A note on Spatial Autocorrelation at a Local Level

In this paper we analyze the existence of spatial autocorrelation at a local level in Catalonia using variables such as urbanisation economies, population density, human capital and firm entries. From a static approach, our results show that spatial autocorrelation is weak and diminishes as the distance between municipalities increases. From a dynamic approach, however, spatial autocorrelation increased over the period we analysed. These results are important from a policy point of view, since it is essential to know how economic activities are spatially concentrated or disseminated. Key words: spatial autocorrelation, municipalities. JEL classification: R110, R120

Human capital as a factor of growth and employment at the regional level. The case of Spain

We use statistical techniques to quantify the effects of school attainment on individual wages, participation rates and employment probabilities in Spain, and to measure the contribution of education to labour productivity at the regional level. These estimates are then combined with data on private and public expenditure on education and with information on taxes and social benefits to construct measures of the private and social returns to schooling, to explore the effects of public policies on private incentives to invest in human capital, and to analyse the long-term effects of schooling on public finances. The results are used, together with estimates of the returns to alternative assets, to draw some tentative conclusions regarding the adequacy of the aggregate investment patterns observed in the regions of Spain, and to identify changes in the design of national and EU cohesion and growth policies that may help enhance their effectiveness.

A change would do you good . . . An experimental study on how to overcome coordination failure in organizations

Many organizations suffer poor performance because individuals within the organization fail to coordinate on efficient patterns of behavior. Using controlled laboratory experiments, we study how financial incentives can be used to find a way out of such performance traps. Our experiments are set in a corporate environment where subjects' payoffs depend on coordinating at high effort levels; the underlying game being played repeatedly by employees is a weak-link game. In an initial phase, the benefits of coordination are low relative to the cost of increased effort. Play in this initial phase typically converges to an inefficient outcome with employees failing to coordinate at high effort levels. The experimental design then explores the effects of varying the financial incentives to coordinate at a higher effort level. We find that an increase in the benefits of coordination leads to improved coordination, but, surprisingly, large increases have no more impact than small increases. Once subj

Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy. Part 2. Asssessment at the EU country level.

This report is an extension and partial update of de la Fuente and Ciccone (2002). It constructs estimates of the private and social rates of return on schooling for fourteen EU countries using microeconometric estimates of Mincerian wage equations, the results of cross-country growth regressions and OECD data on educational expenditures, tax rates and social benefits. The results are used to draw some tentative conclusions regarding the optimality of observed investment patterns and educational subsidy levels.

The demand elasticity on tolled motorways

This paper analyses the elasticities of demand in tolled motorways in Spain with respect to the main variables influencing it. The demand equation is estimated using a panel data set where the cross-section observations correspond to the different Spanish tolled motorways sections, and the temporal dimension ranges from the beginning of the eighties until the end of the nineties. The results show a high elasticity with respect to the economic activity level. The average elasticity with respect to petrol price falls around -0.3, while toll elasticities clearly vary across motorway sections. These motorway sections are classified into four groups according to the estimated toll elasticity with values that range from -0.21 for the most inelastic to -0.83 for the most elastic. The main factors that explain such differences are the quality of the alternative road and the length of the section. The long-term effect is about 50 per cent higher than the short term one; however, the period of adjustment is relatively short.

Repeated games played in a network

Delayed perfect monitoring in an infinitely repeated discounted game is modelled by letting the players form a connected and undirected network. Players observe their immediate neighbors' behavior only, but communicate over time the repeated game's history truthfully throughout the network. The Folk Theorem extends to this setup, although for a range of discount factors strictly below 1, the set of sequential equilibria and the corresponding payoff set may be reduced. A general class of games is analyzed without imposing restrictions on the dimensionality of the payoff space. This and the bilateral communication structure allow for limited results under strategic communication only. As a by-product this model produces a network result; namely, the level of cooperation in this setup depends on the network's diameter, and not on its clustering coefficient as in other models.

Testing of stair climbing point-of-choice prompts in Barcelona at an outdoor set of stairs and scalators on the Montjuïc site

Regular stair climbing has well-documented health dividends, such as increased fitness and strength, weight loss and reduced body fat, improved lipid profiles and reduced risk of osteoporosis. The general absence of barriers to participation makes stair climbing an ideal physical activity (PA) for health promotion. Studies in the US and the UK have consistently shown that interventions to increase the accumulation of lifestyle PA by climbing stairs rather than using the escalators are effective. However, there are no previous in Catalonia. This project tested one message for their ability to prompt travelers on the Montjuïc site to choose the stairs rather than the escalator when climbing up the Monjuïc hill. One standard message, " Take the stairs! 7 minutes of stair climbing a day protects your heart" provided a comparison with previous research done in the UK. Translated into Catalan and Spanish, it was presented on a poster positioned at the point of choice between the stairs and the escalator. The study used a quasi-experimental, interrupted time series design. Travelers, during several and specific hours on two days of the week, were coded for stair or escalator use, gender, age, ethnic status, presence of accompanying children or bags by one observer. Overall, the intervention resulted in a 81% increase in stair climbing. In the follow-up period without messages, stair climbing dropped out to baseline levels. This preliminary study showed a significant effect on stair use. However, caution is needed since results are based on a small sample and, only a low percentage of the sample took the stairs at baseline or the intervention phase . Future research on stair use in Catalonia should focus on using bigger samples, different sites (metro stations, airports, shopping centers, etc) , different messages and techniques to promote stair climbing.

