Catch Efficiency in the Chilean Pelagic Fishery: Does size matter ?

This paper examines the determinants of technical efficiency for a sample of 204 industrial vessels operating in the Southern-Central pelagic fishery of Chile during the 1985-95 period. Data on vessel's annual landings and fishing effort, vessel's size, age, fishing experience and vessel's controlling firm are analysed considering a Translog stochastic frontier model à-la Battese-Coelli (1995), which includes a vessel-specific inefficiency model. Yearly averages for vessel efficiency vary from 50% to 86%. Close to 90% of the residuals' total variance is accounted by the inefficiency term, suggesting a significant disparity in vessels' catch performance. Vessel age and scale of operation are found to be significant in explaining efficiency. Larger vessels tend to be the most efficient and the ones showing least variance in their efficiency. Smaller vessels, which on average are also the oldest in the fleet, show greater dispersion and lower efficiency scores. We confirm prior results suggesting vessel-level economies of scale at this fishery, related to fishing effort intensity. Explanatory variables aggregated at the ship-owner level, which aim at controlling the firm's operating scale, are also significant as a whole when explaining vessel-level efficiency. We find positive search externalities associated to the number of vessels under control of a given firm, as well as external diseconomies related to each firm's fleet use. Overall, we report significant productive heterogeneity in the fleet under study where control variables associated to 'size effects' do indeed play a significant role.

Downward Adjustments in a Cyclical Environment: The Case of Chilean Pelagic Fisheries

Often the scale of production of many industrial fisheries in the world shows rigidity vis à vis declines in fish abundance, which on occasions has generated fishing collapse. This paper studies the two fisheries with the greatest volume of landings in Chile, and which are also characterized by strong variability in their abundance. Production-side aspects that affect the incentives to adjust towards lower fishing efforts are analyzed. To do so, production functions for industrial fleets at each fishery are estimated by resorting to panel data. Two main results are obtained. First, we confirm the empirical relevance of Translog harvest technologies. This contradicts a frequent practice in bioeconomic models, which considers harvest-inputs elasticities as being constant and independent from the scale of production. Second, a set of production-side effects are identified that weaken the incentives to adjust towards lower fishing efforts: increasing returns in the use of variable inputs, which are also strengthened by external economies associated to the aggregate searching effort for fish, and catch yields sensitive to changes in abundance, but where the strength of this effect decreases as abundance declines.

Debates sobre Cuotas Individuales Transferibles:¿"Privatizando" el mar? Subsidios? ¿Muerte anunciada de la pesca extractiva en Chile?

Sectores de pesca industrial y artesanal en Chile requieren consolidar esquemas de administración pesquera que promuevan la racionalización de sus esfuerzos de pesca, ajustándolos en general hacia recursos marinos menos abundantes. Argumentamos que un sistema basado en cuotas individuales transferibles (CITs) es la mejor opción disponible, especialmente para el sector industrial. Asignaciones individuales favorecen el coordinar soluciones colectivas para racionalizar los esfuerzos de pesca. Mientras que su transferibilidad promueve soluciones económicamente eficientes al problema de capacidad de pesca excedente. Proponemos una asignación inicial de CITs con base en presencia histórica, condicionando el derecho de uso de las CITs al pago de patentes anuales que permitan financiar los costos de administrar y fiscalizar el sistema de CITs. Por otro lado, defendemos el asignar inicialmente las CITs como derechos de uso transitorios, aunque con un período de validez razonablemente largo (por ejemplo 15 o 20 años). Postulamos que esto favorece la viabilidad política de poder a futuro continuar perfeccionando este sistema de administración pesquera. También proponemos entregar a Asociaciones de Pescadores Artesanales, que consoliden una representatividad local relevante, facultades para decidir y administrar la distribución y uso (entre sus miembros) de la cuota asignada por la autoridad, incluyendo la posibilidad de transferir las asignaciones individuales. Por último, proponemos que pescadores artesanales tengan la facultad legal de realizar transacciones con intereses industriales, de forma que alguna proporción de la cuota industrial pueda ser capturada dentro de las primeras 5 millas, por ejemplo usando embarcaciones artesanales para estos efectos.

The Role of Productive and Technological Capabilities on Export Dynamics in Developing Countries

Productive and technological capabilities matter. Several strains of the literature have emphasized them as major engines of export, growth and development. But how they matter is less clear. In fact, many open questions remain on how capabilities influence export dynamics at microeconomic level. This paper empirically investigates their role on export dynamics in 40 developing countries between 2002 and 2012. In doing so, the paper exploits a country-sector-year database containing exporter-level statistical information. The empirical analysis shows that, within sectors, there is a larger number of exporters in countries with more productive capacities, and the exporters are larger and have higher prices for their products, even after controlling for level of development, size of the economy, commodity-dependency and other variables. Also, the results confirm a positive relationship between technological capabilities and diversification: within sectors, exporters in countries with more capabilities tend to export a higher number of products and to more destination markets. Furthermore, capabilities in high-technology exporters seem to play a crucial role regarding market diversification. Thus, the paper shows that, even just comparing exporters' behaviour among the developing countries, stronger productive and technological capabilities are significantly related to the "extensive" and "intensive" margin of exports, the diversification across products and destinations, and the product quality, all relevant aspects of developing countries' insertion in global trade markets. Overall, the paper underscores the role of capabilities not only on developing countries' macroeconomic resilience to trade shocks, but also on their medium-term development prospects

Industrial and innovation policies in times of crisis: a widening technological divide?

