The Effects of Regional Capital Subsidies on Productivity Growth: A Case Study of the Greek Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industry*

Abstract. Capital subsidies form a major instrument of industrial and regional policy for economically developed countries all over the world, including many European Union and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Research findings have challenged the effectiveness of capital subsidies in assisting productivity growth. This paper treats capital subsidies as a new input and estimates a stochastic production frontier that is not bound by the restrictions imposed by approaches used in previous research works. It is shown that capital subsidies affect total factor productivity growth through technical change and not through scale efficiency, while the disadvantaged location of firms affects technical efficiency.     

Food Inflation in the European Union: Distribution Analysis and Spatial Effects

In the European Union (EU), homogenous inflation forces are expected to prevail because of increased economic integration, especially after the creation of a single currency area. This expectation is directly related to the issue of inflation convergence, which has gained increasing attention by both academics and policy makers in Europe. Although the examination of core inflation is of great importance for macroeconomic policy, the role of disaggregate inflation indices, and especially food inflation, has also been emphasized in the literature. However, the issue of food inflation convergence has been largely ignored to date in empirical studies. This study explores the evolving distribution of food inflation rates in the EU‐25 member states using distribution dynamics analysis and covering the period from January 1997 to March 2011. This analysis assumes that each country represents an independent observation, providing unique information that can be used to estimate the transition dynamics of inflation. We show that spatial autocorrelation prevails inside the EU‐25, and, therefore, the independency assumption is violated. To ensure spatial independence, the Getis spatial filter is implemented prior to a distribution dynamics analysis. The results of this analysis confirm the existence of convergence trends, which are even clearer after the spatial filtering procedure, indicating, on the one hand, the influence of spatial effects on food inflation and, on the other hand, the effectiveness of the Getis spatial filtering technique. En la Unión Europea (UE), se espera que las fuerzas de inflación homogéneas prevalezcan debido a la mayor integración económica, sobre todo después de la creación de la zona de moneda única. Esta expectativa se relaciona directamente con el tema de la convergencia de la inflación, que ha ganado cada vez más atención por parte de los investigadores académicos y los decisores políticos europeos. Aunque el análisis de la inflación subyacente es de gran importancia para la política macroeconómica, el papel de los índices de inflación a niveles desagregados, sobre todo en el caso de la inflación de alimentos, ha sido un tema enfatizado por la literatura especializada. Sin embargo, la cuestión de la convergencia de la inflación de alimentos carece hasta la fecha de estudios empíricos. El artículo presente estudia la evolución de la distribución de las tasas de inflación de alimentos en los estados miembros de la UE‐25, utilizando el método de análisis de la dinámica de distribución (distribution dynamic analysis) y abarca el período comprendido entre enero de 1997 a marzo de 2011. Este análisis supone que cada país representa una observación independiente que proporciona información única que se puede utilizada para estimar la dinámica de transición inflacionaria. El presente estudio demuestra que la autocorrelación espacial prevalece dentro de los estados UE‐ 25, y por lo tanto la hipótesis de independencia estadística de las observaciones es violada. Para garantizar la independencia espacial, el método de filtrado espacial Getis (Getis Spatial Filter) es implementado antes de proceder con el análisis de la dinámica de distribución. Los resultados del análisis confirman la existencia de las tendencias de convergencia, que son aún más claras después de la aplicación del filtrado espacial. Estos resultados evidencian por un lado, la influencia de los efectos espaciales en la inflación de alimentos, y por otro lado, la eficacia de la técnica de filtrado espacial de Getis. 在欧盟中,由于区域经济一体化进程的推进,同质商品的通货膨胀盛行,特别是单一货币区域建立后,该趋势更为明显。这种演化态势和通货膨胀的收敛问题直接相关,已经引起了欧洲学术界和政策制定者的关注。虽然核心通胀的检测对宏观经济政策十分重要,但是分解通胀指数的作用,尤其是本文所强调的食品通胀也有文献中提及。然而,食品通胀的收敛问题却在实证研究中很大程度上被忽视。本文利用分布动力学方法对欧盟25国1997年1月至2011年3月的食品通胀率的演化分布进行分析。假设每个国家代表一个独立的观察个体并提供唯一的信息,可用于估计通胀的转变动态,研究发现空间自相关在欧盟25国中普遍存在,因此独立假设不成立。为了保证空间独立性,在进行分布动力学分析之前,先使用Getis空间滤波技术进行处理。分析结果证实了收敛趋势的存在,且该趋势在空间滤波程序处理后更为明显。它一方面显示出食品通胀空间效应的影响,另一方面表现出Getis空间滤波技术的有效性。     

Shaking table tests on a stone masonry building: modeling and identification of dynamic properties including soil-foundation-structure interaction

This article presents the identification of dynamic properties of a stone masonry building, followed by numerical simulation of its dynamic response accounting for soil-foundation-structure interaction. The first part regards numerical simulations of the earthquake response of a two-story building prototype with timber floors, made of three-leaf stone masonry without laces. This 1:2 scale prototype was tested on a shaking table in its as-built state and after strengthening, at the National Technical University of Athens. Afterward, the building prototype was modeled with flat shell elements and equivalent frames (common frames and macro-elements), for an investigation of its linear and nonlinear seismic response, assuming base fixity. Numerical results were compared to the experimental ones, which yielded conclusions on the considerations of each employed modeling strategy, as well as its efficiency and applicability. The second part considers the effect of soil-structure interaction using appropriately modified foundation stiffness values to account for the foundation soil flexibility. Comparison of the numerical results with and without SSI effects showed how the flexibility of the soil-foundation system and the soil-structure interaction modified the system’s modal characteristics and response within the elastic range, in terms of both seismic loads and deformations, and produced conclusions about its consequences on the overall structural stability.     

