Determinants of the Venezuelan Banking Crisis of the Mid-1990s: An Event History Analysis

This paper uses event history analysis to test the significance of several macro-economic and bank-specific variables in explaining bank failures during the Venezuelan banking crisis of the mid-1990s. Poor bank profitability, proxied by a low net interest margin, and low GDP growth are found significant in increasing the probability of bank failure. Other useful indicators, for some model specifications, are the share of nonperforming loans and that of non productive assets to banks’ own funds, which raise the likelihood of crisis. A large amount of bank liquid assets, in turn, reduces the likelihood of failure for some model specifications. The opposite is true for high real deposit rates. Although it could be interpreted, at first sight, as a too restrictive monetary policy, this is not supported by the lack of significance of the real lending rate and, even more so, real money growth, a more direct indicator of the monetary policy stance.Venezuela, banking crisis, early indicators

Fictional characterization of Mary I, England’s first Queen regnant

The image of Mary Tudor has been vilified throughout the years with the propagation of several defaming texts and illustrations overshadowing her royal status and forgetting the humiliations and miseries she experienced alongside her father and afterwards during her reign. For this reason, this dissertation is aimed at examining the history of Mary and her representation as a fictional character. To do this, I used two historical books which describe in detail the life of Mary Tudor: Mary Tudor: A Life by David Loades and María Tudor: La Gran Reina Desconocida by María Jesús Pérez. In addition, I used three audio-visual resources in order to study the way she is characterized: Elizabeth I by Shekhar Kapur, Carlos, Rey Emperador by Oriol Ferrer and The Tudors by Michael Hirst. The historical analysis showed that despite her fame, her rule had a reasonably good outcome for England, whose principal objective was to fulfil her mother’s religious duty by restoring Catholicism in England. She was ‘’bloody’’, but just as the rest of the monarchs, since violence was a power tool very frequented by them at that time. The fictional research shows that Mary is characterized in different ways, being more positively represented lately.La imagen de María Tudor ha sido denigrada a lo largo de los años con la difusión de distintos textos y representaciones difamatorias que ensombrecieron su estatus real y se omitieron las humillaciones y desgracias que María vivió al lado de su padre y posteriormente durante su reinado. Por esta razón, el presente trabajo analiza la historia de María y su caracterización como personaje ficticio. Para ello, he empleado dos libros históricos que describen la de manera detallada la vida de María: Mary Tudor: A Life de David Loades y María Tudor: La Gran Reina Desconocida de María Jesús Pérez. Además, he usado tres fuentes audiovisuales para analizar el personaje de María Tudor: Elizabeth I de Shekhar Kapur, Carlos, Rey Emperador de Oriol Ferrer y Los Tudor de Michael Hirst. El análisis histórico muestra que, a pesar de su fama, su reinado fue razonablemente positivo para Inglaterra, y que el principal objetivo era cumplir los asuntos religiosos de su madre restableciendo el Catolicismo en Inglaterra. Fue ‘sanguinaria’, pero no más que otros monarcas contemporáneos, ya que la violencia era una herramienta de poder habitual en el siglo XVI. El análisis de las representaciones hechas de ella en la literatura o el cine nos muestra caracterizaciones diversas de María Tudor, con una aproximación a su figura más positiva en los últimos años.Departamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Estudios Inglese

Interpreting Sophocles'Antigone

Studying classical texts, two interpretations are possible: “literalist” or “allegorist”. Without value the different positions, our work will show how Hegel interpreted Sophocles’ Antigone.Dos opciones son posibles a la hora de abordar el estudio de los textos clásicos de la antigüedad: una es la interpretación literal del texto, llevada a cabo por filólogos e historiadores del pensamiento y, otra, es la interpretación alegórica, llevada a cabo por ciertos filósofos y otro tipo de hermeneutas. Sin entrar a valorar cada ninguna de estas dos posturas, nuestra tarea aquí será la de mostrar la significación de la Antígona de Sófocles para el pensamiento de Hegel

Does the Chinese banking system benefit from foreign investors?

We find empirical evidence that the Chinese banking system has benefited from the entry of foreign investors through higher profitability and increased efficiency of the banking system. Foreign participation, which consists of a minority stake in a Chinese bank (in contrast to the typical pattern in emerging countries), appears to be most effective when the foreign bank acts as a strategic investor. Purely financial investors contribute little, if anything, to bank performance.China; banking system; foreign participation

Europe in the midst of China-US strategic competition: What are the European Union’s options? Bruegel Working Paper Issue 03, April 2019

With the trade conflict between the United States and China bringing China-US strategic competition into the open, the European Union faces an urgent question: how to position itself in the competition. This paper reviews the impact of the US-led trade war against China and its immediate consequences for China, the US and the EU. Although protectionism can never be growth enhancing, European companies could see gains if the trade confrontation between China and the US ends up reducing their bilateral trade to the benefit of European companies that export to China. This is because US exports to China are concentrated in sectors that are also key for the EU’s exports to China, with the exception of energy and agricultural products. However, a solution to the US-China trade conflict that artificially increases Chinese imports from the US can only hurt European exporters. A much broader and structural deal which pushes China to reform and open up would not only be beneficial for the US but also for the EU and the rest of the world. Against this background, this paper reviews the EU’s options in the new world of strategic confrontation between China and the US. The most obvious option would be to continue to safeguard multilateralism, but the EU should not be naïve in remaining alone, among major economic blocs, pushing for such an option. The second option would be for the EU to become more reliant on the Transatlantic Alliance. The last option would be for the EU to move its centre of gravity towards China, or at least to remain neutral between the US and China. While it might seem unrealistic today, this last option might need to be explored if the US continues to move away from multilateralism and, to some degree, from the Transatlantic Alliance. For the time being, the European Commission seems to have stepped up its thinking about the necessary conditions for stronger economic cooperation with China, which is already an important step in this direction

La mónada pitagórica y el cosmos de Platón

The interpretation of the platonic cosmogony presents one of its more controversial aspeects in the appreciation of the meaning of the creational act. The interpretations given so far clash with "creacionist" and the "mathematics" with passages that show the inadequacies of both approaches. Our work will analyse the different arguments concerning: 1) the status of the numbers; 2) the role of the limited, unlimited and the sperm; 3) the biological model of the platonic cosmology.La interpretación del acto creacional supone el aspecto más controvertido a la hora de interpretar el significado de lo expuesto en el Timeo. Tradicionalmente las lecturas se han venido clasificando en "creacionistas" y "matemáticas"; no obstante, existen pasajes que ponen de manifiesto las dificultades de ambas. Mi tarea aquí será analizar los diferentes argumentos concernientes a: 1) el estatuto de los números; 2) el papel de lo limitado, lo ilimitado y el esperma; 3) el modelo biológico de la cosmología platónica

Meditación y Chakras en el Banquete de Platón

Durante mucho tiempo la investigación del mundo interno del alma ha sido un terreno reservado al ocultismo. Algunas religiones �en especial las orientales� emprendieron una tarea parecida, aunque limitadas, por una revelación original que impide el libre empleo del método científico. En tiempos relativamente recientes, algunas escuelas de psicología han orientado su atención hacia esta misma área, desarrollando sus técnicas peculiares en talleres de crecimiento y desarrollo, sesiones de terapia y experiencia personal, y que curiosamente se parecen mucho a los métodos arcaicos que solemos denominar ocultos o mágicos