International propagation of shocks: an evaluation of contagion effects for some Latin American countries

In this paper we analyze the spread of shocks across assets markets in eight Latin-American countries. First, we measure the extent of markets reactions with the Principal Components Analysis. And second, we investigate the volatility of assets markets based in ARCH-GARCH models in function of the principal components retained in the first stage. Our results do not support the existence of financial contagion, but of interdependence in most of the cases and a slight increase in the sensibility of markets to recent shocks.assets markets, financial contagion, interdependence

Dynamic conditional correlation in Latin-American asset markets

ABSTRACT: In this paper we reviewed the models of volatility for a group of five Latin American countries, mainly motivated by the recent periods of financial turbulence. Our results based on high frequency data suggest that Dynamic multivariate models are more powerful to study the volatilities of asset returns than Constant Conditional Correlation models. For the group ofcountries included, we identified that domestic volatilities of asset marketshave been increasing; but the co-volatility of the region is still moderate.

Ownership structure and risk at Colombian banks

The separation between ownership and the control of capital in banks generates differences in thepreferences for risk among shareholders and the manager. These differences could imply a corporate governance problem in banks with a dispersed ownership, since owners fail to exert control in the allocation of capital. In this paper we examine the relationship between the ownership structure and risk for Colombian banks. Our results suggest that a high ownership concentration leads to higher levels of risk.corporate governance and banking risk

The ozone flame

The Ozone flame structure is analyzed from the point of view of asymptotic methods, using the fact that the ratios of the characteristic times associated with the different reactions, which change with the flame temperature and therefore with the initial Ozone concentration, take values very large or very small compared with unity. A two-zone structure is found for the flame, with simplified forms of the reaction mechanism for each of the zones