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The EU-28 is one of the largest emitters of CO2 in the world and the most committed to reducing emissions. However, the national environmental strategies of the Member States are still diverse. This study is aimed at evaluating the environmental performance of European economies by analysing the fluctuations of CO2 emissions and their links with economic activity over the period 1950–2012. The methodological framework is based on a dynamic factor analysis to determine an index of the EU fluctuation of CO2 emissions in parametric form. This index can be used to monitor the progress towards common behaviour across Member States, with a time-varying recursive method. Following this approach, we also track the efforts made to decouple CO2 emissions from GDP. Based on these analyses, we develop a CO2 emissions-GDP linkage matrix to attain useful information on the EU Member State environmental performance.

The aim of this article is to construct a European production frontier using deterministic methods, and to break down growth and convergence during the period 1980–2001. The results show that EU growth is primarily driven by physical and human capital accumulation, the contribution of which is essential for the cohesion of European countries. We find capital accumulation and efficiency change to be important convergence factors within the EU, while technical change has worked against it. The approach used has also enabled us to analyze the differences in growth performance of Member States and highlight the role of human and public capital, supporting the European cohesion and development policies carried out in this period.

The aim of this article is to analyse labour productivity growth and convergence in the EU between 1980 and 1997. By adopting a production frontier approach, labour productivity growth is broken down into components attributable to efficiency change, technological progress and capital accumulation. Our results point to physical and human capital accumulation as the main factors driving the processes of labour productivity growth and convergence among the European economies, supporting the European cohesion and development policies carried out in these years. On the other hand, we observe that some problems appear in the EU in terms of total factor productivity (TFP) growth. Therefore, policies aimed at promoting TFP growth should also be strongly supported.

The aim of this article is to measure and analyse productive efficiency behaviour in the EU from 1980 to 2001, trying to assess whether European integration processes have benefited the technological catch‐up among the Member States. To carry out this research, a stochastic frontier model has been used, making it possible to study the role of public investment in infrastructure and education in explaining differences between EU countries. These capitals are introduced in the function to be estimated and take into consideration allocation criteria in European countries as determinants of productive efficiency. Findings confirm the positive influence of public capital on production and of investment in education on the improvement of efficiency, as well as the intensification of the technological catch‐up among countries as integration progresses. These results have implications for economic policies, as they support the maintenance of active regional policies in the EU for the future.

En este trabajo se mide la eficiencia productiva de los quince Estados miembros de la Unión Europea (UE-15) durante el período 1980-2001, con el objetivo de analizar su evolución y explorar la influencia del capital público. Para ello se utiliza un modelo de frontera estocástica que permite estimar la eficiencia productiva y determinar los factores que pueden explicar las diferencias existentes entre países. Los stocks de capital público y privado utilizados en esta investigación se han elaborado a partir de información contenida en la base de datos NewCronos, de la que también proceden el resto de variables empleadas. Los resultados muestran un efecto positivo del capital público sobre la producción privada y la eficiencia productiva, siendo más eficientes aquellos países que mantienen una ratio capital público-capital privado menor. Se constata también un proceso de catch-up tecnológico entre los Estados miembros.

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la evolución y el grado de convergencia en eficiencia técnica de los sectores productivos regionales. Con esta finalidad se construyen índices de productividad de Malmquist, calculados mediante técnicas no paramétricas de programación lineal, que permiten comparar la aportación al crecimiento de la productividad de las ganancias de eficiencia en cada sector. A continuación se ha tratado de determinar si se ha producido un proceso de catching-up tecnológico y si las infraestructuras han constituido un factor condicionante de este. Los resultados muestran diferencias sectoriales en el comportamiento del cambio técnico y del cambio en eficiencia. Se ha confirmado también que los sectores productivos regionales menos eficientes se han beneficiado de la rápida difusión de la tecnología durante el periodo estudiado.

Aims: In this study we determined whether a folic acid-supplemented diet could change hyperlipaemia provoked by chronic ethanol intake in adult and pup rats. Methods: Animals were randomized into eight groups (four adults and four pups): control groups, water and basic diet; alcohol groups, 20% ethanol and basic diet; alcohol folic acid groups, 20% ethanol and diet supplemented with folic acid; control folic acid groups, water and folic acid-supplemented diet. We determined serum and liver total cholesterol (Chol), HDL, triglycerides (TG), phospholipids (PL) and bile acids (BA) levels in all of the groups. Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase activity was also measured in the livers. Results: Ethanol-fed rats have higher serum HDL and PL levels in pups and higher serum LDL, TG and PL levels in adults than controls and supplemented animals with or without alcohol ingestion. Ethanol provokes an increase in hepatic Chol and BA, and a decrease in hepatic TG and PL in pups; in adults it also provokes an increase in hepatic Chol and BA and a significant increase in HMG-CoA reductase activity. Alcohol intake plus folic acid supplementation has no effects on these values except BA levels that were significantly higher, in both pups and adult rats, than in the control group. Conclusion: Despite the fact that alcohol intake provokes different lipid alterations in adults and in pups whose mothers drank ethanol, folic acid contributes to the alleviation of these adverse effects reducing HMG-CoA reductase activity in adult rats and, except BA levels, to normalizing lipids values due to the fact that folic acid acts as a choleretic compound. We can therefore assume that folic acid supplementation reduces alcohol-induced hypercholesterolaemia by decreasing synthesis and increasing catabolism.

