Artistic creation and intellectual property

We analyze artistic markets considering three key distinctive features that have been overlooked by the standard analysis on intellectual property. These features are the dynamic link between the current number of young artists and future high-quality artistic creation, Rosen's superstars phenomenon, and the role played by promotion costs. Introducing them into an overlapping-generations model brings about a new perspective on the consequences for artistic creation of changes in the copyright term, progress in communication technologies favoring market concentration by stars, and the enlargement of markets. The conventional result that longer copyrights always stimulate artistic creation only holds as a particular case

Artistic creation and intellectual property

We analyze artistic markets considering three key distinctive features that have been overlooked by the standard analysis on intellectual property. These features are the dynamic link between the current number of young artists and future high-quality artistic creation, Rosen's superstars phenomenon, and the role played by promotion costs. Introducing them into an overlapping-generations model brings about a new perspective on the consequences for artistic creation of changes in the copyright term, progress in communication technologies favoring market concentration by stars, and the enlargement of markets. The conventional result that longer copyrights always stimulate artistic creation only holds as a particular case.superstars; copyright; innate abilities; talent

Firms' Main Market, Human Capital and Wages

Recent international trade literature emphasizes two features in characterizing the current patterns of trade: efficiency heterogeneity at the firm level and quality differentiation. This paper explores human capital and wage differences across firms in that context. We build a partial equilibrium model predicting that firms selling in more-remote markets employ higher human capital and pay higher wages to employees within each education group. The channel linking these variables is firms’ endogenous choice of quality. Predictions are tested using Spanish employer-employee matched data that classify firms according to four main destination markets: local, national, European Union, and rest of the World. Employees’ average education is increasing in the remoteness of firm’s main output market. Market–destination wage premia are large, increasing in the remoteness of the market, and increasing in individual education. These results suggest that increasing globalization may play a significant role in raising wage inequality within and across education groups.vertical differentiation, exporters, Alchian-Allen effect, wage inequality, unobservable skills

Inflation and Factor Shares

We use results from the literature on the determinants of price-cost margins to derive an equation relating labor's share of national income to the inflation rate (as well as to the output gap, the unemployment rate and the capital stock per worker). The equation is tested with a panel of 15 OECD countries. We obtain a robust positive relationship between inflation and the labor share. Our results suggest that disinflation is not distributively neutral, provide empirical support for the distinct concern about price stability shown by trade unions and employers' organizations, and help explaining the negative impact of inflation on growth.Inflation, Functional Distribution of Income, Markups.

Firm characteristics, labor sorting, and wages

We analyze in a simple model the consequences of efficiency heterogeneity at the firm level for the sorting of workers with different skills into firms with different characteristics. We show that more efficient firms tend to produce higher quality output in equilibrium, which then translates into higher relative demand of education and unmeasured skills. The model provides an integrated explanation within a competitive framework for the observed correlations between several establishment characteristics (size, employees’ average education, capital/labor ratio, and remoteness of selling markets) and average wages. We test the implications of the model using Spanish employer-employee matched data that allow to simultaneously control for establishment and worker characteristics. We find that average education in the establishment is increasing in the remoteness of its main market. Establishment’s size, remoteness of main market, and co-workers’ average education have significant, robust and quantitatively important positive joint effects on wages. The national-market orientation effects (with respect to local-market orientation) on labor composition and wages are at least as important as the international-market effects (with respect to national-market orientation). All wage premia are non-decreasing on worker education and most of them are strictly increasing, suggesting that unmeasured skills are relatively more important for high-education workers

Firms' Main Market, Human Capital and Wages

Recent international trade literature emphasizes two features in characterizing the current patterns of trade: efficiency heterogeneity at the firm level and quality differentiation. This paper explores human capital and wage differences across firms in that context. We build a partial equilibrium model predicting that firms selling in more-remote markets employ higher human capital and pay higher wages to employees within each education group. The channel linking these variables is firms’ endogenous choice of quality. Predictions are tested using Spanish employer-employee matched data that classify firms according to four main destination markets: local, national, European Union, and rest of the World. Employees’ average education is increasing in the remoteness of firm’s main output market. Market–destination wage premia are large, increasing in the remoteness of the market, and increasing in individual education. These results suggest that increasing globalization may play a significant role in raising wage inequality within and across education groups

Good practices and universal accessibility to urban buses of children prams

[ES] La presente publicación se realiza a partir de los resultados obtenidos en el proyecto de investigación ¿Determinación de los requisitos de accesibilidad y seguridad en la utilización de carritos de niños en vehículos de transporte público (ASUCAR)¿. Como objetivos particulares se pretendía analizar las condiciones de accesibilidad de los carritos de niños (CdN) en todas sus posibilidades, estudiar y definir las necesidades de utilización de sistemas de retención para los cochecitos y sus ocupantes, analizar la resistencia de los actuales modelos de carritos de niños, así como el desarrollo de un nuevo dispositivo de sistema de retención para los carritos de niños que pudiera utilizarse de la forma más universal en autobuses urbanos de transporte público. Los resultados se han concretado en la definición de un ¿Código de Buenas Prácticas para el Transporte de Carritos de Niños en Vehículos de Transporte Público¿, que podrá servir como base científica para el desarrollo de futuras normativas de seguridad relacionadas con este colectivo.[EN] Present work has been performed with the results achieved in the research project: ¿Determination of the accesibility and safety requirements of the use of prams and pushchairs in public transport (ASUCAR)¿. The specific objectives pretended were: the determination of the accessibility conditions of the children prams, the study and definition of the needs of use of restraint systems for these devices and their occupants, to analyze the strength of the prams structures, as well as, the development of a new restraint system for children prams that could be used in the most universal way in urban buses. The results were implemented in a good practice code that could be the basis for new regulation regarding the transport of children in buses.Alcala Facio, E.; Dols Ruiz, JF.; Martín, A.; Valles, B.; Aparicio Izquierdo, F.; Pons Sendra, V. (2011). Buenas prácticas y accesibilidad universal a los autobuses urbanos de carritos de niños. Securitas Vialis. 3(10):7-27. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/30878S72731

