The Impact of Regulation on Pricing Behavior in the Spanish Electricity Market

In this paper we measure the impact of regulatory measures which affected the Spanish electricity wholesale market in the period 2002-2005. Our approach is based on the fact that regulation changes firms' incentives and therefore their market behavior. In the absence of any regulation firms would choose profit- maximizing prices on their residual demands so that the observed gap between optimal and actual prices provides a measure of the effect of regulation. Our results indicate that regulation has decreased wholesale prices considerably, but became less effective at the end of the sample period which explains the change of regulatory regime introduced in 2006.

Strategic Behavior and Collusion: An Application to the Spanish Electricity Market

The paper has two major contributions to the theory of repeated games. First, we build a supergame oligopoly model where firms compete in supply functions, we show how collusion sustainability is affected by the presence of a convex cost function, the magnitude of both the slope of demand market, and the number of rivals. Then, we compare the results with those of the traditional Cournot reversion under the same structural characteristics. We find how depending on the number of firms and the slope of the linear demand, collusion sustainability is easier under supply function than under Cournot competition. The conclusions of the models are simulated with data from the Spanish wholesale electricity market to predict lower bounds of the discount factors.

Coalitional games with veto players: Myopic and farsighted behavior

This paper studies an allocation procedure for coalitional games with veto players. The procedure is similar to the one presented by Dagan et al. (1997) for bankruptcy problems. According to it, a player, the proposer, makes a proposal that the remaining players must accept or reject, and con ict is solved bilaterally between the rejector and the proposer. We allow the proposer to make sequential proposals over several periods. If responders are myopic maximizers (i.e. consider each period in isolation), the only equilibrium outcome is the serial rule of Arin and Feltkamp (2012) regardless of the order of moves. If all players are farsighted, the serial rule still arises as the unique subgame perfect equilibrium outcome if the order of moves is such that stronger players respond to the proposal after weaker ones.

Crecimiento y rentabilidad en el mercado emergente brasileño

[ES] En los últimos años, las economías emergentes están tomando las primeras posiciones a nivel mundial. Las consecuencias de la crisis financiera han provocado que inversores y empresas dirijan sus capitales y esfuerzo hacia los mercados emergentes en busca de crecimiento y rentabilidad empresarial que los países desarrollados no ofrecen. En este contexto, el objetivo del presente estudio consiste en analizar el crecimiento empresarial en Brasil durante el periodo 1995-2011 y, más específicamente, sus variables explicativas y la interrelación con la rentabilidad empresarial. Para ello, en primer lugar realizamos la estimación de un modelo de regresión dinámico con datos de panel empleando el Método Generalizado de los Momentos (GMM). En segundo lugar, empleamos un sistema de Vectores Autorregresivos (VAR) para analizar la relación entre crecimiento y rentabilidad. Los principales resultados obtenidos nos indican que la obtención de mayores tasas de rentabilidad proporcionan un mayor crecimiento empresarial, pero no al contrario. Además cabe señalar que el comportamiento del crecimiento empresarial es diferente según la propiedad y el control de las empresas. Además, aportan un mayor conocimiento del comportamiento del crecimiento empresarial en Brasil, siendo útil para la toma de decisiones de empresarios e inversores, y así pueden ser utilizados para la toma de decisiones en el ámbito de la política regional y social.

Modeling habits as self-sustaining patterns of sensorimotor behavior

In the recent history of psychology and cognitive neuroscience, the notion of habit has been reduced to a stimulus-triggered response probability correlation. In this paper we use a computational model to present an alternative theoretical view (with some philosophical implications), where habits are seen as self-maintaining patterns of behavior that share properties in common with self-maintaining biological processes, and that inhabit a complex ecological context, including the presence and influence of other habits. Far from mechanical automatisms, this organismic and self-organizing concept of habit can overcome the dominating atomistic and statistical conceptions, and the high temporal resolution effects of situatedness, embodiment and sensorimotor loops emerge as playing a more central, subtle and complex role in the organization of behavior. The model is based on a novel "iterant deformable sensorimotor medium (IDSM)," designed such that trajectories taken through sensorimotor-space increase the likelihood that in the future, similar trajectories will be taken. We couple the IDSM to sensors and motors of a simulated robot, and show that under certain conditions, the IDSM conditions, the IDSM forms self-maintaining patterns of activity that operate across the IDSM, the robot's body, and the environment. We present various environments and the resulting habits that form in them. The model acts as an abstraction of habits at a much needed sensorimotor "meso-scale" between microscopic neuron-based models and macroscopic descriptions of behavior. Finally, we discuss how this model and extensions of it can help us understand aspects of behavioral self-organization, historicity and autonomy that remain out of the scope of contemporary representationalist frameworks.

