Essays on the economic history of numeracy in Spain

The aim of this investigation is to increase our knowledge of human capital in Spain during periods (the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries) for which empirical evidence is scarce. The findings of this research will contribute to filling the gap in this topic. Apart from estimating the numeracy levels of Spaniards, I address important research questions posed by economic historians. Was there already a relationship between inequality and human capital in the early Modern Era? What was the self-selection of migrants to Latin America like during the sixteenth century? Did the level of parental human capital, among other factors, have any influence on the schooling and child labour decisions of their children in eighteenth century Castile

Small and Medium Enterprises in Mexico and the Craft Beer Sector in Baja California: Dynamic Capabilities, Culture, and Innovation

This article studies how Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in emerging economies implement adaptative strategies to respond to constant changes in demand and global uncertainties, such as those stemming from the current SARS-COV2 pandemic. In this study the knowledge management capabilities used by SMEs in the craft beer sector in a region of northern Mexico are the focus of analysis. The objective is to present the competitive capabilities that craft beer sector has demonstrated in Baja California region and how small companies compete with the national industrial brewery and survive. Sources are data from a sample of companies and interviews with brewery owners, with which the analysis approaches, also, the Baja California business environment. The article highlights the routes of creativity, innovation, and symbolic capital of the companies in the region, and uses ideas from dynamic capabilities and knowledge management theoretical frameworks, to understand the craft brewery milieu. The conclusions in this article include the confirmation about the usefulness of these analytical frameworks based in the capabilities approach and the territorial knowledge. Also, the description of the existence of a complex Baja Californian milieu, where a multimodal scheme of craft beer characterized by different places of distribution and types of beer container, food-districts, at Mexicali, Tijuana, and Ensenada and a second generation of entrepreneur groups leading local business, is identified

Longitudinal correlations of car ownership with socio-economics, urban form, and transport infrastructure in Latin America: Example from Ensenada, Mexico

Car-orientated modal splits represent problems for the city in economic, environmental and social terms. The implementation of policies and other measures can fail if the causes are not well recognized. Mid-sized cities in Mexico are not well-represented in studies where only the capital and other bigger cities are studied. This research aims to recognize those causes focusing on northern mid-sized cities in Mexico. The approach involves numerical work (linear regression) complemented with a descriptive analysis of the city. The analysis takes on such areas of consideration as socio-economic factors, land-use variables and the street network of the city. Of the 16 variables, almost all presented a relationship with car ownership levels, but not all behaved as expected. The final part of the research is a reaction to the previous studies and recommendations to change the city from car-orientated to one with a sustainable modal split

The impact of port governance and infrastructures on maritime containerized trade on the West Coast of Latin America

Latin American countries have historically had a strong dependence on trade, and are mostly characterized by being exporters of raw materials and importers of manufactured products. This fact has brought about a less negative impact of the world crisis on economic growth, mainly because of the high prices of raw materials. This paper focuses on this geographical area (the West Coast of Latin America) between 2008 and 2015, and adds to the literature by assessing institutional, port-related and economic factors that influence maritime transport. The analysis makes use of panel data models with fixed and random effects where the Hausman test has been applied in order to define a solid specification of all the ports, as well as to discount the particular peculiarities of each country. It is shown that the analysis of maritime transport requires the analysis of a number of variables apart from trade (volume of TEUs), infrastructures, superstructures (number of calls, gantry cranes), and that other variables, such as port governance, which are sometimes difficult to quantify, need also to be taken into account

Migration Across Institutions of Race: How Immigrant Women from Latin America Construct Ethnoracial Self-Identities in Sending and Receiving Societies

How does immigration affect perceptions of self? In this study, I explore the processes by which immigrants construct ethnoracial self-identities in sending societies, an individual’s country of origin, and receiving societies, an individual’s country of destination. For my exploration, I conduct eleven life history and cognitive interviews of immigrant women from Spanish-speaking countries located in Latin America. Mainly, I find that the women in my study construct ethnoracial self-identities throughout their lives informed by their socialization into myths of racial democracy present in both locations and contradicting interactions, which take place in local organizations such as families, schools, and workplaces. I also find that they contest ethnoracial self-identities during interactions with organizations such as the Census Bureau. Bridging transnational and organizational sociology, I argue that the women in my study construct ethnoracial self-identities in recursive relationships. These recursive relationships are comprised of institutions of race shaping individuals through interactions, which occur in organizations. Through interactions with organizations, individuals also shape institutions of race. By showing how immigration affects perceptions of self, this study improves our knowledge about how immigrants construct ethnoracial self-identities in the U.S., giving proper weight to how people give meaning to experiences of race in their countries of origin and destination

Passive acoustic monitoring of the bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus to determine continuous presence in Ensenada de La Paz, Mexico

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are ecosystem sentinels. In the Gulf of California, Mexico, they are found in areas that overlap with human activities, as in the case of the Ensenada de La Paz lagoon. A custom-made recorder -moored at medium depth (2.0 m) in the entrance to the lagoon- recorded acoustic data from June to November 2017 (8 deployments; 293 h). Whistles -an indicative of bottlenose dolphin presences- were pooled over time to acquire acoustic encounters, which were analysed to infer continuity of animal presence and test for statistically significant differences between deployments, day and night, and hours. Whistles were recorded during all deployments and evidenced night-time presence of bottlenose dolphins in the lagoon. Significant differences of acoustic encounters were observed between ‘Jun-Jul’ and ‘Sep-Nov’. Acoustic encounters were higher at night but were not different at an hourly level. Acoustical data proved the continuous presence of bottlenose dolphins, highlighting the importance of the Ensenada de La Paz for their population. This initial study highlights the usefulness of long-term passive acoustic monitoring to inform stake holders involved in management and conservation plans

The Governance of Water Use in Northwest Mexico: A Qualitative and Quantitative Based Study

In Mexico, the working of government institutions lags far behind the aims of good governance and sustainable development. Institutions deviate from those goals when they circumvent their duties to general wellbeing to favour powerful interest groups. The issue is even more of a concern in lands of high economic value, where the competition for water is strong. San Quintin Region, in the arid northwest part of the country, is symbolic; it is a rich agro-productive area inserted in the international market from way back, yet its economic success contrasts with worries regarding social conflict and environmental decline due to water misuse. Allegedly, if current exploitation trends remain unchanged, the viability of the ecosystem as a whole will be at risk soon. In this article, it is argued that the administration and management of water runs up against the aims of sustainable development; hence, measures to improve governance are needed. The main objective was to investigate the institutional and social context in which the problem occurs, so as to unveil the prospects of improvement. A qualitative and quantitative methodology suggested that in San Quintin, governance of water use reflects dubious institutional workings. It is unjust, because it fosters an inequitable treatment of the local population; also, it is environmentally damaging in view of the overexploitation of extant resources, often to the point of depletion. Furthermore, water use lacks context-focus, due to the centralised decisionmaking process. All in all, governance might progress through decisive reforms to social and institutional practices