Sunk costs, extensive R&D subsidies and permanent inducement effects

We study whether there is scope for using subsidies to smooth out barriers to R&D performance and expand the share of R&D firms in Spain. We consider a dynamic model with sunk entry costs in which firms’ optimal participation strategy is defined in terms of two subsidy thresholds that characterise entry and continuation. We compute the subsidy thresholds from the estimates of a dynamic panel data type-2 tobit model for an unbalanced panel of about 2,000 Spanish manufacturing firms. The results suggest that “extensive” subsidies are a feasible and efficient tool for expanding the share of R&D firms.

Informe comparatiu del curs de formació bàsica de la policia a Europa. Els casos d'Anglaterra, Alemanya, Bèlgica, França i Holanda

L’informe que a continuació es presenta és una comparativa del Curs de formació bàsica (CFB) de cinc escoles de policia europees. Per a això hem comptat amb la col·laboració de l’Escola de la Policia Metropolitana de Londres (Anglaterra), la d���Hessen (Alemanya), la de Bèlgica, l’Escola Nacional Superior de la Policia Nacional de França i l’Acad��mia de Policia d���Holanda. Per a l’elaboració de l’informe es va utilitzar la informació de què ja disposava l’Àrea de Recerca i Cooperació Internacional de l’Institut fruit de la seva pròpia activitat i, a més, es va enviar un qüestionari a les diferents escoles.

Vertical integration or specialisation: producing and commercialising cotton goods (1815-1913)

This article describes the ways in which cotton goods were commercialised during the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth. Several national cases are analysed: Britain, as the Workshop of the World; France, Germany, Switzerland and the US, as core economies; and Italy and Spain as countries on the European periphery. The main question that we address is why some cotton industries vertically integrated their production and commercialisation processes, but others did not. We present a model that combines industrial district size and product differentiation to explain why vertical integration was present in most cases and why there was vertical specialisation in Lancashire and Lowell.

Vertical integration or specialisation: producing and commercialising cotton goods (1815-1913)

This article describes the ways in which cotton goods were commercialised during the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth. Several national cases are analysed: Britain, as the Workshop of the World; France, Germany, Switzerland and the US, as core economies; and Italy and Spain as countries on the European periphery. The main question that we address is why some cotton industries vertically integrated their production and commercialisation processes, but others did not. We present a model that combines industrial district size and product differentiation to explain why vertical integration was present in most cases and why there was vertical specialisation in Lancashire and Lowell.