Código de buenas prácticas para la utilización de carritos de niños en vehículos de transporte públicos

La presente publicación muestra los resultados obtenidos en el proyecto de investigación "Determinación de los requisitos de Accesibilidad y Seguridad en la Utilización de CARritos de niños en vehículos de transporte público" (ASUCAR), financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, dentro del Programa de Proyectos de Estímulo a la Transferencia de Resultados de Investigación (PETRI 2008). El proyecto ha sido coordinado por la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), a través del grupo de investigación de Ingeniería de Vehículos Adaptados y Transportes (GIVAT) adscrito al Instituto de Diseño y Fabricación (IDF), y en el mismo han participado el Instituto Universitario de Investigación del Automóvil (INSIA) adscrito a la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, y las Empresas Municipales de Transportes de Madrid (EMT Madrid) y Valencia (EMT Valencia). El objetivo principal del proyecto consistió en el análisis de la accesibilidad y seguridad de los niños en sus carritos a los autobuses de transporte público. Entre los resultados finales obtenidos, mostrados en esta publicación, destaca el diseño y desarrollo de un nuevo sistema de retención para carritos de niños para su utilización en todo tipo de vehículos, así como la definición de un "Código de Buenas Prácticas para el Transporte de Carritos de Niños en Vehículos de Transporte Público".Dols Ruiz, JF.; Aparicio Izquierdo, F.; Alcala Facio, E.; Pons Sendra, V.; Martínez Sáez, L.; Martín López, ÁL.; Vallés Fernández, B. (2012). Código de buenas prácticas para la utilización de carritos de niños en vehículos de transporte públicos. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/1699

The caveolae‐associated coiled‐coil protein, NECC2, regulates insulin signalling in Adipocytes

Adipocyte dysfunction in obesity is commonly associated with impaired insulin signalling in adipocytes and insulin resistance. Insulin signalling has been associated with caveolae, which are coated by large complexes of caveolin and cavin proteins, along with proteins with membrane‐binding and remodelling properties. Here, we analysed the regulation and function of a component of caveolae involved in growth factor signalling in neuroendocrine cells, neuroendocrine long coiled‐coil protein‐2 (NECC2), in adipocytes. Studies in 3T3‐L1 cells showed that NECC2 expression increased during adipogenesis. Furthermore, NECC2 co‐immunoprecipitated with caveolin‐1 (CAV1) and exhibited a distribution pattern similar to that of the components of adipocyte caveolae, CAV1, Cavin1, the insulin receptor and cortical actin. Interestingly, NECC2 overexpression enhanced insulin‐activated Akt phosphorylation, whereas NECC2 downregulation impaired insulin‐induced phosphorylation of Akt and ERK2. Finally, an up‐regulation of NECC2 in subcutaneous and omental adipose tissue was found in association with human obesity and insulin resistance. This effect was also observed in 3T3‐L1 adipocytes exposed to hyperglycaemia/hyperinsulinemia. Overall, the present study identifies NECC2 as a component of adipocyte caveolae that is regulated in response to obesity and associated metabolic complications, and supports the contribution of this protein as a molecular scaffold modulating insulin signal transduction at these membrane microdomains.La disfunción de los adipocitos en la obesidad se asocia comúnmente con la alteración de la señalización de la insulina en los adipocitos y la resistencia a la insulina. La señalización de la insulina se ha asociado con las caveolas, que están recubiertas por grandes complejos de proteínas de caveolina y cavina, junto con proteínas con propiedades de remodelación y unión a la membrana. Aquí, analizamos la regulación y la función de un componente de las caveolas involucrado en la señalización del factor de crecimiento en las células neuroendocrinas, la proteína 2 neuroendocrina de espiral larga (NECC 2 ) , en los adipocitos. Los estudios en células 3T3‐L1 mostraron que la expresión de NECC 2 aumentó durante la adipogénesis. Además, NECC 2 co‐inmunoprecipitado con caveolina‐1 ( CAV1) y mostró un patrón de distribución similar al de los componentes de las caveolas adipocitarias, CAV 1, Cavin1, el receptor de insulina y la actina cortical. Curiosamente, la sobreexpresión de NECC 2 mejoró la fosforilación de Akt activada por insulina, mientras que la regulación negativa de NECC 2 perjudicó la fosforilación de Akt y ERK 2 inducida por insulina . resistencia a la insulina. Este efecto también se observó en adipocitos 3T3‐L1 expuestos a hiperglucemia/hiperinsulinemia. En general, el presente estudio identifica NECC2 como un componente de las caveolas de los adipocitos que se regula en respuesta a la obesidad y las complicaciones metabólicas asociadas, y respalda la contribución de esta proteína como un andamio molecular que modula la transducción de señales de insulina en estos microdominios de membrana