Innovaciones organizativas en las empresas españolas: Análisis del comportamiento de las empresas.

[ES]La innovación organizativa es un fenómeno relativamente nuevo, del que existen menos estudios de los necesarios, y por lo tanto, es importante analizarlo. La innovación en el ámbito organizativo consiste en la introducción de nuevas prácticas empresariales en la organización del trabajo o de los procedimientos de la empresa, nuevos métodos de organización en los lugares de trabajo y nuevos métodos de gestión de las relaciones externas con otras empresas o instituciones públicas, una acción muy útil en la difícil situación socio-económica que se vive actualmente en España. El objetivo de este trabajo es conocer cuál es el comportamiento de las empresas españolas innovadoras en las actividades de innovación organizativa, según su número de empleados, su gasto en innovación, su facturación y su año de creación, y también, analizar cuál es el grado de importancia de distintos objetivos de las innovaciones organizativas que se han introducido en las empresas, mediante el análisis de los datos procedentes del panel de innovación tecnológica (PITEC).

El soleamiento en las fachadas, técnicas para su reducción y pre dimensionamiento.

[EU]Lan honen helburu nagusia eraikuntzan gehituko diren argi-babeski sistema mota desberdinak aurkeztea da, bertan ematen den energia kontsumoa murrizteko asmoz. Izan ere, argi naturalaren erabilpen egoki batek eraikinaren efizientzia hobetzera eramango gaitu. Horretarako, ezinbestekoa izango da baliabide hau behar bezala ezagutzea, argitasuna eta beharrezko babesa eskaintzeko, eta ondorioz, energia aurreztea lortzeko. Babes sistema egokiena aukeratu baino lehen, aldez aurretik sortu izan diren argi-babeski mota desberdinak aztertu izan dira. Horrez gain, eguzki erradiazioa neurtzeko metodo grafiko eta analitikoak ere aztertu dira. Ondoren, Ecotect programak eskaintzen dituen simulazioei esker, eguzki erradiazioaren datu zehatzagoak lortzeko asmoz, ikasketa horretan erabiliko den eraikinaren kokapena, orientazioa eta ezaugarriak erabaki dira. Behin prototipoa definituta, programa bidez lau babes sistema mota desberdinak aztertu dira, horrela babesik gabeko eraikinean lortutako datuak alderatzeko. Azterketa Bilbo eta Sevillan egitea erabaki izan da. Izan ere, bi hiriburu hauek klimatologian duten desberdintasuna argi-babeskien aukeraketan duen eragina aztertzeko aukeratu dira, gainera, orientazioak eta argi babeskien dimentsioek ere izan dute zer esana aukeraketa garaian. Horrez gain, argi-babeskiek sortutako itzala ere aztertu izan da. Horrela, sistema hauen jarrera orokorra ikusi daiteke, eta beraz, uda garaian babesteko eta negu garaian eguzki izpiak sartzen uzteko duten ahalmena ikusi da. Bukatzeko, aurretik lortutako datu guztiei esker, eta bai kokapena zein orientazioa kontutan hartuz, babes sistema egokiena aukeratu da, jakinik ezinbestekoa dela argitasuna, babesa eta aurrezte energetikoaren arteko oreka egoki bat lortzea.

