The Monetary Origins of Asymmetric Information in International Equity Markets

Existing studies using low-frequency data show that macroeconomic shocks contribute little to international stock market covariation. Those studies, however, do not account for the presence of asymmetric information, where sophisticated investors generate private information about the fundamentals that drive returns in many countries. In this paper, the authors use a new microstructure data set to better identify the effects of private and public information shocks about U.S. interest rates and equity returns. High-frequency private and public information shocks help forecast domestic money and equity returns over daily and weekly intervals. In addition, these shocks are components of factors that are priced in a model of the cross-section of international returns. Linking private information to U.S. macroeconomic factors is useful for many domestic and international asset-pricing tests.Financial markets; International topics; Market structure and pricing

Real-Time Price Discovery in Stock, Bond and Foreign Exchange Markets

We characterize the response of U.S., German and British stock, bond and foreign exchange markets to real-time U.S. macroeconomic news. Our analysis is based on a unique data set of high-frequency futures returns for each of the markets. We find that news surprises produce conditional mean jumps; hence high-frequency stock, bond and exchange rate dynamics are linked to fundamentals. The details of the linkages are particularly intriguing as regards equity markets. We show that equity markets react differently to the same news depending on the state of the U.S. economy, with bad news having a positive impact during expansions and the traditionally-expected negative impact during recessions. We rationalize this by temporal variation in the competing "cash flow" and "discount rate" effects for equity valuation. This finding also helps explain the apparent time-varying correlation between stock and bond returns, and the relatively small equity market news announcement effect when averaged across expansions and recessions. Hence, while our results confirm previous unconditional rankings suggesting that bond markets almost uniformly react most strongly to macroeconomic news, followed by foreign exchange and then equity markets, importantly when conditioning on the state of the economy the foreign exchange and equity markets appear equally responsive. Lastly, relying on the pronounced heteroskedasticity in the new high-frequency data, we also document important contemporaneous linkages across all markets and countries over-and-above the direct news announcement effects.

Micro Effects of Macro Announcements: Real-Time Price Discovery in Foreign Exchange

Using a new dataset consisting of six years of real-time exchange rate quotations, macroeconomic expectations, and macroeconomic realizations (announcements), we characterize the conditional means of U.S. dollar spot exchange rates versus German Mark, British Pound, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, and the Euro. In particular, we find that announcement surprises (that is, divergences between expectations and realizations, or "news") produce conditional mean jumps; hence high-frequency exchange rate dynamics are linked to fundamentals. The details of the linkage are intriguing and include announcement timing and sign effects. The sign effect refers to the fact that the market reacts to news in an asymmetric fashion: bad news has greater impact than good news, which we relate to recent theoretical work on information processing and price discovery.

Real-Time Price Discovery in Stock, Bond and Foreign Exchange Markets

We characterize the response of U.S., German and British stock, bond and foreign exchange markets to real-time U.S. macroeconomic news. Our analysis is based on a unique data set of high frequency futures returns for each of the markets. We find that news surprises produce conditional mean jumps; hence high-frequency stock, bond and exchange rate dynamics are linked to fundamentals. The details of the linkages are particularly intriguing as regards equity markets. We show that equity markets react differently to the same news depending on the state of the economy, with bad news having a positive impact during expansions and the traditionally-expected negative impact during recessions. We rationalize this by temporal variation in the competing “cash flow” and “discount rate” effects for equity valuation. This finding helps explain the time-varying correlation between stock and bond returns, and the relatively small equity market news effect when averaged across expansions and recessions. Lastly, relying on the pronounced heteroskedasticity in the high-frequency data, we document important contemporaneous linkages across all markets and countries over-and-above the direct news announcement effects.Asset Pricing, Macroeconomic News Announcements, Financial Market Linkages, Market Microstructure, High-Frequency Data, Survey Data, Asset Return Volatility, Forecasting

Real-Time Price Discovery in Stock, Bond and Foreign Exchange Markets

We characterize the response of U.S., German and British stock, bond and foreign exchange markets to real-time U.S. macroeconomic news. Our analysis is based on a unique data set of high-frequency futures returns for each of the markets. We find that news surprises produce conditional mean jumps; hence high-frequency stock, bond and exchange rate dynamics are linked to fundamentals. The details of the linkages are particularly intriguing as regards equity markets. We show that equity markets react differently to the same news depending on the state of the economy, with bad news having a positive impact during expansions and the traditionally-expected negative impact during recessions. We rationalize this by temporal variation in the competing “cash flow” and “discount rate” effects for equity valuation. This finding helps explain the time-varying correlation between stock and bond returns, and the relatively small equity market news effect when averaged across expansions and recessions. Lastly, relying on the pronounced heteroskedasticity in the high-frequency data, we document important contemporaneous linkages across all markets and countries over-and-above the direct news announcement effects.Asset Pricing; Macroeconomic News Announcements; Financial Market Linkages; Market Microstructure; High-Frequency Data; Survey Data; Asset Return Volatility; Forecasting.