Industrial location at a local level: some comments about the territorial level of the analysis

This paper contributes to the existing literature on industrial location by discussing some issues regarding the territorial levels that have been used in location analysis. We analyse which could be the advantages and disadvantages of performing locational analysis at a different local levels. We use data for new manufacturing firms located at municipality, county and travel to work areas level. We show that location determinants vary according to the territorial level used in the analysis, so we conclude that the level at which we perform the investigation should be carefully selected. Keywords: industrial location, cities, agglomeration economies, count data models.

Renormalization and α-limit set for expanding Lorenz maps

We establish a one-to-one correspondence between the renormalizations and proper totally invariant closed sets (i.e., α-limit sets) of expanding Lorenz map, which enable us to distinguish periodic and non-periodic renormalizations. We describe the minimal renormalization by constructing the minimal totally invariant closed set, so that we can define the renormalization operator. Using consecutive renormalizations, we obtain complete topological characteriza- tion of α-limit sets and nonwandering set decomposition. For piecewise linear Lorenz map with slopes ≥ 1, we show that each renormalization is periodic and every proper α-limit set is countable.

The Experience of European Integration and the Potential for Integration in South America

The experience of the European Union is the most significant and far-reaching among all attempts at regional integration. It is, therefore, the most likely to provide some lessons for those world regions that are just beginning this complex process. In turn, the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) and the Andean Community (CAN) are among the regional integration projects that have reached the greatest level of formal accomplishment after the EU. MERCOSUR is a customs union that aspires to become a common market, while avowing the commitment to advance towards political integration. For its part, CAN is a customs union that has already developed supranational institutions such as a Commission, a Parliament and a Court of Justice. In both cases, however, words have progressively tended to wander far from deeds. One reason underlying this phenomenon may be a misunderstanding of the European experience with integration. In this article, we discuss the theories that have been developed to account for integration in Europe and may prove useful to understand integration elsewhere and put forward a set of lessons that could be drawn from the European experience. Subsequently, we introduce a description of the experience of integration in South America and reflect (critically) on how the theories and lessons drawn from the EU could be applied to this region –and beyond.

Disseny d'itineraris d'educació ambiental en ambients de fons de vall

L’anàlisi de l’estat actual dels equipaments i activitats d’educació ambiental (EA) en l’àmbit del Parc Natural de l’Alt Pirineu (PNAP) ha detectat un grau de desenvolupament molt baix d’aquesta disciplina. Per aquest motiu, s’elabora una nova eina, amb l’objectiu d’establir unes pautes per a l’elaboració d’una activitat d’EA concreta: els itineraris d’EA; i així ampliar l’escassa oferta actual. El protocol per al disseny d’itineraris d’EA, dóna unes directrius per a estandarditzar la descripció i l’anàlisi de la zona proposada. La finalitat del qual és facilitar i agilitar la implantació d’itineraris que presentin unes condicions mínimes establertes. La eficiència d’aquesta eina, queda verificada amb els resultats obtinguts en la realització de dues proves pilot en dues zones amb possibilitats de desenvolupar-hi itineraris d’EA. Una de les zones ha quedat descartada, per l’incompliment d’un dels criteris que s’ha definit en el protocol com a imprescindibles pel bon desenvolupament de l’activitat que es planteja. Mentre que en l’altre zona, el compliment de totes aquestes condicions o criteris, fan viable la implantació de l’itinerari d’EA, duent a terme així el seu posterior disseny. Malgrat l’estudi es centri en un espai natural protegit concret, és una eina que pretén ser extrapolable en d’altres espais d’aquesta categoria.

An application of MSIASM to Chinese exosomatic energy metabolism

The methodology of Multi-Scale Integrated The methodology of Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal Metabolism (MSIASM) is applied to analyze the Chinese economy. This paper presents four tasks: (i) identifying a set of benchmarks that makes it possible to compare various characteristics of the Chinese economy with those of other country groups and the world (level) average; (ii) explaining the differences over the selected set of benchmarks, by looking at the characteristics of the various sub-sectors of the Chinese economy; (iii) understanding existing trends and future feasible future development paths for China by studying the existence of reciprocal constraints between the whole economy and its sub-sectors; and (iv) examining plausible future scenarios of development.

A general construction of internal sheaves in algebraic set theory

We present a solution to the problem of defining a counterpart in Algebraic Set Theory of the construction of internal sheaves in Topos Theory. Our approach is general in that we consider sheaves as determined by Lawvere-Tierney coverages, rather than by Grothen-dieck coverages, and assume only a weakening of the axioms for small maps originally introduced by Joyal and Moerdijk, thus subsuming the existing topos-theoretic results.

Avaluació de set materials representatius del programa didàctic aplicat a les Escoles Bressol Municipals de Mataró dins del projecte de formació del professorat 2006/07

ii. Desprès de finalitzar el primer any d’aplicació del projecte “La música a les Escoles Bressol Municipals de Mataró”, s’inicia la present recerca, en la que participen tots els grups que formen part del projecte, amb l’objectiu de valorar-ho i veure’n la continuïtat. Es detecta que els materials emprats en la proposta didàctica són l’element que ha esdevingut més exitós fins al moment. Definint-ne una mostra de set materials, es procedeix a determinar l’ús que les educadores els atorguen en relació a la proposta didàctica i a avaluar-los