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.

Resumen: El estudio aborda el nuevo marco y los recientes acontecimientos en el contexto de la economía digital. Describe de manera general los conceptos clave de la economía digital, junto con las recomendaciones y opciones sugeridas por la Acción 1 del reporte BEPS de la OCDE. Su objetivo principal es identificar y analizar los principales elementos relacionados con los impuestos directos y precios de transferencia. Las principales preocupaciones de contenidas en la Acción 1 del reporte BEPS conllevan a cuestionar si el marco fiscal internacional actual sigue siendo adecuado para hacer frente a los negocios en el contexto de la economía digital. Se ha analizado y sugerido que los costos de las economías de escala en el ámbito digital combinados con el aumento de los efectos de red generados por interacciones con los clientes pueden justificar un cambio de política fiscal. Sin embargo, en un cambio de política fiscal debe considerarse el potencial impacto en las configuraciones de negocios tradicionales con el fin de mantener la coherencia a nivel internacional. Éste estudio concluye que aún se debe trabajar a nivel internacional y nacional con el fin de abordar de manera efectiva todos los desafíos fiscales de la economía digital. También resalta que las conclusiones pueden evolucionar a medida que las economías digitales continúan creciendo y desarrollándose, lo que significa que los países deben continuar supervisando los avances diarios y nuevas configuraciones de negocio que están surgiendo de forma ininterrumpida. Una respuesta eficaz y definitiva a los problemas importantes requiere una solución internacional, coordinada y armonizada que se pueden lograr a través de un acuerdo multilateral, como ya es el propósito de la acción 15 del reporte BEPS. Como se trata de una solución que puede tomar mucho tiempo para que se pueda lograr, ahora que los principales riesgos de BEPS han sido identificados, ahora se requiere acción inmediata de las recomendaciones y las opciones establecidas por la OCDE necesarias para avanzar en el objetivo de hacer frente a los crecientes desafíos fiscales de la economía digital.

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.

This thesis contributes to the existing literature on personality traits and economic preference parameters by analyzing the stability of some of the main traits and parameters. Specically, I investigate whether (1) they change as individuals age in the cross-section and by individual, and (2) whether they are affected by an individual's personal situation changes. I use data from a large Dutch household panel survey (DHS) that includes measures for two key economic preference parameters: Risk Aversion and Future Orientation. On personality traits, the dataset contains information on the “Big Five”, a set of five general traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) that are said to capture individual differences in personality, and Economic Locus of Control, a lower-level (i.e. more specic; narrower) trait that measures the extent to which an individual believes economic outcomes are a result of her own actions. My results using pooled cross-section analysis suggest that most preference parameters and personality traits are not stable over time and are changed by many of the events investigated; in particular, there is strong evidence that Big Five Openness is negatively affected by marriage and widowing. Using fixed effects and random effects methodologies on a sub-sample of the data, most of the changes attributed to the events are no longer signifficant but the coefficients of marriage and widowing on Openness remain signifcant of similar size. If personality is modeled as a unit root process and their differences over four years are regressed against event dummies and age group indicators, the effects that are statistically signiffcant reduce to only a few, and the evidence on age instability is also contested. Overall, the evidence suggest that the hypothesis of age stability for most personality traits can be rejected (with the exception of Locus of Control) and only Openness seems to be negatively affected by marriage and widowing.

China is a successful destination for companies that are looking to receive a good return on their investment and make part of the most outstanding economy in the world. The adverse condition promoted by the state, impact directly the performance of multinational companies, one of these consequences is the Trapped Cash caused by the regulated environment in which the corporation is developing the business. The specific problem of the trapped cash will be analyzed in three different levels; the first one is China in order to familiarize corporations with the environment, generating greater understanding of the basic concepts and concerns that the organization would face. Second, the current theoretical solutions to the problem that will offer and a handful of solutions; third and finally, the case of Alcatel Lucent, a multinational company that has a long background in the Chinese environment, and is struggling because of the trapped cash in China, however, is implementing a solution to solve the liquidity problems of the organization. Concluding the study is possible to highlight the various approaches to increase the liquidity of the company by improving the management practices for the trapped cash situations. Nonetheless, while the roots of the trapped cash remain, a significant amount of cash will be freed.

With the financial globalization process, the geography of money and the social relations that are within it transformed. National currencies as integral part of the states’ financial and economic infrastructure are no longer associated with a particular territory as well as are “no longer the instrument of an exclusive national sovereignty” (Cohen, 2004, 1). This process is driven by different forces that determine the financial system today, where capital flows, trade, technology, institutions and new form of money challenge the control of the state over national currencies within its borders and question its function in the system. This paper thus suggest that national monopoly currencies are still a solid and prevailing instrument for economic and monetary leadership and power of the modern state, where sovereign authorities, rather than loosing its autonomy and influential power in the international financial market, are going through a reconfiguration process regarding the relationship between the state and a particular territory. In this context, rather than being “endangered species”, national currencies are going through a reconfiguration process that requires a redefinition of the geography of money.