Strengths and weaknesses of accessibility instruments in planning practice: technological rules based on experiential workshops

Accessibility instruments can play a valuable role in urban planning practice by providing a practical framework for exploring and testing relationships between land use and transport infrastructure. Despite many available accessibility instruments, they are still not widely used in planning practice. This paper explores the background of this problem by examining the findings of a EU-funded study on the usability and usefulness of existing accessibility instruments. The study applied 16 instruments in local planning contexts according to a standardized process protocol. The outcomes of these so-called experiential workshops were analysed through a standardized measurement protocol, which included participant observation along with pre- and post-workshop practitioner questionnaires. This broad investigation presents a rich analytical tool for understanding how different types of accessibility measures, spatial resolutions of output and levels of comprehensiveness affect usability and usefulness. Based on this we propose 10 technological rules that (a) can be used directly in practice to improve usability of accessibility instruments and (b) can provide hypotheses to be examined in further academic studies. Our results suggest that instead of striving for the ultimate accessibility measure, it would be more effective to identify which measures could successfully serve different user needs in accessibility planning.     

The Catastrophic Repairs of Holyrood Abbey Church in 1760

The collapse of the significant church of Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh in December 1768 is discussed as the result of the ill-conceived repair of the roof in 1760, i.e., the substitution of the timber trusses with closelyspaced diaphragm masonry walls that aggravated the delicate equilibrium of the vaults and the poor state of a building being mutilated over 250 years. This study interprets these repairs by demonstrating the authorship and partnership of the architect John Douglas with the mason-developer James McPherson, who combined architectural ambition (the aesthetics of a flagstone roof) with the (cheaper) option of diaphragms, which would not involve a wright. The detailed examination of the procurement, the process of the intervention, the collapse, and the limited impact of its aftermath, are framed in a wider technical and historical context in Edinburgh and Scotland, during a period marked by several failures of medieval churches, and reveals a poor understanding of a critical element in Gothic construction. Analysis of all public archive material available sheds light on key events of the case, and critical study of the work of the two partners’ attempts to identify the intentions of their project, whose limitations were inevitable once the partnership was formed.     

Borders Moderating Distance: A Social Network Analysis of Spatial Effects on Policy Interaction

The present paper examines the importance of integrating geographical effects into the analysis of social networks. Specifically, we study the impacts of spatial distance and territorial borders on information exchange within two European cross-border regions where there is evidence of extensive cross-border political interaction in the domain of public transportation. We use exponential random graph models to review how these spatial factors influence policy interaction. We show how the effect of distance on the exchange of information between organizations is less obvious than it seems at first sight, when we control for endogenous networks effects with which it tends to be confounded. We also explore moderating effects among the spatial factors studied and in particular how the effect of distance affects information exchange by territoriality. While the probability of interaction decreases with distance in the context of domestic ties, distance does not exert the same friction when it comes to cross-border ties. These findings suggest that borders are not necessarily a barrier to interaction and that peripheral actors located in border regions may bridge distance in order to access strategic information they do not have access to within their territorial jurisdiction and is likely concentrated in foreign decision centers.     

An Investigation of Ceramic Forming Method Using Reverse Engineering Techniques: The Case of Oinochoai from Dion, Macedonia, Greece

A method for investigating the forming technique of ancient ceramic vessels is presented. The recording, analysis, and comparison of the vessels' metrical properties by means of computer tomography, three-dimensional laser scanning, and solid-modeling software enables the identification of the applied manufacturing methods. A finite elements method-based simulation of the developed deformations during the vessels' manufacture offers significant insight into the applied shaping procedures. By making possible the exact recording of both the internal and external form of the vessels as well as the simulation of the forming procedure, the method represents a marked improvement to hitherto applied methods based on radiography. The method is applied on two early iron age ceramic jugs (oinochoai) found as offerings in tombs in excavations in Dion, Greece.     

Historic Barrel Vaults Undergoing Differential Settlements

ABSTRACT

A principal reason of damage in historic masonry vaults consists in relative displacements of the vaults’ abutments. Excluding the case of seismic-induced damage, cracks are often produced by differential settlements generated by the lateral wall instability or soil degradation (e.g., due to stress concentrations, non-uniform soil stratigraphy, flooding phenomena etc.). When dealing with historic vaults, the effects of long-term deformation processes cannot often be linked directly to causes, which may also be unknown. In this article, the effects of differential settlements on historic masonry barrel vaults are investigated. An efficient 3D contact-based model was developed to reproduce experiments on a scaled pointed barrel vault (representative of a typology of late-medieval barrel vaults in Scotland) under non-uniform differential settlement. First, the numerical model is used to simulate the experimental campaign, achieving good agreement in terms of crack pattern (longitudinal shear) and transverse-longitudinal deformation profiles. Then, further analyses are carried out to gain insight on the effects of several plausible uniform and non-uniform settlement patterns on representative historic barrel vaults. Various settlement configurations were analysed and complex failure patterns observed. This study could help analysts in understanding the nature of on-going deformation process in historic masonry vaults and engineers in the design of strengthening strategies.