Simulating the prospects of technological catching up

Local increasing returns associated with static and dynamic scale effects, knowledge spillovers, polarisation effects and the distance that separates different regions are among the most important driving forces behind the dynamics of economic and technological convergence. This paper puts forward a computational simulation model that seeks to integrate these factors. The modelling exercise was designed to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between the aspects underlying the specific trajectories of regional technological accumulation and the aggregate convergence/divergence patterns stemming from these trajectories. Analysis of the simulation’s results allows us to draw several conclusions. Firstly, it is shown that the opportunities for interaction and the resulting knowledge spillovers are a necessary but not sufficient condition for convergence. Moreover, up to a certain point, an increase in the opportunities for interaction between regions may lead to further divergence. Secondly, when spatial friction in the interactions is either relatively low or high, regions which could be “losers” for a given initial distribution of technological capabilities may become “winners” for another one (“history matters”). Conversely, for intermediate levels of spatial friction leading to central polarisation, history is largely irrelevant – irrespective of the initial space distribution of technological capability and sequence of chance events, a polarised centre-periphery pattern emerges. Finally, when spatial distance imposes high friction on interactions between regions, and when they do not have to be very similar in their levels of technological capabilities in order to learn from each other, regions in the core of “continental masses” benefit in terms of increased technological capability (“space matters”).

O conhecimento nas economias e na teoria económica

Mestrado em Economia e Gestão de Ciência e TecnologiaEsta dissertação divide-se em dois blocos. Na primeira parte, sugere-se que a compreensão do papel do conhecimento nas actividades económicas - cuja centralidade se revela crescente - tem de passar pelo reconhecimento da diversidade e da complementaridade de objectos, formas e sujeitos desse conhecimento. Isto implica compreender, nomeadamente, que a importância do conhecimento nas economias extravasa largamente o domínio das contribuições dos avanços no conhecimento científico e tecnológico para os aumentos de produtividade. Implica também reconhecer a relevância das estruturas institucionais, das formas organizacionais e das estratégias dos agentes, no processo que conduz à interacção, integração e criação de vários objectos de conhecimento nas actividades produtivas. A consideração das diferentes formas e sujeitos de conhecimento revela distinções cruciais nas características económicas dos vários tipos de conhecimento, as quais não podem ser ignoradas num análise de âmbito económico. Na segunda parte, analisa-se o tratamento dado no domínio da teoria económica ao papel desempenhado pelo conhecimento nas actividades económicas. A análise restringe-se a duas tradições teóricas. Em primeiro lugar, aborda-se a teoria neoclássica em várias das suas escolas, onde conhecimento e informação tendem a ser tratados, implícita ou explicitamente, como sinónimos. Em segundo lugar, discute-se a abordagem evolucionista (em particular, na vertente 'neo-schumpeteriana'), onde é dado um especial realce às diferenças na base de conhecimentos como elemento de diversidade entre agentes. Ambas as teorias são avaliadas quanto à capacidade de integrar nas suas análises as características do conhecimento identificadas na primeira parte da dissertação.The present dissertation is divided in two parts. In the fírst part, we argue that to understand the increasing role of knowledge in the economic life one must take into account the diversity and complementary of the objects, forms and subjects of that knowledge. One implication of this is the recognition that it is not only the scientifíc and technological knowledge that matter for increases in productivity. Furthermore, one has to consider the relevance of institutional frameworks, organisational forms, and the strategies of economic agents, in the process which leads to the interaction, integration and generation of different objects of knowledge within the economic activities. The acknowledgement of differences in the forms and subjects of knowledge reveals crucial distinctive economic characteristics of different types of knowledge, which cannot be ignored in an economic analysis. In the second part, we analyse the way economic theory treats the role of knowledge in economic activities. We limit the scope of analysis to two theoretical traditions. Firstly, we discuss neoclassic theory (in several of its branches) where knowledge and information are considered has equivalent. Secondly, we analyse the evolutionary approach (particularly, the neo-Schumpeterian school), where a special emphasis is put on the different knowledge basis has a source of diversity among agents. Both theories are evaluated in their capacity to integrate in their explanations the characteristics of knowledge, which were identifíed in the first part of the dissertation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Simulating the prospects of technological catching up

Local increasing returns associated with static and dynamic scale effects, knowledge spillovers, polarisation effects and the distance that separates different regions are among the most important driving forces behind the dynamics of economic and technological convergence. This paper puts forward a computational simulation model that seeks to integrate these factors. The modelling exercise was designed to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between the aspects underlying the specific trajectories of regional technological accumulation and the aggregate convergence/divergence patterns stemming from these trajectories. Analysis of the simulation's results allows us to draw several conclusions. Firstly, it is shown that the opportunities for interaction and the resulting knowledge spillovers are a necessary but not sufficient condition for convergence. Moreover, up to a certain point, an increase in the opportunities for interaction between regions may lead to further divergence. Secondly, when spatial friction in the interactions is either relatively low or high, regions which could be "losers" for a given initial distribution of technological capabilities may become "winners" for another one ("history matters"). Conversely, for intermediate levels of spatial friction leading to central polarisation, history is largely irrelevant - irrespective of the initial space distribution of technological capability and sequence of chance events, a polarised centre-periphery pattern emerges. Finally, when spatial distance imposes high friction on interactions between regions, and when they do not have to be very similar in their levels of technological capabilities in order to learn from each other, regions in the core of "continental masses" benefit in terms of increased technological capability ("space matters")

