Technical efficiency and spatial externalities: evidence from spanish small and middle-sized industrial firms

The aim of this paper is to analyze whether firms located inside a hypothetic cluster have a different performance in terms of technical efficiency from firms located outside. To undertake this analysis we present a methodology to overcome the restrictions suffered by this kind of studies, basically the radial efficiency measures. The methodological approach we propose is based on non-radial efficiency measures, also referred as the Russell measure. We present the main results obtained on a sample of small and middle-sized industrial firms located in the Valencian Community (Spain) to show the advantages of this methodology. Furthermore, we assess the links between the spatial location and some management characteristics at firm level.

Does monetary policy in advanced economies have differentiated effects on portfolio flows to emerging economies?

This work analyzes whether the monetary policy in advanced economies (the US, the euro area, and the UK) had differentiated effects on portfolio flows from these countries toward EMEs. The results show the following: First, US monetary policy had a bigger impact on bond and equity investment to EMEs than the euro area or UK monetary policy. Second, investors' response to US monetary policy was mostly homogeneous. Among EMEs regions, foreign portfolio investment to Emerging Europe and Latin America was more volatile that than to Emerging Asia, probably because other factors such as investors' preference (in the case of bond flows) or expectations of firms' profits (in the case of equity flows) could play an important role in investors' decisions. These results could be useful for policymakers from EMEs as a benchmark to anticipate differentiated effects in portfolio flows caused by advanced economies' monetary policy

Macroeconomic Reform and Policy: The Case of Peru - Analyzing the effects of some major economic, political and social changes in the Peruvian Financial market for the period between 1990 and 1992

This paper discusses the effects of the changes in economic policies and important events, between 1990 and 1992, on the values of an economic sector\u27s equity in Peru. I use event studies to explain the differences in returns during the event window in the main economic sectors in Peru including mining, beer, banking and industrial sector. Four key events are analyzed: The Fujishock, the announcement of policy changes and changes in the legal system, Fujimori\u27s announcement of the dissolution of Congress and the suspension of the Constitution, and the capture of the chief of the Shining Path guerrillas, Guzman. I estimate the evolution of the abnormal returns of the main economic sectors. The regression results show that these events produced significant changes, both positive and negative, in the Peruvian stock market. I argue possible explanations for these findings and analyze the implications of these in future economic decisions

Frobenius pairs in abelian categories: correspondences with cotorsion pairs, exact model categories, and Auslander-Buchweitz contexts

In this work, we revisit Auslander-Buchweitz Approximation Theory and find some relations with cotorsion pairs and model category structures. From the notions of relatives generators and cogenerators in Approximation Theory, we introduce the concept of left Frobenius pairs $(\mathcal{X},\omega)$ in an abelian category $\mathcal{C}$. We show how to construct from $(\mathcal{X},\omega)$ a projective exact model structure on $\mathcal{X}^\wedge$, as a result of Hovey-Gillespie Correspondence applied to two compatible and complete cotorsion pairs in $\mathcal{X}^\wedge$. These pairs can be regarded as examples of what we call cotorsion pairs relative to a thick subcategory of $\mathcal{C}$. We establish some correspondences between Frobenius pairs, relative cotorsion pairs, exact model structures and Auslander-Buchweitz contexts. Finally, some applications of these results are given in the context of Gorenstein homological algebra by generalizing some existing model structures on the categories of modules over Gorenstein and Ding-Chen rings, and by encoding the stable module category of a ring as a certain homotopy category. We also present some connections with perfect cotorsion pairs, covering classes, and cotilting modules.Comment: 54 pages, 10 figures. The statement and proof of 2.6.21 was corrected. Typos corrected. Section 4 was improved, and new results in Section 5 were adde

On the Galactic Spiral Patterns: Stellar and Gaseous

The gas response to a proposed spiral stellar pattern for our Galaxy is presented here as calculated via 2D hydrodynamic calculations utilizing the ZEUS code in the disk plane. The locus is that found by Drimmel (2000) from emission profiles in the K band and at 240 $\mu m$. The self-consistency of the stellar spiral pattern was studied in previous work (see Martos et al. 2004). It is a sensitive function of the pattern rotation speed, $\Omega_p$, among other parameters which include the mass in the spiral and its pitch angle. Here we further discuss the complex gaseous response found there for plausible values of $\Omega_p$ in our Galaxy, and argue that its value must be close to $20 km s^{-1} kpc^{-1}$ from the strong self-consistency criterion and other recent, independent studies which depend on such parameter. However, other values of $\Omega_p$ that have been used in the literature are explored to study the gas response to the stellar (K band) 2-armed pattern. For our best fit values, the gaseous response to the 2-armed pattern displayed in the K band is a four-armed pattern with complex features in the interarm regions. This response resembles the optical arms observed in the Milky Way and other galaxies with the smooth underlying two-armed pattern of the old stellar disk populations in our interpretation.Comment: Accepted for Publication in the Journal of the Korean Astronomical Society, expanded from the proceedings of the 2004 Mexico-Korea meetin

Portfolio investment and U.S. monetary policy announcements: An event study analysis using high-frequency data from Mexico

We study how unconventional monetary policy announcements affected the entry of foreign investment in debt and equity in Mexico, placing special focus on announcements related to the third QE program and the taper tantrum episode. A novel dataset on daily debt and equity flows, that maps Balance of Payments data quite well, allows this paper to provide a better insight into movements of capital. The results suggest that both equity and debt flows reacted immediately to unexpected U.S. monetary policy announcements, particularly if these are considered as bad news by investors. In turn, results using weekly data support the idea that investors interested in fixed income instruments move more prudently than those interested in equity which react quickly

Obesity-Related Myocardiopathy

Cardiovascular disease in populations with obesity is a major concern because of it is epidemic proportion. Obesity leads to the development of cardiomyopathy directly via inflammatory mediators and indirectly by obesity-induced hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery diseases. Metabolic disturbances such as increased free fatty acid levels, insulin resistance, elevated levels of adipokines, myocardial remodeling, activation of the sympathetic nervous and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone systems, and small-vessel disease are the most important mechanisms in the development of obesity cardiomyopathy. The myocardial changes related with obesity are increasingly recognized, and they are independent of classic risk factors as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and obstructive sleep apnea. There is a wide range of evidence: the association between heart failure and obesity shown in epidemiologic studies; the confirmation of the association of adiposity with left ventricular dysfunction, independent of hypertension, coronary artery disease, and other heart diseases; and experimental evidence of functional and structural changes in the myocardium in response to increased adiposity support the existence of a cardiomyopathy related to obesity

Russian economic report No. 17 (November 2008), The World Bank

After a decade of high growth, the Russian econoomy is experiencing a slowdown in the wake of the global financial crisis. While Russia's strong short-term macroeconomic fundamentals make it better than many emerging economies to deal with the crisis, its underlying structural weaknesses and high dependence on the price of a single commodity make its impact more pronounced than otherwise. But the crisis also presents an opportunity to address the medium- to longer term challenges of competitiveness, economic diversification, and financial sector modernization which are necessary to boost growth and living standards.Russia; Russian economy; Russian financial crisis; energy efficiency