Book review of Fault Lines by Raghuram G. Rajan

Most people believe that the recent financial crisis had its roots in a boom in housing lending in the United States. After the dot-com bubble, the argument goes, the Federal Reserve Bank lowered the interest rates to stimulate corporate investment and recover from the downturn. As a side effect of low interest rates, mortgages became cheaper and Americans became attracted to the housing market. Credit for housing was provided by the sophisticated financial system of the United States, which allowed investors to purchase packages of mortgages from diversified geographical locations, and from individuals with different probabilities of default, according to their desired level of risk. As it turned out, these products caught the attention of investors from all over the world, who were attracted by their profitable returns and the implicit guarantees provided by the U.S. government to the issuing agencies and financial intermediaries. Therefore, housing credit was plentiful and, as a consequence, house prices in the United States rose. This in turn allowed mortgage borrowers to refinance their debts and avoid default. The party came to an end when interest rates increased and house prices fell, triggering a series of defaults in mortgages and driving values of the financial products near to zero, resulting in consequences with which we all are too familiar

Anàlisi de l'impacte de l'aprenentatge mitjançant projectes transversals i treball col·laboratiu en l'alumnat d'un CFGM Producció Agropecuària

El TFM parteix de la hipòtesi de què l'aprenentatge per projectes i treball col·laboratiu genera uns beneficis específicament associats. A partir d'aquí es realitza una descripció del mètode d'aprenentatge basat en projectes i treball col·laboratiu a un CFGM de Producció Agropecuària (cooperativa per la gestió de l'horta i galliner, sociocràcia per la presa de decisions en assemblea, etc.). Es descriu detalladament els projectes que estan en marxa, els objectius que es persegueixen en el CMFP i l'abast dins el currículum. S'inclou l'opinió dels professors i de diferents agents relacionats o no amb el cicle, i també s'inclou un treball reflexiu amb els alumnes, tot en referència amb aquest sistema d'aprenentatge. Seguidament s'analitzen uns indicadors que intenten reflectir i quantificar l'impacte del mètode d'aprenentatge als alumnes i al grup classe, i s'analitzen les observacions realitzades. Es conclou que sí es compleix la hipòtesi inicial, i s'analitzen, si fos el cas, els aspectes negatius associats

Engineering regulated open multiagent systems

In this thesis, w e focus on the d e velopment o f normati v e open multiagent systems. The y are systems in which heterogeneous and autonomous agents may need to coexist in a complex social and legal framework that can evolve to address the different and often conflicting objecti ves of the man y stak eholders inv olved. This thesis presents ROMAS, a set o f methods and tools for analyzing and designing systems o f this kind. R OMAS inte grates the analysis, design and v erification o f these systems by means o f a metamodel, a methodology that includes specific de v elopment guidelines and a model-dri ven CASE tool.The author wish to thank R. Bejar and F. Manya for supervising this PhD thesis. Supported by MINECO projects TIN2009-14704-C03-01 and TIN2010-20967-C04-01/03.Garcia Marques, ME. (2014). Engineering regulated open multiagent systems. AI Communications. 27:417-419. https://doi.org/10.3233/AIC-1406104174192

Firms as liquidity providers: Evidence from the 2007–2008 financial crisis

Using a supplier–client matched sample, we study the effect of the 2007–2008 financial crisis on between-firm liquidity provision. Consistent with a causal effect of a negative shock to bank credit, we find that firms with high precrisis liquidity levels increased the trade credit extended to other corporations and subsequently experienced better performance as compared with ex ante cash-poor firms. Trade credit taken by constrained firms increased during this period. These findings are consistent with firms providing liquidity insurance to their clients when bank credit is scarce and offer an important precautionary savings motive for accumulating cash reserves

