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Banks vs. firms: who benefits from credit guarantees?
No full textGovernments often support private credit with guarantee schemes, compensating lenders for borrower defaults. Such schemes often rely on banks to allocate guarantees among borrowers, but how banks do so is not well understood. We study this in an economy where entrepreneurial effort is crucial for efficiency but not contractible, creating a debt overhang problem. Credit guarantees can alleviate this problem only if they lower repayment obligations. We show that banks follow a pecking order, prioritizing risky, highly indebted firms from whom they extract more guarantee surplus by increasing repayment obligations. The competitive equilibrium is inefficient: a social planner would tilt the allocation towards more productive firms and pass all benefits through lower repayments. Our findings align with evidence from guarantees granted in Spain post-COVID
Adherence to inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting β2-agonists in asthma: A MASK-air study
No full textIntroduction: Adherence to controller medication is a major problem in asthma management, being difficult to assess and tackle. mHealth apps can be used to assess adherence. We aimed to assess the adherence to inhaled corticosteroids+long-acting β2-agonists (ICS+LABA) in users of the MASK-air® app, comparing the adherence to ICS+formoterol (ICS+F) with that to ICS+other LABA. Materials and methods: We analysed complete weeks of MASK-air® data (2015-2022; 27 countries) from patients with self-reported asthma and ICS+LABA use. We compared patients reporting ICS+F versus ICS+other LABA on adherence levels, symptoms and symptom-medication scores. We built regression models to assess whether adherence to ICS+LABA was associated with asthma control or short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) use. Sensitivity analyses were performed considering the weeks with no more than one missing day. Results: In 2598 ICS+LABA users, 621 (23.9%) reported 4824 complete weeks and 866 (33.3%) reported weeks with at most one missing day. Higher adherence (use of medication ≥80% of weekly days) was observed for ICS+other LABA (75.1%) when compared to ICS+F (59.3%), despite both groups displaying similar asthma control and work productivity. The ICS+other LABA group was associated with more days of SABA use than the ICS+F group (median=71.4% versus 57.1% days). Each additional weekly day of ICS+F use was associated with a 4.1% less risk in weekly SABA use (95%CI=-6.5;-1.6%;p=0.001). For ICS+other LABA, the percentage was 8.2 (95%CI=-11.6;-5.0%;p<0.001). Conclusions: In asthma patients adherent to the MASK-air app, adherence to ICS+LABA was high. ICS+F users reported lower adherence but also a lower SABA use and a similar level of control
Challenging by cueing? An investigation of party and leader cueing effects across mainstream and challenger party voters
No full textIncludes supplementary materials for the online appendix.The emergence of new challenger parties calls for a reassessment of the party-model of opinion formation by examining different sources of cues across types of voters and the conditions that make cueing more effective. Although new challenger parties may lack sufficient time to develop identification with groups and distinctive party reputations, they may still provide effective cues and reduce their competitive disadvantage in developing affective social identity ties. This article investigates this argument by assessing the impact of party and leader cues on voters from mainstream and challenger parties and examining how expressive partisanship (partisan social identities) and instrumental partisanship (party competence evaluations) moderate these effects. Utilizing data from a survey experiment conducted in Spain during a period of party system restructuring, we find similar cueing effects across party and leader cues when comparing voters of both mainstream and challenger parties. Additionally, contrary to our expectations, we observe that cueing effects for mainstream party voters combine expressive and instrumental reasoning, while those for new challenger party voters are driven by perceptions of party competence reputation only. These findings challenge the prevailing belief that familiarity and time enhance cueing effects. They also deviate from socio-psychological approaches that emphasize the emotional and identity components of partisanship in strengthening cueing effects.This research was funded by the project “Crisis y Reto en la Ciudadanía en España: Actitudes y Comportamiento Político de los Españoles Ante la Crisis Económica y de Representación Política (CIUPANEL)”, Spanish Ministery of Economy and Competitiveness (MIMECO), code: CSO2013-47071-R (2014–2016), Principal Investigator Mariano Torcal. Mariano Torcal also wants to thank the ICREA-ACADEMIA Intense Research Award for the additional funding
