Institutions and equity structure of foreign affiliates

Question/Issue: We combine agency and institutional theory to explain the division of equity shares between the foreign (majority) and local (minority) partners within foreign affiliates. We posit that once the decision to invest is made, the ownership structure is arranged so as to generate appropriate incentives to local partners, taking into account both the institutional environment and the firm-specific difficulty in monitoring. Research Findings/Insights: Using a large firm-level dataset for the period 2003-2011 from 16 Central and Eastern European countries and applying selectivity corrected estimates, we find that both weaker host country institutions and higher share of intangible assets in total assets in the firm imply higher minority equity share of local partners. The findings hold when controlling for host country effects and when the attributes of the institutional environment are instrumented. Theoretical/Academic Implications: The classic view is that weak institutions lead to concentrated ownership, yet it leaves the level of minority equity shares unexplained. Our contribution uses a firm-level perspective combined with national-level variation in the institutional environment, and applies agency theory to explain the minority local partner share in foreign affiliates. In particular, we posit that the information asymmetry and monitoring problem in firms are exacerbated by weak host country institutions, but also by the higher share of intangible assets in total assets. Practitioner/Policy Implications: Assessing investment opportunities abroad, foreign firms need to pay attention not only to features directly related to corporate governance (e.g., bankruptcy codes) but also to the broad institutional environment. In weak institutional environments, foreign parent firms need to create strong incentives for local partners by offering them significant minority shares in equity. The same recommendation applies to firms with higher shares of intangible assets in total assets. �� 2014 The Authors.

Current meter measurements from five moorings in the subpolar North Atlantic east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland

The southwestern part of the subpolar North Atlantic east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and Flemish Cap is a crucial area for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Here the exchange between subpolar and subtropical gyre takes place, southward flowing cold and fresh water is replaced by northward flowing warm and salty water within the North Atlantic Current (NAC). As part of a long-term experiment, the circulation east of Flemish Cap has been studied by seven repeat hydrographic sections along inline image (2003-2011), a 2 year time series of current velocities at the continental slope (2009-2011), 19 years of sea surface height, and 47 years of output from an eddy resolving ocean circulation model. The structure of the flow field in the measurements and the model shows a deep reaching NAC with adjacent recirculation and two distinct cores of southward flow in the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC): one core above the continental slope with maximum velocities at mid-depth and the second farther east with bottom-intensified velocities. The western core of the DWBC is rather stable, while the offshore core shows high temporal variability that in the model is correlated with the NAC strength. About 30 Sv of deep water flow southward below a density of sigma-theta = 27.68 kg/m**3 in the DWBC. The NAC transports about 110 Sv northward, approximately 15 Sv originating from the DWBC, and 75 Sv recirculating locally east of the NAC, leaving 20 Sv to be supplied by the NAC from the south.

La crisis de la deuda en Am��rica Latina de la d��cada de los ochenta

35 a��os despu��s de la crisis de la deuda de Am��rica Latina, se sigue discutiendo los or��genes de la misma. Las posturas contienen juicios de valor que reducen el debate a una confrontaci��n entre ���buenos y malos���. No es as��. Entender la crisis de la deuda supone analizar los fines de los a��os setenta, cuando se produjo una ���tormenta perfecta���: sobreendeudamiento, recesi��n mundial, choques del petr��leo y aumento de las tasas de inter��s. El desencadenante de la ���d��cada perdida��� fue la interrupci��n de los flujos de capitales hacia la regi��n en 1982. El diagn��stico era clave, pues afectaba las propuestas de soluci��n. La crisis de la deuda afect�� a todas las econom��as de la regi��n, al margen del tama��o y modelo de desarrollo, del mismo modo que el boom de los precios de las materias primas del per��odo 2003-2011 gener�� un ciclo expansivo que fue independiente, tanto del tipo de gobierno como de la estrategia de crecimiento. A fines de la d��cada de los ochenta, la regi��n se adhiri�� a una estrategia basada en el mercado, que salvo excepciones, mantiene hasta hoy.

