Strategy-proof allocation mechanisms for economies with public goods

We show that strategy-proof allocation mechanisms for economies with public goods are dictatorial—i.e., they always select an allocation in their range that maximizes the welfare of the same single individual (the dictator). Further, strategy-proof and efficient allocation mechanisms are strongly dictatorial—i.e., they select the dictator’s preferred allocation on the entire feasible set. Thus, our results reveal the extent to which the conflict between individual incentives and other properties that may be deemed desirable (e.g., fairness, equal treatment, distributive justice) pervades resource allocation problems.     

BAM: a bounded adjusted measure of efficiency for use with bounded additive models

A decade ago the Range Adjusted Measure (RAM) was introduced for use with Additive Models. The empirical experience gained since then recommends developing a new measure with similar characteristics but with more discriminatory power. This task is accomplished in this paper by introducing the Bounded Adjusted Measure (BAM) in connection with a new family of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) additive models that incorporate lower bounds for inputs and upper bounds for outputs while accepting any returns to scale imposed on the production technology.     

Noise and aggregation of information in large markets

We study the relation between noise (liquidity traders, endowment shocks) and the aggregation of information in financial markets with large number of agents. We show that as long as noise increases with the number of agents, the limiting equilibrium is well-defined and leads to non-trivial information acquisition, even when per-capita noise tends to zero. In such equilibrium risk sharing and price revelation play different roles than in the standard limiting economy in which per-capita noise is finite. We apply our model to study information sales by a monopolist, and information acquisition in multi-asset markets, showing that it leads to qualitatively different results with respect to those in the existing literature. Our conditions on noise are shown to be necessary and sufficient to have limiting economies with perfectly competitive behavior consistent with endogenous information acquisition.     

How much does water consumption drop when each household takes charge of its own consumption? The case of the city of Seville

Making individuals take charge of their own domestic water consumption is one of the measures used to reduce the growing demand for this resource and to achieve sustainable consumption compatible with the goal of equity. The use of individual meters instead of communal meters and fixing tariffs by inhabitant rather than by household are two measures aimed at achieving these objectives. This article assesses the measures put in place in the Seville metropolitan area during the last 20 years with an unobserved component model set up in a state-space framework estimated using maximum likelihood. Water consumption elasticity to individual meters has changed from –0.307 to –1.317 with the introduction of per inhabitant tariffs, which demonstrates that there are water-saving synergies when the two measures are implemented together. The reductions in water consumption achieved with these measures are also longer lasting than the changes in consumption habits during the frequent droughts in Seville.     

Virtual integration of financial markets: a dynamic correlation analysis of the creation of the Latin American Integrated Market

This article investigates the role of virtual integration of financial markets on stock market return co-movements. In May of 2011, the Chilean, Colombian and Peruvian stock markets virtually integrated their stock exchanges and central securities depositories to form the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA). We utilize the dynamic conditional correlation model proposed by Engle (2002) to identify a statistically significant positive correlation between these markets. Moreover, we find strong evidence that the creation of the MILA increased the levels of dynamic correlation between stock returns. A higher correlation was also found during the dot-com bubble and the 2007 financial crises. Our results imply a decline in gains from international diversification by holding portfolios consisting of diverse stocks of these countries.     

Geographical and industrial spillovers in entry decisions across export markets

This article addresses sequential entry decisions in export markets. It focuses on externalities derived from previous export activity in countries close to those for which a potential entry decision is made (geographical spillovers) and externalities derived from previous presence of other firms in the same industry (industrial spillovers). The empirical analysis uses Spanish microdata for the period 2000–2010 in a firm decision model that also integrates country and industry characteristics. The results suggest that these two types of spillovers have a positive effect in explaining entry decisions in new export markets, though both are smaller in magnitude than the effects coming from previous presence in the same specific destination.     

Finance, Banks and the Stability of Emerging Markets

Access to finance and sound banking institutions are two critical elements in any attempt to promote economic development in least-developed countries. Nevertheless, only in recent years have existing relations between financial liberalization, banking practices and the economic performance of emerging market economies been investigated in depth. In this review essay, prompted by a recent book, "Finance for Development" by Barbara Stallings, we discuss some important issues in this promising field of applied research.     

Information disclosure, banking development and knowledge-driven growth

In this study we develop a knowledge-driven growth model which explicitly models the banking sector as monopolistically competitive. The main mechanism through which financial intermediaries affect the real economy is through the evaluation and provision of liquidity to R&D projects. We distinguish two scenarios. In the regime with information disclosure, banks are able to use the stock of information obtained by the banking industry from evaluating R&D projects. This information externality brings about efficiency improvements, thereby leading to a positive entry of banks, more bank-funded research and in turn positive economic growth. By contrast, in the regime with no information disclosure, it is not profitable for new banks to enter the industry. This implies that no more potential R&D projects can be evaluated and hence financed, thus leading the economy to a zero-growth equilibrium.     

Energy dependence,oil prices and exchange rates: the Dominican economy since 1990

This paper studies the impact that oil prices have had on the floating exchange rate (ER) of the Dominican peso during the 1990–2008 period. The existing empirical literature has documented a link between these two variables for large developed economies and oil-producing countries, always including the 1970s oil crises in their sample periods. Few authors analyze the case of small open economies dependent on oil imports. Since the acceleration of economic growth in the Dominican Republic during the last decade has greatly increased its degree of external energy dependence, this country’s experience presents an ideal case study. We estimate the influence that changes in international gasoline prices have on the real exchange rate between the Dominican peso and the United States dollar. The cointegrated nature of the gasoline price and ER time series are tested and a vector error correction model is developed. Our results indicate that a 10% rise in the price of gas coincides with a 1.2% depreciation of the peso in the long run and that the causality runs from gas prices to the peso.