GMM estimation of a production function with panel data : an application to Spanish manufacturing firms

In this paper we consider the estimation of a Cobb-Douglas production function using a panel dataset of Spanish manufacturing firms. As it is stressed in the econometric literature, the use of standard GMM first differences estimators to eliminate the unobserved firm-specific effects may yield imprecise estimates, particularly in the case of the estimation of the production function. The reason is that the high persistence of output and inputs involved in the estimation of production functions make that their lagged levels to be weak instruments for the first differences of these series. The extended GMM estimator proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) considers further orthogonality conditions based on lagged differences as instruments for the equation in levels. This approach has been applied to the estimation of technological parameters by Blundell and Bond (1999). Our estimation results, based on this approach, confirm the better performance of the extended GMM estimator compared to the standard first-differenced GMM estimato

GMM ESTIMATION OF A PRODUCTION FUNCTION WITH PANEL DATA: AN APPLICATION TO SPANISH MANUFACTURING FIRMS

In this paper we consider the estimation of a Cobb-Douglas production function using a panel dataset of Spanish manufacturing firms. As it is stressed in the econometric literature, the use of standard GMM first differences estimators to eliminate the unobserved firm-specific effects may yield imprecise estimates, particularly in the case of the estimation of the production function. The reason is that the high persistence of output and inputs involved in the estimation of production functions make that their lagged levels to be weak instruments for the first differences of these series. The extended GMM estimator proposed by Arellano and Bover (1995) considers further orthogonality conditions based on lagged differences as instruments for the equation in levels. This approach has been applied to the estimation of technological parameters by Blundell and Bond (1999). Our estimation results, based on this approach, confirm the better performance of the extended GMM estimator compared to the standard first-differenced GMM estimator

Eficacia do tratamento ortopodolóxico na enfermidade de Sever en nenos e adolescentes

A enfermidade de Sever é a primeira causa de dor no talón en nenos e adolescentes de entre 8 e 15 anos. Para o seu correcto diagnóstico é importante coñecer as idades de osificación e consolidación da apófises calcánea. Considéranse factores predispoñentes todas aquelas situacións que impliquen unha solicitación alta da musculatura posterior e un alto impacto do talón. O seu diagnóstico é puramente clínico e o seu tratamento é dependente do estadío de severidade, pois hai moi pouca evidencia científica sobre cal é o tratamento máis axeitado nesta patoloxía. Está indicado o uso de ortesis plantares cunha taloneira ou unha cazoleta de talón, xunto con outras terapias como estiramentos, crioterapia e cese da actividade deportiva. Sen máis evidencias que a experiencia clínica. O obxectivo deste estudo é coñecer cal é o tratamento máis efectivo na enfermidade de Sever. A revisión bibliográfica levouse a cabo a través das diferentes bases de datos electrónicas de ciencias da saúde como a Biblioteca Cochrane, PubMed ou Dialnet entre outras, seguindo os pasos de Podoloxía Baseada na Evidencia. As referencias bibliográficas sobre a eficacia do tratamento na enfermidade de Sever son escasas. A maioría dos estudos atopados non teñen validez científica pois baséanse en experiencias clínicas ou trátase de estudos que informan sobre o éxito do tratamento pero cunha mínima información acerca dos resultados obtidos. Só un estudo demostra a eficacia da cazoleta de talón frente a taloneira, polo que debemos considerar a cazoleta como primeira opción de tratamento. Aínda que sempre debemos actuar con cautela á hora de extrapolar estes resultados á práctica clínica.Traballo fin de grao (UDC.FEP). Podoloxía Curso 2013/201

Inquisitorial fortune in the baroque saints comedy: La gitana de Menfis, santa María Egipciaca, by Juan Pérez de Montalbán

