Which market integration measure? Billio, M.; Donadelli, M.; Paradiso, A. ...
Journal of banking & finance,
03/2017, Letnik:
76
Journal Article
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This paper compares the dynamics of the financial integration process as described by different empirical approaches. To this end, a wide range of measures accounting for several dimensions of ...integration is employed. In addition, we evaluate the performance of each measure by relying on an established international finance result, i.e., increasing financial integration leads to declining international portfolio diversification benefits. Using monthly equity market data for three different country groups (i.e., developed markets, emerging markets, developed plus emerging markets) and a dynamic indicator of international portfolio diversification benefits, we find that (i) all measures give rise to a very similar long-run integration pattern; (ii) the standard correlation explains variations in diversification benefits as well or better than more sophisticated measures. These findings are robust to a battery of robustness checks.
Temperature shocks and welfare costs Donadelli, M.; Jüppner, M.; Riedel, M. ...
Journal of economic dynamics & control,
09/2017, Letnik:
82
Journal Article
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This paper examines the welfare implications of rising temperatures. Using a standard VAR, we empirically show that a temperature shock has a sizable, negative and statistically significant impact on ...TFP, output, and labor productivity. We rationalize these findings within a production economy featuring long-run temperature risk. In the model, macro-aggregates drop in response to a temperature shock, consistent with the novel evidence in the data. Such adverse effects are long-lasting. Over a 50-year horizon, a one-standard deviation temperature shock lowers both cumulative output and labor productivity growth by 1.4 percentage points. Based on the model, we also show that temperature risk is associated with non-negligible welfare costs which amount to 18.4% of the agent’s lifetime utility and grow exponentially with the size of the impact of temperature on TFP. Finally, we show that faster adaptation to temperature shocks results in lower welfare costs. These welfare benefits become substantially higher in the presence of permanent improvements in the speed of adaptation.
In this article, we develop a comprehensive review of the literature on financial integration (FI). More specifically, we focus on all those empirical and theoretical works aimed at, first, measuring ...FI levels overtime, and then examining the effects of rising FI on growth, macroeconomic stability, and risk sharing. Our literature review indicates the presence of clear-cut and unanimous empirical evidence that FI increased over the last 50 (30) years in advanced economies (emerging economies). Unfortunately, there are no equally clear-cut evidence on the implications of rising FI for economic growth, macroeconomic stability and risk sharing. Puzzlingly, and inconsistently with theoretical predictions, an extensive empirical literature finds weak, inconclusive and controversial evidence that rising FI levels have stimulated growth and risk-sharing. Our journey throughout the literature on FI indicates that the reason for the existence of such controversial and inconclusive empirical findings on the FI-growth and FI-risk sharing links is that the use of different FI measures, econometric techniques, and definitions of FI make it difficult to synthesize results and draw robust conclusions.
To fulfill the Paris Agreement commitments and stimulated by an unprecedented amount of public resources put in place to recover from the COVID-induced recession, European governments have recently ...announced sizable green policy plans. In this paper, we examine the behavior of green and brown portfolios around green policy-related announcements (GPAs) made by major European governments in 2020 via a standard event study analysis and the use of returns of stocks listed in the “STOXX 100 All Europe”. Our main empirical findings indicate the presence of positive cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) both in the green and brown sectors following GPAs. However, the estimated positive sentiment effect is stronger in the former sector. A size effect in terms of the amount of resources announced to be allocated for a specific category of policy is also observed. We find that the observed positive sentiment is mainly driven by announcements on climate change mitigation-related policies, which account for 70% of the total allocated funds. At the sector level, positive and significant CARs due to GPAs are found in the (i) energy, (ii) financial and (iii) industrial sectors. At the country level, GPAs are found to drive a significant positive sentiment effect in the following European countries: Switzerland, Spain, UK, Ireland and Italy. Sector- and country-level analyses confirm the presence of larger benefits from GPAs among more sustainable portfolios.
