Regional financial development and firm growth in Peru

This paper documents the relationship between regional financial development and firm growth in the Peruvian manufacturing sector. In order to control for mutual causality between credit availability and firm growth, industry differences in financial dependence on external funds are exploited. The 1994 and 2008 rounds of the National Economic Census are used, permitting analysis at the firm level as well as the activity level. Results suggest a significant and positive effect of financial deepening on surviving firms` growth. However, this effect is smaller for micro enterprises, suggesting that the cost of external funding decreases with financial development mainly for large firms. The conclusions remain unchanged when entering and exiting firms are included. The paper further finds that credit expansion have encouraged not only firm growth but also firm entry. The results are robust using an alternative measure of financial dependence.

The effect of R&D growth on employment and self-employment in local labour markets

The paper investigates the effects of firms’ investment in Research and Development (R&D) on employment dynamics in the British local labour markets (Travel to Work Areas). We distinguish between local areas characterised by the initial level of routinised employment of the workforce. We implement a instrumenting strategy to address endogeneity issues in the relation between innovation and employment. Our results suggest that increases in R&D investments mainly affect routinised areas, where the employment created is low skilled, concentrated in non-tradable sectors (like transport, construction) and services. A significant share of the jobs created is self-employment, concentrated in the 25-34 age cohort. We qualify the effect of R&D on self-employment by looking at local firms’ dynamics, which suggest that the increase in self-employment is reflected in a higher number of micro-firms. Rather, in non-routinized areas, R&D results in the expected increase in the demand of high-skilled workers and a reduced demand of low-skill employment

Impacto de la Calidad de Vida de los pacientes pediátricos con diagnostico de Migraña en el Hospital Materno Infantil ISSEMYM del 15 de marzo al 15 de mayo del 2013

La migraña es un trastorno neurológico crónico que produce ataques episódicos caracterizados por dolor, síntomas asociados y, a menudo, discapacidad temporal. La migraña provoca la pérdida de días de trabajo y asistencia a la escuela, reduce la productividad de funciones laborales y provoca pérdida de tiempo en actividades no laborales. Por ello, se ha desarrollado un conjunto de instrumentos de medida de la discapacidad que incluyen el CPI (chronic pain index), el HlmQ (headache impact questionnaire) y el MIDAS (migraine disability assessment score), este último adaptado en pacientes pediátricos con el nombre PedMIDAS

Essays on beliefs, democracy and local labor markets: an empirical examination for Peru

This thesis presents three empirical chapters on local labour markets, mineral booms, beliefs, conflict and uncertainty. All the analysis was conducted using Peruvian data and context. The first chapter finds that Peruvian individuals exposed to violent events during their impressionable years trust less government institutions, and feel less identified with their neighbours, while more identified with religious groups. The estimated effect is small and heterogeneous depending on the identity of the perpetrator. The effect on identification with groups of population is also heterogeneous by the indigenous origin of the individuals. Owners of an agricultural plot embedded in a cooperative setting at the local level exhibit even smaller levels of identification with their locals while higher levels of identification with their ethnic group. In line with recent literature, these findings suggest that conflict has a small but persistent effect on the formation of trust and identity, which is a central feature to understand the interaction between culture and institutions, and ultimately to understand the persistent consequences of wars. The second chapter studies the relationship between democratic beliefs and economic uncertainty. I explored whether uncertainty experienced during the impressionable years of the individuals is a key factor behind the formation of the democratic beliefs. Results showed that this type of uncertainty had no effect on the determination of democratic beliefs. Combining uncertainty with the exposure to authoritarian regimes did not change the result. This result is robust to different definition of rural individuals, the interaction of uncertainty and degree of experienced authoritarianism, and different formative periods. Current uncertainty, on the other hand, was unable to fully explain the formation of democratic beliefs. The final chapter investigated the local labour effects of mining booms. Using two rounds of population census for 1043 districts in Peru I documented that large-scale mining activity had a positive effect on local employment over 14 years. The effect was differentiated by industry, skill and migration status. Employment grew by 4% faster by one standard deviation increase in the mineral prices. Both high and low skilled workers enjoyed similar employment increase, however only low skilled workers experienced a decline in unemployment. Using data from 10 annual household surveys I found that, consistent with a model of heterogeneous firms and labour, wages for low skilled workers in districts close to the mining activity was 5% higher by every standard deviation increase in the index of mineral prices. Additional evidence with the census data suggested that to a large extent locals working in the mining or the agricultural sector filled the new employment opportunities. Together these findings suggest that large-scale mining activity increases the demand for mining and agricultural local employment, and the wages in the local economy

Diálogo y aprendizaje percibidos en estudiantes de modalidad virtual: abordaje cualitativo en un programa universitario en Costa Rica

