Rheological behaviour of fruit and milk-based smoothies

Two of the most important food attributes for today´s fast-moving lifestyle are convenience and healthiness [1-2]. Fast-moving lifestyle specifically affects to elderly people, who are prone to bad-nutrition due to their dental status reducing the consumption of fruits and vegetables [3]. Smoothies are blended beverages, and good examples of convenient and healthy foods for helping to reduce this problem. So, they are gaining increasing market leverage in the beverage sector. Texture and rheological behaviour of foods can determine their acceptability. Therefore, added to nutritious features, smoothies must also account with outstanding mechanical properties. Stability of the products is also a main quality, which can be gained adding a small amount of stabiliser to beverage formulations. But, to avoid opposite effects, stabilisers addition should ameliorate the product texture.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Performance analysis and optimal selection of large mean-variance portfolios under estimation risk

We study the consistency of sample mean-variance portfolios of arbitrarily high dimension that are based on Bayesian or shrinkage estimation of the input parameters as well as weighted sampling. In an asymptotic setting where the number of assets remains comparable in magnitude to the sample size, we provide a characterization of the estimation risk by providing deterministic equivalents of the portfolio out-of-sample performance in terms of the underlying investment scenario. The previous estimates represent a means of quantifying the amount of risk underestimation and return overestimation of improved portfolio constructions beyond standard ones. Well-known for the latter, if not corrected, these deviations lead to inaccurate and overly optimistic Sharpe-based investment decisions. Our results are based on recent contributions in the field of random matrix theory. Along with the asymptotic analysis, the analytical framework allows us to find bias corrections improving on the achieved out-of-sample performance of typical portfolio constructions. Some numerical simulations validate our theoretical findings

Optimal minimum wage in a competitive economy

This paper studies the use of a minimum wage law to implement the optimal redistribution policy when a distorting tax-transfer scheme is also available. The authors build a static general equilibrium model with a Ramsey planner making decisions on taxes, transfers, and minimum wage levels. Workers are assumed to differ only in their productivity. The authors find that optimal redistribution may imply the use of only taxes and transfers, only a minimum wage, or the proper combination of both policies. The key factor driving their results is the reaction of the demand for low-skilled labor to the minimum wage law. Hence, an optimal minimum wage appears to be most likely when low-skilled households are scarce, the complementarity between the two types of workers is large, or the difference in productivity is small.

Fiscal policy and minimum wage for redistribution: an equivalence result

In this paper, we derive conditions under which a minimum-wage law combined with anonymous taxes and transfers and an agent-specific tax-transfer scheme are equivalent policies.

Innovación y buenas prácticas en el gobierno y la gestión de las universidades

Es presenta un breu article introductori sobre els principals eixos d'aquest monogràfic (innovació, bones pràctiques, govern i gestió), a fi de situar-lo en context, orientar sobre el seu abast i obrir perspectives als experts interessats en aquests temes. This brief introductory article takes a look at the main topics of this Dossier (innovation, good practices, government and management) in order to put them in context, to guide their scope and to open them up to experts with an interest in them. Se presenta un breve artículo introductorio sobre los principales ejes de este monográfico (innovación, buenas prácticas, gobierno y gestión), con ánimo de situarlo en contexto, orientar acerca de su alcance y abrir perspectivas a los expertos interesados en estos temas

Comparing New Keynesian models in the Euro area: a Bayesian approach

This paper estimates and compares four versions of the sticky price New Keynesian model for the Euro area, using a Bayesian approach as described in Rabanal and Rubio-Ramírez (2003). We find that the average duration of price contracts is between four and eight quarters, similar to the one estimated in the United States, while price indexation is found to be smaller. On the other hand, average duration of wage contracts is estimated to between one and two quarters, lower than the one found for the United States, while wage indexation is higher. Finally, the marginal likelihood indicates that the sticky price and sticky wage model of Erceg, Henderson, and Levin (2002), its wage indexation variant, and the baseline sticky price model with price indexation have similar data explanation power, while it positions the baseline sticky price model of Calvo at a lower level.

Shape Persistence in Elicited Subjective Crop Yield Probability Density Functions

The shape persistence of a crop yield probability density function (PDF) was studied by using two variants of the Visual Impact Method (VIM) to elicit subjective estimations by farmers. In one variant ten weights were used to describe the PDF and in the other variant the farmer chose the number of weights. Results were compared directly and by means of Weibull distributions fitting, with evidence being obtained in favor of methodological persistence and the equivalence of the two estimation methods.Subjective crop yield PDF elicitation, Visual impact method, Methodological persistence, Crop Production/Industries,

Testing the Forecasting Performance of Ibex 35 Option-implied Risk-neutral Densities

Published also as: Documento de Trabajo Banco de España 0504/2005.risk-neutral densities, forecasting performance