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The causes of the USA's exceptional economic performance are investigated by comparing American wages and prices with wages and prices in Great Britain, Egypt, and India. Habakkuk's views on the causes of American industrial pre-eminence are reassessed. While the USA had abundant natural resources, they did not promote manufacturing since international trade equalized prices in Britain and the USA or American tariffs made resources dearer in the USA. Wages were higher in the USA than in Britain since labor markets were tightly integrated and labor was drawn to the USA as the continent was settled. Capital services were also more expensive in USA. American industrialization required tariffs since virtually all input prices were higher than in Britain and industrial productivity was comparable. America's comparative advantage shifted from agriculture to manufacturing after 1895 was industrial productivity soured. This was due to a fall in energy prices in the USA, the American policy of mass schooling which increased the supply of skilled adults and induced firms to invent technology to raise their productivity since the supply of child labor was restricted in comparison to Britain, and the great growth of manufacturing investment induced by the tariff which provide a large market for inventions and generated technical knowledge through learning by doing. Egypt and India could not have industrialized by following American policies since their wages were so low and their energy costs so high that the modern technology that was cost effective in Britain and the USA would not have paid in their circumstances. The development of Egypt and India required more draconian state intervention than a protective tariff, mass education, and infrastructure investment - the American model.

We analyze a large data set of commercial records produced by Assyrian merchants in the nineteenth century BCE. Using the information from these records, we estimate a structural gravity model of long-distance trade in the Bronze Age. We use our structural gravity model to locate lost ancient cities. In many cases, our estimates confirm the conjectures of historians who follow different methodologies. In some instances, our estimates confirm one conjecture against others. We also structurally estimate ancient city sizes and offer evidence in support of the hypothesis that large cities tend to emerge at the intersections of natural transport routes, as dictated by topography. Finally, we document persistent patterns in the distribution of city sizes across four millennia, find a distance elasticity of trade in the Bronze Age close to modern estimates, and show suggestive evidence that the distribution of ancient city sizes, inferred from trade data, is well approximated by Zipf’s law.

Canada's trade policy at the end of the 19th century is commonly viewed as protectionist and extremely costly. In this paper, we employ the Anderson-Neary Trade Restrictiveness Index to re-examine this view. Based on product-level customs data, we show that Canadian trade policy between 1870 and 1910 was more restrictive than previously understood, but created smaller welfare losses than previously believed. These results are primarily driven by high tariffs on inelastic, non-competing import goods. Although Canada's tariff structure becomes more restrictive over the period, our findings indicate it was not as protectionist or as costly as once thought. Structure tarifaire, expansion du commerce et protectionnisme canadien entre 1870 et 1910. La politique commerciale canadienne a la fin du 19e siecle est habituellement consideree comme protectionniste et extremement couteuse. Dans ce memoire, on emploie l'indice de restriction du commerce de Anderson-Neary pour reexaminer ce point de vue. A partir de donnees du service des douanes au niveau du produit, on montre que la politique commerciale canadienne entre 1870 et 1910 a ete plus restrictive que ce qu'on avait pense autrefois, mais qu'elle a cree des pertes de bien-etre moindres que ce qu'on avait cru anterieurement. Ces resultats sont d'abord engendres par des droits de douanes eleves sur des biens d'importation qui ne concurrencent pas les biens domestiques et dont la demande est inelastique. Meme si la structure tarifaire du Canada devient plus restrictive au cours de cette periode, les resultats montrent qu'elle n'est ni aussi protectionniste ni aussi couteuse qu'on l'a deja pense.

