A Euro-Mediterranean Agricultural Trade Agreement: Benefits for the South and Costs for the EU

Free agricultural trade in the Mediterranean area is a delicate matter which brings both shores, as well as different EU countries face to face. Specially, in Spain and France the agricultural opening generates certain strain between the priorities of foreign policy and the demands of the affected sectors, as there is the generalised impression that such strain would generate important costs towards the agricultural sectors in both countries. The aim of this study is to quantify the magnitude of the effects brought about by a unilateral agricultural liberalisation developed by the EU regarding major agricultural exporters from the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea – Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey. Those effects are analysed at two levels: the supposedly positive economic impact on the south Mediterranean shore and the competitive increase for the European producers. The results suggest that the size of such effects is important for the southern countries as much as for the northern ones, and show the need for reaching a Mediterranean agricultural agreement.Agricultural market, exchange liberalisation, Common Trade Policy, Agricultural transactions between Europe and PTM

El impacto de la liberalización comercial agrícola euro-mediterránea

El libre comercio agrícola en el Mediterráneo es un tema delicado que enfrenta tanto a ambas riberas como a los distintos países de la UE. En España, la apertura agrícola genera cierta tensión entre las prioridades de la política exterior y las demandas de los sectores afectados, pues existe la impresión generalizada de que la misma generaría costes importantes para la agricultura mediterránea española. El objetivo de este artículo es cuantificar la magnitud de los efectos de una liberalización agrícola unilateral por parte de la UE con los principales exportadores agrícolas de la ribera sur del Mediterráneo (Marruecos, Túnez, Egipto y Turquía) a dos niveles: el impacto económico supuestamente positivo en los países del sur del Mediterráneo y el incremento de la competencia para los productores europeos. Los resultados sugieren que la magnitud de los efectos es importante, tanto para los países del Mediterráneo sur como para la agricultura europea, y apuntan a la necesidad de alcanzar un pacto agrícola en el Mediterráneo

El impacto económico de la inmigración en España, 2000-2009: antes y después de la crisis

En un solo decenio de la historia reciente de la economía española concurren dos fenómenos extraordinarios: siete años de crecimiento récord y tres de crisis profunda. Durante este tiempo la integración masiva de trabajadores inmigrantes ha supuesto un impulso fundamental, tanto por su incorporación en el mercado laboral, que demandaba esta nueva fuerza de trabajo, como por su aportación al desarrollo del propio tejido económico, integrándose como oferentes y demandantes de bienes y servicios en nuestra economía. La medición de ambas circunstancias, en tiempos de auge y crisis, centra el objeto de este artículo.CIEES y London School of Economic

A Bubbling Nearby Molecular Cloud: COMPLETE Shells in Perseus

We present a study on the shells (and bubbles) in the Perseus molecular cloud using the COMPLETE survey large-scale 12CO(1-0) and 13CO(1-0) maps. The twelve shells reported here are spread throughout most of the Perseus cloud and have circular or arc-like morphologies with a range in radius of about 0.1 to 3 pc. Most of them have not been detected before most likely as maps of the region lacked the coverage and resolution needed to distinguish them. The majority of the shells are coincident with infrared nebulosity of similar shape and have a candidate powering source near the center. We suggest they are formed by the interaction of spherical or very wide-angle winds powered by young stars inside or near the Perseus molecular cloud -a cloud that is commonly considered to be mostly forming low-mass stars. Two of the twelve shells are powered by high-mass stars close to the cloud, while the others appear to be powered by low or intermediate mass stars in the cloud. We argue that winds with a mass loss rate of about 10^-8 to 10^-6 M_sun/yr are required to produce the observed shells. Our estimates indicate that the energy input rate from these stellar winds is similar to the turbulence dissipation rate. We conclude that in Perseus the total energy input from both collimated protostellar outflows and powerful spherical winds from young stars is sufficient to maintain the turbulence in the molecular cloud. Large scale molecular line and IR continuum maps of a sample of clouds will help determine the frequency of this phenomenon in other star forming regions.Comment: 48 pages in total: 16 pages of text and references; 2 pages of tables; 30 figures (one page per figure). Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

El lenguaje como preocupación en la novela hispanoamericana actual.

Sin resume

Drivers of electricity poverty in Spanish dwellings: A quantile regression approach

The main objective of this article is to explore the causes of household electricity poverty in Spain from an innovative perspective. Based on evidence of energy inequality across households with different income levels, a quantile regression approach was used to better capture the heterogeneity of determinants of energy poverty across different levels of electricity expenditure. The results illustrate some interesting and counter-intuitive findings about the relationship between household income and electricity poverty, and the technical efficiency of quantile regression compared to the imprecise results of a standard single coefficient/OLS approach