What causes violent crime?

This study uses panel data of intentional homicide and robbery rates for a sample of developed and developing countries for the period 1970-1994, based on information from the United Nations World Crime Surveys, to analyze the determinants of national crime rates both across countries and over time. A simple model of the incentives to commit crimes is proposed, which explicitly considers possible causes of the persistence of crime over time (criminal inertia). A panel-data based GMM methodology is used to estimate a dynamic model of national crime rates. This estimator controls for unobserved country-specific effects, the joint endogeneity of some of the explanatory variables, and the existence of some types of measurement errors afflicting the crime data. The results show that increases in income inequality raise crime rates, crime tends to be counter-cyclical, and criminal inertia is significant.     

General equilibrium in CLO markets

We address a two-period equilibrium model with securitization of collateral-backed promises. Borrowers may suffer extra-economic default penalties and debts are pooled into collateralized loans obligations (CLO), allowing different seniority levels among tranches in a same CLO.     

Would You Choose Your Preferred Option? Comparing Choice and Recoded Ranking Experiments

Previous research has shown that results from a choice experiment are statistically different from those obtained from a ranking experiment that is recoded and treated as a choice experiment using only the first rank. By avoiding some of the shortcomings of previous comparisons, we obtain the opposite results using data from the valuation of a cork oak reforestation program in the south of Spain. Structural models and welfare estimations are statistically indistinguishable irrespective of the use of parametric or bootstrapping tests. Further, we employ follow-up questions and subsample analysis to test whether divergences appear when potential effects are isolated.     

Spot price modeling and the valuation of electricity forward contracts: The role of demand and capacity

We propose a model where wholesale electricity prices are explained by two state variables: demand and capacity. We derive analytical expressions to price forward contracts and to calculate the forward premium. We apply our model to the PJM, England and Wales, and Nord Pool markets. Our empirical findings indicate that volatility of demand is seasonal and that the market price of demand risk is also seasonal and positive, both of which exert an upward (seasonal) pressure on the price of forward contracts. We assume that both volatility of capacity and the market price of capacity risk are constant and find that, depending on the market and period under study, it could either exert an upward or downward pressure on forward prices. In all markets we find that the forward premium exhibits a seasonal pattern. During the months of high volatility of demand, forward contracts trade at a premium. During months of low volatility of demand, forwards can either trade at a relatively small premium or, even in some cases, at a discount, i.e. they exhibit a negative forward premium.     

Relative prices, income distribution and stabilization plans : The Argentine experience, 1967–1970

The objective of this paper is to analyze the anti-inflationary plan applied in Argentina in 1967, a plan which did not eliminate inflation. With respect to the failure of this plan, two different explanations have been offered: one according to which the problems were essentially political, and another, which maintained the program contained basic technical flaws. From the analysis of this paper it is clear that the truth lies much closer to the second explanation. In the last section of the paper, economic policy recommendations relevant for future anti-inflationary plans, be they implemented in Argentina or in other inflationary economies, are presented.     

Does it really pay to be good,everywhere? A first step to understand the corporate social and financial performance link in Latin American controversial industries

Most research studying the corporate social performance (CSP)–corporate financial performance (CFP) link has utilized developed country samples. Also, this literature has generally focused on a wide variety of industries, ignoring the fact that certain sectors – such as controversial industries – have graver social and environmental issues. Hence, a gap exists in this tradition when it comes to emerging markets and controversial industries. This paper attempts to fill this void by providing preliminary evidence and insight on the matter. Based on an exploration in six Latin American countries and five controversial industries, we find a negative bidirectional association (or a non‐significant one at best) between CSP and CFP. These results tend to contradict the mainstream conclusion of a positive bidirectional link, suggesting that institutional and market‐level forces play a major role in shaping this relationship.     

Revenue sharing in network utility maximization problems

Alliances arise in a wide variety of domains, when a group of countries, political parties, people or other entities agree to work together because of shared interests or aims. They make sense, if the output obtained is somehow better than the outcome of acting individually. Revenue or cost sharing is key when determining if individuals are better off by contributing to an alliance or not. In our alliance each member owns a unique resource –or set of resources–, which is given to the alliance. The alliance sells services, which are supported thanks to one or a set of these resources. We focus on alliances that sell services in such a way that the total revenue of the alliance is maximized. We show that this kind of problems can be modeled through a Network Utility Maximization problem. We subsequently explore the problem of revenue sharing among the members of the alliance. Such a problem is a complex one since the interests of all participants must be ensured and correct incentives must be provided. We formally formulate the members’ interests through a set of properties the revenue sharing method should verify. We then discuss the existing methods for revenue sharing and conclude that none of them verifies the needed properties for the case of a revenue maximizing alliance. We finally propose a revenue sharing method based on projecting the contributions of each member of the alliance into an economic stable set. Through an exhaustive simulative study we conclude that our method provides, in addition to economic stability, fairness among members and the right incentives to them. Through our analysis Network Service Provider alliances, which sell quality-assured data transport services, are considered as an application example.     

Do market oriented firms adopt Web 2.0 technologies? An empirical study in hospitality firms

Market Orientation (MO) has been of paramount importance for business performance, innovation, and marketing. It has called the attention of many researchers. Market orientation involves the generation of market intelligence, intelligence dissemination and responsiveness. Firms have been adopting different information technologies and the internet to generate and disseminate market intelligence. The Web 2.0 and its applications are being used by both customers and firms, and firms are adopting them to support different aspects of the organization. On the other hand, since users are generating enormous quantities of content on the internet it seems that a lot of market intelligence could be captured from the Web. Therefore, it was worth to ask if market oriented firms are adopting Web 2.0. This article studied the relationship between MO and the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in the hospitality industry using a structural equation modeling approach and based on the findings the relation between MO and the adoption of Web 2.0 was confirmed. Finally conclusions and implications of the results are discussed and several lines of future research are suggested.