Mecanismos de control de la aplicación y el cumplimiento de los tratados internacionales en materia ambiental

Investigación elaborada a partir de una estancia en el Center of International Environmental Law (CIEL) de Washington, Estados Unidos, entre los meses de julio y septiembre del 2006. CIEL es una organización no gubernamental sin ánimo de lucro que trabaja utilizando el Derecho Internacional y las instituciones internacionales para proteger el medio ambiente, la salud humana y asegurar una sociedad justa y sostenible. El ámbito de trabajo del CIEL abarca a más de 16 países en 6 continentes. CIEL también pertenece al programa de investigación y formación del American University Washington College of Law. Este programa incluye cursos de Derecho Internacional del Medio Ambiente y Derecho Comparado del medio ambiente. La actividad científica realizada ha consistido en: primer lugar en una investigación, capacitación y apoyo jurídico realizado en el ámbito de la aplicación de la Convención de Estocolmo sobre contaminantes orgánicos persistentes en los países latinoamericanos; y en segundo lugar, en la participación en los varios seminarios relativos a diferentes ámbitos del Derecho Internacional del medio ambiente. Todo ello ha contribuido a dar un impulso definitivo a la tesis doctoral de la becaria.

Control de congestión adaptativo en redes Infiniband

El uso de recursos compartidos en las redes de interconexión de alta performance puede provocar situaciones de congestión de mensajes que degradan notablemente las prestaciones, aumentando la latencia de trasporte y disminuyendo la utilización de la red. Hasta el momento las técnicas que intentan solucionar este problema utilizan la regulación de la inyección de mensajes. Esta limitación de la inyección traslada la contención de mensajes desde los conmutadores hacia los nodos fuente, incrementando el valor de la latencia promedio global, pudiendo alcanzar valores muy elevados. En este trabajo, proponemos una técnica de control de congestión para redes InfiniBand basada en un mecanismo de encaminamiento adaptativo que distribuye el volumen de comunicaciones entre diversas trayectorias alternativas quitando carga de la zona de congestión, lo que permite eliminarla. La experimentación realizada muestra la mejora obtenida en latencia y throughput, respecto al mecanismo de control de congestión original de InfiniBand basado en la regulación de la inyección. El mecanismo propuesto es totalmente compatible y no requiere que se modifique ningún aspecto de la especificación, debido a que se utilizan componentes de gestión definidos en el estándar InfiniBand.

Foundations for contest success functions

In the literature the outcome of contests is either interpreted as win probabilities or as shares of the prize. With this in mind, we examine two approaches to contest success functions. In the first we analyze the implications of contestants' incomplete information concerning the "type" of the contest administrator. While in the case of two contestants this approach can rationalize prominent contest success functions, we show that it runs into difficulties when there are more agents. Our second approach interprets contest success functions as sharing rules and establishes a connection to bargaining and claims problems which is independent of the number of contestants. Both approaches provide foundations for popular contest success functions and guidelines for the definition of new ones. Keywords: Endogenous Contests, Contest Success Function. JEL Classification: C72 (Noncooperative Games), D72 (Economic Models of Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Elections), D74 (Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances).

Optimal feedback control rules sensitive to controlled endogenous risk-aversion

The objective of this paper is to correct and improve the results obtained by Van der Ploeg (1984a, 1984b) and utilized in the theoretical literature related to feedback stochastic optimal control sensitive to constant exogenous risk-aversion (see, Jacobson, 1973, Karp, 1987 and Whittle, 1981, 1989, 1990, among others) or to the classic context of risk-neutral decision-makers (see, Chow, 1973, 1976a, 1976b, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1993). More realistic and attractive, this new approach is placed in the context of a time-varying endogenous risk-aversion which is under the control of the decision-maker. It has strong qualitative implications on the agent's optimal policy during the entire planning horizon.

Estudi pilot del progrés de la restauració a les activitats extractives de Catalunya

L’objecte d’aquest estudi és determinar el ritme restaurador i caracteritzar la tipologia de les restauracions d’algunes activitats extractives de Catalunya. S’ha analitzat l’evolució dels treballs de restauració en una selecció d’activitats extractives de Catalunya i s’ha estimat la qualitat de les restauracions efectuades en base a la observació de la vegetació desenvolupada, el control de l’erosió i la integració paisatgística. Per dur a terme aquest estudi s’ha creat una base de dades en format de qüestionari, combinada amb un sistema d’informació geogràfica, que s’ha assajat en un treball de camp amb una mostra limitada d’activitats extractives. A partir de la interpretació dels resultats, es determina que actualment la gestió incorpora la necessitat de restaurar, però com a element subordinat a la producció. Això produeix una manca de planificació que incideix directament en la qualitat de les restauracions dutes a terme. La gestió de les pedreres encara ha de situar el concepte de restauració integrada com a eix central del desenvolupament i planificació de l’activitat extractiva.

