Competition, regulation, and pricing behavior in the Spanish retail gasoline market

The restructuring of the Spanish oil industry produced a highly concentrated oligopoly in the retail gasoline market. In June 1990 the Spanish government introduced a system of ceiling price regulation in order to ensure that "liberalization" was accompanied by adequate consumer protection. This paper examines the pricing behavior of the retail gasoline market using multivariate error correction models over the period January 1993 (abolishment of the state monopoly)-December 2004. The results suggest that gasoline retail prices respond symmetrically to increases and decreases in the spot price of gasoline. However, one the ceiling price regulation was abolished, the "collaboration" between the government and the major operators, Repsol-YPF and Cepsa-Elf in order to control the inflation rate results in a slower rate of increase (decrease) of gasoline retail prices when gasoline spot prices went up (went down) than elsewhere in the European Union. Finally, retail margins were by the end of our timing period of analysis, as in the first years after the abolishment of the state monopoly, well above the European ones.regulation, pricing behavior, competition, gasoline market

Measuring the Effect of the Real Estate Bubble: a House Price Index for Bilbao

A spatio-temporal model is proposed aimed at producing an index of housing prices. A hedonic model with geographically varying coefficients is coupled with a non parametric estimation of the trend, whence a price index is derived.house prices, price index, GWR, geographically weighted regression

Identificación del fenómeno bullying y las características de los actores en un grupo de estudiantes femenino de grado primero de una institución educativa en Pereira

Estudio en que busca caracterizar los actores del bullying mediante la aplicación del test JordyCollel, el cual busca conocer las relaciones interpersonales y el conocimiento de sigo mismo, el cual fue adaptado para la población en básica primaria. Las características de los actores del bullying permiten identificar al victimario, la víctima y los espectadores, los cuales han sido descritos por autores como Dan Olweus y Enrique Chaux, de tal manera que se tengan datos actuales y confiables en la ciudad de Pereira. Este estudio se realiza por la inquietud de las autoras por los altos niveles del bullying en las instituciones educativas y cómo afrontar desde la pedagogía infantil las formas y niveles del bullying, apoyadas en las leyes de infancia y adolescencia y prevención de la violencia escolar. Se concluye que en el grupo de estudiantes femeninas de grado primero, existe el fenómeno del bullying en un bajo grado, dado que no se evidencian situaciones de violencia generalizada, sin embargo se demuestra que existen actores con prácticas que afectan o han atentado contra algunas de las estudiantes. Además de identificar que la institución cuenta con una asistencia para el fenómeno bullying donde las estudiantes pueden acudir para reportar casos o para obtener ayuda aun cuando se sigan presentando.Study that seeks to characterize the actors of bullying by applying the test Jordy Collel, which seeks to understand the relationships and knowledge keep it, which was adapted for the elementary school population. The characteristics of the players in the bullying to identify the perpetrator , the victim and the audience , which have been described by authors like Dan Olweus and Enrique Chaux, so that current and reliable data are available in the city of Pereira. This study is conducted by the authors concern about high levels of bullying in educational institutions and how to deal with since childhood pedagogy forms and levels of bullying, supported by the laws of childhood and adolescence and prevention of school violence. We conclude that in the group of female undergraduate students first , there is the phenomenon of bullying in a low degree , since no generalized violence are evident , however shows that there actors with practices that affect or have attacked some of students. In addition to identifying the institution has an assistance bullying phenomenon where students can go to report cases or to get help even if still possess

Competition, regulation, and pricing behavior in the Spanish retail gasoline market

The restructuring of the Spanish oil industry produced a highly concentrated oligopoly in the retail gasoline market. In June 1990 the Spanish government introduced a system of ceiling price regulation in order to ensure that "liberalization" was accompanied by adequate consumer protection. This paper examines the pricing behavior of the retail gasoline market using multivariate error correction models over the period January 1993 (abolishment of the state monopoly)-December 2004. The results suggest that gasoline retail prices respond symmetrically to increases and decreases in the spot price of gasoline. However, one the ceiling price regulation was abolished, the "collaboration" between the government and the major operators, Repsol-YPF and Cepsa-Elf in order to control the inflation rate results in a slower rate of increase (decrease) of gasoline retail prices when gasoline spot prices went up (went down) than elsewhere in the European Union. Finally, retail margins were by the end of our timing period of analysis, as in the first years after the abolishment of the state monopoly, well above the European ones.Ignacio Contín-Pilart gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education project SEJ2004-07242-C03-02

Pricing (A) symmetries and evolution of margins in the Spanish diesel market

With the restructuring of the Spanish oil sector during the 1980s and early 1990s, a highly concentrated oligopoly emerged in the automotive fuels market. The restructuring ended up with the abolishment of the sate oil monopoly in January 1993. A system of price ceiling replaced administered prices in June 1990, which was abolished for automotive diesel in June 1996. This paper analyzes the price dynamics of the Spanish retail automotive diesel market over the period 1993-2005. Concretely, it deals with the issue of asymmetries in the relation between the retail price of diesel before taxes and its spot price. The paper also analyzes the “collaboration” between the government and the major operators in setting prices. For the period 1993-1998, we find symmetric and full adjustment of the Spanish retail diesel prices before taxes to the Rotterdam prices, whereas from the late 1998 onward the empirical evidence suggests a weak positive price asymmetry. Furthermore, the paper shows how the government and the major operators have effectively “collaborated” in setting retail diesel prices since 1999 in order to control the inflation rate.Competition, price asymmetries and diesel.

