Competitiveness in Southeastern Europe: from sources to future trends

We examine the issue of regional competitiveness by taking as a discussion example the region of Southeastern Europe. The paper begins with the concepts of national and regional competitiveness and finishes with the results of a survey on the region’s competitiveness.     

生态移民过程中的政府、市场与家户

通过对内蒙古S旗的实地研究，我们发现生态移民政策的实践过程是一个由中央政府、地方政府、市场精英、农牧民等多元社会行动主体共同参与的社会过程。在复杂互动关系的背后是由政府力量、市场力量以及地方民众所形成的权力和利益网络。自上而下的生态治理脉络中，地方政府处于各种关系的连接点上，其集“代理型政权经营者”与“谋利型政权经营者”于一身的“双重角色”，使环境保护目标的实现充满了不确定性。     

Reference priors for exponential families

Reference analysis, introduced by Bernardo (J. Roy. Statist. Soc. 41 (1979) 113) and further developed by Berger and Bernardo (On the development of reference priors (with discussion). In: J.M. Bernardo, J.O. Berger, A.P. Dawid, A.F.M. Smith (Eds.), Bayesian Statistics, Vol. 4, Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp. 35–60), has proved to be one of the most successful general methods to derive noninformative prior distributions. In practice, however, reference priors are typically difficult to obtain. In this paper we show how to find reference priors for a wide class of exponential family likelihoods.     

Life Expectancy, Schooling Time, Retirement, and Growth

I analyze how changes in life expectancy affect retirement age, education time, and growth rates of economies. I set up a continuous time, overlapping generations model of endogenous growth with externalities in human capital production. I find that increases in life expectancy give rise to first, higher retirement ages and second, higher education spans. A threshold level for life expectancy exists such that per capita growth rates follow an inverted U pattern.     

Statistical methods for the analysis of high-throughput data based on functional profiles derived from the Gene Ontology

The increasing availability of high-throughput data, that is, massive quantities of molecular biology data arising from different types of experiments such as gene expression or protein microarrays, leads to the necessity of methods for summarizing the available information. As annotation quality improves it is becoming common to rely on biological annotation databases, such as the Gene Ontology (GO), to build functional profiles which characterize a set of genes or proteins using the distribution of their annotations in the database. In this work we describe a statistical model for such profiles, provide methods to compare profiles and develop inferential procedures to assess this comparison. An R-package implementing the methods will be available at publication time.     

Evaluation of vectorization/parallelization techniques: application to nonparametric curve estimation

The simulation of statistical models in a computer is a fundamental aspect of research in the field of nonparametric curve estimation. Methods such as the FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) or WARP (Weighted Average of Rounded Points) have been developed and analysed for computer implementation of the different techniques in this realm, with the aim of reducing the computation time as much as possible. In this work we analyse two techniques with this objective. These are the vectorization of the source code in which the different algorithms are implemented, and their distributed execution. It can be observed that the vectorization of the programs can improve the results obtained with techniques such as the FFT or WARP, or, in some cases, can prevent the use of these.     

EU Enlargement: Economic-Cultural Perspective and Cross-Country Comparison

Globalization is constantly changing the appearance of the modern world. The most intense processes of integration are taking place in Europe in the framework of the European Union (EU) enlargement. Though the formal process is more or less concluded, the subtle and informal ones still have a long way to go. Social structures (institutions, organizations, norms, etc.) and actions depend on the cultural environment in the narrowest sense of the word: human perceptions and values. This poses the basic question whether the economic-cultural orientations of the new EU member states are compatible with imported social structures. We have done an empirical research using Hofstede's cultural dimensions and European Values Study database for 26 European countries (23 EU member states, 2 candidate countries, and Northern Ireland as a separate entity). We have also compared the differences and similarities by applying the Ward method (cluster analysis) on our 10 constructed variables.     

Urban environment, spatial fragmentation and social segration in Latin America: Where does innovation lie?

To “review the urban question” in terms of sustainable development, the premise is formulated that improving infrastructures, equipment and services to preserve the natural and built urban environment is costly and generates expenses of all kinds—at economic and social levels. Without the introduction of equalisation mechanisms, these expenses will increase inequalities between different parts of the urban population.As confirmed by 2 Latin American case studies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and La Paz Bolivia, the quality of urban environment depends directly on improving living conditions for the resident population. The aim is to assist the poor in developing a rubbish disposal service for the families living in the informal settlements of La Paz, or to extend water supply to the poorer areas on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. The collective benefits of these “innovations” are self-evident. However, understanding the environmental issues involved, and evaluating the social impact of these innovations, means examining what motivates their implementation.The first difficulty was in finding financial and economic information on the global cost of the new technologies, due to the lack of managerial culture and the discretional attitude of private enterprises and public administration.A second observation is that the social dimension of the environmental upgrading process in Latin America cities has been neglected by the main urban decision-makers. In all the contexts, the evolution of the projects’ implementation clearly demonstrates that social issues cannot be dissociated from political ones. Although the players themselves often find it difficult to estimate economic costs, these are nonetheless real and represent burdens that should be distributed equitably among the beneficiaries of services; but which are, in practice, often viewed in terms of profit. This leads to conflicts between different population groups, the political authorities and private intermediaries.Rather than viewing technological action as an unique “source” of innovation, we must consider its global dimension via the social practices it generates. On the other hand, we should reposition every specific event in its immediate environment and see how it reflects contemporary macro-social processes, in a world of “globalisation”.     

A Preliminary Investigation of Factors Associated With Job Loss Grief

This study investigated relationships among factors hypothesized as related to job loss grief. A summary grief score correlated positively with time since job loss and number of dependents, and negatively with length of notice. Perceived reemployment prospects and income loss related positively to some grief index subscales, as did the condition of living on one's own. Job duration correlated negatively with some grief responses. Implications for counseling and avenues for future research are discussed.