Evaluation of subsidies programs to sell green cars: Impact on prices, quantities and efficiency

During the recent period of economic crisis, many countries have introduced scrappage schemes to boost the sale and production of vehicles, particularly of vehicles designed to pollute less. In this paper, we analyze the impact of a particular scheme in Spain (Plan2000E) on vehicle prices and sales figures as well as on the reduction of polluting emissions from vehicles on the road. We considered the introduction of this scheme an exogenous policy change and because we could distinguish a control group (non-subsidized vehicles) and a treatment group (subsidized vehicles), before and after the introduction of the Plan, we were able to carry out our analysis as a quasi-natural experiment. Our study reveals that manufacturers increased vehicle prices by the same amount they were granted through the Plan (1,000 €). In terms of sales, econometric estimations revealed an increase of almost 5% as a result of the implementation of the Plan. With regard to environmental efficiency, we compared the costs (inverted quantity of money) and the benefits of the program (reductions in polluting emissions and additional fiscal revenues) and found that the Plan would only be beneficial if it boosted demand by at least 30%.

What do the papers sell?

We model the market for news as a two-sided market where newspapers sell news to readers who value accuracy and sell space to advertisers who value advert-receptive readers. We show that monopolistic newspapers under-report or bias news that sufficiently reduces advertiser profits. Newspaper competition generally reduces the impact of advertising. In fact, as the size of advertising grows, newspapers may paradoxically reduce advertiser bias, due to increasing competition for readers. However, advertisers can counter this effect of competition by committing to news-sensitive cut-off strategies, potentially inducing as much under-reporting as in the monopoly case.

Tacit collusion and capacity withholding in repeated uniform price auctions

This paper contributes to the study of tacit collusion by analyzing infinitely repeated multiunit uniform price auctions in a symmetric oligopoly with capacity constrained firms. Under both the Market Clearing and Maximum Accepted Price rules of determining the uniform price, we show that when each firm sets a price-quantity pair specifying the firm's minimum acceptable price and the maximum quantity the firm is willing to sell at this price, there exists a range of discount factors for which the monopoly outcome with equal sharing is sustainable in the uniform price auction, but not in the corresponding discriminatory auction. Moreover, capacity withholding may be necessary to sustain this out-come. We extend these results to the case where firms may set bids that are arbitrary step functions of price-quantity pairs with any finite number of price steps. Surprisingly, under the Maximum Accepted Price rule, firms need employ no more than two price steps to minimize the value of the discount factor

Auctions for government securities: a laboratory comparison of uniform, discriminatory and spanish designs

The Bank of Spain uses a unique auction format to sell government bonds, which can be seen as a hybrid of a uniform and a discriminatory auction. For winning bids above the average winning bid, buyers are charged the average winning bid, otherwise they pay their respective bids. We report on an experiment that compares this auction format to the discriminatory format, used in most other countries, and to the uniform format. Our design is based on a common value model with multi-unit supply and two-unit demand. The results show significantly higher revenue with the Spanish and the uniform formats than with the discriminatory one, while volatility of prices over time is significantly lower in the discriminatory format than in the Spanish and uniform cases. Actual price dispersion is significantly larger in the discriminatory than in the Spanish. Our data also exhibit the use of bid-spreading strategies in all three designs.

Gestión de productos de una empresa dedicada a la moda

Aquesta memòria ha estat realitzada per donar a conèixer el project que du per títol "Gestió de productes d'una empresa dedicada a la moda". Aquesta aplicació intentarà introduir en el mercat una solució per a les petites empreses que volen fer-se un lloc en el món de la moda i que necessiten un programari per poder gestionar les seves botigues. En aquest sector existeixen petits empresaris que van començar realitzant les peces de roba a les seves fàbriques i que han decidit fer petites col·leccions i posar-les a la venda al detall, a les seves propies franquícies. Aquesta aplicació mostra un mòdul d'un projecte molt més gran. El mòdul s'encarrega de la gestió dels articles creats a fàbrica, per poder distribuir-los entre les botigues. Un possible segon mòdul es dedicaria a la gestió de les vendes a les botigues.

Implantación de un ERP en una compañía de apuestas por Internet

Aquest projecte intenta cobrir les necessitats que genera una empresa nova que vol vendre loteria a Internet. Es necessita tenir ben definits els circuits de compra, de venda, de facturació, de control d'existències, de cobraments i de pagaments, entre d'altres. Per gestionar tota aquesta activitat, s’ha fet servir el ERP Navision amb SQL Server, adaptant-lo i creant noves funcionalitats. L'aplicació Web ha estat integrada amb Navision i s'ha desenvolupat la seva funcionalitat, tenint sessions per a usuari amb comptes propis que permeten la consulta i la compra dels productes que ofereix l'empresa.

