Tracing the Evolution of Agglomeration Economies: Spain, 1860-1991

This article attempts to quantify how the effect of agglomeration economies on population growth has evolved over time. Using district population in Spain between 1860 and 1991, recorded approximately every decade, this article examines whether initial population affects subsequent population growth. Our results show that, while the relationship between these two variables hardly existed during the second half of the 19th century, this link increased significantly between 1910 and 1970, although this trend was abruptly interrupted by the Civil War and the autarkic period that followed. The intensity of this relationship debilitated in the 1970s, a process that continued during the 1980s as rural out-migration diminished and de-industrialisation hit traditional manufacturing sectors. Our findings also stress that agglomeration economies were stronger in medium-size districts, especially from 1960 onwards, thus suggesting that congestion costs began to mitigate the benefits arising from agglomeration economies in the largest locations

Why did Spanish Regions not Converge before the Civil War? Agglomeration Economies and (Regional) Growth Revisited

In this paper we explore the relationship between the presence of agglomeration economies and regional economic growth in Spain during the period 1870-1930. The study allows us to revisit the existence of a trade-off between economic growth and territorial cohesion, and also to examine whether the existence of agglomeration economies could explain the upswing in regional income inequality during the early stages of development. In doing so, we present alternative indicators for agglomeration economies and estimate conditional growth regressions at province (NUTS3) level. In line with new economic geography models, agglomeration economies in a context of market integration widened regional inequality in the second half of the 19th century and hindered its reduction during the early decades of the 20th.En este artículo se analiza la existencia de una relación entre la presencia de economías de aglomeración y el crecimiento económico regional en España durante el periodo 1870-1930. El estudio permite revisitar la existencia de un trade-off entre crecimiento económico y cohesión territorial y, además, examinar si las economías de aglomeración fueron un elemento clave a la hora de explicar el incremento de la desigualdad económica regional en España a lo largo de las primeras fases del desarrollo. Para ello, se presentan diferentes indicadores de aglomeración a nivel provincial (NUTS3) que posteriormente se incluyen en la estimación de regresiones de crecimiento condicionadas. En la línea de los modelos de Nueva Geografía Económica (NEG), sugerimos que la presencia de economías de aglomeración en un contexto de integración de mercado favoreció la aparición de una causación acumulativa que amplió la desigualdad regional en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y dificultó su reducción durante las primeras décadas del siglo XX.Authors acknowledge financial support from the MINECO project ECO2012-39169-CO3-02

The origins of economic growth and regional income inequality in South-West Europe 1870-1950

This study focuses on South-West Europe, an area comprising France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, to evaluate inequality in regional income between 1870 and 1950. To do this, information on a decadal basis on regional population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 171 regions (84 French départements, 22 Italian regioni, 18 Portuguese distritos and 49 Spanish provincias) has been collected. Regional inequalities increased between 1870 and 1910 but subsequently tended to flatten out through until 1950. In the first period, regional disparities increased mainly driven by a handful of French and Spanish regions in northern France, such as the Paris basin, Catalonia, the Basque-Country and northern Italy. In the second period, inequality flattened out, driven by the incorporation of new regions on the path of modern economic growth. The study also shows the evolution towards a bimodal, polarized pattern of regional income distribution in 1910-1950 with two convergence clubs. The richest regions were clustering in northern France, the Paris basin and the north of Italy. Meanwhile, most of southern Italy and the vast majority of the Spanish and Portuguese regions already occupied the bottom positions in the income distribution ranking. This point to the emergence of the core-periphery pattern that characterizes much of South-West Europe today

The long-term relationship between economic development and regional inequality: South-West Europe, 1860-2010

This paper analyses the long-term relationship between regional inequality and economic development. Our data set includes information on national and regional per capita GDP for four countries: France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, compiled on a decadal basis for the period 1860–2010. Using parametric and semiparametric regressions, our results confirm the rise and fall of regional inequalities over time although in recent decades they are on the rise again. Finally, we identify structural change as being a significant transmission mechanism of the inverted-U relationship. The arrival of technological shocks, beginning during the onset of industrialization, and the transition from agrarian to industrial economies, would explain this result

Les arrels de la industrialització catalana: del segle XVIII a la Guerra Civil

L’objectiu d’aquest treball és presentar alguns dels avenços (no tots, ni molt menys) que s’han produït en els últims anys en l’estudi de la industrialització catalana. Entre aquests avenços en volem destacar dos. En primer lloc, s’ha generat nova evidència quantitativa relativa a la indústria en el context de reconstrucció de sèries històriques de PIB. Això implica que disposem de dades de valor afegit brut (VAB) per a la indústria catalana en els anys compresos entre 1860 i 1930, amb una freqüència decennal. Sobre la base d’aquestes noves estimacions es presenta l’evolució de la indústria catalana durant un període clau de l’expansió de la industrialització que es tancarà amb l’arribada de la Guerra Civil

