Price transmission and market power analysis in the Spanish seafood market chain

Spain is one of the largest seafood markets in Europe and the world. Seafood consumption has traditionally been very high in Spain; in 2005, for instance, around 36.7 kg per capita were consumed (MAPA, several years). However, little attention has been paid to the market and how the different levels of the market chain interact. This paper uses weekly data to analyse the price transmission elasticity of the main twelve seafood products in the Spanish market chain (Ex-vessel, Wholesale and Retail stages). We then investigate the price transmission asymmetry in these market stages. The results have significant implications for demand analysis, market power and margins in the seafood value chain.asymmetry, price transmission, seafood products, market power

MKtree: generation and simulations

The problem to represent very complex systems has been studied by several authors, obtaining solutions based on different data structures. In this paper, a K dimensional tree (Multirresolution Kdtree, MKtree) is introduced. The MKtree represents a hierarchical subdivision of the scene objects that guarantees a minimum space overlap between node regions. MKtrees are useful for collision detection and for time-critical rendering in very large environments requiring external memory storage. Examples in ship design applications are described.Postprint (published version

Les primeres col·lecions bilingües dels clàssics grecs i llatins a Europa i la primera a Catalunya : la col·lecció de la Fundació Bernat Metge

La traducció dels clàssics llatins i grecs a diverses llengües europees per a la publicació en col·leccions bilingües es produí de manera simultània i justament en el període d'entreguerres. No és casualitat: al final del segle XIX s'havia iniciat a Alemanya una nova època pel que fa a la filologia clàssica i a la crítica textual, alhora que les traduccions començaven a ser valorades dins del sistema literari de la llengua d'arribada. En acabar la I Guerra Mundial, la Loeb Classical Library a Anglaterra, la col·lecció de l'Associació Budé a França i la col·lecció de la Fundació Bernat Metge a Catalunya publiquen autors clàssics, comparteixen els orígens, alguns objectius, tenen moltes similituds però també grans diferències. En aquest article s'analitza l'origen de cadascuna i s'estudia amb més detall el cas català: la col·lecció de la Fundació Bernat Metge s'inclou dins d'un moviment classicista que va recórrer tot Europa les dues primeres dècades del segle XX.The translation of Greek and Latin classics into several European languages for publication in bilingual collections occurred simultaneously in the period between the two world wars. This was not by chance: at the end of the nineteenth century a new era had begun in Germany in terms of classical philology and textual criticism. Moreover, translations began to be valued in the literary systems of the respective target languages. At the end of World War I, the Loeb Classical Library in England, the collection of the Association Budé in France, and the collection of the Bernat Metge Foundation in Catalonia had common origins. Some of their goals share many similarities, but there are also differences between them. This article analyzes the origin of each collection and examines in detail the Catalan case: the collection of the Bernat Metge Foundation formed part of a classicist movement that swept across Europe in the first two decades of the twentieth century, but which did not include the rest of Spain

20 anys, nova etapa per a "Llengua i Ús"

L'editorial presenta els continguts d'aquest número 53, en què la revista 'Llengua i Ús' estrena un nou format

Heterogeneous products and tests for an appropriate aggregation level considering different qualities: evidence from fresh hake at Barcelonas wholesale market

This paper stresses the importance of considering an appropriate aggregation level for databases and demand analyses, as an inappropriate level may lead to biased estimates. This is illustrated by an analysis of different fresh hake products from Mercabarna, Barcelonas wholesale market. The literature on seafood demand regards hake as a single product species. Nevertheless, in the Spanish market, many types of fish, ranging from inferior to luxury goods, are marketed as hake. Our results were in accordance with empirical observations, and suggest the need for analysis at a greater depth than the species level. Thus, this questions the results of previous demand studies and most databases, which have not taken the appropriate product aggregation level into account.hake, aggregation, market, homogenous products

Law and finance: empirical evidence from Germany, Spain, Portugal and Brazil

The global financial crisis of 2008 proved that many affected countries did not have effective insolvency laws at that moment. The increase of companies’ insolvencies made it clear that reforms needed to be urgently proposed to amend the inaccurate proceedings. However, not all of the commenced insolvency reforms ended up having the impact upon debtors and creditors that it was intended. The purpose of this paper is thus to prove whether said reforms had a meaningful effect in a group of selected countries upon creditors. I provide a general overview of the insolvency laws for Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil and describe some insolvency reforms that have come into force there recently. The paper then proceeds to the empirical analysis of companies’ data, where descriptive but mostly inferential statistics are implemented, to examine whether investors changed their lending behaviour after the reforms’ commencement. The Chow test and the Difference-in-difference estimation combined with a matching approach are two techniques used to give an answer to this question. The results show that Brazil is the only country where the commencement of the insolvency refom had a true impact upon leverage. Because the Brazilian insolvency law of study is thought to be a creditor-friendly reform, at least in some aspects, we observe that these results support the perspective that stronger creditor rights cause a decrease of financial leverage, also called demand-side view. Stronger creditor rights imply a higher chance that the companies’ management will lose jobs and control in case of bankruptcy and thus the management feels reticent to rely on external financing

La influència de l’inflament en el comportament de l’Argila de Londres

Les argiles naturals tenen una estructura, definida com la combinació de textura, o disposició de les partícules, i lligams entre les partícules. Normalment aquesta estructura suposa una millora en les propietats mecàniques de l’argila, tot i que en rares ocasions l’efecte és negatiu. Aquest sòl natural pot ser desagregat i barrejat amb aigua, i després consolidat, per tan de produir un sòl “reconstituït”, l’estructura del qual és per tant repetible, estàndard, i proporciona un patró amb el qual contrastar la influència de l’estructura natural en les propietats mecàniques de l’argila; es comprova que aquesta influència és diferent per a cada argila. L’estructura pot resultar malmesa com a conseqüència de la compressió de l’argila a molt altes pressions de confinament, o bé de l’inflament a molt baixes pressions de confinament. De la mateixa manera que l’efecte de l’estructura varia d’una argila a una altra, el mateix ocorre amb les conseqüències d’aquests processos destructius sobre l’estructura. Algunes estructures no es veuen afectades en absolut per l’inflament o l’excessiva càrrega; d’altres en queden tan afectades que el comportament resultant és quasi com el del sòl reconstituït; i d’altres mostren un comportament intermedi