Drafting 'better regulation": The economic cost of regulatory complexity

Different public agencies are seeking to draft ?better regulation?. Complex or poorly drafted norms are more difficult for economic agents to implement, tending to erode economic efficiency. The literature has so far concentrated on the analysis of regulatory complexity as a phenomenon related to the ?quantity? of norms. This article guides the process of adopting new regulations, taking into account that norms can also be complex due to new ?qualitative? reasons such as linguistic ambiguity or relational structure (references between legal documents). To perform the analysis, we develop new indicators for legibility and regulatory interconnectedness. Specifically, we construct a new database (RECOS ? REgulation COmplexity in Spain) by extracting information from 8171 norms (61 million words) which comprise the regulations of all the Spanish Autonomous regions. Our analysis reveals the relationship between measures of ?qualitative? complexity and relevant economic (productivity) and institutional (judicial efficacy) variables. This researc

Music preferences as an instrument of emotional self-regulation along the business cycle.

This paper studies the influence of macroeconomic conditions on subjective wellbeing and music preferences. The macroeconomic cycle exerts an effect on happiness and well-being that consumers counterbalance by modifying music consumption. We use machine learning techniques to make a weekly classification of the top 100 songs of Billboard Hot 100 into positive and negative lyrics over the period 1958?2019. When unemployment is high, society generally prefers more positive songs. Other macroeconomic indicators such as high inflation, high interest rates or low stock market prices also affect musical preferences. These results provide initial evidence regarding the use of cultural consumption to offset business cycle oscillations

Advanced estimation of regional growth using LSTM neural networks

El trabajo propone incorporar técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial a las herramientas disponibles para el análisis de coyuntura regional. Se comparan las estimaciones realizadas con Redes Neuronales (en concreto, mediante la utilización de redes con larga memoria de corto plazo, LSTM por sus siglas en inglés) con los instrumentos más habituales en el análisis de coyuntura (series temporales, indicadores sintéticos y factores dinámicos). Los resultados muestran que los avances en redes neuronales pueden ser incorporados al análisis de coyuntura mejorando las estimaciones. Son herramientas complementarias, con mayor flexibilidad para captar la diversidad de situaciones en la economía real y con una capacidad de estimación superior (menor error cuadrático medio). El documento propone la utilización de este tipo de técnicas para solucionar una diversidad de problemas en economía regional.This paper studies the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence techniques to the set of tools available for the analysis of the regional situation. The estimates using long-short-term memory, LSTM, neural networks are compared with the most common instruments in the analysis of conjuncture (time series, synthetic indicators and dynamic factors). Results show that advances in neural networks can be incorporated into the tools used in regional economic analysis reducing the estimation error. They are complementary tools, with greater flexibility to capture the diversity of situations in the real economy and with a higher estimation capacity (lower mean square error). The document suggests the use of these types of techniques to solve a variety of problems in regional research

Effects of COVID-19 on trade flows: Measuring their impact through government policy responses

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on bilateral trade flows using a state-of-the-art gravity model of trade. Using the monthly trade data of 68 countries exporting across 222 destinations between January 2019 and October 2020, our results are threefold. First, we find a greater negative impact of COVID-19 on bilateral trade for those countries that were members of regional trade agreements before the pandemic. Second, we find that the impact of COVID-19 is negative and significant when we consider indicators related to governmental actions. Finally, this negative effect is more intense when exporter and importer country share identical income levels. In the latter case, the highest negative impact is found for exports between high-income countriesUniversidad de Alcalá de Henares (UAH) and Banco Santander through research project COVID-19 UAH 2019/00003/016/001/007. De Lucio also thanks financial support from Comunidad de Madrid and UAH (ref: EPUINV/2020/006 and H2019/HUM5761

