The Determinants of Location Choice: Single-Plant Versus Multi-Plant Firms

In this paper, we intend to evaluate the importance of geographical and technological variables for firms' decision about location. For that purpose, we make use of micro-level data for the Portuguese manufacturing sector and focus on the location choices made by new starting plants during 1992-2000 within 275 municipalities. Our main hypothesis is that location determinants affect unevenly single-plant and multi-plant firms. We then considered the entire manufacturing sector and also a partition according to the number of plants. The set of explanatory variables includes variables that are traditionally stressed by urban and regional theory, such as production costs (land, labour and capital costs), demand variables and agglomeration economies as well as technological variables, such as R&D expenditures The model is based on the random utility maximization framework and proceeds through a Poisson model and a Negative Binomial regression. When considering the total manufacturing sector, our results confirm the relevance of agglomeration economies (particularly, urbanization economies) and cost factors (labour and land costs) for firms' location choice. On the contrary, the hypothesis concerning the negative influence of capital costs on location choice is not confirmed in our study. Our research also evidences that the regional market is more significant for the location choice of new single plant firms, while the local market is more relevant for new multi-plant firms. Also, market accessibility is only relevant for the location choices made by new single-plant firms. We then concluded that new multi-plant firms are particularly sensitive to urbanization economies, land costs and local market, while new single-plant firms are more responsive to labour costs and agglomeration economies

Creating markets for habitat conservation when habitats are heterogeneous

A tradable development rights (TDR) program focusing on biodiversity conservation faces a crucial problem defining which areas of habitat should be considered equivalent. Restricting the trading domain to a narrow area could boost the range of biodiversity conserved but could increase the opportunity cost of conservation. The issue is relevant to Brazil, where TDR-like programs are emerging. Current regulations require each rural property to maintain a forest reserve of at least 20 percent, but nascent policies allow some tradability of this obligation. The authors use a simple, spatially explicit model to simulate a hypothetical state-level program. They find that wider trading domains drastically reduce landholder costs of complying with this regulation and result in environmentally preferable landscapes.Wetlands,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Water Conservation,Climate Change,Forestry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Wetlands,Climate Change,Banks&Banking Reform

a literature review

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020Despite having been one of the first countries in Europe to introduce provisions in the labour law to promote virtual work and having made strong investments in ICT infrastructure, the adoption of virtual work in Portugal lags significantly behind most European countries. This paper examines the literature, official documents and databases to understand this lag. We found that, notwithstanding the difficulty to measure virtual work, it is possible to say that there were 1.8% of workers in 2005 involved in virtual work. In 2010, less than 3% were involved in virtual work, and in 2015 it grew to 8.2%. The paper identifies two main factors hindering the growth of virtual work: the legal framework and the organisational aspects of work.publishersversionpublishe

The Impacts of MERCOSUR on Brazil

International Relations/Trade,

The positive impacts (potential benefits)

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020This paper intended to provide a vision on the potential consequences of the introduction of emerging air transportation system which was based on a section of the thesis to contribute to the forming of public and policy opinion.Especially this paper tried to understand whether there were enough positive social and environmental impacts in terms of potential benefits to continue the efforts.The negative impacts are beyond the scope of this paper. Limitations of the current ground and airline transportation systems, increasing congestion, poor block speed, combined with expanding population and demand for affordable on-demand mobility are driving the development of future transportation technology and policy. The third wave of aeronautic,e VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and landing) Air Transportation System, is envisioned as the next logical step in the natural progression and could bring about great new capabilities for society that would bring aviation into a new age of being relevant in daily lives. Considering door to door block time, e VTOL Air Transportation System has the potential to achieve anotherfive-fold increase over the auto today as the auto provided ten-fold increase over the horse, and a daily mobility reach of 125 to 250 miles.The main benefits will be on-demand, point-to-point,safe travel, further and anywhere in less travel time with almost zero environmental impact for general people. Besides, a successful implementation and sustainable transition will depend on overcoming technological hurdles, regulatory frameworks, operational safety, cost competitiveness, and sensibilities of the affected communities.publishersversionpublishe

