Trade Policy and Factor Prices: An Empirical Strategy

This paper presents a new empirical strategy for estimating the effects of trade policy on domestic factor prices when policy endogeneity is suspected. Absent income effectson factor supplies or domestic prices, the coefficient on the terms of trade can provide an unbiased estimator of the effect of trade barriers on the factor distribution of income for a small economy. In the more general case where income effects are allowed for, we provide a means to quantify and control for the possible bias. We implement our strategy on a cross-national data set of trade policies and income shares of capital and labor. We find little evidence of the existence of Stolper-Samuelson effects, both for the sample as a whole as well as within cones of diversification. Consistent with a model of wage bargaining, we find that the effect of openness on capital shares is greater for countries with higher unionization rates.Factor prices, trade policy, Stolper-Samuelson theorem, wage bargaining

Freed from Illiteracy? A Closer Look at Venezuela’s Robinson Literacy Campaign

We evaluate the success of the Venezuelan government’s latest nationwide literacy program, Misión Robinson, using official Venezuelan government survey data. Controlling for existing trends in literacy rates by age groups over the period 1975 to 2005, we find at most a small positive effect of Robinson on literacy rates, and in many specifications the program impact is statistically indistinguishable from zero. This main result is robust to time series analysis by birth cohort, and to state-level difference-in-differences estimation. The results appear to be inconsistent with recent official claims of the complete eradication of illiteracy in Venezuela, but resonate with existing research on other adult literacy programs, which have usually been expensive failures.

Fuzzy Predictive Controller for Mobile Robot Path Tracking

IFAC Intelligent Components and Instruments for Control Applications, Annecy, France 1997This paper presents a way of implementing a Model Based Predictive Controller (MBPC) for mobile robot path-tracking. The method uses a non-linear model of mobile robot dynamics and thus allows an accurate prediction of the future trajectories. Constraints on the maximum attainable angular velocity is also considered by the algorithm. A fuzzy approach is used to implement the MBPC. The fuzzy controller has been trained using a lookup-table scheme, where the database of fuzzy-rules has been obtained automatically from a set of input-output training patterns, computed with the predictive controller. Experimental results obtained when applying the fuzzy controller to a TRC labmate mobile platform are given in the paper.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TAP95-0307Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TAP96-884C

"Pasa la vida": Cartografías Urbanas de Madrid en la Post-Transición (1982-1994)

Este artículo explora representaciones de la cotidianidad en el espacio urbano de Madrid desde comienzos de los 80 hasta mediados de los 90. Durante la Transición, el cine español se lanza a retratar noveles formas de interacción que negocian estímulos y formaciones sociales, económicas e ideológicas recién surgidas, mostrando un compromiso innegable con la representación de la realidad social y, más específicamente, los marginados. Desde finales de los 80 hasta mediados de los 90, los realizadores españoles posan su mirada en un tejido social caracterizado por un «presentismo» que dejó de un lado un compromiso con la reciente historia de España y la capacidad de la ciudadanía para intervenir de manera decisiva en los pilares constitutivos de la realidad social. En el periodo estudiado, el cine español encuentra una realidad social en fluctuación y se acerca a la misma desde diferentes perspectivas, tornándose un mecanismo de representación que codifica las prácticas del día a día &-es decir, las recurrentes formas de interacción a través de la cuales los individuos funcionan en el interior una estructura social específica.This essay analyzes representations of the everyday in the Madrid cityscape from the beginning of the 1980s until the mid 1990s. During the Transition, Spanish cinema started to explore forms of interaction that negotiated recently born stimuli and social, economic and ideological formations, displaying as strong commitment to the representation of social reality and, more specifically, the marginalized. From the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, filmmakers tackle a social fabric characterized by a «presentism» that leaves behind a productive commitment to recent Spanish history and the capacity of the citizenry to decisively intervene within the constitutive pillars of social reality. In the studied period, Spanish cinema encounters an ever­flowing social, approaching it from different perspectives, turning into a representational mechanism that codifies the practices of the everyday –that is, the recurrent forms of interaction through which individuals function with a given social structure.Este artículo se ha realizado como parte del proyecto de investigación I+D+i «El cine y la televisión en la España de la post­Transición (1979-1992), (CSO2012-31895), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Gobierno de España

Existencia humana, mundo y responsabilidad en la fenomenologia de Jan Patočka

In this paper we seek to take notice of the evolution and continuity of Jan Patočka’s phenomenology on the topic of the world and human existence’s relationship with it. We believe that this problem underlies and stimulates Patočka’s whole phenomenological research and we think that it is a key element to understand the ensemble of his thought

Clowns, Goats, Music and the Comedic Violent: Late Francoism and the Transition to Democracy in Álex de la Iglesia's Films

This chapter was written as part of the research project ‘Cinema and Television in PostTransition Spain (1979–1992)’ funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the Spanish Governmen

Representations of Madrid in the (post-)transition to democracy

This essay was written in the context of the Research Project I+D+i ‘Cinema and Television in Spain during the Post-Transition’ (CSO2012-31895

Social Sciences and Digital Humanities of the South: Materials for a Critical Discussion

This chapter has its origin in a post whose title translates as “The Digital Humanities: A Framework for Critical Reflection about Culture” (Rodríguez-Ortega, “Humanidades digitales”), published in March 2016. The post also reflects the deliberations of a conference at the University of Granada for the launch of the project “Digital Social Sciences and Digital Humanities of the South” (#CSHDSUR: ). The aim was to explore how the interaction of digital social sciences with digital humanities in the South could be defined and constructed. That is also the objective of this text. To my main ideas in the post, I have now added some other thoughts on which I have had the opportunity to reflect over the intervening years. My ultimate aim is to provide material for debate and critical discussion

Art History and the Global Challenge: A Critical Perspective

The challenge of globalization and the “decolonization” of our way of thinking have become a major concern for most art historians. While it is still too early to assess the impact on the discipline of the “Global turn”—a turn that is all the more timid that it materializes more slowly in public collections and public opinions than in books—we nonetheless wanted to probe scholars who are paying close attention to the new practices in global art history. Coming from different cultural milieus and academic traditions, and belonging to different generations, they agreed to answer our questions, and to share with us their insights, questions, doubts, but also hopes for the discipline. This surveymust be regarded as a dialogue in progress: other conversations will follow and will contribute to widening the range of critical perspectives on art history and the Global challenge