Post crisis challenges to bank regulation

The current crisis has swept aside not only the whole of the US investment banking industry butalso the consensual perception of banking risks, contagion and their implication for bankingregulation. As everyone agrees now, risks where mispriced, they accumulated in neuralgic pointsof the financial system, and where amplified by procyclical regulation as well as by the instabilityand fragility of financial institutions.The use of ratings as carved in stone and lack of adequate procedure to swiftly deal withsystemic institutions bankruptcy (whether too-big-to-fail, too complex to fail or too-many to fail).The current paper will not deal with the description and analysis of the crisis, already covered inother contributions to this issue will address the critical choice regulatory authorities will face. Inthe future regulation has to change, but it is not clear that it will change in the right direction. Thismay occur if regulatory authorities, possibly influenced by public opinion and political pressure,adopt an incorrect view of financial crisis prevention and management. Indeed, there are twoapproaches to post-crisis regulation. One is the rare event approach, whereby financial crises willoccur infrequently, but are inescapable.

Ejercitando el futuro a través de los parques científicos y tecnológicos

En plena etapa de convulsión y con- nfusión sobre la evolución de la Economía y la Sociedad, el movimiento internacional de Parques Científicos y Tecnológicos continúa avanzando con fuerza. Desde esta perspectiva agregada internacional, la creación de nuevos parques, nuevas empresas del conocimiento y nuevos servicios de referencia sigue creciendo a un ritmo parecido al de años anteriores. En este contexto propongo un ejercicio de hiperrealismo, donde nuestro comportamiento individual y colectivo inversor y de consumo se adaptara a una situación de post-crisis. Es decir, en una situación, no de hipótesis puesto que nos introducimos en un experimento hiperrealista, donde se ha superado la crisis pero hemos aprendido de ella.

Going beyond energy intensity to understand the energy metabolism of nations: the case of Argentina

The link between energy consumption and economic growth has been widely studied in the economic literature. Understanding this relationship is important from both an environmental and a socio-economic point of view, as energy consumption is crucial to economic activity and human environmental impact. This relevance is even higher for developing countries, since energy consumption per unit of output varies through the phases of development, increasing from an agricultural stage to an industrial one and then decreasing for certain service based economies. In the Argentinean case, the relevance of energy consumption to economic development seems to be particularly important. While energy intensity seems to exhibit a U-Shaped curve from 1990 to 2003 decreasing slightly after that year, total energy consumption increases along the period of analysis. Why does this happen? How can we relate this result with the sustainability debate? All these questions are very important due to Argentinean hydrocarbons dependence and due to the recent reduction in oil and natural gas reserves, which can lead to a lack of security of supply. In this paper we study Argentinean energy consumption pattern for the period 1990-2007, to discuss current and future energy and economic sustainability. To this purpose, we developed a conventional analysis, studying energy intensity, and a non conventional analysis, using the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) accounting methodology. Both methodologies show that the development process followed by Argentina has not been good enough to assure sustainability in the long term. Instead of improving energy use, energy intensity has increased. The current composition of its energy mix, and the recent economic crisis in Argentina, as well as its development path, are some of the possible explanations.

La Primavera Àrab, primera gran crisi de l’acció exterior Post-Lisboa: la visibilitat, l’eficàcia i la coherència del nou marc institucional a prova

La reforma de Lisboa va establir un nou marc institucional en l'àmbit l'Acció Exterior de la Unió Europea. Un nou marc que ha de permetre a la UE consolidar-se com a actor global en el nou panorama internacional. S'espera que els canvis de Lisboa corregeixin algunes de les deficiències que la política exterior europea havia mostrat en crisis anteriors, mancances de visibilitat, eficàcia i coherència. Un any després de la seva entrada en vigor, les revoltes dels països àrabs durant la primavera de 2011 són la primera gran crisi que l'Acció Exterior post-Lisboa ha d'afrontar i l'oportunitat per avaluar si s'ha aconseguit corregir aquestes mancances del passat.