Avaluació de l'aprofitament de biomassa disponible per a la producció d'energia calorífica al Parc Natural de l'Alt Pirineu

En aquest article es resumeixen els resultats més destacats del projecte dut a terme pel grup Projecte Biomassa. Aquest estudi té per objectiu l’avaluació de la viabilitat energètica, econòmica i ambiental de l’aprofitament de la biomassa forestal com a recurs energètic a les forests d’Arestui, Baiasca, Montenartró i Virós situades dins el Parc Natural de l’Alt Pirineu (PNAP). En el projecte s’ha fet una revisió dels Plans d’Ordenació Forestal (POF’s) de les esmentades forests per tal d’adequar-les als requeriments del PNAP i així obtenir resultats sobre el potencial de biomassa sosteniblement extraïble, sobre el seu potencial energètic i plantejar un escenari d’aprofitament a mode de cas pràctic. A més a més, s’han realitzat també un balanç socioeconòmic, un balanç d’emissions de CO2 i una avaluació d’impacte ambiental per tal de determinar la viabilitat de l’ús de biomassa al PNAP com a recurs energètic. Com a resultat final s’ha obtingut que el procés d’aprofitament de la biomassa per a la producció d’energia calorífica esdevé una opció de futur viable i positiva ja que la implantació del nou procés comporta beneficis a nivell social, econòmic i ambiental.

Privatization and competition in the delivery of local services: An empirical examination of the dual market hypothesis

This paper empirically analyses the hypothesis of the existence of a dual market for contracts in local services. Large firms that operate on a national basis control the contracts for delivery in the most populated and/or urban municipalities, whereas small firms that operate at a local level have the contracts in the least populated and/or rural municipalities. The dual market implies the high concentration and dominance of major firms in large municipalities, and local monopolies in the smaller ones. This market structure is harmful to competition for the market as the effective number of competitors is low across all municipalities. Thus, it damages the likelihood of obtaining cost savings from privatization.

Innovation, R&D spillovers and productivity: the role of knowledge-intensive services

This paper analyses the performance of companies’ R&D and innovation and the effects of intra- and inter-industry R&D spillover on firms’ productivity in Catalonia. The paper deals simultaneously with the performance of manufacturing and service firms, with the aim of highlighting the growing role of knowledge-intensive services in promoting innovation and productivity gains. We find that intra-industry R&D spillovers have an important effect on the productivity level of manufacturing firms, and the inter-industrial R&D spillovers related to computer and software services also play an important role, especially in high-tech manufacturing industries. The main conclusion is that the traditional classification of manufactured goods and services no longer makes sense in the ‘knowledge economy’ and in Catalonia the regional policy makers will have to design policies that favour inter-industrial R&D flows, especially from high-tech services.

Comparison of recent toll road concession transactions in the United States and France

Recent concessions in France and in the US have resulted in a dramatic difference in the valuation placed on the toll roads; the price paid by the investors in France was twelve times current cash flow whereas investors paid sixty times current cash flow for the U.S. toll roads. In this paper we explore two questions: What accounts for the difference in these multiples, and what are the implications with respect to the public interest. Our analysis illustrates how structural and procedural decisions made by the public owner affect the concession price. Further, the terms of the concession have direct consequences that are enjoyed or borne by the various stakeholders of the toll road.

Evaluating the impact of public subsidies on a firm's performance: A quasi-experimental approach

Many regional governments in developed countries design programs to improve the competitiveness of local firms. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of public programs whose aim is to enhance the performance of firms located in Catalonia (Spain). We compare the performance of publicly subsidised companies (treated) with that of similar, but unsubsidised companies (non-treated). We use the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) methodology to construct a control group which, with respect to its observable characteristics, is as similar as possible to the treated group, and that allows us to identify firms which retain the same propensity to receive public subsidies. Once a valid comparison group has been established, we compare the respective performance of each firm. As a result, we find that recipient firms, on average, change their business practices, improve their performance, and increase their value added as a direct result of public subsidy programs.

An empirical analysis of wealth taxation: equity Vs.tax compliance

Capital taxation is currently under debate, basically due to problems of administrative control and proper assessment of the levied assets. We analyze both problems focusing on a capital tax, the annual wealth tax (WT), which is only applied in five OECD countries, being Spain one of them. We concentrate our analysis on top 1% adult population, which permits us to describe the evolution of wealth concentration in Spain along 1983-2001. On average top 1% holds about 18% of total wealth, which rises to 19% when tax incompliance and under-assessment is corrected for housing, the main asset. The evolution suggests wealth concentration has risen. Regarding WT, we analyze whether it helps to reduce wealth inequality or, on the contrary, it reinforces vertical inequity (due to especial concessions) and horizontal inequity (due to the de iure and to de facto different treatment of assets). We analyze in detail housing and equity shares. By means of a time series analysis, we relate the reported values with reasonable price indicators and proxies of the propensity to save. We infer net tax compliance is extremely low, which includes both what we commonly understand by (gross) tax compliance and the degree of under-assessment due to fiscal legislation (for housing). That is especially true for housing, whose level of net tax compliance is well below 50%. Hence, we corroborate the difficulties in taxing capital, and so cast doubts on the current role of the WT in Spain in reducing wealth inequality.