Agro-food manufacturing in Mediterranean Spanish regions: Andalusia versus Valencian region

Agro ? food manufacturing is a basic activity in economic structure of Mediterranean regions. Spanish Mediterranean regions are not an exception in this pattern of specialization. Agro ? food manufacturing is very important in all the Spanish Mediterranean regions (Catalonia, Valencia, murcia and Andalusia). But there are some problems of reduced articulation of economic activities in southern Spanish Mediterranean regions that are not perceived in other Mediterranean spaces (Catalonia or Valencia). The aim of this article is to compare the different patterns of behavior of agro ? food manufacturing in two different Spanish Mediterranean regions: Andalusia and the Valencia community. Andalusia is a region that represents approximately 18% of Spanish population and territory. However, his participation in national g.d.p. is only of 12%. So, Andalusia is a region with some degree of backwardness in Spanish context. One of the rare activities where Andalusia has a participation of national average higher than his participation in population is agro food manufacturing. Andalusian agro food manufacturing represents 25% of total Spanish value added. Valencian community however is a richer regions and it has a more diversified manufacturing structure. The comparing between the two regions will allow to evaluate if the patterns of relation of agro ? food manufacturing with the rest of regional economic activities are similar in both region or there are important changes between them. This fact is very important for the design of a regional economic policy. Traditionally, the thesis of lack of economic articulation and orientation of economic activities toward other spaces has been defended in southern regions, especially in Andalusia. From this point of view, these elements decreased the possibilities of actuation of regional policies. However, agro ? food manufacturing, even in regions like Andalusia did not experience this kind of problems. In 1980 more of the 80% of the inputs used by this industry had regional origins. But in 1995 this participation was of the 63,3%. So there is a process of substitution of regional inputs for non-regional inputs even in activities with traditionally strong ties with regional productive structure, like agro ? food manufacturing. In this text, this hypothesis will be tested, comparing Andalusian situation with other regional situations a priori non-affected by this problem, like Valencian region. Input ? output tables of Andalusia and Valencian region will be employed to analyze this fact. The analysis will be carried for the agro ? food manufacturing and for different sectors included inside. It will be possible so to study with a relative high degree of detail the reality of agro ? food manufacturing in two concrete regions that, possibly, are representatives of a more general dynamic.

Strategic use of available capacity in the electricity spot market

The literature on deregulated electricity markets generally assumes available capacities to be given. In contrast, this paper studies a model where firms precommit to capacity levels before competing in a uniform price auction. The analysis sheds light on recent empirical findings that firms use their available capacity to obtain high market prices. There exist two equilibria where at least one firm withholds its available capacity to induce the maximum price. Moreover, in one equilibrium, the inefficient firm obtains a relatively large market share.spot market; capacity game; auction mechanism; electricity.

Urban Sprawl and Sustainable Urban Policies. A Review of the Cases of Lima, Mexico City and Santiago de Chile

In recent decades, urban processes have experienced deep transformations. One of them has been the growing importance of urban sprawl. This article reviews its main features and the policies related to the paradigm of sustainability in three Latin American Megalopolises: Mexico City, Lima, and Santiago de Chile. For this purpose, we have carried out an extensive compilation of the existing academic literature. Urban sprawl in those cities cannot be understood without considering the rising housing needs of popular classes, usually addressed through the sequence settlement-parceling-building-urbanization. Simultaneously high-income groups tend to create separated and gated commodities and there is increasing spatial mobility of the middle classes. Those processes tend to generate highly segregated and increasingly patched metropolitan areas. Sustainability is framed on models of urban governance based on ecological modernization. In this context, three main sustainable policies are analyzed: water supply, green areas provision, and transport. Conclusions stress: (1) Deep changes experienced and the path-dependent element observed in the social construction of sustainability (2) Consolidation of a model of socially segregated and ecologically differentiated urban polycentrism (3) Relevance of the different megalopolises as niches of experimentation and innovation in the construction of specific forms of sustainable transition

Assessing gas transit risks: Russia vs. the EU

This paper proposes a Transit Risk Index (TRI) designed to assess the riskiness of pipeline gas imports and to study the effect of introducing new gas routes. TRI controls for gas dependency, transit route diversification, political risks of transit, pipeline rupture probability, and the balance of power between supplying and consuming countries along the transit route. Evaluating TRI for the EU-Russia gas trade, we show that the introduction of the Nord Stream pipeline would further widen already large disparities in gas risk exposure across the EU Member States. The gas risk exposure of the Member States served by Nord Stream would decline. In contrast, EU countries not connected to Nord Stream, but sharing other Russian gas transit routes with the Nord Stream countries, would face greater gas risk exposure. We discuss the implications of our analysis for the design of the common energy policy in the EU.Gas transit risk; Index; Security of supply; Nord Stream; Common Energy Policy

A method to Formalise the Rapid Prototyping Process

Facing the increasing complexity of the product design area, (reduction of cycle times, introduction of simultaneous engineering, introduction of digital mock-up, ... ) a research department which wants to define a rapid prototyping process is confronted to the problem of the tools’ choice. Therefore, we will propose in this article, a method allowing to conceive such a process. In a first chapter, we present the rapid prototyping area in the product design environment, in a second chapter we will propose our method illustrated by an industrial case