The Beverly Hillbillies – Campesinos afortunados: La riqueza argentina

This paper revisits the lines of analysis that have differentiated the high income of the export boom in Argentina and its development –defined as the combination of human capital, technical knowledge, physical capital and institutions–. It underlines the stages of growth and stagnation, and social and regional differences. It discusses the effect of growth on development, in relation to other countries that have enjoyed stronger development than our case. Following Schiaffino, it considers the role of regional inequalities and the limited growth of human capital in this process.  El trabajo revisa las líneas de análisis que han diferenciado los altos ingresos de la Argentina en su boom exportador y el desarrollo –definido como la combinación de capital humano, conocimientos tecnológicos, capital físico e instituciones–. Destaca las etapas de crecimiento y estancamiento, y las diferencias sociales y regionales. Discute el efecto del crecimiento sobre el desarrollo, en relación con países que lograron en el tiempo superar el desarrollo argentino. Siguiendo a Schiaffino, evalúa el rol de la desigualdad regional y del limitado crecimiento en capital humano en esta evolución

Answer to comments of Osvaldo Barsky and Juan Manuel Palacio

Este texto es la respuesta de Eduardo Míguez a las reflexiones críticas de Osvaldo Barsky y Juan Manuel Palacio en torno a “Del feudalismo al capitalismo agrario: ¿el fin de la historia... agraria?”.This text is Eduardo Míguez's answer to the critical reflections of Osvaldo Barsky and Juan Manuel Palacio on “From feudalism to agrarian capitalism: the end of agrarian... history?

Finanzas, economía y Estado en Buenos Aires, en la década de 1820: un comentario a Samuel Amaral.

La segunda década del siglo XIX se abrió en Buenos Aires llena de esperanzas. Sectores importantes de las dirigencias porteñas creían llegado el tiempo para cambios profundos. Sin duda, los rasgos de los cambios esperados no eran ni homogéneos ni precisos, pero el entusiasmo dominaba el espíritu en aquellos agitados días. La dura realidad en que se sumió aquella aventura, las grandes dificultades para superar un contexto externo cada vez menos favorable, pero, sobre todo, para construir un poder local legítimo en una territorio definido y unificado parecían cada vez más insalvables, hasta su colapso final, justo al comienzo de la década siguiente

From feudalism to agrarian capitalism: the end of... agrarian history?

El presente texto revisita el recorrido de las representaciones historiográficas sobre la economía agraria pampeana argentina durante los siglos XIX y XX. En función de las mismas, estudia su impacto en las políticas públicas y la situación actual de la especialidad.This article considers the evolution of the historiographical representations of Argentine pampas agrarian economy during the 19th. and 20th. Centuries. Through them, it analyzes its impact on public policies, as well as the state of the art in the field

Solubility of Methane in Water: Some Useful Results for Hydrate Nucleation

In this paper, the solubility of methane in water along the 400 bar isobar is determined by computer simulations using the TIP4P/Ice force field for water and a simple LJ model for methane. In particular, the solubility of methane in water when in contact with the gas phase and the solubility of methane in water when in contact with the hydrate has been determined. The solubility of methane in a gas–liquid system decreases as temperature increases. The solubility of methane in a hydrate–liquid system increases with temperature. The two curves intersect at a certain temperature that determines the triple point T3 at a certain pressure. We also determined T3 by the three-phase direct coexistence method. The results of both methods agree, and we suggest 295(2) K as the value of T3 for this system. We also analyzed the impact of curvature on the solubility of methane in water. We found that the presence of curvature increases the solubility in both the gas–liquid and hydrate–liquid systems. The change in chemical potential for the formation of hydrate is evaluated along the isobar using two different thermodynamic routes, obtaining good agreement between them. It is shown that the driving force for hydrate nucleation under experimental conditions is higher than that for the formation of pure ice when compared at the same supercooling. We also show that supersaturation (i.e., concentrations above those of the planar interface) increases the driving force for nucleation dramatically. The effect of bubbles can be equivalent to that of an additional supercooling of about 20 K. Having highly supersaturated homogeneous solutions makes possible the spontaneous formation of the hydrate at temperatures as high as 285 K (i.e., 10K below T3). The crucial role of the concentration of methane for hydrate formation is clearly revealed. Nucleation of the hydrate can be either impossible or easy and fast depending on the concentration of methane which seems to play the leading role in the understanding of the kinetics of hydrate formation

Production of upgraded metallurgical-grade silicon for a low-cost, high-efficiency, and reliable PV technology

Upgraded metallurgical-grade silicon (UMG-Si) has the potential to reduce the cost of photovoltaic (PV) technology and improve its environmental profile. In this contribution, we summarize the extensive work made in the research and development of UMG technology for PV, which has led to the demonstration of UMG-Si as a competitive alternative to polysilicon for the production of high-efficiency multicrystalline solar cells and modules. The tailoring of the processing steps along the complete Ferrosolar’s UMG-Si manufacturing value chain is addressed, commencing with the purification stage that results in a moderately compensated material due to the presence of phosphorous and boron. Gallium is added as a dopant at the crystallization stage to obtain a uniform resistivity profile of ∼1 Ω cm along the ingot height. Defect engineering techniques based on phosphorus diffusion gettering are optimized to improve the bulk electronic quality of UMG-Si wafers. Black silicon texturing, compatible with subsequent gettering and surface passivation, is successfully implemented. Industrial-type aluminum back surface field (Al-BSF) and passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cells are fabricated, achieving cell efficiencies in the range of those obtained with conventional polysilicon substrates. TOPCon solar cell processing key steps are also tested to further evaluate the potential of the material in advanced device architectures beyond the PERC. Degradation mechanisms related to light exposure and operation temperature are shown to be insignificant in UMG PERC solar cells when a regeneration step is implemented, and PV modules with several years of outdoor operation demonstrated similar performance to reference ones based on poly-Si. Life cycle analysis (LCA) is carried out to evaluate the environmental impact of UMG-based PV technology when compared to poly-Si-based technology, considering different scenarios for both the manufacturing sites and the PV installations