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.

Social Security, Education, Retirement and Growth

In this paper we analyze the effects of social security policies in an unfunded, earnings-related social security system on the incentives to education investment and voluntary retirement, on growth and on income inequality. Growth is endogenously driven by human capital investment, individuals differ in their innate (learning) ability at birth, and the pension scheme includes a minimum pension. More skilled individuals spend more on education, minimum pensions reduce low skill individuals' incentives to invest in human capital, there is no monotonic relationship between per capita growth and income inequality.

R&D Policy in Economies with Endogenous Growth and Non-Renewable Resources

The aim of this paper is to analyze how active R&D policies affect the growth rate of an economy with endogenous growth and non-renewable resources. We know from Scholz and Ziemens (1999) and Groth (2006) that in infinitely lived agents (ILA) economies, any active R&D policy increases the growth rate of the economy. To see if this result also appears in economies with finite lifetime agents, we developed an endogenous growth overlapping generations (OLG) economy à la Diamond which uses non-renewable resources as essential inputs in final good’s production. We show analytically that any R&D policy that reduces the use of natural resources implies a raise in the growth rate of the economy. Numerically we show that in economies with low intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES), active R&D policies lead the economy to increase the depletion of non-renewable resources. Nevertheless, we find that active R&D policies always imply increases in the endogenous growth rate, in both scenarios. Furthermore, when the IES coefficient is lower (greater) than one, active R&D policies affect the growth rate of the economy in the ILA more (less) than in OLG economies.

Life Expectancy, Human Capital, Social Security and Growth

Revised: 2006-11.-- Published as an article in: Journal of Public Economics 90(12), December, 2006, pp. 2323-2349.

Growth in an oil abundant economy: The case of Venezuela

This paper has been presented at DEGIT-X held in México 2005.-- Revised: 2008-08.

Growth in Overlapping Generation Economies with Non-Renewable Resources

Published as an article in: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2005, vol. 50, issue 2, pages 387-407.

Skill premium effects on fertility and female labor force supply

Published as an article in: Journal of Population Economics, 2004, vol. 17, issue 1, pages 1-16.

Career Planning in Spain: Do temporary contracts delay marriage and motherhood?

The aim of this paper is to find an empirical connection between the impressive increase in the use of temporary contracts in Spain and the observed increase in age at marriage and maternity. Using a pool of the six available waves of individual information from the European Household Panel for Spain, we find that holding temporary contracts rather than permanent ones delays marriage for males, but not for females. Concerning maternity, the labor market situation of both members of the household affects entry into motherhood. In particular, if woman has a temporary contract rather than a permanent one, motherhoods is delayed independently of the husband's contract. As expected, postponement of maternity is not found for non-working women. These results give strong support to the career planning, motive to delay maternity in Spain, given that an unstable labor market situation of female workers is found to be the main deterrent to entry into motherhood.

Income Taxation and Growth in an OLG Economy: Does Aggregate Uncertainty Play any Role?

We analyze the effects of capital income taxation on long-run growth in a stochastic, two-period overlapping generations economy. Endogenous growth is driven by a positive externality of physical capital in the production sector that makes firms exhibit an aggregate technology in equilibrium. We distinguish between capital income and labor income, and between attitudes towards risk and intertemporal substitution of consumption. We show necessary and sufficient conditions such that i) increments in the capital income taxation lead to higher equilibrium growth rates, and ii) the effect of changes in the capital income tax rate on the equilibrium growth may be of opposite signs in stochastic and in deterministic economies. Such a sign reversal is shown to be more likely depending on i) how the intertemporal elasticity of substitution compares to one, and ii) the size of second- period labor supply. Numerical simulations show that for reasonable values of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution, a sign reversal shows up only for implausibly high values of the second- period’s labor supply. The conclusion is that deterministic OLG economies are a good approximation of the effect of taxes on the equilibrium growth rate as in Smith (1996).

Intranasal Delivery of Plasma and Platelet Growth Factors Using PRGF-Endoret System Enhances Neurogenesis in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

[EN] Neurodegeneration together with a reduction in neurogenesis are cardinal features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) induced by a combination of toxic amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) and a loss of trophic factor support. Amelioration of these was assessed with diverse neurotrophins in experimental therapeutic approaches. The aim of this study was to investigate whether intranasal delivery of plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF-Endoret), an autologous pool of morphogens and proteins, could enhance hippocampal neurogenesis and reduce neurodegeneration in an amyloid precursor protein/presenilin-1 (APP/PS1) mouse model. Neurotrophic and neuroprotective actions were firstly evident in primary neuronal cultures, where cell proliferation and survival were augmented by Endoret treatment. Translation of these effects in vivo was assessed in wild type and APP/PS1 mice, where neurogenesis was evaluated using 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BdrU), doublecortin (DCX), and NeuN immunostaining 5 weeks after Endoret administration. The number of BrdU, DCX, and NeuN positive cell was increased after chronic treatment. The number of degenerating neurons, detected with fluoro Jade-B staining was reduced in Endoret-treated APP/PS1 mice at 5 week after intranasal administration. In conclusion, Endoret was able to activate neuronal progenitor cells, enhancing hippocampal neurogenesis, and to reduce Aβ-induced neurodegeneration in a mouse model of AD.

Plan de Marketing: Aixerrota Consulting

Para cualquier empresa sea cual sea su tamaño, sector y mercado al que pertenece es recomendable que se plantee la elaboración de un plan de marketing para su propio negocio. Dada la creciente competitividad existente hoy en día en cualquier sector, el hecho de conocer qué es lo que rodea a la empresa se antoja muy importante para el futuro de ésta. Y no sólo los factores que le rodean, sino que también resulta vital conocer los internos. El hecho de que cada organización pueda conocer sus propios puntos fuertes puede resultar una tarea sencilla, pero llevar a cabo un análisis interno a través de una óptica objetiva, permitirá mejorar los puntos débiles de cualquier organización, además de saber potenciar de la mejor manera posible los rasgos o características más fuertes. El objetivo principal de este plan de marketing no es otro que lo que se acaba de resumir en la reflexión anterior, lograr que la empresa objeto de estudio llegue a ser lo más competitiva posible en su sector, gracias al planteamiento de unos objetivos, estrategias y plan de acciones previa realización del análisis externo e interno ya citado. En definitiva, este documento pretenderá aportar una visión comercial de la empresa, centrando su atención sobre todo en el mercado de actuación, competidores, clientes, marketing mix… unido a aportar valor indirectamente a otras variables estratégicas, de tal forma que contribuya al crecimiento competitivo y corporativo de la citada organización.

Vivir en la precariedad. Trayectorias y estrategias residenciales de la juventud en la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco

388 p.

Música: ¿una vía para la reinserción? Una propuesta socializadora para entornos penitenciarios basada en la música

A través de este proyecto se procura facilitar una visión creativa e integradora sobre un nuevo modelo de intervención que pretende favorecer la inclusión social a través de la transformación personal. Para ello se va a definir cuál es la relación entre la música y el comportamiento humano de aquellas personas que se encuentran en una situación de riesgo y exclusión social.