Prices and the Real Exchange Rate in Hong Kong: 1985-2006

This paper has been presented at the XIII Encuentros de Economía Aplicada, Sevilla, Spain, 2010.

Terrorism and the World Economy

Published as an article in: European Economic Review, 2008, vol. 52, issue 1, pages 1-27.

Moral cleansing and moral licenses: experimental evidence

Research on moral cleansing and moral self-licensing has introduced dynamic considerations in the theory of moral behavior. Past bad actions trigger negative feelings that make people more likely to engage in future moral behavior to offset them. Symmetrically, past good deeds favor a positive self-perception that creates licensing effects, leading people to engage in behavior that is less likely to be moral. In short, a deviation from a “normal state of being” is balanced with a subsequent action that compensates the prior behavior. We model the decision of an individual trying to reach the optimal level of moral self-worth over time and show that under certain conditions the optimal sequence of actions follows a regular pattern which combines good and bad actions. We conduct an economic experiment where subjects play a sequence of giving decisions (dictator games) to explore this phenomenon. We find that donation in the previous period affects present decisions and the sign is negative: participants’ behavior in every round is negatively correlated to what they did in the past. Hence donations over time seem to be the result of a regular pattern of self-regulation: moral licensing (being selfish after altruist) and cleansing (altruistic after selfish).

Cost effectiveness of a combination of instruments for global warming: a quantitative approach for Spain

Climate change is an important environmental problem and one whose economic implications are many and varied. This paper starts with the presumption that mitigation of greenhouse gases is a necessary policy that has to be designed in a cost effective way. It is well known that market instruments are the best option for cost effectiveness. But the discussion regarding which of the various market instruments should be used, how they may interact and what combinations of policies should be implemented is still open and very lively. In this paper we propose a combination of instruments: the marketable emission permits already in place in Europe for major economic sectors and a CO(2) tax for economic sectors not included in the emissions permit scheme. The study uses an applied general equilibrium model for the Spanish economy to compute the results obtained with the new mix of instruments proposed. As the combination of the market for emission permits and the CO(2) tax admits different possibilities that depend on how the mitigation is distributed among the economic sectors, we concentrate on four possibilities: cost-effective, equalitarian, proportional to emissions, and proportional to output distributions. Other alternatives to the CO(2) tax are also analysed (tax on energy, on oil and on electricity). Our findings suggest that careful, well designed policies are needed as any deviation imposes significant additional costs that increase more than proportionally to the level of emissions reduction targeted by the EU.

Impact of depressive symptoms on subjective well-being: the importance of patient-reported outcomes in schizophrenia

Objective: The subjective experience of psychotic patients toward treatment is a key factor in medication adherence, quality of life, and clinical outcome. The aim of this study was to assess the subjective well-being in patients with schizophrenia and to examine its relationship with the presence and severity of depressive symptoms. Methods: A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted with clinically stable outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia. The Subjective Well-Being under Neuroleptic Scale - short version (SWN-K) and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) were used to gather information on well-being and the presence and severity of depressive symptoms, respectively. Spearman's rank correlation was used to assess the associations between the SWN-K total score, its five subscales, and the CDSS total score. Discriminative validity was evaluated against that criterion by analysing the area under the curve (AUC). Results: Ninety-seven patients were included in the study. Mean age was 35 years (standard deviation = 10) and 72% were male. Both the total SWN-K scale and its five subscales correlated inversely and significantly with the CDSS total score (P < 0.0001). The highest correlation was observed for the total SWN-K (Spearman's rank order correlation [ rho] = -0.59), being the other correlations: mental functioning (-0.47), social integration (-0.46), emotional regulation (-0.51), physical functioning (-0.48), and self-control (-0.41). A total of 33 patients (34%) were classified as depressed. Total SWN-K showed the highest AUC when discriminating between depressive severity levels (0.84), followed by emotional regulation (0.80), social integration (0.78), physical functioning and self-control (0.77), and mental functioning (0.73). Total SWN-K and its five subscales showed a significant linear trend against CDSS severity levels (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The presence of moderate to severe depressive symptoms was relatively high, and correlated inversely with patients' subjective well-being. Routine assessment of patient-reported measures in patients with schizophrenia might reduce potential discrepancy between patient and physician assessment, increase therapeutic alliance, and improve outcome.

