Valentine Korah & Warwick A. Rothnie, Exclusive Distribution and the EEC Competition Rules: Regulations 1983/83 & 1984/83

The second edition of Exclusive Distribution is, quite frankly, an indispensable source when reviewing the compatibility of exclusive distribution agreements with Article 85 of the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community (the EEC Treaty ). Its indispensability lies, in part, in the fact that distribution issues comprise the vast bulk of an EEC competition practitioner\u27s ongoing antitrust work. The provision of exclusive territories, or the promise to purchase on an exclusive basis are, in turn, the most popular forms of distribution arrangement used in the EEC. The indispensability also lies in the fact that the book manages to cover almost every conceivable problem area that could arise in practice. It is a constant source of satisfaction to the reviewer to be able to turn to the second edition of Exclusive Distribution and find that what he considered to be a novel question is already canvassed at length

Convergence in Agriculture: Evidence from the European Regions

Although there have been numerous studies on regional convergence, agriculture has received far less attention. In this study, the intention is to augment the existing literature by testing for convergence in agricultural productivity among the EU-26 regions. A low rate of absolute convergence is estimated over the period 1995-2004 whilst evidence of club convergence is apparent.Absolute and Club Convergence, Agriculture, European Union Regions, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q10, O47, C2,

Adoption of Technology and Regional Convergence in Europe

This paper examines the pattern of convergence in labour productivity across regions due to their ability to adopt technology. Whether regions exhibit a pattern of convergence depends on the degree to which infrastructure conditions are appropriate for the adoption of technological improvements. The ability of a region to adopt or create technology is reflected in the percentage of its labour force employed in technologically dynamic sectors or, more generally, in the resources devoted to science and technology. A high percentage of labour employed in technologically advanced sectors leads a region to a pattern of convergence. This hypothesis is tested using data for the NUTS-2 regions of the EU-27 during the time period 1995-2006. The results suggest that adoption of technology has a significant and positive effect on regional convergence in Europe. The analysis is also shown to have important implications for the direction of regional policy in Europe. To be more specific, regional policies, in order to enhance regional growth and convergence, should encourage employment in advanced technological sectors

The Morphology of Income Convergence in US States: New Evidence using an Error-Correction-Model

This paper reconsiders the question of regional convergence across the US States over the long-run. The analysis is carried out over the period 1929-2005. Our analysis advocates and implements an Error-Correction-Model (ECM) approach to deal with this issue. The aforementioned model is applied in order to assess the possibilities of intraregional convergence towards steady-state equilibrium, approximated in terms of the State with highest per-capita income in each broad region. Empirical analysis suggests a pattern of convergence in accordance with the ECM supporting its validity. Further inspection of the results provides an indirect indication of the agglomerative effects in shaping the patterns of convergence.Income Convergence; Error-Correction-Model; US States

Health is wealth: an empirical note across the US states

An attempt is made to establish the relation between risk-health factors (encapsulated in terms of obesity) and regional convergence, with special reference to the US states. The econometric results indicate that obesity does have an impact on regional growth and convergence. A preliminary examination of these findings shows harmful effects on the process of catching-up between ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ regions. Nevertheless, considerably more research is required before this relation can be discussed with confidence.Health risk factors; obesity; regional convergence; US states

A note on the morphology of regional unemployment in Greece

A variation of an Error-Correction-Model is applied across the regions of Greece to examine the behaviour of regional unemployment. Allowing for multiple equilibria, this variation is able to pinpoint regional groupings with similar tendencies in the evolution of unemployment. The results have important implications for the direction of regional policies in Greece.Error-correction-model, Greece, regional unemployment, time-series

The ‘Trade-off’ between Spatial Equity and Economic Efficiency Revisited: Evidence from the US States

The principle aims of regional policy can be encapsulated in terms of ‘spatial equity’ and ‘economic efficiency’. Establishing the relation between these two aims is of fundamental importance. Conventionally, however, it is assumed that there is a conflict or a ‘trade-off’ between them. In this paper, a hopeful view, i.e. that the two aims are complementary rather than competitive, is put forward. The validity of this view is examined empirically using data for the US States covering the period 1972-2005. The obtained results map an instructive framework for regional policy where the scope for reducing regional inequalities is not incompatible with improvements in economic efficiency.regional growth; regional policy; spatial equity; trade-off

Technology adoption and club convergence

Although the importance of technology adoption has been acknowledged, nevertheless, at a more general level, a critical question arises: how do the overall infrastructure conditions affect the absorptive ability of a regional economy? This question can be stated alternatively as: what are the implications of a ‘poor’ or a ‘superior’ infrastructure for regional convergence? It is possible to provide some answers to these questions by constructing a model of regional convergence that encapsulates the impact of infrastructure in the absorptive ability of a regional economy. In this model the possibility that high technological gaps might act as obstacles to convergence is taken explicitly into consideration. The model developed in this paper indicates that convergence towards leading regions is feasible only for regions with sufficient absorptive capacity, which is assumed to be a function of infrastructure conditions in a regional economy. The model is tested using data for the NUTS-2 regions of the EU-27 during the time period 1995-2006. The results suggest that adoption of technology has a significant effect on regional growth patterns in Europe.Convergence-club, Technological Gap, European Regions

Designing a set of criteria for evaluating artificial neural networks trained with physics-based data to replicate molecular dynamics and other particle method trajectories

This article presents an in-depth analysis and evaluation of artificial neural networks (ANNs) when applied to replicate trajectories in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations or other particle methods. This study focuses on several architectures—feedforward neural networks (FNNs), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), time convolutions (TCs), self-attention (SA), graph neural networks (GNNs), neural ordinary differential equation (ODENets), and an example of physics-informed machine learning (PIML) model—assessing their effectiveness and limitations in understanding and replicating the underlying physics of particle systems. Through this analysis, this paper introduces a comprehensive set of criteria designed to evaluate the capability of ANNs in this context. These criteria include the minimization of losses, the permutability of particle indices, the ability to predict trajectories recursively, the conservation of particles, the model’s handling of boundary conditions, and its scalability. Each network type is systematically examined to determine its strengths and weaknesses in adhering to these criteria. While, predictably, none of the networks fully meets all criteria, this study extends beyond the simple conclusion that only by integrating physics-based models into ANNs is it possible to fully replicate complex particle trajectories. Instead, it probes and delineates the extent to which various neural networks can “understand” and interpret aspects of the underlying physics, with each criterion targeting a distinct aspect of this understanding