A multivariate study of over-indebtedness' causes and consequences

This paper proposes a comprehensive explanatory model to explain both causes and consequences of over-indebtedness. It presents as causes some borrower aspects, such as propensity to indebtedness and low financial literacy. Other causes are borrower circumstances: adverse external shocks, borrower internal problems and financial institutions' pressure. The model incorporates consequences on the borrower, the lender and the society. The model has been tested with a survey filled in by experts and over-indebted individuals. Results have been analysed using multivariate techniques, including canonical correlations. There are differences in the opinions of experts and individuals: the latter blame external shocks or financial institutions' pressure, while the former find relevant factors the financial illiteracy or the tendency to imitate others. Experts and individuals agree on the consequences: poverty growth in the society and declining borrower's welfare. The paper concludes with the need to improve financial literacy, especially in the risks involved in over-indebtedness

Rethinking the income inequality and financial development nexus. A study of nine OECD countries

Producción CientíficaSustainable finance seeks to increase the contribution of finance to sustainable and inclusive growth. The global financial crisis of 2008 provoked the return of inequality in advanced countries to levels typical of a century ago. The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the relationship between finance and income inequality for a group of nine OECD countries over the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods (2000–2015). The model proposed in this study simultaneously considers two explanatory variables for measuring financial depth (credit provision and capital markets) and a new multidimensional variable to measure the financial system’s resilience (a composite indicator), and conducts panel data analysis. The empirical results confirm that in terms of financial depth, the "too much finance hypothesis" holds. We also find that financial system’s resilience helps alleviate existing income inequality and that income inequality appears higher in liberal market economies than in coordinated economies. These results encourage policymakers to look beyond traditional public redistribution interventions and to pay attention to other financial variables related to the financialization process, the behavior of financial intermediaries, and the specific environment in which they operate

Affective and cognitive factors that hinder the banking relationships of economically vulnerable consumers

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the affective and cognitive factors that condition banking relationships for economically vulnerable consumers and how these factors contribute to increasing financial difficulties and exclusion. This research, performed on a set of focus groups, bases its findings on a combination of experimental and discourse analysis methods. Design/methodology/approachFinancial decisions are not rational and can be biased by affective and cognitive factors. Behavioural finance has focused very little on analysing how consumer biases influence relationships with banking institutions. Additionally, these relationships are affected by the digitalization and transformation of banking business. Thus, in the case of economically vulnerable consumers, who are not profitable for the increasingly competitive banking industry and lack financial abilities, their risk of financial exclusion is increasing. FindingsThe results show that distrust and shame lead to financial difficulties in economically vulnerable consumers. Distrust generates problems of access and self-exclusion, while shame generates difficulties of use. This lack of trust makes them more rational when dealing with machines than with people, showing greater banking difficulties for consumers with a "person-suspicious" profile. Originality/valueThis finding can help regulators establish limits on banking behaviour, require banks to incorporate affective and cognitive factors in their convenience tests and detect new variables that can help them improve their insolvency ratios and reputations.Financial decisions are not rational and can be biased by affective and cognitive factors. Behavioural finance has focused very little on analysing how consumer biases influence relationships with banking institutions. Additionally, these relationships are affected by the digitalization and transformation of banking business. Thus, in the case of economically vulnerable consumers, who are not profitable for the increasingly competitive banking industry and lack financial abilities, their risk of financial exclusion is increasing. The aim of this paper is to explore the affective and cognitive factors that condition banking relationships for economically vulnerable consumers and how these factors contribute to increasing financial difficulties and exclusion. This research, performed on a set of focus groups, bases its findings on a combination of experimental and discourse analysis methods. The results show that distrust and shame lead to financial difficulties in economically vulnerable consumers. Distrust generates problems of access and self-exclusion, while shame generates difficulties of use. This lack of trust makes them more rational when dealing with machines than with people, showing greater banking difficulties for consumers with a “person-suspicious” profile. This finding can help regulators establish limits on banking behaviour, require banks to incorporate affective and cognitive factors in their convenience tests and detect new variables that can help them improve their insolvency ratios and reputations.UCEIF Foundatio

The relationship between vulnerable financial consumers and banking institutions. A qualitative study in Spain

