The difficult art of eliciting long-run inflation expectations from government bond prices

Central banks are always concerned with keeping long-run inflation expectations well anchored at some implicit or explicit low target inflation rate. To that end, they are constantly on the lookout for indicators that can gauge those expectations accurately. One such indicator frequently reported in the specialized financial press and by central banks around the world is constructed with the forward rates technique, which exploits price differentials between government bonds of various maturities. This article examines the theory behind those indicators and assesses the extent to which they can be trusted in practice.Inflation (Finance) ; Government securities ; Forecasting ; Banks and banking, Central ; Monetary policy ; Interest rates

Measuring the benefits of unilateral trade liberalization; part 2: dynamic models

This is the second of two articles examining the potential welfare gains or losses from a unilateral move toward free trade. Part 1 concluded that applied static models of international trade fail to produce eye-popping positive welfare effects. In Part 2, Carlos Zarazaga reviews available applied dynamic general equilibrium models. He finds that the promises of larger welfare gains from unilateral trade liberalization do materialize in some dynamic models. However, other models cannot completely dismiss some common objections to the adoption of unilateral free trade policies. Zarazaga also identifies the controversial theoretical and empirical issues behind those objections that will have to be resolved before unilateral trade liberalization is accepted as the definitive, welfare-improving alternative to costly and prolonged multilateral trade agreements.

Measuring the benefits of unilateral trade liberalization, Part I: static models

Multilateral trade agreements generally require protracted and complicated negotiations. An obvious alternative is unilateral trade liberalization. However, would this simpler route toward free trade improve a country's welfare? This article, the first in a series of two, addresses this question using applied static models of international trade. The second article will examine the issue from the perspective of dynamic models. In the current article, Carlos Zarazaga discusses why static models fail to produce a clear-cut case in favor of unilateral trade liberalization. He points out, however, that static models that find unilateral free trade is harmful owe this negative conclusion to a common assumption-the national product ifferentiation assumption-whose empirical and theoretical foundations have not yet been convincingly substantiated.Trade

Argentina's recovery and "excess" capital shallowing of the 1990s

The paper examines Argentina’s economic expansion in the 1990s through the lens of a parsimonious neoclassical growth model. The main finding is that investment remained considerably weaker than what the model would have predicted. The resulting excessive “capital shallowing” could be identified as a weakness of the rapid economic growth of the 1990s that may have played a role in Argentina’s ultimate inability to escape the crisis that started to unfold towards the end of that decade. ; Economic Research Working Paper 0204Capital

Gompelia, a replacement name for Olotelus Mulsant & Rey, 1866 (Coleoptera, Aderidae)

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Trachodema paolae nom. nov. (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Cyclominae) and a correction to Morrone’s list of Listroderini

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Vipera latasti vs. V. latastei: a poisoned affair

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Tachinidae (Diptera) del Parque Nacional de La Caldera de Taburiente en La Palma (Islas Canarias)

Data on distribution, abundance and phenology of Tachinidae (Diptera) from the Caldera de Taburiente National Park on La Palma are given, based on systematic Malaise trap and yellow pan trap samples between August 1999 and July 2001. The occurrence of 22 species is proved; all of them were already known from the Canary Islands, but two species (Gonia quadrisetosa and Phytomyptera vaccinii) are recorded from La Palma for the first time. The present paper is a result of the project “Inventory and study of the invertebrate fauna of the Caldera de Taburiente National Park”.Se presentan datos de distribución, abundancia y fenología de Tachinidae (Diptera), obtenidos en el Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente en La Palma con trampa Malaise y trampa amarilla entre agosto de 1999 y julio de 2001. Han sido recolectadas 22 especies, todas ya conocidas en las Islas Canarias, pero dos especies (Gonia quadrisetosa y Phytomyptera vaccinii) son citas nuevas para La Palma. El presente artículo es un resultado del proyecto “Inventario y estudio de la fauna invertebrada del Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente”

A new species of genus Pseudaspidapion Wanat, 1990 (Coleoptera, Apionidae) from China

Pseudaspidapion botanicum sp. n. from China is described and figured. Its host plant is Grewia biloba G.Don var. parviflora (Bunge) Hand.-Mazz (Malvaceae: Grewioideae). The genus Harpapion Voss, 1966 is recorded as new for China and Vietnam and two comb. n. are proposed: Harpapion vietnamense (Korotyaev, 1985) (from Aspidapion) and H. coelebs (Korotyaev, 1987) (from Pseudaspidapion). A key to the known species of the genus Pseudaspidapion from China is presented.We thank Marek Wanat for kindly providing us references and many good advices, Boris A. Korotyaev for lending paratypes, Steven R. Davis for doing the linguistic review before submission, Yang Ganyan for collecting specimens, Zhou Dakang for providing information about the host plants, Yin Ziwei and Nico M. Franz for providing the brush-pencil Plug-ins of Adobe Illustrator. We also thank two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions considerably improved our work. This research has been supported by an Invited Professor Award (2009) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to the senior author and by project grant CGL2010–15786 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain).Peer Reviewe

Sobre la nomenclatura de algunos géneros de Cleonini (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Lixinae)

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