Dynamic Inefficiency in an Overlapping Generation Economy with Pollution and Health Costs

We analyze an overlapping generations model in which pollution arises, in an accumulative way, from production. Households do not care directly about the environment, however pollution makes them incur health costs when they are elderly. We show that the presence of pollution makes the economy more likely to be dynamically inefficient. For these cases we analyze two kinds of tax scheme: one based on production taxes and the other based on capital and wage taxes. We show how to design both schemes in order to put the economy into the golden rule allocation. We also show that under the production tax scheme young and elderly agents pay less taxes (or receive more transfers) than under the capital and wage tax system.Dynamic inefficiency, Externalities, Health costs, Overlapping generations, Pollution, Taxes.

A review of the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and psychopathic traits: is the EI construct a mediator between aggression and psychopathy?

Background: In spite of their normal intelligence, individuals with psychopathic traits are usually characterized as having numerous troubles with social and emotional facets in their daily. These deficits that make complicated their adaptation could be related with deficiencies in their Emotional Intelligence (EI) or their ability to perceive, use, understand and regulate emotions. Aims: The aim of the present study is to review the existing evidence of the relationships between EI and the population with psychopathy traits for a better understanding of the emotional problems of these individuals. As well as to looking for evidence of EI as a possible mediator between psychopathy and the aggressive behavior. Methods: Scopus and Medline were searched for finding relevant articles in Spanish and English. Articles with psychopathic trait populations of all ages assessed through different scales were accepted when they were measured together with a self-report or an ability EI test. Results: These studies provide some evidences that participants with psychopathic traits have lower EI than control participants in almost all the articles found. Specifically, it seems that the secondary psychopathy and their impulsivity trait are the most related aspect of these construct with EI. Besides, the gender and age variables seems to play some roles in the link between EI and psychopathy. For its parts, some studies show evidence of the positive relationship between psychopathy and aggressive behavior as in a negative relation between EI and antisocial conduct. However, none of the reviewed articles stablish EI as a mediator variable. Conclusions: The results obtained from the review could be of special importance for future treatment of psychopathic population as well as for the prevention of a possible disruptive behavior in their adolescence or adulthood. Given that a deficit in EI is achieved for psychopath, an EI intervention could act as a protective factor by reducing their emotional and social shortages or prevent them if the training is implemented in an early period of their life and, therefore, improving their inappropriate behavior. Nonetheless, future research is necessary for a better understanding of the role of EI as a mediator between psychopathy and aggression.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Endogenous fisheries management in a stochastic model: Why do fishery agencies use TAC

The aim of this paper is to explain under which circumstances using TACs as instrument to manage a fishery along with fishing periods may be interesting from a regulatory point of view. In order to do this, the deterministic analysis of Homans and Wilen (1997)and Anderson (2000) is extended to a stochastic scenario where the resource cannot be measured accurately. The resulting endogenous stochastic model is numerically solved for finding the optimal control rules in the Iberian sardine stock. Three relevant conclusions can be highligted from simulations. First, the higher the uncertainty about the state of the stock is, the lower the probability of closing the fishery is. Second, the use of TACs as management instrument in fisheries already regulated with fishing periods leads to: i) An increase of the optimal season length and harvests, especially for medium and high number of licences, ii) An improvement of the biological and economic variables when the size of the fleet is large; and iii) Eliminate the extinction risk for the resource. And third, the regulator would rather select the number of licences and do not restrict the season length.TAC, season lengths, fisheries management, stock uncertainty

Why Economists Reject Long-Term Fisheries Management Plans?

Most fisheries agencies conduct biological and economic assessments independently. This independent conduct may lead to situations in which economists reject management plans proposed by biologists. The objective of this study is to show how to find optimal strategies that may satisfy biologists and economists' conditions. In particular we characterize optimal fishing trajectories that maximize the present value of a discounted economic indicator taking into account the age-structure of the population as in stock assessment methodologies. This approach is applied to the Northern Stock of Hake. Our main empirical findings are: i) Optimal policy may be far away from any of the classical scenarios proposed by biologists, ii) The more the future is discounted, the higher the likelihood of finding contradictions among scenarios proposed by biologists and conclusions from economic analysis, iii) Optimal management reduces the risk of the stock falling under precautionary levels, especially if the future is not discounted to much, and iv) Optimal stationary fishing rate may be very different depending on the economic indicator used as reference.fisheries management, age-structured models, discounting, Fmsy, Fmax, northern stock of hake

Lessons from the northern hake long-term management plan: Could the economic assessment have accepted it?

