Scenarios of technology adoption towards low-carbon cities

Technological change has often been presented as a readily accepted means by which long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions can be achieved. Cities are the future centers of economic growth, with the global population becoming predominantly urban; hence, increases or reductions of GHG emissions are tied to their energy strategies. This research examines the likelihood of a developed world city (the Greater Toronto Area) achieving an 80% reduction in GHG emissions through policy-enabled technological change. Emissions are examined from 3 major sources: light duty passenger vehicles, residential buildings and commercial/institutional buildings. Logistic diffusion curves are applied for the adoption of alternative vehicle technologies, building retrofits and high performance new building construction. This research devises high, low and business-as-usual estimates of future technological adoption and finds that even aggressive scenarios are not sufficient to achieve an 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050. This further highlights the challenges faced in maintaining a relatively stable climate. Urban policy makers must consider that the longer the lag before this transition occurs, the greater the share of GHG emissions mitigation that must addressed through behavioural change in order to meet the 2050 target, which likely poses greater political challenges.

The implications of embodiment and Putty-Clay to economic development

In this paper we construct and analyze a growth model with the following three ingredients. (i) Technological progress is embodied. (ii) The production function of a firm is such that the firm makes both technology upgrade as well as capital and labor decisions. (iii) The firm’s production technology is putty-clay. We assume that there are disincentives to the accumulation of capital, resulting in a divergence between the social and the private cost of investment. We solve a single firm’s problem in this environment. Then we determine general equilibrium prices of capital goods of different vintages. Using these prices we aggregate firms’ decisions and construct the theoretical analogues of National Income statistics. This generates a relationship between disincentives and per capita incomes. We analyze this relationship and show the quantitative and qualitative roles of embodiment and putty-clay. We also show how the model is taken to data, quantified and used to determine to what extent income gaps across countries can be attributed to disincentives.

As duas faces das técnicas de gestão: aprendizagem e inovação evidências de empresa do setor siderúrgico no Brasil

Ao longo dos últimos 20 anos tem havido uma profusão de estudos que examinam, no âmbito de empresas, a contribuição dos mecanismos de aprendizagem e da adoção de técnicas de gestão para o processo de acumulação tecnológica. No entanto, ainda são escassos os estudos que examinem, de maneira conjunta e sob uma perspectiva dinâmica, o relacionamento entre a adoção de técnicas de gestão, mecanismos de aprendizagem e trajetórias de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas. Mais que isto, faltam estudos que examinem o duplo papel das técnicas de gestão, ora como parte do estoque de capacidades tecnológicas, ora como um processo de aprendizagem tecnológica em si. Esta dissertação objetiva oferecer uma contribuição para preencher esta lacuna neste campo de estudo. O enfoque desta dissertação deriva de observações empíricas, realizadas em empresas, e inspira-se no clássico estudo Innovation and Learning: the two faces of R&D, de Cohen e Levinthal (1989). Assim a dissertação baseia-se em um estudo de caso individual, realizado em uma empresa do setor siderúrgico no Brasil, no período de 1984 a 2008, examinando estas questões à luz de modelos analíticos disponíveis na literatura internacional. Neste sentido, adotou-se o entendimento de capacidade tecnológica como o conjunto de recursos necessários para gerar e gerir mudanças tecnológicas, sendo construída e acumulada de forma gradual, a partir do engajamento em processos de aprendizagem e da coordenação de bases de conhecimentos acumulados em diferentes dimensões, simbioticamente relacionadas. As métricas utilizadas identificam tipos e níveis de capacidade tecnológica para diferentes funções e identifica quatro tipos de processos de aprendizagem tecnológica e os avalia em termos de suas características-chave. Tomando-se por base evidências empíricas qualitativas e quantitativas, colhidas em primeira mão, a base de trabalho de campo, este estudo verificou que: 1. A empresa acumulou níveis inovativos de capacidades tecnológicas em todas as funções examinadas, sendo o nível Inovativo Intermediário (Nível 5) nas funções Engenharia de Projetos (de forma incompleta) e Equipamentos e o nível Intermediário Avançado (Nível 6) nas funções Processos e Organização da Produção e Produtos. 2. Os mecanismos de aprendizagem subjacentes à acumulação destes níveis de capacidade tecnológica apresentaram resultados relevantes em termos de suas características-chave, principalmente no que diz respeito à variedade e intensidade: de 24 mecanismos em 1984 para um total de 59 em 2008, com uma variação de 145,8%, e com 56 dos 59 mecanismos (94,92%) utilizados atualmente de forma sistemática. 3. O período compreendido entre os anos de 1990 e 2004, no qual foram implementadas as técnicas de gestão estudadas, exceto o Plano de Sugestões, se caracteriza por apresentar a maior taxa de acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas e por dar início à utilização da quase totalidade dos 35 novos mecanismos de aprendizagem incorporados pela empresa após o início de suas operações (1984). E que as técnicas de gestão estudadas: 1. Colaboraram para o processo de aprendizagem tecnológica da AMBJF, principalmente pela necessidade de se: (i) incorporar novos mecanismos de aprendizagem que lhe permitissem acumular, antecipadamente, a base de conhecimentos necessária à implementação das técnicas de gestão estudadas; (ii) coordenar um número maior de mecanismos que dessem o adequado suporte ao aumento da complexidade de seu Sistema de Gestão Integrada (SOl). 2. Ampliaram, por si, o estoque de capacidades tecnológicas da empresa, maIS especificamente em sua dimensão organizacional, a partir da acumulação de conhecimento em procedimentos, instruções de trabalho, manuais, processos e fluxos de gestão e de produção, dentre outros. Desta forma, os resultados aqui encontrados confirmam que a adoção e a implementação das técnicas de gestão estudadas contribuíram com e influenciaram o processo de aprendizagem tecnológica e a trajetória de acumulação tecnológica da empresa, ao mesmo tempo, exercendo, portanto, um duplo papel na organização. Esta conclusão nos leva a um melhor entendimento do tema e pode contribuir para a compreensão de ações políticas e gerenciais que possam acelerar a acumulação de capacidades tecnológicas, entendendo a relevância das técnicas de gestão menos em termos de sua "mera" adoção e mais do seu processo de implementação.

