy during the development process. We find evidence that per capita output is more volatile in middle-income economies than in both low and high-income economies. We show that, if the model economy is in the early or in the mature stages of development, there is a unique equilibrium. However, in the middle stages of development, multi-ple equilibria arise. Moreover, we find that in economies with imperfect credit markets, per capita output volatility tends to be higher than in economies with perfect or non-existent credit markets.

A VLSI-oriented and power-efficient approach for dynamic texture recognition applied to smoke detection

The recognition of dynamic textures is fundamental in processing image sequences as they are very common in natural scenes. The computation of the optic flow is the most popular method to detect, segment and analyse dynamic textures. For weak dynamic textures, this method is specially adequate. However, for strong dynamic textures, it implies heavy computational load and therefore an important energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a novel approach intented to be implemented by very low-power integrated vision devices. It is based on a simple and flexible computation at the focal plane implemented by power-efficient hardware. The first stages of the processing are dedicated to remove redundant spatial information in order to obtain a simplified representation of the original scene. This simplified representation can be used by subsequent digital processing stages to finally decide about the presence and evolution of a certain dynamic texture in the scene. As an application of the proposed approach, we present the preliminary results of smoke detection for the development of a forest fire detection system based on a wireless vision sensor network.Junta de Andalucía (CICE) 2006-TIC-235

Understanding the Relationship between Financial Development and Monetary Policy

In this paper we summarize the results of a broad exploratory empirical analysis where we relate the level of financial development with the effectiveness of monetary policy. The analysis is based on a panel of countries for whom we calculate measures both of financial development and of monetary policy effectiveness. We look for statistically significant relationships between the indicators of financial development, the effectiveness coefficients and other macroeconomic characteristics by estimating dynamic panels and performing a cluster analysis. We present our results in the form of a list of stylized facts that we consider deserve further attention.Financial Development, Monetary Policy Effectiveness, Dynamic Panel, Empirical Measures

The relationship between investment and large exchange rate depreciations in dollarized economies

We use a simple financial friction in an economy with high degree of liability dollarization to show that the negative balance-sheet effect of an exchange rate depreciation may be observable only if the magnitude of the depreciation is large enough. This result justifies the difficulty to find strong empirical evidence for balance-sheet effects and suggests the convenience of including a "large depreciation" term in empirical analyses.

Exchange Rate Volatility and Economic Performance in Peru: A Firm Level Analysis

This paper analyzes the impact of the exchange rate volatility on the performance of the Peruvian economy using financial information from 163 non-financial listed firms. We find evidence that, for firms holding dollar-denominated debt, investment decisions are negatively affected by real exchange rate depreciation. The reasons behind this result are: (i) the high degree of liability dollarization and currency mismatch that create the conditions for a balance sheet effect and a financial stress in the aftermath of a currency depreciation, (ii) the strong bank-lending channel that follows and reinforces the balance sheet effect, (iii) the domestic demand shrinkage that affects severely the firms sales, and (iv) the relatively small and poorly diversified export sector.

Exchange Rate and Inflation Dynamics in Dollarized Economies

In this paper we build a model of a dollarized economy with imperfect financial markets to analyze and qualify the common view that countries with higher dollarization exhibit higher pass-through. We show that the classic inflationary effects of a real depreciation -higher internal demand and imported inflation- can be offset or diminished in a dollarized economy by higher financial costs and a balance-sheet effect. Thus, pass-through coefficients could be smaller or even negative in economies with a high degree of dollarization. We test the implications of the model using a panel of a hundred-plus countries with differing degrees of dollarization. The results confirm that pass-through coefficients are higher in more dollarized economies, but they also show that large depreciations tend to generate a negative impact on the pass-through coefficient, this impact being higher the higher the level of dollarization of the economy. Additionally, the exchange rate regime is shown to matter, in that countries with fixed exchange rates suffer larger balance-sheet effects of depreciations.

Proceso de desarrollo con mercado de crédito imperfecto

El propósito de esta investigación es explicar cómo las imperfecciones crediticias afectan el crecimiento económico. La tesis contiene dos partes de equilibrio general dinámico para explicar las relaciones entre crecimiento, distribución de la riqueza, cambio estructural y aumento del crédito. En el segundo trabajo se explica la alta volatilidad de las tasas de crecimiento en países de ingreso medio debido a que se presentan equilibrios múltiples.Estados Unidos. Oficina de Asuntos Educativos y Culturales del Departamento de Estado : Beca FulbrightTesi