Inflation Target In Emerging Countries: Modeling Exchange Rate Issues

The idea of inflation targeting in emerging countries is not a new one. There have been papers that favor or reject the idea of implementing such a system in these countries for mainly institutional reasons. This paper does not deal with these normative arguments. Emerging countries are implementing IT regimes and therefore it is necessary to understand how it should be done and what problems can arise. Therefore this paper focuses on exchange rate issues for inflation targeting. These issues have their root in the basic relation that exists in emerging countries between inflation and the exchange rate, a relation known as the “pass through effect”. The simple setup used in this paper shows how the monetary authorities implementing an IT regime must intervene in the exchange rate market in order to comply with the inflation target. The central bank intervenes in order to avoid exchange rate movements that would affect the overall inflation rate through the pass-through effect. These results mean that the dirty floating or fear of floating hypothesis should be modified when applied to countries implementing IT, since their intervention (or dirty floating activities) may be justified

A simheuristic for routing electric vehicles with limited driving ranges and stochastic travel times

Green transportation is becoming relevant in the context of smart cities, where the use of electric vehicles represents a promising strategy to support sustainability policies. However the use of electric vehicles shows some drawbacks as well, such as their limited driving-range capacity. This paper analyses a realistic vehicle routing problem in which both driving-range constraints and stochastic travel times are considered. Thus, the main goal is to minimize the expected time-based cost required to complete the freight distribution plan. In order to design reliable Routing plans, a simheuristic algorithm is proposed. It combines Monte Carlo simulation with a multi-start metaheuristic, which also employs biased-randomization techniques. By including simulation, simheuristics extend the capabilities of metaheuristics to deal with stochastic problems. A series of computational experiments are performed to test our solving approach as well as to analyse the effect of uncertainty on the routing plans.Peer Reviewe

Post-Mortem Examination of the International Financial Network

As the recent crisis has forcefully suggested, understanding financial-market interconnectedness is of a paramount importance to explain systemic risk, stability and economic dynamics. In this paper, we address these issues along two related perspectives. First, we explore the statistical properties of the International Financial Network (IFN), defined as the weighted-directed multigraph where nodes are world countries and links represent debtor-creditor relationships in equities and short/long-run debt. We investigate whether the 2008 financial crisis has resulted in a significant change in the topological properties of the IFN. Our findings suggest that the crisis caused not only a reduction in the amount of securities traded, but also induced changes in the topology of the network and in the time evolution of its statistical properties. This has happened, however, without changing the disassortative, core-periphery structure of the IFN architecture. Second, we perform an econometric study to examine the ability of network-based measures to explain crosscountry differences in crisis intensity. We investigate whether the conclusion of previous studies showing that international connectedness is not a relevant predictor of crisis intensity may be reversed, once one explicitly accounts for the position of each country within the IFN. We show that higher interconnectedness reduces the severity of the crisis, as it allows adverse shocks to dissipate quicker. However, the systemic risk hypothesis cannot be completely dismissed and being central in the network, if the node is not a member of a rich club, puts the country in an adverse and risky position in times of crises. Finally, we find strong evidence of nonlinear effects, once the high degree of heterogeneity that characterizes the IFN is taken into accountfinancial networks, crisis, early warning systems

