SIZE AND HETEROGENEITY MATTER. A MICROSTRUCTURE-BASED ANALYSIS OF REGULATION OF SECONDARY MARKETS FOR GOVERNMENT BONDS.

This paper deals with the economics of secondary markets for government bonds. Ultimately, the analysis is shaped by a public policy goal: assessing the elements of a regulatory framework for these markets. In that regard, the decisive role of market structure leads to a critical review of microstructure conclusions relevant specifically for government debt markets. It is argued that the nature of information asymmetries and matching costs in government debt markets determines a bias towards a fragmented microstructure at odds both with exchange-like arrangements and with ordinary regulatory approaches. Hence, a generic conclusion highlights the risks of blindly transposing regulatory principles from the equity markets area without due regard to the specifics of the bond market. As a specific application of this idea, the paper critically reviews electronic trading platforms that emulate exchange-like order execution solutions. More specifically, the paper opposes the hybrid microstructure (pure limit order book plus affirmative quoting obligation) faced by European primary dealers and the arbitrage-based approach to market-making found in US inter-dealer markets. The Citigroup disruptive trade in August 2004 is analyzed from this perspective. Government bond regulation is argued to necessarily depart from ordinary approaches also because it captures the diverse interests of various governmental agencies. As an application of this principle, the paper discusses repo and short-selling regulation in government bond markets. The atypical market structure and the multi- agency endeavour around government bond markets raise the chances of regulatory failures. Nevertheless, it is argued that a reliance on competition, integrative infrastructure and basic systemic protections as over-arching principles for regulation is consistent with recommendations from relevant economic theory. Finally, political economy issues arising in implementation of transparency, disclosure or retail investor protection will be addressed in the context of selected country cases.government bonds, microstructure, regulation

Central bank Financial Independence

Central bank independence is a multifaceted institutional design. The financial component has been seldom analysed. This paper intends to set a comprehensive conceptual background for central bank financial independence. Quite often central banks are modelled as robot like maximizers of some goal. This perspective neglects the fact that central bank functions are inevitably deployed on its balance sheet and have effects on its income statement. A financially independent central bank exhibits the adequate balance sheet structure and earnings generation capacity to efficiently perform its functions. From a long term perspective, as far as the demand for banknotes is maintained seignorage waters down any central bank financial independence concern. However, from a short term perspective central bank financial vulnerability may condition its effective independence. Vulnerability may be real or accounting based. However, no matter its origin, institutional solutions are needed to minimize their impact. Adequate capitalization turns out to be a key issue. Alternatively, contingent capital in the form of institutional arrangements to bear central bank losses may be a (second- best) solution. The paper analyses in the context of simple VAR model the interplay between capitalization, accounting rules and dividend distribution. This analysis is preceded by a thorough discussion of the risk return profile of central banks net return on assets. Three main conclusions shape the input to the capitalization model. Central banks return on assets can be very volatile from a short term perspective. From a medium term perspective, natural earnings generation cycles dampen down volatility. On average, central banks net return on assets typically exhibits a discount over government debt financing cost. These observations shape the central bank financing planning problem as follows. Namely, the size of the discount relative to the social costs that would arise in case of a lack of central bank independence, along with central bank exposure to risks and the volatility thereof, determine the incentives of the government to maintain an excess of financial assets in the form of central bank capital. Actually, the working of smoothing mechanisms operating across time on central banks earnings leads to a distinction between short term and medium term capital, i.e. the optimum capital solution is a band. In the same vein, the need to maintain optimal consistence between central bank financial strength and dividends distribution policy leads also to smoothing proposals for pay out policy.Central Banking Capital, Independence, Accounting, Profits

The epic representation of the combat and warrior´s death in the epitaph of Oppilanus (642 A. D.)

El epitafio en verso del noble Opilano relata cómo resultó herido en una batalla frente a los vascones en el año 642. Murió a los pocos días en su residencia y fue allí enterrado. En la inscripción sepulcral, Opilano aparece representado como dechado de los valores que la nobleza hispana de la época esperaba de un buen guerrero. Estilizaciones literarias aparte, el texto epigráfico constituye un excepcional documento acerca de la organización y las técnicas de combate del ejército visigodo en el siglo VII, al tiempo que refleja las transformaciones institucionales y sociales acontecidas en el Reino de Hispania.The epitaph of the noble Oppilanus refers how he was hurt in a battle against the Wascons in the year 642. He died few days later in his residence, and he was there buried. In the burial inscription, Oppilanus is represented as an example of the values that the Hispanic nobility of the time wished from a good warrior. The epigraphic text constitutes an exceptional document about the organization and war techniques of the Visigothic army in the 7th. Century, and, at the same time, it shows the institutional and social changes that happened then in the Kingdom of Spain.España. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación HAR2008-4355/HIS

