Is There Rent Sharing In Developing Countries? Matched-Panel Evidence from Brazil

We provide evidence about the determinants of the wage structures of developing countries by examining the case of Brazil. Our specific question is whether Brazil’s dramatic income and wage differentials can be explained by the division of rents between firms and their employees, unlike in competitive labour markets. Using detailed individual-level matched panel data, covering a large share of manufacturing firms and more than 30 million workers between 1997 and 2002, we consider the endogeneity of profits, by adopting different measures of profits and different instruments and by controlling for spell fixed effects. Our results, robust to different specifications and tests, indicate no evidence of rent sharing. This conclusion contrasts with findings for most developed countries, even those with flexible labour markets. Possible explanations for the lack of rent sharing include the weakness of labour-market institutions, the high levels of worker turnover and the macroeconomic instability faced by the country.Wage Bargaining; Instrumental Variables, Matched Employer-Employee Data, Developing Countries

Explicit parametric solutions of lattice structures with proper generalized decomposition (PGD): applications to the design of 3D-printed architectured materials

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00466-017-1534-9Architectured materials (or metamaterials) are constituted by a unit-cell with a complex structural design repeated periodically forming a bulk material with emergent mechanical properties. One may obtain specific macro-scale (or bulk) properties in the resulting architectured material by properly designing the unit-cell. Typically, this is stated as an optimal design problem in which the parameters describing the shape and mechanical properties of the unit-cell are selected in order to produce the desired bulk characteristics. This is especially pertinent due to the ease manufacturing of these complex structures with 3D printers. The proper generalized decomposition provides explicit parametic solutions of parametric PDEs. Here, the same ideas are used to obtain parametric solutions of the algebraic equations arising from lattice structural models. Once the explicit parametric solution is available, the optimal design problem is a simple post-process. The same strategy is applied in the numerical illustrations, first to a unit-cell (and then homogenized with periodicity conditions), and in a second phase to the complete structure of a lattice material specimen.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Gains from trade and measured total factor productivity

We develop and calibrate a model where di¤erences in factor en-dowments lead countries to trade di¤erent goods, so that the existenceof international trade changes the sectorial composition of output fromone country to another. Gains from trade re ect in total factor produc-tivity. We perform a development decomposition, to assess the impactof trade and barriers to trade on measured TFP. In our sample, themedian size of that e¤ect is about 6.5% of output, with a median of17% and a maximum of 89%. Also, the model predicts that changes inthe terms of trade cause a change of productivity, and that e¤ect hasan average elasticity of 0.71.

Multidimensional quantum cosmic models: New solutions and gravitational waves

This paper contains a discussion on the quantum cosmic models, starting with the interpretation that all of the accelerating effects in the current universe are originated from the existence of a nonzero entropy of entanglement. In such a realm, we obtain new cosmic solutions for any arbitrary number of spatial dimensions, studying the stability of these solutions, so as the emergence of gravitational waves in the realm of the most general models.Comment: 7 pages, 1 Figure, LaTe

The role of advanced waste-To-energy technologies in landfill mining

Publicado en: WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Volume 224, Issue 1, 20 September 2017, Pages 403-409Recently, the European Parliament has decided to include a specific reference to "Enhanced Landfill Mining" (ELFM) in the Landfill Directive proposing a regulatory framework for ELFM so as to permit the retrieval of secondary raw materials that are present in existing landfill sites. Recent studies are supporting ELFM since they consider that landfill mining would be economically feasible only if combined with energy recovery (i.e., waste-To-energy, WtE) and if a wide range of materials are recovered (i.e., waste-To-materials, WtM). In this study, a combined material (landfill mining) and energy (advanced WtE) recovery is proposed where the excavated waste (MSW refuse) can be directly recycled or pretreated and used in the production of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for an advanced (gasification-based) WtE plant producing power and heat. Both material and energy recovery are challenging in the circular economy since contributes to a loop-closing objective in human activities. An exhaustive assessment of each particular landfill site must be carried out in order to determine the profitability of the ELFM.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ENE2012-31598Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades CTM2016-78089-RUniversidad de Sevilla Contrato de Acceso al Sistema Español de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (VPPI-US