Agro-food manufacturing in Mediterranean Spanish regions: Andalusia versus Valencian region

Agro ? food manufacturing is a basic activity in economic structure of Mediterranean regions. Spanish Mediterranean regions are not an exception in this pattern of specialization. Agro ? food manufacturing is very important in all the Spanish Mediterranean regions (Catalonia, Valencia, murcia and Andalusia). But there are some problems of reduced articulation of economic activities in southern Spanish Mediterranean regions that are not perceived in other Mediterranean spaces (Catalonia or Valencia). The aim of this article is to compare the different patterns of behavior of agro ? food manufacturing in two different Spanish Mediterranean regions: Andalusia and the Valencia community. Andalusia is a region that represents approximately 18% of Spanish population and territory. However, his participation in national g.d.p. is only of 12%. So, Andalusia is a region with some degree of backwardness in Spanish context. One of the rare activities where Andalusia has a participation of national average higher than his participation in population is agro food manufacturing. Andalusian agro food manufacturing represents 25% of total Spanish value added. Valencian community however is a richer regions and it has a more diversified manufacturing structure. The comparing between the two regions will allow to evaluate if the patterns of relation of agro ? food manufacturing with the rest of regional economic activities are similar in both region or there are important changes between them. This fact is very important for the design of a regional economic policy. Traditionally, the thesis of lack of economic articulation and orientation of economic activities toward other spaces has been defended in southern regions, especially in Andalusia. From this point of view, these elements decreased the possibilities of actuation of regional policies. However, agro ? food manufacturing, even in regions like Andalusia did not experience this kind of problems. In 1980 more of the 80% of the inputs used by this industry had regional origins. But in 1995 this participation was of the 63,3%. So there is a process of substitution of regional inputs for non-regional inputs even in activities with traditionally strong ties with regional productive structure, like agro ? food manufacturing. In this text, this hypothesis will be tested, comparing Andalusian situation with other regional situations a priori non-affected by this problem, like Valencian region. Input ? output tables of Andalusia and Valencian region will be employed to analyze this fact. The analysis will be carried for the agro ? food manufacturing and for different sectors included inside. It will be possible so to study with a relative high degree of detail the reality of agro ? food manufacturing in two concrete regions that, possibly, are representatives of a more general dynamic.

La Globalización financiera : empresas y estados

Este artículo analiza los procesos de globalización financiera desde una perspectiva histórica. De esta forma, se estudian sus orígenes, características y evolución en el pasado reciente. Esto proporciona un marco general en el que es posible situar los cambios en el comportamiento de empresas (fundamentalmente las grandes organizaciones) y los estados. De este modo, se pretende ilustrar cómo las formas de organización y gestión y las políticas tendentes a promover la competitividad han sufrido, en uno y otro caso, modificaciones muy importantes, como consecuencia de las transformaciones en la esfera de las finanzas internacionales. ________________________________________This article analyses financial globalisation processes from historical perspective. Origins, traits and evolution of financial globalisation are this principal argument. This study give a general framework to understand the changes in the behaviour of states and firms. Management, internal organisation and competitiveness policies have experienced important transformations, because the modification in international financial environment

Los regímenes monetarios con paridades irrevocablemente fijas: algunas reflexiones de la experiencia argentina

Recientemente, ha habido en distintas economías periféricas intentos por implantar sistemas cambiarios con paridades irrevocablemente fijas. Este artículo expone brevemente las ventajas y desventajas que, teóricamente, cabe esperar de los mismos. Con esta base teórica, se analiza el régimen cambiario argentino de los años noventa (conocido como currency-board). Se concluye que el fracaso final del mismo se debe más a los fundamentos teóricos del modelo que a los errores existentes en su gestión. En la parte final del artículo se profundiza en las bases sobre las que se asientan muchos de los errores observados.Many peripheral economies have developed irrevocably pegged monetary regimes in the last years. This article analyses the theoretical advantages and disadvantages of this kind of monetary regime. This theoretical base is used in the analysis of the Argentinean monetary regime (know as currency-board). It shall conclude that its final failure is due to the result of the theoretical foundations of the model, instead of mistakes in tits management. Some of the deep theoretical bases of the observed mistakes are analysed in the last part of this article

La economía vista desde un ángulo epistemológico: de la economía a la economía política; del estructuralismo a la complejidad

La ciencia económica es una ciencia diversa, con innumerables escuelas y corrientes. En el presente texto se ordenan algunas de ellas tomando una serie de criterios epistemológicos de referencia. De esta forma se distingue en primer lugar entre economía estándar y economía política y, posteriormente dentro de esta última entre aproximaciones estructuralistas y post-estructuralistas. Dentro de este último grupo de reivindica la necesidad de construir una economía política desde el paradigma de la complejida

