Assessing trends in insured losses from floods in Spain 1971-2008

Economic impacts from floods have been increasing over recent decades, a fact often attributed to a changing climate. On the other hand, there is now a significant body of scientific scholarship all pointing towards increasing concentrations and values of assets as the principle cause of the increasing cost of natural disasters. This holds true for a variety of perils and across different jurisdictions. With this in mind, this paper examines the time history of insured losses from floods in Spain between 1971 and 2008. It as- sesses whether any discernible residual signal remains after adjusting the data for the increase in the number and value of insured assets over this period of time. Data on insured losses from floods were sourced from Consorcio de Com- pensacíon de Seguros (CCS). Although a public institution, CCS compensates homeowners for the damage produced by floods, and thus plays a role similar to that of a private insurance company. Insured losses were adjusted using two proxy measures: first, changes in the total amount of annual surcharges (premiums) paid by customers to CCS, and secondly, changes in the total value of dwellings per year. The adjusted data reveals no significant trend over the period 1971-2008 and serves again to confirm that at this juncture, societal in- fluences remain the prime factors driving insured and economic losses from natural disasters.

MORENOE, . y POL, E. (2002). Metodologies per a la detecció dels impactes sobre el medi social/humà. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Medi Ambient

La primera publicación se trata de un libro de interés para investigadores vinculados a los procesos de evaluación de impacto ambiental. El libro, cuyo texto está en tres idiomas (catalán, inglés y castellano en el mismo volumen), ofrece una revisión de las metodologias para detectar los impactos causados en el ambiente social y humano como resultado de la construcción de proyectos, dificios o instalaciones sujetas a un proceso de evaluación de impacto ambiental.

Recursos litosféricos y medio ambiente

This paper focuses that geological resources is an essential need in the development of the society and specially of the developing countries. Taking into account the processes and environmental problems related to mining exploitation, these activities should be performed in a environment concordance. For these reason al1 the available environmental techniques and tools for a responsible exploitation of resources should be used.

Geofísica ambiental: técnicas no destructivas para el reconocimiento de zonas contaminadas por vertidos

Los países industrializados afrontan ahora las consecuencias de varias décadas de gestión inadecuada de sus residuos tóxicos y peligrosos. En las últimas décadas el volumen de residuos generados ha aumentado en progresión geométrica provocando un riesgo toxicológico para el hombre a través de su interacción con el medio fisico. El vertido incontrolado de todo tipo de residuos ha sido una práctica creciente en muchas localidades. Importantes volUmenes de residuos industriales y de otros tipos (urbanos, agncolas, etc.) han sido enterrados en vertederos, muchos de los cuales carecen de las barreras geológicas naturales o artificiles, y los fluidos tóxicos que se producen por lixiviación pueden migrar hacia el exterior y contaminar las aguas subterráneas. El problema se agrava cuando una vez colmatado el vertedero se cubre de tierra y se pierde la información relativa a las prácticas de vertido practicadas en el pasado.

If you want me to stay, pay

Devolution of political power is constantly on the political agenda in both Italy and Spain. Fiscal policy in these countries has granted specific privileges to some regions. Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste,(VdA) and País Vasco-Euskadi (PV) have an extensive say over spending decisions, and receive nearly all regional tax revenues. Although both VdA and PV are among the richest regions in each country, both are net beneficiaries of the fiscal equalisation system. This preferential treatment is the outcome of a fiscal system with limits on taxing power and debt issuance, and is meant as a compensation for the lack of autonomy. It so prevents calls for more fiscal autonomy, or even outright secession. The economic effects of this asymmetric federalism are negative Although partial equalisation reduces excessive redistribution built in the fiscal equalisation system, more autonomy could pay off with more efficient government. Asymmetric federalism moreover creates a political impasse in the negotiation of a more efficient tax system and financing arrangement.

La freqüentació a la Tartera del Pedraforca.

La popularització del Pedraforca com a destinació d"excursionistes, escaladors i curiosos en general fa que la freqüentació hi sigui molt alta, cosa que comporta efectes negatius sobre el medi. Els més evidents i alhora preocupants són els que afecten els hàbitats més fràgils, com és cas dels de la conegudíssima tartera del Pedraforca o de Saldes

El agua como elemento clave para el desarrollo

Peer Reviewed

Fiscal policy and interest rates: the role of financial and economic integration

It is commonly believed that a fiscal expansion raises interest rates. However, these crowding out effects of deficits have been found to be small or non-existent. One explanation is that financial integration offsets interest rate differentials on globalised bond markets. This paper measures the degree of integration of government bond markets, using spatial modelling techniques to take this spillover on financial markets into account. Our main finding is that the crowding out effect on domestic interest rates is significant, but is reduced by spillover across borders. This spillover is important in major crises or in periods of coordinated policy actions. This result is generally robust to various measures of cross-country linkages. We find spillover to be much stronger among EU countries.

