The transitional dynamics of an endogenous growth model: Generalizing production functions

The final publication is available at www.degruyter.comThis paper devises a class of endogenous growth models with physical capital, human capital and product varieties. Unlike previous literature, we introduce a general specification of production that allows for disentangling the gains from specialization from the monopolistic markup. The consequences of separating both parameters on the equilibrium dynamics of the model are analyzed. We find that the long-run growth rate ceases to depend on the markup when it is disentangled from the returns to specialization, and the same happens with the conditions for saddle-path stability. Numerical simulations show that the steady-state equilibria are more prone to be stable in the model that disentangles parameters. Furthermore, the model is able to generate a rich variety of development scenarios, accounting for a number of stylized facts related to the development process of industrialized countries.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; ECO2011-25490.Portugal. Fundacão para a Ciência e Tecnologia; PTDC/EGE-ECO 102238/200

Phases of Economic Development: Do Initial Endowments Matter?

The final publication is available at www.degruyter.com[Abstract] Different industrializing experiences beginning on innovation or education could be explained not only by different structural parameters or policies but also by differences in factor endowments. In this paper, we consider an endogenous growth model with physical capital, human capital and R&D. We show that the initial endowments can determine the sequence of the phases of development that the economy follows; in particular, whether innovation precedes education or viceversa.Manuel Gómez gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through Grant ECO2011-25490. Tiago Sequeira gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, through FCT project PTDC/EGE-ECO/102238/2008Portugal. Fundação para a Ciência ea Tecnologia; PTDC/EGE-ECO/102238/200

Optimal R&D subsidies in a model with physical capital, human capital and varieties

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Economic Modelling. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. A definitive version was subsequently published in Economic Modelling 30, 217-224, 2013. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2012.07.019.[Abstract] In this paper, we analyze the social planner solution of an endogenous growth model with physical capital, human capital and R&D. The model incorporates three sources of inefficiency: monopolistic competition in the intermediate-goods sector, duplication externalities and spillovers in R&D. A complete stability analysis for the optimal growth problem of this model is provided. We characterize the optimal policy that can decentralize the optimal solution and find that the path of the optimal R&D subsidy can be non-monotonic.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; ECO2011-25490Portugal. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; PTDC/EGE-ECO 102238/200

Should the US increase subsidies to R&D? Lessons from an endogenous growth theory

[Abstract]: In this article we devise an endogenous growth model with R&D, physical capital, and human capital with several externalities. The model is calibrated to the US economy and used to quantitatively evaluate the effect on growth and welfare of implementing different budget-neutral policies. The welfare effects of different policies are calculated by taking into account the transitional dynamics of the economy after the policy reform. Our main findings have policy implications; mainly, subsidies to research are the most welfare-increasing amongst the budget-neutral policies, and the optimal structure of subsidies entails substantially increasing the subsidy to R&D, maintaining a zero subsidy to production, and reducing the subsidy to education, so as to keep the intertemporal government budget balanced. A detailed sensitivity analysis shows the robustness of these results

Recent Decisions

Comments on recent decisions by James M. Corcoran, Manuel A. Sequeira, D. D. Robertson, Joseph B. Joyce, A. J. Deutsch, Lawrence J. Dolan, Otto K. Hilbert, and J. Robert Geiman

Cysteine as a Multifaceted Player in Kidney, the Cysteine-Related Thiolome and Its Implications for Precision Medicine

Funding Information: This research was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (PTDC/MED-TOX/30418/2017) and iNOVA4Health (UID/Multi/04462/2013). M.J.C., D.G.F.F. and J.M. were supported by FCT (PhD grant SFRH/BD/131331/2017, PhD grant PD/BD/135484/2018 and postdoctoral contract PTDC/MED-TOX/30418/2017, respectively).In this review encouraged by original data, we first provided in vivo evidence that the kidney, comparative to the liver or brain, is an organ particularly rich in cysteine. In the kidney, the total availability of cysteine was higher in cortex tissue than in the medulla and distributed in free reduced, free oxidized and protein-bound fractions (in descending order). Next, we provided a comprehensive integrated review on the evidence that supports the reliance on cysteine of the kidney beyond cysteine antioxidant properties, highlighting the relevance of cysteine and its renal metabolism in the control of cysteine excess in the body as a pivotal source of metabolites to kidney biomass and bioenergetics and a promoter of adaptive responses to stressors. This view might translate into novel perspectives on the mechanisms of kidney function and blood pressure regulation and on clinical implications of the cysteine-related thiolome as a tool in precision medicine.publishersversionpublishe

Effectiveness and long-term retention of anti-tumour necrosis factor treatment in juvenile and adult patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: data from Reuma.pt

Methods. We prospectively collected patient and disease characteristics from patients with JIA who started biological therapy. Adverse events were collected during the follow-up period. Predictors of response at 1 year and drug retention rates were assessed at 4 years of treatment for the first biologic agent.Results. A total of 812 JIA patients [65% females, mean age at JIA onset 6.9 years (s.d. 4.7)], 227 received biologic therapy; 205 patients (90.3%) were treated with an anti-TNF as the first biologic. All the parameters used to evaluate disease activity, namely number of active joints, ESR and Childhood HAQ/HAQ, decreased significantly at 6 months and 1 year of treatment. The mean reduction in Juvenile Disease Activity Score 10 (JADAS10) after 1 year of treatment was 10.4 (s.d. 7.4). According to the definition of improvement using the JADAS10 score, 83.3% respond to biologic therapy after 1 year. Fourteen patients discontinued biologic therapies due to adverse events. Retention rates were 92.9% at 1 year, 85.5% at 2 years, 78.4% at 3 years and 68.1% at 4 years of treatment. Among all JIA subtypes, only concomitant therapy with corticosteroids was found to be univariately associated with withdrawal of biologic treatment (P = 0.016).Conclusion. Biologic therapies seem effective and safe in patients with JIA. In addition, the retention rates for the first biologic agent are high throughout 4 years

Preferential Localization of Human Origins of DNA Replication at the 5′-Ends of Expressed Genes and at Evolutionarily Conserved DNA Sequences

Replication of mammalian genomes requires the activation of thousands of origins which are both spatially and temporally regulated by as yet unknown mechanisms. At the most fundamental level, our knowledge about the distribution pattern of origins in each of the chromosomes, among different cell types, and whether the physiological state of the cells alters this distribution is at present very limited.We have used standard λ-exonuclease resistant nascent DNA preparations in the size range of 0.7–1.5 kb obtained from the breast cancer cell line MCF–7 hybridized to a custom tiling array containing 50–60 nt probes evenly distributed among genic and non-genic regions covering about 1% of the human genome. A similar DNA preparation was used for high-throughput DNA sequencing. Array experiments were also performed with DNA obtained from BT-474 and H520 cell lines. By determining the sites showing nascent DNA enrichment, we have localized several thousand origins of DNA replication. Our major findings are: (a) both array and DNA sequencing assay methods produced essentially the same origin distribution profile; (b) origin distribution is largely conserved (>70%) in all cell lines tested; (c) origins are enriched at the 5′ends of expressed genes and at evolutionarily conserved intergenic sequences; and (d) ChIP on chip experiments in MCF-7 showed an enrichment of H3K4Me3 and RNA Polymerase II chromatin binding sites at origins of DNA replication.Our results suggest that the program for origin activation is largely conserved among different cell types. Also, our work supports recent studies connecting transcription initiation with replication, and in addition suggests that evolutionarily conserved intergenic sequences have the potential to participate in origin selection. Overall, our observations suggest that replication origin selection is a stochastic process significantly dependent upon local accessibility to replication factors