The financial exclusion phenomenon has been approached from different perspectives. After reviewing the recent literature, we adopt a financial ecology approach and propose a comprehensive framework to analyse the different types of difficulties (access, use and perception) that vulnerable financial consumers face in relationships with banking institutions as well as their underlying causes. We consider financial inclusion as the sustainable provision of financial services and products and an adjustment to individual needs. We examine a special group of urban vulnerable consumers: underbanked people facing poverty and social exclusion. Data were obtained from focus groups and were coded and analysed using qualitative data analysis software. The results show that use difficulties predominate, followed by perception difficulties. Bank pressure and lack of financial training stood out among the main causes of these financial difficulties. We conclude that poorer neighbourhoods constitute a distinctive financial ecology produced by the ?discrimination? of a significant number of their inhabitants in the use of mainstream financial services. The study provides evidence of the socio-spatial nature of the exclusion process and calls for further research on the role of policy responses to restrict abusive practices.Fundación de la Universidad de Cantabria para el Estudio y la Investigación del Sector Financiero (UCEIF

Uso de diferentes técnicas enológicas para la preparación de vinos base tintos: Incidencia en la composición volátil

Póster presentado en el 37th World Congress of Vine and Wine, celebrado en Mendoza (Argentina) del 9 al 14 de noviembre de 2014.[EN] In recent years, the market of natural sparkling wines is growing quite fast in Spain due to the increase of both national consumption and export volume. Most of the sparkling wines elaborated in our country are white and rosé ones, being the production of red sparkling wines practically non-existent. However, these wines are elaborated in other countries like Australia, South-Africa, Argentina, Italy or Portugal, with a great acceptance by consumers. One of the initial problems is to obtain suitable base wines that should have moderate alcohol content, good colour intensity and good mouthfeel. Therefore, different winemaking techniques have been studied that allow to obtain suitable base wines for the elaboration of natural red sparkling wines, focused in this work on the volatile composition. Grapes from Tempranillo variety were harvested in two maturity moments: prematurity grapes (PM) with alcohol degree and acidity suitable to elaborate a sparkling wine, but that they do not have the adequate phenolic maturity, and grapes at their optimum degree of maturity (M). Then, two winemaking techniques were carried out for each type of grapes: pre-fermentative cold maceration with dry ice (PM-DI) and rack and return with partial removal of seeds (“delestage”) (PM-D) with the prematurity grapes; and removal of part of the sugar present in must (M-SR) and partial dealcoholisation of wine (M-AR) with the maturity grapes. In both moments, a control wine was also elaborated. All the elaborations were carried out in duplicate. The volatile compounds were analysed by gas chromatography coupled to a mass detector, after a previous liquid-liquid extraction. The analyses were carried out in triplicate. The wines obtained with prematurity grapes had an alcohol degree of 11 º, while those obtained with maturity grapes had 12.5º. Therefore, the M-SR y M-AR wines were reduced their a lcohol degree in 1.5º. In general, the wines obtained with maturity grapes showed the highest levels of ethyl esters, mainly ethyl hexanoate, ethyl octanoate and ethyl cinnamate, and of vanillin derivatives, with the exception of M-AR wine that showed a lower ethyl esters of straight-chain fatty acids. On the contrary, the wines elaborated with the prematurity grapes showed the highest concentrations of alcohol acetates and C6 alcohols, 1-hexanol and cis-3-hexenol, compounds responsible of herbaceous aromas. Taking into account these results, the base wines obtained with the maturity grapes could be more suitable than those obtained with prematurity ones for sparkling wine elaboration, although it should be considered other aspects.[ES] En los últimos años, el sector de los vinos espumosos naturales es uno de los que más está creciendo en España, tanto en consumo nacional como en volumen de exportaciones. La mayor parte de los vinos espumosos que se elaboran en nuestro país son blancos y rosados, siendo la elaboración de vinos espumosos tintos prácticamente inexistente. Sin embargo sí se elaboran en otros países como Australia, Sudáfrica, Argentina, Italia o Portugal, con una gran aceptación por parte de los consumidores. Uno de los problemas iniciales que se plantea es la obtención de un vino base adecuado, con una graduación alcohólica moderada, una buena intensidad de color, y una buena estructura en boca. Por ello, se ha estudiado el efecto de diferentes técnicas enológicas que permitan obtener vinos base idóneos para la elaboración de vinos espumosos tintos naturales, centrándose en este trabajo en la modificación de la composición volátil. Se vendimiaron uvas de la variedad Tempranillo en dos momentos de maduració n: uvas pre-maduras (PM) con valores de grado alcohólico y acidez adecuados para elaborar un vino espumoso, pero que todavía no tienen la madurez fenólica deseada, y uvas en su momento óptimo de maduración (M). Posteriormente, se llevaron a cabo dos técnicas enológicas con cada tipo de uva: maceración pre-fermentativa en frío con hielo seco (PM-DI) y “delestage” con una eliminación parcial de las semillas (PM-D) con las uvas pre-maduras; y reducción de azúcares en el mosto (M-SR) y desalcoholización parcial del vino (M-AR) con las uvas maduras. En ambos momentos de vendimia se elaboró también un vino testigo. Todas las elaboraciones se realizaron por duplicado.Los compuestos volátiles se han analizado por cromatografía de gases-masas, previa extracción líquido-líquido. Los análisis se llevaron a cabo por triplicado. Los vinos obtenidos con uva pre-madura presentaron un grado alcohólico de 11º, mientras que en los elaborados con uva madura fue de 12,5º. Por ello, se redujo el contenido en alcohol aproximadam ente en 1,5º a los vinos M-SR y M-AR. En general, los vinos elaborados con uva madura presentaron mayores concentraciones de ésteres etílicos, principalmente de hexanoato de etilo, octanoato de etilo y cinamato de etilo, y de los derivados de vainillina, a excepción del M-AR que presentó menores concentraciones de los ésteres etílicos lineales. Por el contrario, los vinos elaborados con uva pre-madura presentaron mayores concentraciones de acetatos de alcoholes, y de alcoholes C6, principalmente de 1-hexanol y cis-3-hexenol, compuestos responsables de los aromas herbáceos. Teniendo en cuenta estos resultados, los vinos base obtenidos con uvas maduras podrían ser más adecuados para la elaboración de vinos espumosos, aunque habría que considerar otros aspectos.The authors wish to thank the INIA for financing this study through the project RTA2012-092-C02.Peer Reviewe

