Publishing performance of Spanish academics: 1970—2004

This work complements some of the results appearing in the article “Publishing Performance in Economics: Spanish Rankings” by Dolado et al. (Span Econ Rev 5: 80–103, 2003) Specifically we focus on the robustness of the results regardless of the time span considered, the effect of the choice of a particular database on the final results, and the effects on changes in the unit of institutional measure (departments vs. institutions as a whole). Differences are significant when we expand the time period considered. There are also significant but small differences if we combine datasets to derive the rankings. Finally, department rankings offer a more precise picture of the situation of the Spanish academics, although results do not differ substantially from those obtained when overall institutions are considered.     

Inequality of Opportunity in Europe

Using the EU‐SILC database, we estimate and compare the Inequality of Opportunity (IO) of 23 European countries in 2005. IO is estimated as the between‐type (ex‐ante) inequality component following the parametric procedure of Ferreira and Gignoux (2011 ), which allows for the inclusion of the large set of circumstances in the database. We also measure the degree of correlation between IO estimates and a set of past and contemporaneous economic factors related to the degree of development, labor market performance, investment in human capital, and social protection spending.     

Trauma epidemiology in Puerto Rico: in-hospital morbidity and mortality from 2002 to 2011

This study aimed to describe the distribution of injury mechanisms and to assess the impact of those mechanisms on the morbidity and mortality of trauma. All patients admitted to Puerto Rico Trauma Hospital (2002–2011) for road-traffic collisions (RTCs, 5,371), gunshot wounds (GSWs, 2,946), falls (2,319), pedestrian accidents (1,652), and stab wounds (SWs, 1,073) were selected. Gunshot victims were 1.19 (95%CI: 1.07–1.33) times as likely as road-traffic victims to have an ISS ≥25. Pedestrians were 1.76 (95%CI: 1.49–2.09) times more likely to have a GCS ≤8 than road-traffic victims were. The risk of dying was 2.64 (95%CI: 2.20–3.16) times higher for gunshot victims and 1.51 (95%CI: 1.23–1.86) times higher for pedestrians compared to patients who had had RTCs. Gunshot victims and pedestrians had the worst clinical outcomes. Accordingly, these patients should receive the most aggressive clinical management. Furthermore, it is imperative to develop public health campaigns on trauma prevention.     

Unraveling determinants of inferred and stated attribute nonattendance: Effects on farmers’ willingness to accept to join agri-environmental schemes

Attribute nonattendance (ANA) has received very little attention in the context of willingness to accept (WTA), although an increasing number of studies analyze the preferences of ecosystem service providers toward incentive-based schemes. We add to the understanding of ANA behavior by analyzing stated and inferred ANA in a choice experiment investigating farmers’ WTA for participating in agri-environmental schemes (AES) in southern Spain. We use mixed logit models, following Hess and Hensher for the inferred ANA approach. Evidence is found of ANA behavior for both stated and inferred approaches, with models accounting for ANA clearly outperforming those that do not account for it; however, we produce no conclusive results as to which ANA approach is best. WTA estimates are only moderately affected, which to some extent is consistent with the low level of non-attendance found for the monetary attribute. Stated and inferred approaches show very similar WTA estimates. Additionally, we investigate sources of observed heterogeneity related to ANA behavior by using a sequence of bivariate probit models for each attribute. Overall, our results hint at a positive relationship between ease of scheme adoption and nonattendance to attributes. However, further research is still needed in this field.     

On dividends in the phase–type dual risk model

The dual risk model assumes that the surplus of a company decreases at a constant rate over time, and grows by means of upward jumps which occur at random times with random sizes. In the present work, we study the dual risk renewal model when the waiting times are phase-type distributed. Using the roots of the fundamental and the generalized Lundberg’s equations, we get expressions for the ruin probability and the Laplace transform of the time of ruin for an arbitrary single gain distribution. Then, we address the calculation of expected discounted future dividends particularly when the individual common gains follow a phase-type distribution. We further show that the optimal dividend barrier does not depend on the initial reserve. As far as the roots of the Lundberg equations and the time of ruin are concerned, we address the existing formulae in the corresponding Sparre-Andersen insurance risk model for the first hitting time, and we generalize them to cover also the situations where we have multiple roots. We do that working a new approach and technique, approach we also use for working the dividends, unlike others, it can be also applied for every situation.     