Post-Mortem Examination of the International Financial Network

As the recent crisis has forcefully suggested, understanding financial-market interconnectedness is of a paramount importance to explain systemic risk, stability and economic dynamics. In this paper, we address these issues along two related perspectives. First, we explore the statistical properties of the International Financial Network (IFN), defined as the weighted-directed multigraph where nodes are world countries and links represent debtor-creditor relationships in equities and short/long-run debt. We investigate whether the 2008 financial crisis has resulted in a significant change in the topological properties of the IFN. Our findings suggest that the crisis caused not only a reduction in the amount of securities traded, but also induced changes in the topology of the network and in the time evolution of its statistical properties. This has happened, however, without changing the disassortative, core-periphery structure of the IFN architecture. Second, we perform an econometric study to examine the ability of network-based measures to explain cross-country differences in crisis intensity. We investigate whether the conclusion of previous studies showing that international connectedness is not a relevant predictor of crisis intensity may be reversed, once one explicitly accounts for the position of each country within the IFN. We show that higher interconnectedness reduces the severity of the crisis, as it allows adverse shocks to dissipate quicker. However, the systemic risk hypothesis cannot be completely dismissed and being central in the network, if the node is not a member of a rich club, puts the country in an adverse and risky position in times of crises. Finally, we find strong evidence of nonlinear effects, once the high degree of heterogeneity that characterizes the IFN is taken into account.financial networks, crisis, early warning systems

La reforma electoral...un fraude

Después de diez arduos meses de debate y de intentos de alianza entre los partidos, se aprueba la reforma electoral, en donde los puntos debatidos fueron: el sistema electoral, la conformación de la Cámara de Diputados y la Asamblea de Representantes del Distrito Federal

La crisis de la deuda

El trabajo reseña la evolución del endeudamiento externo mexicano durante el periodo de 1970 a 1988, centrándose en las negociaciones efectuadas por el gobierno durante la década de la llamada "crisis de la deuda". En 1970 la deuda total a largo plazo, pública y privada, ascendía a 5.9 mdd, para 1975 ésta sumaba 18.4 mdd y para 1988 la deuda externa llegaba a rebasar los 100.0 mdd correspondiente a más de 80.0 mdd al sector publico y 7.0 mdd al sector privado

Stratification of Happiness in Urban Areas in Mexico: A Qualitative Examination by Level of Marginalization

Although Mexico presents high levels of poverty and marginalization, it is the second happiest nation in Latin America. This raises several questions about what factors are associated with happiness at each level of marginalization and how these factors vary according to marginalization levels. We conducted a qualitative study in urban municipalities in four Mexican states, using 184 semi-structured interviews and employing a thematic analysis approach. Results suggest that happiness is a multifactorial phenomenon. Factors such as the family, health, religion, friendships, economic conditions, and fulfillment of basic needs contribute to happiness, but each of these aspects has different importance and meaning based on the level of marginalization. Evidence also shows that unhappiness is more homogeneous, regardless of the level of marginalization; thus, we can find people in both low marginalized and high-marginalized contexts that are unhappy. The research findings are relevant for the design of public policies, because they show various unsatisfied needs by level of marginalization and how not having them may affect happiness in each social stratum

Cosmic Neutrinos as a Window to Departures from Special Relativity

We review the peculiarities that make neutrinos very special cosmic messengers in high-energy astrophysics, and, in particular, to provide possible indications of deviations from special relativity, as it is suggested theoretically by quantum gravity models. In this respect, we examine the effects that one could expect in the production, propagation, and detection of neutrinos, not only in the well-studied scenario of Lorentz Invariance Violation, but also in models which maintain, but deform, the relativity principle, such as those considered in the framework of Doubly Special Relativity. We discuss the challenges and the promising future prospects offered by this phenomenological window to physics beyond special relativity

Las bentonitas de la zona sur de Cabo de Gata (Almería). Geoquímica y Mineralogía

[ES] Se han estudiado las caracteristicas quimicas y mineralógicas de las bentonitas y esmectitas de esta region, asi como sus principales parametros cristalogdficos y fórmulas estructurales de las esmectitas.[EN] The chemical and mineralogical characteristics of bentonites and smectites of this region, as well as their main crystallographic parameters and structural formulae were studied. The bentonites are constituted by smectite (unique mineral present in the fine fraction), jarosite, zeolite and trydimite, as neoformed minerals, and by plagioclase, K feldspar, amphibole and mica as minerals inherited from parent materials. The values for crystallographic parameters of smectites and the variation range for structural cations are in accordance with those found by other authors for dioctahedral smectites.Peer reviewe