Water repellency reduces soil CO2 efflux upon rewetting

Carbon dioxide (CO2) efflux from soil represents one of the biggest ecosystem carbon (C) fluxes and high-magnitude pulses caused by rainfall make a substantial contribution to the overall C emissions. It is widely accepted that the drier the soil, the larger the CO2 pulses will be, but this notion has never been tested for water-repellent soils. Soil water repellency (SWR) is a common feature of many soils and is especially prominent after dry periods or fires. An important unanswered question is to what degree SWR affects common assumptions about soil CO2 dynamics. To address this, our study investigates, for the first time, the effect of SWR on the CO2 pulse upon wetting for water-repellent soils from recently burned forest sites. CO2 efflux measurements in response to simulated wetting were conducted both under laboratory and in situ conditions. Experiments were conducted on strongly and extremely water-repellent soils, with a wettable scenario simulated by adding a wetting agent to the water. CO2 efflux upon rewetting was significantly lower in the water-repellent scenarios. Under laboratory conditions, CO2 pulse was up to four times lower under the water-repellent scenario as a result of limited wetting, with 70% of applied water draining rapidly via preferential flow paths, leaving much of the soil dry. We suggest that the predominant cause of the lower CO2 pulse in water-repellent soils was the smaller volume of pores in which the CO2 was replaced by infiltrating water, compared to wettable soil. This study shows that SWR should be considered as an important factor when measuring or predicting the CO2 flush upon rewetting of dry soils. Although this study focused mainly on short-term effects of rewetting on CO2 fluxes, the overall implications of SWR on physical changes in soil conditions can be long lasting, with overall larger consequences for C dynamics

Is socioeconomic status a risk factor for children´s overweight and obesity? - Mun-SI Portugal, A Community Based Program

MUN-Si (www.mun-si.com) is an on-going Portuguese community-based program at local level which aims to promote lifestyles changes in the long-term particularly to children and families that do not have adequate resources. The objective of this study was to address the association between socioeconomic (SE) indicators and children´s nutritional status (NS) of the two rounds of the MUN-SI NS surveys (2009 and 2011). A total of 2726 children (round 1 (R1) = 1126; round 2 (R2)= 1600) aged between 6-12 years old were evaluated from 5 municipalities. Childhood overweight and obesity prevalence was assessed according to WHO criteria. Low SE status was defined according to 3 criteria: family income, parents occupation and education level. These SE characteristics were obtained by a self response questionnaire. In R1 (2009), the prevalence of overweight was 39.4% (n = 444), of which 15.8% (n = 178) were obese. In the second round (2011) similar prevalence were obtained (40.8% of overweight, in which 16.9% obese). In both rounds, 69% of the families had a low income (45%) unqualified or semi-qualified. In R1, a family income of 0-1500 € was associated with higher obesity prevalence (OR = 2,37; IC95%: 1,11-5,02). In R2, no significant association between obesity prevalence and low family income (p=0.494) was observed. Families where the parents had a non-qualified or semi-qualified occupation had a higher probability (mother - OR ≥ 3.4; father - OR ≥ 2.7) to have children with obesity. Low education level of the parents was also proved to be associated with higher childhood obesity prevalence. This study observed that low SE status is an important risk factor to development of childhood obesity in Portuguese population. These results support that further intervention is needed on low socioeconomic families

Avaliação de projetos de promoção da saúde ao nível local: a Rede Portuguesa de Cidades Saudáveis.

