Learning CAD at university through summaries of the rules of design intent

The ease with which 3D CAD models may be modified and reused are two key aspects that improve the design-intent variable and that can significantly shorten the development timelines of a product. A set of rules are gathered from various authors that take different 3D modelling strategies into account. These rules are then applied to CAD strategic-knowledge learning methodology and included in 3D CAD modelling exercises for students following the degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Burgos (Spain). The experiment was conducted in two groups with a total of 75 students. The design-intent rules were introduced in the different exercises that the teacher explained in both the theoretical and the practical classes. In addition, a summary of the different design rules in each of the practical exercises was explained in the practical classes in only one of the groups. The experimental results, reported in this paper, tested the influence of these summaries on overall improvements in 3D modelling and on the design-intent variable, which is subdivided into four sections: skeleton, structures, alterations and constraints. The use of the summaries of the design intent rules led to statistically significant improvements in 3D modelling in the experimental group, in comparison with the group of students to whom those summaries were not explained.     

Shrinkage Estimation Strategies in Generalised Ridge Regression Models: Low/High-Dimension Regime

In this study, we suggest pretest and shrinkage methods based on the generalised ridge regression estimation that is suitable for both multicollinear and high-dimensional problems. We review and develop theoretical results for some of the shrinkage estimators. The relative performance of the shrinkage estimators to some penalty methods is compared and assessed by both simulation and real-data analysis. We show that the suggested methods can be accounted as good competitors to regularisation techniques, by means of a mean squared error of estimation and prediction error. A thorough comparison of pretest and shrinkage estimators based on the maximum likelihood method to the penalty methods. In this paper, we extend the comparison outlined in his work using the least squares method for the generalised ridge regression.     

The contribution of granular and fundamental comparative advantage to European Union countries' export specialisation

This paper analyses the contribution of fundamental comparative advantage (a country-specific component) and granular comparative advantage (a firm-specific component) to European Union countries' export specialisation. We find that, on average, granular comparative advantage may explain export specialisation in 29% of industries, which account for 47% of total exports. We also show that 60% of the variation in export specialisation across countries and industries may be explained by granular comparative advantage. These results highlight that some outstanding firms may play a very important role in explaining European Union countries' export specialisation.     

The nature of trade,global production fragmentation and inflationary dynamics: Cross-country evidence

This study investigates under which circumstances trade has impact on inflation dynamics by examining the independent effects of trade intensity, intra-industry trade and trade on value added. Trade in goods is decomposed into consumption (final) goods and intermediate inputs to deepen the assessment of the role of the globalisation of production activities on inflation dynamics. Open-economy new Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) analyses suggest that inflation is sensitive to domestic factors and that the relevance of external factors changes with respect to the nature of trade, country groups and time. Vertical intra-industry trade in intermediate inputs and value-added trade play important role, whereas final goods trade has no statistically significant effect on inflation dynamics.     

Financial liberalization,private investment and portfolio choice: Financialization of real sectors in emerging markets

Using firm level panel data, we analyze the impacts of rates of return gap between financial and fixed investments under uncertainty on real investment performance in three emerging markets, Argentina, Mexico and Turkey. Employing a portfolio choice model to explain the low fixed investment rates in developing countries during the 1990s, we suggest that rather than investing in irreversible long-term fixed investments, firms may choose to invest in reversible short-term financial investments depending on respective rates of returns and the overall uncertainty in the economy. The empirical results show that increasing rates of return gap and uncertainty have an economically and statistically significant fixed investment reducing effect while the opposite is true with respect to financial investments.     

Voluntary Environmental Agreements: Taking Up Positions And Meeting Pressure

This paper portrays voluntary agreements as a Nash-bargaining game between the authorities and the polluting industry. Before bargaining starts, the authorities threaten to introduce emission licences if the negotiations come to nothing, while industry, by the use of lobbying campaigns, can make it politically costly to regulate by law. The most likely game of the ones considered is characterized by the authorities first announcing a level of licensing, whereupon industry will adjust its lobbying activity. This game results in a relatively defensive industry and authorities than other games under consideration.     

Restructuring the State-Owned Banking Sector: A Comparative Assessment of Approaches in Central Europe

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

CAPITALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT IN AGRICULTURAL LAND PRICES: WHAT DO WE KNOW?

Abstract.  The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of existing literature, both theoretically and empirically, on the extent to which agricultural subsidies do translate into higher land values and rents and finally benefit landowners instead of agricultural producers. Our review shows that agricultural support policy instruments contribute to increasing the rental price of farmland, and that the extent of this increase closely depends on the level of the supply price elasticity of farmland relative to those of other factors/inputs on the one hand, and on the range of the possibilities of factor/input substitution in agricultural production on the other hand. The empirical literature shows that land prices and rents have in general a significant positive and inelastic response to government support. Such inelastic response is thought to reflect the uncertain future of the farm programmes. And in general, studies have indicated that land prices are more responsive to government-based returns than to market-based returns.