Why do convertible issuers simultaneously repurchase stock? An arbitrage-based explanation

We examine why firms combine convertible debt offerings with stock repurchases. In 2006, 33% of the convertible issuers in the US simultaneously repurchased stock. These combined transactions are inconsistent with traditional motivations for convertible issuance. We document that convertible arbitrage drives these stock repurchases. Convertible debt arbitrageurs simultaneously buy convertibles and short sell the issuer’s common stock, resulting in downward pressure on the stock price. To prevent such short-selling activity, firms repurchase their stock directly from arbitrageurs. We show that combined transactions exhibit lower short-selling activity and that convertible arbitrage explains both the size and speed of the stock repurchases.

Venda de kiwis online: www.prosmokiwi.com

Avui en dia la venda de productes, mitjançant les possibilitats que ens ofereix Internet, es troba en ple creixement. Aquest projecte pretén posar en funcionament una pàgina Web dedicada a la venda de fruita, concretament kiwis. Des de fa un temps, la població comença a ser conscient del desequilibri entre l'agent productor i l'agent comercial. Com passa també en altres sectors, el productor ven a un preu molt inferior respecte al que després es ficarà de cara al comprador final. En el cas de la fruita, el client acaba comprant un producte més car i normalment de menys qualitat. L'objectiu principal d'aquest projecte és promoure la venda online a partir d'una mercaderia de qualitat i més econòmica, aconseguint un major benefici tant per part del productor com del client.

e-Serveis : Botiga Virtual

Aquest projecte presenta un cas d'estudi a partir del qual es vol fer un procés de desenvolupament de programari. Concretament, l'objectiu és crear un sistema de venda de productes i serveis per mitjà de la xarxa d'Internet.

Micropagaments amb monedes Payword

Aquesta memòria presenta un projecte per a crear un prototipus que permeti veure el funcionament dels micropagaments amb monedes PayWord. Es tracta d'un sistema de venda d'elements multimèdia (cançons MP3), que es paguen amb el sistema de micropagaments PayWord.

Audiofaktor, comerç online de components hi-Fi i HT

Memòria de creació d'un comerç online dedicat a la comercialització de components d'alta fidelitat i cinema a casa.

Desarrollo web Drupal para una tienda de instrumentos musicales

Mediante el proyecto descrito en esta memoria se repasan las fases que se han seguido en la elaboración de una tienda virtual para la venta de instrumentos musicales haciendo uso de la plataforma Drupal.

Bottled natural mineral water in catalonia: origin and geographical evolution of its consumption and production

During the second half of the nineteenth century a major mineral water bottling industry appeared in Catalonia which vigorously lasted until the first third of the 20th century. The fact that the industry appeared in Catalonia and in other parts of Europe and the United States almost at the same time and had not existed before can be explained by a series of factors which coincided in time. This situation encouraged producers to pack, transport and sell bottled water from their respective sources. Among these factors there is the rise of hygienism, very influential in Catalonia, the declining water quality due to industrialization, the increase in population density, the improvement in transport, the emergence of thermal tourism or the invention of better containers used to store water. This project aims to explain thoroughly all the mentioned factors, and to give some light to why, when and how the Catalan bottled water industry appeared.

J2EE : simulador de IBEX 35

Este trabajo de final de carrera tiene como objetivo el diseño e implementación de un simulador de bolsa online donde los usuarios puedan realizar acciones de compra-venta de valores del mercado IBEX 35. Los beneficios obtenidos por cada usuario pasan a un listado de puntuaciones el cual mostrará qué usuarios han gestionado mejor sus inversiones.

Financing Constraints, Irreversibility, and Investment Dynamics

We develop a model of an industry with many heterogeneous firms that face both financing constraints and irreversibility constraints. The financing constraint implies that firms cannot borrow unless the debt is secured by collateral; the irreversibility constraint that they can only sell their fixed capital by selling their business. We use this model to examine the cyclical behavior of aggregate fixed investment, variable capital investment, and output in the presence of persistent idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks. Our model yields three main results. First, the effect of the irreversibility constraint on fixed capital investment is reinforced by the financing constraint. Second, the effect of the financing constraint on variable capital investment is reinforced by the irreversibility constraint. Finally, the interaction between the two constraints is key for explaining why input inventories and material deliveries of US manufacturing firms are so volatile and procyclical, and also why they are highly asymmetrical over the business cycle.