Nicaragua: Without structural changes there´ll be no sustainable reduction of rural poverty

This is a contribution of the ENVIO-NITLAPAN. The author is member of the scientific council of the RCASAE, and he is a senior researcher of the CAU NITLAPAN.Poverty Reduction Strategies, Agriculture and Development, Food Security and Poverty, E24, E23, D43, D72,

Algebraic theory of endohedrally confined diatomic molecules: application to H2_2@C60_{60}

A simple and yet powerful approach for modeling the structure of endohedrally confined diatomic molecules is introduced. The theory, based on a u(4)+u(3) dynamical algebra, combines u(4), the vibron model dynamical algebra, with a u(3) dynamical algebra that models a spherically symmetric three dimensional potential. The first algebra encompasses the internal roto-vibrations degrees of freedom of the molecule, while the second takes into account the confined molecule center-of-mass degrees of freedom. A resulting subalgebra chain is connected to the underlying physics and the model is applied to the prototypical case of H2 caged in a fullerene molecule. The spectrum of the supramolecular complex H2@C60 is described with a few parameters and predictions for not yet detected levels are made. Our fits suggest that the quantum numbers of a few lines should be reassigned to obtain better agreement with data.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures plus 4 pages of supplemental material. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

An elementary characterization of the Gini index

The Gini coefficient or index is perhaps one of the most used indicators of social and economic conditions. In this paper we characterize the Gini index as the unique function that satisfies the properties of scale invariance, symmetry, proportionality and convexity in similar rankings. Furthermore, we discuss a simpler way to compute it.Gini index, income inequality, axiomatization

The Impact of Product Market Competition on Private Benefits of Control

This paper investigates the impact of product market competition (PMC) on private benefits of control (PBC). We estimate PBC using the voting premium between shares with differential voting rights. We use two measures of the intensity of product market competition: an external competition measure based on industry-level import penetration, and an internal measure derived from domestic product market regulations. Using data for publicly-traded firms in 19 countries for which information on dual class shares is available we find that PMC is strongly negatively correlated with PBC. The evidence indicates that the effect is particularly strong for firms in industries that are likely to be concentrated and in countries with poor legal environments. We further examine the channels through which PMC enhances governance. We find evidence indicating that improvements in the availability of industry information and the higher default probability associated with tougher competition are two important forces in reducing the estimated price gap between dual class shares. Using exchange rates and terms of trade as instruments for import penetration, we find that the link between competition in product markets and private benefits of control is not spurious. Overall, our results suggest that product market competition can help in curbing private benefits of control.private benefits of control, competition, corporate governance, import penetration

Identifiying High Risk Areas of Zika Virus Infection by Meteorological Factors in Columbia

Background Several Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreaks have occurred since October 2015. Because there is no effective treatment for ZIKV infection, developing an effective surveillance and warning system is currently a high priority to prevent ZIKV infection. Despite Aedes mosquitos having been known to spread ZIKV, the calculation approach is diverse, and only applied to local areas. This study used meteorological measurements to monitor ZIKV infection due to the high correlation between climate change and Aedes mosquitos and the convenience to obtain meteorological data from weather monitoring stations. Methods This study applied the Bayesian structured additive regression modeling approach to include spatial interactive terms with meteorological factors and a geospatial function in a zero-inflated Poisson model. The study area contained 32 administrative departments in Colombia from October 2015 to December 2017. Weekly ZIKV infection cases and daily meteorological measurements were collected. Mapping techniques were adopted to visualize spatial findings. A series of model selections determined the best combinations of meteorological factors in the same model. Results When multiple meteorological factors are considered in the same model, both total rainfall and average temperature can best assess the geographic disparities of ZIKV infection. Meanwhile, a 1-in. increase in rainfall is associated with an increase in the logarithm of relative risk (logRR) of ZIKV infection of at most 1.66 (95% credible interval [CI] = 1.09, 2.15) as well as a 1 °F increase in average temperature is significantly associated with at most 0.79 (95% CI = 0.12, 1.22) increase in the logRR of ZIKV. Moreover, after controlling rainfall and average temperature, an independent geospatial function in the model results in two departments with an excessive ZIKV risk which may be explained by unobserved factors other than total rainfall and average temperature. Conclusion Our study found that meteorological factors are significantly associated with ZIKV infection across departments. The study determined both total rainfall and average temperature as the best meteorological factors to identify high risk departments of ZIKV infection. These findings can help governmental agencies monitor at risk areas according to meteorological measurements, and develop preventions in those at risk areas in priority

