Finance and growth in the EU: new evidence from the liberalisation and harmonisation of the banking industry

JEL Classification: G21, G28, O5Banking Deregulation, Economic Growth, European Union, Financial Development

Public finances and long-term growth in Europe - evidence from a panel data analysis

In Lisbon the European Council proclaimed a European growth strategy. It considers an average economic growth rate of around 3 percent as a realistic prospect for the coming years and assigns public finances an important role in the process of achieving this goal. This paper addresses the question whether we can find empirical evidence for European countries that public finance reform affects trend growth. Focusing on time series patterns, we investigate whether there have been persistent shifts or trends in economic growth and fiscal variables over the last 40 years. In addition, we estimate a distributed lag model, which 1) indicates that government consumption and transfers negatively affect growth rates of GDP per capita over the business cycle, while public investment has a positive impact, and 2) provides robust evidence that distortionary taxation affects growth in the medium-term through its impact on the accumulation of private physical capital. JEL Classification: C22, C23, H11, O11Europe, long-term growth, public finance

First record of the Mediterranean asteroid Sclerasterias richardi (Perrier in Milne-Edwards 1882) in the Azores Archipelago (NE Atlantic Ocean)

The first occurrence of the Mediterranean fissiparous asteroid Sclerasterias richardi (Perrier in Milne-Edwards 1882) is reported from the Azores based upon dredged material off the south coast of São Miguel Island at 135 m depth. This record represents a considerable expansion of the species’ geographic range, otherwise reported with certainty only from the Mediterranean Sea. S. richardi is capable of producing long-lived planktotrophic larvae with high dispersal potential to reach remote areas such as the Azores. Alternatively, this species is also capable of reproducing asexually through fission, which could insure the maintenance of viable numbers in a stranded population. The presence of S. richardi in Azorean waters and its rarity in an otherwise thoroughly investigated area does not necessarily imply a recent arrival nor a human-mediated introduction, as the depths in consideration (80-700 m) are also the least studied in the archipelago.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Persistence in inequalities across the Spanish regions

In this paper we investigate several issues concerning persistence in inequalities of relative income per capita among the Spanish regions over 1980-2002. For that purpose we take a Bayesian approach which extends the work by Canova and Marcet (1995). Firstly, we study to what extent there exists a fixed effect bias in the standard cross-section estimates, and we find that the speed of convergence is indeed underestimated. Secondly, we provide a battery of results in which steady states and convergence rates have been obtained for a continuum of prior distributions. Finally, we also deal with persistence in inequalites by determining whether initial conditions matter in the distribution of regional steady states, and our conclusion is that regional disparities tend to persist over time in Spain.Convergence, Inequalities, Bayesian Econometrics, Gibbs sampling

Reglamento de la Asociación de Vecinos de Ávila.

Copia digital. Valladolid : Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 201

Etanol em motores diesel.

Procurou-se desenvolver tecnologia para aplicar etanol hidratado em motores do ciclo Diesel, permitindo substituições do combustível fóssil. Experimentos da USP-São Carlos atestaram a substituição de até 60% do petrodiesel em motores de ciclo Diesel turbo comprimidos, com melhor eficiência térmica e menor emissão de poluentes, o que significa economia ao agronegócio nacional e melhorias ambientais nas grandes metrópoles. Atualmente, buscam-se recursos para o desenvolvimento de um sistema eletrônico de controle para utilização veicular da referida tecnologia. Na década de 80, a MWM Motores realizou pesquisas com duplo sistema de injeção (etanol e diesel), com resultados desfavoráveis em termos de consumo dos combustíveis. Desde 2007, a empresa Scania está empregando tecnologia própria para uso de etanol aditivado no transporte municipal (ônibus) de várias cidades do mundo, entre elas, São Paulo. A produção de etanol a partir de cana-de-açúcar significa extrair muito mais energia de cada hectare produzido, comparativamente à produção equivalente de oleaginosas, o que lhe confere um balanço energético muito superior à produção de biodiesel. Dos pontos de vista agronômico e industrial, é mais fácil e mais barato produzir etanol que biodiesel