Microwave Resonant and Zero-Field Absorption Study of Doped Magnetite Prepared by a Co-Precipitation Method

Fe3O4 and ZnxFe3-xO4 pure and doped magnetite magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared in aqueous solution (Series A) or in a water-ethyl alcohol mixture (Series B) by the co-precipitation method. Only one ferromagnetic resonance line was observed in all cases under consideration indicating that the materials are magnetically uniform. The shortfall in the resonance fields from 3.27 kOe (for the frequency of 9.5 GHz) expected for spheres can be understood taking into account the dipolar forces, magnetoelasticity, or magnetocrystalline anisotropy. All samples show non-zero low field absorption. For Series A samples the grain size decreases with an increase of the Zn content. In this case zero field absorption does not correlate with the changes of the grain size. For Series B samples the grain size and zero field absorption behavior correlate with each other. The highest zero-field absorption corresponded to 0.2 zinc concentration in both A and B series. High zero-field absorption of Fe3O4 ferrite magnetic NPs can be interesting for biomedical applications.

A behavior model for blood donors and marketing strategies to retain and attract them

Objective: analyze and propose a theoretical model that describes blood donor decisions to help staff working in blood banks (nurses and others) in their efforts to capture and retain donors. Methods: analysis of several studies on the motivations to give blood in Spain over the last six years, as well as past literature on the topic, the authors' experiences in the last 25 years in over 15 Non Governmental Organizations with different levels of responsibilities, their experiences as blood donors and the informal interviews developed during those 25 years. Results: a model is proposed with different internal and external factors that influence blood donation, as well as the different stages of the decision-making process. Conclusion: the knowledge of the donation process permits the development of marketing strategies that help to increase donors and donations.

Marketing de la moda. Condicionantes y claves de éxito

El presente trabajo analiza algunas de las claves más importantes de la comercialización de la moda, actualmente condicionada por los muchos e importantes cambios experimentados en el mercado. Entre los que más han afectado a esta industria, destacan los avances tecnológicos, el nuevo comportamiento del consumidor o las nuevas formas de distribución. Se muestran algunas de las diferentes estrategias y herramientas que han adoptado las marcas para la comercialización de los productos, teniendo en cuenta los gustos y preferencias de los consumidores. Finalmente, se aborda el efecto que ha tenido la aparición de los blogs para la venta de moda, gracias a entrevistas realizadas a personas influyentes en este ámbito.

Studying the influence of substitutional elements on mechanical behavior of Alloy 718

In nickel-based superalloys, substitutional solute species have a strong impact on in service mechanical properties as well as on oxidation and corrosion resistances. In alloy 718, recent studies carried out by tensile tests highlighted the fact that refractory solute species are able to interact strongly with mobile dislocations during plastic deformation, generating dynamic strain ageing, and, in wide ranges of tests temperatures and strain rates, Portevin-Le Chatelier effect. The precise nature of the substitutional element responsible for such a dynamic interaction is still subject to debate. We addressed this question by means of mechanical spectroscopy studies of alloy 718 and various related alloys corresponding to monitored changes in the chemical composition. Only a single internal friction relaxation peak has been observed for all the studied alloys. By analyzing the damping behavior of these alloys at different imposed solicitation frequencies by sweeping a large temperatures range, the activation energies of the relaxation process and the type of mechanism involved have been determined. The process is a "Zener relaxation" in the alloys, i.e. a substitutional atoms dipole reorientation under applied stress. The results tend to prove that Niobium is not involved in the relaxation process whereas Molybdenum content seems to play an important role in the relaxation intensity.

Mild Hydrothermal Synthesis, Crystal Structure, Thermal Behavior, Spectroscopic and Magnetic Properties of (NH4)0.80Li0.20[Fe(AsO4)F]

postprint

Prosocial behavior and gender

This study revisits different experimental data sets that explore social behavior in economic games and uncovers that many treatment effects may be gender-specific. In general, men and women do not differ in "neutral" baselines. However, we find that social framing tends to reinforce prosocial behavior in women but not men, whereas encouraging reflection decreases the prosociality of males but not females. The treatment effects are sometimes statistically different across genders and sometimes not but never go in the opposite direction. These findings suggest that (i) the social behavior of both sexes is malleable but each gender responds to different aspects of the social context; and (ii) gender differences observed in some studies might be the result of particular features of the experimental design. Our results contribute to the literature on prosocial behavior and may improve our understanding of the origins of human prosociality. We discuss the possible link between the observed differential treatment effects across genders and the differing male and female brain network connectivity, documented in recent neural studies.