Nuevas formas de medir el desarrollo sociomoral

En este momento en el campo de la psicología y educación moral hay una necesidad marcada por una medida válida de la competencia del juicio moral. La idea de que el comportamiento y el desarrollo morales tengan un aspecto cognitivo es nueva y genera controversia. ¿Existe este componente realmente? O sea ¿Se puede medir y se puede demostrar que es relevante para el comportamiento humano? ¿Se desarrolla como creemos que lo hace, qué hace que se desarrolle y qué lo erosiona? Para contestar estas cuestiones se hace necesario contar con un instrumento realmente válido y la propuesta de Lind (1989), el Moral Judgement Test (MJT), ha generado un gran interés en la medida que supone una renovación en la evaluación del modelo de desarrollo moral propuesto por Kohlberg.La validación y certificación de la versión en euskera supone los pasos técnicos habituales en este tipo de procesos y sirve para abordar la validez de otro modelo teórico (Turiel, 1992)

Nuevas formas de medir el desarrollo sociomoral

En este momento en el campo de la psicología y educación moral hay una necesidad marcada por una medida válida de la competencia del juicio moral. La idea de que el comportamiento y el desarrollo morales tengan un aspecto cognitivo es nueva y genera controversia. ¿Existe este componente realmente? O sea ¿Se puede medir y se puede demostrar que es relevante para el comportamiento humano? ¿Se desarrolla como creemos que lo hace, qué hace que se desarrolle y qué lo erosiona? Para contestar estas cuestiones se hace necesario contar con un instrumento realmente válido y la propuesta de Lind (1989), el Moral Judgement Test (MJT), ha generado un gran interés en la medida que supone una renovación en la evaluación del modelo de desarrollo moral propuesto por Kohlberg.La validación y certificación de la versión en euskera supone los pasos técnicos habituales en este tipo de procesos y sirve para abordar la validez de otro modelo teórico (Turiel, 1992)

Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles as a Potential Platform for Vaccine Development against Tuberculosis.

The increasing emergence of new strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) highly resistant to antibiotics constitute a public health issue, since tuberculosis still constitutes the primary cause of death in the world due to bacterial infection. Mtb has been shown to produce membrane-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) containing proteins responsible for modulating the pathological immune response after infection. These natural vesicles were considered a promising alternative to the development of novel vaccines. However, their use was compromised by the observed lack of reproducibility between preparations. In this work, with the aim of developing nanosystems mimicking the extracellular vesicles produced by Mtb, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have been used as nanocarriers of immunomodulatory and vesicle-associated proteins (Ag85B, LprG and LprA). These novel nanosystems have been designed and extensively characterized, demonstrating the e ectiveness of the covalent anchorage of the immunomodulatory proteins to the surface of the MSNs. The immunostimulatory capacity of the designed nanosystems has been demonstrated by measuring the levels of pro- (TNF) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines in exposed macrophages. These results open a new possibility for the development of more complex nanosystems, including additional vesicle components or even antitubercular drugs, thus allowing for the combination of immunomodulatory and bactericidal e ects against Mtb.post-print2418 K

El aprendizaje y la construcción del conocimiento: procesos de interacción entre profesores y estudiantes

En este trabajo analizaremos el registro de observación de una clase de Filosofía realizada por Rosse Marie Vallejos Gomez (2020), en un curso de 4° año de la educación secundaria de una escuela chilena. Tomaremos como eje para este análisis las particularidades que reviste el aprendizaje y la construcción del conocimiento en las aulas, enfocándonos en los procesos de interacción entre profesores y estudiantes, en busca de especificar el papel de la actividad discursiva y la configuración del aula como comunidad de aprendizaje, como también, describir las formas de participación y de apropiación de los estudiantes de significados compartidos.Facultad de PsicologíaFacultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Antimycobacterial effect of selenium nanoparticles on Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis remains the leading cause of death from a single infection agent worldwide. In recent years, the occurrence of tuberculosis cases caused by drug-resistant strains has spread, and is expected to continue to grow. Therefore, the development of new alternative treatments to the use of antibiotics is highly important. In that sense, nanotechnology can play a very relevant role, due to the unique characteristics of nanoparticles. In fact, different types of nanoparticles have already been evaluated both as potential bactericides and as efficient drug delivery vehicles. In this work, the use of selenium nanoparticles has been evaluated to inhibit the growth of two types of mycobacteria: Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The results showed that selenium nanoparticles are able to inhibit the growth of both types of mycobacteria by damaging their cell envelope integrity. These results open a new opportunity for the use of this type of nanoparticles as antimycobacterial agents by themselves, or for the development of novel nanosystems that combine the action of these nanoparticles with other drugs