Noves tecnologies per l'estudi de l'arqueologia de Patagònia (Amèrica del Sud)

The goal of this project was the historical study of Patagonia, the southernmost human settled area of the world. Our aim has been the anlysis of those societies to understand how they maintained their socioeconomic system, that is to say, how social reproduction allowed resolving the basic contradiction between production and reproduction, which is characteristic of all hunter-gatherer societies. New computational technologies have allowed a bettwer integration of the big amount and diversity of data needed. We have analyzed the historical evolution of inter-group and intra-group social relationships among nomad patagonian societies. We have compared different social answers in front of the radical change of their immediate reality produced by european colonization. We have exhaustively analyzed the results of archaeological excavations from diferent regions. We have also integrated information from anthropology, ethnohistory and geography. We are developing computing programs to integrate geographical actual data with paleoenvironmental data about the dynamic nature of soil formation, vegetation, hidrography, etc., with information about the history of productive action and how products were distributed among different human groups.

La Política sancionadora de la Unión Europea en el Norte de África. Estudios de caso a la luz de la Primavera Árabe

Les revolucions democràtiques que assoten el nord d'Àfrica han tornat ha obrir, entre d'altres, el debat sobre l'operativitat de les polítiques europees en aquesta regió. El present treball s'emmarca en aquest context geopolític i té com a finalitat avaluar la implementació de la política sancionadora de la Unió Europea en tres països objecte d'estudi, és a dir, Egipte Tunísia i Líbia. Després d'analitzar la política exterior europea en el Mediterrani, i l'oportunisme històric que el context polític actual ofereix per a la reformulació de les relacions euromediterrànies, conclourem qüestionant la intervenció europea en la gestió de la crisi i, en particular, l'eficàcia dels seus instruments sancionadors.

La Gestió europea de les ajudes d’estat durant la recent crisi financera i la seva adequació al sistema comunitari de defensa de la competencia

En un context de crisi, els Estats es troben en un trade-off entre “relaxar” el sistema de control d’ajudes d’Estat per reduir l’impacte de la recessió, o mantenir-lo i evitar així distorsions competitives. Es tracta d’un cas especial de trade-off entre el curt i el llarg termini. La present recerca investiga com la política europea ha gestionat la demanda d’ajudes públiques durant la recent crisi financera. Es diferencia entre “llei” i “procediment”, i es determina que mentre la primera s’ha adaptat al nou context de crisi per donar cabuda a mesures de rescat, una sèrie d’evidències suggereixen que el segon s’ha “relaxat”, i que pot haver estat una estratègia second best per reduir el risc moral associat als rescats i una estratègia necessària per a mantenir el propi sistema de control d’ajudes d’Estat

La Primavera Àrab, primera gran crisi de l’acció exterior Post-Lisboa: la visibilitat, l’eficàcia i la coherència del nou marc institucional a prova

La reforma de Lisboa va establir un nou marc institucional en l'àmbit l'Acció Exterior de la Unió Europea. Un nou marc que ha de permetre a la UE consolidar-se com a actor global en el nou panorama internacional. S'espera que els canvis de Lisboa corregeixin algunes de les deficiències que la política exterior europea havia mostrat en crisis anteriors, mancances de visibilitat, eficàcia i coherència. Un any després de la seva entrada en vigor, les revoltes dels països àrabs durant la primavera de 2011 són la primera gran crisi que l'Acció Exterior post-Lisboa ha d'afrontar i l'oportunitat per avaluar si s'ha aconseguit corregir aquestes mancances del passat.

The EU as a foreign policy actor – should human rights really be promoted in China?

La UE promou les seves normes i principis com els drets humans a tercers països també. en aquest document conceptualitza la UE en el seu poder normatiu i presenta la seva política de drets humans i alguns interpretacions alternatives dels drets humans. La qüestió de si, i en el qual el preu de la UE ha de promoure els drets humans a la Xina, tenint en compte diversos punts de conflicte i si es pot complir amb el seu paper d'un poder normatiu a la llum de diferents restriccions s'examinen. Finalment, és analitza el que això implica per a la realització limitada demanda original de la UE i el que un optimitzat. política de drets humans pot semblar

El posicionamiento de la Unión Europea ante los nuevos retos de seguridad: La Estrategia Contra la Proliferación de Armas de Destrucción Masiva

L'aparició de noves amenaces ha fet que la UE elaborés l'Estratègia Europea de Seguretat i l'Estratègia Contra la Proliferació d'ADM el 2003. Amb aquestes estratègies es persegueix que la Unió actuï amb un posicionament comú en el panorama internacional. Però, la PESC segueix sent una política coordinada, per tant, la seva actuació es troba limitada tant pels Estats membres com per altres actors internacionals. En aquest estudi, s'analitza l'actuació de la UE en relació amb les Estratègies i si pot esdevenir una alternativa a altres actors dins del Sistema Internacional actual.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s cross border cooperation: applying typologies and revising histories

Aquest document amplia el treball realitzat per Oliveras, durada i Perkmann en l'estudi de la cooperació transfronterera (CBC) a Europa. S'argumenta que el catàleg de les transferències regions (CBR), desenvolupat per Oliveras, durada i Perkmann el 2010, ha d'incloure la CBR que han sorgit com a resultat de l'ampliació actual de la UE en l'Oest Balcans. També serveix per donar suport a la opinió que una quarta etapa en la història desenvolupament de CBC a Europa encara no ha començat. El document porta el CBC de Bòsnia i Hercegovina en el marc de l'Instrument d'Ajuda Preadhesió (component II) com un estudi de casos i classifica cada CBC d'acord amb la tipologia que estableix Oliveras, durada i Perkmann. L'anàlisi revela que una forma de multi-nivell govern (MLG) també està sorgint en aquestes noves CBR. El tipus de MLG és també classificats. La conclusió de l'article és que el procés actual de la UE l'ampliació ha creat dos CBR i MLG promogut en els Balcans Occidentals

La Capacidad actual de España para liderar la posición europea hacia Cuba

Aquest treball té per objecte analitzar quina és la capacitat actual del govern espanyol per liderar les polítiques europees respecte a Cuba. El període escollit per a la realització d'aquest examen s'inicia l'any 2004, moment en què el PSOE es va fer amb la victòria en les eleccions generals i en què va anunciar un canvi de rumb en l'acció exterior espanyola respecte de la postura promoguda pel PP en els mandats anteriors, i es perllonga fins al moment actual. El balanç dels èxits i fracassos obtinguts pel govern socialista fins ara, mostra una creixent pèrdua d'influència d'Espanya, davant etapes anteriors, si tradicional paper d'interlocutor avantatjat de la UE pel que fa a Cuba. la concurrència de factors com l'adhesió dels PECO a la UE, la capacitat de la Havana per procurar nous aliats i socis estratègics o les innovacions introduïdes pel tractat de Lisboa en matèria d'acció exterior, ha augmentat significativament les dificultats d'Espanya per "europeïtzar" els interessos de la seva política exterior pel que fa a l'Illa

Innovation or Imitation? The effect of spillovers and competitive pressure on firms' R&D strategy choice

This article provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of a firm's optimal R&D strategy choice. In this paper a firm's R&D strategy is assumed to be endogenous and allowed to depend on both internal firms. characteristics and external factors. Firms choose between two strategies, either they engage in R&D or abstain from own R&D and imitate the outcomes of innovators. In the theoretical model this yields three types of equilibria in which either all firms innovate, some firms innovate and others imitate, or no firm innovates. Firms'equilibrium strategies crucially depend on external factors. We find that the efficiency of intellectual property rights protection positively affects firms'incentives to engage in R&D, while competitive pressure has a negative effect. In addition, smaller firms are found to be more likely to become imitators when the product is homogeneous and the level of spillovers is high. These results are supported by empirical evidence for German .rms from manufacturing and services sectors. Regarding social welfare our results indicate that strengthening intellectual property protection can have an ambiguous effect. In markets characterized by a high rate of innovation a reduction of intellectual property rights protection can discourage innovative performance substantially. However, a reduction of patent protection can also increase social welfare because it may induce imitation. This indicates that policy issues such as the optimal length and breadth of patent protection cannot be resolved without taking into account specific market and firm characteristics. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C35, D43, L13, L22, O31. Keywords: Innovation; imitation; spillovers; product differentiation; market competition; intellectual property rights protection.

R&D cooperation between Spanish firms and scientific partners: what is the role of tertiary education?

This paper explores the factors that determine firm’s R&D cooperation with different partners, paying special attention on the role of tertiary education (degree and PhDs level) in facilitating the connection between the firms and the to scientific bodies (technology centres, public research centres and universities). Here, we attempt to answer two questions. First, are innovative firms that carry out internal and external R&D activities more likely to cooperate on R&D projects with other partners? Second, do Spanish innovative firms with a high participation of researchers with degrees or PhDs tend to cooperate more with scientific partners? To answer both questions we apply a three-dimensional approach on a firm level Panel Data with a sample of 4.998 manufacturing and services Spanish firms. First, we run a complementary test between external R&D acquisition and skilled research workers and find that firms which carry out external R&D activities obtain a greater return on R&D cooperation when they have skilled workers in R&D, especially in high-tech manufactures and KIS services. Second, we carry out a 2-step tobit model to estimate, in the first stage, the determinants that explain whether Spanish innovative firms cooperate or not; and in the second stage the factors that affect the choice of partners. And third, we apply an ordered probit model to test the marginal effects of explanatory variables on the different partners. Here we contrast some of the most interesting empirical hypotheses of previous studies, and which emphasize the role of employees with degrees and PhDs in facilitating cooperative R&D between firms and scientific partners. JEL classification: O31, O33, O38. Key words: Determinants R&D cooperation, industry-university flows, PhD research workers.

Innovation and absorptive capacity: What is the role of technological frontier?

This paper explores how absorptive capacity affects the innovative performance and productivity dynamics of Spanish firms. A firm’s efficiency levels are measured using two variables: the labour productivity and the Total Factor Productivity (TFP). The theoretical framework is based on the seminal contributions of Cohen and Levinthal (1989, 1990) regarding absorptive capacity; and the applied framework is based on the four-stage structural model proposed by Crépon, Duguet and Mairesse (1998) for setting the determinants of R&D, the effects of R&D activities on innovation outputs, and the impacts of innovation on firm productivity. The present study uses a twostage structural model. In the first stage, a probit estimation is used to investigate how the sources of R&D, the absorptive capacity and a vector of the firm’s individual features influence the firm’s likelihood of developing innovations in products or processes. In the second phase, a quantile regression is used to analyze the effect of R&D sources, absorptive capacity and firm characteristics on productivity. This method shows the elasticity of each exogenous variable on productivity according to the firms’ levels of efficiency, and thus allows us to distinguish between firms that are close to the technological frontier and those that are further away from it. We used extensive firm-level panel data from 5,575 firms for the 2004-2009 period. The results show that the internal absorptive capacity has a strong impact on the productivity of firms, whereas the role of external absorptive capacity differs according to nature of the each industry and according the distance of firms from the technological frontier. Key words: R&D sources, innovation strategies, absorptive capacity, technological distance, quantile regression.

Telomere characterization in the Asteraceae family

Asteraceae or Compositae constitute one of the largest families of the angiosperms, distributed over all continents but in Antarctica, particularly well represented in temperate zones and less frequent in tropical regions. The Asteraceae have been the object of a great deal of attention from all viewpoints for their scientific as well as economic interest. Telomeres sequences are highly conservated at the ends of chromosomes across the eukaryotes. In plants, generally are formed by tandemly repeated sequences named Arabidopsis type but several exceptions have been described. The objective of the present work is to study the telomeric characterization along the whole Asteraceae family and to find, if any, the relationships between these results and the evolutionary history in this family.

The Innovation and Imitation Dichotomy in Spanish firms: do absorptive capacity and the technological frontier matter?

This paper analyses whether a firm’s absorptive capacity and its distance from the technological frontier affect the choice between innovation and imitation in innovative Spanish firms. From an extensive survey of 5,575 firms during the 2004-2009 period, we found two significant results. With regard to the role of absorptive capacity, the empirical evidence shows that when innovative firms have difficulties in accessing external information and hire skilled workers, their innovative capacity is reduced. Meanwhile, with regard to distance from the technological frontier, the firms that reduce this gap manage to increase their innovative capacity at the expense of imitation. To summarise, when we studied firms’ absorptive capacity and their relative position to the technological frontier in tandem, we found that the two factors directly affected firms' ability to innovate or imitate. Key words: R&D sources, innovation and imitation strategies, absorptive capacity, technological frontier, ordered probit.

A Folk Theorem for Games when Frequent Monitoring Decreases Noise

This paper studies frequent monitoring in an infinitely repeated game with imperfect public information and discounting, where players observe the state of a continuous time Brownian process at moments in time of length _. It shows that a limit folk theorem can be achieved with imperfect public monitoring when players monitor each other at the highest frequency, i.e., _. The approach assumes that the expected joint output depends exclusively on the action profile simultaneously and privately decided by the players at the beginning of each period of the game, but not on _. The strong decreasing effect on the expected immediate gains from deviation when the interval between actions shrinks, and the associated increase precision of the public signals, make the result possible in the limit. JEL: C72/73, D82, L20. KEYWORDS: Repeated Games, Frequent Monitoring, Public Monitoring, Brownian Motion.

Public Monitoring with Uncertainty in the Time Repetitions

This paper study repeated games where the time repetitions of the stage game are not known or controlled by the players. We call this feature random monitoring. Kawamori's (2004) shows that perfect random monitoring is always better than the canonical case. Surprisingly, when the monitoring is public, the result is less clear-cut and does not generalize in a straightforward way. Unless the public signals are sufficiently informative about player's actions and/or players are patient enough. In addition to a discount effect, that tends to consistently favor the provision of incentives, we found an information effect, associated with the time uncertainty on the distribution of public signals. Whether payoff improvements are or not possible, depends crucially on the direction and strength of these effects. JEL: C73, D82, D86. KEYWORDS: Repeated Games, Frequent Monitoring, Random Public Monitoring, Moral Hazard, Stochastic Processes.