New Manufacturing Environments with Micro- and Nanorobotics

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020The convergence of nano-, bio-, information, and cognitive sciences and technologies (NBIC) is advancing continuously in many societal spheres. This also applies to the manufacturing sector, where technological transformations in robotics push the boundaries of human–machine interaction (HMI). Here, current technological advances in micro- and nanomanufacturing are accompanied by new socio-economic concepts for different sectors of the process industry. Although these developments are still ongoing, the blurring of the boundaries of HMI in processes at the micro- and nano- level can already be observed. According to the authors, these new socio-technical HMIs may lead to the development of new work environments, which can also have an impact on work organization. While there is still little empirical evidence, the following contribution focuses on the question whether the “manufacturing (or working) life” using enhancement practices pushes the boundaries of HMI and how these effects enable new modes of working in manufacturing. Issues of standardization, acceleration of processes, and order-oriented production become essential for technological innovation in this field. However, these trends tend to lead to a “manufacturing life” in work environments rather than to new modes of work in industry.publishersversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Costs and benefits of agricultural price stabilization in Brazil

In recent years, agricultural price stabilization policies have been recommended in Brazil as a way to reduce government intervention and open the sector for international trade without internalizing the instability of world prices. The proposal discussed (and eventually implemented in 1987) was to establish a system of price bands around a moving average of past prices, with the government relying on stocks to defend the bands. The authors evaluated the"band proposal"for six commodities, using historical data and posing this question: what would have happened if price bands had been adopted in the past six to ten years (compared with free trade)? There were two major findings. First, the implications of adopting a band-rule policy depend heavily on the specific characteristics of the commodities. Second, the welfare gains for risk reduction through agricultural price stabilization are unlikely to be large relative to the welfare gains from price reform that reduces market distortions for these six agricultural commodities. More research into the macroeconomic implications of price stabilization policies is necessary, particularly in countries with unstable but moderate rates of inflation.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Insurance&Risk Mitigation

EFFECT OF FITNESS LEVEL ON FORCE IMPULSE PATTERNS DURING OBSTRUCTED AND UNOBSTRUCTED WALKING IN ELDER FEMALES

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fitness on foot-ground reaction forces during obstructed walking, by comparing two groups of fit females differing on their age. The gait of ten fit elderly women and the gait of ten skilled young female were analyzed with a two force-platforms system during an unobstructed walking and when stepping on and off a raised surface. The results suggest that older subjects with a high fitness score possess GRF patterns similar to youngsters during unobstructed walking. It can be concluded that senior slep exercise programs are capable to improve gait stability in the elderly but this positive effect is lessened in the case of more demanding walking tasks. Stepping off was particularly affected in the elderly and in the future this should be taken into account in the development of senior step exercise programs

Inclusiones diferenciales, matemática difusa y aplicaciones

En este trabajo diremos cómo se pueden modelar ciertos sistemas tomados de la realidad que usan conceptos propios de la Matemática Difusa (conjuntos, multifunciones e inclusiones diferenciales “fuzzy”). Consideraremos problemas de valor inicial para inclusiones diferenciales “fuzzy” y analizaremos la existencia de solución local. También nos referiremos a la estabilidad de los puntos de equilibrio de las inclusiones diferenciales “fuzzy”. Finalmente, mostraremos algunas aplicaciones de este desarrollo a problemas que aparecen en Biología.Ministerio de Ciencia y TecnologíaConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológic

Hypertrophic Cranial Pachymeningitis and Skull Base Osteomyelitis by Pseudomonas Aeruginosa: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Hypertrophic cranial pachymeningitis (HCP) is an uncommon disorder characterized by localized or diffuse thickening of the dura mater, and it usually presents with multiple cranial neurophaties. It has been associated with a variety of inflammatory, infectious, traumatic, toxic and neoplasic diseases, when no specific cause is found the process is called idiopathic. The infectious cases occur in patients under systemic immunosuppression, which have an evident contiguous source or those who have undergone neurosurgical procedures. We describe a case of a 62-year-old immunosuppressed woman with diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, which had HCP and osteomyelitis of the skull base caused by pseudomonas aeruginosa, presenting with headache and diplopia. We believe this is the second documented case of pachymeningitis secondary to this microorganism. As a multifactorial disease, it is essencial to determine the specific causative agent of HCP before making treatment decisions, and great care is needed with immunocompromised patients