Occupational tasks and changes in the wage structure

This paper argues that changes in the returns to occupational tasks have contributed to changes in the wage distribution over the last three decades. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, we first show that the 1990s polarization of wages is explained by changes in wage setting between and within occupations, which are well captured by tasks measures linked to technological change and offshorability. Using a decomposition based on Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2009), we find that technological change and deunionization played a central role in the 1980s and 1990s, while offshorability became an important factor from the 1990s onwards.

Environmental policy and growth when inputs are differentiated in pollution intensity

Environmental policy affects the distribution of market shares if intermediate goods are differentiated in their pollution intensity. When innovations are environment-friendly, a tax on emissions skews demand towards new goods which are the most productive. In this case, the tax has to increase along a balanced growth path to keep the market shares of goods of different vintages constant. Comparing balanced growth paths, we find that an increase in the burden of environmental taxation spurs innovation because it increases the market share of recent vintages. As a result the cost of environmental policy in terms of slower growth is weaker and may even be absent.

Desenvolvimento, pobreza e meio ambiente no seridó potiguar: um estudo centrado nas micro-regiões do seridó oriental e ocidental

This research work intends to carry out a study focused on the dynamic between development, poverty reduction and conservation of natural resources. To consider this relationship to the region chosen was the micro-region of Eastern and Western Seridó in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. In recent years, several studies (Araújo, 2011; BASTOS, 2009) have pointed out that after a period of economic crisis in its tripodproductive, formed by the activities of farming, cotton farming, mining and faced in the eighties, this region of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, has not only shown signs of economic recovery but also improve their social indicators. On the other hand, studies of desertification as the view of the state of RN (produced in cooperation between the Government of RN and research institutions) and the Sustainable Development Plan of Seridó (ADES, 2000), indicate that there is an ongoing French process of degradation of natural resources that is capable of compromising the ability of sustaining such a system. To verify this reality and likely finding this relationship, this work is adopted for this study, the analysis of evolution of secondary data from official bodies such as the IBGE on HDI, per capita income and other social indicators between 2000 and 2009. Here is another time of the survey analysis of qualitative data collected from interviews with institutions of academic intervention in nature, researchers at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) State agencies that address the issue of the Middle Environment in Seridó: Institute for Sustainable Development of the NB (IDEMA) and the Brazilian Institute of Environment and the Amazon (IBAMA) and institutions of direct intervention in the region, as the Agency's Sustainable Development Seridó (adhesive) and the Joint Semi-Arid (ASA). After crossing data from quantitative and qualitative, it was found that the dynamics of the region's economic Seridó Potiguar partially answers the improvement of social indicators of poverty. Contribution by the State in this shared stock transfer income. Regarding the influence of productive restructuring in the region on issues of environment, it is noted that the ceramic tile industry, responsible for the absorption percentage of the population with limited ingress into the urban economy, given the low education, accounts for the increase of susceptibility to the ongoing process of desertification in North Seridó Rio Grande. We conclude finally that the guarantee of increased income, freedom and conservation of natural resources ensures primarily by changing the beliefs and values, especially on the part of the business sector, which use natural resources so predatory, aimed at maintaining their rates of return on investment. And concomitantly, the synchronization between technological change, through the use of new energy sources, and institutional change.

Controle inteligente de pressão para uma rede sem reservatório de abastecimento urbano de água

The sanitation companies from Brazil has a great challenge for the XXI century: seek to mitigate the rate of physical waste (water, chemicals and electricity) and financial waste caused by inefficient operating systems drinking water supply, considering that currently we already face, in some cases, the scarcity of water resources. The supply systems are increasingly complex as they seek to minimize waste and at the same time better serve the growing number of users. However, this technological change is to reduce the complexity of the challenges posed by the need to include users with higher quality and efficiency in services. A major challenge for companies of water supplies is to provide a good quality service contemplating reducing expenditure on electricity. In this situation we developed a research by a method that seeks to control the pressure of the distribution systems that do not have the tank in your setup and the water comes out of the well directly to the distribution system. The method of pressure control (intelligent control) uses fuzzy logic to eliminate the waste of electricity and the leaks from the production of pumps that inject directly into the distribution system, which causes waste of energy when the consumption of households is reduced causing the saturation of the distribution system. This study was conducted at Green Club II condominium, located in the city of Parnamirim, state of Rio Grande do Norte, in order to study the pressure behavior of the output of the pump that injects water directly into the distribution system. The study was only possible because of the need we had to find a solution to some leaks in the existing distribution system and the extensions of the respective condominium residences, which sparked interest in developing a job in order to carry out the experiments contained in this research

Economia verde: a reiteração de ideias à espera de ações

A Iniciativa Economia Verde, numa perspectiva de análise teórica, é uma reiteração de velhas ideias; não é propriamente um novo conceito, mas sim a proposta de um conjunto de instrumentos para o alcance do desenvolvimento sustentável. Uma novidade importante dessa inciativa é a defesa do ativismo de políticas de indução às mudanças tecnológicas ambientais, o que revela sua aproximação com a economia evolucionária. No plano da economia política internacional, o potencial de conflito Norte-Sul sobre a Iniciativa Economia Verde se vincula aos impasses registrados nas negociações sobre liberalização do comércio de bens e serviços ambientais na Rodada Doha da OMC.

A mídia dos outros somos nós: a experiência audiovisual do Ponto de Cultura Cinema para Todos

This research aims to identify the process of appropriation of audio visual (in digital video) for collective symbolic production (participatory video practice that expresses popular culture) in a socio-cultural context where the minorities are. Therefore, we based this study on the students‟ experience of the film and video workshops held by Cinema para Todos (Culture Point Cine for All), in Natal, RN. Culture Point is the basis of the project Programa Nacional de Cultura, Educação e Cidadania Cultura Viva (National Program of Culture, Education and Citizenship - Living Culture) of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture. In 2010, the Cine for All developed three film and video workshops in the state of Rio Grande do Norte (Northeastern of Brazil), in the municipalities of Açu, Lajes and São Gonçalo do Amarante, within a public policy project of socio-cultural inclusion. These three workshops are the focus of this empirical investigation. To support the analysis of this research we consider that the spaces of workshops are sites of the social practices origin, assuming they show the development of the changes of actions that generate new practices. In this socio-cultural context the students as interlocutors process the communicative culture mediation, where come from the logics of action (using digital video) to become a mediatic practice (video auto ethnographic). With the overall goal set and the field of investigative action delimited we considered the methodology of case study suitable for the observation of the object, because it is a phenomenon of modernity, occurring in a context of real life and with little or no control over events. Participant observation and interviews was also applied to this case study. The analytical theoretical support comes from the notion of mediation by Jesús Martín-Barbero and the concept of habitus by Pierre Bourdieu. The research found that a new way of communicating has been developing by this social group, and this reflects the technological change experienced by them. The auto ethnographic videos, short movies, reveal an allegorical trial of the mainstream media, because while they use the mainstream format, they rework the aesthetic, but without revising the history, in fact they proposing to retell the history of themselves full of colorful details and with richness of their forgotten popular culture.

Inovação tecnológica e o mercado de trabalho do engenheiro cartógrafo

The article focuses on the presence of the technologic innovation and the surveyed current conditions of the cartographic engineer's work market. The methodology is based on forms with objective questions answered by the professionals. The current survey is the fourth one starting in 1995 and the first one with on line forms filled out by the Brazilian Association of Cartographic Engineers - São Paulo Section's web page. The sample was made up with 141 engineers and it revealed numbers that confirm the growing visibility and social recognition of the Brazilian cartographic engineer, although still far from the condition consistent with the territorial extension and the importance of Cartography for the country. The survey shows that the monthly average revenues are of approximately fifteen minimum wages; that the sample has only 13% of employers, although it is the highest percentage among all surveys; that 63 professionals cited 127 times that their organizations are related to technologic innovation at a proportion of two citations per organization; that 69% of the sample are optimists concerned to the future. Other important pieces of in formation to students and professionals will also be discussed in the article.

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2007

Includes bibliography

América Latina y el Caribe en la era global

Incluye Bibliografía

Economic reforms, growth and employment: labour markets in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

The income distribution problem in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography