For Chapter 1: This paper offers a meta-regression analysis of the controversial impact of EU structural funds on the growth of the recipient regions. It identifies the factors that explain the heterogeneity in the size of 323 estimates of their impact recorded in 17 econometric studies. Heterogeneity comes from the publication status, the period examined, controlling for endogeneity, from the presence of several regressors but not from differences in functional forms. For Chapter 2: Recent spatial econometric contributions call for theory-driven spatial models and W matrices capturing actual and time-varying interregional linkages. This paper answers this call by developing theoretically Griliches' well-known knowledge production function to add knowledge externalities to it. They capture how human and private capital originating from one region benefit the creation of innovation elsewhere. Furthermore, we measure interregional interaction based on the actual flows of patent creation-citation and of migration of the educated workers. They have the advantage of capturing clearly the direction of the knowledge transfers. Their presence in the theoretical model leads to a reduced-form spatial cross-regressive model which differentiates better the role of each type of externality - and displays a better goodness of fit - than the spatially lagged model where spillovers depend on geographical proximity only. Both models are estimated on spatial panel data covering the dynamics of innovation across US states over the 1986-1999 period. For Chapter 3: The Ricardian framework is increasingly used for the study of the impact of climate change on farmland values. While most of the Ricardian studies assume no interaction between the geographical units under study, the few that do rely on traditional proximity-based dependence. In this paper we argue that since the larger share of agricultural goods produced by a state is not for its own local market, including interregional trade in the Ricardian framework provides new perspectives, avoids a missing variable bias and prevents erroneous conclusions. Our new framework is applied to the system of the U.S. states over the four most recent censuses (1997-2012) and demonstrate that climate and socio-economic conditions experienced in a state's trade partners have a significant role on that state's local farmland values.

Analysis of technical efficiency can be carried out by several possible approaches, such as a deterministic parametric approach, deterministic non-parametric approach (data envelopment analysis) and stochastic parametric approach. The content of this work is an analysis using stochastic parametric approach and deals with the efficiency computed by the help of production functions. The best known and most commonly used aggregate production function is a Cobb-Douglas production function, which is a modification of the static formulation of a relationship between variables and factors of production. The analysis of efficiency can be explained by using of different factors. In this work, the effectiveness is analyzed by the export value of controlled entities and dependent on GDP and public investment. Technical efficiency is studied comparing twenty-seven European Union economies. The analysis is applied to the universal values of the variables and the values per capita.

A avaliação do estado nutricional das culturas requer o uso de padrões para comparação, tais como os níveis críticos e as faixas de suficiência. Esses padrões de interesse agrícola geralmente são estimados a partir da curva de calibração da produção vegetal, que relaciona os rendimentos de uma cultura com a dose do adubo aplicada no solo ou com o teor de algum elemento nos tecidos. A curva de produção vegetal é fundamental para o desenvolvimento de pesquisas nas áreas de nutrição mineral de plantas e adubação, uma vez que o conhecimento a seu respeito possibilita o uso econômico de adubos e a elaboração de estratégias corretivas para o solo. No entanto, a curva de produção divide-se em diferentes regimes nutricionais, que lhe conferem uma forma peculiar e dificultam sua descrição matemática. O objetivo desse trabalho é a construção de modelos de regressão flexíveis, capazes de descrever adequadamente a curva de produção vegetal. Em uma primeira abordagem, modelos lineares segmentados com transições de fase suaves são usados para descrever a produção do trigo de inverno em função da adubação com nitrogênio. Por meio dos ajustes destes modelos, também são estimados os níveis críticos e as faixas de suficiência. Posteriormente, realiza-se a modelagem matemática da resposta vegetativa à adubação, desconsiderando doses tóxicas. Observa-se que cada tipo possível de resposta vegetativa é ligado de forma unívoca a uma função de produção agrícola. A técnica proposta, além de permitir a construção de novas funções de produção, fornece interpretações fisiológicas claras para parâmetros de alguns modelos de uso comum na agricultura. Com base na segunda abordagem, um novo enunciado para a lei