3,994 research outputs found
A Political Economy Model of Infrastructure Allocation: An Empirical Assessment
This paper proposes a simultaneous-equation approach to the estimation of the contribution of transport infrastructure accumulation to regional growth. We model explicitly the political-economy process driving infrastructure investments; in doing so, we eliminate a potential source of bias in production-function estimates and generate testable hypotheses on the forces that shape infrastructure policy. Our empirical findings on a panel of France's regions over 1985-91 suggest that influence activities were, indeed, significant determinants of the cross-regional allocation of transportation infrastructure investments. Moreover, we find little evidence of concern for the maximization of economic returns to infrastructure spending, even after controlling for pork-barrel and when imposing an exogenous preference for convergence in regional productivity levels. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Ein polit-ökonomisches Modell von Infrastrukturallokation: Eine empirische Einschätzung) In dieser Untersuchung wird ein simultanes Gleichungssystem zur Schätzung des Beitrags von Verkehrsinfrastrukturinvestitionen zu regionalem Wachstum verwendet. Es wird explizit der politische Prozeß modelliert, der Infrastrukturinvestitionen determiniert; dadurch wird eine mögliche Ursache einer verzerrten Parameterschätzung vermieden, die eintreten kann, wenn Produktionsfunktionen einzeln geschätzt werden. Gleichzeitig fließen in das Modell weitere empirisch überprüfbare Hypothesen über die Determinanten von Infrastrukturpolitik ein. Die empirischen Ergebnisse für einen Paneldatensatz mit 21 französischen Regionen im Zeitraum 1985-1991 zeigen, daß unterstützende Aktivitäten in der Tat einen signifikanten Einfluß auf die regionale Allokation von Verkehrsinfrastrukturinvestitionen haben. Darüber hinaus werden nur wenig empirische Hinweise dafür gefunden, daß auch erwartete Produktivitätseffekte von Infrastruktur bei der regionalen Allokation in Frankreich von Bedeutung sind. Classification_JEL:
Contribution to Productivity or Pork Barrel? The Two Faces of Infrastructure Investment
This paper proposes a simultaneous-equation approach to the estimation of the contribution of transport infrastructure accumulation to regional growth. We model explicitly the political-economy process driving infrastructure investments; in doing so, we eliminate a potential source of bias in production-function estimates and generate testable hypotheses on the forces that shape infrastructure policy. Our empirical findings on a panel of France’s regions over 1985-92 suggest that electoral concerns and influence activities were, indeed, significant determinants of the cross-regional allocation of transportation infrastructure investments. By contrast, we find little evidence of concern for the maximization of economic returns to infrastructure spending, even after controlling for pork-barrel. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG - (Beitrag zur Produktivität oder Pork-barrel? Die zwei Seiten von Infrastrukturinvestitionen) In dieser Untersuchung wird ein simultanes Gleichungssystem zur Schätzung des Beitrags von Verkehrsinfrastrukturinvestitionen zu regionalem Wachstum verwendet. Es wird explizit der politische Prozeß modelliert, der Infrastrukturinvestitionen determiniert; dadurch wird eine mögliche Ursache einer verzerrten Parameterschätzung vermieden, die eintreten kann, wenn Produktionsfunktionen einzeln geschätzt werden. Gleichzeitig fließen in das Modell weitere empirisch überprüfbare Hypothesen über die Determinanten von Infrastrukturpolitik ein. Die empirischen Ergebnisse für einen Paneldatensatz mit 21 französischen Regionen im Zeitraum 1985-1991 zeigen, daß unterstützende Aktivitäten in der Tat einen signifikanten Einfluß auf die regionale Allokation von Verkehrsinfrastrukturinvestitionen haben. Darüber hinaus werden nur wenig empirische Hinweise dafür gefunden, daß auch erwartete Produktivitätseffekte von Infrastruktur bei der regionalen Allokation in Frankreich von Bedeutung sind.Growth, Infrastructure, Political Economy, Lobbying, France
Contribution to Productivity or Pork Barrel?: The Two Faces of Infrastructure Investment
This paper proposes a simultaneous-equation approach to the estimation of the contribution of transport infrastructure accumulation to regional growth. We model explicitly the political-economy process driving infrastructure investments; in doing so, we eliminate a potential source of bias in production-function estimates and generate testable hypotheses on the forces that shape infrastructure policy. Our empirical findings on a panel of France's regions over 1985-92 suggest that electoral concerns and influence activities were, indeed, significant determinants of the cross-regional allocation of transportation infrastructure investments. By contrast, we find little evidence of concern for the maximization of economic returns to infrastructure spending, even after controlling for pork-barrel.Growth; Infrastructure; Political economy; Lobbying; France
A political economy model of infrastructure allocation: an empirical assessment
"In dieser Untersuchung wird ein simultanes Gleichungssystem zur Schätzung des
Beitrags von Verkehrsinfrastrukturinvestitionen zu regionalem Wachstum verwendet.