Resumen El cómputo de alto rendimiento es una necesidad para el desarrollo deinvestigaciones con grandes volúmenes de datos. La creciente demanda de este tipo deresultados ha impulsado a varios centros de investigación a poner en funcionamientorecursos de cómputo de alto rendimiento. En Cuba no existe una solución definitiva quepermita a todos los centros de investigación disponer de los recursos de cómputonecesarios para desarrollar sus proyectos. Este trabajo propone el empleo de un clúster decomputadoras de la Universidad de Griffith a través de una interfaz basada en el correoelectrónico. Esta solución permite disponer de recursos de cómputo de alto rendimientosin necesidad de una alta conectividad. Como caso de estudio se analizan los resultadosobtenidos en un proyecto de optimización global en grandes dimensiones desarrollado enla Universidad de La Habana. Para experimentos con un mes de duración (en unacomputadora estándar) los resultados muestran que al utilizar el recurso de altorendimiento es posible alcanzar un incremento en el rendimiento relativo superior al1300%. Abstract: Research with large volumes of data usually require access to High Performance Computing. The increasing demand for this kind of research has led many institutions to develop their own computer clusters. However, in Cuba there is no definitive solution for the High Performance Computing requirements of institutions such as the University of Havana. The expenses of building a computer cluster disallows many institutions to have their own, while the low connectivity limits the use of international high performance computing services. This research presents an alternative solution based on the development of an email-based platform for accessing a computer cluster at Griffith University in Australia. This new communication interface has been successfully used on a Large Scale Optimization research project at the University of Havana. Computational results show that by using the remote cluster it is possible to improve upon the performance of a personal computer by up to 1300%.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of technological capability on power, trust and inter-firm relationships performance within the supply chain. This study proposes to utilise quantitative design as a main approach to answer the research question. The data will be collected by using survey questionnaires. The sample of this study will consist of manufacturing companies which are listed in the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) directory. The structural equation modelling (SEM) approach will be employed in order to test the proposed hypotheses in this study. Evidence from previous research has supported the advantages of keeping long lasting inter-firm relationships. Scholars suggest that inter-firm relationships will enable both parties to enjoy overall business performance and new product development opportunity. The literature findings confirmed the notion that technological capability can create competitive advantage for members of the supply chain. However, possessing such capability may create power imbalance which leads to deterioration of the inter-firm relationship. The manufacturing companies can benefits from this study by understanding the potential impact of technological capability on power, and how this association affect the inter-firm relationships. It may furnish useful information on the advantages and disadvantages of possessing such capability which can be the basis of making future investment decision related to the technological capability expansion.

This paper researches the portfolio construction between stock price of group of seven (G7) and West Texas Intermediate crude oil from January 2, 1998 to March 1, 2012. We investigate the volatility spillover between stock price and oil price with the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC), constant conditional correlation (CCC) and BEKK models, and also analyze their optimal hedge ratio and portfolio weights. The empirical result is that the hedge effectiveness of DCC model is better than the CCC model and BEKK models. The hedge effectiveness (HE) in Canada is the highest but Japan is the lowest. Moreover, the results show that Japan has the biggest optimal portfolio weight and the lowest hedge ratio. We do this research with expectation of providing investors information to increase the basis of investing.

Fundamental objective is to ensure the normal shipping of goods nationally and internationally, according to international conventions and treaties, activity must be conducted safely, timely and economically efficient. Sea transport, national and international economic activity should be designed and organized, necessarily, both in relation to need and to ensure its profitability.

After 1870, and long before the rise of the Asian Tigers and the group of emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, industrial output grew fast enough in the poor periphery to achieve unconditional convergence on the industrial leaders. The Philippines was part of the group of countries that caught up during the interwar and post-war import-substitution-industrialization years. It began to deviate from the pack after the 1970s, however, leaving the group in 1982, never to re-enter it. This paper examines the possible causes of what appears to have been a unique event. These cover political instability, institutional weaknesses, liberalization policy, labor emigration, and Dutch disease. Taken together, these forces created a Òperfect de-industrializing stormÓ, It seems likely that the Philippines has forever lost its chance at industrialization.

The importance of selecting the appropiate brand for a hotel resides in the impact it will have on the market where the hotel is positioned and the potential benefits of the chain's distribution channels. Accor, for example, is the world's number-one and Europe's leading hotel operator. It has more than 3.600 hotels in 92 countries and provides a comprehensive range of options from luxury to economy, with brands like Sofitel, Novotel, Ibis, Hotel F1. With over 170.000 people working for Accor brands around the world, the Group has 45 years of experience in serving its customers and partners. Accor's vision is to be world's most innovative, best performing and most valued hotel company. Its new strategic roadmap, which has redesigned its business model around two divisions - HotelServices and HotelInvest - will boost operational efficency and sustainable growth.

Pakistan has enough natural resources but unfortunately, there is a policy gap to utilize them to match the supply and demand. The country has huge coal reserves which may produce 100, 000 MW electricity but still severe energy crisis hit the country badly for few years. It not only hurts economic growth but also increases poverty. The regional and OECD countries heavily depends on coal and peat resources to generate electricity. It is estimated that coal and peat contribute more than 40% in regional economies and 34% in OECD countries in total electricity production. Pakistan has to utilize these coal reserves to eradicate energy crisis which is cheaper than oil and gas resources.

This paper explores how technological changes affected labor allocations within the U.S. Navy. During the latter nineteenth century, the officer corps was highly specialized, split between groups of line and staff officers. Developments in general purpose technologies created a dilemma for the organization, as it balanced between the benefits of a specialized workforce implementing increasingly complex technologies with rising communication and coordination costs. We first document the nature and extent of labor specialization in the mid-nineteenth-century Navy—engineers worked more with newer and larger vessels, while line officers worked more with unskilled personnel. The Navy endeavored to destroy this distinction, forcing generalized training and tasks for all officers. We suggest that the Navy’s phased-in approach was an effective strategy, helping the U.S. to become a world-class naval power.

This article introduces our project on the relationship between railways and real income levels across European regions between 1870 and 1910. While similar relationships have been analysed for the USA, India and individual European countries, our project is the first to take a pan-European regional perspective. We discuss the reasons for the neglect to date, highlighting the need to drill deeper into the changing directional effects of railways on income, the importance or necessity of using regional-level data and the amount of research that still needs to be done. To this end, we present preliminary insights from our novel database on European regional per capita income and railway mileage, after discussing our data sources in depth. We also outline our research agenda, showing our intended conceptual and analytical approach for future work. The Spanish Ministry of Education (CS02010-16389), the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ES/I011161/1) and the EU Social Fund and Maltese Ministry of Education (STEPS) provided funding for this research.

There were substantial fluctuations in the number of American overseas travelers, especially before World War Two. These fluctuations in travel around the long-term upward trend are the focus of this paper. We first identify those fluctuations in the data and then try to explain the patterns. We show that, despite the impact of a myriad of episodic events, fluctuations in travel can be explained to a large extent by changes in the direct price of travel, changes in per capita GDP and wealth in the United States, and by periods of armed conflict.

Is aid dead? Dead Aid was the provocative title of a book that appeared on the 2009 New York Times bestseller list in which Dambisa Moyo outlined the shortcomings of traditional aid to Africa and proposed some even more contentious solutions for her continent. But has development assistance really run its course? Does all aid follow old colonial patterns and actors, as Moyo maintains?. We argue that aid is alive and kicking with some exciting turns that have been gathering momentum in recent years both among traditional donors and new and still emerging South-South Cooperation (SSC) actors. Developed country aid alone still channeled US$134 billion in 2011, a 154 percent increase from a decade earlier; preliminary figures for 2012 show to little surprise a slight decline to US$126 billion. Despite its shortcomings, aid provided by Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members is rapidly changing to be more effective, inclusive, and recipient-owned; principles that were reflected in the Paris Declaration of Aid Effectiveness (2005) and that were later reinforced in the Accra Action Plan and the Busan outcome document (2011) ...

Es sabido que, a pesar de las mejoras que tuvieron lugar en los últimos años, las exportaciones de varios países de América Latina y el Caribe aún se encuentran por debajo de su potencial y de lo que cabría esperar en función de sus niveles de desarrollo. Lo mismo sucede con el grado de diversificación de sus exportaciones (Blyde et al., 2014). Asimismo, su participación en las cadenas globales de valor también parece ser relativamente limitada (Blyde y Volpe Martincus, 2011). Esto es importante, y potencialmente en gran medida, a los efectos de las perspectivas económicas de los países. Bajos niveles de apertura y diversificación pueden ser costosos en términos de crecimiento económico. Una participación limitada en las cadenas globales de valor puede tener consecuencias similares, en virtud de que restringe el acceso a los flujos internacionales de conocimiento y tecnología, lo cual reduce el potencial de aprendizaje y de aumento de la productividad de las empresas locales (véanse, por ejemplo, Brainard y Cooper, 1968; Frankel y Romer, 1999).1. Asimismo, la mayor disponibilidad de datos de exportaciones a nivel de empresa en los últimos años ha permitido saber que el comercio de América Latina y el Caribe, al igual que el de muchos otros países del mundo, está impulsado primordialmente por grandes exportadores que comercializan múltiples productos en múltiples destinos y que representan un porcentaje muy pequeño del número total de exportadores directos. De acuerdo con datos recientes, las exportaciones de muchas economías de América Latina y el Caribe se concentran en apenas el percentil superior de sus exportadores (Volpe Martincus y Graziano, 2013) ...

The current wave of South-South Cooperation (SSC), through its heavy emphasis on infrastructure as a necessary-yet-insufficient condition for development, creates new opportunities and new challenges for regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. This article examines the growing role of SSC in infrastructure and integration in Suriname, with a focus on transportation infrastructure. More specifically, it analyzes how the forging of new bilateral and multilateral partnerships is changing the country’s prospects for integration, not only into the region, but also into global markets. I focus on three South-South partnerships particularly relevant to Suriname’s infrastructure integration: its deepening bilateral relations with China, its growing closeness to Brazil, and its membership in the IIRSA process. On the one hand, there is an increasingly clear mismatch between China’s mega-project approach to Suriname, which includes a new port and North-South road into the deeply forested interior, and Brazilian plans for infrastructure development in the Amazon region. Moreover, the IIRSA framework prioritizes different projects altogether. These gaps suggest the need for Surinamese government to play a more proactive role in coordinating the different SSC initiatives for infrastructure and integration being proposed in (and around) Suriname.

