Spanish unemployment: normative versus analytical regionalisation procedures

In applied regional analysis, statistical information is usually published at different territorial levels with the aim of providing information of interest for different potential users. When using this information, there are two different choices: first, to use normative regions (towns, provinces, etc.), or, second, to design analytical regions directly related with the analysed phenomena. In this paper, provincial time series of unemployment rates in Spain are used in order to compare the results obtained by applying two analytical regionalisation models (a two stages procedure based on cluster analysis and a procedure based on mathematical programming) with the normative regions available at two different scales: NUTS II and NUTS I. The results have shown that more homogeneous regions were designed when applying both analytical regionalisation tools. Two other obtained interesting results are related with the fact that analytical regions were also more stable along time and with the effects of scale in the regionalisation process. Keywords: Unemployment, normative region, analytical region, regionalisation. JEL Codes: E24, R23, C61.

Design of homogenous territorial units: a methodological proposal

One of the main questions to solve when analysing geographically added information consists of the design of territorial units adjusted to the objectives of the study. In fact, in those cases where territorial information is aggregated, ad-hoc criteria are usually applied as there are not regionalization methods flexible enough. Moreover, and without taking into account the aggregation method applied, there is an implicit risk that is known in the literature as Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) (Openshaw, 1984). This problem is related with the high sensitivity of statistical and econometric results to different aggregations of geographical data, which can negatively affect the robustness of the analysis. In this paper, an optimization model is proposed with the aim of identifying homogenous territorial units related with the analyzed phenomena. This model seeks to reduce some disadvantages found in previous works about automated regionalisation tools. In particular, the model not only considers the characteristics of each element to group but also, the relationships among them, trying to avoid the MAUP. An algoritm, known as RASS (Regionalization Algorithm with Selective Search) it also proposed in order to obtain faster results from the model. The obtained results permit to affirm that the proposed methodology is able to identify a great variety of territorial configurations, taking into account the contiguity constraint among the different elements to be grouped.

Research networks and scientific production in Economics, The recent Spanish Experience.

This paper studies Spanish scientific production in Economics from 1994 to 2004. It focuses on aspects that have received little attention in other bibliometric studies, such as the impact of research and the role of scientific collaborations in the publications produced by Spanish universities. Our results show that national research networks have played a fundamental role in the increase in Spanish scientific production in this discipline.Bibliometric techniques, scientific production in Economics, research networks.

IS THE WAGE CURVE FORMAL OR INFORMAL? EVIDENCE FOR COLOMBIA

The objective of this paper is to analyse the existence or not of a wage curve in Colombia, paying special attention to the differences between formal and informal workers, an issue that has been systematically ignored in the wage curve literature. The obtained results using microdata from the Colombian Continuous Household Survey (CHS) between 2002 and 2006 show the existence of a wage curve with a negative slope for the Colombian economy. Using information on metropolitan areas, the estimates of the elasticity of individual wages to local unemployment rates was -0.07, a value that is very close to those obtained for other countries. However, the disaggregation of statistical information for formal and informal workers has shown significant differences among both groups of workers. In particular, for the less protected groups of the labour market, informal workers (both men and women), a high negatively sloped wage curve was found. This result is consistent with the conclusions from efficiency wage theoretical models and should be taken into account when analysing the functioning of regional labour markets in developing countries.Wage curve, unemployment, formal and informal sectors

Supervised regionalization methods, a survey.

This paper reviews almost four decades of contributions on the subject of supervised regionalization methods. These methods aggregate a set of areas into a predefined number of spatially contiguous regions while optimizing certain aggregation criteria. The authors present a taxonomic scheme that classifies a wide range of regionalization methods into eight groups, based on the strategy applied for satisfying the spatial contiguity constraint. The paper concludes by providing a qualitative comparison of these groups in terms of a set of certain characteristics, and by suggesting future lines of research for extending and improving these methods.regionalization, constrained clustering, analytical regions.

Zc(3900)Z_c(3900): what has been really seen?

The $Z^\pm_c(3900)/Z^\pm_c(3885)$ resonant structure has been experimentally observed in the $Y(4260) \to J/\psi \pi\pi$ and $Y(4260) \to \bar{D}^\ast D \pi$ decays. This structure is intriguing since it is a prominent candidate of an exotic hadron. Yet, its nature is unclear so far. In this work, we simultaneously describe the $\bar{D}^\ast D$ and $J/\psi \pi$ invariant mass distributions in which the $Z_c$ peak is seen using amplitudes with exact unitarity. Two different scenarios are statistically acceptable, where the origin of the $Z_c$ state is different. They correspond to using energy dependent or independent $\bar D^* D$ $S$-wave interaction. In the first one, the $Z_c$ peak is due to a resonance with a mass around the $D\bar D^*$ threshold. In the second one, the $Z_c$ peak is produced by a virtual state which must have a hadronic molecular nature. In both cases the two observations, $Z^\pm_c(3900)$ and $Z^\pm_c(3885)$, are shown to have the same common origin, and a $\bar D^* D$ bound state solution is not allowed. Precise measurements of the line shapes around the $D\bar D^*$ threshold are called for in order to understand the nature of this state.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Design of Homogeneous Territorial Units: A Methodological Proposal

One of the main questions to solve when analysing geographically added information consists of the design of territorial units adjusted to the objectives of the study. This is related with the reduction of the effects of the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). In this paper an optimisation model to solve regionalisation problems is proposed. This model seeks to reduce some disadvantages found in previous works about automated regionalisation tools.contiguity constraint, zone design, optimisation, modifiable areal unit problem

Spanish unemployment: Normative versus analytical regionalisation procedures

In applied regional analysis, statistical information is usually published at different territorial levels with the aim of providing information of interest for different potential users. When using this information, there are two different choices: first, to use normative regions (towns, provinces, etc.), or, second, to design analytical regions directly related with the analysed phenomena. In this paper, provincial time series of unemployment rates in Spain are used in order to compare the results obtained by applying two analytical regionalisation models (a two stages procedure based on cluster analysis and a procedure based on mathematical programming) with the normative regions available at two different scales: NUTS II and NUTS I. The results have shown that more homogeneous regions were designed when applying both analytical regionalisation tools. Two other obtained interesting results are related with the fact that analytical regions were also more stable along time and with the effects of scale in the regionalisation process.unemployment, regionalisation, analytical region, normative region

Topics, techniques and applications in urban and regional science in the nineties: a bibliometric analysis

The current state of regional and urban science has been much discussed and a number of studies have speculated on possible future trends in the development of the discipline. However, there has been little empirical analysis of current publication patterns in regional and urban journals. This paper studies the kinds of topics, techniques and data used in articles published in nine top international journals during the 1990s with the aim of identifying current trends in this research field.regional and urban science, bibliometric analysis