Industrial and innovation policies are gaining additional traction, becoming crucial aspects of many governments’ toolkits to support innovation, build resilience, and accelerate the green energy transition. There are, however, enormous disparities across economies in their capacity to implement industrial policies, particularly those to support science, technology and innovation. Most developed countries, and some that are developing, are implementing bold, ambitious, and long-term innovation policies towards strengthening technological capabilities, bolstering R&D investments, and supporting advanced manufacturing and green energies. Amid lack of fiscal space and vulnerable fiscal frameworks, institutional deficiencies, and weak innovation ecosystems, developing countries –particularly in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean– face enormous challenges to implement strategic innovation policies. Under the current economic, financing, and institutional conditions and policy trends, the technological divide across economies could widen even further in the coming years, limiting the progress of developing countries towards the SDGs and leaving many of them further behind

Industrial and innovation policies in times of crisis: a widening technological divide?

Industrial and innovation policies are gaining additional traction, becoming crucial aspects of many governments’ toolkits to support innovation, build resilience, and accelerate the green energy transition. There are, however, enormous disparities across economies in their capacity to implement industrial policies, particularly those to support science, technology and innovation. Most developed countries, and some that are developing, are implementing bold, ambitious, and long-term innovation policies towards strengthening technological capabilities, bolstering R&D investments, and supporting advanced manufacturing and green energies. Amid lack of fiscal space and vulnerable fiscal frameworks, institutional deficiencies, and weak innovation ecosystems, developing countries –particularly in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean– face enormous challenges to implement strategic innovation policies. Under the current economic, financing, and institutional conditions and policy trends, the technological divide across economies could widen even further in the coming years, limiting the progress of developing countries towards the SDGs and leaving many of them further behind

El Dilema de la Escala Productiva frente a Ciclos de Abundancia: La Pesca Industrial en Chile

A menudo la escala productiva de diversas pesquerías en el mundo muestra escasa flexibilidad frente a caídas en la abundancia de la pesca, lo que en ocasiones ha generado situaciones de colapso pesquero. Aquí estudiamos las dos pesquerías con mayor volumen de desembarques en Chile y que se caracterizan por enfrentar variabilidad en su abundancia. Analizamos aspectos productivos que afectan los incentivos para ajustar a la baja el esfuerzo pesquero. Para ello estimamos funciones de captura para las flotas industriales que operan en cada pesquería usando datos de panel. Los resultados plantean dos áreas de conclusión. Primero, evidencia que avala la relevancia empírica de tecnologías de captura Translog. Esto contradice una práctica habitual en modelos bioeconómicos, cual es considerar elasticidades captura-insumos constantes e independientes de la escala de producción. Segundo, identificamos un conjunto de efectos productivos que debilitan los incentivos para ajustar a la baja el esfuerzo pesquero: economías de escala en el uso de insumos variables, economías externas asociadas al esfuerzo agregado de búsqueda de cardúmenes, y rendimientos de pesca sensibles a cambios en la abundancia, pero donde la fuerza de este efecto disminuye al caer la abundancia.

EFICIENCIA TÉCNICA Y ESCALAS DE OPERACIÓN EN PESCA PELÁGICA: UN ANÁLISIS DE FRONTERAS ESTOCÁSTICAS (Pesquería Centro-Sur en Chile)

Este trabajo presenta estimaciones de eficiencia técnica en labores de pesca de la flota industrial en la pesquería pelágica Centro-Sur de Chile (regiones V a la X), con datos para 204 barcos a lo largo de 11 años (1985-95). Usamos un enfoque de fronteras estocásticas, según un modelo de estimación a la Battese-Coelli (1995). Los resultados de estimación rechazan la validez de la función Cobb-Douglas, a favor de una tipo Translog. La antigüedad y escala de operación (horas anuales de pesca) de cada barco obtienen significancia estadística al explicar las eficiencias estimadas al nivel de cada barco. Variables agregadas al nivel de empresa controladora, buscando controlar por efectos asociados a la escala de operación de cada empresa, también logran significancia estadística al explicar las eficiencias estimadas para cada barco. Un mayor número de barcos bajo control de una misma empresa induciría economías externas de búsqueda. No obstante, aumentos en la intensidad de uso de la flota total bajo control de una misma empresa generarían deseconomías externas al nivel de cada barco. Resultados con similares signos, aunque menos robustos, se obtienen para estas variables cuando son agregadas para la flota industrial en su conjunto. Nuestras estimaciones avalan la existencia de heterogeneidad productiva en esta flota industrial, en términos de diferencias no triviales en los rendimientos de pesca logrados por barcos de distinto tamaño y capacidad de desplazamiento. Los barcos más grandes obtienen en promedio los mayores niveles de eficiencia, y a la vez muestran la menor dispersión en las eficiencias estimadas para barcos en una misma categoría de tamaño.

