The Dark Side of International Cross-Listing: Effects on Rival Firms at Home

We analyze the stock price impact of firms’ U.S. cross-listing on home-market rival firms. Using an empirical event study approach we find negative cumulative average abnormal returns for the rival firms. The evidence suggests that the dominant effect is that investors see rivals as at a relative disadvantage to the listing firm. As firms cross-list in the US and commit to the increased disclosure and investor protection associated with the US listing, they are better able to take advantage of growth opportunities relative to their non cross-listing counterparts, and this results in negative spillover effects on rival firms.cross-listings, rival firms, growth opportunities

The effects of rising food prices on poverty in Mexico

We evaluate the impact of the rise in food prices during 2006-2008 on the poverty and extreme poverty rates in Mexico. We concentrate on the poor’s consumption of staple foods, and analyze the change in their consumption brought about by changed prices. We also allow households receiving income from the farming and livestock sector to benefit from increases in prices of food products. We find a modest increase in poverty using 2006-2007 prices, however, there is a daunting effect on the poor once the 2008 prices are taken into account. After considering the positive effects of public policies announced in 2008, such as reduced taxes and tariffs on food products and greater subsidies to the extremely poor, the poverty rate measured through consumption increases from 25% to 33.5%, and the extreme poverty rate from 10.58% to 16%, given the increase in food prices. Further analysis using the theory of optimal taxes suggests policies oriented towards relieving the food price pressure on the Mexican poor should aim at lowering the prices of eggs, vegetable oil, milk, and chicken

El alza de la pobreza nutricional en México

RESUMEN En este estudio analizamos la pobreza, con base en si los hogares cumplen con los requerimientos mínimos calóricos y proteínicos diarios. Se estudió el costo de estos nutrientes y se separaron los hogares por nivel de ingreso, para entender la relación entre la pobreza nutricional y la de ingresos. ABSTRACT We analyze poverty by estimating if households meet the minimum daily calorie and protein requirements, studying the cost of these nutrients, and separating households by income level to understand the relationship between nutritional and monetary poverty

The effects of rising food prices on poverty in Mexico

We evaluate the impact of the rise in food prices during 2006-2008 on the poverty and extreme poverty rates in Mexico. We concentrate on the poor’s consumption of staple foods, and analyze the change in their consumption brought about by changed prices. We also allow households receiving income from the farming and livestock sector to benefit from increases in prices of food products. We find a modest increase in poverty using 2006-2007 prices, however, there is a daunting effect on the poor once the 2008 prices are taken into account. After considering the positive effects of public policies announced in 2008, such as reduced taxes and tariffs on food products and greater subsidies to the extremely poor, the poverty rate measured through consumption increases from 25% to 33.5%, and the extreme poverty rate from 10.58% to 16%, given the increase in food prices. Further analysis using the theory of optimal taxes suggests policies oriented towards relieving the food price pressure on the Mexican poor should aim at lowering the prices of eggs, vegetable oil, milk, and chicken

The effects of rising food prices on poverty in Mexico

We evaluate the impact of the rise in food prices during 2006-2008 on the poverty and extreme poverty rates in Mexico. We concentrate on the poor’s consumption of staple foods, and analyze the change in their consumption brought about by changed prices. We also allow households receiving income from the farming and livestock sector to benefit from increases in prices of food products. We find a modest increase in poverty using 2006-2007 prices, however, there is a daunting effect on the poor once the 2008 prices are taken into account. After considering the positive effects of public policies announced in 2008, such as reduced taxes and tariffs on food products and greater subsidies to the extremely poor, the poverty rate measured through consumption increases from 25% to 33.5%, and the extreme poverty rate from 10.58% to 16%, given the increase in food prices. Further analysis using the theory of optimal taxes suggests policies oriented towards relieving the food price pressure on the Mexican poor should aim at lowering the prices of eggs, vegetable oil, milk, and chicken

Determinants of the Number of Deaths from COVID-19: Differences between Low-Income and High-Income Countries in the Initial Stages of the Pandemic.

