Technology Diffusion or Capital Accumulation? An Empirical Assessment of Convergence in Manufacturing

In this paper I consider 28 developed and developing countries, in the period 1980- 1995, and I employ the Within Group and the Generalized Method of Moments estimators to test, respectively, for Total Factor Productivity determinants and labor productivity convergence driving forces (i.e.capital accumulation and technological catch-up) in different manufacturing sectors, identified according the technological content of their production. Moreover, I test for inter-sectoral and cross-country heterogeneity of labor productivity convergence tendencies. My results show that technology growth rate is enhanced by technological transfer, in all manufacturing sectors and countries, and that cross-country convergence is determined by technology diffusion rather than capital accumulation. Further, I find that the rate of technological convergence appears higher in emerging economies, particularly in High Tech sectors. Finally, tertiary education seems to be relatively more important, as absorptive capability, than secondary one.Classical and Technological Convergence, Absorption Capabilities, Technological Gap, TFP growth, Manufacturing sectors, Panel data

A Reassessment of Italian Regional Convergence through a Non-Parametric Approach

This paper employs the distribution dynamics approach to investigate cross-regional convergence of GDP per worker in Italy, between 1980 and 2003. Two sets of competitive hypotheses are tested: absolute versus conditional and neoclassical versus technological. Supportive evidence of only technological conditional convergence is found. This means that, should the current dynamic persists, cross-regional convergence will take place only if the differences in technological initial conditions and structural characteristics will be evened out. Moreover, as the pervasiveness of organized crime has been considered as a structural factor, the analysis suggests that technical upgrading together with institutional strengthening should be policy makers’ priorities.Italian Regions; Neoclassical and Technological Convergence; Distribution Dynamics.

Going Clubbing in the Eighties: Convergence in Manufacturing Sectors at a Glance

I adopt the distribution dynamics framework to study labor productivity convergence, in the period 1980-1995, among 28 developed and developing countries, in different manufacturing sub-sectors, identified, as according their technological content into Resource Based, Low Technology, Medium Technology and High Technology. I find that, exception made for High Technology and Manufacturing as a whole, all subcompartments are predicted to converge within small groups, validating the so-called club-convergence hypothesis. Thus, as high tech sectors are the ones opening the best growth-equity prospects, developing countries should target these kind of productions.Italian Regions; Neoclassical and Technological Convergence; Distribution Dynamics.

Shortening university career fades the signal away. Evidence from Italy.

Italian university system was reformed in 2001. This paper tests the screening role of degree scores for 2004-Italian graduates. We find support of the strong screening hypothesis for prereform type degrees, while we do not find any evidence of signalling effects for post-reform 3-years degrees. We gauge that the shutting down of the signal can be partially ascribed to the poor quality of students who obtained a 3-years degree without taking any further education.Screening, Italy, Higher Education

Poverty, growth, inequality and pro-poor factors: new evidence from macro data

Does economic growth reduce poverty? If so, by how much? How economic inequality affects poverty? Does the responsiveness of poverty to growth and inequality depend on initial poverty and inequality? How do pro-poor policies influence the poverty-growth-inequality nexus? This paper provides novel quantitative answers to such questions. In particular, the System Generalised Method of Moments estimator is employed to estimate the intertwined relation between poverty, growth, inequality and pro-poor policies on an original unbalanced panel dataset, built from World Bank – PovcalNet data, which comprises 109 developing countries, observed between 1981 and 2008. Our main results are in line with the existing literature. First, we find that the poverty elasticities to growth and inequality are, respectively, around -2% and 2%. Second, the poverty elasticity to growth is higher the more favorable the initial conditions (i.e. -0.89% and -2.5% for, respectively, high and low initial poverty and inequality). Third, the poverty elasticity to inequality is higher in relatively richer and more equal countries (i.e. 2.6%) than in poorer and more unequal countries (i.e. 0.39%). And, finally, we show that human capital, as measured as health and education, facilitates the effect of economic growth on poverty reduction (i.e. poverty elasticity of -0.89% and -2.5% for, respectively, high and low infant mortality). Our analysis suggests that, in designing policy reduction strategies, policy makers should carefully take into considerations initial poverty and inequality as well as how income is distributed. Moreover, as for the fundamental importance of pro-poor policies, and human capital in particular, economic policies should go beyond the mere growth stimulus

Descripción bibliográfica de funciones trascendentes y su aplicación en las ciencias biológicas