The post-communist fertility puzzle

Fertility has unanimously declined across the entire post-communist region. This study explores the variation in fertility trends over time among these countries and assesses to what degree three explanations are applicable: second demographic transition (SDT), postponement transition (PPT) or reaction to the economic crisis. Moreover, on the basis of SDT and PPT theoretical tenets, as well as descriptive evidence, the economic context is hypothesized to be linked to two processes of fertility decline conversely. The results show that no one theoretical explanation is sufficient to explain the complex fertility declines across the entire post-communist region from 1990 to 2003. In some countries, a great part of the decline in fertility occurred before significant postponement of childbearing began, which indicates that the dramatic decline was due to stopping behavior or postponement of higher order births. Postponement of first births, either through PPT or SDT processes, greatly contributed to fertility decline in a small number of countries. Pooled cross-sectional time-series analyses of age-specific birthrates confirm that these two distinct processes are present and show that the economic crisis explanation has explanatory power for declining birth rates. In contrast, logistic regressions show that the likelihood of postponing childbirth increases with improved economic conditions. These results confirm the importance of taking the economic context into account when discussing explanations for fertility decline. More specifically, the results indicate that the severity and duration of economic crisis, or absence thereof, influenced the extent and manner in which fertility declined.

Exploring the conditions for a mortality crisis: bringing context back into the debate

This study engages with the debate over the mortality crises in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe by 1) considering at length and as complementary to each other the two most prominent explanations for the post-communist mortality crisis, stress and alcohol consumption; 2) emphasizing the importance of context by exploiting systematic similarities and differences across the region. Differential mortality trajectories reveal three country groups that cluster both spatially and in terms of economic transition experiences. The first group are the countries furthest west in which mortality rates increased minimally after the transition began. The second group experienced a severe increase in mortality rates in the early 1990s, but recovered previous levels within a few years. These countries are located peripherally to Russia and its nearest neighbours. The final group consists of countries that experienced two mortality increases or in which mortality levels had not recovered to pre-transition levels well into the 21st century. Cross-sectional time-series data analyses of men’s and women’s age and cause-specific death rates reveal that the clustering of these countries and their mortality trajectories can be partially explained by the economic context, which is argued to be linked to stress and alcohol consumption. Above and beyond many basic differences in the country groups that are held constant—including geographically and historically shared cultural, lifestyle and social characteristics—poor economic conditions account for a remarkably consistent share of excess age-specific and cause-specific deaths.

Financial crisis: theory and practice

In the last 50 years, we have had approximately 40 events with characteristics related to financial crisis. The most severe crisis was in 1929, when the financial markets plummet and the US gross domestic product decline in more than 30 percent. Recently some years ago, a new crisis developed in the United States, but instantly caused consequences and effects in the rest of the world.This new economic and financial crisis has increased the interest and motivation for the academic community, professors and researchers, to understand the causes and effects of the crisis, to learn from it. This is the one of the main reasons for the compilation of this book, which begins with a meeting of a group of IAFI researchers from the University of Barcelona, where researchers form Mexico and Spain, explain causes and consequences of the crisis of 2007.For that reason, we believed this set of chapters related to methodologies, applications and theories, would conveniently explained the characteristics and events of the past and future financial crisisThis book consists in 3 main sections, the first one called "State of the Art and current situation", the second named "Econometric applications to estimate crisis time periods" , and the third one "Solutions to diminish the effects of the crisis". The first section explains the current point of view of many research papers related to financial crisis, it has 2 chapters. In the first one, it describe and analyzes the models that historically have been used to explain financial crisis, furthermore, it proposes to used alternative methodologies such as Fuzzy Cognitive Maps. On the other hand , Chapter 2 , explains the characteristics and details of the 2007 crisis from the US perspective and its comparison to 1929 crisis, presenting some effects in Mexico and Latin America.The second section presents two econometric applications to estimate possible crisis periods. For this matter, Chapter 3, studies 3 Latin-American countries: Argentina, Brazil and Peru in the 1994 crisis and estimates the multifractal characteristics to identify financial and economic distress.Chapter 4 explains the crisis situations in Argentina (2001), Mexico (1994) and the recent one in the United States (2007) and its effects in other countries through a financial series methodology related to the stock market.The last section shows an alternative to prevent the effects of the crisis. The first chapter explains the financial stability effects through the financial system regulation and some globalization standards. Chapter 6, study the benefits of the Investor activism and a way to protect personal and national wealth to face the financial crisis risks.