Es wird explizit der politische Prozeß modelliert, der Infrastrukturinvestitionen
determiniert; dadurch wird eine mögliche Ursache einer verzerrten Parameterschätzung
vermieden, die eintreten kann, wenn Produktionsfunktionen einzeln geschätzt werden.
Gleichzeitig fließen in das Modell weitere empirisch überprüfbare Hypothesen über die
Determinanten von Infrastrukturpolitik ein. Die empirischen Ergebnisse für einen
Paneldatensatz mit 21 französischen Regionen im Zeitraum 1985-1991 zeigen, daß
unterstützende Aktivitäten in der Tat einen signifikanten Einfluß auf die regionale
Allokation von Verkehrsinfrastrukturinvestitionen haben. Darüber hinaus werden nur
wenig empirische Hinweise dafür gefunden, daß auch erwartete Produktivitätseffekte
von Infrastruktur bei der regionalen Allokation in Frankreich von Bedeutung sind." (Autorenreferat)"This paper proposes a simultaneous-equation approach to the estimation of the contribution of transport infrastructure accumulation to regional growth. We model explicitly the political-economy process driving infrastructure investments; in doing so, we eliminate a potential source of bias in production-function estimates and generate testable hypotheses on the forces that shape infrastructure policy. Our empirical findings on a panel of France's regions over 1985-91 suggest that influence activities were, indeed, significant determinants of the cross-regional allocation of transportation infrastructure investments. Moreover, we find little evidence of concern for the maximization of economic returns to infrastructure spending, even after controlling for pork-barrel and when imposing an exogenous preference for convergence in regional productivity levels." (author's abstract
Contribution to productivity or pork barrel? The two faces of infrastructure investment
"This paper proposes a simultaneous-equation approach to the estimation of the contribution of transport infrastructure accumulation to regional growth. We model explicitly the political-economy process driving infrastructure investments; in doing so, we eliminate a potential source of bias in production-function estimates and generate testable hypotheses on the forces that shape infrastructure policy. Our empirical findings on a panel of France's regions over 1985-92 suggest that electoral concerns and influence activities were, indeed, significant determinants of the crossregional allocation of transportation infrastructure investments. By contrast, we find little evidence of concern for the maximization of economic returns to infrastructure spending, even after controlling for pork-barrel." (author's abstract)"In dieser Untersuchung wird ein simultanes Gleichungssystem zur Schätzung des Beitrags von Verkehrsinfrastrukturinvestitionen zu regionalem Wachstum verwendet. Es wird explizit der politische Prozeß modelliert, der Infrastrukturinvestitionen determiniert; dadurch wird eine mögliche Ursache einer verzerrten Parameterschätzung vermieden, die eintreten kann, wenn Produktionsfunktionen einzeln geschätzt werden. Gleichzeitig fließen in das Modell weitere empirisch überprüfbare Hypothesen über die Determinanten von Infrastrukturpolitik ein. Die empirischen Ergebnisse für einen Paneldatensatz mit 21 französischen Regionen im Zeitraum 1985-1991 zeigen, daß unterstützende Aktivitäten in der Tat einen signifikanten Einfluß auf die regionale Allokation von Verkehrsinfrastrukturinvestitionen haben. Darüber hinaus werden nur wenig empirische Hinweise dafür gefunden, daß auch erwartete Produktivitätseffekte von Infrastruktur bei der regionalen Allokation in Frankreich von Bedeutung sind." (Autorenreferat
Design and engineering of a simplified workflow execution for the MG5aMC event generator on GPUs and vector CPUs
Physics event generators are essential components of the data analysis
software chain of high energy physics experiments, and important consumers of
their CPU resources. Improving the software performance of these packages on
modern hardware architectures, such as those deployed at HPC centers, is
essential in view of the upcoming HL-LHC physics programme. In this paper, we
describe an ongoing activity to reengineer the Madgraph5_aMC@NLO physics event
generator, primarily to port it and allow its efficient execution on GPUs, but
also to modernize it and optimize its performance on vector CPUs. We describe
the motivation, engineering process and software architecture design of our
developments, as well as the current challenges and future directions for this
project. This paper is based on our submission to vCHEP2021 in March
2021,complemented with a few preliminary results that we presented during the
conference. Further details and updated results will be given in later
publications.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, submitted to vCHEP2021 proceedings in EPJ Web of
Conferences; minor changes to address comments from the EPJWOC reviewe
Determination of the Boltzmann constant by laser spectroscopy as a basis for future measurements of the thermodynamic temperature
In this paper, we present the latest results on the measurement of the
Boltzmann constant kB, by laser spectroscopy of ammonia at 10 ?m. The Doppler
absorption profile of a ro-vibrational line of an NH3 gas sample at thermal and
pressure equilibrium is measured as accurately as possible. The absorption cell
is placed inside a large 1m3 thermostat filled with an ice-water mixture, which
sets the temperature very close to 273.15 K. Analysing this profile, which is
related to the Maxwell-Boltzmann molecular speed distribution, leads to a
determination of the Boltzmann constant via a measurement of the Doppler width
(proportional tosqrt(kBT)). A spectroscopic determination of the Boltzmann
constant with an uncertainty as low as 37 ppm is obtained. Recent improvements
with a new passive thermostat lead to a temperature accuracy, stability and
homogeneity of the absorption cell better than 1 ppm over a day
Radiological-pathological correlation in Alzheimer's disease : systematic review of antemortem MRI findings
Background: The standard method of ascertaining Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains postmortem
assessment of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary degeneration. Vascular pathology,
Lewy bodies, TDP-43, and hippocampal sclerosis are frequent comorbidities. There is therefore
a need for biomarkers that can assess these aetiologies and provide a diagnosis in vivo.
Objective: We conducted a systematic review of published radiological-pathological correlation
studies to determine the relationship between antemortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
and neuropathological findings in AD.
Methods: We explored PubMed in June-July 2015 using “Alzheimer’s disease” and
combinations of radiological and pathological terms. After exclusion following screening and
full-text assessment of the 552 extracted manuscripts, three others were added from their
reference list. In fine, we report results based on 27 articles.
Results: Independently of normal age-related brain atrophy, AD pathology is associated with
whole-brain and hippocampal atrophy and ventricular expansion as observed on T1-weighted
images. Moreover, cerebral amyloid angiopathy and cortical microinfarcts are also related to
brain volume loss in AD. Hippocampal sclerosis and TDP-43 are respectively associated with
hippocampal and medial temporal lobe atrophy. Brain volume loss correlates more strongly with
tangles than with any other pathological finding. White matter hyperintensities observed on
proton density, T2-weighted and FLAIR images are strongly related to vascular pathologies, but
are also associated with other histological changes such as gliosis or demyelination.
Discussion: Cerebral atrophy and white matter changes in the living brain reflect underlying
neuropathology and may be detectable using antemortem MRI. In vivo MRI may therefore be an
avenue for AD pathological staging
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