Concepts and Actors in Organic Livestock Husbandry in Bolivia

Traditional smallholder livestock production is expected to correspond widely with principles of organic livestock farming. Though, the real magnitude of livestock under organic and alike management is unknown. From stakeholder analysis and structured interviews with key persons in Bolivia it is deduced that similarities are widely given, whereas it is questioned whether a formal individual certification approach for livestock products will match the farmer interests and consumer demands

Late Glacial–Holocene climatic transition record at the Argentinian Andean piedmont between 33 and 34° S

The Arroyo La Estacada (~ 33°28' S, 69°02' W), eastern Andean piedmont of Argentina, cuts through an extensive piedmont aggradational unit composed of a dominant Late Pleistocene–early Holocene (LP–EH) alluvial sequence that includes several paleosols. <br><br> One of these paleosols developed affecting the topmost part of likely Late Glacial aeolian deposits aggraded into a floodplain environment by the end of the Late Pleistocene. The paleosol shows variable grade of development along the arroyo outcrops. Organic matter humification, carbonate accumulation and redox processes were the dominant processes associated with paleosol formation. By the early Holocene, when the formation of the paleosol ended, renewed alluvial aggradation and high magnitude flooding events affected the arroyo's floodplain environment. Accordignly, a period of relative landscape stability in the Arroyo La Estacada basin is inferred from the paleosol developed by the LP–EH transition in response to the climatic conditions in the Andes cordillera piedmont after the Late Glacial arid conditions. The analyzed Late Glacial–Holocene alluvial record of the Andean piedmont constitutes a suitable record of the LP–EH climatic transition in the extra-Andean region of Argentina. It is in agreement with regional paleoclimatic evidence along the southern tip of the South American continent, where other pedosedimentary sequences record similar late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes over both fluvial and interfluvial areas

Decoherence of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering

We consider two systems A and B that share Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering correlations and study how these correlations will decay, when each of the systems are independently coupled to a reservoir. EPR steering is a directional form of entanglement, and the measure of steering can change depending on whether the system A is steered by B, or vice versa. First, we examine the decay of the steering correlations of the two-mode squeezed state. We find that if the system B is coupled to a reservoir, then the decoherence of the steering of A by B is particularly marked, to the extent that there is a sudden death of steering after a finite time. We find a different directional effect, if the reservoirs are thermally excited. Second, we study the decoherence of the steering of a Schr\"odinger cat state, modeled as the entangled state of a spin and harmonic oscillator, when the macroscopic system (the cat) is coupled to a reservoir

Catalytic effect of capital transfers in a federal context: The case of spanish regions

There is a broad theoretical consensus on the effects of transfers (desired incentive impacts and induced adverse effects). But, as the literature review shows, there is not an accepted methodology for the empirical evaluation of these effects. The authors suggest a simple but rigorous empirical approach to quantify the catalytic effect of conditioned transfers for investment and their asymmetric impact across regions in Spain. To identify this behaviour, they have applied different empirical approaches with frontier techniques that let them consider the frontier as a proxy for potential investment. The results show that the conditioned transfers received by the regions from higher levels of government have a stimulus effect for investments, especially in the poor regions. The authors identify several factors explaining this unbalanced catalytic effect: the political cost of tax collection, political factors, inadequate management of debt, and other variables such as the level of economic development, population density, and the economic cycle

Tax effort of local governments and its determinants: The Spanish case

We have implemented frontier techniques to analyse the local tax effort and its determinants. The results show that municipalities have been quite responsible on average (tax efforts between 72-85 percent), although most municipalities can increase their tax efforts both making a more intensive use of their tax authority and improving the efficiency of their tax collection. To respond to the financing problems of municipalities near the tax frontier, it would be desirable to reform the legal framework to allow a greater tax capacity while leaving the decision on how to use this potential in hands of each unit of government

A Spatial Dynamic Model for Export Intensity of Hazardous Industrial Waste: The Incentive Effect of Regional Environmental Policies

This paper analyses, in the context of the Environmental Kuznet Curve, the determinants of export intensity of hazardous industrial waste among Spanish regions, with particular attention to the influence of waste taxes and of environmental policies. This study is carried out for the first time in the literature with a spatial dynamic model, fixed effects and panel data for the 17 regions (Comunidades Autónomas) of Spain during the period 2007–2017. The results suggest there is a spatial-dynamic component to export intensity, and that both regional taxes on waste disposal and environmental policy stringency appear to encourage, albeit modestly, the rate of exported waste to other regions. The model also shows that the more regions recycle, and the greater the economies of scale arising from industrial agglomeration, the lower is the region’s waste export intensity, although increasing restrictions on the international trade in hazardous waste have intensified trading inside the country. Finally, the results suggest a non-linear relationship between growth and export intensity, although apparently we are still far from the absolute decoupling of the Environmental Kuznet Curve. © 2021, The Author(s)

The interdependence of investment by different levels of government in a federal context

We use the Stochastic Frontier Approach to analyse for the first time the regions’ investment response to the central and local governments’ capital expenditure. The Spanish context is very interesting for this analysis because responsibilities are distributed between the three levels of government in a very interesting dual way: the distribution of spending responsibilities between central and regional governments corresponds to an exclusionary attribution of functions, while between regional and local levels, governments opt for cooperation. Results show that capital expenditure undertaken by the central government in the regions acts as substitute for regional investment, while capital expenditure by local governments appears to complement it. These results should be taken into account by public administrations when designing the distribution of responsibilities between different levels of government and their economic policy aims