Public and Private Learning from Prices, Strategic Substitutability and Complementarity, and Equilibrium Multiplicity

We study a general static noisy rational expectations model, where investors have private information about asset payoffs, with common and private components, and about their own exposure to an aggregate risk factor, and derive conditions for existence and uniqueness (or multiplicity) of equilibria. We find that a main driver of the characterization of equilibria is whether the actions of investors are strategic substitutes or complements. This latter property in turn is driven by the strength of a private learning channel from prices, arising from the multidimensional sources of asymmetric information, in relation to the usual public learning channel. When the private learning channel is strong (weak) in relation to the public we have strong (weak) strategic complementarity in actions and potentially multiple (unique) equilibria. The results enable a precise characterization of whether information acquisition decisions are strategic substitutes or complements. We find that the strategic substitutability in information acquisition result obtained in Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) is robust.rational expectations equilibrium, strategic complementarity, multiplicity of equilibria, asymmetric information, risk exposure, bedging, supply information

Do more trucks lead to more motor vehicle fatalities in European roads? Evaluating the impact of specific safety strategies.

Truck operations have recently become an important focus of academic research not only because road freight transport is a key part of logistics, but because trucks are usually associated with negative externalities including pollution, congestion and traffic accidents. While the negative environmental impacts of truck activities have been extensively analyzed, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role of trucks in road accidents. A review of the literature identifies various truck-traffic safety related issues: frequency of accidents and their determinants; risk factors associated with truck driver behavior (including cell phone use, fatigue, alcohol and drugs consumption); truck characteristics and facilities (roadway types, specific lanes and electronic stability programs) to improve performance of vehiclemaneuvering; and the safety characteristics of heavy and large trucks. However, to date, there seems to have been developed few studies evaluating the complex coexistence of trucks and cars on roads and that may support the implementation of differential road safety strategies applied to them. This paper focuses on the impact on the traffic fatalities rate of the interaction between trucks and cars on roads. We also assess the efficiency of two stricter road safety regulations for trucks, as yet not harmonized in the European Union; namely, speed limits and maximum blood alcohol concentration rates. For this, econometric models have been developed from a panel data set for European Union during the years 1999–2010. Our findings show that rising motorization rates for trucks lead to higher traffic fatalities, while rising motorization rates for cars do not. These effects remain constant across Europe, even in the most highly developed countries boasting the best highway networks. Furthermore, we also find that lower maximum speed limits for trucks are effective and maximum blood alcohol concentration rates for professional drivers are only effective when they are strictly set to zero. Therefore, our results point to that the differential treatment of trucks is not only adequate for mitigating an important source of congestion and pollution, but that the implementation of stricter road safety measures in European countries for the case of trucks also contributes significantly to reducing fatalities. In summary, and as a counterpoint to the negative impact of trucks on road traffic accidents, we conclude the effectiveness of efforts made in road safety policy (based on specific traffic regulations by vehicle type imposed by member States) to counteract the safety externalities of freight transportation in the European Union. In certain sense, our study might provide indirect support to public policies implemented at the macro European level to promote multimodal transport corridors. In this respect, there is an increasing focus at the European level on how freight transport can be moved from trucks on roads to more environmentally-sustainable modes, such as rail and ship.Dirección General de Tráfico SPIP2014127

The europeanization of the common road safety policy: an econometric analysis

The 2001 White Paper and its development in the 3rd European Road Safety Action Program, represent a turning point in the history of the European Road Safety Policy. The possible determinants of the road mortality in the EU over (2000-2009) are examined using a panel data. Our main finding is the negative effect and statistical significance of the Europeanization variable (the number of years that a country has been in the EU). By this variable, we test the effectiveness of EU programs to save lives in road accidents according to the years that each country has been in the EU

Some economic aspects of energy security

Energy security is becoming an increasingly important issue in the energy domain. However, from an economic point of view, many questions related to energy security are still unclear: from its definition and the costs associated to insecurity, to the design of policies intended to reduce it. In this paper we first illustrate why the security of energy supply is and will continue to be a major concern in the next few decades. We subsequently attempt, with a review of the limited literature on these matters, to provide an answer to some of the economic concepts associated to this issue and to the application of corrective public policies in the field.peer-reviewe

Public and private learning from prices, strategic substitutability and complementarity, and equilibrium multiplicity

We study a general static noisy rational expectations model, where investors have private information about asset payoffs, with common and private components, and about their own exposure to an aggregate risk factor, and derive conditions for existence and uniqueness (or multiplicity) of equilibria. We find that a main driver of the characterization of equilibria is whether the actions of investors are strategic substitutes or complements. This latter property in turn is driven by the strength of a private learning channel from prices, arising from the multidimensional sources of asymmetric information, in relation to the usual public learning channel. When the private learning channel is strong (weak) in relation to the public we have strong (weak) strategic complementarity in actions and potentially multiple (unique) equilibria. The results enable a precise characterization of whether information acquisition decisions are strategic substitutes or complements. We find that the strategic substitutability in information acquisition result obtained in Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) is robust.Rational expectations equilibrium; strategic complementarity; multiplicity of equilibria; asymmetric information; risk exposure; hedging; supply information;

Presence and control of the Coati, Nasua nasua L, and other carnivores introduced in recent times in Mallorca