An economic expert working group (STECF/SGBRE-07-05) was convened in 2007 for evaluating the potential economic consequences of a Long-Term Management Plan for the northern hake. Analyzing all the scenarios proposed by biological assessment, they found that keeping the F in the status quo level was the best policy in terms of net present values for both yield and profits. This result is counter intuitive because it may indicate that effort costs do no affect the economic reference points. However, it is well accepted that the inclusion of costs affects negatively the economic reference points. In this paper, applying a dynamic agestructured model to the northern hake, we show that the optimal fishing mortality that maximizes the net present value of profits is lower than Fmax.northern hake, economic assessment, age-structured models, fishery management optimization, net present value of profits

The Optimality of the Common Fisheries Policy: the Northern Stock of Hake

We evaluate the management of the Northern Stock of Hake during 1986-2001. A stochastic bioeconomic model is calibrated to match the main features of this fishing ground. We show how catches, biomass stock and profits would have been if the optimal Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) consistent with the target biomass implied by the Fischler’s Recovery Plan had been implemented. The main finding are: i) an optimal CFP would have generated profits of more than 667 millions euros, ii) if side-payments are allowed (implemented by ITQ’s, for example) these profits increase 26%.common fisheries policy, fishing regulation, fischler recovery plan

Partial extinction did not diminish spontaneous recovery after 24-hour retention interval

Fear extinction is not permanent but it may suffer from different forms of relapse. One strategy potentially useful to diminish relapse is the partial extinction treatment, according to which, extinction may be potentiated if a gradual and sparse number of CS-US pairings are introduced within the extinction treatment. The present study, using a differential fear conditioning paradigm, tries to evaluate the efficacy of partial extinction to reduce a specific form of relapse, spontaneous recovery, after a 24 h. retention interval. The results showed that partial extinction did not diminish spontaneous recovery when compared with standard extinction. From a theoretical point of view, the pattern of results found was more consistent with the idea that extinction entails the acquisition of new knowledge than with the idea that there are conditions in which extinction entails the erasure of the original acquisitionUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Dynamic Inefficiency in an Overlapping Generation Economy with Pollution and Health Costs

Revised 2008-08.-- Published as an article in: Journal of Public Economic Theory (2008), 10(4), 563-594.externalities, health costs, dynamic inefficiency, overlapping generations, pollution

The influence of social capital on risk-taking propensity. A study on Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs

This paper studies the influence of social capital on immigrant entrepreneurs’ risk-taking propensity. The paper has a particular focus on Chinese immigrants and also explores the effects of the so-called “guanxi”, a specific form of social capital for Chinese communities. The empirical research is based on a survey conducted in 2012 on Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Andalusia (Spain). An ordinal logistic regression specification was employed to test the hypotheses. The results show that the Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs with greater structural, relational and cognitive social capital and better “guanxi” have a higher risk-taking propensity in their business activity

Pulse vs. Optimal Stationary Fishing: The Northern Stock of Hake

Pulse fishing may be a global optimal strategy in multicohort fisheries. In this article we compare the pulse fishing solutions obtained by using global numerical methods with the analytical stationary optimal solution. This allows us to quantify the potential benefits associated with the use of periodic fishing in the Northern Stock of hake. Results show that: first, management plans based exclusively on traditional reference targets as Fmsy may drive fishery economic results far from the optimal; second, global optimal solutions would imply, in a cyclical manner, the closure of the fishery for some periods and third, second best stationary policies with stable employment only reduce optimal present value of discounted profit in a 2%.optimal fisheries, management optimization in age-structured models, pulse fishing