The purpose of this study is to understand the factors that contribute to the number of reported coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths among low-income and high-income countries, and to understand the sources of differences between these two groups of countries. Multiple linear regression models evaluate the socio-economic factors that determine COVID-19 deaths in the two groups of countries. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is used to examine sources of differences between these two groups. Low-income countries report a significantly lower average number of COVID-19 deaths compared to high-income countries. Community mobility and the ease of carrying the virus from one place to another are significant factors affecting the number of deaths, while life expectancy is only significant in high-income countries. Higher health expenditure is associated with more reported deaths in both high and low-income countries. Factors such as the transport infrastructure system, life expectancy, and the percent of expenditure on health lead to the differences in the number of deaths between high and low income countries. This paper contributes to the emerging literature on COVID-19 and its relation to socio-economic factors by examining the differences in reported deaths between low-income and high-income countries. Our study shows that mobility measures taken by individuals to limit the spread of the virus are important to prevent deaths in both high- and low-income countries. In addition, our results suggest that countries with weak health institutions underestimate the number of deaths from COVID-19, especially low-income countries. The underestimation of COVID-19 deaths could be affecting a great number of people in poverty in low-income economies

Human Capital and Aggregate Income Differences in Mexico

We study the relationship between differences in human capital and differences in product per worker of the federal entities of Mexico. We consider both quantity and quality of education in human capital formation, and use two methods for aggregating these two dimensions of education: a multiplicative and an additive model. Our measures of quality of education are constructed using the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) math achievement test scores in the additive model, and using the differences in the returns to education of the states in the multiplicative model. Our results are consistent to different methodologies and data sources. We find that variations in human capital explain upwards of 40% of the variations in state GDP per worker. Our results indicate that Mexican states should place more emphasis both in the quantity as well as quality of schooling, in order to improve the living standards of their population

Why has there been a fall in child labor and an increase in school attendance in Mexico?

Understanding the factors affecting child labor and school attendance are primordial to developing policies aimed at improving the lives of children. Policies are needed as poor households can sub-invest in human capital. Factors have individually shown to affect child labor and school attendance, but we question which factors cause the strongest effects by considering them simultaneously. We evaluate which factors have led to the decrease in child labor and the increase in school attendance of children aged 12-14 in Mexico. We consider income, the education of the head-of-household, monetary government transfers, access to public health institutions, remittances and demographic characteristics, as possible sources of the changes. We use a variant of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (Fairlie, 2005), which allows the decomposition in the case the variables to be explained are dichotomous. The change in child labor and school attendance over time can then be decomposed into an explained and an unexplained portion, with each factor contributing a specific amount to the explained portion of the difference. The most important factor that led to the fall child labor and the increase in school attendance was the improvement in the human capital of parents, measured as years of education. The increase in government assistance and greater access to social health insurance also play an important role. Public policies aimed at increasing school attendance and those aimed at reducing child labor should consider the improvement of education as a major goal

O-Doped Nanographenes: A Pyrano/Pyrylium Route Towards Semiconducting Cationic Mixed-Valence Complexes

Herein we report an efficient synthesis to prepare O-doped nanographenes derived from the π-extension of pyrene. The derivatives are highly fluorescent and feature low oxidation potentials. Using electrooxidation, crystals of cationic mixed-valence (MV) complexes were grown in which the organic salts organize into face-to-face π-stacks, a favorable solid-state arrangement for organic electronics. Variable-temperature electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements and relaxation studies suggest a strong electron delocalization along the longitudinal axis of the columnar π-stacking architectures. Electric measurements of single crystals of the MV salts show a semiconducting behavior with a remarkably high conductivity at room temperature. These findings support the notion that π-extension of heteroatom-doped polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is an attractive approach to fabricate nanographenes with a broad spectrum of semiconducting properties and high charge mobilities