E-conferencing: Corpus and Discourse Insights

A selection of recent work by experts in academic written discourse illustrates how corpus linguistics and discourse analysis can work as complementary approaches

Structural Interdependence among Colombian Departments

This paper advances on the analysis of the structural interdependence among Colombian departments. The results show that Bogotá has a large influence in the other regional economies through its purchasing power. Additionally, it can be observed a centerperiphery pattern in the spatial concentration of the effects of the hypothetical extraction of any territory. From a policy point of view, the main findings reaffirm the role played by Bogotá in the polarization process observed in the regional economies in Colombia in the last years. Any policy action oriented to reduce these regional disparities should take into account that, given the structural interdependence among Colombian departments, new investment in the lagged regions would flow through Bogotá and the major regional economies.Input-output; extraction method; Colombia Classification JEL: R12; R15.

Regional public stock reductions in Spain: estimations from a multiregional spatial vector autorregressive model

The estimation of the impact of public investment on regional economic growth requires consideration of the spatio-temporal dynamics among the state variables of each region. Recent austerity policies in Spain that feature temporary decreases in the accumulation of regional public capital should thus be evaluated in terms of their impact on the economy as a whole, on specific regions together with the spillovers effects from one region to the rest of the regional system. Applying a multiregional integrated specification to model interdependencies across regions, our results indicate that, while global decreases in public investment have a homogenously negative effect on the output of all the regions, the Spanish regions portray heterogeneous responses from localized public capital stock reductions over the simulation period considered

Public Capital and Regional Economic Growth: a SVAR Approach for the Spanish Regions

Recently, a significant share of the empirical analysis on the impact of public capital on regional growth has used multivariate time-series frameworks based on vector autoregressive (VAR) models. Nevertheless, not as much attention has been dedicated to the analysis of the long-run determinants of regional growth processes using multi-region panel data and applying panel integration and co-integration techniques. This paper estimates the dynamic domestic effects of public infrastructure using a structural vector autoregressive (S-VAR) methodology for the Spanish regions. From a methodological point of view, the paper contains several features that can be viewed as a contribution to the existing empirical literature. First, the important issues of the stationarity of the data and the existence and estimation of cointegrating relationships in the long-run are addressed in the context of the analysis of panel data. Secondly, the long-run cointegrating production function is embedded within structural vector error correction (S-VEC) shortrun models to produce consistent estimates of impulse responses, contrary to many researchers who have estimated unrestricted VAR models in levels or VAR models in first differences. The estimates reveal new results with respect to the previous empirical evidence

Trade and interdependence in the economic growth process: a multiplier analysis for Latin America

This paper illustrates alternative methodological approaches to the issue of trade and interdependence in the economic growth process with a focus on the countries of Latin America, drawing inspiration from earlier contributions by Machlup, Goodwin and Miyazawa. The world economy is divided into two main blocks ofcountries (Latin America and a selection of developed economies) with the rest of the world forming an aggregated third block. A time series of trade matrices for the period 1978-1991 has been constructed to explore the degree to which changes in one country spillover to the rest ofthe world and the degree to which the changes are symmetric or asymmetric. The approaches reveal that important insights into trade structure can be obtained, insights that will prove of value in the rapidly changing trade regimes of the current and next decades

Efectos regionales de una mayor liberación comercial en Colombia: Una estimación con el Modelo CEER

Este trabajo es un primer intento para relacionar los fundamentos teóricos de la nueva geografía económica con modelos espaciales de equilibrio general. Analizar la distribución de la actividad económica colombiana en el espacio utilizando los supuestos tradicionales de los modelos de equilibrio general computable tiene poco sentido, especialmente cuando una unidad territorial, Bogotá, concentra más de una cuarta parte del PIB y cuando se tienen, en comparación con los estándares europeos o norteamericanos, costos de transporte elevados y poca integración espacial. Lo anterior hace necesario incorporar las imperfecciones del mercado y el componente espacial en el análisis de la creciente participación de Colombia en los mercados externos. El documento se desarrolla utilizando el modelo CEER, un modelo espacial de equilibrio general computable para la economía colombiana, que incorpora rendimientos no constantes a escala y costos de transporte distintos al tipo iceberg. Los resultados de los ejercicios de simulación confirman los impactos asimétricos de la liberalización del comercio sobre una economía, en la que Bogotá puede explotar en mayor grado las economías a escala que el resto del país. El análisis también revela la importancia de las diferentes hipótesis sobre la movilidad de factores y el papel de los precios para comprender mejor las consecuencias de abrir la economía al comercio internacional en un país en desarrollo.nueva geografía económica, Modelo CEER, apertura económica, regiones, Colombia.

Using exchange structure analysis to explore argument in text-based computer conferences

Computer conferencing provides a new site for students to develop and rehearse argumentation skills, but much remains to be learnt about how to encourage and support students in this environment. Asynchronous text-based discussion differs in significant ways from face-to-face discussion, creating a need for specially designed schemes for analysis. This paper discusses some of the problems of analysing asynchronous argumentation, and puts forward an analytical framework based on exchange structure analysis, which brings a linguistic perspective to bear on the interaction. Key features of the framework are attention to both interactive and ideational aspects of the discussion, and the ability to track the dynamic construction of argument content. The paper outlines the framework itself, and discusses some of the findings afforded by this type of analysis, and its limitations