Este artículo ofrece una aproximación de la labor de la censura en una de las comedias de santos de Juan Pérez de Montalbán: La gitana de Menfis, santa María Egipciaca. También se exponen las diferentes opiniones sobre la licitud o ilicitud de la comedia hagiográfica en los siglos XVII y XVIII. Esperamos que este estudio sea útil para futuras investigaciones sobre teatro y censura.This paperoffers an approach to the censorship work onone of the saints comedies byJuan Pérez de Montalbán:La gitana de Menfis, santa María Egipciaca. Also, the different opinions about the legality or illegality of the hagiographic comedy in the 17thand18thcenturies are discussed. We hope that this paper will be useful for future research on censorship and theatre

Slang in The Great Gatsby: A Comparative Analysis of Two Spanish Translations

Este proyecto ofrece un analisis comparativo de dos traducciones españolas de la canónica novela norteamericana escrita por Francis Scott Fitzgerald, El Gran Gatsby. El objetivo de esta investigación es mostrar las diferencias entre la traducción de Piñas (1970) y la traducción de Navarro (2011) realizada 36 años después. Más concretamente, este trabajo se centra en el estudio del argot de los años 1920 usado por Fitzgerald y de las técnicas de traducción empleadas por estos dos traductores para reproducir la sociedad y la forma de vida de la década de la decadencia norteamericana.The present project offers a comparative analysis of two Spanish translations of the canonical American novel written by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. The aim of this research is to show the differences between a translation made in the 1970´s by Piñas (1975) and a translation made 36 years later by Navarro (2001), focusing on the translation techniques used when translating into Spanish the slang terms from the 1920’s used by Fitzgerald and on how they showed the social values and lifestyles of the American decadence decade.Departamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Estudios Inglese

Thermophilic and mesophilic temperature phase anaerobic codigestion (TPAcD) compared with single-stage co-digestion of sewage sludge and sugar beet pulp lixiviation

The performance of temperature phase anaerobic co-digestion (TPAcD) for sewage sludge and sugar beet pulp lixiviation (using the process of exchanging the digesting substrate between spatially separated thermophilic and mesophilic digesters) was tested and compared to both single-stage mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic co-digestion. Two Hydraulic Retention Times (HRT) were studied in the thermophilic stage of anaerobic digestion in two temperature phases, maintaining the optimum time of the mesophilic stage at 10 days, obtained as such in single-stage anaerobic co-digestion. In this way, we obtained the advantages of both temperature regimes. Volatile solids removal efficiency from the TPAcD system depended on the sludge exchange rate, but fell within the 72.6e64.6% range. This was higher than the value of 46.8% obtained with single-stage thermophilic digestion and that of 40.5% obtained with mesophilic digestion. The specific methane yield was 424e468 ml CH4 per gram of volatile solids removed, similar to that of single-stage mesophilic anaerobic digestion. The increase in microbial activity inside the reactor was directly proportional to the organic loading rate (OLR) (or inversely proportional to the HRT) and inversely proportional to the size of the microbial population in single-stage anaerobic co-digestion systems

Interaction situations and social goals in adolescence: development and initial validity of the Social Goal Questionnaire (SGQ)

The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in Estudios de Psicología 2012 http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1174/021093912800676484El objetivo de este estudio es doble: a) estudiar el grado en que el efecto de las metas sociales en el comportamiento está condicionado por la naturaleza de las distintas situaciones de interacción, y b) desarrollar un cuestionario de metas sociales (CMS) que permita conocer la estructura de tales metas en los adolescentes y su papel en la integración social. Un total de 703 alumnos de Secundaria de la Comunidad de Madrid completó tres cuestionarios, el CMS, un cuestionario de estrategias de interacción social (CEIS) y otro de integración social (CIS). Los análisis de varianza, factoriales exploratorios, de correlaciones y de regresión llevados a cabo han puesto de manifiesto: 1) Que el tipo de situación modera el efecto de las metas sociales en la conducta; 2) Que las metas se relacionan entre sí, pudiendo organizarse en tres dimensiones: Orientación a la sumisión y al alejamiento, Orientación al dominio y la venganza, y Orientación a la afiliación, y que las metas sociales predicen la integración social mejor que las estrategias de interacción social. Se comentan las implicaciones teóricas y aplicadas de los resultadosThe aims of this study are twofold: a) to study the degree in which the effect of social goals on behaviour is conditioned by the nature of the different interaction situations, and b) to develop a social goals questionnaire (SGQ) in order to know more about the structure of such goals in adolescents and their role in social integration. A total of 703 Secondary Education students from Madrid completed three questionnaires: the SGQ, the Social Interaction Strategies questionnaire (SISQ), and the Social Integration Questionnaire (SIQ). Analysis of variance, exploratory factor, correlation and regression analyses carried out have shown: 1) that the nature of the situation moderates the effect of social goals; 2) that goals are interrelated and can be organised in three dimensions: Orientation to submissiveness and isolation, Orientation to control and revenge, and Orientation to affiliation, and 3) that social goals predict social integration better than social interaction strategies. Theoretical and practical implications of results are discussedTrabajo realizado en el marco del proyecto de I+D+I número EDU2009-11765. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación

Legitimacy and general perceptions of judicial authorities from Cordoba (argentina): an approach from procedural justice perceptions

La justicia es uno de los principios básicos que se aplica a individuos e instituciones, siendo un facilitador social que posibilita la interacción entre personas y grupos (Tyler, 2000). Por esta razón, se ha convertido en un tema de gran interés para la investigación en Psicología Social. Distintos autores han examinado el impacto de las experiencias en las percepciones de legitimidad de las autoridades (Baird, 2001; De Cremer & Tyler, 2007; Hinds, 2007), así como la influencia de estas valoraciones de legitimidad, en el comportamiento de obediencia de normas (Murphy, 2005; Tyler, 1990). En el estudio que se informa se examinaron las percepciones de legitimidad de autoridades legales de Córdoba (Argentina), por parte de los ciudadanos. Asimismo, se estudió el impacto de las valoraciones de justicia procedimental sobre las valoraciones de legitimidad y justicia de las autoridades. Finalmente, se controló la influencia de variables socio-demográficas y situacionales. Para ello, se tomó una muestra no probabilística, cuotificada por edad, género y nivel socio-económico, de 300 personas de la ciudad de Córdoba que hubieran tenido contacto reciente con alguna de las autoridades en estudio (Policía, Policía Caminera, juzgados e inspectores municipales). Los resultados mostraron que las valoraciones de las autoridades locales son, en general, negativas. Además, las valoraciones de justicia procedimental realizaron un aporte significativo a la explicación de las valoraciones de legitimidad y justicia de las autoridades en general. Las variables de control no mostraron una influencia significativa.Justice is a desirable principle in social inter - actions.At the same time, in the case of institutions, justice is a virtue that is manifested in its role of distributing goods and costs or rights and duties (distributive justice) and its corrective function to punish actions that violate social norms (jus - tice sanctioning) (Garzón, 2004). The role of justice as the main regulator of social relations has become a topic of great interest to Social Psychology. The majority of recent studies in this perspective of justice have investigated perceptions of procedural justice, this is, justice based on the process used by an au thor ity to make a decision. Most researchers found that procedural justice evaluations are an important predictor of the legitimacy of the author - ities. However, these studies have been conducted mainly in the United States, and in our local area there is no previous research centered in this perspective of justice. Although there are some previous studies that recognize the problem of legi - timacy in Latin America (Latinobarometro Corporation, 2010; Salles, 2010; Turner & Carballo, 2010), we have no knowledge of local research, conducted in the field of Social Psychology, that examines the origins of this lack of confidence in legal authorities. For this reason, the present study evaluates not only perceptions of legitimacy of legal authorities, but also their relationship with proce - dural justice values.According to that, we study the impact of citizens’ procedural justice perceptions of a particular experience with a legal authority on perceptions of legitimacy and fairness of the au - thorities in general. In addition, we control for the influence of various socio-demographic variables (gender, age, educational level and socioeconomic status) and status (presence of a conflict, the volun - tariness of the experience, the favorability of outcomes and the relevance of results and treat ment) on this relationship. We used a retrospective ex post facto design in a nonrandom sample of 300 citizens (54.7% male) from the city of Córdoba (Argen - tina). We interviewed only those who had a personal experience with at least one of the au thorities under study (police, traffic police, courts, and municipal inspectors) during the last year. Most of the situations involved contact with the police (52.9%) or traffic police (30.4%), whereas only 10% were with municipal inspectors, and the remaining 6.7% were situations related to court issues. Moreover, the vast majority of situations with the authorities involved a non-voluntary contact (71.7%) and only 9% included a dispute with another person. The descriptive results of the perceived legitimacy of the authorities were consis tent with previous research: Most people did not have a positive valuation of legal authorities, and courts were the institutions worst valued, while the traffic police were among the best valued. It was also found that procedural justice is a significant predictor of perceptions of legitimacy (r = 52) and General Valuation of Justice (r = 61) of the legal authorities. Regarding the control variables, we found that the sociodemographic and situational variables have no significant effect on these two dependent variables, when procedural justice is taken into account. These results are important because they expose the relevance of authorities’ performance during their contacts with citizens: those who believed that authorities had not acted in a fair way during their personal encounter, were more likely to assign less legitimacy to authorities in general. This results are relevant in Social Psy chology field, taking into account that previous research has emphasized the relevance of legiti macy and justice perceptions for the support of the authorities and their effectiveness, that is, the maintenance of the social order.Fil: Alonso, Daniela Rocío. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología. Laboratorio de Psicología Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Brussino, Silvina Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología. Laboratorio de Psicología Cognitiva; Argentin