Es de fundamental importancia para el desarrollo de las capacidades de los estudiantes, incentivarlos en el hábito de la lectura comprensiva y orientarlos en las correspondientes consultas bibliográficas a fin de que afiancen sus conocimientos. Nuestro objetivo estuvo centrado en conocer el tratamiento de las funciones logarítmicas y exponenciales en bibliografía de los niveles Polimodal y Universitario, desde su presentación, la utilización de los diferentes registros y la respectiva conversión de los mismos, hasta los ejemplos y ejercicios de aplicación que se encuentran en ellos. Haciendo una selección precisa de textos de uno u otro nivel y orientando a los alumnos en la elección de los mismos, encontrarán un complemento significativo de las clases teóricas prácticas del tema que les facilitará su aprendizaje y posterior aplicación

Closing technological gap to achieve the sustainable development goal of poverty alleviation: Evidence from 17 sub-Sahara African countries

This paper examines the dynamics of technological catching-up and its effects in contributing to poverty alleviation, a crucial pillar of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using data of 17 Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries and employing the superlative-index number methodology, we first estimate the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) gap between these African nations with the USA (leader of advanced countries) as well as China (leader of developing countries) to provide a measure for technological catch-up that is comparable across the African countries. We then investigate the contribution of SSA technological dynamics to poverty alleviation using system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) method. Our results show that during 1987-2014, many African nations have experienced some technological catching-up with the USA, whilst only a few of them have managed to briefly catch-up with China until early the 2000s and after which such catching-up is no longer observed due to the exceptional technological advance achieved by China in the past fifteen years. We find that closing technological gap has had significant poverty alleviation effect for African nations, although such effect is weaker in the case of TFP gap vis-à-vis China. Our paper highlights the important role played by technological progress in alleviating poverty

El aprendizaje de funciones con software informático

El presente trabajo está enmarcado dentro de un proyecto de aplicación de las técnicas de una Ingeniería Didáctica (M. Artigue) en la enseñanza de la Matemática, a fin de facilitar el aprendizaje de temas específicos de la asignatura, contextualizando saberes y procedimientos. Es una experiencia realizada con un grupo de alumnos de la cátedra Matemática de primer año de carreras de Ciencias Naturales, (Profesorado y Licenciatura en Ciencias Biológicas, Ingeniería en Recursos Naturales y Medio Ambiente) y del Profesorado en Química que se dicta en la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la Universidad Nacional de La Pampa-Argentina. El objetivo de esta propuesta fue generar una mayor participación en las clases prácticas, promover el aprendizaje y mayor interés en el tema funciones, en particular las exponenciales, logarítmicas y trigonométricas, utilizando medios tecnológicos, específicamente la computadora y los software Mathematica y Derive, instalados en el gabinete de Computación de nuestra casa de estudios. Disponiendo los alumnos de los apuntes con las sentencias y comandos necesarios de ambos software, analizaron las funciones desarrolladas previamente en las clases teóricas; representando, relacionando y operando con los ejercicios incluídos en el trabajo práctico del tema, visualizaron las características de cada una y resolvieron situaciones problemáticas integradoras. Concluimos que la experiencia realizada resultó positiva y actuó como un agente motivador en otros alumnos que permanecían indiferentes a la aprehensión del tema propuesto

MoLE: A web authoring tool for building mobile learning experiences

This paper presents a web authoring tool that allows teachers to build their own mobile learning experiences, so that their students can carry out a learning activity of the teachers authorship. In this work, a learning activity consists of a set of tasks organized through a workflow, which are given to students in relevant places (within a physical space). The workflow defines the way in which students access each of the tasks proposed in the activity. A preliminary case study and two technological implementations are presented. Although the present is a work in progress, it is based on previous works on the subject and proposes an evolution of them, incorporating technological and usability improvements both in the author's web tool and in the mobile learning application that it generates.XVIII Workshop de Tecnología Informática Aplicada en Educación.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informátic

MoLE: A web authoring tool for building mobile learning experiences

This paper presents a web authoring tool that allows teachers to build their own mobile learning experiences, so that their students can carry out a learning activity of the teachers authorship. In this work, a learning activity consists of a set of tasks organized through a workflow, which are given to students in relevant places (within a physical space). The workflow defines the way in which students access each of the tasks proposed in the activity. A preliminary case study and two technological implementations are presented. Although the present is a work in progress, it is based on previous works on the subject and proposes an evolution of them, incorporating technological and usability improvements both in the author's web tool and in the mobile learning application that it generates.XVIII Workshop de Tecnología Informática Aplicada en Educación.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informátic