Design and synthesis of new molecules based on indolium derivatives for two-photon absorption bioimaging applications

Bioimaging is the visualization of biological processes in real time, interfering as less as possible with these and using non-invasive methods. Among others, fluorescence methods have acquired a very important role in these purposes through the nature of the light. Bioimaging pretends to understand how our organism works identifing subcellular organelles, following cellular processes, quantifying ion or biological species and visualising interactions of molecules with their targets in living cells or tissues. In the last decades, two-photon (TP) microscopy is unseating classical one-photon (OP) microscopy due to its advantages, such as the use of lower energy excitation wavelengths or the possibility of focus in depth, among others. Nowadays, it is an interesting target design and develop of new probes for TP microscopy to biomaging. Fluorophores based on indolenines are a family of compounds with promising properties in this sense. In this work, we present the design, synthesis and characterization of new indolium derivatives with promising properties to be used in bioimaging applications in living cells with different purposes.Real Sociedad Española de Química, Jóvenes Invetigadores Químicos, Facultad de Ciencias Ambientales y Bioquímica (UCLM), Merck, Cortes de Castilla la Mancha, Reaxys (Elsevier), Diputación de Toledo, MestreLab Research, Sección Territorial de Castilla la Mancha (RSEQ), Grupo especializado en Nanociencia y Materiales Moleculares (RESEQ), Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Measuring inequality in a region: a SAM approach

In this paper, we apply SAM linear models to the economy in a Spanish region, Extremadura, from the usual household disaggregation of these matrices. The analysis aims to some issues related to income distribution. To achieve these goals, some relative multipliers are computed and we propose different simulations based on final demand and income transfers. Finally, we also compute the standard statistical measures of inequality and show how these measures change if different transfer policies are applied. JEL CODES: C69, D31, D59, H59

Small Farmers and Big Retail: trade-offs of supplying supermarkets in Nicaragua

In Nicaragua and elsewhere in Central America, small-scale farmers are weighing the risks of entering into contracts with supermarket chains. We use unique data on negotiated prices from Nicaraguan farm cooperatives supplying supermarkets to study the impact of supply agreements on producers’ mean output prices and price stability. We find that prices paid by the domestic retail chain approximate the traditional market in mean and variance. In contrast, we find that mean prices paid by Wal-mart are significantly lower than the traditional market but that Wal-Mart systematically reduces price volatility compared with the traditional market. We find some evidence, however, that farmers may be paying too much for this contractual insurance against price variation.Nicaragua, Supermarkets, Wal-Mart, Modern Retail, Market Risk, Contracts, Supply Chains, Agribusiness, International Development,

Do CEOs matter?

Estimating the value of top managerial talent is a central topic of research that has attracted widespread attention from academics and practitioners. Yet, studying the impact of managers on firm performance is difficult because of endogeneity and omitted variables concerns. In this paper, we test for the impact of managers on firm performance in two ways. First, we examine whether top executive deaths have an impact on firm performance, focusing on the manager and firm characteristics that are associated to large manager-death effects. Second, we test for the interaction between the personal and professional activities of managers by examining the effect of deaths of immediate family members (spouses, parents, children, etc) on firm performance. Our main findings are three. First, CEO deaths are strongly correlated with declines in firms operating profitability, asset growth and sales growth. Second, the death of board members does not seem to affect firm prospects, indicating that not all senior managers are equally important for firms' outcomes. Third, CEOs' immediate family deaths are significantly negatively correlated to firm performance. This last result suggests a strong link between the personal and business roles that top management plays, a connection that is present even in large firms. Overall, our findings demonstrate CEOs are extremely important for firms' prospects.