It was performed a qualitative exploratory study about the perception of a group of 50 postgraduate students of a costa rican university, concerning to the intensity of the dialogue that is established in virtual courses between teachers and students, and between the students themselves, in comparison with their experience in classroom courses. Based on the analysis performed using a software for processing the qualitative data, it was observed that both types of dialogue have a relationship with the learning level perceived by the students in virtual mode. The teacher role and the autonomy of students are important factors that should be studied more deeply.Se realizó un estudio exploratorio, de orden cualitativo, acerca de la percepción que tiene un grupo de 50 estudiantes de posgrado de una universidad costarricense, acerca de la intensidad del diálogo que se establece, en cursos virtuales, entre profesores y estudiantes, y entre los mismos estudiantes, en comparación con su experiencia en cursos presenciales. A partir del análisis, realizado mediante “software” para procesar datos cualitativos, se obtiene que ambos tipos de diálogo guardan relación con el nivel de aprendizaje percibido por los estudiantes en modalidad virtual. El papel del docente y la autonomía de los estudiantes son factores importantes que deben estudiarse con mayor profundidad

Long-term effects of the asymmetry and persistence of the prediction of volatility: Evidence for the equity markets of Latin America

Este artículo analiza el comportamiento de la volatilidad en los mercados accionarios de América Latina.This article proposes an extension to the CGARCH model in order to capture the characteristics ofshort-run and long-run asymmetry and persistence, and examine their effects in modeling and forecastingthe conditional volatility of the stock markets from the region of Latin America during the period from 2January 1992 to 31 December 2014. In the sample analysis, the estimation results of the CGARCH-classmodel family reveal the presence of short-run and long-run significant asymmetric effects and long-runpersistency in the structure of stock price return volatility. The empirical results also show that the use ofsymmetric and asymmetric loss functions and the statistical test of Hansen (2005) are sound alternativesfor evaluating the predictive ability of the asymmetric CGARCH models. In addition, the inclusion of long-run asymmetry and long-run persistency in the variance equation improves significantly the out of samplevolatility forecasts for emerging stock markets of Argentina and Mexico

Trehalose accumulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells: experimental data and structured modeling

Several studies have shown that the reserve disaccharide trehalose also protects yeast cells under environmental stress. Besides, it is acknowledged that trehalose improves yeast viability so its synthesis has become paramount in baker’s yeast industry, as well as in wine and beer production. In this work, starving carbon or nitrogen conditions were imposed to Saccharomyces cerevisiae growing in fed-batch cultivations in order to induce biosynthesis and accumulation of trehalose. Our experimental results show that yeast can accumulate trehalose up to 13% of biomass dry weight (0.13 gtrehalose g^−1biomass) under carbon or nitrogen starvation. A compartmentalized and biochemically structured model is proposed in order to mathematically describe these experimental findings. The model predictions were compared with literature results obtained under growth conditions different from those established in our experiments, resulting in a very good agreement and thus indicating that the proposed hypotheses are essentially correct

A New Tool for the Quantification of Microorganism Interaction Dynamics

A two-reservoir, membrane bioreactor for carrying out studies of mixed population dynamics in batch fermentation is presented. Mixing requirements and design aspects for the validity of the approach are presented and discussed. Equations describing mixing times between the reservoirs are given and compared to the experimental results. The validity of the approach is demonstrated by the study of several types of situations in the bioreactor. The main validation consists of the comparison between the results obtained in an actual mixed culture and the results obtained by keeping the strains separated. Finally, this new tool is used to study the interaction kinetics between two oenological bacteria. These experiments in liquid media help to determine the seeding conditions for a chosen strain to overgrow another strain through a quantification of the interaction dynamics