The anti-tumoral effects of cannabinoids have been described in different tumor systems, including pancreatic adenocarcinoma, but their mechanism of action remains unclear. We used cannabinoids ...specific for the CB1 (ACPA) and CB2 (GW) receptors and metabolomic analyses to unravel the potential pathways mediating cannabinoid-dependent inhibition of pancreatic cancer cell growth. Panc1 cells treated with cannabinoids show elevated AMPK activation induced by a ROS-dependent increase of AMP/ATP ratio. ROS promote nuclear translocation of GAPDH, which is further amplified by AMPK, thereby attenuating glycolysis. Furthermore, ROS determine the accumulation of NADH, suggestive of a blockage in the respiratory chain, which in turn inhibits the Krebs cycle. Concomitantly, inhibition of Akt/c-Myc pathway leads to decreased activity of both the pyruvate kinase isoform M2 (PKM2), further downregulating glycolysis, and glutamine uptake. Altogether, these alterations of pancreatic cancer cell metabolism mediated by cannabinoids result in a strong induction of autophagy and in the inhibition of cell growth.
Gemcitabine (GEM, 2',2'-difluorodeoxycytidine) is currently used in advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma, with a response rate of < 20%. The purpose of our work was to improve GEM activity by addition ...of cannabinoids. Here, we show that GEM induces both cannabinoid receptor-1 (CB1) and cannabinoid receptor-2 (CB2) receptors by an NF-κB-dependent mechanism and that its association with cannabinoids synergistically inhibits pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell growth and increases reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by single treatments. The antiproliferative synergism is prevented by the radical scavenger N-acetyl-L-cysteine and by the specific NF-κB inhibitor BAY 11-7085, demonstrating that the induction of ROS by GEM/cannabinoids and of NF-κB by GEM is required for this effect. In addition, we report that neither apoptotic nor cytostatic mechanisms are responsible for the synergistic cell growth inhibition, which is strictly associated with the enhancement of endoplasmic reticulum stress and autophagic cell death. Noteworthy, the antiproliferative synergism is stronger in GEM-resistant pancreatic cancer cell lines compared with GEM-sensitive pancreatic cancer cell lines. The combined treatment strongly inhibits growth of human pancreatic tumor cells xenografted in nude mice without apparent toxic effects. These findings support a key role of the ROS-dependent activation of an autophagic program in the synergistic growth inhibition induced by GEM/cannabinoid combination in human pancreatic cancer cells.
We investigate the effects of (domestic and international) financial cyclical factors on the US business cycle over the period 1890-2013 using an augmented stochastic version of the neoclassical ...growth model. In our setting, financial factors enter as determinants of the total factor productivity cyclical pattern. By means of static and dynamic estimations we find that (i) the inclusion of financial cyclical factors improves the model's performance; (ii) the sensitivity of economic growth to financial factors is time-varying; (iii) domestic financial factors have a key role in explaining short-run output fluctuations only in the first half of the 20th century; (iv) US business cycle fluctuations have been mainly driven by global financial factors (i.e., financial integration) over the last three decades.
JEL CODES: O40, E32, C32
While the essence of leadership communication is recognized as a linchpin in crisis management, the distinct characteristics that define successful communication are often unknown. Recent ...perspectives on the topic highlight the importance of incorporating political and value-based considerations to achieve a balanced communication style during a crisis. This article empirically tests these claims by examining whether an evidence-inclusive communication style of leadership tends to yield more successful outcomes in crisis management. We compare speeches by leaders from Portugal, Brazil, the United States, and New Zealand, to assess the main explicit knowledge and value bases of decision-making. Our findings suggest that success of a crisis response is associated with a leader's ability to effectively communicate an evidence-based narrative, inclusive of different evidence sources, when tackling pressing and complex issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
We show that treatment with non-toxic doses of zinc in association to the ionophore compound pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) inhibits p53
−/− pancreatic cancer cell growth much more efficiently ...than gemcitabine, the gold standard chemotherapeutic agent for pancreatic cancer. Both the metal chelator
N,
N,
N′,
N′-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylenediamine and the radical scavenger
N-acetyl-
l-cysteine are able to recover cell growth inhibition by Zn/PDTC, demonstrating that this effect depends on the increased levels of intracellular zinc and of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Zn/PDTC treatment induces a strong apoptotic cell death that is associated to ROS-dependent nuclear translocation of the mitochondrial factor AIF, but not to the regulation of apoptotic genes and caspase activation. Primary fibroblasts are more resistant than pancreatic cancer cells to Zn/PDTC treatment and exhibit a lower basal and Zn/PDTC-induced enhancement of intracellular zinc. We show that Zn/PDTC induces p53 proteasomal degradation and that the proteasome inhibitor MG132 further increases fibroblast growth inhibition by Zn/PDTC, suggesting that p53 degradation plays an important role in fibroblast resistance to Zn/PDTC.
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