Productivity of Nations: a stochastic frontier approach to TFP decomposition

This paper tackles the problem of aggregate TFP measurement using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Data from Penn World Table 6.1 are used to estimate a world production frontier for a sample of 75 countries over a long period (1950-2000) taking advantage of the model offered by Battese & Coelli (1992). We also apply the decomposition of TFP suggested by Bauer (1990) and Kumbhakar (2000) to a smaller sample of 36 countries over the period 1970-2000 in order to evaluate the effects of changes in efficiency (technical and allocative), scale effects and technical change. This allows us to analyze the role of productivity and its components in economic growth of developed and developing nations in addition to the importance of factor accumulation. Although not much explored in the study of economic growth, frontier techniques seem to be of particular interest for that purpose since the separation of efficiency effects and technical change has a direct interpretation in terms of the catch-up debate. The estimated technical efficiency scores reveal the efficiency of nations in the production of non tradable goods since the GDP series used is PPP-adjusted. We also provide a second set of efficiency scores corrected in order to reveal efficiency in the production of tradable goods and rank them. When compared to the rankings of productivity indexes offered by non-frontier studies of Hall & Jones (1996) and Islam (1995) our ranking shows a somewhat more intuitive order of countries. Rankings of the technical change and scale effects components of TFP change are also very intuitive. We also show that productivity is responsible for virtually all the differences of performance between developed and developing countries in terms of rates of growth of income per worker. More important, we find that changes in allocative efficiency play an important role in explaining differences in the productivity of developed and developing nations, even larger than the one played by the technology gap.Total factor productivity, stochastic frontiers, technical change, technical efficiency, allocative efficiency, scale efficiency, convergence

Competitividade de Destinos Turísticos: um Modelo de Aplicação para o sul de Portugal versus as regiões Mediterrânicas de Espanha: COMPETITIVTOUR

Tourism destination competitiveness analysis benefits from a growing number of theoretical and applied developments. To support competitiveness strategies and despite the paraphernalia of competitiveness indexes available, there is not just a single set of indicators that can be used for all destinations at all times. The COMPETITIVTOUR model, developed since 2009 is applied to the south of Portugal versus the Mediterranean regions of Spain, a geographical area that aggregates 14 provinces, 20.2 million inhabitants and 180.1 million overnight stays. COMPETITIVTOUR's objective is to create and apply a territorial assessment model, adapted to the common specificities of these regions, aiming to assist in guiding the complex task of destination competiveness management, with inputs from 25 official producers of information from Portugal and Spain. The outputs are aggregated in three main topics: territory management, markets, and resources&products. Critical areas were identified, with emphasis on the growing seasonality of demand, the market demand and supply adjustment and accommodation prices.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Local communities and sport activities expenditures and image: residents’ role in sustainable tourism and recreation

The practice of sports by resident communities is a tool for healthy lifestyles, inclusive growth and the promotion of sustainable cities. Nevertheless, the relationship between sport, tourism and recreation still remain an under researched theme. Focusing on the economic pillar of sustainability, this study intends to quantify and analyse the economic costs incurred by families in formal and informal sport practices, as well as the contribution of these activities and related events to the territory's image projection and attractiveness, by overlapping resident's and visitor's perception of sports in the destination. Applied to the municipality of Guimaraes (Portugal), this analysis of the sports consumer's behaviour contributes to filling the gap of knowledge resulting from the studies that, as a rule, exclusively evaluate the investments (supply) and/or the expenses (demand) of events and not the regular practice of sport. A total of 179 questionnaires were applied to residents throughout 2017, through the self-administrate questionnaire method. Findings reveal that residents see sports as one of the factors contributing to the identity of the municipality, underlying motivations for participation as the search for happiness, health, wellbeing, and fun. Expenditures generate multiplier effects in the local economy, allowing to compare growth scenarios. This analysis is a scientific instrument to support territorial innovation and the decision at the local level of public policies for sustainable development, in agreement with objective eight of sustainability defined by the United Nations.Funding Agency Municipality of Guimaraes/Sports Studies Centre of Guimaraesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A counterexample to a conjecture of Larman and Rogers on sets avoiding distance 1

For $n \geq 2$ we construct a measurable subset of the unit ball in $\mathbb{R}^n$ that does not contain pairs of points at distance 1 and whose volume is greater than $(1/2)^n$ times the volume of the ball. This disproves a conjecture of Larman and Rogers from 1972.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure; final version to appear in Mathematik

Solving Irregular Strip Packing Problems With Free Rotations Using Separation Lines

Solving nesting problems or irregular strip packing problems is to position polygons in a fixed width and unlimited length strip, obeying polygon integrity containment constraints and non-overlapping constraints, in order to minimize the used length of the strip. To ensure non-overlapping, we used separation lines. A straight line is a separation line if given two polygons, all vertices of one of the polygons are on one side of the line or on the line, and all vertices of the other polygon are on the other side of the line or on the line. Since we are considering free rotations of the polygons and separation lines, the mathematical model of the studied problem is nonlinear. Therefore, we use the nonlinear programming solver IPOPT (an algorithm of interior points type), which is part of COIN-OR. Computational tests were run using established benchmark instances and the results were compared with the ones obtained with other methodologies in the literature that use free rotation