The impact of training on productivity and wages : evidence from British panel data

It is standard in the literature on training to use wages as a sufficient statistic for productivity. But there are many reasons why wages and productivity may diverge. This paper is part of a smaller literature on the effects of work-related training on direct measures of productivity. We construct a panel of British industries between 1983 and 1996 containing training, productivity and wages. Using a variety of econometric estimation techniques (including system GMM) we find that training is associated with significantly higher productivity. Raising the proportion of workers trained in an industry by one percentage point (say from the average of 10% to 11%) is associated with an increase in value added per worker of about 0.6% and an increase in wages of about 0.3%. Furthermore, we find that the magnitude of the impact of training on wages is only half as large as the impact of training on productivity, implying that the existing literature has underestimated the importance of training. We also show evidence using complementary datasets (e.g. from individuals) that is suggestive of externalities of training and imperfect competition

Réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre permise par le stockage additionnel de carbone sur les terres agricoles Françaises : Courbe de coût marginal d'abattement.

International audienceFollowing the Paris agreement in 2015, the European Union (EU) set a carbon neutrality objective by 2050, and so did France. The French agricultural sector can contribute as a carbon sink through carbon storage in biomass and soil, in addition to reducing GHG emissions. The objective of this study is to quantitatively assess the additional storage potential and cost of a set of eight carbon-storing practices. The impacts of these agricultural practices on soil organic carbon storage and crop production are assessed at a very fine spatial scale, using crop and grassland models. The associated area base, GHG budget, and implementation costs are assessed and aggregated at the region level. The economic model BANCO uses this information to derive the marginal abatement cost curve for France and identify the combination of carbon storing practices that minimizes the total cost of achieving a given national net GHG mitigation target. We find that a substantial amount of carbon, 36.2 to 52.9 MtCO2e yr-1, can be stored in soil and biomass for reasonable carbon prices of 55 and 250 € tCO2e-1, respectively (corresponding to current and 2030 French carbon value for climate action), mainly by developing agroforestry and hedges, generalising cover crops, and introducing or extending temporary grasslands in crop sequences. This finding questions the 3-5 times lower target of 10 MtCO2e.yr-1 retained for the agricultural carbon sink by the French climate neutrality strategy. Overall, this would decrease total French GHG emissions by 9.2 to 13.8%, respectively (reference year 2019).Suite aux accords de Paris en 2015, l'Union européenne (UE) s'est fixé un objectif de neutralité carbone d'ici à 2050, tout comme la France. En plus de réduire les émissions de GES, le secteur agricole français peut contribuer à la neutralité carbone en tant que puits de carbone, par le stockage de carbone dans le sol et la biomasse. L'objectif de cette étude est de quantifier le potentiel de stockage additionnel et le coût d'un ensemble de huit pratiques stockantes. Les impacts de ces pratiques agricoles sur le stockage du carbone organique du sol et les rendements des cultures sont évalués à une échelle spatiale très fine, à l'aide de modèles de cultures et de prairies. L'assiette, le bilan GES net et le coût de mise en œuvre associés à chaque pratique sont également évalués et agrégés au niveau régional. Le modèle économique BANCO utilise ces informations pour générer la courbe de coût marginal d'abattement pour la France, et identifier la combinaison de pratiques stockantes qui minimise le coût total pour atteindre un objectif national donné d'atténuation des émissions de GES nettes. Nous montrons qu'une quantité non négligeable de carbone, de 36,2 à 52,9 MtCO2e an-1, peut être stockée dans le sol et la biomasse pour des prix du carbone raisonnables de 55 et 250 € tCO2e-1, respectivement (correspondant à la "valeur de l'action pour le climat" actuelle et 2030, fixée par le gouvernement français), et cela principalement par le développement de l'agroforesterie et des haies, la généralisation des cultures intermédiaires, l'introduction ou l'extension des prairies temporaires dans les séquences de culture. Ce résultat remet en cause l'objectif 3 à 5 fois inférieur retenu pour le puits de carbone agricole (10 MtCO2e.an-1) par la stratégie nationale bas carbone. Globalement, ce stockage additionnel de carbone permettrait de réduire les émissions totales de GES de la France de 9,2 à 13,8 %, respectivement (année de référence 2019)

Genome Modification Approaches to Improve Performance, Quality, and Stress Tolerance of Important Mediterranean Fruit Species (Olea europaea L., Vitis vinifera L., and Quercus suber L.).

In the last decades the interest on traditional Mediterranean fruits highly increased, not only due to the constant demand of consumers for new crop alternatives, but also due to the identification in such species of molecules with important properties for human health (e.g. resveratrol from grapes and oleuropein from olives). Efforts to improve the production capacity and fruit quality in such fruit species, as well as the resistance to biotic and abiotic stress, was achieved by plant breeders using mainly classical breeding approaches (e.g. selection, hybridization and mutagenesis), nevertheless, breeding support by plant tissue culture techniques, marker assisted selection, as well as by genome modification, was also used. Here we will present the state of the art related with the production of transgenic plants in three Mediterranean fruit species with important impact on the economy, olive, grapevine and cork. The achievements, problems and future perspectives will be discussed.This work was financially supported by national funds through FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) under the Project UID/AGR/00115/2013, PTDC/BIA-BQM/28539/2017, by the Project OLEAVALOR (ALT20-03-0145-FEDER000014) funded by FEDER funds through the Program Alentejo 2020; Hélia Cardoso and Susana Serrazina were supported by FCT through post-doc fellowship SFRH/BPD/109849/2015 and SFRH/BPD/108653/2015, respectively; Andreia Figueiredo was also supported by the investigator FCT program IF/00819/2015