Household Earnings Risk and its Impact on Consumption and Portfolio Decisions

Household labor earnings are unequal and risky. Their persistence and the distribution of the shocks they face depend on age, birth cohort, and the position of a household in the earnings distribution. Understanding these features is key to explain household consumption decisions, the allocation of household savings between different asset classes, and the role of different insurance mechanisms in smoothing out those risks. Using US survey data and Dutch administrative data, I document that household earnings are less persistent for the young and for the income-poor and that shocks to earnings are infrequent and negatively skewed. Although the tax and transfer system insures part of these risks, particularly in the Netherlands, they are also present in disposable income. I then turn to evaluating the implications of these rich features by comparing, in the context of a standard life-cycle model, a flexible earnings process that incorporates them against a canonical process with constant persistence and normal shocks. I find that considering richer earnings dynamics helps us to better understand the evolution of cross-sectional consumption inequality over the life-cycle and the pass-through of persistent earnings shocks to consumption. Many of these features of earnings have changed over time. Using US data, I document that earnings are more unequal and riskier for younger generations. I argue that lower initial and lifetime earnings for the income-poor and larger earnings variability across the board are key to explain the reduction in homeownership rates between the generations born in the 1940s and 1980s. I show the relevance of this mechanism in a flexible life-cycle model with risk-free assets, stocks, houses, and mortgages, and correlated idiosyncratic and aggregate risks. Changes in financial constraints also matter: looser mortgage requirements helped the young buy houses, and lower participation costs rationalize higher stock market participation

Design and implementation of an intelligent and adaptive mechanical mattress

In this thesis, we present and implement a radical new concept of mattress, which is both intelligent and capable of mechanically adjust itself to comfortably accommodate any body shape and posture. It does so by controlling many linear actuators and by reading many pressure sensors to obtain updated information of the user's weight distribution and posture. The surface of the mattress is formed by the top side of many linear actuators placed vertically in a grid. The project can be divided in 4 big components: mechanical, electronic, algorithmic and AI. These parts interact between them to obtain the desired result, but the specific implementation of them is fairly independent while maintaining a compatible interface. We give an explicit implementation of these components and show them in a working prototype. In the presented implementation, many new and original ideas are introduced to obtain a scalable design that deals with trade-offs regarding cost, complexity, accuracy and agility, among others

Productivity in Europe during the Great Recession: Any evidence for creative destruction?

This article analyses the effects of the financial crisis and the Great Recession on productivity in Europe by studying the process of labour force reallocation between companies. Using micro-data on company balance sheets, a fixed-effects panel estimation of the predictors of the post-crisis evolution of the number of employees for a given company is used. Identification is achieved through the use of pre-crisis values of covariates. The results are in line with the theoretical predictions derived from Schumpeterian (“creative destructionâ€) endogenous growth models. Pre-crisis productivity is a predictor of a higher number of employees, which means creative destruction is taking place to some extent. Companies in financially dependent sectors perform worse in the context of the financial crisis. Indebtedness has an uneven effect: positive for large companies and negative for smaller ones

Principles of Revenue Management and their applications

El Trabajo Fin de Grado consiste en una introducción al concepto de Revenue Management, seguido de las ideas básicas en el uso del Revenue Management. A continuación se exponen algunos modelo utilizados en Revenue Management; y, para finalizar, algunas de las aplicaciones en la industria.Departamento de Organización de Empresas y Comercialización e Investigación de MercadosGrado en Ingeniería en Organización Industria

Richer earnings dynamics, consumption and portfolio choice over the life cycle

Los ingresos del trabajo de los hogares están expuestos a fluctuaciones que no siguen una distribución normal y que varían en función tanto de la edad como de la posición en la distribución de la renta. En este documento mostramos que, al capturar estas características de manera rica y flexible en el contexto de un modelo estructural en el que los hogares deciden cuánto ahorrar y en qué activos hacerlo, se puede explicar mejor por qué muchos hogares no participan en el mercado de valores e invierten poco en acciones. Dado que el riesgo asociado al mercado laboral es mayor que en estudios previos, nuestro modelo estimado genera un coeficiente de aversión al riesgo mucho menor y sugiere estrategias de inversión menos agresivas para los trabajadores de mayor edad con poca riqueza e ingresos elevados.Households face earnings risk which is non-normal and varies by age and over the income distribution. We show that, in the context of a structurally estimated life-cycle portfolio choice model, allowing for these rich features of earnings dynamics helps to better understand the limited participation of households in the stock market and their low holdings of risky assets. Because households are subject to more background risk than previously considered, the estimated model implies a substantially lower coefficient of risk aversion and a lower optimal risky asset share for older workers with low wealth and high earnings

Especulacciones: taller propedéutico de acciones estratégicas vinculadas al proyectar

narración de la experiencia pedagógica desarrollada en el taller experimental del primer curso del grado de Fundamentos de arquitectura como proyecto de innovación educativa de la UPM

