FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND INSTABILITY:THE ROLE OF THE LABOUR SHARE

This paper examines the role of the labour share in creating instability in a small open economy. We assume that financial markets are imperfect so that entrepreneurs are credit constrained, and that this constraint is tighter for low levels of financial development. Aghion, Bacchetta and Banerjee (2004) have shown that as the degree of financial development increases, output rises but instability appears for intermediate levels of financial development. Crucially, they assume that labour is paid before production takes place, and hence crises are solely due to the increased cost of debt repayment as firms accumulate capital. We show that under the more reasonable assumption that wages are paid at the end of the period, changes in the labour share also play a role in eroding profitability. Our analysis also predicts that financial crises are associated with substantial movements in the sharing of value added between capital and labour.Financial liberalization, Volatility, Labour share, Credit constraint

Which factor bears the cost of currency crises?

This paper identifies which of the two factors, namely labour and capital, bears the cost of currency crises and for what reasons. It analyzes two main types of effects that currency crises may have on the labour share: across sector effects and within sector effects. We build a descriptive model with a tradable sector and a non-tradable one which can differ in their capital intensities so that structural changes occurring during currency crises may change the aggregate level of the labour share. The model also highlights that crises erode the bargaining power of workers so that within sectors, crises lower the labour share. We perform estimations on manufacturing sectoral panel data for 20 countries which have experienced currency crises. We conclude that currency crises lower the aggregate manufacturing labour share by 2 points on average and that this decline reflects mostly changes within sectors.Currency crisis ; Labour share ; Factor reallocation ; Matching frictions

GINI DP 12: Factor Components of Inequality. A Cross-Country Study

This paper uses data from the Luxembourg Income Study to examine some of the forces that have driven changes in household income inequality over the last three decades of the 20th century. We decompose inequality for 6 countries (Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the US) into the three sources of market income: earnings, property income and income from self-employment. Our findings indicate that although changes in the distribution of earnings are an important aspect of recent increases in inequality, they are not the only one. In some countries the contribution of self-employment income to inequality has been on the rise. In others, increases in inequality in capital income –probably caused by tax changes- account for a substantial fraction of the observed changes in the distribution of income. JEL classification numbers: D31, D33

FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND INSTABILITY:THE ROLE OF THE LABOUR SHARE

This paper examines the role of the labour share in creating instability in a small open economy. We assume that financial markets are imperfect so that entrepreneurs are credit constrained, and that this constraint is tighter for low levels of financial development. Aghion, Bacchetta and Banerjee (2004) have shown that as the degree of financial development increases, output rises but instability appears for intermediate levels of financial development. Crucially, they assume that labour is paid before production takes place, and hence crises are solely due to the increased cost of debt repayment as firms accumulate capital. We show that under the more reasonable assumption that wages are paid at the end of the period, changes in the labour share also play a role in eroding profitability. Our analysis also predicts that financial crises are associated with substantial movements in the sharing of value added between capital and labour

Dynamics of parametric fluctuations induced by quasiparticle tunneling in superconducting flux qubits

We present experiments on the dynamics of a two-state parametric fluctuator in a superconducting flux qubit. In spectroscopic measurements, the fluctuator manifests itself as a doublet line. When the qubit is excited in resonance with one of the two doublet lines, the correlation of readout results exhibits an exponential time decay which provides a measure of the fluctuator transition rate. The rate increases with temperature in the interval 40 to 158 mK. Based on the magnitude of the transition rate and the doublet line splitting we conclude that the fluctuation is induced by quasiparticle tunneling. These results demonstrate the importance of considering quasiparticles as a source of decoherence in flux qubits.Comment: 12 pages, including supplementary informatio

Factor Components of Inequality: A Cross-Country Study

This paper uses data from the Luxembourg Income Study to examine some of the forces that have driven changes in household income inequality over the last three decades of the 20th century. We decompose inequality for 6 countries (Canada, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the US) into the three sources of market income (earnings, property income and income from self-employment) and taxes and transfers. Our findings indicate that although changes in the distribution of earnings are an important aspect of recent increases in inequality, they are not the only one. Greater earnings dispersion has in some cases been accompanied by a reduction in the share of earnings that dampened its impact on overall household income inequality. In some countries the contribution of self-employment income to inequality has been on the rise, while in others, increases in inequality in capital income account for a substantial fraction of the observed distributional changes

Análisis y propuestas de soluciones para el proceso de mejora continua en la fábrica John Deere Ibérica

Este proyecto de fin de carrera tiene su origen en la práctica industrial realizada en el departamento de mejora continua de la fábrica de John Deere en Getafe. Tiene por objetivo definir los problemas que encuentra la mejora continua en su implementación en el campo, analizarlos, encontrar las causas raíces y proponer soluciones a implementar para rematar los problemas. Deere & Company es una empresa americana de maquinaria agrícola creada al inicio del siglo XIX por John Deere, un joven herrero. La empresa se desarrolló y amplió sus productos continuamente, para convertirse en una gran multinacional, líder del mercado. Siempre ha tenido como objetivo la excelencia y, por ello, ha querido crear su proceso de mejora continua para implementarlo en todas sus fábricas del mundo. Esta memoria constará de un resumen de la filosofía Lean* desarrolladla por Toyota, que es el mejor referente respecto a la mejora continua. Se presentará después en detalle el proceso particular desarrollado por John Deere. A partir de él se podrá entender, basándose en unos ejemplos concretos, los obstáculos que tiene que afrontar la mejora continua en la planta de Getafe. Por último se analizarán para encontrar las causas raíces y se propondrán soluciones para rematar los problemas.Ingeniería Industria