Navigating financial cycles: economic growth, bureaucratic autonomy, and regulatory governance in emerging markets
No full textPolitical decisions over economic growth policies influence the degree of bureaucratic autonomy and regulatory governance dynamics. Yet, our understanding of these processes in the Global South is somewhat limited. The article studies the post-Global Financial Crisis period and relies on elite interviews and secondary sources from Turkey. It problematizes how an economic growth model dependent on foreign capital inflows, which are contingent on global financial cycles, influences the trajectory of bureaucratic autonomy. Specifically, we argue that dependence on foreign capital flows for economic growth creates an unstable macroeconomic policy environment: while the expansionary episode of the global financial cycle masks conflicts between the incumbent and bureaucracy, the contractionary episode threatens the political survival of the incumbent. In the case of Turkey, this has incentivized the ruling coalition to resort to executive aggrandizement to control monetary policy and banking regulation, which resulted in a dramatic decay of the autonomy of the regulatory agencies since 2013.This study was supported by The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, grant no. PGC2018-093719-A-I00
Psychometric examination of the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory Short Form (MPFI-24) and the Psy-Flex Spanish versions in individuals with chronic pain
No full textBackground: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been found to be beneficial for individuals dealing with chronic pain. The theoretical mechanisms of change proposed by ACT are based on the Hexaflex model. To comprehensively reflect this model, the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI) and Psy-Flex have been developed. The study aimed to adapt the MPFI-24 and the Psy-Flex for Spanish-speaking populations with chronic pain and to examine their dimensionality, internal consistency, convergent validity and incremental validity. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 309 Spanish-speaking adults with chronic pain who completed an online survey. The majority of the participants were women (88.3%). The ages ranged from 18 to 79 years. Results: Factor analysis showed that the Spanish version of the MPFI-24 has 12 factors, consisting of six flexibility and six inflexibility factors, similar to the original version, but lacking second-order general factors. The Psy-Flex demonstrated a single-factor structure, maintaining the general factor of psychological flexibility seen in the original version. The MPFI-24 showed good internal consistency and adequate convergent validity, with the exception of the Acceptance and Experiential Avoidance subscales. The Psy-Flex showed good internal consistency and convergent validity. Notably, both the MPFI-24 and Psy-Flex scores significantly explained additional variance in psychological distress beyond other ACT-related measures of Hexaflex processes; however, only the Psy-Flex explained pain interference. Conclusions: The Spanish adaptations of the MPFI-24 and Psy-Flex are valid and reliable instruments for assessing the Hexaflex model processes in Spanish-speaking adults with chronic pain. Significance statement: Practitioners and researchers in chronic pain will find the Spanish versions of the MPFI-24 and the Psy-Flex here, along with recommendations for their use and scoring based on a robust psychometric rationale. It should be noted that these measures surpass the Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ) and the Psychological Inflexibility in Pain Scale (PIPS), which are considered gold standards in chronic pain assessment
Validation of ZIP4 as a tumour-associated antigen for nanotargeting
No full textPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma remains a highly aggressive and untreatable cancer. There is a need to develop a new PDAC-associated antigen-targeting drug delivery system to tackle this disease. We validated choosing ZIP4 as a putative target in PDAC theranostics. We developed a nanosystem composed of a fluorescent polystyrene core coated with gold nanoparticles onto which a ZIP4-specific polyclonal antibody is attached. The polystyrene core's fluorescence properties allow the nanosystem tracking by intravital imaging. We also developed two ZIP4-expressing cell lines by stably transfecting HEK293 and RWP1 cells with a ZIP4-coding plasmid that simultaneously provides cells with puromycin resistance. We studied the cell internalisation of the as-synthesised nanoparticles and demonstrated that ZIP4-expressing HEK293 and ZIP4-expressing RWP1 cells tended to take up more ZIP4-targeting nanoparticles. Moreover, we observed that ZIP4-targeting nanoparticles accumulated more in ZIP4-expressing HEK293 and RWP1 tumours when injected intravenously in a subcutaneous xenograft and an orthotopic in vivo model, respectively. Furthermore, the