Nonlinear optics Pulse propagation in fiber optics filled with gases, liquids, and organic dyes.

The characterization of nonlinear optical material properties, such as nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear absorption coefficient, is one of the most important subjects in nonlinear optics due to its application in many fields such as spectroscopy, material processing, biophysics, atmospheric sensing and metrology, among others. Besides the possibility of creating new technology. In this thesis, the Z-scan technique was implemented and calibrated. It remains one of the most widely used techniques to obtain both nonlinear refractive index and the absorption coefficient of a material. Moreover, nonlinear phenomena inside optical fiber is well known due to their applications and advantages like the low input energy required to generate supercontinuum, four wave mixing, dispersive wave, among others. In this work, several simulations were performed with new fiber geometries, material responses and different noble gases infiltrated in fiber. Different simulation regimes were considered as well by varying input power, pulse width and pressure. Nonlinear parameters for organic dyes, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and CS2 were reported, pointing out the main reasons behind each result and addressing possible new phenomena involved. The nonlinear output response in both time and frequency domains was reported for several simulations, obtaining the nonlinear pulse output for the new CS2 response function. A novel consideration was proposed in which the final pulse depends on the propagation distance for non-instantaneous materials and the nonlinear constant (γ) must be recalculated at each step. It was demonstrated how the output pulse can be controlled by changing the fiber length. Among the most important results, it was found there exists a possibility to change between modulation instability and four wave mixing by only varying the propagation distance. Finally, it was also found that a special type of fiber, namely negative curvature hollow core fiber, can be used to obtain a broad band spectrum when it is filled with noble gases and they can be tuned with pressure from linear behavior up to a super critical zone.Resumen: a caracterización de propiedades ´ópticas no lineales, como lo son el ´índice de refracción y el coeficiente de absorción no lineal, es uno de los temas más importantes en ´óptica no lineal debido a su aplicación en muchos campos como la espectroscopia, procesamiento de materiales, biofísica, sensado atmosférico, metrología, entre otros. Además de la posibilidad de creación de nueva tecnología. En esta tesis se implemento y calibro la técnica Z-Scan, una de las técnicas más utilizadas para obtener tanto el ´índice de refracción no lineal como el coeficiente de absorción de un material. Asimismo, los fenómenos no lineales dentro de la fibra ´óptica son bien conocidos debido a sus aplicaciones y ventajas tales como la baja energía de entrada requerida para generar fenómenos de supercontinuo, mezclado de cuatro ondas y ondas dispersivas. En este trabajo se realizaron varias simulaciones con nuevas geometrías de fibras, respuestas de material y gases nobles dentro de la fibra. Se consideraron diferentes regímenes de potencia de entrada, ancho de pulso y presión. Se reportaron los parámetros no lineales para las sustancias orgánicas usadas, nanotubos de carbono de paredes múltiples y CS2, indicando la razón principal detrás de cada resultado y abordando los posibles nuevos fenómenos involucrados. La respuesta de salida no lineal tanto en el dominio del tiempo como en el de frecuencia se reportó en varias simulaciones, obteniendo el pulso no lineal de salida para la nueva función de respuesta del CS2, se propuso una nueva consideración donde el pulso final depende de la distancia de propagación para materiales no instantáneos y la constante no lineal (γ) se deben recalcular en cada paso. Se demostró como se puede controlar el pulso de salida cambiando la longitud de la fibra; entre los resultados más importantes se encontró la posibilidad de cambiar entre la inestabilidad de la modulación y el mezclado de cuatro ondas solo variando la distancia de propagación. Finalmente, se encontró que un tipo especial de fibra, a saber, la fibra de núcleo hueco de curvatura negativa, se puede usar para obtener un amplio espectro de banda cuando se llena con gases nobles y se sintoniza con la presión, desde el comportamiento lineal hasta la zona supercríticaMaestrí

Exporters in Africa: What Role for Trade Costs?

This paper investigates the role of trade costs in exporter dynamics in Africa. In comparison to exporters from other regions, African exporting firms are fewer, smaller and relatively less diversified. African countries also display the highest rates of entry, exit and turnover of exporting firms, exporting products and export destinations. This suggests that Africa’s export environment is volatile, with exporters having difficulties in maintaining trade relationships. The analysis also confirms that trade costs are a crucial factor in explaining exporter performance in Africa vis-à-vis other regions, but also among African countries. Trade costs play a disproportionate role in affecting the size of new exporters and the survival of exporters in Africa in comparison to other regions. Also, trade costs differences across African countries are a relevant factor in explaining the lower market diversification of exporters from landlocked countries. A key implication is that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement can entail large benefits in the medium-term, especially in terms of export flows and destination markets. Yet, the diversification of export products will likely remain limited without strengthening productive capacities