Social Capital, Institutions and Collective Action Between Firms

This work is based on the hypothesis that explanation of collective action between firms requires partly different variables from that used in explaining collective action between individuals. In order to look at the problem of what determines collective action, a model has been built using alongside social capital, the historical tradition of collective action and the activism of institutional actors as explicative variables of associationism between firms. The empirical results confirm the theoretical hypotheses put forward in the first part of the paper. First, social capital, institutional activism and experience accumulation, all together, enhance the propensity to collective action between firms. Each variable plays a significant role in explaining inter-firm co-operation. Secondly, these variables, however, affect the behaviour of small firms while the large ones appear to follow a different pattern of conduct. Thirdly, the empirical findings seem also to suggest that social capital and institutional proactive initiative produce synergic effects on collective action. The two variables reinforce each other in their effects on co-operation. Finally, the positive correlation between social capital and institutional initiative emerging from the empirical results suggests that an increase in the endowment of social capital tends to rise the level of institutional activity and the other way round.social capital, economic institutions, firms co-operation

Neither easy nor impossible: Local development economics and policy

This assai leads the reader on an analytical path to development, with institutions as its central focus. While its main emphasis is on the problematic nature of development in lagging or backward regions, contributions from the literature on developing countries have also been taken into account, and European countries, Italy and the South of Italy (the Mezzogiorno) also feature in the debate. There is no doubt that lagging regions in advanced countries are very different from backward regions in poor countries. I think that there are two basic assumptions that hold for both. First, the most important constraints on development are internal; second, in order to combat underdevelopment strong actions that break with tradition are needed. These two assumptions are often ignored by development literature. These studies may be well written, fun to read and able to communicate faithfully their authors views on social and economic life, but their perspective is necessarily different from that of people who are actively involved in social and economic development efforts or tackling underdevelopment. The assai offers some interpretative starting points. The path distances itself from five concepts that are widely held but superficial. The first is that economic development in a backward or lagging area depends on growth in advanced areas, given that capital will flow where there is an abundant supply of labour and because technical progress is easier for latecomers than for innovators. The common view is that there is spontaneous economic convergence simply because capital has low returns in advanced areas and high returns in backward areas. In advanced areas, moreover, already on the threshold of improved technology, technical progress is more of a struggle, whereas in backward areas all that is needed is to imitate others. Since this idea has no real empirical basis, those who hold this view claim that the differences between regions persist because markets work badly, segmented as they are by rules and behaviour that allow unjustified returns. Without these artificial distortions, they argue, resources would be spontaneously used where they were most productive. In this view, the most relevant development policy (and for many, the only possible policy) is to reduce curbs to maximum competition in all sectors and in all walks of life. There are many reasons for thinking that this is irrelevant. Many crucial resources are in fact attracted to advanced areas, not because there is over-regulation. If anything, the opposite. Opening up markets that work well would therefore seem to be a result of development rather than a way to achieve it. In order to achieve development what is needed is more intentional public intervention: more State, not less. The path undertaken to reach this conclusion is arduous, however. Not many people today share the view that the State can play a relevant role. The path requires a critical reappraisal of four other common views. The second widespread view that we need to demolish, then, is the idea that -. even if we accept that economic development in a backward area is impeded by the fact that resources are attracted to advanced areas - there will always be immobile resources that can spontaneously trigger development and sustain it. This view is supported by the limits on mobility of resources. Taking into account that important resources such as the environmental, historical, cultural heritage of a region are substantially immobile, those who hold this view believe that these resources cannot be lost as a result of the capacity for attraction of an advanced area. They believe that these immobile resources sooner or later will stimulate those who know how to exploit them effectively and profitably. The reason why this view is unhelpful is that existing immobile resources can and often do remain inaccessible. Potentially profitable resources never actually become useful for development because the conditions for exploiting them have not been achieved, or nobody has ever thought of using them. A case study illustrating how this can happen is presented in the Appendix of Chapter Three. Proceeding along our path, a third commonly held view must be set aside. Even if they accept that the process of valorising immobile resources is not always so easy, economists often say that this is not a problem if in the backward area the cost of labour is very low. The objection is that the difficulty of valorising immobile resources is made up for by a particularly advantageous condition of low labour costs. If there were no institutions keeping wages artificially high, unemployment or under-employment would be solved by salaries so low that the labour cost per production unit would be advantageous even in situations of low productivity. This, people claim, would help overcome other curbs on development. This approach is on the surface quite correct, but it neglects to take into account one feature. Low labour costs could well get an area out of underdevelopment, but there are no guarantees that if will keep that area out. It is thus necessary to deal with the fourth widely help view. Admitting, at this point, that underdevelopment in a backward area cannot be overcome spontaneously, even where there are low labour costs, and accepting that development needs an action that breaks with tradition, then, it is claimed, bottom-up collective action on the part of civil society can provide precisely this break. Those who hold this view believe that in order to trigger and sustain a development process collective goods such as, for example, material and immaterial infrastructures, insurance, training, and promotional services, are essential. They do not feel, however, that corresponding public action is needed. They are convinced that, collectively, civil society can achieve the goods and services needed. This idea ignores the serious difficulties that bottom-up collective action meets with if it is not supported by public action, as Chapter Three illustrates. This brings us to the fifth and final point of view that we need to deal with. Admitting that bottom-up collective action is unsuccessful, a break with tradition can be guaranteed simply by decentralising institutions, providing local authorities with the sufficient skills and resources to take care of their own needs. We argue that decentralizing on its own is not a solution. Development policies require State intervention to be organized in a complex institutional framework, as Chapter Five shows.local development, institutions