administration of these nanoparticles did not induce any significant systemic toxicity as determined by histological analysis of all organs. Altogether, these results provide the first evidence of the feasibility of using a ZIP4-targeting nanosystem further to design efficient therapeutic and diagnostic tools for PDAC.Pilar Rivera Gil (PRG) acknowledges the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN-AEI): CNS2023 - 143700 - MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/Unión Europea NextGenerationEU/PRTR and PID2022-140423NB-I00 for financial support. Rubén Vicente acknowledges the MICINN-AEI (PID2022-136511OB-I00). PRG acknowledges the AGAUR (Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca) (2021 SGR 00175 and 2021 PROD 00041) for financial support. This work was also supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN)/Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)-European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (PI20/00625 and PI23/00591) to Pilar Navarro
Repression and growth in the periphery of Europe: the politics of changing growth regime in Turkey
No full textThis study shows that in peripheral economies that are linked into circuits of global capital on unequal terms, attempts to change the core features of an existing growth regime without broader political support intensify externally induced conflict among the ruling coalition. Under these circumstances, a transition to a new demand regime within a short time frame is more likely to take place via authoritarian intervention when the political cost of repression is lower than the cost of redistribution. In developing these points, the analysis builds on evidence from Turkey: following the 2008 global credit crunch, the Justice and Development Party’s (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AKP) domestic demand-led and credit-fueled growth under dependent financialization has experienced a major crisis. However, the subsequent push to replace this regime with a profit-led model with an emphasis on exports worsened the conflict among the political coalition supporting the party as their preferences over monetary policy began to diverge. A temporary resolution of this deepening rift has been possible by way of an authoritarian intervention under R. T. Erdogan’s presidential bid in 2017–18. By situating the debate on the relationship between growth regimes and political institutions, the study further unpacks the nexus between democratic backsliding, dominant social blocs, and economic growth in the periphery of Europe.This project is financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, grant no. PGC2018-093719-A-I00
Dogmatische Fragen des ärztlichen Abrechnungsbetrugs - Zugleich einige Überlegungen zu der Vermögensschadenlehre
No full textHerramientas de IA contra la desinformación populista
No full textA medida que la retórica divisiva y la polarización ideológica crecen, se crea un ambiente propicio para la proliferación de «información falsa que es intencionalmente engañosa». Así define S0e (2019, p. 17) la desinformación, un fenómeno al que las personas tienden a ser más receptivas cuando sus creencias políticas están fuertemente arraigadas, lo que se traduce en una mayor propensión a interiorizar y difundir esa información falsa (Pennycook et al., 2018). En efecto, el contexto político siempre ofrece un sustrato fértil para la difusión de la desinformación, pero, especialmente en periodos electorales, la polarización política actúa como un catalizador para la desinformación y su beneficio económico, impulsando narrativas engañosas con el objetivo de movilizar a su base de seguidores o desacreditar a sus oponentes (Renee, 2018). Un ejemplo son las construcciones discursivas populistas, vinculadas conceptualmente a la desinformación por culpa de los medios deshonestos como parte de las élites corruptas que engañan al pueblo (Hameleers, 2020)
La producció ceràmica del Regne de Sevilla al voltant dels segles XV-XVIII: un estat de la qüestió sobre els estudis arqueomètrics
No full textEl presente artículo ofrece una síntesis de los principales estudios sobre la caracterización arqueométrica de la producción cerámica del Reino de Sevilla, con especial atención a los últimos estudios y líneas de trabajo. Estos estudios, que se iniciaron en los años setenta del siglo pasado, se han centrado en Sevilla y la exportación de su cerámica a las colonias americanas. Esta focalización ha dejado tradicionalmente de lado el resto del territorio, relegándolo a un papel marginal y al desconocimiento de su participación en los circuitos comerciales del momento. Sin embargo, las últimas líneas de investigación, a las que ha contribuido de forma significativa el proyecto TECNOLONIAL, han puesto el énfasis en el sesgo histórico que han sufrido las otras àreas del territorio estudiado, con el objetivo de corregirlo y obtener la máxima información posible sobre estos otros centros productores