Creditor's protection and bank loans: lack of competition hamprers bankruptcy reform's effects

This dissertation investigates how credit institutions’ market power limits the effects of creditor protection rules on the interest rate and the spread of bank loans. We use the Brazilian Bankruptcy Reform of June/2005 (BBR) as a legal event affecting the institutional environment of the Brazilian credit market. The law augments creditor protection and aims to improve the access of firms to the credit market and to reduce the cost of borrowing. Either access to credit or the credit cost are also determined by bank industry competition and the market power of suppliers of credit. We derive a simple economic model to study the effect of market power interacting with cost of lending. Using an accounting and operations dataset from July/2004 to December/2007 provided by the Brazilian Central Bank, we estimate that the lack of competition in the bank lending industry hinders the potential reducing effect of the BBR on the interest rate of corporate loans by approximately 30% and on the spread by approximately 23%. We also find no statistical evidence that the BBR affected the concentration level of the Brazilian credit market. We present a brief report on bankruptcy reforms around the world, the changes in the Brazilian legislation and on some recent related articles in our introductory chapter. The second chapter presents the economic model and the testable hypothesis on how the lack of competition in the lending market limits the effects of improved creditor protection. In this chapter, we introduce our empirical strategy using a differences-in-differences model and we estimate the limiting effect of market power on the BBR’s potential to reduce interest rates and on the spread of bank loans. We use the BBR as an exogenous event that affects collateralized corporate loans (treatment group) but that does not affect clean consumer loans (control group) to identify these effects, using different concentration measures. In Chapter 3, we propose a two-stage empirical strategy to handle the H–Statistics proposed by Panzar and Rosse as a measure of market competition. We estimate the limiting effects of the lack of competition in replacing the concentration statistics by the H–Statistics. Chapter 4 presents a structural break test of the concentration index and checks if the BBR affects the dynamic evolution of the concentration index.

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2007

Includes bibliography

Productivity growth in Latin American manufacturing: what role for international trade intensities?

Includes Bibliography

Methane emissions and estimates of ruminal fermentation parameters in beef cattle fed different dietary concentrate levels

Using sorghum silage, the effect of roughage/concentrate ratios was evaluated on nutrient intake, digestibility, ruminal parameters and methane production by beef cattle. Three treatments (0, 30 and 60% of concentrate in DM of the diet) were distributed in three Latin squares, with nine animals and three periods. Dry matter intake increased as the grain concentration in diet increased; pH showed opposite behavior. Methane emissions were lower for animals fed the diet exclusively with sorghum silage as compared with those fed 30% of concentrate, but was similar to that of animals receiving 60% of concentrate. Losses of ingested gross energy as methane were reduced by 33% when grain concentration was increased in the diet. Concentrations of propionic and butyric acids were greater in diets with grain concentrate; acetic acid concentration was not affected. Concentrate in diet increases available energy for the metabolism, measured by lower losses of ingested gross energy as ruminal methane. © 2013 Sociedade Brasileira de Zootecnia.

Investigação dos efeitos tóxicos, mutagênicos e genotóxicos do herbicida Trifluralina, utilizando Allium cepa e Oreochromis niloticus como sistemas-testes

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Desempenho e características da carcaça e da carne de bovinos de diferentes grupos genéticos

Pós-graduação em Zootecnia - FCAV

O grupo cervejeiro nacional petrópolis na evolução do capitalismo brasileiro: concorrência e expansão territorial

The processes resulting from globalization are backdrop for the work. On the other hand the Regulation Theory is theoretical north that drives research directions. Considering these two basis, we studied the formation of economic groups as a consequence of the processes of concentration and centralization of capital, giving more emphasis on their national character. We see how they went through the restructuring process in the transition from Fordist accumulation regime to a flexible system of accumulation. We 'll discuss the brewery industry and how major industry groups are currently creating a sector overview, ranging from the productive process to the forms of competition among large companies. Specifically we will see the Petrópolis Group this framework and how the company relates to the territory, and what answers we have of this relationship in terms of local development in the territories where the group entered, and territorial changes which have occurred there

The Change from Red to White Meat: The Role of Technology

Since 1950, the composition of the U.S. meat diet has shifted markedly from red meats to poultry. For example, from 1970 to 1984, on a percapita basis, beef consumption has declined by 6.4 percent, while chicken and turkey consumptions have increased by 37.9, and 42.5 percent respectively (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1985). The numerous studies of this phenomenon from the demand side (Chavas, 1983; Braschler, 1983; Nyankori and Miller, 1982; Moschini and Meilke, 1984; Wohlgenant, 1985, Thurman, 1987; Chalfant and Alston, 1988) have failed to achieve a consensus as to whether a change in taste contributed to this shift. One reason for the lack of consensus is that the very large price and quantity changes make it difficult to establish whether consumers are on a new indifference map. But there have been no comparable studies of the nature and causes of the technological change that has made these large consumption and price changes possible. A decrease in the relative price of poultry with respect to red meat is in any case a major explanation of recent shifts in meat consumption patterns. The main reason for such a decrease appears to be a higher rate of technical progress in the poultry industry than in the red meat industry. Substantial productivity gains in both the production and marketing of poultry over the last two decades appears to have been translated into lower retail prices for poultry. Although some productivity gains have taken place in the red meat industry, they have not matched the cost reductions in the poultry industry (Chavas, 1987). Thus, a consumption shift from beef to poultry could possibly be interpreted as a response to changing relative prices, the structural change having occurred in the meat industry. This would imply that, if the beef industry desires to maintain or expand its market, it should seek a decrease in the production and marketing costs of beef.

A 13-Year Summary of the ISU Beef Cow Business Record

A 13-year summary of the Iowa State University Extension Service’s Beef Cow Business Record (BCBR) was compiled to show the trends in cost, profit, and production for beef-cow enterprises in Iowa. During these 13 years, 966 yearly records were summarized on herds with an average size of 74.6 cows. Each year-end summary sorts the producers with profits in the top and the bottom thirds of the group so that differences can be analyzed. The average cost to maintain a beef cow from 1982 to 1994 was $370.80. Cost components included in this average total were: feed and pasture, $177.10; operating, $45.40; depreciation, taxes, and insurance, $19.70; labor, $44.90; and capital, $83.70. Producers sorted into the top one-third profit group had 13-year average total cow costs of $309.80, but the bottom onethird profit group averaged $437.10. Economic returns per cow for these same 13 years were: return to capital, labor, and management, $139.50; return to labor and management, $56.20; and net profit, $20.20. Top-profit producers had an average net profit of $126.20 per cow, whereas the least profitable group had an average loss of $107.40. Of this $233.60 difference, $127.30 was due to production cost, and the remaining $106.30 was caused by gross return differences. The average number of pounds of beef produced per cow from 1984 through 1994 was 567. This production was achieved with 2.5 acres of pasture, 3.9 acres of cornstalk grazing, and 4,675 pounds of stored feed per cow unit. Top-profit producers used 673 pounds of stored feed per hundredweight of production, but the least profitable producers used 1,015 pounds. Top-profit producers produced 74 pounds more per cow while using 1,313 pounds less stored feed.

Primary production at time series station DYFAMED

Phytoplankton carbon assimilation has been measured near monthly using the 14C method at DYFAMED France JGOFS time-series station from 1993 to 1999. Data were obtained using the "LET GO" technique, which allowed in situ injection of bicarbonate and incubation in enclosures at 10 depths. Incubation duration was 4 h around noon, from which daily production was estimated. The seasonal variation of the depth-integrated carbon assimilation exhibits a marked cycle. Maximum values reach 1.8 g C/m**2/d in March or April; constant lower values were observed from August to January, in the range 100-300 mg C/m**2/d. The annual primary production vary in the range 86-232 g C/m**2/yr, in the upper range of older estimations. Primary production normalized to chlorophyll a shows maximum values in the period of oligotrophy. This increase of carbon assimilation rate per unit of chlorophyll a appears as linked to the period of phosphorus-limited ecosystem, and vertical distribution of taxonomic pigments suggests a possible role of cyanobacteria. Potential export production has been estimated from primary production data and Fp ratio based on pigments concentrations. These estimates (which imply biological steady state conditions) vary in a wide range, from 19 to 71 g C/m**2/yr. There is a decoupling between years with high potential export production and years with high measured particulate fluxes, which highlights the question of balance by resupply of the limiting nutrients and the role of dissolved organic carbon. A possible shift of primary production towards a more regeneration-dominated system is suggested for recent years.