Evolución de los patrones de localización de las inversiones industriales en Andalucía

El presente texto analiza las transformaciones en la localización de las actividades industriales en Andalucía en las décadas de 1980 y 1990. Para ello utiliza datos de inversión procedentes del registro industrial. El objetivo es examinar los patrones de localización espacial de las inversiones poniéndolos en relación con la especialización sectorial de los distintos territorios que componen la región. Son determinados espacios, fundamentalmente las ciudades más importantes (Sevilla y su área metropolitana específicamente) y algunos puntos concretos del territorio andaluz (Polo Químico de Huelva situado en el término municipal de Palos de la Frontera o Polo Petroquímico de Algeciras) los que en mayor medida absorben la inversión industrial. No obstante, en el periodo analizado la industria andaluza ha experimentado algunas transformaciones

Urban Sprawl and Sustainable Urban Policies. A Review of the Cases of Lima, Mexico City and Santiago de Chile

In recent decades, urban processes have experienced deep transformations. One of them has been the growing importance of urban sprawl. This article reviews its main features and the policies related to the paradigm of sustainability in three Latin American Megalopolises: Mexico City, Lima, and Santiago de Chile. For this purpose, we have carried out an extensive compilation of the existing academic literature. Urban sprawl in those cities cannot be understood without considering the rising housing needs of popular classes, usually addressed through the sequence settlement-parceling-building-urbanization. Simultaneously high-income groups tend to create separated and gated commodities and there is increasing spatial mobility of the middle classes. Those processes tend to generate highly segregated and increasingly patched metropolitan areas. Sustainability is framed on models of urban governance based on ecological modernization. In this context, three main sustainable policies are analyzed: water supply, green areas provision, and transport. Conclusions stress: (1) Deep changes experienced and the path-dependent element observed in the social construction of sustainability (2) Consolidation of a model of socially segregated and ecologically differentiated urban polycentrism (3) Relevance of the different megalopolises as niches of experimentation and innovation in the construction of specific forms of sustainable transition

The Neoclassical Theory of Localization: Some Bases for its Criticism

Este artículo sintetiza la teoría de la localización de inspiración neoclásica. La teoría de la localización es una extensión de los modelos microeconómicos neoclásicos que tiene como rasgo distintivo la incorporación de la variable espacial. Pero también que estas extensiones se han realizado por muy diversas vías, existiendo así modelos de equilibrio parcial, de equilibrio general, modelos basados en la competencia perfecta, en la competencia imperfecta etc. Además algunos de los desarrollos tienen una serie de limitaciones muy importantes. Las últimas modelizaciones realizadas por la llamada Nueva Geografía Económica ha tratado de superar algunas de estos límites. No obstante, para ello ha utilizado intensivamente algunos conceptos teóricos, como el de externalidad, que han difuminado, posiblemente en exceso, su significado.This article summarises the neo-classic industrial location theory. Industrial location theory is a spatial extension of neo-classical microeconomic models (where territory is not explicitly considered). These spatial extensions have been developed by different ways. So, there are location models based in a economic theory of partial equilibrium; others are based in general equilibrium; others in perfect competition etc. Some of the models also have important limitations. The last models, developed for the New Economic Geography do not have some of these limitations. In this sense, they have intensively used concept like externalities that have opened, possibly too much, its meaning

Structural change of the manufacturing industry in Chile: 1979-2004

Este artículo analiza las transformaciones en la industria manufacturera chilena en el período 1979-2004. Los cambios vienen marcados por la intensidad de los procesos de apertura exterior y de modificación de las bases institucionales interiores El resultado es un proceso de fuerte crecimiento industrial que, además se encuentra asociado, al menos hasta finales de los noventa, a una intensa creación de empleo. Sin embargo, se mantuvieron algunos de los rasgos estructurales definitorios de la estructura industrial precedente. El elemento más claro sería la división entre industrias orientadas a la exportación e industrias orientadas al mercado interior. También se expone como tras la crisis de finales de los noventa la mayor parte de los sectores industriales orientados al mercado interno desarrollan capacidades exportadoras importantes. Con ello se culminaría el modelo de transformación estructural, que demandó más de 30 años para consolidarse._________________________________________This article analyzes the changes in the Chilean manufacturing industry during the period 1979-2004. Main changes are related to the processes of external openness and internal modification of ownership structures and major manufacturing firms. The main output is a strong process of industrial growth that, moreover, is associated to a strong increasement of industrial employment. However, some of the structural traits of the previous industrial model were maintained for a long time. The most clear would be the diversity among domestic market oriented industries and exporting ones. This article also analyzes how, after the crisis of the late nineties, most of the manufacturing sectors, which were still oriented to the domestic market, developed important export competencies. The structural model outlined in the seventies would be culminated after this change. However, the overall transformation of the manufacturing model required more than 35 years