L’ètica de la investigació aeroespacial: anàlisi de dades, de justificacions oficials i de criteris ètics

Treball de recerca realitzat per una alumna d’ensenyament secundari i guardonat amb un Premi CIRIT per fomentar l'esperit científic del Jovent l’any 2008. La recerca aeroespacial avui forma part d’un complex aparell productiu i institucional. Però, quin paper ha de jugar aquesta activitat aristocràtica en un món de desigualtats i d’injustícies socials? Quin paper hi juga, de fet? Quins mecanismes i quins criteris hi ha darrere les decisions en aquest àmbit? Disposem de criteris ètics per avaluar-ne l’oportunitat? En la mesura que un pressupost implica una quantificació en diners de les prioritats d’una societat, és necessari avaluar èticament les inversions en aquest àmbit. Per poder respondre sense simplificar els interrogants plantejats, calia dividir la recerca en tres parts: investigació sobre els organismes públics i els programes concrets que s’encarreguen de gestionar la recerca en matèria aeroespacial; a partir d’aquí, determinació de les justificacions de la recerca que oferien aquestes institucions i anàlisi d’aquestes justificacions a la llum de les dades històriques de què disposem, i, finalment, després d’una consulta prèvia amb especialistes en la matèria, avaluació ètica de les qüestions plantejades a partir dels criteris d’alguns dels filòsofs principals en l’àmbit de l’ètica. L’anàlisi ètica de les dades assolides s’ha desenvolupat considerant, entre altres, criteris d’utilitat, de responsabilitat, de prudència i de justícia. Finalment, s’ha cregut oportú cedir la paraula al criteri aristotèlic de prudència, segons el qual és impossible i indesitjable establir a priori una avaluació d’allò que està bé o malament, ja que l’encert ètic sempre restarà pendent d’una valoració molt acurada de les circumstàncies de l’acció, valoració que, d’altra banda, caldrà actualitzar constantment en funció dels canvis històrics, socials i econòmics.

Web Scraping : extracció i anàlisi de dades

L'àrea de treball en la qual se centra aquest projecte final de carrera (d'ara endavant PFC), es l'àrea de Compiladors. Aquesta àrea és present, es desenvolupa, a les assignatures "Compiladors I" i "Compiladors II" del pla d'estudis d'Enginyeria Informàtica ofert per la UOC. Òbviament, a un treball de síntesi com aquest no és suficient amb el coneixement assolit a aquestes dues assignatures i es posen en pràctica coneixements teòrics i pràctics assolits en altres assignatures com ara "Metodologia i gestió de projectes informàtics", "Enginyeria del programari orientat a l'objecte" o "Enginyeria del programari de components i sistemes distribuïts".

Instrumentació i anàlisi de dades d'assaigs de bigues de formigó armades amb barres de FRP

Estudi experimental del comportament de bigues de formigó armades amb barres de materials compostos de matriu polimèrica (FRP)

Identificació de subjectes a partir de l'anàlisi de dades multimodals RGB-Depth

En aquest treball s'explora el camp de la identificació facial de subjectes utilitzant tècniques d'anàlisi multimodal. Això és utilitzant imatges RGB i imatges de profunditat (3D) amb l'objecte de validar les diverses tècniques emprades en el reconeixement facial i aprofundir en sistemes que incorporen informació tridimensional als algorismes de detecció i identificació facial.

Another Look at the Null of Stationary Real Exchange Rates: Panel Data with Structural Breaks and Cross-section Dependence

This paper re-examines the null of stationary of real exchange rate for a panel of seventeen OECD developed countries during the post-Bretton Woods era. Our analysis simultaneously considers both the presence of cross-section dependence and multiple structural breaks that have not received much attention in previous panel methods of long-run PPP. Empirical results indicate that there is little evidence in favor of PPP hypothesis when the analysis does not account for structural breaks. This conclusion is reversed when structural breaks are considered in computation of the panel statistics. We also compute point estimates of half-life separately for idiosyncratic and common factor components and find that it is always below one year.