Jeograf��a f��sica i pol��tica de las provincias de la Nueva Granada por la Comisi��n Corogr��fica: provincias del Socorro, V��lez, Tunja i Tundama

Presenta hojas plegadas de tablas sin��pticas con las distancias entre ciudades

The estuarine geochemical reactivity of Zn isotopes and its relevance for the biomonitoring of anthropogenic Zn and Cd contaminations from metallurgical activities: Example of the Gironde fluvial-estuarine system, France

Zinc stable isotopes measurements by MC-ICP-MS, validated by laboratory intercalibrations, were performed on wild oysters, suspended particles and filtered river/estuarine water samples to provide new constraints for the use of Zn isotopes as environmental tracers. The samples selected were representative of the long range (400 km) transport of metal (Zn, Cd, etc.) contamination from former Zn-refining activities at Decazeville (i.e. ��66Zn > 1 ���) and its phasing out, recorded during 30 years in wild oysters from the Gironde Estuary mouth (RNO/ROCCH sample bank). The study also addresses additional anthropogenic sources (urban and viticulture) and focuses on geochemical reactivity of Zn in the turbidity gradient and the maximum turbidity zone (MTZ) of the fluvial Gironde Estuary. In this area, dissolved Zn showed a strong removal onto suspended particulate matter (SPM) and progressive enrichment in heavy isotopes with increasing SPM concentrations varying from ��66Zn = -0.02 ��� at 2 mg/L to +0.90 ��� at 1310 mg/L. These signatures were attributed to kinetically driven adsorption due to strongly increasing sorption sites in the turbidity gradient and MTZ of the estuary. Oysters from the estuary mouth, contaminated sediments from the Lot River and SPM entering the estuary showed parallel historical evolutions (1979-2010) for Zn/Cd ratios but not for ��66Zn values. Oysters had signatures varying from ��66Zn = 1.43 ��� in 1983 to 1.18 ��� in 2010 and were offset by ��66Zn = 0.6 - 0.7 ��� compared to past (1988) and present SPM from the salinity gradient. Isotopic signatures in river-borne particles entering the Gironde Estuary under contrasting freshwater discharge regimes during 2003-2011 showed similar values (��66Zn ��� 0.35 �� 0.03 ���; 1SD, n=15), i.e. they were neither related to former metal refining activities at least for the past decade nor clearly affected by other anthropogenic sources. Therefore, the Zn isotopic signatures in Gironde oysters reflect the geochemical reactivity of Zn in the estuary rather than signatures of past metallurgical contaminations in the watershed as recorded in contaminated river sediments. The study also shows that the isotopic composition of Zn is strongly fractionated by its geochemical reactivity in the Gironde Estuary, representative of meso-macrotidal estuarine systems.

Caracter��sticas de las redes empresariales en la ciudad de Bogot�� - caso - Asociaci��n Gremial Acican

Bogot�� (Colombia): Universidad de La Salle. Facultad de Ciencias Administrativas y Contables. Programa de Administraci��n de Empresas

Empirical validation of CAPM

This paper pretends to show empirical evidence of the CAPM model of Sharpe-Lintner (1964) for Colombia from 2003 to 2010, whose validation is carried out using the method of Black, Jensen and Scholes (1972) but introducing certain methodological econometric type changes associated to the requirements imposed by the used sample -- Specifically, we found no empirical evidence to reject the CAPM for the Colombian economyin the period under analysis

LA POL��TICA SOCIAL EN TIEMPOS DE AJUSTE

La pol��tica social est�� nuevamente de moda. Hace unos a��os, eran la estabilizaci��n y el ajuste los temas que dominaban la literatura, los debates y hasta las conversaciones de los economistas. Hoy, es cada vez m��s frecuente la referencia a la pobreza, el costo social del ajuste, el rostro humano de la pol��tica econ��mica, el gasto social, la salud, la educaci��n, en fin, todos aquellos temas relativos a la calidad de vida y el desarrollo humano. A diferencia del pasado, sin embargo, este redescubrimiento de los objetivos sociales del desarrollo no olvida, sino que parte precisamente del reconocimiento de las limitaciones materiales y financieras que enfrentan las sociedades menos desarrolladas. La discusi��n actual busca redefinir el sentido de la pol��tica social en los tiempos del ajuste o, si se quiere, redefinir los procesos de ajuste a la luz de su verdadero objetivo: el desarrollo social.