Convergência e mudança estrutural no âmbito dos «países da coesão»

Este trabalho resulta de parte da investigação realizada no âmbito do projecto Converge - Strategies and policies for systemic interaction and convergence in Europe. Uma versão inicial foi apresentada à conferência «Como está a economia portuguesa», promovida pelo CISEP em 24 e 25 de maio de 2001.Financiado pelo programa TSER da Comissão Europei

Convergência e mudança estrutural no âmbito dos «países da coesão»

No presente trabalho discute-se o processo de convergência dos vários «países da coesão» com os padrões comunitários mais avançados, tendo em conta os níveis de rendimentos per capita e da produtividade do trabalho. Mais especificamente, são analisadas as diferentes trajectórias de crescimento destes países, distinguindo em cada caso o contributo relativo de dois tipos de processos: a mudança estrutural (entendida enquanto alteração do peso relativo dos vários sectores de actividade nas economias em causa) e o aumento da produtividade em cada sector (ou grupo de sectores). O problema implícito prende-se com a discussão de esse aumento da produtividade poder ou não ocorrer num contexto de ausência ou fraco grau de mudança estrutural.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Technological convergence in Europe: what are the main issues?

This paper puts forward a basic model of technological catching up. This model represents an attempt to systematise the most relevant factors that, from a perspective of less-favoured regions in Europe, affect the prospects for technological catching up. This process is conceptualised as an interaction between three major factors: the endogenous capabilities accumulated in the less advanced regions; the possibilities these regions have to free ride the knowledge spilling over from the more advanced regions; and, finally, the local conditions that may improve or hinder the development of capabilities and the absorption of externally-produced knowledge.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

INSaFLU-TELEVIR: an open web-based bioinformatics suite for viral metagenomic detection and routine genomic surveillance

© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.Background: Implementation of clinical metagenomics and pathogen genomic surveillance can be particularly challenging due to the lack of bioinformatics tools and/or expertise. In order to face this challenge, we have previously developed INSaFLU, a free web-based bioinformatics platform for virus next-generation sequencing data analysis. Here, we considerably expanded its genomic surveillance component and developed a new module (TELEVIR) for metagenomic virus identification. Results: The routine genomic surveillance component was strengthened with new workflows and functionalities, including (i) a reference-based genome assembly pipeline for Oxford Nanopore technologies (ONT) data; (ii) automated SARS-CoV-2 lineage classification; (iii) Nextclade analysis; (iv) Nextstrain phylogeographic and temporal analysis (SARS-CoV-2, human and avian influenza, monkeypox, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV A/B), as well as a "generic" build for other viruses); and (v) algn2pheno for screening mutations of interest. Both INSaFLU pipelines for reference-based consensus generation (Illumina and ONT) were benchmarked against commonly used command line bioinformatics workflows for SARS-CoV-2, and an INSaFLU snakemake version was released. In parallel, a new module (TELEVIR) for virus detection was developed, after extensive benchmarking of state-of-the-art metagenomics software and following up-to-date recommendations and practices in the field. TELEVIR allows running complex workflows, covering several combinations of steps (e.g., with/without viral enrichment or host depletion), classification software (e.g., Kaiju, Kraken2, Centrifuge, FastViromeExplorer), and databases (RefSeq viral genome, Virosaurus, etc.), while culminating in user- and diagnosis-oriented reports. Finally, to potentiate real-time virus detection during ONT runs, we developed findONTime, a tool aimed at reducing costs and the time between sample reception and diagnosis. Conclusions: The accessibility, versatility, and functionality of INSaFLU-TELEVIR are expected to supply public and animal health laboratories and researchers with a user-oriented and pan-viral bioinformatics framework that promotes a strengthened and timely viral metagenomic detection and routine genomics surveillance. INSaFLU-TELEVIR is compatible with Illumina, Ion Torrent, and ONT data and is freely available at https://insaflu.insa.pt/ (online tool) and https://github.com/INSaFLU (code).This study was partially supported by the TELEVIR project, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 773830: One Health European Joint Programme. The improvement of the computational capacity of the online tool and its integration in INSA genomic surveillance workflows was also co-funded by the European Union through the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HERA) grant “Grant/2021/PHF/23776″ and the project “Sustainable use and integration of enhanced infrastructure into routine genome-based surveillance and outbreak investigation activities in Portugal” (https://www.insa.min-saude.pt/category/projectos/geneo/) on behalf of EU4H programme (EU4H-2022-DGA-MS-IBA-1). The development of the findONTime tool and a few platform updates performed in 2023 were also co-financed through the DURABLE project. The DURABLE project has been co-funded by the European Union, under the EU4Health Programme (EU4H), Project no. 101102733. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. IZSLER participation was partially funded by the Italian national Research program no. B93C22001210001: CCM-SURVEID—Studio pilota per la sorveglianza di potenziali minacce da malattie infettive emergenti (EIDs) di origine virale mediante una piattaforma diagnostica basata sul sequenziamento metagenomico di nuova generazione (mNGS). CISA-INIA-CSIC participation was partially funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the EU “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR” through the Spanish project no. PLEC2021-007968: Development of New Technologies to Track Emerging Infectious Threats in Wildlife and the Environment (NEXTHREAT). Rafael Mamede was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (grant 2020.08493.BD).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio