Complementarity between human capital and trade in regional technological progress

The effect of openness and trade orientation on economic growth remains a highly contentious issue in the literature. Trade facilitates the spread of knowledge and the adoption of more advanced and efficient technologies, which hastens total factor productivity (TFP) growth and, hence, per capita income. New technologies that spread through trade require a sufficiently skilled labour force to adapt them to the domestic productive environment. Thus, openness and human capital accumulation will lead to TFP growth and the greater the complementarity between both variables, the higher the TFP growth. This paper discusses the implications of these assumptions and tests their empirical validity, using a pool of data for manufacturing industry in Spanish regions in a period in which both the stock of human capital and openness experienced a notable increase.

Una nova estimació retrospectiva del VAB regional industrial. Espanya, 1860-1930

[cat] En aquest treball, es realitza una nova estimació del VAB industrial espanyol a un nivell de desagregació territorial corresponent a les províncies (NUTSIII) i les Comunitats Autònomes (NUTS II). Per assolir aquest objectiu es planteja una nova metodologia d’estimació de les xifres històriques de VAB industrial regional. Front a les aproximacions tradicionals, basades en la utilització de fonts fiscals com a forma d’aproximar la capacitat productiva industrial, en aquest treball s’ofereix una estimació que també es basa en les rendes generades per la producció industrial de les regions. Amb aquest objectiu, es fa servir la metodologia proposada per Geary i Stark (2002) i les millores proposades per Crafts (2005). La utilització d’aquesta metodologia permet elaborar una nova estimació retrospectiva del VAB industrial de les regions espanyoles a diversos talls temporals corresponents al període 1860-1930.

Trade policy and regional inequalities

This paper aims to analyse the effects of trade policies in the pattern of regional inequalities within a country. Inspired firstly, by the debate concerning the role of protectionist policies in the settlement of a pattern of striking regional inequalities in the Spanish industrialisation process and secondly, by current evidence of an increase in these inequalities following the entry of Spain in the EU (1986), we set a model that shows that trade liberalisation increases regional inequalities.

MR-IMPACT II: Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Myocardial Perfusion Assessment in Coronary artery disease Trial: perfusion-cardiac magnetic resonance vs. single-photon emission computed tomography for the detection of coronary artery disease: a comparative multicentre, multivendor trial.

Aims Perfusion-cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has emerged as a potential alternative to single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to assess myocardial ischaemia non-invasively. The goal was to compare the diagnostic performance of perfusion-CMR and SPECT for the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD) using conventional X-ray coronary angiography (CXA) as the reference standard. Methods and results In this multivendor trial, 533 patients, eligible for CXA or SPECT, were enrolled in 33 centres (USA and Europe) with 515 patients receiving MR contrast medium. Single-photon emission computed tomography and CXA were performed within 4 weeks before or after CMR in all patients. The prevalence of CAD in the sample was 49%. Drop-out rates for CMR and SPECT were 5.6 and 3.7%, respectively (P = 0.21). The primary endpoint was non-inferiority of CMR vs. SPECT for both sensitivity and specificity for the detection of CAD. Readers were blinded vs. clinical data, CXA, and imaging results. As a secondary endpoint, the safety profile of the CMR examination was evaluated. For CMR and SPECT, the sensitivity scores were 0.67 and 0.59, respectively, with the lower confidence level for the difference of +0.02, indicating superiority of CMR over SPECT. The specificity scores for CMR and SPECT were 0.61 and 0.72, respectively (lower confidence level for the difference: -0.17), indicating inferiority of CMR vs. SPECT. No severe adverse events occurred in the 515 patients. Conclusion In this large multicentre, multivendor study, the sensitivity of perfusion-CMR to detect CAD was superior to SPECT, while its specificity was inferior to SPECT. Cardiac magnetic resonance is a safe alternative to SPECT to detect perfusion deficits in CAD.

Regional structure of wages and external economies in Spain

Regional data on wages for the Spanish economy show that workers who live in developed regions earn more than workers in other regions.Literature on external economies provides a possible explanation of why firms do not move from these regions to others where wages are lower. Previous studies for the Spanish case use aggregated sectoral data to explain in terms of external economies why average wages are different across regions. The originalcontribution of this paper consists of using individual data to detect the existenceand nature of external economies as an explanatory cause of territorial wagedifferences. With this aim, we have used individual data from the EPF 1990-91(INE). This information permits us to control the influence of individual and jobcharacteristics on wages to, first, detect the existence of external economies and,second, to test alternative explanations of their presence. The empirical evidenceobtained confirms the relevance of territorial external economies and their influence on wages, as a result of improvements in the productive efficiency of the firm. In concrete terms, the more relevant external economies are associatedwith the regional human capital stock and geographical productive specialisation

Potencialidad de la modelización state-space y el filtro de Kalman para el anàlisis regional : una aplicación para el índice de actividad industrial

El déficit existente a nuestro país con respecto a la disponibilidad de indicadores cuantitativos con los que llevar a término un análisis coyuntural de la actividad industrial regional ha abierto un debate centrado en el estudio de cuál es la metodología más adecuada para elaborar indicadores de estas características. Dentro de este marco, en este trabajo se presentan las principales conclusiones obtenidas en anteriores estudios (Clar, et. al., 1997a, 1997b y 1998) sobre la idoneidad de extender las metodologías que actualmente se están aplicando a las regiones españolas para elaborar indicadores de la actividad industrial mediante métodos indirectos. Estas conclusiones llevan a plantear una estrategia distinta a las que actualmente se vienen aplicando. En concreto, se propone (siguiendo a Israilevich y Kuttner, 1993) un modelo de variables latentes para estimar el indicador de la producción industrial regional. Este tipo de modelo puede especificarse en términos de un modelo statespace y estimarse mediante el filtro de Kalman. Para validar la metodología propuesta se estiman unos indicadores de acuerdo con ella para tres de las cuatro regiones españolas que disponen d¿un Índice de Producción Industrial (IPI) elaborado mediante el método directo (Andalucía, Asturias y el País Vasco) y se comparan con los IPIs publicados (oficiales). Los resultados obtenidos muestran el buen comportamiento de l¿estrategia propuesta, abriendo así una línea de trabajo con la que subsanar el déficit al que se hacía referencia anteriormente

Regional economic dynamics and convergence in the european union

Deepening in the European Union (EU) integration process has enhanced the question of economic disparities at a regional level. Theconvergence process observed until the late seventies was exhausted onwards incoincidence with important changes in the economic activity. The paper showshow these factors would have provoked a regional differenciated response that,despite being important, would have not strengthened the decrease in regionalinequalities. We use an alternative and (in our opinion) richer approach to thetraditional convergence analysis, where the evolution of the whole regionaldistribution is what matters and not that of a representative economy. Moreover,when analysing inequalities among regional economies, the geographical spaceacquire an outstanding role. Hence, we apply spatial association tests and relatethem to the convergence analysis

Algunes reflexions sobre la construcció d'indicadors indirectes pel seguiment de l'activitat industrial regional

En un gran nombre d'economies, l'evolució de la producció industrial s'analitza a partir de la informació sobre el Producte Industrial Brut i/o el Valor Afegit Brut que proporcionen les Comptabilitats Nacionals. A Espanya, la utilització d'aquestes dades presenta el problema que no estan disponibles tan ràpidament com seria desitjable. En conseqüència, no és possible realitzar un seguiment a curt termini de l'activitat industrial a partir dels mateixos. Per a solucionar aquest problema, l'Institut Nacional d'Estadística elabora un Índex de Producció Industrial mensual a partir de la informació obtinguda a través d'una enquesta dirigida a una mostra representativa de les empreses espanyoles. No obstant això, a nivell regional, les dificultats per a realitzar un seguiment de l'activitat industrial són majors a causa de l'escassesa d'informació estadística. Durant els últims anys, diferents institucions públiques i privades han començat a elaborar indicadors d'activitat per a algunes regions espanyoles, encara que a partir de metodologies no homogènies, de manera que aquests índexs no són directament comparables. Per a corregir aquesta situació, en diferents fòrums s'ha proposat emprar la metodologia utilitzada per l'Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya (IEC) per a la comunitat catalana com alternativa per a aquelles comunitats espanyoles que no disposen d'un indicador de l'activitat industrial, atès que per a Catalunya resulta una metodologia adequada. En aquest treball s'estudia la idoneïtat d'estendre aquesta metodologia a la resta de regions espanyoles. Per a això, es construeixen uns indicadors d'acord amb la metodologia del IEC i es comparen amb els índexs regionals obtinguts per mètodes directes per a tres de les quatre regions que existeixen: Andalusia, Astúries i Euskadi

La investigación regional en España: un análisis bibliométrico

Trabajos recientes han puesto de manifiesto que la búsqueda española en economía realizada durante la década de los noventa ha incrementado su presencia internacional al mismo tiempo que se observa una dualidad a la difusión de la búsqueda a través de revistas nacionales e internacionales en función del ámbito de búsqueda considerado. Este trabajo analiza, a partir de la aplicación de técnicas bibliométricas que ha sido la evolución de la búsqueda regional y urbana realizada en España dentro del contexto internacional y si hay diferencias muy marcadas entre la búsqueda publicada a revistas nacionales y la publicada a revistas internacionales durante el periodo 1991-2000. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que la tendencia observada por el conjunto de la economía también se han producido (incluso con más intensidad) dentro del ámbito de la búsqueda centrada en aspectos regionales y urbanos