Carmen Martínez Sancho y el Instituto Murillo de Sevilla : una relación de entrega y generosidad

El objetivo principal de esta ponencia no consiste tanto en poner de manifiesto las dificultades de género que pudiera sufrir María del Carmen Martínez Sancho (Toledo, 1901 – Málaga, 1995), durante sus estudios de bachillerato y de la licenciatura de Matemáticas, así como también durante el ejercicio de su actividad profesional, que ciertamente sufrió, como en dar a conocer al mundo científico en general y matemático en particular, la figura insigne y encantadora de esta mujer, bastante desconocida por todos, salvo por sus antiguos alumnos, en los que dejó una profunda huella. A Carmen le cabe el inmenso honor de ser la primera mujer española en conseguir el Doctorado (y Premio Extraordinario) en Matemáticas (Universidad de Madrid, 1927). Debido a que su actividad docente se desarrolló casi en su totalidad en nuestra ciudad (Sevilla), a pesar de haberse licenciado y doctorado en Madrid, y por razones de extensión, nos restringiremos en esta ponencia sólo a glosar su ejercicio profesional durante su etapa de docencia en el Instituto Murillo de esta ciudad, al que arribó tras no pocas dificultades, procedente del Instituto-Escuela de la misma, desde el comienzo de la Guerra Civil (1936) hasta su vuelta a Madrid a finales de los años 50 del pasado siglo

Corporate investment, irreversibilities and lumpiness : an empirical model

We study the role of irreversibility and non convexities in firm investment decisions. For such purpose, we posit a dynamic structural investment model with irreversibility and nonconvex adjustment costs. We focus on the firm decision about whether to invest or not, which is characterized by means of a discrete choice dynamic programming problem. The adjustment cost parameters behind the investment decision are estimated with a longitudinal sample of Spanish manufacturing firms between 1990 and 2002. For these firms, we confirm that inaction and investment episodes account for a significant fraction of them. As estimation procedure, we apply the Nested Pseudo-Likelihood (NPL) algorithm by Aguirregabiria and Mira (2002).We acknowledge research funding from Ministry of Education, Grants No. SEJ2006-05710/ECON and SEJ2006-04957/ECON, respectively. The second author also thanks funding form Comunidad de Madrid, Grant No. CCG07-UAM/HUM-191