Sustainability of EU fiscal policies. A panel test

The fiscal policy rule implicit in the Stability and Growth Pact, has been rationalised as a way to ensure that national fiscal policies remain sustainable within the EU, thereby endorsing the independence of the ECB. We empirically examine the sustainability of European fiscal policies over the period 1970-2001. The intertemporal government budget constraint provides a test based on the cointegration relation between government revenues, expenditures and interest payments. Sustainability is analysed at both the national level and for a European panel. Results show that European fiscal policy has been sustainable overall, yet national experiences differ considerably.

Estimating the effects of fiscal policy under the budget constraint

I reconsider the short-term effects of fiscal policy when both government spending and taxes are allowed to respond to the level of public debt. I embed the long-term government budget constraint in a VAR, and apply this common trends model to US quarterly data. The results overturn some widely held beliefs on fiscal policy effects. The main finding is that expansionary fiscal policy has contractionary effects on output and inflation. Ricardian effects may dominate when fiscal expansions are expected to be adjusted by future tax rises or spending cuts. The evidence supports RBC models with distortionary taxation. We can discard some alternative interpretations that are based on monetary policy reactions or supply-side effects.

Fiscal sustainability across government tiers: an assessment of soft budget constraints

This paper analyses how fiscal adjustment comes about when both central and sub-national governments are involved in consolidation. We test sustainability of public debt with a fiscal rule for both the federal and regional government. Results for the German Länder show that lower tier governments bear a relatively smaller part of the burden of debt consolidation, if they consolidate at all. Most of the fiscal adjustment occurs via central government debt. In contrast, both the US federal and state levels contribute to consolidation of public finances.

Impacto ambiental previsto en la explotación de gravas en la zona de concurso medio del riu Fluvià (Girona)

The main environmental impacts related to the gravel pits in the medium course of the Fluvià river have been assessed. In order to compute the global impact and index based on the numerical values of different impacts has been defined. This index is applied to different areas and the results reveal that the environmental impact expected for a gravel pit is high or moderate close to the main streams and low in the rest of the territory

El enfoque financiero vs. el enfoque social del microcrédito. un análisis comparativo mundial

La oferta del microcrédito por parte de las instituciones microfinancieras distingue dos enfoques, el llamado 'alivio de la pobreza' y el de 'autosostenibilidad financiera'. En este trabajo se hace una comparativa mundial de cuatro regiones de países en vías de desarrollo con el fin de identificar bajo qué enfoque la población accede al microcrédito y a su vez verificar si existe un trade off entre ambos enfoques. Para su contrastación se han utilizado diez indicadores financieros y sociales clasificados en dos categorías, la sostenibilidad financiera y el alcance (nivel de pobreza). Los resultados obtenidos concluyen que el modelo financiero se presenta con más notoriedad en las regiones de América Latina y el Caribe y Oriente Medio/África del Norte mientras que en África prevalece el modelo social y en la región de Asia Meridional se aprecia un equilibrio entre ambos enfoques. Igualmente, se constata la contribución al alivio de la pobreza cuando el acceso del microcrédito se dirige mayoritariamente a la mujer.

Economic impact of alternative policy measures implemented on the energy activities of the Catalan production system: an input-output analysis

The aim of the paper is to analyse the economic impact of alternative policies implemented on the energy activities of the Catalan production system. Specifically, we analyse the effects of a tax on intermediate energy uses, a reduction in the final production of energy, and a reduction in intermediate energy uses. The methodology involves two versions of the input-output price model: a competitive price formulation and a mark-up price formulation. The input-output price framework will make it possible to evaluate how the alternative measures modify production prices, consumption prices, private welfare, and intermediate energy uses. The empirical application is for the Catalan economy and uses economic data for the year 2001.

Selected configuration interaction with truncation energy error and application to the Ne atom

Selected configuration interaction (SCI) for atomic and molecular electronic structure calculations is reformulated in a general framework encompassing all CI methods. The linked cluster expansion is used as an intermediate device to approximate CI coefficients BK of disconnected configurations (those that can be expressed as products of combinations of singly and doubly excited ones) in terms of CI coefficients of lower-excited configurations where each K is a linear combination of configuration-state-functions (CSFs) over all degenerate elements of K. Disconnected configurations up to sextuply excited ones are selected by Brown's energy formula, ΔEK=(E-HKK)BK2/(1-BK2), with BK determined from coefficients of singly and doubly excited configurations. The truncation energy error from disconnected configurations, Δdis, is approximated by the sum of ΔEKS of all discarded Ks. The remaining (connected) configurations are selected by thresholds based on natural orbital concepts. Given a model CI space M, a usual upper bound ES is computed by CI in a selected space S, and EM=E S+ΔEdis+δE, where δE is a residual error which can be calculated by well-defined sensitivity analyses. An SCI calculation on Ne ground state featuring 1077 orbitals is presented. Convergence to within near spectroscopic accuracy (0.5 cm-1) is achieved in a model space M of 1.4× 109 CSFs (1.1 × 1012 determinants) containing up to quadruply excited CSFs. Accurate energy contributions of quintuples and sextuples in a model space of 6.5 × 1012 CSFs are obtained. The impact of SCI on various orbital methods is discussed. Since ΔEdis can readily be calculated for very large basis sets without the need of a CI calculation, it can be used to estimate the orbital basis incompleteness error. A method for precise and efficient evaluation of ES is taken up in a companion paper