Cooperative and non-cooperative solutions to carbon leakage

A modified version of the CGE GTAP-E model is developed for assessing the economic and carbon emissions effects related to alternative policy measures implemented with the aim of reducing carbon leakage. We explore a set of scenarios, comparing solutions where Annex I countries introduce exogenously or endogenously determined carbon border taxes in order to solve the carbon leakage problem unilaterally. Results provide evidence on the scarce effectiveness of carbon tariffs in reducing carbon leakage and enhancing economic competitiveness, while they have large negative welfare effects not only on the Non-Annex countries, but also on certain Annex I countriesCarbon Leakage, Carbon Border Tax, GTAP-E model

performances evaluation of a novel hadoop and spark based system of image retrieval for huge collections

A novel system of image retrieval, based on Hadoop and Spark, is presented. Managing and extracting information from Big Data is a challenging and fundamental task. For these reasons, the system is scalable and it is designed to be able to manage small collections of images as well as huge collections of images. Hadoop and Spark are based on the MapReduce framework, but they have different characteristics. The proposed system is designed to take advantage of these two technologies. The performances of the proposed system are evaluated and analysed in terms of computational cost in order to understand in which context it could be successfully used. The experimental results show that the proposed system is efficient for both small and huge collections

Bargaining Coalitions in the Agricultural Negotiations of the Doha Round: Similarity of Interests or Strategic Choices? An Empirical Assessment

The paper aims at understanding the structural features of the bargaining coalitions in the Doha Round of the WTO. We provide an empirical assessment of the preferences of each negotiating actor looking at general economics indicators, development levels, structure of the agricultural sectors, and trade policies for agricultural products. Bargaining coalitions are analyzed by grouping countries through a cluster analysis procedure. The clusters are compared with existing coalitions, in order to assess their degree of internal homogeneity as well as their common interests. Such a comparison allows the detection of possible “defectors”, i.e. countries that according to their economic conditions and policies seem to be relatively less committed to the positions of the coalition they join.Agricultural trade negotiations, Bargaining coalitions, WTO, Cluster analysis

Vector boson fusion at multi-TeV muon colliders

High-energy lepton colliders with a centre-of-mass energy in the multi-TeV range are currently considered among the most challenging and far-reaching future accelerator projects. Studies performed so far have mostly focused on the reach for new phenomena in lepton-antilepton annihilation channels. In this work we observe that starting from collider energies of a few TeV, electroweak (EW) vector boson fusion/scattering (VBF) at lepton colliders becomes the dominant production mode for all Standard Model processes relevant to studying the EW sector. In many cases we find that this also holds for new physics. We quantify the size and the growth of VBF cross sections with collider energy for a number of SM and new physics processes. By considering luminosity scenarios achievable at a muon collider, we conclude that such a machine would effectively be a "high-luminosity weak boson collider," and subsequently offer a wide range of opportunities to precisely measure EW and Higgs coupling as well as to discover new particles.Comment: 58 pages, 17 figures, 9 tables. A contribution to Snowmass 202

Arcadi Espada, En nombre de Franco. Los héroes de la embajada de España en el Budapest nazi

En nombre de Franco è un libro pubblicato nel 2013 dal giornalista, saggista ed opinionista spagnolo Arcadi Espada, per la casa editrice Espasa. Il volume, che nella versione spagnola conta 310 pagine, narra le vicende degli «eroi dell’ambasciata di Spagna nella Budapest nazista». Espada, che scrive per il quotidiano «El Mundo», è autore di testi come Diarios (vincitore del premio Espasa per la saggistica), Contra Catalunya, Raval: del amor a los niños, Notas para una biografía de Josep Pla, ..

An R&D perspective on international trade and sustainable development

Research and Development (R&D) is the common denominator of innovation and technological progress, supporting sustainable development and economic growth. In light of the availability of new datasets and innovative indicators, in this work, we introduce a novel perspective to analyse the international trade of goods through the lenses of the nexus R&D-industrial activities of countries. We propose two new indices, RDE and RDI, summarizing the R&D content of countries' export and import baskets-respectively-and investigate their evolution in time, during the period 1995-2017, and space. We demonstrate the potential of these indices to shed new light on the evolution of R&D choices and trade, innovation, and development. In fact, compared to standard measures of countries' development and economic growth (e.g., the Human Development Index among the others tested), these indices provide complementary information. In particular, tracing the trajectories of countries along the RDE-HDI plane, different dynamics appear for countries with increased HDI, which we speculate can be reasoned with countries' availability of natural resources. Eventually, we identify two insightful applications of the indices to investigate further countries' environmental performances as related to their role in international trade

Fuelling the Fire: Rethinking European Policy in Times of Energy and Climate Crises

The European Union’s relative disregard for the economic, geopolitical and climatic concerns of its peripheral Eastern countries has contributed to making the war in Ukraine possible. Its consequences are now returning in the form of energy dependence and economic instability on the Union as a whole and the risk of economic crisis and deindustrialisation. This should prompt a re-assessment of the EU’s strategy towards its eastern neighbours, particularly in the energy and climate policy field. This evaluation starts from the issue of control over cheap energy as a key material foundation of state and interstate power. On this basis, we analyse the struggle between Russia and the European core states over Ukraine in terms of the ability to extract an economic surplus through the unequal exchange of energy. The current escalation should be understood as an attempt by the Russian petrostate to preserve the economic basis of its regime, which is threatened by the prospect of a low-carbon transition in Europe. We conclude that a massive acceleration of the transition away from fossil fuels is the key to economic, geopolitical and climate stabilisation, highlighting possible policy instruments the EU could use to secure its production system and protect citizens’ security

Prvi nalaz plavog raka Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Portunidae) u vodama pokrajine Abruzzi, srednji Jadran

For the first time, one female individual of blue crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896, a species native to the western Atlantic coasts, is reported from Abruzzi waters (central Adriatic Sea). This species has widely invaded European Atlantic coasts and several areas of the Mediterranean, probably brought by ballast waters; yet, it has not settled in the study area.Po prvi put, jedinka ženke plavog raka Callinectes sapidus rathbun, 1896 vrste koja potječe sa zapadne obale atlantika, zabilježena je u vodama pokrajine abruzzi (srednji Jadran). Ova vrsta je uvelike najezdila europske obale atlantika i nekoliko područja u mediteranu, donešena vjerojatno balastnim vodama; ipak, još se nije u potpunosti nastanila u istraživanom području

Come in cielo, così in terra: dispositivi, mappe, produzione artistica

The geographical description of the world has always had a linguistic dimension: it is a symbolic process of translation in which the signs simultaneously describe and portray. In this regard, the “history of lines” is also the history of the will to regulate the visible and give an order to the world. In recent years, the drones have become emblems of a visual geographical culture dominated by the importance of the view from above, “tamed”, in civilian zones, by Google Maps and Google Earth. Today, many artists and performers have made the aerial view, the video surveillance, and the technological colonization of the skies the object of their investigation. A counter-geography and a visual counterculture indicating borders, weapons, and tactics of a new battlefield: the one between earth and sky opened, in the middle of the last century, by the first satellite picture