Pricing decisions under financial frictions : evidence from the WDN survey

En este trabajo se contrastan las predicciones teóricas del modelo elaborado por Duca, Montero, Riggi y Zizza (2017). Este es un modelo de mercados de clientes (customer markets) con costes de cambio de proveedor (switching costs) e imperfecciones en los mercados de capitales, en el cual los márgenes precio-coste se comportan de manera contracíclica (es decir, aumentan durante las recesiones). Para el análisis empírico se utiliza una submuestra de empresas europeas participantes en la edición de 2014 de la encuesta de la Wage Dynamics Network. Además, se emplea una metodología empírica novedosa desarrollada en Aakvik, Heckman y Vytlacil (2005) que permite la estimación de modelos de elección discreta con variables binarias endógenas y controlar por la posible presencia de sesgos de selección por factores inobservables. Los resultados muestran que las empresas europeas que estuvieron sometidas a restricciones financieras tuvieron una mayor probabilidad de elevar sus márgenes que en un escenario contrafactual sin tales restricciones. Además, en general el efecto estimado de los principales determinantes de la probabilidad de aumentar los márgenes tiende a coincidir con las predicciones del modelo teóricoI test the predictions from Duca, Montero, Riggi and Zizza (2017), who develop a customermarket model with consumer switching costs and capital-market imperfections in which price-cost markups behave countercyclically, with a subsample of European firms participating in the Wage Dynamics Network 2014 survey. I use a novel empirical approach developed by Aakvik, Heckman and Vytlacil (2005) for estimating discrete choice models with binary endogenous regressors that allows for selection on unobservables. Results show that firms subject to financial constraints had a significantly higher probability of raising markups than in a counterfactual scenario without such constraints. Moreover, the estimated partial effects for the main variables are in overall accordance with the predictions from the theoretical mode

Measuring the black hole spin direction in 3D Cartesian numerical relativity simulations

We show that the so-called flat-space rotational Killing vector method for measuring the Cartesian components of a black hole spin can be derived from the surface integral of Weinberg's pseudotensor over the apparent horizon surface when using Gaussian normal coordinates in the integration. Moreover, the integration of the pseudotensor in this gauge yields the Komar angular momentum integral in a foliation adapted to the axisymmetry of the spacetime. As a result, the method does not explicitly depend on the evolved lapse $\alpha$ and shift $\beta^i$ on the respective timeslice, as they are fixed to Gaussian normal coordinates, while leaving the coordinate labels of the spatial metric $\gamma_{ij}$ and the extrinsic curvature $K_{ij}$ unchanged. Such gauge fixing endows the method with coordinate invariance, which is not present in integral expressions using Weinberg's pseudotensor, as they normally rely on the explicit use of Cartesian coordinates

Real Exchange Rates, Dollarization and Industrial Employment in Latin America

This paperuses a panel dataset on industrial employment and trade for 9 Latin American countries for which liability dollarization data at the industrial level is available. It tests whether real exchange rate fluctuations have a significant impact on employment, and analyze whether the impact varies with the degree of trade openness and liability dollarization. Econometric evidence supports the view that real exchange rate depreciations can impact employment growth positively, but this effect is reversed as liability dollarization increases. In industries with high liability dollarization, the overall impact of a real exchange rate depreciation can be negative.

Building an Environmental Quality Index for a big city: a spatial interpolation approach with DP2

The elaboration of Environmental Quality Indexes (EQI) for big cities is one of the main topics in regional and environmental economics. One of the usual methodological paths consists of generating a single measure as a linear combination of several air contaminants applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Then, as a final step, a spatial interpolation is carried out to determine the level of contamination across the city in order to point out the so-called ‘hot points’. In this article, we propose an alternative approach to build an EQI introducing some methodological and practical novelties. From the point of view of the selection of the variables, first we will consider noise -joint to air pollution- as a relevant environmental variable. We also propose to add ‘subjective’ data -available at the census tracts level- to the group of ‘objective’ environmental variables, which are only available at a number of environmental monitoring stations. This combination leads to a mixed environmental index (MEQI), which is more complete and adequate in a socioeconomic context. From the point of view of the computation process, we use kriging to match the monitoring stations registers to the Census data. We follow an inverse process as usual, since it leads to better estimates. In a first step, we krige the environmental variables to the complete surface and finally, we elaborate the environmental index. At last, in order to build the final synthetic index, we do not use Principal Components Analysis -as it is usual in this kind of exercises- but a better one, the Pena Distance method (DP2).Environmental index, Air pollution, Noise, Subjecive expectations, Kriging, Distance indicators

Expedicions científi ques en la televisió andalusa: aventura i rigor

Expedicions científi ques en la televisió andalusa: aventura i rigo

José Antonio Montero entrevista a Joan "Chichi" Creus

Joan Creus se ha convertido, a sus 42 años, en uno de los mayores ejemplos para los deportistas españoles de este final de milenio. La figura de este jugador de baloncesto, licenciado en Educación Física por el INEFC de Barcelona, ha ido iluminándose con mayor fuerza a medida que han ido pasando los años, un paso del tiempo que para él no existe y que, por el contrario, le otorga, cada vez más, un estilo y una personalidad que le permiten ser, sin duda ninguna, uno de los mejores deportistas de la actualidad. La descripción de Joan Creus, que cumplió 42 años el pasado 24 de noviembre y mide 1,76 cms. de estatura, pocos la ubicarían en la persona de un baloncestista de elite. Pero lo cierto es que este menudo jugador ha sido, posiblemente, el jugador más importante del TDK Manresa, equipo que recientemente se ha proclamado campeón de la Liga Profesional de Baloncesto. Un éxito histórico y que en los últimos cuarenta y dos años sólo habían conseguido tres equipos, el Real Madrid, el Barça y el Joventut de Badalona

“Miró al soslayo, fuese y no hubo nada”. Fortuna y actualidad de un verso cervantino

Attraverso vari esempi cha vanno dal Siglo de Oro ai nostri giorni, in questo articolo si vuole mostrare la vitalità di alcune espressioni cervantine che hanno resistito all'usura del tempo e restano vive nello spagnolo contemporaneo. Alcune sono molto diffuse proprio per la loro derivazione dal Quijote, altre sono meno note, come quella che si esamina qui, proveniente da un sonetto di Cervantes: la fine dell'ultimo verso (“fuese y no hubo nada”) si è lessicalizzata ed è stata incorporata nel linguaggio della Spagna di oggi, ben diversa da quella che conobbe Cervantes.Through several examples from the Golden Age to today, this article aims to show the vitality of some Cervantean expressions which have stood the test of time and are still common in present-day Spanish. Some of them are widely widespread thanks to their connection with Don Quixote, whereas others are less well known, such as the expression drawn from one of Cervantes's sonnets, examined here. The conclusion of its last line, “fuese y no hubo nada”, has become current in the language of contemporary Spain, a very different reality from the one Cervantes knew

A Market-Based Environmental Policy Experiment in Chile

Despite the increasing interest in the use of emissions trading for pollution control, empirical evidence reduces to a few experiences in the US. This paper studies the “"emission-offsets trading program”" established since 1992 to control particulate in Santiago-Chile. While the program is doing well from an environmental perspective, thanks, in part, to the price-based introduction of natural gas, the market is poorly performing because of high transaction costs, uncertainty and low enforcement. However, the scarcity rents created by the allocation of grandfathered emission rights to incumbents have proved very effective for the completion of the emissions inventory.