Innovazione e sviluppo locale. Concetti, esperienze, politiche

sviluppo economico, economia e politica dell'innovazione

La “New Economic Geography” e lo sviluppo locale

Questo lavoro è la versione preliminare del capitolo dedicato alla “New Economic Geography” (NEG) ed alle sue implicazioni per lo sviluppo locale del testo “Manuale di sviluppo locale” (a cura di G. Seravalli), attualmente in corso di stesura. Il lavoro studia innanzitutto il problema della localizzazione delle imprese produttrici di manufatti, distinguendo le forze che, nell’analisi della NEG, favoriscono la loro concentrazione o dispersione nel territorio. Fra gli elementi che determinano l’entità di tali forze un’attenzione particolare è dedicata all’esame dell’entità dei costi di trasporto, la cui evoluzione storica è, secondo la NEG, all’origine della nascita delle agglomerazioni industriali. L’ultima parte del lavoro analizza, infine, il ruolo delle risorse immobili, esaminandone le implicazioni per le scelte di localizzazione della produzione ed evidenziandone la rilevanza nell’avvio dei processi di sviluppo delle aree arretrate.economic geography, local development, transport costs, agglomeration

Putrescine Detected in Strains of \u3ci\u3eStaphylococcus aureus\u3c/i\u3e

Most forms of life, including the archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes synthesize the polyamine putrescine. Although putrescine is widely distributed, several Gram-positive bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), appear to be the exceptions. We report here that strains of S. aureus can produce the polyamine putrescine, as well as the derivative N-acetyl-putrescine. Three strains of S. aureus from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), one strain listed in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, whose genomic sequence is well defined, and well as eight strains from S. aureus-induced brain abscesses of individual patients from multiple geographic locations were evaluated. Each strain was grown in complete chemically defined medium (CDM) under stringent conditions, after which the partially purified conditioned medium (CM) was analyzed by mass spectroscopy (MS), and the data were reported as the ratio of experimental results to controls. We confirmed the synthesis of putrescine by S. aureus by using 13C/15N-labeled arginine as a tracer. We found that agmatine, N-acetyl-putrescine, ornithine, citrulline, proline, and NH3 were all labeled with heavy isotope derived from 13C/15N-labeled arginine. None of the strains examined produced spermine or spermidine, but strains from either ATCC or human brain abscesses produced putrescine and/or its derivative N-acetyl-putrescine

13C NMR Characterization of an Exchange Reaction between CO and CO2 Catalyzed by Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase†

