Abstract: This dissertation studies the effect of scientific discoveries, regulation, and changes in market access on the American and Japanese brewing industries over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Breweries adapted to these shocks by switching to new technologies, products, and geographical markets. In the long run, this adaptation process shaped the structure of the brewing industry and introduced competition and new production techniques in the soft-drink and biotechnology industries. Using detailed data at the brewery-level, coupled with natural experiments, I study the repercussions of this adaptation mechanism across industries and over time. Resumen: Esta tesis estudia el efecto de descubrimientos científicos, regulación y cambios en acceso a mercados en las industrias cerveceras de Estados Unidos y Japón durante los siglos diecinueve y veinte. Las cerveceras se adaptaron a estos cambios modificando su mezcla de tecnologías, productos y mercados geográficos. En el largo plazo, este proceso de adaptación cambió la estructura de la industria cervecera e introdujo competencia y nuevas técnicas de producción en las industrias de la gaseosa y la biotecnología. Usando datos detallados al nivel de cervecera, junto con experimentos naturales, estudio las consecuencias de este proceso de adaptación a través de industrias y a lo largo del tiempo.

Financial inclusion helps poor households to improve their consumption levels, protect against risks and significantly reduce the need to sell assets to meet basic needs. With access to savings, credit, insurance, and other financial services, poor people take advantage of economic opportunities, are more resilient and better able to cope with the everyday crises they face. Thus, the use of financial services is associated with improvements in household economic welfare and enterprise stability or growth. By reducing vulnerability and increasing earnings and savings, financial services allow poor households to make the transformation from ‘every-day survival’ to ‘planning for the future’ (Kiva-Organization). Microfinance is even more than providing a fundamental economic basis for planning and expanding business activities. By supporting women's economic participation, microfinance helps to empower women, thus promoting gender-equity and greater investment in their children's education. Also, increased earnings from financial services lead to better nutrition and better living conditions, which translates into a lower incidence of illness. With more money, poor people may seek out and pay for health care services when needed, rather than go without or wait until their health seriously deteriorates. The availability of credit for entrepreneurs is likely to lead to economic diversification and wealth creation in the community, which might support the development of health-related infrastructure such as sanitation and medical facilities (UNCDF Microfinance). Many different studies have shown that poor people who participate in microfinance programs that had access to financial services have better economic conditions than those who did not have access to financial services (Nawaz, 2010). While this empirical evidence seems almost to be done, we looked for a field that is nearly unexplored. Instead of understanding the determinants of financial inclusion or exclusion, this study will focus on the outcomes of interest that are shaped by financial exclusion. One such outcome is individual health. To start with, individual health (and mostly mental rather than physical health) is lower the larger the uncertainty individuals face, for a given level of income. As long as financial inclusion provides insurance against many possible shocks, and allows a better planning of one's life, we should expect a positive effect of financial inclusion on individual health. Also, it seems that in most impoverished communities, financial inclusion serves to raise the level of general sanitation, which also improves individual health. With research data from Columbia, this study considers if there is any statistical significance for the linkage between financial inclusion and health. The organization of this study is the following. In Section 2 we describe the principals of financial inclusion, determinants of health and the current linkage between microfinance and health. After the theoretical part, Section 3 offers the data collection process, explains the basic survey and gives an analysis of the descriptive statistics. Section 4 includes the definition of the relevant variables as well as the regression of the models we used. The empirical findings are shown in Section 5, while the evaluation and the discussion of the results are shown in Section 6. Finally, Section 7 presents some conclusions.

Este trabajo se presentó en Abril de 2009 en un seminario de ingeniería financiera. El propósito del seminario era introducir a estudiantes de derecho financiero, maestría en finanzas y estudiantes de maestría de administración de empresas (MBA) instrumentos financieros creados recientemente y sobre los cuales no existiera literatura académica previa. El 30 de enero de 2009, en medio de turbulencias severas en los mercados financieros y rumores persistentes acerca de una posible nacionalización del banco, Barclays Bank PLC introdujo un instrumento financiero que aprovecha la volatilidad de los mercados de capitales. Un instrumento conocido como Nota transable en bolsa (ETN, Exchange traded note) que deriva su valor de un índice de volatilidad (El índice de volatilidad de la bolsa de opciones de Chicago (CBOE) el índice VIX, comúnmente conocido como el índice del ¨miedo financiero¨). Este documento intentara explicar los rasgos únicos de este titulo y una metodología hipotética para su valoración.

Many central banks, particularly in the developing world, aim for exchange rate stability as a macroeconomic goal. However, most are reluctant to relinquish monetary policy autonomy, so they end up operating through both interest rate and foreign exchange interventions. But the use of multiple policy instruments does not necessarily equip monetary authorities with better tools to achieve their targets. On the contrary, their effects can potentially offset each other. Using daily data from the Central Bank of Colombia during the period of 1999–2012, I study the effects of simultaneous policies by first deriving new measures of monetary shocks and then determining their impact on economic activity. The main findings indicate that (a) while interest rate interventions have a significant impact on real and nominal variables, foreign exchange interventions tend to have limited effects; and (b) empirical anomalies, such as the positive relationship between output growth, inflation, and the policy rate are eliminated when properly accounting for the systematic responses of policy.

Informe general de la economía departamental de Caquetá para el segundo semestre del año 2004. A lo largo del documento se mencionan variaciones en los índices de desempleo, exportaciones e importaciones, actividades financieras, construcción de infraestructura y sacrificio de ganado con respecto al periodo anterior.

Informe general de la economía departamental de Chocó para el año 2010. A lo largo del documento se mencionan variaciones en los índices de desempleo, exportaciones e importaciones, actividades financieras, construcción de infraestructura y sacrificio de ganado con respecto al periodo anterior.

Informe general de la economía departamental de Cesar para el año 2011. A lo largo del documento se mencionan variaciones en los índices de desempleo, exportaciones e importaciones, actividades financieras, construcción de infraestructura y sacrificio de ganado con respecto al periodo anterior.

Informe general de la economía departamental de La Guajira para el tercer y cuarto trimestre del año 2001. A lo largo del documento se mencionan variaciones en los índices de desempleo, exportaciones e importaciones, actividades financieras, construcción de infraestructura y sacrificio de ganado con respecto al periodo anterior.

Informe general de la economía departamental de Caquetá para el año 2009. A lo largo del documento se mencionan variaciones en los índices de desempleo, exportaciones e importaciones, actividades financieras, construcción de infraestructura y sacrificio de ganado con respecto al periodo anterior.

Informe general de la economía departamental de La Guajira para el segundo semestre del año 2005. A lo largo del documento se mencionan variaciones en los índices de desempleo, exportaciones e importaciones, actividades financieras, construcción de infraestructura y sacrificio de ganado con respecto al periodo anterior.