Bank capitalization heterogeneity and monetary policy

Este trabajo muestra que la heterogeneidad de las ratios de capitalización bancaria desempeña un papel importante en la transmisión de la política monetaria a los préstamos bancarios. Primero, muestro nueva evidencia empírica sobre la dependencia de las respuestas de los préstamos bancarios a los choques de política monetaria en sus ratios de capitalización. Los bancos altamente capitalizados reducen más sus préstamos tras un endurecimiento monetario, incluso después de controlar la liquidez bancaria, el tamaño y el poder de mercado en el mercado de depósitos. También documento que los bancos altamente capitalizados tienen una cartera de mayor riesgo, medida por las tasas de cancelación de préstamos; y, finalmente, que las tasas de incumplimiento de sus préstamos aumentan relativamente más después de un endurecimiento de la política monetaria. Por otra parte, construyo un modelo macroeconómico dinámico que racionaliza la evidencia empírica a través de la interacción de tecnologías de recuperación heterogéneas de bancos que enfrentan una restricción de capital ponderada por riesgo. En particular, después de un aumento en la tasa de política, el modelo predice que las tasas de préstamo y las probabilidades de incumplimiento aumentan en ambos sectores. Los bancos más capitalizados con una cartera de mayor riesgo son más sensibles porque la restricción de capital ponderado por riesgo les afecta más, por lo que reducen más sus préstamos. En un análisis contrafáctico, encuentro que los requisitos de capital más altos amplifican los efectos de la política monetaria.This paper shows that heterogeneity in bank capitalization ratios plays a crucial role in the transmission of monetary policy to bank lending. First, I offer new empirical evidence on how banks’ lending responses to monetary policy shocks depend on their capitalization ratios. Highly capitalized banks reduce their lending more after a monetary tightening, even after controlling for bank liquidity, size and market power in the deposit market. I also document how highly capitalized banks have a riskier portfolio, as measured by loan charge-off rates, and default rates on their loans increase relatively more after a tightening in monetary policy. I then construct a dynamic macroeconomic model that rationalizes the empirical evidence through the interaction of the heterogeneous recovery technologies of banks facing a risk-weighted capital constraint. In particular, after an increase in the policy rate, the model predicts that loan rates and default probabilities increase in both sectors. Highly capitalized banks with a riskier portfolio are more sensitive because the risk-weighted capital constraint affects them more, so they contract lending more. In a counterfactual analysis, I find higher capital requirements amplify the effects of monetary policy

The real income channel and contractionary devaluations in a heterogeneous agent model for Latin America

Rationale In Latin America, it is not unusual to see exchange rate depreciations in excess of 20% in a single year. Although depreciation tends to stimulate a country’s net external demand, it does not always lead to increased output. It is worth understanding which channels may explain this outcome. Takeaways •In conventional macroeconomic theory, exchange rate depreciations have expansionary effects on economic activity. However, the empirical evidence shows that, in the case of emerging market economies, devaluing the exchange rate may cause output to contract. •One channel that explains this evidence, known as the real income channel, operates through the erosion of purchasing power as a result of rising prices for imported goods, which can lead to a fall in the real consumption of households with limited access to financial markets. •This article discusses a heterogeneous agent model calibrated for the main Latin American economies that allows the importance of this channel to be measured. The results show that this channel may have a sizable macroeconomic impact, particularly on economies more open to international trade

Historical perspective on the concept of health in ancient societies

La vejez es una etapa más del ser humano que ha sido interpretada de forma variable dependiendo del contexto social en el cual se analizara. A la hora de considerar la vejez en la sociedad del siglo XXI, se impone una reflexión sobre la misma a través del espacio y del tiempo, con el fin de entender este complejo fenómeno en la vida del ser humano en su totalidad, como un hecho ligado a la cultura y no sólo biológico.Ageing, one of the stages of human life, has been interpreted differently depending on the social context in which it has been analysed. The consideration of ageing in the 21st century demands a meditation about the concept through space and time, in order to understand wholly this complex phenomenon in human life, as a cultural not only biological fact

Diseño, construcción y control de un aerogenerador de equipo de prácticas de bajo coste

En esta memoria se recogen una serie de instrucciones detalladas acerca del montaje de un aerogenerador con sistema de paso variable, que, mediante programación en Arduino, tiene como principal objetivo producir corriente a una frecuencia determinada que depende de dos variables: - La demanda eléctrica. - El paso de pala óptimo con el que la potencia generada es máxima. Una parte fundamental del proyecto ha sido el estudio experimental de diversas posibilidades y componentes que constituyesen la estrutura del aerogenerador y, a su vez, se han analizado diferentes circuitos electrónicos que generasen la demanda de energía adecuada del aerogenerador. Posteriormente, se desarollan una serie de códigos de programación, en lenguaje C++, que mediante la conexión del aerogenerador y diversos circuitos electrónicos a una placa de Arduino se logra el control estable del sistema.In this report, there is a series of detailed instructions of the assembly of a wind turbine with a variable pitch system. The main goal of this system, which is programmed in Arduino, is producing electricity at a determinate frequency that depends on two variables: - The electrical demand. - The optimal blade pitch. This pitch produces the maximum power. A fundamental part of this project has been the experimental study to decide what components could create the final structure of the wind turbine. Moreover, a great amount of electronic circuits have been studied to know what of them produce the adequate energy demand of the wind turbine. Afterwards, a series of programming codes, in C ++ language, have been implemented in ‘Arduino’. Finally, the connection between an ‘Arduino’ board and various electronic circuits achieve a stable control of the system.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Ingeniería Aeroespacia

In vitro effect photodynamic therapy with differents photosensitizers on cariogenic microorganisms

Background Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy has been proposed as an alternative to suppress subgingival species. This results from the balance among Streptococcus sanguis, Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans in the dental biofilm. Not all the photosensitizers have the same photodynamic effect against the different microorganims. The objective of this study is to compare in vitro the photodynamic effect of methylene blue (MB), rose Bengal (RB) and curcumin (CUR) in combination with white light on the cariogenic microorganism S. mutans, S. sanguis and C. albicans. Go to: Results Photodynamic therapy with MB, RB and CUR inhibited 6 log 10 the growth of both bacteria but at different concentrations: 0.31–0.62 μg/ml and 0.62–1.25 μg/ml RB were needed to photoinactivate S. mutans and S. sanguis, respectively; 1.25–2.5 μg/ml MB for both species; whereas higher CUR concentrations (80–160 μg/ml and 160–320 μg/ml) were required to obtain the same reduction in S. mutans and S. sanguis viability respectively. The minimal fungicidal concentration of MB for 5 log10 CFU reduction (4.5 McFarland) was 80–160 μg/ml, whereas for RB it ranged between 320 and 640 μg/ml. For CUR, even the maximum studied concentration (1280 μg/ml) did not reach that inhibition. Incubation time had no effect in all experiments. Go to: Conclusions Photodynamic therapy with RB, MB and CUR and white light is effective in killing S. mutans and S. sanguis strains, although MB and RB are more efficient than CUR. C. albicans required higher concentrations of all photosensitizers to obtain a fungicidal effect, being MB the most efficient and CUR ineffective.España, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CTQ2013-48767-C3-2-

Geometric multipartite entanglement measures

Within the framework of constructions for quantifying entanglement, we build a natural scenario for the assembly of multipartite entanglement measures based on Hopf bundle-like mappings obtained through Clifford algebra representations. Then, given the non-factorizability of an arbitrary two-qubit density matrix, we give an alternate quantity that allows the construction of two types of entanglement measures based on their arithmetical and geometrical averages over all pairs of qubits in a register of size N, and thus fully characterize its degree and type of entanglement. We find that such an arithmetical average is both additive and strongly super additive.Comment: This is the updated, finally published, versio

Medición de la eficiencia técnica de los hospitales en la región de Puno: una aplicación del análisis envolvente de datos (DEA).

El objetivo de la investigación fue medición de la eficiencia técnica de los Hospitales en la Región de Puno, empleando el Análisis Envolvente de Datos (DEA),  al mismo tiempo determinar el cambio en la productividad total de los factores durante el periodo 2011-2013. Los resultados muestran que la eficiencia de los hospitales de la región de Puno de la categoría II-1 fue de 0.96; mientras de todos los hospitales (categorías II-1 y categoría II-2) fue de 0.88 en el periodo 2011-2013.  En lo referente a la productividad, los resultados sugieren que los cambios en la productividad a nivel de los hospitales ocurren principalmente por los cambios en la eficiencia técnica más que por un cambio en el avance tecnológico. Finalmente, mediante el test Mann – Whitney, se encontró que no existen evidencias suficientes para argumentar que el tamaño o complejidad de los hospitales sean variables que determinen la diferencia en el nivel de eficiencia técnica obtenido

Life cycle assessment of aluminium cans and glass bottles

In this work, we present a simplified LCA on two commom products: an aluminum can and a glass bottle, both containing the same amoung of beverage (1/3 L of beer). The work presented here seeks to find out which option would be less harmful to the environment by studying the CO2 emissions produced by each container using a combined the cradle-to-cradle and cradle-to-grave approach, based on the current recycling rates in Spain. The functional unit is set to 1 m3 of beer, and the target consumer is someone purchasing beer at a supermarket. Therefore, according to the current waste management system in Spain, glass bottles are considered not reusable: This means that they are either disposed to landfill or deposited to the glass container for recycling. Recycling of glass would involve using the glass as raw material to produced new bottles. The free to use database IDEMAT has been used in the work presented here to obtain the data necessary for the Life Cycle Inventory. The results indicate that purchasing beer in aluminiun cans have a lower environmental impact than non-reusable glass bottles. The main reason related to this results are the lower transport emissions related to the cans due to the lower weight. This means that, for the same amount of beer, the energy required to transport the bottles is higher than the cans, and therefore the CO2 emissions are also higher. Additionally, aluminium is 100% and infinitely recyclable, while glass bottles made of recycled glass still need a certain intake of new raw material (of around 40%). The results presented here do not contemplate the posiblity to clean and reuse the bottles, which is expected to have a lower environmental footprint that the two scenarios discussed here.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Small lava caves as possible exploratory targets on Mars : Analogies drawn from UAV imaging of an Icelandic lava field

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Impact of the rotavirus vaccine in Valladolid, Spain: An interrupted time series analysis

Producción CientíficaRotavirus vaccines (RV) have decreased the infant morbidity and mortality in countries that included RV in their national schedule. Rotavirus vaccination is recommended by the Spanish Society of Pediatrics; however, Spain, as most countries in Europe, has authorized commercialization but not included RV in its national vaccination program. We assessed the impact of RV on the rotavirus hospitalization rate through an interrupted time series analysis. There was a 46.8% (95% CI: 29.3–60.2) decrease on the rotavirus hospitalizations rate in the study region after RV commercialization in 2006. Currently there is limited evidence about the impact of RV in Europe, especially among countries not offering systematic vaccination in their national schedule. Documentation of RV coverage, effectiveness and impact is urgently needed in these countries