Reinventarse o morir

Reinventarse o mori

Kite model with bridle control for wind-power generation

A compact flight dynamics model of a kite is developed by using Lagrangian formulation. The lengths of the three ropes of the bridle and the tether of the kite depend on time and are used to implement an open-loop control scheme of the kite system. By imposing simple time-periodic control laws, two pumping strategies for wind-energy generation are explored. Periodic trajectories of the system and their stability properties (Floquet characteristic multipliers) are computed numerically. As the amplitudes of the figure-eight paths are increased, the system becomes more efficient but less stable. A cyclic-fold bifurcation is detected for a very large lateral displacement of the kite. The impact of the control-law parameters on the generated power, including the period and the amplitude, is investigated. The results indicate that a correct design of the control could provide an optimal energy-generation system and a robust scheme to exploit high-altitude winds

Conductas sexuales de riesgo a VIH-Sida en estudiantes universitarios UPAO - Piura 2018

Objetivo: Analizar las conductas de riesgo para VIH-SIDA en estudiantes universitarios de la facultad de medicina humana UPAO – Piura en el año 2018. Metodología: Estudio descriptivo, prospectivo, correlacional, analítico de corte transversal aplicado a los estudiantes de la Facultad de Medicina Humana Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego Piura mediante encuesta autoplicada durante el ciclo 2018-II. Resultados Se contó con una muestra de 300 estudiantes dentro de los 12 ciclos académicos dentro del campus UPAO Piura; de los cuales el 60,6% fueron del sexo femenino (182 participantes); un 75,4% de los encuestados (226 participantes) afirmó haber tenido relaciones sexuales en algún momento; cerca del 55,6 % (167 encuestados) indicó haber tenido su primera experiencia entre los 15 a los 19 años de edad. El 76,6% de los estudiantes (230 encuestas) indicaron “Sentir Miedo” ante una infección/contagio de VIH; de la misma manera, 258 participantes (86%) lo consideran como una enfermedad grave/severa. De acuerdo a las respuestas obtenidas en el cuestionario, la mayoría de estudiantes presento un grado de información regular respecto al nivel de conocimientos sobre prevención de VIH, conforme al análisis bivariado, el vivir solo (P <0.03), el no creer que es una enfermedad grave (P<0.01) y la percepción de cura del VIH (P<0.02) se encuentran asociados a un mal grado de información, en el análisis multivariado vivir solo aumenta en 2.19 veces la razón de prevalencia de tener un mal grado de información (p<0.01, RPa 2.19 IC95%=1.48-3.25) además, el no creer que el VIH es una enfermedad grave aumenta en 4.6 veces la razón de prevalencia de poseer un mal grado de información. (p<0.01, RPa 4.6 IC95%=3.7-5.7). Conclusión: Se encontraron conductas de riesgo en los estudiantes de medicina, como un nivel de información mejorable en cuanto a la percepción y prevención del VIH. asimismo, vivir solo, creer que no es una enfermedad grave y pensar que el VIH tiene cura, se encuentran asociados a un mal grado de información.Objective: To analyze the risk behaviors for HIV-AIDS in university students of the faculty of human medicine UPAO - Piura in the year 2018. Methodology: Descriptive, prospective, correlational, analytical, cross-sectional study applied to students of the Faculty of Human Medicine University Private Antenor Orrego Piura through self-surveyed survey during the 2018-II cycle. Results: There was a sample of 300 students within the 12 academic cycles within the UPAO Piura campus; of which 60.6% were female (182 participants); 75.4% of respondents (226 participants) said they had sex at some time; About 55.6% (167 respondents) indicated having had their first experience between 15 and 19 years of age. 76.6% of the students (230 surveys) indicated “Feeling Fear” in the face of HIV infection / infection; In the same way, 258 participants (86%) consider it as a serious / severe illness. According to the answers obtained in the questionnaire, most of the students presented a regular degree of information regarding the level of knowledge about HIV prevention, according to bivariate analysis, living alone (P <0.03), not believing that it is a serious disease (P <0.01) and the perception of HIV cure (P <0.02) is associated with a poor degree of information. in the multivariate analysis, living alone increases the prevalence rate of having a poor degree of information by 2.19 times (p <0.01, RPa 2.19 95% CI = 1.48-3.25) and not believing that HIV is a serious disease increases the prevalence rate of a poor degree of information by 4.6 times. (p <0.01, RPa 4.6 IC95% = 3.7-5.7). Conclusion: Risk behaviors were found in medical students, such as an improved level of information regarding the perception and prevention of HIV. Likewise, living alone, believing that it is not a serious disease and thinking that HIV has a cure, are associated with a bad degree of information.Tesi

Household Debt and Consumption Inequality: The Spanish Case

[Abstract] The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, we attempt to find out whether Spanish households took part in a process of substituting loans for wages during the period before the beginning of the current economic crisis. On the other hand, we try to identify the consequences of such process in the evolution of income and consumption inequalities. The theoretical framework to deal with the above mentioned issues is provided by a review of the economic literature on the determinants of consumer behaviour, namely, on consumption, saving and debt. The empirical study consists of a descriptive analysis, which is focused on two fields. First, we analyze the evolution of consumer credit (both, in aggregate and by income groups) and the savings rates. Second, we compare the values and temporal evolution of income and consumption inequalities. The period under study ranges from 2000 to 2008. Our analysis provides some empirical evidence that supports the hypothesis that financial conditions led to significant effects on the distribution of consumption. This influence is especially significant in the case of consumption inequalities. These inequalities were lower than income inequalities and were kept “artificially” low and stable during the whole period