The Effect of Customer Orientation on Smaller Sized Service Firms and on the Market: A Multilevel Application Embracing Firms and Customers

The aim of the present work is to ascertain the importance of customer orientation as a business strategy within the smaller services sector. The adoption of customer orientation is measured from the firm's point of view, and its effect on financial performance is analyzed. Customer perception is analyzed, using two variables, perceived value and loyalty. The sample consists of 100 Spanish rural tourism enterprises and 572 customers. The findings reveal that customer orientation has a direct effect on perceived value, and perceived value has a direct effect on loyalty toward the firm. Furthermore, customer orientation contributes to the achievement of financial performance.     

Modelling the volatility of commodities prices using a stochastic volatility model with random level shifts

We use the approach of Qu and Perron (Econom J 16(3):309–339, 2013) for the modeling and inference of volatility of a set of commodity prices in the presence of random level shifts of unknown timing, magnitude and frequency. Our approach contributes to the study of commodities in several aspects. First, we test for the presence of a genuine long-memory process in the volatility of commodities. Second, we determine that the random level shifts are certainly the main source of variation in the commodity price volatility. Finally, we estimate the volatility and its components as latent variables, thereby making it possible to evaluate their level of correlation with macroeconomic variables in small open economies such as Latin-American countries where the dependence on commodity price volatility is high. We use six commodity series: agriculture, livestock, gold, oil, industrial metals and a general commodity index. All series cover the period from January 1983 until December 2013 in daily frequency. The results show that although the occurrence of a level shift is rare, (about once every 1.5 or 1.8 years), this component clearly contributes most to the variation in the volatility. Furthermore, isolating the level shift component from the overall volatility indicates a strong relationship of this component with a set of business cycle indicators of several Latin American countries.     

The influence of perceived risk on Internet shopping behavior: a multidimensional perspective

The present study analyzes the influence that perceived risk in online shopping has on the process of e‐commerce adoption by end consumers. With this aim, the Technology Acceptance Model is taken as a reference framework, proposing an Extended E‐Commerce Acceptance Model that includes the diverse constructs of perceived risk: financial, performance, social, time, psychological and privacy. Empirical evidence is obtained from two samples, one is composed by Internet users with no experience in web shopping and the other is formed by online buyers. The results obtained confirm that the intention to shop through the Internet is positively influenced by general attitude toward the system and negatively influenced by the risk associated with the Web. Regarding the importance of the risk dimensions considered in the study, the economic and performance facets are the ones that have a greater influence on e‐commerce adoption, while social and time dimensions are the less relevant.     

Valuación de opciones de tipo de cambio asumiendo distribuciones α-estables

This paper aims to present the valuation of options using the Black-Scholes method assuming α-stable distributions as an alternative option valuation in the Mexican market. The use of α-stable distributions for modelling financial series allows to overcome the classical valuation main weakness which assumes normality, by capturing the presence of heavy tails and asymmetry in financial time series. One of the main results is the price differential between the two models and the effect of alpha and beta parameters on prices; to show the difference valuation is made of a call option and a put option for the peso-dollar exchange rate. Likewise, basic sensitivity measurements of options (delta, gamma, and rho) were made and the effect of the stability parameter (α) was made on the implied volatility of options assuming the α-stable price as the market price.     

The role of permanent and transitory components in the fluctuations of Latin–American real exchange rates

Following the approach suggested by Engel and Kim (1999 Engel, C. 1999. Accounting for U.S. real exchange rates changes. Journal of Political Economy, 107: 507–38. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), we estimate the permanent and transitory components of the real exchange rates in four Latin–American countries for the period 1957:01 to 2002:04. Results suggest that transitory component is the driving force of the real exchange rates in Argentina and Mexico. A principal role of the permanent component is observed in the real exchange rates of Brazil and Chile. Estimates probabilities of the high-variance regime allow to identify the principal events happened in these countries. This information is closely related to nominal shocks and therefore, it explains the significant role of this component in these countries.