ABSTRACT: Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) catalyzes the reversible oxidation of CO to CO2 at a nickel-iron-sulfur cluster (the C-cluster). CO oxidation follows a ping-pong mechanism involving two-electron reduction of the C-cluster followed by electron transfer through an internal electron transfer chain to external electron acceptors. We describe 13C NMR studies demonstrating a CODH-catalyzed steady-state exchange reaction between CO and CO2 in the absence of external electron acceptors. This reaction is characterized by a CODH-dependent broadening of the 13CO NMR resonance; however, the chemical shift of the 13CO resonance is unchanged, indicating that the broadening is in the slow exchange limit of the NMR experiment. The 13CO line broadening occurs with a rate constant (1080 s-1 at 20 °C) that is approximately equal to that of CO oxidation. It is concluded that the observed exchange reaction is between 13CO and CODH-bound 13CO2 because 13CO line broadening is pH-independent (unlike steady-state CO oxidation), because it requires a functional C-cluster (but not a functional B-cluster) and because the 13CO2 line width does not broaden. Furthermore, a steady-state isotopic exchange reaction between 12CO and 13CO2 in solution was shown to occur at the same rate as that of CO2 reduction, which is approximately 750-fold slower than the rate of 13CO exchange broadening. The interaction between CODH and the inhibitor cyanide (CN-) was also probed by 13C NMR. A functional C-cluster is not required fo

Institutions and co-ordination costs

Economic literature sees the existence of institutions as being justified by market failure. This paper attempts to develop a different hypothesis by linking institutions to the solution of co-ordination dilemmas. According to this line of thought, institutional action is not circumscribed to the supplying of ‘regulative resources’ able to lower uncertainty and limiting the risks of free riding. It includes rather the provision of a vast set of public goods characterised by high complementarity and marked constraints on the continuity of supply. In the production of such goods, the presence of multiplicity of equilibria and high costs of information born by individual agents in formulating a cooperative agreement often makes a decentralised decision-making process impracticable. On the other hand, as we try to show, a central authority (an institutional subject), assuming long term obligations and lowering co-ordination costs, can mitigate collective action problems in a wide range of circumstances

Quantum dot formation from sub-critical InAs layers grown on metamorphic buffer

Low-density Quantum Dot (QD) structures are currently the object of intensive research devoted to develop novel nanophotonic devices for quantum communication and computing. In order to tune single- QD emission at telecom wavelengths (1.3 - 1.55 ?m), the growth of InAs/InGaAs metamorphic QD structures on GaAs substrates, has been successfully proposed [1, 2]. InAs QDs grown on InGaAs show significant morphological differences with respect to more intensively studied InAs/GaAs system. Since quantum confinement effects in QD nanostructures are strongly dependent on island shape and island-size distribution and uniformity, a deeper understanding of QD formation process in metamorphic structures is essential to improve the prediction and control of their light-emission properties. Here, we focus on the study of self-aggregation of low density InAs QDs on metamorphic InGaAs buffer by using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Photoluminescence (PL) techniques. InAs QD layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on underlying structures consisting of: i) a 100 nm-thick GaAs layer, ii) a 500 nm-thick InxGa1-xAs (x = 0, 0.15, 0.30) and iii) a 5 nm-thick GaAs layer. Ensemble and single QD optical properties were studied on identical structures capped with 20 nm-thick InxGa1-xAs. The structure design and growth parameters were chosen to enable the study of the self-assembly mechanism considering the following two concomitant conditions. First, InAs QDs are formed during the post-growth annealing of an InAs layer thinner than the critical thickness for 2D-3D transition [3]. Avoiding the effects due to incoming In atoms, it is possible to highlight the nucleation mechanisms dependent on composition-related properties of InGaAs metamorphic layers, such as strain status and surface corrugation. Second, the insertion of a thin GaAs layer before InAs deposition, by reducing the role of the different growth front-Indium populations associated with the different buffer compositions, allows to investigate the effects on QD formation mainly due to the surface lattice parameter imposed by the metamorphic InGaAs layer. We demonstrate that, by optimizing the values of sub-critical InAs coverage and post-growth annealing time, an accurate control on island morphology and very low QD density, down to 108 cm-2 (Fig 1), can be achieved. Moreover, micro-PL experiments performed on InAs/In015Ga0.85As structures reveal an efficient single-QD emission [4]. Finally, we discuss the challenges arising from the combined use of metamorphic and sub-critical InAs deposition approaches to drive the positioning of QDs on the surface, an essential requisite for quantum information applications. [1] E. S. Semenova et al, J. Appl. Phys., 103, 103533 (2008). [2] L. Seravalli, G. Trevisi, P. Frigeri and C. Bocchi, Journal of Physics:Conference Series, 245, 012074 (2010) [3] H.Z. Song, T. Usuki, Y. Nakata, N. Yokoyama, H. Sasakura and S. Muto, Phys. Rev. B, 73, 115327 (2006) [4] J. P. Martinez Pastor, to be publishe