Fatores determinantes da eficiência do setor bancário em Portugal: uma aplicação através de modelos de regressão fracional

The participation in the Euro area and the current financial crisis substantially conditioned the development of the Portuguese banking industry, for which is expected a continuous fall in income and a growing competitive pressure, improving the need to look carefully to issues as efficiency as an essential survival factor. Efficiency indicators of the main banks operating in Portugal were measured through DEA methodology. The application of two-stage models allowed circumventing the usual problems inherent to the coexistence of the production and intermediation approaches. The application of regression for proportions, more appropriate than traditional linear and Tobit regressions, to deal with the fractional nature of the DEA scores, allowed the identification of efficiency determinant factors for the main banks operating in Portugal. The fractional regression models demonstrate evidence of improved specification comparing to traditional regression models. The variables that appear to major influence on overall efficiency are internationalization, size and type of ownership of capital.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Temperate holomorphic solutions and regularity of holonomic D-modules on curves

Let $X$ be a complex manifold. In "Microlocal study of Ind-sheaves I: microsupport and regularity", M. Kashiwara e P. Schapira made the conjecture that a holonomic D-module \shm is regular holonomic if and only if R\mathcal{I}{hom}_{\beta_X\shd_X}(\beta_X\shm,\sho_X^t) is regular (in the sense of "Microlocal study of Ind-sheaves I: microsupport and regularity"), the "only if" part of this conjecture following immediately from "Microlocal study of Ind-sheaves I: microsupport and regularity". Our aim is to prove this conjecture in dimension one.Comment: 21 page

Unemployment Insurance and Union Behavior: Comparison of Some Paradigms and Endogenous Membership

This paper discusses the sensitivity of the labor market outcome in the standard bargaining paradigms - monopoly union and efficient bargaining - to the existence of a budget constraint pending on the financing of the unemployment benefit. Consequences of how the unions value members and members' status (employed or unemployed) in their collective maximand, implications of union having control over membership, and, hence, of unemployment insurance coverage, are also considered, as well as of different fiscal scenarios on the form of financing the unemployment benefit bill.Unions, Wage Determination Models, Unemployment Benefit, Unemployment Insurance, Union Wage Bargaining, Union Membership.

Frontier Techniques: Contrasting the Performance of (Single-)Truncated Order Regression Methods and Replicated Moments

This research contrasts three econometric alternatives for stochastic efficiency frontier analysis: order – inter-quantile – and inverse order regression under the assumption of truncated error term distribution, and replicated moment estimation. The demonstration departs from a simple linear regression form of the effective frontier; truncated (at zero) errors are then added to it for simulation purposes. For order regression, experiments with the standard normal, uniform, exponential, Cauchy and logistic error terms are provided. For complex error structures we rely on normal distributions only. The three alternatives would perform satisfactorily for simple error disturbances, specially if they are normal. With more than one residual added to the dependent variable, the weight of the unrestricted range one can blur the conclusions regarding observation efficiency.Stochastic Frontier Model, Generalized Method of Order Statistics, Minimum Distance Method of Order Statistics, Inverse Order Regression, Replicated Moments, Linear Models.

Reconciling the Nash and Kalai-Smorodinsky Cooperative Solutions: Generalized Maximands of CES Form

This note suggests variations to the baseline Nash cooperative solution that take into account the Kalai-Smorodinsky critique. One the one hand, a CES form of the maximand is proven to accommodate both the generalized two-person Nash and the Kalai-Smorodinsky - as other proportional - solutions as special cases. As an alternative, a Stone-Geary formulation is forwarded, weighing both the distances to the threat and to the ideal point, along with the corresponding CES generalization. Interpretations of the implied equilibrium solutions – generalizable to n-person cooperative games – are provided, arising as equations balancing geometric averages of measures of attitude towards (large) risk(s) of the players.Two-Person Cooperative Games, Cooperative Games Maximands, Opportunism, Pessimism.

Segmented Life-cycle Labor Markets – Portuguese Evidence

The paper contrasts the pattern of returns to human capital in different economic sectors. As job mobility, especially across sectors, is limited, it is argued that coefficients of experience in earnings regressions may capture or be interpreted as the growth rate – net of depreciation – of earnings ability propitiated by schooling when years of education are also included in the right hand-side of the equation. As a consequence, under long-term contracts, labor market equilibrium is compatible with different “gross” rates of return to schooling, provided initial earnings levels allow for the same accumulated present value. That implies a special relation between the intercept and experience coefficient of earnings regressions performed for different sectors. Additionally, implications of (log-stable) nonstationary environments for rate of return inference from log-earnings regressions – appropriate for pooled (or panel) estimation and nominal earnings information - are also investigated. Then, the trend coefficient measures the (steady-state) nominal productivity growth; the experience coefficients approximate individuals’ earnings profiles growth rates net of the human capital depreciation rate; schooling’s, the nominal rate of return in the economy net of the nominal productivity growth rate. Tests of the hypothesises are provided, along with the inspection of the determinants – including financial ratios and productive organization indicators, calculated from aggregate balance sheet information - of the observed differences across industries. A study of the estimated variances of rate of return estimates was also conducted, as an attempt to capture features of financial risk in human capital investment.Returns to Schooling; Earnings/Wage Growth; Wage Determinants; Segmented Labor Markets. Industry-Specific Human Capital. Human Capital Risk. Financial Structure and Performance. Weighted Principal Components.