Combined Immune Defect in B-Cell Lymphoproliferative Disorders Is Associated with Severe Infection and Cancer Progression

This research received no external funding. K.G.-H is supported by The European Social Fund (ESF) through a Río Ortega Grant for Health Research Projects by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) (CM20/00098).B cell chronic lymphoproliferative diseases (B-CLPD) are associated with secondary antibody deficiency and other innate and adaptive immune defects, whose impact on infectious risk has not been systematically addressed. We performed an immunological analysis of a cohort of 83 B-CLPD patients with recurrent and/or severe infections to ascertain the clinical relevance of the immune deficiency expression. B-cell defects were present in all patients. Patients with combined immune defect had a 3.69-fold higher risk for severe infection (p = 0.001) than those with predominantly antibody defect. Interestingly, by Kaplan–Meier analysis, combined immune defect showed an earlier progression of cancer with a hazard ratio of 3.21, than predominantly antibody defect (p = 0.005). When B-CLPD were classified in low-degree, high-degree, and plasma cell dyscrasias, risk of severe disease and cancer progression significantly diverged in combined immune defect, compared with predominantly antibody defect (p = 0.001). Remarkably, an underlying primary immunodeficiency (PID) was suspected in 12 patients (14%), due to prior history of infections, autoimmune and granulomatous conditions, atypical or variegated course and compatible biological data. This first proposed SID classification might have relevant clinical implications, in terms of predicting severe infections and cancer progression, and might be applied to different B-CLPD entities.Depto. de Inmunología, Oftalmología y ORLFac. de MedicinaTRUEpu

The Role of Premorbid IQ and Age of Onset as Useful Predictors of Clinical, Functional Outcomes, and Recovery of Individuals with a First Episode of Psychosis

Background: premorbid IQ (pIQ) and age of onset are predictors of clinical severity and long-term functioning after a first episode of psychosis. However, the additive influence of these variables on clinical, functional, and recovery rates outcomes is largely unknown. Methods: we characterized 255 individuals who have experienced a first episode of psychosis in four a priori defined subgroups based on pIQ (low pIQ < 85; average pIQ ≥ 85) and age of onset (early onset < 18 years; adult onset ≥ 18 years). We conducted clinical and functional assessments at baseline and at two-year follow-up. We calculated symptom remission and recovery rates using the Positive and Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia Schedule (PANSS) and the Global Assessment Functioning (GAF or Children-GAF). We examined clinical and functional changes with pair-wise comparisons and two-way mixed ANOVA. We built hierarchical lineal and logistic regression models to estimate the predictive value of the independent variables over functioning or recovery rates. Results: early-onset patients had more severe positive symptoms and poorer functioning than adult-onset patients. At two-year follow-up, only early-onset with low pIQ and adult-onset with average pIQ subgroups differed consistently, with the former having more negative symptoms (d = 0.59), poorer functioning (d = 0.82), lower remission (61% vs. 81.1%), and clinical recovery (34.1% vs. 62.2%). Conclusions: early-onset individuals with low pIQ may present persistent negative symptoms, lower functioning, and less recovery likelihood at two-year follow-up. Intensive cognitive and functional programs for these individuals merit testing to improve long-term recovery rates in this subgroup