Les espècies introduïdes són un problema ambiental cada vegada més rellevant. En medis insulars aquest fenomen és considerat la causa més important d'extinció de vertebrats. La introducció d'espècies a les Illes Balears s'ha produït des de temps remots, sent la totalitat de la mastozoofauna terrestre d'origen introduït. Això juntament amb altres elements faunístics al·lòctons i l'acció directa de l'home, s'ha relacionat amb l'extinció dels mamífers pleistocènics (Myotragus, Hypnomys, Nesiotites), i probablement amb la rarefacció i extinció local d'altres espècies i poblacions. En la actualitat continuen arribant animals exòtics, entre altres motius, per al comerç de mascotes. De vegades es produeixen escapaments o alliberaments intencionats en el medi natural com és el cas del Coatí, Nasua nasua a l’illa de Mallorca. Aquest carnívor d'origen americà ha aconseguit naturalitzar-se i formar almenys un grup reproductor estable. En algunes illes del Pacífic on ha estat introduït ha ocasionat un impacte greu. Es detallen els registres de l’espècie, i d’altres mamífers carnívors introduïts a Mallorca en els darrers anys.Introduced species are becoming an increasing environmental problem. Within island habitats, this phenomenon is considered the most important cause of extinction of vertebrate. The introduction of species in the Balearics Islands has occurred since ancient times, being the whole terrestrial mammals wildlife native from habitats outside these islands. These events, together with other allochthonous faunal elements and directly human activities, have been associated with the extinction of Pleistocene mammals (Myotragus, Hypnomys, Nesiotites), and possibly with the rarefaction and local extinctions of other species and populations. Exotic wildlife continues arriving nowadays, among other reasons, for pet trade. Accidental escapes or intentional occur as well as it happened to the Coati (Nasua nasua) in the island of Mallorca. This American carnivore has become naturalized and formed at least one stable breeding group. This species is being introduced in several Pacific islands has caused serious impact on seabird colonies. It provides detailed records of this species, and other carnivorous mammals introduced in Mallorca in recent years

El ferreret, Alytes muletensis: el segon Pla de Recuperació i setze anys més de feina (1998-2013)

Les tasques de conservació del ferreret es varen iniciar des del seu descobriment, als anys 80. El 1991 es va redactar i aplicar un primer Pla de Recuperació, inclòs un programa LIFE, amb bons resultats per a l’espècie. El 2007 es va aprovar un segon Pla de Recuperació, en vigor fins el 2013. En aquest treball farem un recull dels resultats des de 1998 fins al final del II Pla de Recuperació (2013). Les actuacions han intentat garantir la continuïtat de totes les poblacions silvestres, mitjançant el control de predadors introduïts, principalment de la serp d’aigua Natrix maura i amb actuacions de control de la contaminació, amb bons resultats. S’han incrementat els coneixements sobre l’espècie: S’han presentat dues tesis doctorals i gran nombre de publicacions científiques. El recompte anual de larves a totes les poblacions ens ha permès detectar tendències poblacionals i incidències en l’estat de l’espècie i el seu hàbitat. El descobriment el 2005 de la presència del fong patogen d’amfibis Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis a poblacions salvatges de l’espècie, va influenciar totes les actuacions propostes en el II Pla de Recuperació, tant la creació de nous punts per a la reproducció de l’espècie, com específicament en el seguiment de la infecció i en les accions desenvolupades per evitar la seva expansió i fins i tot intentar l’eradicació de la malaltia, que s’ha realitzat amb resultats encoratjadors. En aquest període també s’ha creat el Centre de Seguretat i Cria del Ferreret a Planícia, on es poden tractar o estabular fins a 6.000 larves i 500 adults. Es revisa també la normativa legal que afecta l’espècie i els seu hàbitats i la creació d’Àrees Biològiques Critiques. Els resultats de les tasques de recuperació del ferreret en aquest període són positius, amb un clar increment dels seus efectius

Market power and welfare in asymmetric divisible good auctions

We analyze a divisible good uniform-price auction that features two groups, each with a finite number of identical bidders, who compete in demand schedules. In the linear-quadratic-normal framework, this paper presents conditions under which the unique equilibrium in linear demands exists and derives novel comparative statics results that highlight the interaction between payoff and information parameters with asymmetric groups. We find that the strategic complementarity in the slopes of traders' demands is reinforced by inference effects from prices, and we display the role of payoff and information asymmetries in explaining deadweight losses. Furthermore, price impact and the deadweight loss need not move together, and market integration may reduce welfare. The results are consistent with the available empirical evidence

Una illa al cim, el cim d’una illa : singularitat i conservació de la flora vascular del Puig Major

No hi ha cap altre lloc a l‟illa de Mallorca amb major concentració d‟espècies de flora vascular endèmica, en perill d‟extinció i singular que als darrers 400 metres de la muntanya del Puig Major de Son Torrella. En l‟última dècada, en el marc del Pla de Conservació de la Flora Vascular Amenaçada del Puig Major, s‟han incrementat considerablement les prospeccions botàniques al cim, el que ha esdevingut en un major coneixement de la distribució, demografia i biologia de les espècies, així com de la problemàtica de conservació que pateixen. El Coristospermum huteri, l‟Agrostis barceloi i el Cotoneaster majoricensis són tres endemismes exclusius i molt amenaçats sobre els quals s‟inverteixen grans esforços de conservació per afavorir-les. El marcatge d‟exemplars, el seguiment biològic, els tancats d‟exclusió d‟herbívors (la cabra és l‟amenaça principal per la flora del Puig Major i de tota la Serra), les actuacions de reforçament, l‟eliminació d‟espècies autòctones competidores i la recol·leccions de llavors per bancs de germoplasma són les principals actuacions de gestió in situ que es porten a terme. Les proteccions físiques contra la pastura de les cabres ha sigut l‟actuació més efectiva i que més incidència ha tingut en benefici d‟aquestes tres espècies i de les 28 restants incloses també al Pla de Conservació. La majoria de les poblacions han augmentat considerablement el nombre d‟exemplars, cada vegada hi ha més individus reproductors i el percentatge de germinacions naturals també s‟ha incrementat. Però malauradament, aquests resultats estan fortament condicionats per l‟excessiva pressió d‟herbívors incontrolada