Essays in Long-run Development and Spatial Economics

This thesis tries to further our understanding for why some countries today are more prosperous than others. It establishes that part of today's observed variation in several proxies such as income or gender inequality have been determined in the distant past. Chapter one shows that 450 years of (Catholic) Portuguese colonisation had a long-lasting impact in India when it comes to education and female emancipation. Furthermore I use a historical quasi-experiment that happened 250 years ago in order to show that different outcomes have different degrees of persitence over time. Educational gaps between males and females seemingly wash out a few decades after the public provision of schools. The male biased sex-ratios on the other hand stay virtually unchanged despite governmental efforts. This provides evidence that deep rooted son preferences are much harder to overcome, suggesting that a differential approach is needed to tackle sex-selective abortion and female neglect. The second chapter proposes improvements for the execution of Spatial Regression Discontinuity Designs. These suggestions are accompanied by a full-fledged spatial statistical package written in R. Chapter three introduces a quantitative economic geography model in order to study the peculiar evolution of the European urban system on its way to the Industrial Revolution. It can explain the shift of economic gravity from the Mediterranean towards the North-Sea ("little divergence"). The framework provides novel insights on the importance of agricultural trade costs and the peculiar geography of Europe with its extended coastline and dense network of navigable rivers.

Development of sexing systems functional to mass production of Aedes albopictus sterile males

Aedes albopictus is a vector able to transmit several arboviruses. Due to its high impact on human health, it is important to develop an efficient control strategy for this pest. Nowadays, control based on chemical insecticides is limited by the number of available active principles and the occurrence of resistance. A valuable alternative to the conventional control strategies is the sterile insect technique (SIT) which relies on releasing sterile males of the target insect. Mating between wild females and sterile males results in no viable offspring. A crucial aspect of SIT is the production of a large number of sterile males with a low presence of females that can bite and transmit viruses. The present thesis aimed to find, implement and study the most reliable mechanical sex sorter and protocol to implement male productivity and reduce female contamination. In addition, I evaluated different variables and sorting protocols to enable female recovery for breeding purposes. Furthermore, I studied the creation of a hyper-protandric strain potentially able to produce only males. I also assessed the integration of artificial intelligence with an optical unit to identify sexes at the adult stage. All these applications helped to realise a mass production model in Italy with a potential weekly production of 1 million males. Moreover, I studied and applied for aerial sterile male release in an urban environment. This technology could allow the release of males in a wide area, overcoming environmental and urban obstacles. However, the development and application of drone technologies in a metropolitan area close to airports, such as in Bologna area, must fit specific requirements. Lastly, at Réunion Island, during a Short Term Scientific Mission France (AIM-COST Action), Indian Ocean, I studied the Boosted SIT application. Coating sterile males with Pyriproxyfen may help spread the insecticide into the larval breeding sites.

Identification of sunflower genotypes suitable for organic agriculture and development of analytical tools for their traceability

Thanks to the development and combination of molecular markers for the genetic traceability of sunflower varieties and a gas chromatographic method for the determination of the FAs composition of sunflower oil, it was possible to implement an experimental method for the verification of both the traceability and the variety of organic sunflower marketed by Agricola Grains S.p.A. The experimental activity focused on two objectives: the implementation of molecular markers for the routine control of raw material deliveries for oil extraction and the improvement and validation of a gas chromatographic method for the determination of the FAs composition of sunflower oil. With regard to variety verification and traceability, the marker systems evaluated were the following: SSR markers (12) arranged in two multiplex sets and SCAR markers for the verification of cytoplasmic male sterility (Pet1) and fertility. In addition, two objectives were pursued in order to enable a routine application in the industrial field: the development of a suitable protocol for DNA extraction from single seeds and the implementation of a semi-automatic capillary electrophoresis system for the analysis of marker fragments. The development and validation of a new GC/FID analytical method for the determination of fatty acids (FAME) in sunflower achenes to improve the quality and efficiency of the analytical flow in the control of raw and refined materials entering the Agricola Grains S.p.A. production chain. The analytical performances being validated by the newly implemented method are: linearity of response, limit of quantification, specificity, precision, intra-laboratory precision, robustness, BIAS. These parameters are used to compare the newly developed method with the one considered as reference - Commission Regulation No. 2568/91 and Commission Implementing Regulation No. 2015/1833. Using the combination of the analytical methods mentioned above, the documentary traceability of the product can be confirmed experimentally, providing relevant information for subsequent marketing.