Country funds and asymmetric information

Using data on country funds, the authors study how differential access to information affects international investment. They find that past changes in net asset values (NAVs) and discounts predict current country fund prices more commonly than prices and discounts predict NAVs. The price (NAV) adjustment coefficients are low and negatively correlated with the local (foreign) market variability -- but not with the fund price (NAV) variability. NAVs seem to be closer to local information. They are the asset prices that react first to local news. Later the country fund holders receive the information and those prices react after NAVs have reacted. The 1995Mexican crisis and the 1997 Asian crisis are two examples of this type of behavior. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis of asymmetric information, according to which the holders of the underlying assets have more information about local assets than the country fund holders do. The authors empirically test the asymmetric information hypothesis against the noise traders hypothesis. A theoretical model is presented in the appendix.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Financial Intermediation,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Insurance Law,Environmental Economics&Policies

Country Fund Discounts, Asymmetric Information and the Mexican Crisis of 1994: Did Local Residents Turn Pessimistic Before International Investors?

It has been suggested that Mexican investors were the front-runners in the peso crisis of December 1994, turning pessimistic before international investors. Different expectations about their own economy, perhaps due to asymmetric information, prompted Mexican investors to be the first ones to leave the country. This paper uses data from three Mexican country funds to investigate the hypothesis of divergent expectations. We find that, right before the devaluation, Mexican fund Net Asset Values (mainly driven by Mexican investors) dropped faster than Mexican country fund prices (mainly driven by foreign investors). Moreover, we find that Mexican NAVs tend to Granger-cause the country fund prices. This suggests that causality, in some sense, flows from the Mexico City investor community to the Wall Street investor community. More generally, the paper proposes an asymmetric information approach that differs from the existing explanations of country fund discounts.

Why Do Emerging Economies Borrow Short Term?

We argue that emerging economies borrow short term due to the high risk premium charged by bondholders on long-term debt. First, we present a model where the debt maturity structure is the outcome of a risk sharing problem between the government and bondholders. By issuing long-term debt, the government lowers the probability of a rollover crisis, transferring risk to bondholders. In equilibrium, this risk is reflected in a higher risk premium and borrowing cost. Therefore, the government faces a trade-off between safer long-term debt and cheaper short-term debt. Second, we construct a new database of sovereign bond prices and issuance. We show that emerging economies pay a positive term premium (a higher risk premium on long-term bonds than on short-term bonds). During crises, the term premium increases, with issuance shifting towards shorter maturities. The evidence suggests that international investors' time-varying risk aversion is crucial to understand the debt structure in emerging economies.

Why do emerging economies borrow short term?

The authors argue that emerging economies borrow short term due to the high risk premium charged by international capital markets on long-term debt. They first present a model where the debt maturity structure is the outcome of a risk-sharing problem between the government and bondholders. By issuing long-term debt, the government lowers the probability of a liquidity crisis, transferring risk to bondholders. In equilibrium, this risk is reflected in a higher risk premium and borrowing cost. Therefore, the government faces a tradeoff between safer long-term borrowing and cheaper short-term debt. Second, the authors construct a new database of sovereign bond prices and issuance. They show that emerging economies pay a positive term premium (a higher risk premium on long-term bonds than on short-term bonds). During crises, the term premium increases, with issuance shifting toward shorter maturities. This suggests that changes in bondholders'risk aversion are important to understand emerging market crises.Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Public Sector Economics&Finance

Neuregulin Promotes Incomplete Autophagy of Prostate Cancer Cells That Is Independent of mTOR Pathway Inhibition

Growth factors activating the ErbB receptors have been described in prostate tumors. The androgen dependent prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP, expresses the ErbB-1, ErbB-2 and ErbB-3 receptor tyrosine kinases. Previously, it was demonstrated that NRG activates ErbB-2/ErbB-3 heterodimers to induce LNCaP cell death, whereas, EGF activates ErbB-1/ErbB-1 or ErbB-1/ErbB-2 dimers to induce cell growth and survival. It was also demonstrated that PI3K inhibitors repressed this cell death suggesting that in androgen deprived LNCaP cells, NRG activates a PI3K-dependent pathway associated with cell death.In the present study we demonstrate that NRG induces autophagy in LNCaP cells, using LC3 as a marker. However, the autophagy induced by NRG may be incomplete since p62 levels elevate. We also demonstrated that NRG- induced autophagy is independent of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibition since NRG induces Akt and S6K activation. Interestingly, inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by N-acetylcysteine (NAC), inhibited NRG-induced autophagy and cell death. Our study also identified JNK and Beclin 1 as important components in NRG-induced autophagy and cell death. NRG induced elevation in JNK phosphorylation that was inhibited by NAC. Moreover, inhibitor of JNK inhibited NRG-induced autophagy and cell death. Also, in cells overexpressing Bcl-2 or cells expressing sh-RNA against Beclin 1, the effects of NRG, namely induction of autophagy and cell death, were inhibited.Thus, in LNCaP cells, NRG-induces incomplete autophagy and cell death that depend on ROS levels. These effects of NRG are mediated by signaling pathway that activates JNK and Beclin 1, but is independent of mTOR inhibition

Políticas públicas y estrategias institucionales para el desarrollo e implementación de energías renovables en Argentina (2006-2016)

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las principales políticas de promoción para el desarrollo e adopción de las ER implementadas en Argentina en los últimos 10 años. Para ello se propone un abordaje teórico-metodológico socio-técnico que supere las visiones tradicionales estrictamente técnicas o económicas. Para ello se presentan, en primer lugar, la propuesta teórico-metodológica analizar las políticas y estrategias institucionales impulsadas en Argentina para el desarrollo e implementación de ER. A continuación se presenta un resumen de las diferentes experiencias, proyectos y políticas en Argentina a escala nacional, provincial y nacional-provincial, y finalmente se concluye con algunas observaciones acerca del proceso de construcción de funcionamiento de las mismas.The aim of this paper is analyze the public policies to promote the development and adoption of renewable energies implemented in Argentina in the last 10 years. This requires a theoretical and methodological approach that overcomes traditional views strictly technical or economical. In this work we show, in first place, the theoretical and methodological proposal to analyze the policies and strategies driven in Argentina for the development and implementation of renewable energies. Secondly, a summary of different experiences, projects and policies in Argentina at the national, provincial and national-provincial level is presented, and finally we concludes with some observations about the working/no working construction processes.Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Medio Ambiente (ASADES