Introdução: A Rede Portuguesa de Cidades Saudáveis (RPCS), tem como missão apoiar a divulgação, implementação e desenvolvimento do projeto da Rede Europeia de Cidades Saudáveis (RECS) da Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) nos municípios portugueses que pretendam assumir a promoção da saúde como uma prioridade da agenda dos decisores políticos. A abordagem das desigualdades sociais é um dos eixos prioritários da RECS fielmente seguido pela RPCS. O objetivo deste estudo é o de descrever e avaliar os programas comunitários de promoção de saúde desenvolvidos nos 29 municípios que constituem a RPCS. Metodologia: O estudo decorreu em 2013 através de uma metodologia exploratória- descritiva, de carácter transversal com a aplicação de um questionário dirigido a todos os coordenadores municipais da RPCS. O questionário foi desenvolvido na sede do gabinete Regional da OMS traduzido e adaptado às circunstâncias portuguesas. 22 municípios participaram. Os restantes não responderam ou afirmaram não ter atividades em desenvolvimento. A informação foi processada e analisada através de estatística descritiva. Resultados: No âmbito de atividades/iniciativas e ou programas de promoção da saúde (ps), as áreas temáticas mais abrangidas foram a “promoção de atividade física” (81,82%), a “promoção de estilos de vida saudáveis e aconselhamento sobre saúde - vacinação e doenças sexualmente transmissíveis” (68,18%) e “promoção de hábitos alimentares saudáveis” (63,64%). Todos os municípios desenvolvem programas de ps para crianças maiores de 5 anos. 21 municípios (95,45%) desenvolvem ações com os idosos e 19 municípios (86,36%) implementam programas que envolvem os adolescentes e adultos. Por outro lado, os grupos populacionais menos abrangidos são as pessoas com deficiência (45,45%) e imigrantes (40,91%). A maioria dos municípios da RPCS (86,4%) respondeu que tinham programas comunitários que visavam à diminuição das desigualdades sociais. Apenas 5 municípios (22,73%) referiram que os programas comunitários desenvolvidos pela RPCS podem ser caracterizados como uma aplicação de políticas públicas nacionais. Os restantes caraterizam os seus programas como iniciativas multissectoriais (maioritariamente com o Ministério da Saúde, Instituições desportivas e organizações não governamentais) de aplicação de políticas do governo local. 50% dos municípios inquiridos indicou a existência de programas de formação e capacitação para técnicos, investigadores e profissionais de saúde. Destes (90,9%) classificaram estes programas como atividades pontuais. 50 % dos municípios indicou que o desenvolvimento de programas comunitários pelos municípios da RPCS conduziu a “uma melhoria notável na saúde e na qualidade de vida da população” e 40,91% indicaram que houve “indícios de melhoria mas esta ainda não é permanente”. Conclusão: A prioridade para os municípios relativa ao combate às desigualdades sociais concorda com os objetivos gerais da RPCS e com os da Rede Europeia de Cidades Saudáveis da OMS, concorrendo fortemente para os objetivos do programa europeu “Health 2020”. No entanto foram identificados vários conceitos a serem reforçados no âmbito da RPCS entre eles: articulação dos programas comunitários locais com as políticas públicas nacionais, a criação de alianças estáveis com atores sociais e instituições dinâmicas, o reforço dos recursos financeiros e a criação de modelos de investigação e colaboração com a comunidade científica, envolvendo os recursos humanos e técnicos da própria autarquia num beneficio mútuo

Contracts and returns in private equity investments

We analyze the relationship between contracts and returns in private equity (PE) investments. Contractual control in the form of covenants tends to be employed to identify good deals. Better quality firms are more likely to have covenant-rich contracts, as they are less concerned by the constraints imposed by the covenants. PE investors appoint closer associates of the fund in deals that are performing poorly but tend to outsource board governance in better deals. Collectively, our evidence suggests that PE investors operate along two dimensions, choosing covenants and board seats differently, based on the ex ante quality of the company

Book review of Fault Lines by Raghuram G. Rajan

Most people believe that the recent financial crisis had its roots in a boom in housing lending in the United States. After the dot-com bubble, the argument goes, the Federal Reserve Bank lowered the interest rates to stimulate corporate investment and recover from the downturn. As a side effect of low interest rates, mortgages became cheaper and Americans became attracted to the housing market. Credit for housing was provided by the sophisticated financial system of the United States, which allowed investors to purchase packages of mortgages from diversified geographical locations, and from individuals with different probabilities of default, according to their desired level of risk. As it turned out, these products caught the attention of investors from all over the world, who were attracted by their profitable returns and the implicit guarantees provided by the U.S. government to the issuing agencies and financial intermediaries. Therefore, housing credit was plentiful and, as a consequence, house prices in the United States rose. This in turn allowed mortgage borrowers to refinance their debts and avoid default. The party came to an end when interest rates increased and house prices fell, triggering a series of defaults in mortgages and driving values of the financial products near to zero, resulting in consequences with which we all are too familia

Investigating the Kangra Valley Tea Industry

In recent decades, Kangra Valley tea production has declined by 50% predominately among farms less than a hectare. Our goal was to investigate small-scale tea production and develop suggestions and innovations beneficial to small estates. Tea growers were interviewed and surveyed to identify the vulnerabilities in the region. We designed a mechanical harvester to improve efficiency and reduce the need for labor, and produced recommendations to revitalize the Kangra tea market and modify government policies