Market Power and Inflation

Market power exercised by firms has become central to macroeconomics. Recent theoretical work highlights the importance of the relation between market power and inflation. We examine this relation for individual firms in eleven U.S. industries. Our econometric framework exploits restrictions from dynamic theory and information from financial markets to generate quantitative evidence on the responsiveness of market power to inflation. We find that inflation usually has a positive effect on market power. This relation is heterogeneous across the eleven industries, and statistically significant positive relations are concentrated in industries with little market power.

That Elusive Elasticity: A Long-Panel Approach To Estimating The Price Sensitivity Of Business Capital

The sensitivity of business capital formation to its user cost plays a key role in the analysis of many economic issues. Although this elasticity has been the subject of an enormous number of studies, a consensus remains elusive. We develop an estimation strategy that exploits panel data in an original way and avoids several pitfalls - difficult-to-specify dynamics, transitory time-series variation, and positively sloped supply schedules - inherent in investment equations that can bias the estimated elasticity. Results are based on an extensive panel containing 1,860 manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms. Our model generates a precisely estimated user cost elasticity of approximately 0.40. The method developed here may prove useful in estimating other structural parameters from panel datasets.

That Elusive Elasticity: A Long-Panel Approach to Estimating the Capital-Labor Substitution Elasticity

The elasticity of substitution between capital and labor features prominently in several areas of economic research. However, a consensus estimate remains elusive. We develop an estimation strategy that filters panel data in an original way and avoids several pitfalls - difficult-to-specify dynamics, transitory time-series variation, and positively sloped supply schedules - inherent in investment equations that can bias the estimated elasticity. Results are based on an extensive panel containing 1,860 manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms. Our model generates a precisely estimated elasticity of approximately 0.40. The method developed here may prove useful in estimating other structural parameters from panel datasets.

GM1 Ganglioside Is A Key Factor in Maintaining the Mammalian Neuronal Functions Avoiding Neurodegeneration

Many species of ganglioside GM1, differing for the sialic acid and ceramide content, have been characterized and their physico\u2010chemical properties have been studied in detail since 1963. Scientists were immediately attracted to the GM1 molecule and have carried on an ever\u2010increasing number of studies to understand its binding properties and its neurotrophic and neuroprotective role. GM1 displays a well balanced amphiphilic behavior that allows to establish strong both hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions. The peculiar structure of GM1 reduces the fluidity of the plasma membrane which implies a retention and enrichment of the ganglioside in specific membrane domains called lipid rafts. The dynamism of the GM1 oligosaccharide head allows it to assume different conformations and, in this way, to interact through hydrogen or ionic bonds with a wide range of membrane receptors as well as with extracellular ligands. After more than 60 years of studies, it is a milestone that GM1 is one of the main actors in determining the neuronal functions that allows humans to have an intellectual life. The progressive reduction of its biosynthesis along the lifespan is being considered as one of the causes underlying neuronal loss in aged people and severe neuronal decline in neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we report on the main knowledge on ganglioside GM1, with an emphasis on the recent discoveries about its bioactive component

Filosofia e orientamento. Opportunità e questioni da un’esperienza di PCTO

Il testo discute il rapporto tra filosofia e apprendimento a partire da un'esperienza di PCTO svolta in alcuni licei genovesi nell'anno scolastico 2022/2

GM1 promotes TrkA-mediated neuroblastoma cell differentiation by occupying a plasma membrane domain different from TrkA

Recently, we highlighted that the ganglioside GM1 promotes neuroblastoma cells differentiation by activating the TrkA receptor through the formation of a TrkA\u2013GM1 oligosaccharide complex at the cell surface. To study the TrkA\u2013GM1 interaction, we synthesized two radioactive GM1 derivatives presenting a photoactivable nitrophenylazide group at the end of lipid moiety, 1 or at position 6 of external galactose, 2; and a radioactive oligosaccharide portion of GM1 carrying the nitrophenylazide group at position 1 of glucose, 3. The three compounds were singly administered to cultured neuroblastoma Neuro2a cells under established conditions that allow cell surface interactions. After UV activation of photoactivable compounds, the proteins were analyzed by PAGE separation. The formation of cross-linked TrkA\u2013GM1 derivatives complexes was identified by both radioimaging and immunoblotting. Results indicated that the administration of compounds 2 and 3, carrying the photoactivable group on the oligosaccharide, led to the formation of a radioactive TrkA complex, while the administration of compound 1 did not. This underlines that the TrkA\u2013GM1 interaction directly involves the GM1 oligosaccharide, but not the ceramide. To better understand how GM1 relates to the TrkA, we isolated plasma membrane lipid rafts. As expected, GM1 was found in the rigid detergent-resistant fractions, while TrkA was found as a detergent soluble fraction component. These results suggest that TrkA and GM1 belong to separate membrane domains: probably TrkA interacts by \u2018flopping\u2019 down its extracellular portion onto the membrane, approaching its interplay site to the oligosaccharide portion of GM1. (Figure presented.)

The effects of financialisation and financial development on investment: Evidence from firm-level data in Europe

In this paper we estimate the effects of financialization on physical investment in selected western European countries using panel data based on the balance-sheets of publicly listed non-financial companies (NFCs) supplied by Worldscope for the period 1995-2015. We find robust evidence of an adverse effect of both financial payments (interests and dividends) and financial incomes on investment in fixed assets by the NFCs. This finding is robust for both the pool of all Western European firms and single country estimations. The negative impacts of financial incomes are non-linear with respect to the companies’ size: financial incomes crowd-out investment in large companies, and have a positive effect on the investment of only small, relatively more credit-constrained companies. Moreover, we find that a higher degree of financial development is associated with a stronger negative effect of financial incomes on companies’ investment. This finding challenges the common wisdom on ‘finance-growth nexus’. Our findings support the ‘financialization thesis’ that the increasing orientation of the non-financial sector towards financial activities is ultimately leading to lower physical investment, hence to stagnant or fragile growth, as well as long term stagnation in productivity

What Do Micro Data Reveal About the User Cost Elasticity?: New Evidence on the Responsiveness of Business Capital Formation

The price sensitivity of business investment spending is a central element in economic analysis. A substantial response of capital spending to its user cost, which combines interest, tax, and depreciation rates with relative prices, is critical to evaluating the effectiveness of monetary policy, deficit reduction, and tax reform. In spite of this central role, however, the supporting evidence for a substantial user cost elasticity (UCE) is modest. Several important concerns suggest a downward bias in elasticities estimated from the aggregate data typically employed in UCE research. These biases may arise from firm heterogeneity, measurement error, capital market frictions, and simultaneity. While such biases are theoretically plausible, their empirical importance remains to be substantiated. With a particularly rich data set, containing over 26,000 observations, this paper explores what can be learned about the UCE from micro data. Investment and firm-level control variables are taken from an extensive panel of Compustrat forms. To construct the user cost, we tap a new data source that provides variation across firms as well as across time. A number of the econometric biases mentioned above have a substantial impact on the estimated UCE. After correcting for the biases, we obtain a precisely estimated but small value for the UCE of about -0.25. The effects of capital gain tax cuts and the "flat-tax" proposal on investment are evaluated with this estimated UCE.