La importancia de la Denominación de Origen Rioja en el contexto del mercado vitivinícola español

En este artículo se analiza la situación actual del sector vitivinícola, el cual, basándonos en datos de los últimos 20 años, ha experimentado un balance bastante negativo ya que se ha producido una reducción significativa de la superficie de viñedo con datos de 2009. Sin embargo, el análisis riguroso de la D.O.CA Rioja nos ha permitido recoger la evolución favorable de la producción y comercialización de la D.O.CA Rioja, lo cual ha facilitado su consolidación como primera del ranking. Asimismo, el balance en cuanto a las exportaciones y las ventas en el mercado interior ha sido muy favorable en dicho periodo, ya que, la D.O.CA Rioja ocupa un lugar privilegiado en ambos mercados, tanto es así que esta DO cuenta con un alto reconocimiento en los principales países importadores del Mundo, que son Alemania y Reino Unido. Para todo ello, el principal factor de diferenciación de estas bodegas es el tiempo que permanecen los vinos en barrica de roble, lo que le da un sabor inigualable que el consumidor sabe premia.

La importancia de la Denominación de Origen Rioja en el contexto del mercado vitivinícola español

En este artículo se analiza la situación actual del sector vitivinícola, el cual, basándonos en datos de los últimos 20 años, ha experimentado un balance bastante negativo ya que se ha producido una reducción significativa de la superficie de viñedo con datos de 2009. Sin embargo, el análisis riguroso de la D.O.CA Rioja nos ha permitido recoger la evolución favorable de la producción y comercialización de la D.O.CA Rioja, lo cual ha facilitado su consolidación como primera del ranking. Asimismo, el balance en cuanto a las exportaciones y las ventas en el mercado interior ha sido muy favorable en dicho periodo, ya que, la D.O.CA Rioja ocupa un lugar privilegiado en ambos mercados, tanto es así que esta DO cuenta con un alto reconocimiento en los principales países importadores del Mundo, que son Alemania y Reino Unido. Para todo ello, el principal factor de diferenciación de estas bodegas es el tiempo que permanecen los vinos en barrica de roble, lo que le da un sabor inigualable que el consumidor sabe premia.

La importancia de la Denominación de Origen Rioja en el contexto del mercado vitivinícola español

En este artículo se analiza la situación actual del sector vitivinícola, el cual, basándonos en datos de los últimos 20 años, ha experimentado un balance bastante negativo ya que se ha producido una reducción significativa de la superficie de viñedo con datos de 2009. Sin embargo, el análisis riguroso de la D.O.CA Rioja nos ha permitido recoger la evolución favorable de la producción y comercialización de la D.O.CA Rioja, lo cual ha facilitado su consolidación como primera del ranking. Asimismo, el balance en cuanto a las exportaciones y las ventas en el mercado interior ha sido muy favorable en dicho periodo, ya que, la D.O.CA Rioja ocupa un lugar privilegiado en ambos mercados, tanto es así que esta DO cuenta con un alto reconocimiento en los principales países importadores del Mundo, que son Alemania y Reino Unido. Para todo ello, el principal factor de diferenciación de estas bodegas es el tiempo que permanecen los vinos en barrica de roble, lo que le da un sabor inigualable que el consumidor sabe premia.

Production of biogenic silica during the EBENE cruise, Equatorial Pacific

During the EBENE cruise (November 1996), distributions of biogenic silica concentration and production rates were investigated in the surface waters of the equatorial Pacific (180°W, from 8°S to 8°N), with particular emphasis on the limitation of the biogenic silica production by ambient silicic acid concentrations. Integrated over the depth of the euphotic layer, concentrations of biogenic silica and production rates were maximum at the Equator (8.0 and 2.6 mmol/m**2/d) and decreased more or less symmetrically polewards. Contribution of diatoms to the new production was estimated indirectly, comparing biogenic silica production rates and available data of new and export production in the same area. This comparison shows that new production in the equatorial area could mostly be sustained by diatoms, accounting for the major part of the exported flux of organic carbon. Kinetics experiments of silicic acid enrichment were performed. Half saturation constants were 1.57 µM at 3°S and 2.42 µM at the Equator close to the ambient concentrations. The corresponding Vmax values for Si uptake were 0.028/h at 3°S and 0.052/h at the equator. Experiments also show that in situ rates were restricted to 13-78% of Vmax, depending on ambient silicic acid concentrations. This work provides the first direct evidence that the rate of Si uptake by diatom populations of the equatorial Pacific is limited by the ambient concentration of silicic acid. However, such Si limitation might not be sufficient in itself to explain the low diatom growth rates observed, and additional limitation is suggested. One hypothesis that is consistent with the results of Fe limitation studies is that Fe and Si limitations may interact, rather than just being a mutually exclusive explanation for the HNLC character of the system.