A territorial approach to firm entry: The effect of city size

This paper concerns the effects of territorial factors on the processes involved in the creation of manufacturing firms in Spanish cities. Most contributions have focused on regional factors rather than urban ones. Here we assume that it is possible to identify certain urban factors that attract new firms. We use data for the entry of firms in Spanish manufacturing industries between 1994 and 2002. This paper contributes to the existing literature on market entry. Key words: cities, regions, firm entry and Spanish economy. JEL: R0, R12, L60

The Paralympic Village: a barrier-free city

Article describing the design standards and their use for Paralympic facilities. This article was published in the book entitled Olympic Villages: a hundred years of urban planning and shared experiences compiling the papers given at the 1997 International Symposium on International Chair in Olympism (IOC-UAB).

De Chamonix a Salt Lake city: evoluci��n del concepto de villa ol��mpica en los Juegos de invierno

Esta ponencia fue presentada en el International Symposium on Olympic Villages, Museo Ol��mpico, Lausana, Suiza. Su objetivo es exponer la evoluci��n hist��rica del concepto de villa ol��mpica en los Juegos de Invierno y reflexionar sobre aquello en lo que se podr��a convertir. Esta evoluci��n hist��rica puede dividirse en tres grandes per��odos en que se basa este plan: antes de 1960, de 1964 a 1984 y a partir de 1988.

The Accessibility City. When Transport Infrastructure Matters in Urban Spatial Structure

Suburbanization is changing the urban spatial structure and less monocentric metropolitan regions are becoming the new urban reality. Focused only on centers, most works have studied these spatial changes neglecting the role of transport infrastructure and its related location model, the ���accessibility city���, in which employment and population concentrate in low-density settlements and close to transport infrastructure. For the case of Barcelona, we consider this location model and study the population spatial structure between 1991 and 2006. The results reveal a mix between polycentricity and the accessibility city, with movements away from the main centers, but close to the transport infrastructure.

Accounting for Big City Growth in Low Paid Occupations: Immigration and/or Service Class Consumption

Growth of 'global cities' in the 1980s was supposed to have involved an occupational polarisation, including growth of low paid service jobs. Though held to be untrue for European cities, at the time, some such growth did emerge in London a decade later than first reported for New York. The question is whether there was simply a delay before London conformed to the global city model, or whether another distinct cause was at work in both cases. This paper proposes that the critical factor in both cases was actually an upsurge of immigration from poor countries providing an elastic supply of cheap labour. This hypothesis and its counterpart based on growth in elite jobs are tested econometrically for the British case with regional data spanning 1975-2008, finding some support for both effects, but with immigration from poor countries as the crucial influence in late 1990s London. Keywords: regional labour markets; wages; employment; international migration; consumer demand JEL Codes: J21, J23, F22, R12

Sin City: cuando el cine se rinde a los pies del c��mic

Proposta did��ctica que se situa entre els llenguatges del c��mic i del cinema per a promoure la reflexi�� sobre la cerca de noves formes de narrar. El fil conductor ��s Sin City i es proposen, tamb��, 10 activitats per als alumnes

Al di l�� del fiume - attraverso il fiume: il basso corso del Ter in Catalogna

La ricerca prende in considerazione dal punto di vista dell���architettura e dell���urbanistica la relazione tra la citt�� e il fiume che la attraversa o la lambisce; l���insediamento umano viene analizzato nel contesto del bacino idrografico al quale appartiene. La ricerca �� stata sviluppata in seno alla tesi dottorale ora in fase di elaborazione presso il Departamento de Urbanismo y Ordenaci��n del Territorio dell���Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya. La tesi ha come caso studio il tratto basso del fiume Ter in Catalogna. Nella discussione sul paesaggio urbano contemporaneo oggi la riflessione �� centrata sulla citt�� che si territorializza; la dimensione urbana interferisce con gran parte della superficie della terra facendo sfumare le tradizionali distinzioni tra urbano e non-urbano, tra spazio costruito e spazio aperto. In questo contesto, quale termine di conciliazione tra la dinamica naturale e la costruzione storica dei luoghi prodotta dall���intervento umano, il fiume si rivela uno strumento essenziale di analisi e progetto. L���obiettivo di questa ricerca �� suggerire un���approssimazione al progetto della citt�� che si sviluppa lungo il corso fluviale costruendo strumenti per la riflessione ���attraverso il fiume���. Partendo dall���ipotesi che la citt�� si insedia lungo un corso d���acqua secondo una sintassi territoriale stabilita dalla geograf��a e dalla geomorfologia del fiume stesso, il fine �� fornire strumenti per il processo di recupero degli spazi fluviali in contesti urbanizzati. Il fiume diviene componente geografica chiave degli insediamenti dispersi e risorsa per costruirne l���abitabilit��.