Ressenyes

Index de les obres ressenyades: Judith BUTLER, Frames of War : When Is Life Grievable

Under the Radar: Jess Walter's The Zero and the State of Irony and Satire after 9/11

This article explores a typically overlooked novel within the corpus of post-9/11 fiction, Jess Walter's The Zero (2006), and puts forward some hypotheses for this under-examination. The article suggests that the various debates that arose in the aftermath of 9/11¿the status of fiction after tragedy, the theses on the demise of irony and satire, the high expectations put on canonical authors to give meaning to the event, and standardized explorations of the figure of the terrorist Other¿all served to construct readings for The Zero that fell within prescriptive approaches to post-9/11 fiction and thus miss its highly subversive potential. While recent academic output is starting to explore The Zero in innovative ways, early reception failed to examine it conceptually and formally, favoring as it did a trauma studies approach that resulted in a bland analysis of the novel's focus on terrorist figures. This article offers a reading of The Zero through Bakhtin's theorization of satirical carnivalization, a practice that is especially suited to construct a dialogic, polyphonic and inquisitive narrative to not only question but dialogue with the post-9/11 United States

Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina’s Dictatorship: The Performances of Blood

Cecilia Sosa's volume offers an incisive, heart-wrenching yet joyful exploration through the aftermath of the convulse years of the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), which brought horror and death to Argentine society with an estimated 30,000 people disappeared by the State (according to human rights organizations; 9,000 according to official figures), and of how Argentine society has managed to deal and engage with loss..

"Ad nostram scientiam referatur": la supervisión administrativa imperial de la aplicación de las leyes durante la dinastía constantiniana

Constantine and his heirs, Constantius II, Constans, and later Julian, expressed their particular interest in the supervision of the application of certain imperial laws using the formula ad nostram scientiam referatur or another similar ones. Constantine was the prince who more often employed it, especially during the period of 313-324, apart from the interval of 315-316, when the confrontation with Licinius compelled him to give up the attention to administrative questions. The progressive decrease of the insertion of that clauses in the legal imperial texts from the unification of the Empire in 324 AD must be put in relation to the appearance of curiosi and later, the agentes in rebus, as officers put in charge of the observance of the acts in force.Constantino y sus sucesores, Constancio II, Constante y Juliano, expresaron su particular interés por supervisar la aplicación de determinadas leyes imperiales mediante el uso de la fórmula ad nostram scientiam referatur y de otras similares. Constantino fue el príncipe que la empleó con más frecuencia, especialmente durante el período de 313-324, exceptuando el intervalo de 315-316, cuando la confrontación con Licinio le obligó a renunciar a atender directamente las cuestiones administrativas. La progresiva disminución de la inclusión de estas cláusulas en los textos legales imperiales a partir de la unificación del Imperio en 324 se debe poner en relación con la aparición de los curiosi y luego de los agentes in rebus, como oficiales encargados de vigilar la observancia de las normas vigentes

Ius belli, pena de muerte y represión política en contextos de guerra civil en el imperio romano entre 307 y 324 d. C.

[ES] La violencia ha sido considerada uno de los grandes ejes que explican el devenir de la humanidad desde los comienzos de la ciencia historiográfica. Nos repele y nos atrae, deseamos olvidarla pero no debemos dejar que caiga en el olvido, aparenta estar ligada a momentos históricos concretos pero atraviesa nuestro día a día… Quizás por estas razones la violencia, en todas sus posibles manifestaciones, lejos de ser un tema obsoleto, continúa teniendo un gran potencial como cuestión historiográfica, tal y como muestran las investigaciones que conforman este libro. De la mano de diferentes especialistas, y en un recorrido que va desde la Prehistoria hasta la Edad Contemporánea, este volumen colectivo analiza las violencias históricas desde la antropología física, la historia militar, la iconografía, o la historia de la infancia entre otros puntos de vista. Guerras, conflictos políticos y religiosos y sus significados simbólicos, o la violencia como espectáculo son algunas de las cuestiones que abordan sus páginas. Si bien existen pocos temas que hayan sido más estudiados por la historiografía que la violencia, este libro, fruto del Congreso Internacional La Violencia en la Historia, celebrado en la Universidad de Salamanca en octubre de 2019, es una muestra de que las preguntas históricas nunca se agotan y de que las violencias pasadas deben seguir siendo revisitadas desde nuevos enfoques