Una Aproximación empírica al análisis del excedente del consumidor: el caso de la supresión de peajes en España

En el presente estudio nos aproximamos al cálculo del impacto de una política de supresión de peajes en España. Se estima una función de demanda de autopistas de peaje, utilizando un modelo de datos de panel con efectos fijos. Los resultados confirman que las elasticidades son mayores que el promedio encontrado en la literatura, la razón es la existencia y calidad de una vía alternativa. En cuanto al impacto de la política, los resultados sugieren un incremento del tráfico en las autopistas de 43,40% en relación con 2007. El cambio del bienestar de los usuarios se estima en €1497,58 millones (en comparación con 2007)

The Monetary policy rules in Europe: heterogeneity and common patters

The objective of this study is the empirical identification of the monetary policy rules pursued in individual countries of EU before and after the launch of European Monetary Union. In particular, we have employed an estimation of the augmented version of the Taylor rule (TR) for 25 countries of the EU in two periods (1992-1998, 1999-2006). While uniequational estimation methods have been used to identify the policy rules of individual central banks, for the rule of the European Central Bank has been employed a dynamic panel setting. We have found that most central banks really followed some interest rate rule but its form was usually different from the original TR (proposing that domestic interest rate responds only to domestic inflation rate and output gap). Crucial features of policy rules in many countries have been the presence of interest rate smoothing as well as response to foreign interest rate. Any response to domestic macroeconomic variables have been missing in the rules of countries with inflexible exchange rate regimes and the rules consisted in mimicking of the foreign interest rates. While we have found response to long-term interest rates and exchange rate in rules of some countries, the importance of monetary growth and asset prices has been generally negligible. The Taylor principle (the response of interest rates to domestic inflation rate must be more than unity as a necessary condition for achieving the price stability) has been confirmed only in large economies and economies troubled with unsustainable inflation rates. Finally, the deviation of the actual interest rate from the rule-implied target rate can be interpreted as policy shocks (these deviation often coincided with actual turbulent periods).

Selection bias and unobservable heterogeneity applied at the wage equation of European married women

This paper utilizes a panel data sample selection model to correct the selection in the analysis of longitudinal labor market data for married women in European countries. We estimate the female wage equation in a framework of unbalanced panel data models with sample selection. The wage equations of females have several potential sources of.

A Data mining approach to indirect inference

Consider a model with parameter phi, and an auxiliary model with parameter theta. Let phi be a randomly sampled from a given density over the known parameter space. Monte Carlo methods can be used to draw simulated data and compute the corresponding estimate of theta, say theta_tilde. A large set of tuples (phi, theta_tilde) can be generated in this manner. Nonparametric methods may be use to fit the function E(phi|theta_tilde=a), using these tuples. It is proposed to estimate phi using the fitted E(phi|theta_tilde=theta_hat), where theta_hat is the auxiliary estimate, using the real sample data. This is a consistent and asymptotically normally distributed estimator, under certain assumptions. Monte Carlo results for dynamic panel data and vector autoregressions show that this estimator can have very attractive small sample properties. Confidence intervals can be constructed using the quantiles of the phi for which theta_tilde is close to theta_hat. Such confidence intervals are found to have very accurate coverage.

Economic growth and inequality: the role of fiscal policies

This paper analyses the impact of different instruments of fiscal policy on economic growth as well as on income inequality, using an unbalanced panel of 43 upper-middle and high income countries for the period 1972-2006. We consider and estimate two individual equations explaining growth and inequality in order to assess the incidence of different fiscal policies. Firstly, our approach considers imposing orthogonal assumptions between growth and inequality in both equations, and secondly, it allows growth to be included in the inequality equation, and inequality to be included in the growth equation. The empirical results suggest that an increase in the size of government measured through current expenditures and direct taxes diminishes economic growth while reducing inequality, being public investment the only fiscal policy that may break this trade-off between efficiency and equity, since increases in this item reduces inequality without harming output. Therefore, the results reflect that the trade-off between efficiency and equity that governments often confront when designing their fiscal policies may be avoided.