Chaos and order in the contemporary city. The impact of urban spatial structure on population density and commuting distance in Barcelona, 1986-2001.

One of the criticisms leveled at the model of dispersed city found all over the world is its unarticulated, random, and undifferentiated nature. To check this idea in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, we estimated the impact of the urban spatial structure (CBD, subcenters and transportation infrastructures) over the population density and commuting distance. The results are unfavorable to the hypothesis of the increasing destructuring of cities given that the explanatory capacity of both functions improves over time, both when other control variables are not included and when they are included.

The Farm, the city, and the emergence of social security

We study the social, demographic and economic origins of social security. The data for the U.S. and for a cross section of countries suggest that urbanization and industrialization are associated with the rise of social insurance. We describe an OLG model in which demographics, technology, and social security are linked together in a political economy equilibrium. In the model economy, there are two locations (sectors), the farm (agricultural) and the city (industrial) and the decision to migrate from rural to urban locations is endogenous and linked to productivity differences between the two locations and survival probabilities. Farmers rely on land inheritance for their old age and do not support a pay-as-you-go social security system. With structural change, people migrate to the city, the land loses its importance and support for social security arises. We show that a calibrated version of this economy, where social security taxes are determined by majority voting, is consistent with the historical transformation in the United States.

Membership and internal democracy. Immigrant organisations in the city of Oslo

Immigrant organisations in the City of Oslo receive support from the government for their daily operation. In order to receive such support, each organisation must be membership-based and have internal democratic procedures. This paper raises the question of how we can understand this combination of support for ethnic based organisations and requirements of membership and internal democracy. It explores the usefulness of two partly overlapping ways of understanding this policy and discusses their interrelationship. Firstly, within the context of the crisis of multiculturalism, the paper discusses whether this combination is based on the aim of strengthening the organisations��� procedural commitment to liberal-democratic principles. Secondly, the paper analyses whether requirements of membership and internal democracy can mainly be understood within the framework of the Nordic model of voluntary organisation. By comparing the policy at three empirical levels, the paper concludes that this combination can mainly be understood within the framework of the traditional historical Nordic model, but that there is an ambiguity in this policy related to minority rights.

Tax incentives and the city

It is difficult to justify tax incentives within the existing economicsliterature on tax competition. We develop a model in which communitiesare interested in attracting firms not only for their own capital butalso for the concentration externalities, a form of agglomerationeconomies, their location bestows on existing firms. We find that itis efficient in this case for communities to offer tax incentives,defined as a tax rate below the benefit tax level, to firms. We presentthe recent relocation of the Boeing Corporation's headquarters fromSeattle to Chicago as a case study.

Multiple city

Concurs d'idees per a l'ordenaci�� de l'��mbit sector 'Eixample Nord' al terme municipal de Vilanova i la Geltr��

Geometr��a del margen S.E. de la Cuenca del Ebro: discordancias progresivas en el Grupo Scala Dei, Serra de la Llena (Tarragona)

El Grupo Scala Dei, localizado en el margen meridional oriental de la cuenca del Ebro, representa la respuesta sedimentaria a los cabalgamientos desarrollados en las Cadenas Costeras Catalanas. En la Serra de la Llena los 1600 m de materiales aluviales se organizan en cuatro megasecuencias principales (M,-M,) separadas por discordancias angulares. Los nuevos datos paleomastol��gicos indican un influjo de materiales terr��genos gruesos durante un per��odo que abarca desde un Luteciense superior-Bartoniense en la base, hasta un Catiense medio-superior. La sedimentaci��n en la Serra del Montsant continua hasta la parte media del Catiense superior. La tasa media de acumulaci��n (expresada en t��rminos de cent��metros cada mil a��os- kilo a��os- K. a,), en la Serra de la Llena, es de 13 crn1K.a. para la megasecuencia inferior (M,), de 7,5 cm/ K.a. para M,-M, y de 6 cm /K.a. para la ��ltima y mas fina (M,). La disposici��n general de los dep��sitos de la Serra de la Llena con una doble flexi��n monoclinal buzante al NW indica un control tect��nico de la deposici��n mediante dos estructuras diferentes en profundidad. Las discordancias progresivas desarrolladas en los anteflancos de los anticlinales indican una moci��n continuada, as�� como un equilibrio entre la tasa de levantamiento vertical y la tasa de acumulaci��n de sedimentos. Las discordancias progresivas se han desarrollado principalmente en funci��n de la componente tect��nica vertical y por la rotaci��n continuada del flanco de antepa��s de los anticlinales.