Este texto explora las estrategias y características de dos unidades de trabajo vinculadas a uno de los fenómenos comerciales informales más importantes en Bogotá, conocido popularmente como "El Madrugón", mercado en el que, en su mayoría, se venden artículos de la confección. Este trabajo se ilustró en detalle y relacionalmente con la teoría del sociólogo Pierre Bourdieu, las diversas situaciones a nivel comercial y productivo que estructuran el ingreso y la permanencia en un territorio altamente competitivo que se caracteriza por sus ventas mayoristas en San Victorino (Bogotá, Colombia). Asimismo, este texto trata de entender las lógicas comerciales de un fenómeno urbano cuyo origen está fuertemente configurado por una política pública en relación a la recuperación del espacio público y por una estructura de mercado muy particular que obedece a la deficiencia de espacio comercial en esta zona, así como a la excesiva oferta de trabajadores informales en el mercado laboral bogotano, entre otras razones. El objetivo principal es comprender cómo este territorio se construye a partir de prácticas informales que, en algunos casos, tienen elementos "modernos" de acumulación del capital económico y, en otros casos, el de la supervivencia.

The financial industry operates in a rapidly changing environment, where participants need to adapt to the preferences and requirements of customers, the entrance of new competitors and regulation. Along history, Investment Banks have played an important role in the financial industry providing products and services that promote economic growth and providing structure to the market. They are sophisticated and powerful organizations, that before 2007 were believe to be too big to fail. However, the financial crisis exposed their failures and how vulnerable their interconnected structure is, making evident the latent risk that they represent for the economy. Since the crisis regulation become strict and regulators strengthen the vigilance over the activities Investment Banks undertake, undoubtedly creating a new scenario. Simultaneously in the UK a credit crunch occurs, and the access to funds sources for SMEs and individuals suffer a drastic contraction. In that complex environment the Alternative Finance Market emerged, proposing a solution for that segment of the market that was claiming for an efficient, flexible and easy source of fundraising. P2P Lending and Crowdfunding are the most known and relevant models from the Alternative Finance sector, and they had played a significant role, exhibiting a rapid growth, since they began to operate in 2005. After analysing both, the Investment Banking and the Alternative Finance Industry, and performing some empirical analysis, some conclusions were reached. First of all, from the Investment Banking side, they must recognize that more than a threat the Alternative Lending model represent a new source of opportunities. However, Investment Banks will face some challenges in the next years, and they need to work to defend their position in the industry. The research identified four main areas in which Investment Banks should work in the short term. Firstly, they should focus on restoring investors’ and clients’ confidence, which was weakened after the financial crisis. As it was mentioned in the paper, reputation plays a significant role in the financial industry and profits are highly related with it. If Investment Banks do not recover their status and reputation they might lose market-share. On the second place, they must overcome the phase of adjusting to the new regulatory requirements. After meeting the requirements, they can focus their strategy to compete in the current environment and face the challenges that P2P Lending and Crowdfunding are proposing. Thirdly, for defending their position IBs can work to reinforce and innovate in other of their business, taking advantage of their diversified structure. Finally, regarding the Alternative Finance Market, Investment Banks can support the platforms with the complex infrastructure that they already have. Also, they can work towards financial integration and exploit the expertise and reputation they possess. In respect to the Alternative Finance Market, this paper guided us towards some conclusions about some aspects regarding the current situation and the short-term perspectives for the industry. First of all, it was observed that P2P Lending and Crowdfunding have experienced exponential growth that began from the year the first platforms started to operate. Data from the Liberum AltFi Volume Index UK and the volume of origination showed in Zopa´s and RateSetter´s loan books confirmed the trend. The fact that the industry was created to fulfil the demand and abolish the limitations to which SMEs, start-ups and individuals were subject, gave them an advantage from the beginning in the lending business sphere. In addition, they brought to the market a new investment opportunity and opened the access to small investors, who were seeking attractive investment opportunities. Furthermore, the Alternative Finance sector incorporates some elements that make of it an attractive and innovative lending model. Important factors such as transparency, differential pricing, disintermediation, flexibility and that it is built on the online concept give it competitive advantages over the traditional fundraising sources. In the second place, it can be concluded that this alternative lending model may be possibly entering a phase of stabilization. The monthly volume of origination seems to be slowing its growing pace, even though it continues growing, as the Liberum AltFi Volume Index UK indicates. By stabilization, it means grow at a rate of no more than two digits. The next conclusion at which this projects led us is that it seems that everyone has a positive and optimistic perspective about the future of this emerging industry. From academics to practitioners, they are expecting that in the short-term the knowledge and the awareness of the industry increase, causing that more borrowers and investors approach to the business. Moreover, the interest of the government and regulatory entities in the market will improve the existing regulation, creating high standards, what will be perceived by borrowers and lender as a safety signal, inviting them to select these alternatives over the traditional ones. Other factors that are consider as a potential sources of growing are the partnerships that P2P and Crowdfunding platforms are establishing, the new products derived from P2P loans, the creation of a secondary market, the process of securitization and the big flows coming from institutional investors. There is much work that P2P Lending and Crowdfunding platforms need to do in the next years. It is vital that they work to meet the requirements that regulation imposes and achieve the challenges that borrowers, investors and competitors propose. If so, they can secure their position in the financial market. The next years are crucial, they will define the way in which lending model will be structured from now on. The Alternative Finance Market represents a significant opportunity for borrowers, investors, as well for Investment Banks.They need to find a way that ensures that they are going to be active players of this emerging concept and defend their position. Finally, P2P Lending and Crowdfunding must continue working on developing the business model, walking towards establishing their reputation, imposing high standards and offering a differentiated service.

Informe redactado por del Director General de Crédito Nacional, Francisco P. López Aldana, respecto a su gestión y el estado de los negocios del departamento del que estuvo a cargo hasta el 31 de agosto de 1847. El documento conserva la ortografía de la época.