Innovación, frontera tecnológica y capacidad absortiva: un estudio a nivel de países

La principal aportación de este trabajo es poner de manifiesto que la capacidad absortiva de las economías cambia en función de si el país es el líder o es un seguidor. Aunque tampoco olvidamos otras variables como son la I+D interna, la I+D externa, el desarrollo del sistema financiero y las instituciones. Para ello, primero se prueba la presencia de una raíz unitaria y después se asegura una relación de cointegración entre las variables implicadas en el modelo para poder sacar conclusiones a largo plazo. Y por último, para estimar el modelo, se utilizará una técnica econométrica que combina el tratamiento tradicional de los datos de panel con las técnicas de cointegración: los Dynamics Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS). Esta técnica soluciona las limitaciones de los OLS, ya que su distribución no suele ser estándar por la presencia de un sesgo de muestras finitas (causado bien por la endogeneidad de las variables explicativas bien por la correlación serial de la perturbación). Utilizando un panel de datos que comprende 8 países de la OECD entre 1973-2004 y para el Business Sector, se encuentran diversos resultados, entre los que destacamos que la I+D interna, la I+D externa, la frontera tecnológica, la capacidad absortiva y el desarrollo de las instituciones tienen un impacto positivo sobre el nivel de la PTF. En cambio, el desarrollo del sistema financiero tiene un impacto negativo. Palabras claves: fuentes de la I+D, frontera tecnológica, capacidad absortiva, raíces unitarias, cointegración, DOLS.

How did the Financial Crisis affect the Real Interest Rate Dynamics in Europe?

We investigate the effects of the financial crisis on the stationarity of real interest rates in the Euro Area. We use a new unit root test developed by Peseran et al. (2013) that allows for multiple unobserved factors in a panel set up. Our results suggest that while short-term and long-term real interest rates were stationary before the financial crisis, they became nonstationary during the crisis period likely due to persistent risk that characterized financial markets during that time. JEL codes: E43, C23. Keywords: Real interest rates, Euro Area, financial crisis, panel unit root tests, cross-sectional dependence.

The Determinants of Exit in Argentina: Core and Peripheral Regions

This paper analyses the regional determinants of exit in Argentina. We find evidence of a dynamic revolving door by which past entrants increase current exits, particularly in the peripheral regions. In the central regions, current and past incumbents cause an analogous displacement effect. Also, exit shows a U-shaped relationship with respect to the informal economy, although the positive effect is weaker in the central regions. These findings point to the existence of a core-periphery structure in the spatial distribution of exits. Key words: firm exit, count data models, Argentina JEL: R12; R30; C33

Regional determinants of firm entry in a developing country

We analyse the determinants of firm entry in developing countries using Argentina as an illustrative case. Our main finding is that although most of the regional determinants used in previous studies analysing developed countries are also relevant here, there is a need for additional explanatory variables that proxy for the specificities of developing economies (e.g., poverty, informal economy and idle capacity).We also find evidence of a core-periphery pattern in the spatial structure of entry that seems to be mostly driven by differences in agglomeration economies. Since regional policies aiming to attract new firms are largely based on evidence from developed countries, our results raise doubts about the usefulness of such policies when applied to developing economies. JEL classification: R12, R30, C33. Key words: Firm entry, Argentina, count data models.

Multicointegration, polynomial cointegration and I(2) cointegration with structural breaks. An application to the sustainability of the US external deficit

In this paper we model the multicointegration relation, allowing for one structural break. Since multicointegration is a particular case of polynomial or I(2) cointegration, our proposal can also be applied in these cases. The paper proposes the use of a residualbased Dickey-Fuller class of statistic that accounts for one known or unknown structural break. Finite sample performance of the proposed statistic is investigated by using Monte Carlo simulations, which reveals that the statistic shows good properties in terms of empirical size and power. We complete the study with an empirical application of the sustainability of the US external deficit. Contrary to existing evidence, the consideration of one structural break leads to conclude in favour of the sustainability of the US external deficit.