The grand divergence: global and European current account surpluses. Bruegel Working Paper 2015/08, 13 August 2015

Global current account imbalances widened before the 2007/2008 crisis and have narrowed since. While the post-crisis adjustment of European current account deficits was in line with global developments (though more forceful), European current account surpluses defied global trends and increased. We use panel econometric models to analyse the determinants of medium-term current account balances. Our results confirm that higher fiscal balances, higher GDP per capita, more rapidly aging populations, larger net foreign assets, larger oil rents and better legal systems increase the medium-term current account balance, while a larger growth differential and a higher old-age dependency ratio reduce it. European current account surpluses became excessive during the past twelve years according to our estimates, while they were in line with model predictions in the preceding three decades. Generally, the gap between the actual current account and its fitted value in the model has a strong predictive power for future current account changes. Excess deficits adjust more forcefully than excess surpluses. However, in the 2004-07 period, excess imbalances were amplified, which was followed by a forceful correction in 2008-15, with the exception of European surpluses.

The Circular Economy: Barriers and Opportunities for SMEs. CEPS Working Documents No. 412/September 2015

The ‘circular economy’ is gaining momentum as a concept in both academic and policy circles, and circular business models have been linked to significant economic benefits. This paper identifies barriers and enablers to adopting circular economy business practices, and presents key messages for policy-makers. It draws on input from a literature review, on discussions held in the context of the GreenEcoNet project and on an analysis of two SME circular business models.

Getting the most from public R&D spending in times of budgetary austerity. Bruegel Working Paper 2016/01, February 2016

This working paper reviews the evidence on the impact of public R&D spending. The authors first look at the evidence from micro-analysis of the impact of public intervention on private R&D and innovation, with a focus on the latest results from crosscountry micro-research performed within SIMPATIC. To analyse the impact of public R&D on growth, the micro-results on private R&D investment effects are complemented with a macro-perspective. To this end, the authors look at how public R&D performs in affecting GDP growth and jobs in applied macro-models most commonly used in EU policy analysis. They focus particularly on the NEMESIS model in development within the SIMPATIC project. The authors conclude with some policy recommendations from the reviewed micro and macro SIMPATIC evidence for designing public R&D projects and programmes.

Benchmarking numerical models of brittle thrust wedges

We report quantitative results from three brittle thrust wedge experiments, comparing numerical results directly with each other and with corresponding analogue results. We first test whether the participating codes reproduce predictions from analytical critical taper theory. Eleven codes pass the stable wedge test, showing negligible internal deformation and maintaining the initial surface slope upon horizontal translation over a frictional interface. Eight codes participated in the unstable wedge test that examines the evolution of a wedge by thrust formation from a subcritical state to the critical taper geometry. The critical taper is recovered, but the models show two deformation modes characterised by either mainly forward dipping thrusts or a series of thrust pop-ups. We speculate that the two modes are caused by differences in effective basal boundary friction related to different algorithms for modelling boundary friction. The third experiment examines stacking of forward thrusts that are translated upward along a backward thrust. The results of the seven codes that run this experiment show variability in deformation style, number of thrusts, thrust dip angles and surface slope. Overall, our experiments show that numerical models run with different numerical techniques can successfully simulate laboratory brittle thrust wedge models at the cm-scale. In more detail, however, we find that it is challenging to reproduce sandbox-type setups numerically, because of frictional boundary conditions and velocity discontinuities. We recommend that future numerical-analogue comparisons use simple boundary conditions and that the numerical Earth Science community defines a plasticity test to resolve the variability in model shear zones.

Carbonate system during the May 2013 MedSeA cruise

Most global ocean models are based on the assumption of a "steady state" ocean. Here, we investigate the validation of this hypothesis for the anthropized Mediterranean Sea. In order to do so, we calculated the mixing coefficients of the water masses detected in this sea via an optimum multiparameter analysis referred to as the MIX approach, using data from the BOUM (2008) and MedSeA (2013) cruises. The comparison of the mixing coefficients of each water mass, between 2008 and 2013, indicates that some of their proportions have significantly changed. Surface water mass proportions did not change significantly (Delta0.05-0.1), while intermediate and deep water mass mixing coefficients of both Eastern and Western basins were significantly modified (~Delata 0.35). This study clearly shows that the Mediterranean seawater is not in a "steady state".

Processing procedures and findings : working notes on quality : statistics of income, foreign and domestic special studies.

Shipping list no.: 87-79-P.

Ordnance field and depot maintenance : starter, engine, assembly 2920-753-8988, 2920-141-9508, and 2920-620-6821 (Jack & Heintz models D30, D42, and 20074-000).

"August 1959."

Approaches and Strategy for Cancer Research and Surveillance Data: Integration, Information Pipeline, Data Models, and Informatics Opportunities

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-04

Heat stress, heat strain, and productivity in Washington State tree fruit harvesters

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06