Fiscal Policy in a Monetary Union: Gains from Changing Institutions

In a Monetary Union where individual monetary instruments are lost, fiscal policy becomes more important as a national policy. The question addressed in this article is whether fiscal policy should be decided at the country level or by a central decision maker, being in any case the fiscal instruments specific to each country. To answer this question, the focus is on the quantitative effect, since there are costs of implementing a supranational decision maker. While discussing the methodologies used in literature, we hereby propose a different one for quantifying gains from cooperation. We conclude that gains from fiscal coordination are significative, but gains that result from policy changes as a reaction to shocks are, by nature, very small. We also show that, symmetric shocks lead to coordination gains of the same magnitude than asymmetric ones.Coordination, Fiscal Policy, Gains, Nash.

Coordination and Stabilization Gains of Fiscal Policy in a Monetary Union

The issue of fiscal coordination in a Monetary Union is recurrent as monetary policy can no longer be used as a national stabilization policy instrument. We measure the increase in welfare due to the coordination of fiscal policies in the typical Neo-Keynesian environment, where monetary policy would have significantive and persistent real effects. We propose a decomposition of coordination gains into a deterministic and a stochastic parcel. We show that the deterministic fiscal coordination gain is high but that the stochastic gain, often called stabilization gain, is very small generating, for our calibration, an increase of 0.0161 percentage points, measured in consumption equivalents.Coordination, Fiscal Policy, Gains, Nash.

Travel Agencies: From online channel conflict to multi-channel harmony

The adoption of Internet as a distribution channel and a privileged e-commerce tool has pressed Travel Agencies (TAs) to a latent channel conflict. Our main interest is to understand how the traditional independent travel agencies in Portugal deal with the online channel. We suggest that TAs have to develop an innovative business model based on the online and offline complementary channels, in order to achieve a multi-channel harmony

Retrospective comparative study of bone loss in implants with and without immediate loading in the Egas Moniz university clinic

To evaluate bone loss after three years in implants placed at the implantology consult at the Egas Moniz University Clinic, relating bone loss to the type of loading (conventional or immediate load). A comparative and retrospective study, performed on a sample of 65 implants, placed in 24 of 327 patients, who attended the implantology consult at the Egas Moniz University Clinic in 2015, representing 7.3% of the study population through the measurement of distance between implant platform and bone using radiographs. Three years after implant placement with and without immediate loading there is statistically significant bone loss mesially and distally. It was found that when compared bone loss in loaded vs unloaded mesially and distally implants, there were no statistically significant differences. The bone loss of the unloaded implants was compared three years after being placed, with the bone level of the loaded implants also three years later. No significant difference was found. Although no statistically significant differences were found between bone loss in loaded implants vs unloaded mesially and distally, as it is supported by the literature, it was possible to conclude that there was, in fact, a statistically significant bone loss, mesially and distally, three years after implant placement with and without immediate loading. This may be due to poor oral hygiene, a history of periodontitis, smoking and peri-implantitis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Robust Cosmological Bounds on Neutrinos and their Combination with Oscillation Results

We perform a global analysis of cosmological observables in generalized cosmologies which depart from $\Lambda$CDM models by allowing non-vanishing curvature $\Omega_k\neq 0$, dark energy with equation of state with $\omega\neq -1$, the presence of additional relativistic degrees of freedom $\Delta N_{\rm rel}$, and neutrino masses $\Omega_\nu\neq 0$. By combining the data from cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments (in particular the latest results from WMAP-7), the present day Hubble constant (H0) measurement, the high-redshift Type-I supernovae (SN) results and the information from large scale structure (LSS) surveys, we determine the parameters in the 10-dimensional parameter space for such models. We present the results from the analysis when the full shape information from the LSS matter power spectrum (LSSPS) is included versus when only the corresponding distance measurement from the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) is accounted for. We compare the bounds on the neutrino mass scale in these generalized scenarios with those obtained for the 6+1 parameter analysis in $\Lambda{\rm CDM}+m_\nu$ models and we also study the dependence of those on the set of observables included in the analysis. Finally we combine these results with the information on neutrino mass differences and mixing from the global analysis of neutrino oscillation experiments and derive the presently allowed ranges for the two laboratory probes of the absolute scale of neutrino mass: the effective electron neutrino mass in single beta decay and the effective Majorana neutrino mass in neutrinoless $\beta\beta$ decay.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Acknowledgments correcte

Updated global fit to three neutrino mixing: status of the hints of theta13 > 0

We present an up-to-date global analysis of solar, atmospheric, reactor and accelerator neutrino data in the framework of three-neutrino oscillations. We discuss in detail the statistical significance of the observed "hint" of non-zero theta13 in the solar sector at the light of the latest experimental advances, such as the Borexino spectral data, the lower value of Gallium rate recently measured in SAGE, and the low energy threshold analysis of the combined SNO phase I and phase II. We also study the robustness of the results under changes of the inputs such as the choice of solar model fluxes and a possible modification of the Gallium capture cross-section as proposed by SAGE. In the atmospheric sector we focus on the latest results for nu_e appearance from MINOS and on the recent Super-Kamiokande results from the combined phases I, II and III, and we discuss their impact on the determination of theta13. Finally, we combine all the data into a global analysis and determine the presently allowed ranges of masses and mixing.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures. Acknowledgments correcte