Bidding markets with financial constraints

We develop a model of bidding markets with financial constraints a la Che and Gale (1998b) in which two firms optimally choose their budgets. First, we provide an alternative explanation for the dispersion of markups and “money left on the table” across procurement auctions. Interestingly, this explanation does not hinge on significant private information but on differences, both endogenous and exogenous, in the availability of financial resources. Second, we explain why the empirical analysis of the size of markups may be biased downwards or upwards with a bias positively correlated with the availability of financial resources when the researcher assumes that the data are generated by the standard auction model. Third, we show that large concentration and persistent asymmetries in market shares together with occasional leadership reversals can arise as a consequence of the firms internal financial decisions even in the absence of exogenous shocks

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Primer Premio. Categoría Senior del Certame

Price setting behaviour in Spain: evidence from micro PPI data

This paper identifies the basic features of price setting behaviour at the producer level in the Spanish economy using a large dataset containing the micro data underlying the construction of the PPI over the period 1991-1999. It explores how these general features are affected by some specific factors (cost structure, degree of competition, demand conditions, government intervention, level of inflation, seasonality, and the practice of using attractive prices) and presents a comparison of price setting practices at the producer and at the consumer level to ascertain whether the retail sector augments or mitigates price stickiness. We find that prices do not change often but do so by a large amount. The cost structure, proxied by the labour share and the relevance of raw materials, and the degree of competition, proxied by import penetration, affect price flexibility. We also find some evidence that producer prices are more flexible than consumer prices. JEL Classification: E31, D40frequency of price changes, price setting, producer prices

Do decreasing hazard functions for price changes make any sense?

A common finding in empirical studies using micro data on consumer and producer prices is that hazard functions for price changes are decreasing. This means that a firm will have a lower probability of changing its price the longer it has kept it unchanged. This result is at odds with standard models of price setting. Here a simple explanation is proposed: decreasing hazards may result from aggregating heterogeneous price setters. We show analytically the form of this heterogeneity effect for the most commonly used pricing rules and find that the aggregate hazard is (nearly always decreasing. Results are illustrated using Spanish producer and consumer price data. We find that a very accurate representation of individual data is obtained by considering just 4 groups of agents: one group of flexible Calvo agents, one group of intermediate Calvo agents and one group of sticky Calvo agents plus an annual Calvo process. JEL Classification: C40, D40, E30hazard function, Heterogeneous Agents, mixture models, price setting models

Explaining cross-industry heterogeneity in price stickiness.

This note explains cross industry heterogeneity in the frequency of price adjustment. We use the quasi-maximum approach of Papke and Wooldridge (1996) to avoid the shortcomings of OLS regressions to analyse frequencies. We pay particular attention to the role of costs and market competition in explaining cross-industry differences. We find that prices are stickier the higher the labour cost share and the lower are competition and the intermediate input share.producer prices, frequency of price changes, market competition, cost structure

A framework of industrial sustainability good practices

Global environmental problems, energy and raw material prices as well as their availability, increasingly demanding legislation and environmental taxes are some of the reasons that drive the consideration of sustainability concepts and practices into company operations. This paper presents the research carried out in order to capture industrial sustainability good practices and represent them into a framework to help companies increase their awareness and adopt practices to embed them within their operational processes

The Eco-Physiological Role of Microcystis aeruginosa in a Changing World

Among the bloom-forming cyanobacteria, Microcystis aeruginosa is one of the mostharmful species. The prevalence of toxic species and their toxicity profiles vary each yeardepending on environmental variables, despite their dynamics being not well understood.Imbalances in nutrient concentrations, the greater frequency and intensity of higher averagetemperatures and less severe winters, and the alternation between periods of positive andnegative precipitation anomalies were identified as conditions favoring the prevalence of M.aeruginosa. Similarly, dry periods (corresponding to a prevailing La Niña condition) wereeven more conducive to the formation of harmful algal blooms of pronounced intensity.Moreover, toxin production is temperature-dependent and some strains are capable ofproducing multiple microsystins (MCs). Thus, the role of environmental variables incontrolling the genetic expression of toxin synthetase of individual toxin-producing genesis still unknown.Fil: Giannuzzi, Leda. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Hernando, Marcelo Pablo. Red de Investigación de Estresores Marinos-costeros En América Latina y El Caribe; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentin

Herramienta tecnológica para el hallazgo de objetos perdidos dentro de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira

Este proyecto está dirigido a dar una posible solución a la falta de una solución que mejore las oportunidades de recuperar objeto que se extravió dentro de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, que tiene como función poder publicar y listar los objetos perdidos o encontrados dentro de la universidad y contactar a la persona que tiene el objeto. Con la implementación de este prototipo se logrará dar una opción que puede brindar un gran avance para la universidad en cuanto al desarrollo social y el apoyo comunitario, debido a que la gran mayoría de los estudiantes en algún momento durante su estadía en la universidad ha perdido cualquier articulo y como su acceso a internet a través de equipos de cómputo o celulares smartphone es ahora más fácil podría hacer que este aplicativo le dé más posibilidades de encontrar de nuevo su objeto