The role of cognitive reserve and clinical symptoms in the association between genetic liability for educational attainment and functioning in first-episode psychosis: a mediation analysis

Background: Polygenic risk scores for educational attainment (PRSEA), cognitive reserve (CR), and clinical symptoms are associated with psychosocial functioning in first-episode psychosis (FEP). Nevertheless, the mechanisms underlying their complex interaction is yet to be explored. This study aimed to assess the mediating role of CR and clinical symptoms, both negative (NS) and positive (PS), on the interrelationship between PRSEA and functionality, one year after a FEP.Methods: A total of 162 FEP patients underwent clinical, functional, and genetic assessments. Using genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary results, PRSEA were constructed for each individual. Two mediation models were explored. The parallel mediation model explored the relationship of PRSEA with functionality through CR and clinical symptoms, NS, and PS. The serial mediation model tested a causal chain of the three mediators: CR, NS and PS. Mediation analysis was performed using the PROCESS function V.4.1 in SPSS V.22.Results: A serial mediation model revealed a causal chain for PRSEA > CR > NS > Functionality (β=-0.35, 95%CI [-0.85, -0.04], pConclusions: Both CR and NS mediate the relationship between PRSEA and functionality at one-year follow-up, using serial mediation analysis. This may be relevant for prevention and personalized early intervention to reduce illness impact and improve functional outcomes in FEP patients.</p

The Role of Premorbid IQ and Age of Onset as Useful Predictors of Clinical, Functional Outcomes, and Recovery of Individuals with a First Episode of Psychosis

Background: premorbid IQ (pIQ) and age of onset are predictors of clinical severity and long-term functioning after a first episode of psychosis. However, the additive influence of these variables on clinical, functional, and recovery rates outcomes is largely unknown. Methods: we characterized 255 individuals who have experienced a first episode of psychosis in four a priori defined subgroups based on pIQ (low pIQ < 85; average pIQ ≥ 85) and age of onset (early onset < 18 years; adult onset ≥ 18 years). We conducted clinical and functional assessments at baseline and at two-year follow-up. We calculated symptom remission and recovery rates using the Positive and Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia Schedule (PANSS) and the Global Assessment Functioning (GAF or Children-GAF). We examined clinical and functional changes with pair-wise comparisons and two-way mixed ANOVA. We built hierarchical lineal and logistic regression models to estimate the predictive value of the independent variables over functioning or recovery rates. Results: early-onset patients had more severe positive symptoms and poorer functioning than adult-onset patients. At two-year follow-up, only early-onset with low pIQ and adult-onset with average pIQ subgroups differed consistently, with the former having more negative symptoms (d = 0.59), poorer functioning (d = 0.82), lower remission (61% vs. 81.1%), and clinical recovery (34.1% vs. 62.2%). Conclusions: early-onset individuals with low pIQ may present persistent negative symptoms, lower functioning, and less recovery likelihood at two-year follow-up. Intensive cognitive and functional programs for these individuals merit testing to improve long-term recovery rates in this subgroup

Epigenetic clocks in relapse after a first episode of schizophrenia

The main objective of the present study was to investigate the association between several epigenetic clocks, covering different aspects of aging, with schizophrenia relapse evaluated over a 3-year follow-up period in a cohort of ninety-one first-episode schizophrenia patients. Genome-wide DNA methylation was profiled and four epigenetic clocks, including epigenetic clocks of chronological age, mortality and telomere length were calculated. Patients that relapsed during the follow-up showed epigenetic acceleration of the telomere length clock (p = 0.030). Shorter telomere length was associated with cognitive performance (working memory, r = 0.31 p = 0.015; verbal fluency, r = 0.28 p = 0.028), but no direct effect of cognitive function or symptom severity on relapse was detected. The results of the present study suggest that epigenetic age acceleration could be involved in the clinical course of schizophrenia and could be a useful marker of relapse when measured in remission stages