Estimación de concentraciones de radicales nitrato (NO . 3) e hidroxilo ( . OH) en la atmósfera a partir de medidas de HCNM de alta resolución temporal

[ES]Los radicales nitrato e hidroxilo son especies químicas implicadas en la contaminación atmosférica. En el presente trabajo se ha tratado de estimar sus concentraciones empleando para ello medidas de las concentraciones de varios compuestos orgánicos volátiles registradas en el Parque Natural de Valderejo (Araba). La metodología de cálculo ya había sido empleada anteriormente para el ·OH y es la primera vez que se ha aplicado a concentraciones de NO·3 en una zona rural. Las concentraciones de radical hidroxilo calculadas (6,02·106 - 8,06·106 molec. cm-3) concuerdan con las obtenidas en medidas y estudios anteriores. En el caso del radical nitrato, las concentraciones estimadas (2,13·1011 – 2,02·1012 molec. cm-3) son bastante superiores a las encontradas en la bibliografía, por lo que se ha concluido que esta técnica de medida no es válida para el cálculo de NO·3 en una atmósfera de fondo rural como Valderejo. Esta desviación se debe probablemente a otros procesos no contemplados en la hipótesis de cálculo, por lo que se propone continuar con el estudio en este área.

Análisis de la influencia de la orientación de las fibras metálicas en la resistencia de la matriz de hormigón de acuerdo al Ensayo Barcelona

[ES]El objetivo de este trabajo de fin de grado es analizar la influencia que tiene la cuantía y orientación de fibras metálicas presentes en el interior de probetas de hormigón autocompactante y cuyo objetivo es reforzar y aumentar la resistencia a tracción de este material. Se expondrán las propiedades que combina el HACRFA gracias a la autocompactación del hormigón y la inclusión de fibras en su interior y los beneficios que este nuevo material aporta. Por otro lado, se tratara de situar este estudio en un contexto, analizando a la vez cuál es el alcance y los objetivos más importantes que se han tenido en cuenta. A continuación, y a modo de complementación de su contexto, este trabajo tiene un estado del arte, en el que se mencionarán métodos y ensayos necesarios para llegar a un resultado que permita predecir cuál será la resistencia del material, y por tanto su tenacidad o capacidad de absorber energía, sin necesidad de emplear más que un método fácil y rápido, obviando el resto de ensayos destructivos utilizados en este trabajo. Para tal fin, se establece una metodología que, gracias a ensayos de laboratorio, permita establecer una relación entre el método sencillo que se ha mencionado, el método inductivo, y un resultado teórico de la tenacidad que presenta el HACRFA. Se observará cómo la desviación entre los ensayos experimentales y los resultados teóricos obtenidos es prácticamente nula, despreciando situaciones en las que se presenten comportamientos muy diferentes debido a fallos durante los ensayos.

Ekoizpen plangintza eta izakinen biltegiratzean eragindako kostu inplizituen azterketa, Coca-Cola lantegi batean.

[EU]Honako dokumentua ekoizpen prozesu baten plangintza eta ekoizpen errealaren arteko desbideratzeek, baita biltegiratze sistemek, dakarten kostu inplizituen identifikazioan datza. Behin identifikaturik daudela, hauen azterketa sakonagoa egiteko. Ezarritako xedea lortzeko, plangintza dokumentuetatik abiatu eta ekoizpen bolumenekin parekatuko dira. Era honetan, desbideratzeak nabarmendu, adierazle bidez kausa ezberdinetan sailkatu eta ekoizpen zein biltegiratze kostu eratorriak ondorioztatuko dira. Aurretik aipatu den kostua enpresarentzat ez onartutako gastu tazitoa denez, berau konpontzeko hobetze proposamenak ere proposatuko dira; azterketa osatu ondoren.