La Obra de Cayetano Garviso: 1807- post. 1871: cirujano vasco-navarro liberal en América

L'autor d'aquest llibre dona a conèixer alguns aspectes de l'exercici de la medicina en la dècada de 1840 a la zona del Río de la Plata, a partir de la figura del metge basc-navarrés Cayetano Garviso, cirurgià que emigrà a Argentina durant la Primera Guerra Carlista. Ara bé, tot i que aquest personatge es va moure per bona part de Sudamèrica, el treball es centra en la part de la seva biografia i el seu exercici professional desenvolupada a Espanya, Montevideo i Buenos Aires.

Presentación del Dossier 'Empresas y empresarios en una Argentina en cambio: inmigrantes, redes sociales y estrategias económicas (siglos XIX y XX)'

La finalidad de este dossier temático que se publica en el Boletín Americanista es dar a conocer algunos de los trabajos más relevantes sobre la historia de la empresa y de los empresarios en la Argentina tomando como corte temporal los siglos XIX y XX y, en concreto, la manera en que las empresas y los empresarios del país o radicados en él adecuaron sus prácticas al contexto de transformaciones económicas sufridas por el Cono Sur latinoamericano durante su integración al mercado internacional. Los inmigrantes, las redes sociales y las estrategias económicas son las claves de análisis abordadas en cada uno de los trabajos, los cuales tienen como finalidad mostrar la diversidad regional y temporal de las distintas experiencias empresariales argentinas estudiadas. Se incluyen los trabajos de: A. Reguera, 'Por el testamento habla la red. Estancias, bienes y vínculos en la trama empresarial de Juan Manuel de Rosas (Argentina, siglo XIX)'; L. Méndez, 'El león de la cordillera'. Primo Capraro y el desempeño empresario en la región del Nahuel Huapi, 1902-1932'; A. Mateu y H.Ocaña, 'Una mirada empresarial a la historia de la vitivinicultura mendocina (1881-1936)'; V. Palavecino, 'Comerciantes-empresarios en el medio rural argentino a comienzos del siglo XX. El estudio de caso de los Hnos. Vulcano y su Casa de Comercio 'El Progreso''; S. Fernández, 'Crecimiento urbano y desarrollo local. Empresas y municipio en el negocio de la energía eléctrica en Argentina (1888-1947): el caso de la ciudad de Rosario'; M. Rougier, 'Expansión y crisis de una empresa industrial argentina. Historia de la Fábrica de Vidrios y Opalinas Hurlingham, 1948-1994'. Dossier citado por: Evelyne Sanchez (2007), Las élites empresariales y la independencia económica de México. Estevan de Antuñano o las vicisitudes del fundador de la industria textil moderna (1792-1847). México, Plaza y Valdés, Fundación Miguel Alemán, BUAP.

Les perspectives post-crisi

El 29 d'abril el conseller d'Empresa i Ocupació deia que l'objectiu és aconseguir que l'any 2020 el pes dels sectors industrials en el PIB català arribi al 25%. La declaració oficial és que el govern aposta per una indústria més intensiva en innovació, en talent i inserida en l'economia global. Segons el govern es passa d'una declaració d'intencions a accions concretes d'aplicació immediata [...]