Out of necessity comes unbridled imagination for survival: contributive justice in Spanish libraries during economic crisis

The call for this journal issue notes that “social justice in LIS/services involves achieving action-oriented socially relevant outcomes via information-related work.” There is not a more fitting time and place for such action than in Spain, where the current economic crisis left more than 6 million (27 percent of the population) unemployed as of 2013. It is not just communities that are grappling with the pain of the economic downturn; libraries are also suffering from the crisis as a result of budget cuts due to reduced public funding. This article presents the case of Spanish academic and public libraries that have found solutions to keep themselves open, providing services vital to the economic and sociocultural needs of their communities. This case is an example of contributive justice, as evidenced in the actions taken by Spanish libraries and their communities as well as in the manner in which the research data were collected. Eight library-related actions were found: professional, community, social, political, digital, cultural/heritage, economic, and ontological. Despite economic hardships all around, these Spanish examples reveal the impact of libraries as social justice institutions, the role of librarians as agents of change, and the value of contributive and grassroots efforts when governments fail to provide. Moreover, these contributions to social justice illustrate actions appropriate to a contributive justice framework for libraries, as proposed in this article.published or submitted for publicatio

La "Transición" en femenino : rupturas y continuidades, mujeres represión y movimiento feminista

Incorporar la perspectiva de género a los estudios de memoria implica cuestionar las etapas históricas que han sido establecidas desde modelos androcéntricos. Atender a las experiencias de las mujeres durante la dictadura franquista y los primeros años de la democracia nos lleva a defender la necesidad de repensar el concepto hegemónico de "Transición". Al hacerlo, identificaremos una serie de rupturas y continuidades en el statu quo de género tras la muerte del dictador y la aprobación de la Constitución que nos llevan a plantear la necesidad de reconceptualizar la "Transición" desde una perspectiva crítica feminista que invite a pensar en este periodo como algo más que un remanso de paz y consenso

Tiny Turtles Purchased at Pet Stores are a Potential High Risk for Salmonella Human Infection in the Valencian Region, Eastern Spain

[EN] Turtles may be considered unsafe pets, particularly in households with children. This study aimed to assess Salmonella carriage by turtles in pet stores and in private ownership to inform the public of the potential health risk, enabling informed choices around pet selection. During the period between September and October 2013, 24 pet stores and 96 private owners were sampled in the Valencian Region (Eastern Spain). Salmonella identification procedure was based on ISO 6579: 2002 recommendations (Annex D). Salmonella strains were serotyped in accordance with Kauffman-White-Le-Minor technique. The rate of isolation of Salmonella was very high from pet store samples (75.0% ± 8.8%) and moderate for private owners (29.0% ± 4.6%). Serotyping revealed 18 different serotypes among two Salmonella enterica subspecies: S. enterica subsp. enterica and S. enterica subsp. diarizonae. Most frequently isolated serotypes were Salmonella Typhimurium (39.5%, 17/43) and Salmonella Pomona (9.3%, 4/43). Serotypes identified have previously been reported in turtles, and child Salmonella infections associate with pet turtle exposure. The present study clearly demonstrates that turtles in pet stores, as well as in private owners, could be a direct or indirect source of a high risk of human Salmonella infections. In addition, pet stores should advise their customers of the potential risks associated with reptile ownership.This work was supported by the Conselleria de Infraestructuras, Territorio y Medio Ambiente with their assistance and financial support (Life09-Trachemys, Resolution 28/02/12 CITMA). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the article. The authors thank the technical support of Cristobal Torres, Xema Gil, and all the members of the research group "Improvement of the Food Safety related with the Production System and Final Products" (Veterinary Faculty, University CEU-Cardenal Herrera).Marin Orenga, C.; Vega García, S.; Marco Jiménez, F. (2016). Tiny Turtles Purchased at Pet Stores are a Potential High Risk for Salmonella Human Infection in the Valencian Region, Eastern Spain. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases. 16(7):455-460. doi:10.1089/vbz.2016.1950S45546016

Trabajo versus capital en el marco del modelo neoliberal : cambios producidos en las condiciones del empleo rural en los diferimientos impositivos de San Juan, Argentina

Desde la instalación de los diferimientos Impositivos en la región se han producido importantes cambios en la estructura productiva, principalmente sobre las condiciones en que se desarrolla el empleo rural en los mismos. Estos se establecieron en la provincia desde 1993, dentro de las políticas neoliberales, consisten en extensos establecimientos manejados por el gran capital, que ha gozado durante muchos años de exenciones impositivas nacionales. Las condiciones del empleo de los trabajadores rurales, pareciera ser confusa y polémica desde el primer paso, que es la forma de registrarlos. También en la cantidad de obreros empleados en relación a los ocupados por los pequeños productores, a sus formas asociativas, sus beneficios sociales, su calificación y otros aspectos, ya resultan arduos para consignar en las EAPS (Explotaciones Agropecuarias) con cierta tradición. Desplegar esta tarea investigativa en enormes empresas como son los diferimientos impositivos puede transformase en una labor mucho más difícil, toda vez que estos espacios parecen manejarse con reglas propias y sospechadas de escasa transparencia.Fil: De la Vega, Clara. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Instituto de Investigaciones Socieconómicas..Fil: Soria, Valentina . Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Instituto de Investigaciones Socieconómicas..Fil: Aciar, Enzo . Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Instituto de Investigaciones Socieconómicas..Fil: Albarracín, Paula . Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Instituto de Investigaciones Socieconómicas.