Rentier States and Geography in Mexico's Development

This paper provides a long-term historical and econometric account of the way in which geography has shaped development in the Mexican states. The emphasis is placed on the way in which the natural geography is reinforced by political decisions, which configure the human geography of population density, urbanization and public good provision, which in turn determine income, growth and poverty. The paper presents brief historical instances of how geography has determined prospects for development at different moments in Mexican history. This anecdotal discussion seeks to highlight the intrinsic link of geography with political institutions, which is central to understanding the economic effects of geography. The paper then presents a descriptive statistical and geographical profile of the relationship between geography and development in Mexico. The paper argues that the main channel through which geography affects development is political. The fragmentation of political jurisdictions in the form of municipal governments constitutes a proxy for man-made barriers to geographic mobility, which explain the interaction between geography, politics and development.

How useful are monetary policy rules to deal with inflation: The Spanish case.

The role of monetary policy rules to explain the behaviour of central banks has received an increasing attention during the last few years. The Spanish case could be of interest given that, with an inflation above the European average, was able to conduct its monetary policy and to control the inflation in order to join the European monetary union. But after the adoption of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy in January 1999, a higher inflation can be observed. In this paper we explore whether the monetary policy performed by the Bank of Spain would have follow a monetary policy rule, and to which extent monetary rules contribute to achieve the goal of inflation.Monetary policy rules, inflation.

Dynamic Modelling and Optimisation of Large-Scale Cryogenic Separation Processes

In this work, the open loop dynamic optimisation of a large-scale natural gas processing plant is performed. A rigorous differential-algebraic equation (DAE) model has been formulated to represent main plant units, such as shell and tube heat exchangers, highpressure separator and demethanizing column. In the shell and tube heat exchangers, the hot stream partially condenses and equations to consider the partial condensation of the fluids have been included. A rigorous index one model for the demethanizing column has been developed. The DAE optimisation problem is solved with a simultaneous approach, in which both state and control variables are discretised and the original DAE optimisation model is transformed into a large-scale nonlinear problem (NLP), which is solved using Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) methods. Optimal profiles have been obtained for main operating variables to achieve an enhanced product recovery.Fil: Rodriguez, Mariela Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Bandoni, Jose Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; ArgentinaFil: Díaz, María Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Planta Piloto de Ingeniería Química; Argentin