Ten rhizobial strains isolated from Lotus sp. have been characterized by their ability to denitrify. Out of the 10 strains, the five slow-growing isolates grew well under oxygen-limiting conditions with nitrate as a sole nitrogen source, and accumulated nitrous oxide in the growth medium when acetylene was used to inhibit nitrous oxide reductase activity. All five strains contained DNA homologous to the Bradyrhizobium japonicum nirK, norBDQ and nosZ genes. In contrast, fast-growing lotus rhizobia were incapable of growing under nitrate-respiring conditions, and did not accumulate nitrous oxide in the growth medium. DNA from each of the five fast-growing strains showed a hybridization band with the B. japonicum nirK gene but not with norBDQ and nosZ genes. Partial 16S rDNA gene sequencing revealed that fast-growing strains could be identified as Mesorhizobium loti species and the slow-growers as Bradyrhizobium sp.

The aim of this article is to analyse labour productivity growth and convergence in the EU-15 countries between 1980 and 1997. Adopting a production frontier approach, labour productivity growth is broken down into components attributable to efficiency change, technological progress and capital accumulation. Furthermore, in the spirit of the Quah's approach, the dynamics of the distribution of labour productivity is also analysed. Our results show that physical and human capital accumulation appears to be the main force driving the labour productivity growth and convergence processes experienced by the European economies during these years. On the other hand, we observe that some problems appear in the EU-15 in terms of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth.

Este trabajo analiza la contribución de las infraestructuras de transportes a la producción privada de las provincias españolas, destacando el papel desempeñado por las red viaria de gran capacidad sobre el resto de equipamientos. Para ello se han elaborado distintas medidas que permiten evaluar los efectos de esta infraestructura y se ha utilizado una mayor desagregación territorial y sectorial en este análisis. El objetivo es estimar tanto el impacto directo de estos equipamientos como avanzar en el estudio de los efectos desbordamientos., In this paper we investigate the contribution of transport infrastructure to the private production of the Spanish provinces focusing on the role played for the highway capacity roads. To do this we elaborated several measures of this infrastructure that will allow to evaluate the effects of these endowments using disaggregated data for the Spanish productive sectors. The main objective is to estimate the direct impact of this and to contribute to the understanding of the spillovers effects.

The aim of this article is to estimate the technical efficiency of the productive regional sectors and explore the influence of the infrastructure endowments in this analysis. To do this, we used the non parametric approach of DEA to compute Malmquist productivity indexes that allow us to descompose productivity growth into efficiency change and technical progress. Our results suggest that productive infrastructure allows to obtain gains in pure and scale technical efficiency that have contributed to productivity in growth in the Spanish economy over the period 1980-1995., El objetivo de este artículo es estimar la eficiencia técnica de los sectores productivos regionales y explorar la influencia de los equipamientos de infraestructuras en este análisis. Para ello, se utilizará el enfoque no paramétrico de la Envolvente de Datos (DEA) y se construirán índices de productividad de Malmquist que permiten distinguir entre ganancias de eficiencia y cambio técnico. Los resultados alcanzados muestran que las infraestructuras productivas han permitido lograr ganancias de eficiencia técnica pura y de escala, que han contribuido al crecimiento de la PTF en la economía española en el periodo 1980-1995.

The aim of this article is to estimate the Technical efficiency in european countries over the period 1980-1997. To do this, we used a frontier approach introduced by Battese and Coelli (1995). We base the stochastic frontier production function on a transcendental-logarithmic form. Estimation results indicate that private capital affects private output and labour positively, so both factors are complementary., Este artículo tiene como objetivo medir la eficiencia técnica para los países de la Unión Europea para el período 1980-1997 y realizar un análisis comparativo entre los países tratando de determinar el potencial de crecimiento alcanzable en términos de producción dadas las dotaciones de inputs de cada economía. Para ello, nos basaremos en las técnicas de frontera estocástica introducidas en Battese y Coelli (1995) e implementaremos una función de producción translogarítmica, que permitirá estimar la eficiencia técnica de los países. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el capital privado afecta positivamente tanto a la producción como al empleo, indicando una relación de complementariedad entre ambos factores. En este trabajo se utilizará una valoración del capital privado en la UE-15 realizada por las propias autoras empleando la Metodología del Inventario Permanente1. Esta estimación se ha realizado en unidades monetarias para cada uno de los países, a partir de los datos de inversión privada extraídos de la base de datos New Cronos de Eurostat.