Análisis de la UPS en cifras

En el presente texto se analizan los datos presentados en el documento universitario UPS en cifras, publicación anual elaborada por la Secretaría Técnica de Estadísticas que ofrece información objetiva y actualizada sobre los diferentes ámbitos del quehacer académico y administrativo de la universidad. Aporta también con conocimientos sobre la UPS puestos a disposición de quienes anhelan el cambio y la innovación. Estas investigaciones, cuya motivación proviene de la vida institucional y la sensibilidad de estos profesores, son una herramienta estratégica para la gestión universitaria y animan a continuar profundizando y analizando este amplio abanico de indicadores que la UPS publica desde hace seis años de manera ininterrumpida.“Dar sentido o significar y explicar, ayuda a entender y saber por qué hacemos lo que hacemos, facilita la integración del pensamiento institucional con su acción”, este es el propósito de los autores, que dejan al lector libre de conclusiones cerradas, para seguir, por propia iniciativa, encontrando respuestas distintas, contrarias o complementarias a partir de los mismos datos, trabajados con la misma intencionalidad de organizar la universidad donde se aprende a aprender en libertad en un proceso que innova y crea conocimiento.Los siete artículos que se recogen en Análisis de la UPS en Cifras implican a la comunidad universitaria como autora y usuaria, es una oportunidad participativa para analizar, reflexionar y orientar los procesos internos. Esta manera útil de presentar las estadísticas apunta a la responsabilidad social entendida en términos de oportunidad para incidir positivamente en el contexto y lograr cambios y mejoras. Los trabajos que Edgar, Pablo, Victoria, Juan Pablo y Luis, Salvatore, Pierluigi y Bernardo proponen el análisis y la reflexión sobre la realidad académica de la UPS y nos muestran el papel que cumplen las diversas herramientas en los procesos de aprendizaje significativo así como los procesos académicos de investigación, reflexión, formación y vinculación con la sociedad que la UPS desarrolla como parte del mejoramiento continuo en busca de la excelencia. La información que en este momento dispone la UPS constituye una necesaria y válida alternativa para analizar y reflexionar sobre la construcción armónica y sostenida del crecimiento de la Universidad, cuya característica principal será el nivel de coherencia entre la misión institucional, la gestión desarrollada y los resultados obtenidos. El reto es tener certezas encontradas en el estudio comparativo de datos y análisis de las causas a las que se atribuyen para lograr el equilibrio entre realidad (estadística de hechos, análisis causal) y la toma de decisiones (mecanismos de gestión) que apuntan a la calidad institucional. El simple cumplimiento de los indicadores establecidos por las instancias oficiales de evaluación y acreditación universitaria no basta para el auténtico logro y aseguramiento de la calidad institucional, éstos son medidores que ayudan al entendimiento de la compleja dinámica universitaria que pasa obligatoriamente por ciertos niveles de subjetividad propios de la realidad humana. Las cifras de los indicadores inciden y son significativas para la realidad universitaria si tienen el respectivo análisis, que implica considerar el contexto, sus causas, alternativas e interacciones con los factores que intervienen en la vida universitaria. Los autores aportan al proceso de aprendizaje relacionando los conocimientos previos acumulados en la institución, con los nuevos conocimientos producidos desde la objetividad de los datos a los que dan un significado; por tanto, en este proceso, los esquemas de conocimiento de gestión universitaria se ven modificados para poder responder a los hechos que evidencian las estadísticas y su interpretación. Así, el aprendizaje de la gestión colectiva en la UPS sólo será eficiente e innovadora si se produce un desequilibrio provocado por la forma matemática de conocer los hechos académicos y del significado que seamos capaces de darle. La apreciación e interpretación del análisis del entorno universitario de la UPS, sus tradiciones, costumbres y normas no aseguran una lectura correcta de la realidad, estas son influencias unidireccionales sobre directivos y cuerpos colegiados. La riqueza de UPS en cifras y de las investigaciones que se presentan radica en la comprensión que hacen de la realidad y los diferentes escenarios donde se dan relaciones plurales y diversas se posibilita la creatividad innovadora y la formulación de paradigmas. Las conclusiones de los autores reflejan la demanda social que corresponde a la manera particular de mirar-analiza-construir la realidad y se presentan como ocasión participativa y democrática de interrogar a la realidad institucional de la UPS para que no se convierta en cuestión autorreferencial. El proceso seguido por los investigadores, que ponen a consideración sus conclusiones, es una oportunidad para reflexionar las propias prácticas institucionales desde la investigación-acción participativa con la mirada de la comunidad educativa. Estas investigaciones contribuyen a que la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana se oriente a cumplir con su misión, tenga elementos de juicio crítico sobre su práctica y produzca innovación en sus procedimientos académicos y administrativos

O perfil do enoturista: o caso português

Tese de doutoramento, Turismo, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Algarve, 2015O enoturismo adquire importância crescente para as regiões vitivinícolas, enquanto setor que promove o crescimento e origina lucro. Contudo, o enoturismo permanece pouco desenvolvido e uma das causas apontadas consiste na falta de investigação sobre o comportamento e características do visitante da adega. O presente trabalho tem como principais objetivos a determinação do perfil demográfico e psicográfico dos visitantes que se deslocam às quintas, adegas e caves e a segmentação dos enoturistas. Para alcançar os objetivos indicados, construiu-se um instrumento de pesquisa, tendo em vista a obtenção de dados quantitativos e qualitativos sobre o enoturista e os seus hábitos, comportamentos, preferências e motivações. O questionário realizado foi aplicado aos turistas que se deslocavam às quintas, adegas e caves, das 12 rotas de vinho existentes em Portugal. Os dados foram sujeitos a testes paramétricos e a técnicas estatísticas multivariadas, de modo a obterem-se diferentes clusters. Os resultados mostram que os turistas foram motivados para a sua visita por uma variedade de fatores, entre os quais a prova e a compra de vinhos ou a participação num curso de vinhos. Verificou-se que os enoturistas são maioritariamente de nacionalidade portuguesa, do sexo masculino, com um nível elevado de educação e com um rendimento mensal médio acima dos 1251€. Obtiveram-se quatro segmentos de enoturistas, que foram designados por: o turista apaixonado pelo vinho, o turista com curiosidade pelo vinho, o turista interessado pelo vinho e o turista indiferente. As conclusões indicam que o aumento do conhecimento sobre os enoturistas e suas finalidades e motivações para visitar a região permite melhorar a satisfação e a interação com eles, apoiando estratégias de marketing, de modo a reforçar a motivação e o apelo dos vinhos e das quintas