In Kuwait, the current method of generating electricity using conventional power plants cannot provide beneficiaries with adequate service unless more plants are constructed. In addition to their high cost, these plants cause environmental damage, creating the need to investigate sources of clean energy. This study assesses the technical and economic feasibility of implementing Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy in residential houses in Kuwait. Data and information were collected and the appropriate PV system was selected according to cost and PV specifications. Next, the equivalent annual costs of the PV system with various discount rates were estimated together with the cost per kWh both for new and existing houses. Third, the annual reduction of CO2 emissions resulting from implementing grid-tied PV systems was calculated. Taking into consideration the financial savings from CO2 reduction, the cost per kWh was estimated and compared with the current cost. The purported discount rate adopted by the Kuwaiti government’s long term plan is 6.7%. However, a range of discount rates from 0% to 20% was applied and results obtained. The results showed that with a 6.7% discount rate the annual savings on energy costs for a new house and a previously constructed hose were KD 745 and KD 653 respectively. The results also revealed the payback periods for the PV system for these houses are 7 and 7.4 years respectively. We concluded that integrated PV (BIPV) solar energy is economical and technically feasible in Kuwait when the discount rate is equal to, or less than, the break-even point of 10.36%.

This paper documents industrial output growth around the poor periphery (Latin America, the European periphery, the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa) between 1870 and 2007. We find that although the roots of rapid peripheral industrialization stretch into the late 19th century, the high point of peripheral industrialization was the 1950-1973 period, which saw widespread import- substituting industrialization. This period was also the high point of unconditional industrial catching up, defined as the tendency of less industrialized countries to post higher per capita manufacturing growth rates, and which occurred between 1920 and 1990.

We develop a theory of the emergence of merchant guilds as an efficient mechanism to foster cooperation between merchants and rulers, building on the complementarity between merchant guilds’ ability to enforce monopoly over trade and their social capital. Unlike existing models, we focus on local merchant guilds, rather than alien guilds, accounting for the main observed features of their behavior, internal organization and relationship with rulers. Our model delivers novel predictions about the emergence, variation, functioning, and eventual decline of this highly successful historical form of network. Our theory reconciles previous explanations and the large body of historical evidence on medieval merchant guilds. In doing so, we also shed novel light on the role of the guilds’ social capital, and its importance for taxation, welfare, and the development of towns and their government in medieval Europe.

This paper explores the determinants of intelligence by focusing on the role played by barriers to the diffusion of competence and human capital. The results based on cross-sectional data from 167 countries consisting of 1996-2009 averages suggest that, genetic distance to global frontiers has a negative relationship with human capital. Countries that are genetically far from leading nations tend to have lower levels of human capital with the negative correlation from the USA frontier higher relative to the UK frontier. The sign is consistent with the relationship of genetic diversity and robust to the control of macroeconomic, geographical, institutional and influential variables. Policy implications are discussed.

We assess the extent to which firms in an environment of decreasing transport costs and industrial transformation value the benefits of proximity to a historic CBD and agglomeration economies in their location decisions. Taking a hybrid perspective of classical bid-rent theory and a world where clustering of economic activity is driven by between-firm spillovers, Berlin, Germany, from 1890 to 1936 serves as a case in point. Our results suggest that the average productivity effect of a doubling of between- firm spillovers over the study period increases from 3.5% to 8.3%. As the city transforms into a service-based economy, several micro agglomerations emerge. Their locations close to the CBD still make the city look roughly monocentric. This is in line with a hysteresis effect in which second-nature geography drives the ongoing strength of a historic city center even though the importance of the originally relevant first-nature geography has vanished.

New technologies have not always been greeted with full enthusiasm. Although the Ottomans were quick to adopt advancements in military technology, they waited almost three centuries to sanction printing in Ottoman Turkish (in Arabic characters). Printing spread relatively rapidly throughout Europe following the invention of the printing press in 1450 despite resistance by interest groups and temporary restrictions in some countries. We explain differential reaction to technology through a political economy approach centered on the legitimizing relationships between rulers and their agents (e.g., military, religious, or secular authorities). The Ottomans regulated the printing press heavily to prevent the loss it would have caused to the ruler’s net revenue by undermining the legitimacy provided by religious authorities. On the other hand, the legitimizing relationship between European religious and political authorities was undermined over a century prior to the invention of the press. European rulers thus had little reason to stop the spread of printing as public policy, nor could the Church have stopped it had it wanted to. The Ottomans eventually sanctioned printing in Arabic script in the 18th century after alternative sources of legitimacy emerged.

In the context of green growth and sustainability, there is a substantial and growing literature that considers means to promote further innovation with respect to energy. This paper considers the possible effects on energy efficiency from an earlier period of policy reform aimed at promotion of innovation, namely the wave of strengthening of patent rights that took place during the 1990s. This period covered the entry into effect of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, expanded adherence to various accords of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and a variety of regional agreements and, in many countries, domestic reforms. For a broad sample of countries, this paper assesses empirically the relationship between change in the protection of patent rights between 1990 and 2005 and indicators for energy efficiency and related innovation. Controlling for other factors, it considers the question as to whether the strengthening of patent rights was associated with technological progress that may have influenced the energy intensity of economies around the world. The results present a mixed picture and, therefore, suggest the presence of a relatively complex relationship between the strengthening of patent protection and energy efficiency, one which may be influenced by such factors as changes in relative prices, heterogeneity related to resource requirements by different industries, and consumption patterns related to adoption of new technologies. JEL Codes: D23, G19, O4, N7

The success of Danish agricultural exports at the end of the nineteenth century is often attributed to the establishment of a direct trade with Britain. Previously, exports went mostly via Hamburg, but this changed with the loss of Schleswig and Holstein to Prussia in the war of 1864. After this, quantity and price data imply narrowing price gaps and thus imply gains for Danish producers. Why then did Denmark not discover the British market earlier? We show that butter markets in both countries were integrated in the eighteenth century, but through the Hamburg hub. We then demonstrate that there were sound economic reasons for this well into the nineteenth century. However, movements to establish a direct trade were afoot from the 1850s. Thus, although the war certainly gave an extra boost to the process, the shock from the loss of the Duchies was not necessary for the future Danish success.

We examine the case of an important outsider to the Cobden-Chevalier network of bilateral treaties in the second half of the nineteenth century. We attempt to explain this through a study of the structure of Danish trade and protection. We demonstrate, in contrast to previous accounts that have considered Danish trade policy somewhat irrational, that Denmark was right to remain outside. She had little to gain from concluding treaties, since her main trading partners offered free trade for her exports, agricultural goods, and she needed her own tariffs for revenue purposes.

The European Union Strategy for the Danube is an internal EU strategy where all river-side countries are invited to take part, complying with the three principles applied also in the case of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.The three pillars proposed by the European Commission and which the Strategy centers round are: connectivity (transport, energy, telecommunication), environmental protection and water management, as well as the socio-economic development (culture, education, tourism, rural development). The European Commission proposed to launch and organize a public debate in all river-side countries, conferences, seminars and round tables. The outcome of these debates will lie in the European Commission working out and bringing up, together with the river states, a paper on the theme of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, and also a Plan of Action. This will comprise the detailed analysis of the present state and will propose a list of strategic projects. The implementation of the Plan of Action will be monitored by the European Commission and will be periodically up-dated, according to the economic conditions and the social trends in the region. Classification-JEL:N5; N7; Q4; R4Keywords:strategy, connectivity, environmental protection, water management, socio-economic development, sustainable developmentJournal:Romanian Journal of EconomicsPages:169-190Volume:32Issue:1(41)Year:2011(XXI)Month: JuneFile-URL: http://www.revecon.ro/articles/2011-1/2011-1-10.pdfFile-Format: Application/pdfHandle: RePEc:ine:journl:v:1:y:2011:i:41:p:169-190

This article looks at the gains from improved market efficiency in long-distance grain trade in the second half of the nineteenth century, when violations of the law of one price were reduced due to improved information transmission. Two markets, a major export centre, Chicago, and a major importer, Liverpool, are analysed. We show that the law of one price equilibrium was an ‘attractor equilibrium’. The implication is that prices converged to that equilibrium in a tâtonnement process. Because of asymmetrically timed information between markets separated by long distances there were periods of excess demand as well as excess supply, which triggered off the tâtonnement process. Over time, adjustments to equilibrium, as measured by the half-life of a shock, became faster and violations of the law of one price become smaller. There were significant gains from improved market efficiency, which took place after the information ‘regime’ shifted from pre-telegraphic communication to a regime with swift transmission of information in an era that saw the development of a sophisticated commercial press and telegraphic communication. This article is the first attempt to actually measure the gains from improved market efficiency and it demonstrates that improved market efficiency probably stimulated trade more than falling transatlantic transport costs. Deadweight losses decline significantly as markets became more efficient. The conventional view that Harberger triangles are almost always insignificant is challenged.

The crucial importance of mountain regions for the cohesion policies is underlined by key Romanian and European Union documents. However, the lack of a unique definition or criteria used to delineate and analyze them constitutes a barrier to the elaboration of development strategies. This study has created Geographical Information Systems-based methodology to select Romanian hardly accessible mountain regions with a complex and high-valued touristic potential and determine their characteristics using spatial analysis based on specific indicators. The results indicate that mountain regions are affected by poor accessibility, resulting into the lack of basic supplies, as well as education and health issues. Tourism trends suggest reduced accommodation, food, and entertainment opportunities, increased number of tourists, but decreasing average durations of stay and usage of touristic facilities. Based on these findings, the outstanding touristic potential of Romanian mountain regions appears to be insufficiently valorized, calling for actions on behalf of the authorities.

Resumen Lanzado como un lema hace veinte anos, el desarrollo sostenible se ha convertido en uno de los principales retos del siglo xxi. Presentado como la solucion a todos los problemas que se plantean a la humanidad, el desarrollo sostenible aparece como un enigma: ?Como es posible aumentar el bienestar de la poblacion mundial, luchar contra las desigualdades sociales y, simultaneamente, salvaguardar la dinamica de la biosfera? ?Conviene confiar en el capitalismo y la regulacion por los precios, crear nuevas normas que enmarquen el capitalismo y, si es el caso, deben estar producidas por actores publicos o privados? La problematica del desarrollo sostenible nos conduce a preguntarnos sobre las nociones de crecimiento, desarrollo, bienestar asi como sobre la pertinencia del descrecimiento, por lo menos en las regiones mas prosperas del planeta.

Technology appears to be making fine-scale charging (as in tolls on roads that depend on time of day or even on current and anticipated levels of congestion) increasingly feasible. Such charging also appears to be increasingly desirable, as traffic on roads continues to grow and costs and public opposition limit new construction. Similar incentives towards fine-scale charging also appear to be operating in communications and other areas, such as electricity usage. Standard economic theory supports such measures and technology is being developed and deployed to implement them. But their spread is not very rapid and their prospects for the future are uncertain. This paper presents a collection of sketches, ranging from ancient history to very recent developments, that illustrate the costs that charging imposes. Some of those costs are explicit (in terms of the monetary costs to users and the costs of implementing the charging mechanisms). Others are implicit, such as the time or the mental processing costs of users. These argue that the case for fine-scale charging is not unambiguous and that in many cases such charging may lead to undesirable outcomes.

Modular concepts and logistics centers are the basic instruments for improving resource utilization in European transport system. Efficacy of the system and integration of transport services are not as advanced as they could be. Europe needs efficient logistics of freight traffic together with the combining of all aspects of traffic in order to retain and improve its competitiveness and progress in conformity with Lisbon co-modality programme and concept. Rapid development of freight traffic and congestion, accidents, noise and pollution, all the consequences of this rapid development, present economic, social, and ecological problems that have to be solved. Efficient planning, managing and control of transportation system are not yet developed enough. It is necessary to introduce modern logistics solutions in order to use less transport operations for transporting more goods.

Residential electricity consumption in Malaysia is increasing rapidly and poses a threat to energy security. Therefore, it is very important to understand the way residential electricity consumption responds to its determinants so that effective measures to contain its rapid growth can be undertaken. The current study aims to examine the responsiveness of residential electricity consumption towards real disposable income, price of electricity, price of electrical appliances population and foreign direct investment in Malaysia for 1978-2013 period. Residential electricity consumption is only elastic towards real disposable income. The magnitude of own price elasticity is larger than cross elasticity of complements. The study shed some light on the responsiveness of residential electricity consumption, which can help Malaysia in developing new policies to control energy consumption without affecting economic growth adversely.

The notion of development blocks (Dahmen, 1950, 1991) suggests the co-evolution of technologies and industries through complementarities and the overcoming of imbalances. This study proposes and applies a methodology to analyse development blocks empirically. To assess the extent and character of innovational interdependencies between industries the study combines analysis of innovation biographies and statistical network analysis. This is made possible by using data from a newly constructed innovation output database for Sweden. The study finds ten communities of closely related industries in which innovation activity has been prompted by the emergence of technological imbalances or by the exploitation of new technological opportunities. The communities found in the Swedish network of innovation are shown to be stable over time and often characterized by strong user-supplier interdependencies. These findings serve to stress how historical imbalances and opportunities are key to understanding the dynamics of the long-run development of industries and new technologies.

Major nuclear accidents as recently in Fukushima set nuclear power plant security at the top of the public agenda. Using data of the German Socio-Economic Panel we analyze the effects of the Fukushima accident and a subsequent government decision on nuclear power phase-out on several measures of subjective perception in Germany. We find that the Fukushima accident increases the probability to report greater worries about the environment. Furthermore, we find evidence for a decrease in the probability to be very worried about the security of nuclear power plants following the government's resolution on nuclear phase-out. Finally we find that the probabilities of reporting very high concerns are related to the distance between the respondents' place of residence and the nearest nuclear power station.

In the present paper we propose a methodology to assess the global EROI of coal, oil, and gas, from the beginning of their reported production (respectively 1800, 1860 and 1890) to 2011. We first estimate on the same time periods the global time series of the energy prices of these different fossil fuels, the monetary return on investment of the energy sector, and the total energy intensity of the economy. These preliminary results allow us to estimate the historical global EROI of coal, oil and gas productions, and the historical EROI of the global primary fossil energy sector. We find that the maximum EROI of global oil and gas productions have respectively reached the values of 73:1 in 1931 and 200:1 in 1945, which is in line with previous studies that had hypothesized such results. Furthermore, we suggest that the EROI of global coal production has not yet reached its maximum value and that marginal gains are still to be expected in this sector thanks to coming technological improvement. We then present a new theoretical dynamic expression of the EROI of a given energy resource as a function of its cumulated production based on the original work of Dale et al. (2011). Modifications of the original model were needed in order to be able to perform calibrations on each of our price-based historical estimates of coal, oil, and gas global EROI. The calibrations of the theoretical models confirm that the maximum EROI of global oil and gas productions have both already been reached in the 1940’ around 60±15 and180±20 respectively. We then use the theoretical EROI models in a prospective exercise and found that they give very consistent results for oil and gas since their maximum EROI is already passed. Regarding coal, we obtain more different outputs. Even if it is impossible to give a really precise estimation, we think it can be fairly postulated that the maximum coal EROI will occur between 2020 and 2045, around a value of 110(±20).

In 1901, six Australian states joined together in political and economic union, creating an internal free trade area and adopting a common external tariff. This paper investigates the impact of federation on Australia's internal and international trade flows by studying changes in the "border effect" over this time. This is possible because Australian states reported intra-Australian trade prior to 1901 and for eight years after federation. The results indicate that federation itself produced little change in Australia's trade patterns, but that the border effect increased substantially between 1906 and 1909 when the protectionist Lyne Tariff was imposed.

Industrial production imposes geographical, economic and cultural distances between producers and consumers. The concept of constituting 'missing objects' can help shrink these distances by enabling actors to engage in discourses and practices about contexts beyond what is materially present. Since the mid-1990s, food miles have emerged as an example of missing objects, representing the distance that agricultural products travel from the farm to the dining table, and the environmental effects of transportation. I analyse how consumers, farmers, activists, industry and policy-makers in the United States and Europe are building agency in making and using food miles.

The standard source for pre-WWII global freight rate trends is the Isserlis British tramp shipping index. We think it is flawed, and that its sources offer vastly more information than the Isserlis aggregate contains. The new data confirm the precipitous decline in nominal freight rates before the World War I, but it also extends the series to the 1940s. Furthermore, our new series is linked to the post-World War II era (documented by David Hummels), so that we can be more precise about what has happened over the very long run. We also create route-specific deflators by using the prices of commodities transported. Previous scholars have deflated their nominal freight rate indices by a price index that includes tradables not carried on all routes and non-tradables not carried on any route. Our deflated indices offer a more effective measure of the contribution of declining freight rates to commodity-price convergence across trading regions. Using the pricedual method and new indices for factor prices, we then calculate total factor productivity growth pre-war and interwar for five global routes. Finally, we identify the sources of the total factor productivity growth.

Challanges appear day by day and selling more services than products has become an exciting challenge. In the last years the number of services sold has overcomed the number of products sold. The purpose of this paper is to show how the world crisis has effected confidence in services in the European Union. Services are a part of our lives and due to their intangibility the decision of buying them becomes even more important because we can fail in choosing a service that does not accomplish what we need from it. After reading this we shall see that in services it is very important the relationship created between the company and the client.Unfortunately, the financial crisis has had a serious impact on the sale of services.

Commonly used trade-weighted real exchange rate indices are computed as indices-of-indices, and thus do not adequately account for growth in trade with developing countries. Weighted Average Relative Price (WARP) indices solve this problem but do not control for productivity differences, as developing countries are observed to have lower price levels via the Balassa-Samuelson effect. In this paper, we remedy these problems in two ways. First we propose a Balassa-Samuelson productivity adjustment to Weighted Average Relative Price indices (BS-WARP). Secondly, we introduce a Weighted Average Relative Unit Labor Cost index (WARULC) for manufacturing and show that this measure does a much better job predicting trade imbalances and declines in manufacturing employment than the IMF's Relative ULC measure created as an index-of-indices. Our series reveal that for many countries currently mired in liquidity traps, relative prices reached historic highs heading into the financial crisis of 2008. We document that in 2002 -- during the surprisingly sudden collapse in US manufacturing -- US relative prices had not been that high relative to trading partners since the worst year of the Great Depression.

By relying on a new dataset, this paper presents an econometric strategy to test the Fenoaltea’s thesis with regard to both the genesis of current account fluctuations and of the investment cycle. We perform a Granger causality test that shows that the persistent current account deficits in the years from unification from WW1 were generated by variations in capital inflows, as pointed by Fenoaltea, and not by the dynamics of the GDP, as claimed by the Bonelli-Cafagna model. Finally, this paper supports the Fenoaltea’s thesis that these capital inflows prompted a general investment cycle which included both construction and industrial investments

Tres décadas después de la decisión gubernamental de paralizar y replantear el programa atómico español que se había diseñado en los años del desarrollismo, la controversia permanece abierta. Pese a su relevancia, la historiografía económica de la energía nuclear está tan sólo en sus inicios. Este trabajo analiza el papel que el Estado jugó para conseguir que uno de los países más pobres de Europa occidental entrara en el exclusivo club de países productores de esa energía. Proponemos una nueva periodización del avance de la energía nuclear en España basada en la evolución político-económica del sector que va más allá de los estadios tecnológicos que se describen en la literatura.

The common European electricity market requires both market integration and transmission grid expansion, including trans-border interconnectors. Although the benefits of increased interconnectivity are widely acknowledged, expansion of interconnectors is often very slow. This paper gathers insights on the reasons behind this "grid-lock" drawing on the study of the German-Polish border. Although two interconnectors already exist, the trade is blocked by unplanned electricity loop flows. A third interconnector has been discussed for years, but saw little progress in spite of declarations of support on both sides. Drawing on the existing literature on the topic of grid expansion we identify four hypotheses for the grid-lock: inadequate financing; diverging interests; governance and administration problems; and different actors' motivations, trust and security perceptions. We evaluate them using the empirical material gathered through document analysis and stakeholder interviews conducted in Germany and Poland. None of the hypotheses on its own can explain the "gridlock". However, while financing has not been a major obstacle, divergent interests had an impact on the project delay, administrative and governance problems are a great hindrance on the technical level, while motivations influence interstate political relations and policy shaping. EU support and closer bilateral cooperation provide opportunities to address these challenges.

The principle of tariffs dispersion, or differential tariffs depending on country of origin, is well known. For instance, Canada adapted a double column of tariffs after 1846, Spain in 1877, and Switzerland in the 1880-1890s. But there has never before been a comprehensive measure for any national economy, to our knowledge. This contribution proposes an original and exhaustive measure of customs tariffs dispersion depending on the origin of imported products for France between 1850 and 1913. Part of this dispersion arises indirectly as the result of compiling the nomenclature - or the schedule of categories - for France's general trade chart. Our study nevertheless reveals the existence of direct discriminatory practices applied to certain countries for certain products. The creation of this measure yields important insights. First, tariff dispersion's evolution completes the analysis of the chronology of trade policy. Second, it is possible to link tariff discrimination, imports in particular sectors, and national production. In our opinion, the paper should pave the way to work that reintroduces a country-specific dimension into the study of late 19th century commercial policy.

Cette étude propose une mesure du niveau et de la volatilité des tarifs douaniers appliquée à chacun des partenaires commerciaux de la France au cours de la période 1850-1913. Sur la base des taux moyens, une typologie originale issue de la classification ascendante hiérarchique est proposée. La taxation des produits tropicaux apparait comme un facteur explicatif clef des écarts entre les pays même si le groupe des pays exportateurs de denrées exotiques ne peut être considéré comme homogène.

Cet article cherche à montrer que les sucres des colonies ont été sacrifiés sur l’autel de la libéralisation des échanges internationaux dans les années 1860. Afin de maintenir des recettes douanières déclinantes du fait des conséquences des accords commerciaux, parmi les produits tropicaux (cacao, café, sucre) les sucres des colonies sont les seuls à ne pas bénéficier d’une diminution des droits.

We investigate the costs of transportation regulation using the example of agricultural markets in the United States. Using a large database of prices by state of agricultural commodities, we find that the coefficient of variation (as a measure of market integration between states) falls for many commodities until the First World War. We demonstrate that this reflected changes in transportation costs which in turn in the long run depended on productivity growth in railroads. 1920 marked a change in this relationship, however, and between the First and Second World Wars we find considerable disintegration of agricultural markets, ultimately as a consequence of the 1920 Transportation Act. We argue that this benefited railroad companies in the 1920s and workers in the 1930s, and we put forward an estimate of the welfare losses for the consumers of railroad services (i.e. agricultural producers and final consumers).

The processes of structural change and modernisation in the food distribution industry have been submitted to different economic and institutional frameworks in European countries. Two essential factors have affected these changes: on one hand, the role of technical, financial and organisational innovations and on the other, institutional factors. The weight of both has varied depending on the historical circumstances of the countries in consideration and their level of development. This paper discusses with the framework of the “latecomers”. In these countries, the factor of innovation has been produced in terms of appropriation, whether this is technological or organisational, usually influenced by foreign models or through direct foreign investment. The impact of these innovations has been highly conditioned by inflexible institutional surroundings. Considering the Spanish food trade in the last sixty years is a good way of dealing with the processes of structural change in Mediterranean Europe. This paper helps one understand the role taken by countries which introduced factors of innovation and growth in less favourable surroundings than those of developed Europe.