The variation of export prices across and within firms

Incluye bibliografíaEste trabajo utiliza datos individuales de transacciones comerciales para analizar las diferencias en los precios de exportación entre empresas y dentro de cada empresa con una muestra de compañías manufactureras españolas para el año 2014. La naturaleza transaccional de la base de datos revela importantes diferencias en el precio que el exportador carga a un mismo producto y destino. Estas diferencias están relacionadas con el número de bienes comerciados dentro de cada categoría de producto, los descuentos por volumen, y el grado de diferenciación vertical de las variedades de producto. Por su parte, los precios de las exportaciones están positivamente correlacionados con la productividad de las empresas, el PIB per cápita de los mercados de destino y su distancia a España. Estos últimos resultados sugieren que los exportadores españoles compiten en calidadThis paper uses transaction-level trade data to analyse the differences in export prices across and within Spanish manufacturing firms in the year 2014. The transactional nature of the database uncovers sizable differences in the price that an exporter charges for the same product and destination. These differences are related to the number of goods covered within each product category, volume discounts and vertically differentiated varieties. Export prices are positively correlated with firms’ productivity, destination markets’ GDP per capita and distance to Spain. These latter results suggest that Spanish exporters compete in qualit

The variation of export prices across and within firms

This paper uses transaction-level trade data to analyze the differences in export prices across and within Spanish firms exporting manufactures in the 2010-2014 period. The transactional nature of the database uncovers sizable differences in the price that an exporter charges for the same product and destination. These differences are related with the number of goods covered within each product category, the exported quantity per transaction and the number of transactions carried out by firms

The contribution of granular and fundamental comparative advantage to European Union countries' export specialisation

This paper analyzes the contribution of fundamental comparative advantage (a country-speci c component) and granular comparative advantage (a rm-speci c component) to European Union countries' export specialization. We nd that, on average, granular comparative advantage may explain export specialization in 29% of industries, which account for 47% of total exports. We also show that 60% of the variation in export specialization across countries and industries may be explained by granular comparative advantage. These results highlight that some outstanding rms may play a very important role in explaining European Union countries' export specialization.Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadGobierno VascoGeneralitat Valencian

Morfología de las actuaciones públicas de remodelación en Madrid

López de Lucio, Ramón: “Morfología de las actuaciones públicas de remodelación en Madrid”. ALFOZ, núm. 39, Madrid, 1987

Do firms react to supply chain disruptions?

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the disruption of supply chains has become a major concern for global firms. This article uses a representative sample of Spanish manufacturers that participate in global value chains to analyze whether firms are implementing strategies to respond to this concern. Using data for the period 2017?2022, we find that, on average, manufacturers have not increased the number of countries from which they source their input since the Covid-19 pandemic. Firms have not either shifted their imports to countries that are geographically and geopolitically close to Spain, and have not reshored imports. However, firms have significantly increased the stock of intermediates. Firms only diversify when they have one supplier, export to many destinations, and the imported input has a high risk of experiencing a supply chain disruption. Firms nearshore and friendshore when their main supplier is geographically distant.Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónGobierno Vasco. Departamento de EducaciónComunidad de MadridGeneralitat Valencian

Pyridazino-pyrrolo-quinoxalinium salts as highly potent and selective leishmanicidal agents targeting trypanothione reductase

Fifteen pyridazino-pyrrolo-quinoxalinium salts were synthesized and tested for their antiprotozoal activity against Leishmania infantum amastigotes. Eleven of them turned out to be leishmanicidal, with EC50 values in the nanomolar range, and displayed low toxicity against the human THP-1 cell line. Selectivity indices for these compounds range from 10 to more than 1000. Compounds 3b and 3f behave as potent inhibitors of the oxidoreductase activity of the essential enzyme trypanothione disulfide reductase (TryR). Interestingly, binding of 3f is not affected by high trypanothione concentrations, as revealed by the noncompetitive pattern of inhibition observed when tested in the presence of increasing concentrations of this substrate. Furthermore, when analyzed at varying NADPH concentrations, the characteristic pattern of hyperbolic uncompetitive inhibition supports the view that binding of NADPH to TryR is a prerequisite for inhibitor-protein association. Similar to other TryR uncompetitive inhibitors for NADPH, 3f is responsible for TryR-dependent reduction of cytochrome c in a reaction that is typically inhibited by superoxide dismutase.Comunidad de MadridMinisterio de Economía y CompetitividadMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidade