Foreign direct investment spillovers: additional lessons from a country study

We investigate the impact of foreign direct investment on the productivity of domestic firms, using sectoral data for Portugal. An improved analysis takes into account the most appropriate interval for the technological gap between foreign and domestic firms. Sectoral variation of spillovers, idiosyncratic sectoral factors and the search for inter-sectoral effects provide new insights on the subject. Significant spillovers require a proper technology differential between the foreign and domestic producers and favourable sectoral characteristics. Broadly, they occur in modern industries in which foreign firms have a clear, but not too sharp, edge on the domestic ones. Agglomeration effects are also identified as pertinent specific influences.

Lessons of spin and torsion: Reply to Consistent coupling to Dirac fields in teleparallelism

In reply to the criticism made by Mielke in the preceding Comment on our recent paper, we once again explicitly demonstrate the inconsistency of the coupling of a Dirac field to gravitation in the teleparallel equivalent of general relativity. Moreover, we stress that the mentioned inconsistency is generic for all sources with spin and is by no means restricted to the Dirac field. In this sense the SL(4,R)-covariant generalization of the spinor fields in the teleparallel gravity theory is irrelevant to the inconsistency problem.

Documenting the advantages and limitations of different classes of molecular markers in a well-established phylogeographic context: lessons from the Iberian endemic Golden-striped salamander, Chioglossa lusitanica (Caudata: Salamandridae)

Previous analyses of mitochondrial (mt)DNA and allozymes covering the range of the Iberian endemic golden-striped salamander, Chioglossa lusitanica, suggested a Pleistocene split of the historical species distribution into two population units (north and south of the Mondego river), postglacial expansion into the northernmost extant range, and secondary contact with neutral diffusion of genes close to the Mondego river. We extended analysis of molecular variation over the species range using seven microsatellite loci and the nuclear P-fibrinogen intron 7 (beta-fibint7). Both microsatellites and beta-fibint7 showed moderate to high levels of population structure, concordant with patterns detected with mtDNA and allozymes; and a general pattern of isolation-by-distance, contrasting the marked differentiation of two population groups suggested by mtDNA and allozymes. Bayesian multilocus analyses showed contrasting results as populations north and south of the Douro river were clearly differentiated based on microsatellites, whereas allozymes revealed differentiation north and south of the Mondego river. Additionally, decreased microsatellite variability in the north supported the hypothesis of postglacial colonization of this region. The well-documented evolutionary history of C. lusitanica, provides an excellent framework within which the advantages and limitations of different classes of markers can be evaluated in defining patterns of population substructure and inferring evolutionary processes across distinct spatio-temporal scales. The present study serves as a cautionary note for investigations that rely on a single type of molecular marker, especially when the organism under study exhibits a widespread distribution and complex natural history. (C) 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 95, 371-387.

Methodological contributions towards the study of health care production: lessons from a research study on barriers and access in mental health

This article presents methodological contributions and a conceptual innovation for thinking about the production of health care, stemming from a study on access and barriers in mental health carried out in the municipality of Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil). The study used a cartographic approach and, after an initial identification of the most complex cases (on the part of the teams of workers), adopted the users as guides to explore the different levels of production of their lives and to evaluate the possibility of forming a network of existential connections that produce life as a fundamental analyzer of access or barriers to care.

Competition policies in emerging economies: lessons and challenges from Central America and Mexico

Incluye Bibliografía

The Danish "flexicurity" system and the relevant lessons for Latin America

Includes bibliography

CGE lessons on liberalization of trade in services: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay

Includes bibliography.

Implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean Review of the period 2009-2013 and lessons learned. Summary and overview

Includes bibliography

Energy, industrial development, air and atmospheric pollution and climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean: new policies, lessons, best practices and opportunities for horizontal cooperation

Includes bibliography

Poverty impacts of trade integration with the European Union: lessons for Ecuador

Includes bibliography

The Taiwanese experience with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): possible lessons for Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Good practices in monitoring and reporting on the Millennium Development Goals: National lessons from Latin America

Includes bibliography