La implosión de Yugoslavia

EN RESEÑA DE • A REVIEW OFBiserko, Sonja (2012) Yugoslavia’s Implosion. The Fatal attraction of Serbian nationalism, Belgrado, The Norwegian Helsinki Committee.EN RESEÑA DE • A REVIEW OFBiserko, Sonja (2012) Yugoslavia’s Implosion. The Fatal attraction of Serbian nationalism, Belgrado, The Norwegian Helsinki Committee

The impact of the American Civil War on city growth

This paper analyzes the persistence of the shock caused by the American Civil War on the relative city size distribution of the United States. Our fi�ndings suggest that the effects of this shock were permanent, which sharply contrasts with previous results regarding World War II for Japanese and German cities. It should be taken into account that the conflict considered in this paper took place at an earlier stage of the industrialization and urbanization processes. Moreover, our results are determined by the fact that the battles were fought in the open �field, not in urban areas. Some related evidence regarding the presence of a safe harbour effect is reported.

Unconventional monetary policies and the credit market

We propose a theoretical model based on the bank lending channel to assess the ability of lending facilities and swap programs to affect the credit interest rate. The model predicts the success of both unconventional monetary measures in reducing the credit interest rate under very general conditions. The comparison between measures reveals the outperformance of lending facilities over swap programs if i) the risk premium on the interbank money market is sizeable and the yield on government bonds is low, ii) the share of bank lending obtained from the central bank is below some specific threshold, iii) the interest rate offered by the central bank on excess reserves is high, and iv) the default rate on loans is high. The quantitative assessment of the model with real data confirms the appropriate response of the Federal Reserve in recent crisis episodes but sheds some doubts on the European Central Bank intervention

Long-run inflation-growth relationship: nominal rigidities, unemployment and financial frictions

The issue tackled in this thesis is the long-run relationship inflation/growth in neo-Keynesian DSGE models with endogenous growth, considering the coherence of the inflation targets of the central banks.The results obtained are related to the type of wage considered, the existence of frictions in labor and credit markets and the empirical implications for six advanced countries. They can be summarized in the following four points: The consideration of the wage per unit of labor (per worker or per hour) is the reason for obtaining negative optimal trend inflation, while that inflation is zero with wage per unit of human capital. Both results come from a dynamic mechanism that reaches a situation which is equivalent to wage flexibility. The same results on optimal inflation are confirmed once unemployment is introduced in the models and it is found an extension of the Friedman critique to the de Phillips curve in the long run which generalizes the usual version of the mainstream macroeconomic models.The extension maintains the inflation/unemployment independence (natural rate), adding a protagonist role of employment and labor force participation rates, that are maximal for the optimal inflation rate. The inflation rate value that coincides with the natural unemployment rate is not indifferent, as in Friedman’s critique, because it can be accompanied by different growth, employment and labor force participation rates. The frictions of the financial sector confirm the same results on the optimal trend inflation and not always have a negative impact on the achievable economic growth because it depends on the type of friction. Finally, the empirical application explores in what extent the six considered countries could improve their growth, employment and labor force participation rates according to the obtained inflation/growth relationship in every case. The growth gain, after adjusting their inflation targets, would come for the USA, Australia and Spain from an increase of the employment and labor force participation rates, while in the case of Japan, France y Germany it would come from a productivity increase. <br /

The effects of knowledge and innovation on regional growth: Nonparametric evidence

This paper deals with the relationship between knowledge, innovation and regional growth. The study is carried out through the application of nonparametric estimation methods to European data at NUTS2 level. We provide evidence that the share of innovative ...firms plays a more relevant role in explaining regional growth than R&D expenditures. Further, inward FDI turns out to be a robust growth determinant. Our results also suggest that the effects induced by these variables are of a heterogeneous nature. As a byproduct of the analysis, we show that the estimation results from a local-linear kernel regression can be used for the identi...cation of spatial patterns. In this respect, we ...find a cluster of innovation-driven labour productivity growth in Germany

Theoretical training bases for young athletes in aquatic sports on the natural environment: Bodyboard

[Resumen] El bodyboard es una disciplina del surf cuyo crecimiento ha sido considerable desde la década de los 60, por lo que está considerado como uno de los deportes acuáticos de mayor crecimiento del mundo. A pesar de esto, la investigación científica de esta disciplina ha estado mal reflejada en comparación con otros deportes. Al igual que en cualquier otro deporte, el bodyboarder necesita de unas condiciones físicas y fisiológicas específicas que le ayuden a practicar el deporte de manera efectiva ya que no siguen un entrenamiento específico ni desarrollan programas de acondicionamiento. Por lo tanto, este artículo surge con la idea de aportar unas bases para determinar el entrenamiento más adecuado basado en los objetivos y estudio de las acciones del bodyboard para mejorar la condición física, técnica y psicológica de los jóvenes bodyboarders en base a las particularidades del propio deporte y del deportista, teniendo en cuenta los estudios científicos en el ámbito que nos ocupa: el Bodyboard[Abstract] The bodyboard is a surfing discipline whose growth has been considerably since the 60s, so it is considered one of the fastest growing aquatic sport in the world. Despite this, scientific research of this discipline has been reflected poorly compared to other sports. As in any other sport, the bodyboarder requires of specific physical and physiological conditions to help it to practice the sport effectively as it does not follow a specific training or develop conditioning programs. Therefore, this article comes up with the idea of providing a basis for determining the most appropriate training based on study objectives and bodyboard actions to improve physical, technical and psychological condition of the bodyboarders based on the particularities of their own sport and the athlete, taking into account scientific studies in the field at hand: the Bodyboar

Non-linearities in regional growth: A non-parametric approach

This paper analyses the determinants of regional economic growth in the European Union adopting a non-parametric approach. Although the local-linear kernel estimator applied does not explicitly take into account the spatial dimension of the data, it is found to be consistent in our context. In addition, the geographically weighted regression turns out to be less efficient. We obtain evidence of a non-linear relationship between regional growth and its determinants in the form of parameter heterogeneity and threshold effects. These non-linearities mainly affect the initial productivity of labour, the human capital endowment and, as a novelty, the level of infrastructures

EFFECT OF TWO TAKEOFF STYLES ON FOOT PARTICIPATION IN VERTICAL JUMPS

The aim of this paper was to determine the participation of the supporting feet in vertical jump take-off with run-up. Vertical and horizontal components were recorded for total impulse, brake impulse and acceleration impulse. 23 physical education undergraduates and baseball/basketball players participated in the study (average height 179 ± 6.1 cm.; average mass: 70.96 ± 8.82 kg). Two force platforms were used (Dinascan – IBV), one for each supporting foot, time-synchronised to a high speed video camera (Redlake Motion Space 1000 S) at 250 Hz. The results show that the second foot delay does not influence vertical component mean acceleration impulses, so there will be no advantage in CG height. Horizontal component impulse, developed by the first supporting foot, is greater when the time between foot contact is increased (