Catalunya dins l'economia espanyola: del vapor a la intel·ligència artificial, de màquina a vagó

El Mercat del Born acollia el 1985 l’exposició “Catalunya, la fàbrica d’Espanya. Un segle d’industrialització catalana, 1833- 1936”, impulsada pels professors Jordi Nadal i Jordi Maluquer de Motes. En aquesta es rememorava la profunda transformació experimentada per l’economia catalana des de la posada en funcionament de la fàbrica “El Vapor”, primer establiment industrial a fer servir aquesta força motriu a Espanya, fins a l’esclat de la Guerra Civil. El títol triat pels dos mestres de la història econòmica catalana sintetitzava la principal conclusió de molts anys de recerca històrica. La industrialització havia fet del Principat el líder econòmic d’Espanya. Catalunya era la màquina que arrossegava tot l’Estat

The Shadow of Cities: Size, Location and the Spatial Distribution of Population in Spain

Using a large data set on the population of Spanish municipalities between 1877 and 2001, this paper analyses how their initial size and the presence of neighbouring urban locations influence subsequent population growth and how these links have evolved over time. Our results show that initial size is negatively related to population growth, except in the 1960s and 1970s when this relationship becomes positive. Likewise, the presence of neighbouring urban locations limited local population growth in the late 19th century, a negative effect that persisted, but at a diminishing rate, until the second half of the 20th century. The influence of nearby cities became increasingly positive from then onwards, and especially so during the 1970s

On building physics-based AI models for the design and SHM of mooring systems

Expert systems in industrial processes are modelled using physics-based approaches, data-driven models or hybrid approaches in which however the underlying physical models generally constitute a separate block with respect to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique(s). This work applies the novel concept of “imbrication”-a physics-based AI approach-to the mooring system of offshore renewable energy devices to achieve a complete integration of both perspectives. This approach can reduce the size of the training dataset and computational time while delivering algorithms with higher generalization capability and explicability. We first undertake the design of the mooring system by developing a surrogate model coupled with a Bayesian optimiser. Then, we analyse the structural health monitoring of the mooring system by designing a supervised Deep Neural Network architecture. Herein, we describe the characteristics of the imbrication process, analyse preliminary results of our investigation and provide considerations for orienting further research work and sector applicability

Soluble ST2 is a marker for acute cardiac allograft rejection

©2011. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This document is the Accepted version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2011.07.048Background: Soluble ST2 (sST2), an interleukin (IL)-1 receptor family member, has a role in immunologic tolerance and has also emerged as a biomarker of cardiac stretch and remodeling. The sST2 role in heart transplantation is still unknown. Methods: From the heart transplantation population at our institution (n = 74), we selected a subset of 26 patients who had an acute rejection episode in the first year after transplantation (35%; 52 ± 14 years; 76% men). Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) results obtained at the time of the first rejection episode represented the rejection cohort (n = 26). Each patient served as a control to himself or herself, with EMB without rejection obtained before and after the rejection episode (n = 52). All laboratory measurements and blood samples were obtained at the time of EMB. Results: sST2 concentrations rose significantly in the context of acute rejection (130 [60 to 238] versus 51 ng/mL [28 to 80]; p = 0.002). Tertile analyses of sST2 concentrations revealed a graded association with rejection (p = 0.002) and repeated measurement analyses showed that sST2 concentrations were significantly modulated by the presence of rejection (p = 0.001). In receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis, sST2 had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.72; the optimal cutoff point was 68 ng/mL (positive predictive value of 53%, negative predictive value of 83%), which predicted acute cellular rejection (odds ratio [OR] 4.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.7 to 14.5; p = 0.004). The addition of sST2 values to those for the N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) resulted in a significant improvement on the integrated discrimination index (IDI) for rejection (relative improvement of 24%; p = 0.021). Conclusions: sST2 concentrations are modulated by the presence of acute rejection and provide complementary predictive ability to NT-proBNP for the biochemical identification of rejection

Capital humano y desigualdad territorial. El proceso de alfabetización en los municipios españoles desde la Ley Moyano hasta la Guerra Civil

El objetivo de este estudio es ofrecer nueva evidencia acerca de los niveles de alfabetización en España para el período 1860-1930. En particular, a lo largo de las siguientes páginas se presenta una base de datos que permite desgranar la evolución del proceso alfabetizador, con una desagregación territorial correspondiente a los municipios y distinguiendo entre hombres y mujeres. Con esta nueva información, se analiza la evolución y se apuntan algunos de los potenciales determinantes de la alfabetización desde los albores del período contemporáneo y a lo largo de la primera gran fase del proceso de desarrollo económico español, que transcurre durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX y el primer tercio del siglo XX. En este contexto, el objetivo final del presente trabajo es contribuir a la comprensión de los determinantes profundos de la desigualdad económica territorial en España y, por extensión, de los países hoy desarrollados