Ruta del nopal. Vivienda rural sostenible, municipio de los Santos

Bogot�� (Colombia): Universidad de La Salle. Facultad de Ciencias del H��bitat. Programa de Arquitectura

Estado del arte sobre abordajes comunitarios en las pr��cticas profesionales de Psicolog��a

143 p.

Essays on firm behaviour in the euro area

This thesis examines firms' real decisions using a large panel of unquoted euro area firms over the period 2003-2011. To this end, this thesis is composed of five chapters in which three are the main empirical chapters. They assess the dimensions of firm behaviour across different specifications. Each of these chapters provide a detailed discussion on the contribution, theoretical and empirical background as well as the panel data techniques which are implemented. Chapter 1 describes the introduction and outline of the thesis. Chapter 2 presents an empirical analysis on the link between financial pressure and firms' employment level. In this set-up, it is explored the strength of financial pressure during the financial crisis. It is also tested whether this effect has a different impact for financially constrained and unconstrained firms in the periphery and non-periphery regions. The results of this chapter denote that financial pressure exerts a negative impact on firms' employment decisions and that this effect is stronger during the crisis for financially constrained firms in the periphery. Chapter 3 analyses the cash policies of private and public firms. Controlling for firm size and other standard variables in the literature of cash holdings, empirical findings suggest that private firms hold higher cash reserves than their public counterparts indicating a greater precautionary demand for cash by the former. The relative difference between these two type of firms decreases (increases) the higher (lower) is the the level of financial pressure. The findings are robust to various model specifications and over different sub-samples. Overall, this chapter shows the relevance of firms' size. Taken together, the findings of Chapter 3 are in line with the early literature on cash holdings and contradict the recent studies, which find that the precautionary motive to hold cash is less pronounced for private firms than for public ones. Chapter 4 undertakes an investigation on the relation between firms' stocks of inventories and trade credit (i.e. extended and taken) whilst controlling for the firms' size, the characteristics of the goods transacted, the recent financial crisis and the development of the banking system. The main findings provide evidence of a trade-off between trade credit extended and firms' stock of inventories. In other words, firms' prefer to extend credit in the form of stocks to their financially constrained customers to avoid holdings costly inventories and to increase their sales levels. The provision of trade credit by the firms also depends on the characteristics of the goods transacted. This impact is stronger during the crisis. Larger and liquid banking systems reduce the trade-off between the volume of stocks of inventories and the amount sold on credit. Trade credit taken is not affected by firms' stock of inventories. Chapter 5 presents the conclusions of the thesis. It provides the main contributions, implications and future research of each empirical chapter.

Caracterizaci��n de trastornos musculo esquel��ticos en trabajadores de dos empresas de servicios en Bogot�� D.C 2015

Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la prevalencia de los trastornos m��sculoesquel��ticos y la asociaci��n con factores sociodemogr��ficos y h��bitos de vida en trabajadores de las ��reas administrativa y operativa de dos empresas de servicio de la ciudad de Bogot�� 2015. Materiales y M��todos: Se realiz�� un estudio de corte transversal, con informaci��n secundaria, procedente de bases de datos suministrada por las dos empresas con 696 registros de trabajadores de servicios generales, y 943 registros de trabajadores del ��rea administrativa, para un total de 1639 registros, en los cuales se evalu�� la presencia de s��ntomas osteomusculares clasificados por segmento. Adicionalmente se contaba con informaci��n de caracter��sticas sociodemogr��ficas y estilos de vida de estos trabajadores. Se obtuvieron las distribuciones de frecuencias absolutas y relativas para las variables cualitativas, y las medidas de tendencia central y de dispersi��n para las variables cuantitativas. Para establecer la asociaci��n entre factores sociodemogr��ficos con las variables dependientes se utiliz�� la prueba chi2 de asociaci��n. Resultados: La prevalencia de molestia o dolor en los diferentes segmentos corporales fue de 21.5 % (n = 203) en cuello para la poblaci��n administrativa y de 17.5% (n = 148) en mano y mu��eca derecha para la poblaci��n de servicios generales. Vale la pena aclarar que el diagn��stico m��dico m��s frecuente referido por la poblaci��n en estudio fue traumas en musculo, bursa tend��n y/o ligamento con 10.5% en la poblaci��n administrativa y con el 12.4% en la poblaci��n de servicios generales. De las asociaciones significativas entre diagn��sticos presentes y h��bitos de vida y sue��o se encontr�� que sue��o no reparador se asoci�� significativamente con enfermedad general de m��sculos y huesos (p = 0.001), enfermedad o trauma activo de tejidos blandos (p = 0,000) y antecedente o enfermedad actual de columna vertebral (p = 0,000). De manera similar, el consumo de medicamentos para conciliar el sue��o se asoci�� con enfermedad de tejidos blandos (p = 0,000) y enfermedad actual de columna vertebral (p = 0,000). El consumo de caf�� (p = 0.001) y el sedentarismo (p = 0.031) est��n asociados con la enfermedad general de m��sculos y huesos. Conclusiones: Los TME son un factor de alta prevalencia en la poblaci��n trabajadora de Colombia, y como se demostr�� en este estudio, afectan a la poblaci��n de las empresas de servicio. Se evidencia cada vez m��s que los segmentos corporales m��s afectados en la poblaci��n administrativa, son cabeza y cuello, debido a las posturas mantenidas por largos periodos de tiempo, y en la poblaci��n de servicios se encontr�� molestia y dolor en mu��ecas y manos debido a los movimientos repetitivos que deben de realizar durante la jornada laboral. Se hace necesario profundizar m��s en la asociaci��n significativa de los trastornos del sue��o y la presencia de los TME, ya que se encontr�� una relaci��n importante entre estos dos.

Delimitaci��n de la ilicitud sustancial como elemento de la responsabilidad disciplinaria de los funcionarios p��blicos

La falta disciplinaria ser�� aquella conducta t��pica, antijur��dica y culpable, pues eso se desprende de los principios rectores del derecho disciplinario, los cuales tienen una consagraci��n normativa en el ordenamiento jur��dico colombiano, m��s espec��ficamente en la Ley 734 de 2002, actual C��digo Disciplinario ��nico. La Ilicitud Sustancial es el elemento que delimita la antijuridicidad de la responsabilidad disciplinaria, y se debe decir que el alcance de dicho concepto no ha sido definido de manera precisa por parte de la ley, ni de manera un��nime por parte de la doctrina, ni muchos menos por parte de la jurisprudencia. Luego de exponer las reflexiones hechas respecto al alcance de la ilicitud sustancial, se argumentar�� el por qu�� se debe entender el alcance de ese concepto bajo la siguiente hip��tesis: La ilicitud sustancial debe entenderse en t��rminos de antijuridicidad material, lo cual apunta a que la falta, adem��s de ser t��pica y culpable, debe vulnerar realmente la Funci��n P��blica como bien jur��dico a proteger por el Derecho Disciplinario, o ponerla en peligro manifiesto, pues ese tipo de derecho sancionador debe ser estrictamente limitado, ya que sus consecuencias son muy gravosas para los derechos de la personas destinatarias de la Ley Disciplinaria.

Informe de Gesti��n : 2013

"La presentaci��n de los avances que se plasma cada a��o en el informe de gesti��n obedece [...] a esta organizaci��n estrat��gica por ejes y programas, que facilita a nuestra comunidad la lectura y el seguimiento institucional de nuestros adelantos, nuestros diferenciales y lo que para nosotros resulta significativo." Hans Peter Knudsen Q. Rector

Informe de Gesti��n : 2014

"Este informe de gesti��n refleja ante la comunidad los logros destacados en cada uno de los programas que componen el actual Plan Integral de Desarrollo (pid) 2004-2019, y su organizaci��n se presenta en esta estructura. Sin duda, esta es la expresi��n del compromiso de los profesores y de la gesti��n de las unidades acad��micas y administrativas al servicio de un proyecto educativo com��n, en el que reconocemos el talento de todos los que construyen permanentemente la historia del Rosario." Jos�� Manuel Restrepo Abondano Rector.