IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL FUNDS ON REGIONAL GROWTH: HOW TO RECONSIDER A 9 YEAR-OLD BLACK BOX

Econometric estimations of the impact of structural funds on the growth process of the European regions started 9 years ago. However, it is striking to realize that all previous estimations in this field are based on some form of the neoclassical growth model. This model is still widely used despite the numerous critics it has raised and its lack of consideration for increasing returns to scale, which are at the heart of agglomeration and growth processes according to endogenous growth theories and new economic geography models. In addition, few estimations have paid attention to the nature of the cohesion objectives under study. For example, the expected impact of objec-tive 1 funds, devoted to public infrastructures, is indeed theoretically and empirically very different from the one of objective 3 funds devoted to long-term unemployed. As a result, the aim of this paper is to propose a careful assessment of the impact of structural funds on the manufacturing sector of 145 European regions in the context of a Verdoorn’s law for the period 1989-2004. First, the results are presented with total structural funds and funds differen-tiated by objective. Second, interregional linkages are included by means of spatial econometric techniques. Third, potential endogeneity of the explanatory variables is taken into account.GROWTH, REGIONAL POLICY, INCREASING RETURNS, EUROPE, SPATIAL ECONOMETRICS

The evolution of the spatial and sectoral patterns in Ile-de-France over 1978-1997

The aim of this paper is to analyze the intra-urban spatial distribution of employment in the agglomeration of Ile-de-France in 1978 and 1997. In that purpose, exploratory spatial data analysis is used in order to identify employment centers and a sectoral analysis of the CBD and the subcenters is performed. Our results highlight a suburbanization process of employment between 1978 and 1997 in Ile-de-France. A more polarized space emerges in 1997 compared to 1978 with several employment centers specialized in different activities. Moreover, even if the spatial influence of the CBD is diminishing during the study period, the CBD preserves its economic leadership by concentrating a large variety of high-order producer services. Keywords: exploratory spatial data analysis; employment centers; spatial autocorrelation; suburbanization JEL Classification: C12, R12, R14

Introduction

Arguably, modernism is indebted to romantic aesthetics, notably to the postulate that all areas of reality, be they noble or ignoble, can be represented and given shape through an original gesture of artistic creation. Indeed, in many modernist works, new zones of experience, new aspects of corporeality and sexuality, have gained both visibility and aesthetic dignity through the invention of experimental forms, as excretory body functions famously did in Joyce’s Ulysses. In the process, moder..

Biochar fracture resistance

Biochar is a brittle material that tends to break under mechanical stress. This could be an advantage if it is intended to obtain a char powder, but it is typically unwanted since it generates dust that induce biochar losses or even explosion risk. Mechanical stresses are typically observed inside pyrolysis reactors (Scala et al., 2006), during transport/storage and finally inside the soil (Spokas et al., 2014). There are few data in the literature regarding the mechanical strength of char (Capon et al., 1980). This study aims at assessing the impact of pyrolysis temperature and biomass species on fracture resistance. Please click on the file below for full content of the abstract

Henri Wallon et la filmologie

Cette étude analyse tout d’abord les articles que Henri Wallon a consacrés à la filmologie entre 1947 et 1957. Ils portent essentiellement sur les mécanismes psychologiques de la perception et de la compréhension du film chez l’enfant et l’adulte. Cette conception de la filmologie est ensuite replacée dans le vaste mouvement international dont les recherches sont publiées, à partir de 1947, dans la Revue Internationale de Filmologie. Cette seconde analyse permet d’y repérer quelques thèmes récurrents : la filmologie comme approche interdisciplinaire où prédomine cependant la psychologie ; la perception et l’impression de réalité au cinéma ; le langage cinématographique ; l’hypnose et le transfert au cinéma ; la production enfin de l’émotion esthétique par les images de mouvements qui exigent de nouvelles accommodations posturales, sensorielles et mentales.This study analyses firstly the articles that Henri Wallon dedicated to filmology between 1947 and 1957. His articles mainly focused on the psychological mechanisms of the perception and understanding of films by children and adults. This idea of filmology is then placed in the context of the large international movement whose research was published from 1947 in Revue Internationale de Filmologie. In this second part several recurring themes are identified: filmology as an interdisciplinary approach in which psychology is nonetheless dominant; the perception and impression of reality in cinema; cinematographic language; hypnosis and transference; finally, the production of an aesthetic emotion by images of movements that require new adjustments by the subject in terms of posture, the senses and the mind