Sourcing Patterns of Foreign-owned Multinational Subsidiaries in Europe

This paper investigates the determinants of the international input sourcing propensities of foreign-owned multinational subsidiaries in four EU host countries. Major findings concern the impact of subsidiary roles and economic integration on international sourcing patterns. Regional and global integration are leading to a greater import-orientation among MNE subsidiaries, including Product Mandate firms which are assumed to be strongly embedded within host economies. The results cast serious doubts on the effectiveness of traditional criteria for investment attraction; and confirm that stimulating local sourcing is problematic. Specific policy implications are developed relating to the attraction of inward foreign direct investment and to corporate development policies.Multinational enterprises,Subsidiaries, Sourcing, Europe.

Cerberus is a feedback inhibitor of Nodal asymmetric signaling in the chick embryo

The TGF-beta-related molecule Nodal plays an essential and conserved role in left-right patterning of the vertebrate embryo. Previous reports have shown that the zebrafish and mouse Cerberus-related proteins Charon and Cerberus-like-2 (Cerl-2), respectively, act in the node region to prevent the Nodal signal from crossing to the right side, whereas chick Cerberus (cCer) has an unclear function in the left-side mesoderm. In this study, we investigate the transcriptional regulation and function of cCer in left-right development. By analyzing the enhancer activity of cCer 5' genomic sequences in electroporated chick embryos, we identified a cCer left-side enhancer that contains two FoxH1 and one SMAD binding site. We show that these Nodal-responsive elements are necessary and sufficient for the activation of transcription in the left-side mesoderm. In transgenic mouse embryos, cCer regulatory sequences behave as in chick embryos, suggesting that the cis-regulatory sequences of Cerberus-related genes have diverged during vertebrate evolution. Moreover, our findings from cCer overexpression and knockdown experiments indicate that cCer is a negative-feedback regulator of Nodal asymmetric signaling. We propose that cCer and mouse Cerl-2 have evolved distinct regulatory mechanisms but retained a conserved function in left-right development, which is to restrict Nodal activity to the left side of the embryo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The use of virtual environments as an extended classroom – A case study with adult learners in tertiary education

This study was conducted in immersive 3D virtual environment Second Life®, with the support of web 2.0 tools as a complement to physical classroom - extended classroom. It was assumed that socialization is a key factor for collaborative learning and knowledge construction. The study aims to identify the variables that may influence knowledge sharing in learning contexts using virtual environments; with the aim of contributing to the improvement of learning situations using the online tools. This research is exploratory in nature and falls within the field of phenomenological studies. The study was implemented in a tertiary education institution involving regular and adult learners. We conclude that in virtual environments learners tend to feel more confident, open, participatory, creative, understanding and seem to participate in training sessions because they are indeed interested in learning. On the other hand, the possibility of providing online tutorial session allows reaching a larger number of learners. These online sessions can be established in a time and place (virtual) free of constraints and can be tailored, allowing a more effective participation from learners.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Asymptotic behaviour for a class of non-monotone delay differential systems with applications

The paper concerns a class of $n$-dimensional non-autonomous delay differential equations obtained by adding a non-monotone delayed perturbation to a linear homogeneous cooperative system of ordinary differential equations. This family covers a wide set of models used in structured population dynamics. By exploiting the stability and the monotone character of the linear ODE, we establish sufficient conditions for both the extinction of all the populations and the permanence of the system. In the case of DDEs with autonomous coefficients (but possible time-varying delays), sharp results are obtained, even in the case of a reducible community matrix. As a sub-product, our results improve some criteria for autonomous systems published in recent literature. As an important illustration, the extinction, persistence and permanence of a non-autonomous Nicholson system with patch structure and multiple time-dependent delays are analysed.Comment: 26 pages, J Dyn Diff Equat (2017

A cyclic time-dependent Markov process to model daily patterns in wind turbine power production

Wind energy is becoming a top contributor to the renewable energy mix, which raises potential reliability issues for the grid due to the fluctuating nature of its source. To achieve adequate reserve commitment and to promote market participation, it is necessary to provide models that can capture daily patterns in wind power production. This paper presents a cyclic inhomogeneous Markov process, which is based on a three-dimensional state-space (wind power, speed and direction). Each time-dependent transition probability is expressed as a Bernstein polynomial. The model parameters are estimated by solving a constrained optimization problem: The objective function combines two maximum likelihood estimators, one to ensure that the Markov process long-term behavior reproduces the data accurately and another to capture daily fluctuations. A convex formulation for the overall optimization problem is presented and its applicability demonstrated through the analysis of a case-study. The proposed model is capable of reproducing the diurnal patterns of a three-year dataset collected from a wind turbine located in a mountainous region in Portugal. In addition, it is shown how to compute persistence statistics directly from the Markov process transition matrices. Based on the case-study, the power production persistence through the daily cycle is analysed and discussed

Spatial Dependence and Economic Growth: Evidence from a panel of Countries

The empirical literature about economic growth has usually ignored spatial interdependence among countries. This paper uses spatial econometrics to estimates a growth model that includes cross-country interdependence, in whitch a country's economic growth depends on the growth rate of its neighbords. Based on a sample of 98 countries over three decades (1965-75,1975-85, 1985-95) we find that espatial relationschip across countries are quite relevant. A country's economic growt is indeed affected by the perfomance of its neighbors and then influenced by its own geographical position. This results suggests that the spillover effects among countries are important for growth.Our results indicate that spatial interrelation can not be ignored in the analysis of economic growth. Ignoring such relationships can result in model misspecification.Spatial economterics, economic growth, interdependence.

Numerical issues in threshold autoregressive modelling of time series

This paper analyses the contribution of various numerical approaches to making the estimation of threshold autoregressive time series more efficient. It relies on the computational advantages of QR factorizations and proposes Givens transformations to update these factors for sequential LS problems. By showing that the residual sum of squares is a continuous rational function over threshold intervals it develops a new fitting method based on rational interpolation and the standard necessary optimality condition. Taking as benchmark a simple grid search, the paper illustrates via Monte Carlo simulations the efficiency gains of the proposed tools

Proliferation and fragmentation: Transactions costs and the value of aid

The problem of the proliferation of the number of aid donors and aid channels continues to worsen. It is widely and plausibly believed that this significantly; reduces the value of aid by increasing direct and indirect transactions costs. We contribute to the existing literature by: (a) categorising the apparent adverse effects of proliferation; (b) producing a reliable and fair indicator of the relative degree to which the main bilateral donors proliferate or concentrate their aid; (c) giving some explanation of why some donors proliferate more than others; (d) constructing a reliable measure of the extent to to which recipients suffer from the problem of fragmentation in the sources of their aid; and (e) demonstrating that the worst proliferators among the aid donors are especially likely); to be suppliers of aid to recipients suffering most from fragmentation. There are significant implications for aid policy