Authors', Institutions' and Countries' rankings in regional and urban science : an analysis for nine top international journals from 1991 to 2000

This paper examines the most productive authors, institutions and countries in regional and urban science from 1991 to 2000 using information on published articles (and pages) from a sample of widely recognized journals in this field: ARS, JUE, JRS, IJURR, IRSR, PRS, RSUE, RS and US. We also consider the relation between the country of the institution named in articles and the country in which the journal is published, in order to know if there are a home publication bias in regional and urban science. Analysis was made for the whole decade and by subperiods, this allowed us to make a more dynamic interpretation of the results

Topics, techniques and applications in urban and regional science in the nineties: a bibliometric analysis

The current state of regional and urban science has been much discussed and a number of studies have speculated on possible future trends in the development of the discipline. However, there has been little empirical analysis of current publication patterns in regional and urban journals. This paper studies the kinds of topics, techniques and data used in articles published in nine top international journals during the 1990s with the aim of identifying current trends in this research field

Is the impact of public investment neutral across the regional income distribution?: evidence from Mexico

This paper investigates the contribution of public investment to the reduction of regional inqualities, with a specific application to Mexico. We use quantile regressions to examine the impact of public investment on regional disparities according to the position of each region in the conditional distribution of regional income. Results confirm the hypothesis that regional inequalities can indeed be atrributed to the regional distribution of public investment, where the observed pattern shows that public investment mainly helped to reduce regional inequalities between the richest regions

Added prognostic value of myocardial blood flow quantitation in rubidium-82 positron emission tomography imaging.

AIMS: We studied the respective added value of the quantitative myocardial blood flow (MBF) and the myocardial flow reserve (MFR) as assessed with (82)Rb positron emission tomography (PET)/CT in predicting major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in patients with suspected myocardial ischaemia. METHODS AND RESULTS: Myocardial perfusion images were analysed semi-quantitatively (SDS, summed difference score) and quantitatively (MBF, MFR) in 351 patients. Follow-up was completed in 335 patients and annualized MACE (cardiac death, myocardial infarction, revascularization, or hospitalization for congestive heart failure or de novo stable angor) rates were analysed with the Kaplan-Meier method in 318 patients after excluding 17 patients with early revascularizations (<60 days). Independent predictors of MACEs were identified by multivariate analysis. During a median follow-up of 624 days (inter-quartile range 540-697), 35 MACEs occurred. An annualized MACE rate was higher in patients with ischaemia (SDS >2) (n = 105) than those without [14% (95% CI = 9.1-22%) vs. 4.5% (2.7-7.4%), P < 0.0001]. The lowest MFR tertile group (MFR <1.8) had the highest MACE rate [16% (11-25%) vs. 2.9% (1.2-7.0%) and 4.3% (2.1-9.0%), P < 0.0001]. Similarly, the lowest stress MBF tertile group (MBF <1.8 mL/min/g) had the highest MACE rate [14% (9.2-22%) vs. 7.3% (4.2-13%) and 1.8% (0.6-5.5%), P = 0.0005]. Quantitation with stress MBF or MFR had a significant independent prognostic power in addition to semi-quantitative findings. The largest added value was conferred by combining stress MBF to SDS. This holds true even for patients without ischaemia. CONCLUSION: Perfusion findings in (82)Rb PET/CT are strong MACE outcome predictors. MBF quantification has an added value allowing further risk stratification in patients with normal and abnormal perfusion images.

Emission of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide from semi-arid tropical soils in Chiapas México

The semi-arid region of Chiapas is dominated by N2 -fixing shrubs, e.g., Acacia angustissima. Urea-fertilized soil samples under maize were collected from areas covered and uncovered by A. angustissima in different seasons and N2O and CO2 emissions were monitored. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of urea and of the rainy and dry season on gas emissions from semi-arid soil under laboratory conditions. Urea and soil use had no effect on CO2 production. Nitrons oxide emission from soil was three times higher in the dry than in the rainy season, while urea fertilization doubled emissions. Emissions were twice as high from soil sampled under A. angustissima canopy than from arable land, but 1.2 lower than from soil sampled outside the canopy, and five times higher from soil incubated at 40 % of the water-holding capacity (WHC) than at soil moisture content, but 15 times lower than from soil incubated at 100 WHC. It was found that the soil sampling time and water content had a significant effect on N2O emissions, while N fertilizer and sampling location were less influent.