de Mitscherlich é apresentado: quanto maior é o conteúdo total do nutriente limitante na planta, menor é o aproveitamento feito (a fim de lhe prover crescimento) de um incremento em sua disponibilidade - como consequência, os retornos da adubação são decrescentes. / The evaluation of the plant nutritional status requires standards for comparisons, such as the critical levels and sufficiency ranges. These standards are generally estimated by means of the yield curves in response to fertilizers, which relates production with doses applied or nutrient content in the plant tissues. The yield curve is essential for the development of researches on plant mineral nutrition and fertilization, since knowledge of this curve allows economic use of fertilizers and planning strategies for soil correction. However, the production curve is divided into different nutritional regimes, which give it a peculiar shape and hinders its mathematical description. In this work, the objective is to build flexible regression models, able to adequately describe the yield curves. In a first approach, linear piecewise models with smooth transitions between regimes are used to describe the winter-wheat yield in function of the nitrogen doses. By means of the fits of these models, the critical levels and sufficiency ranges are also estimated. In another approach, it is proposed a mathematical model for yield response (or returns) from fertilizers - toxic doses are neglected in this phase. It is verified that each possible yield response type is uniquely related with a production function. This approach allows to construct new production functions and, indeed, provides clear physiological interpretations for the parameters of some common models in agriculture. Based on the second approach, it is presented a new statement for the Mitscherlich law: the greater is the total content of the limiting nutrient in the plant, the lower is the exploited fraction (in order to provide growth) of an increment in its availability - as a consequence, the returns from fertilization are diminishing.

A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar a política de desoneração da folha de pagamentos da indústria de transformação por meio de uma abordagem metodológica alternativa e complementar ao método de diferenças em diferenças, que é usualmente utilizado em tais casos. Este tema é relevante na medida em que a perda de dinamismo do setor industrial brasileiro tem feito ressurgir o debate a respeito da hipótese de desindustrialização. Ainda que a ocorrência ou não deste fenômeno não seja consensual, este cenário levou o governo a retomar o uso de políticas industriais desde 2004, sendo a desoneração da folha de pagamentos uma das medidas mais relevantes tomadas recentemente para promover a recuperação do setor industrial. A medida ambiciona reduzir os custos trabalhistas para impulsionar o emprego e a produção do setor, além de melhorar sua competitividade, e se destaca pela grande quantidade de recursos empregada: entre 2011 e 2013 a renúncia fiscal associada à pollítica foi de R$ 20 bilhões. Para avaliar esta medida, a presente pesquisa considerou a tributação sobre a mão de obra como uma fonte de imperfeição no mercado de trabalho, a qual é estimada por meio da metodologia proposta por Petrin e Sivadasan (2013). Ao considerar que a política reduz tais imperfeições, foi possível estimar seu efeito no nível de emprego da indústria por meio de extensões ao modelo proposto pelos autores. Foram utilizados microdados da Pesquisa Industrial Anual (PIA-Empresa) em nível de firma entre os anos de 1996 e 2011. A variação no emprego das indústrias beneficiadas pela medida foi de apenas 0,84%, considerando somente as indústrias inicialmente beneficiadas pela política. Os efeitos da política aumentaram com sua expansão, o que ocorreu não somente como consequência do aumento no número de indústrias beneficiadas, mas também porque a medida passou a contemplar indústrias cujas elasticidades do emprego em relação aos tributos são maiores, fazendo com que o aumento no nível de emprego passasse para 5,14%. Além disso, os resultados mostraram que a variação no nível de emprego é maior para o trabalho do tipo blue collar do que para o trabalho do tipo white collar. Isto está em acordo com a teoria econômica sobre o mercado de trabalho porque um tipo de trabalho com atribuições mais específicas e que envolve maior aquisição de conhecimentos, como é o trabalho white collar, deve ser mais afetado por outras variáveis que não os tributos. / The Brazilian government and policy makers have been concerned about the industrial performance lately, which made industrial policies recover its relevance in the political agenda since 2004. One of the most important of such policies was the payroll tax exemption to some industries, which was created to reduce labor costs, and to stimulate the Brazilian industry production, employment and competitiveness. The high coverage of this policy resulted in an important reduction in the Social Security contribution: the policy has already reduced the contribution in BRL20 billion from 2011 to 2013. Both the program expenses and the perceived need to increase Brazilian industrial competitiveness are reasons to carry out a formal empirical evaluation. However, there are many factors to control in order to identify the policy effects by the Randomized Control Trials, which makes this approach hardly suitable. The methodology to estimate market imperfections developed by Petrin e Sivadasan (2013) is helpful in this case. These estimates represent any phenomena that moves the market away from competitive equilibrium, such as mark ups, firing and hiring costs, capital adjustment costs, taxes and subsides. Therefore, the payroll tax exemption can be treated as a decrease in the gap for industrial sector labor market equilibrium, and this relationship between policy and market imperfections allows the policy effects identification. The variables used are from the Annual Industrial Research - Enterprise (\"PIA - Empresa\"), and were studied at the firm level for the period between 1996 and 2011. The results suggest that the policy increased the employment level in 0.84% considering only industries selected at the policy\'s first stage. The estimated effect on employment level increases to 5.14% considering also industries benefited by the policy after its expansions, which is related to higher elasticity of employment with respect to taxes for the industries included. Besides that, results show that most of the jobs created are blue collar jobs, which is in accordance with previous expectations since white collar jobs usually requires more skilled workers and, therefore, reacts more to other factors than taxes.

A relação entre preço e custo marginal pode ser utilizada para evidenciar características das indústrias, com destaque para aspectos relacionados à concorrência. Uma das formas de estimar esta relação, definida como mark up, é a análise da relação entre insumos e produtos. Na presente pesquisa, este tipo de estudo foi realizado por meio da análise do resíduo de Solow, como em Hall (1986), e a partir da estimação da função de produção, conforme proposto por Loecker e Warzynski (2009). As características complementares dos procedimentos e o fato de haver insuficiente análise de aspectos concorrenciais das indústrias nacionais favorecem o emprego conjunto destas abordagens para o caso da indústria brasileira, sendo este o objetivo da presente pesquisa. Foram utilizados dados da PIA-Empresa (IBGE) para as indústrias de extração e transformação entre 1996 e 2007. A análise do resíduo de Solow evidenciou que a hipótese conjunta de retornos constantes de escala e concorrência perfeita para a indústria nacional não é válida, com altas estimativas de mark up para os setores extrativista, alimentício, florestal e químico. Já os setores têxtil e máquinas e equipamentos apresentaram baixas estimativas. As estimativas obtidas por meio da função de produção e a análise dos retornos de escala confirmaram os altos mark ups dos setores florestal e químico. Para os setores extrativista e alimentício as estimativas foram consideravelmente menores, o que foi interpretado como consequência do retorno de escala dos setores, que deve ser decrescente. Não houve diferença estatisticamente significativaentre as estimativas obtidas para os setores metalurgia básica, eletro eletrônico, têxtil e máquinas e equipamentos por meio das duas metodologias, o que corrobora as evidências encontradas sobre retornos de escala, que indicaram que estes são constantes para tais setores. Para os demais setores não foi possível obter constatações relevantes sobre as estimativas alternativas e retornos de escala. Dessa forma, foram encontradas evidêcias de que a hipótese de concorrência perfeita não é válida, com mark ups maiores do que dois para quase todos setores. / The price and marginal cost relation can evidence important industry features, especially the ones that concern competition. Input and output data can be used to estimate the price and marginal cost relation, defined as mark up. In this research, this type of study was done by the Solow residual analysis, as in Hall (1986), and by the production function estimation, as in Loecker e Warzynski (2009). The returns to scale influences both methodologies, and was used to compare their results. The methodologies complementaries features and the fact that there is few analisys about competition in brazilian industry stimulates the use of the Solow residual and the production function to calculate the mark up of the brazilian industry. The data of the extraction and transformation industries used in this research are from PIA-Empresa (IBGE) for the years between 1996 and 2007. The 104 industries were classified in eleven sectors: extrative, food, forest, textile, chemistry, non-metallic mineral, metallurgy, machines and equipment, electronics, general equipment and automotive vehicles. The Solow residual analysis rejected the competition and constants returns to scale hypothesis, and the extractive, food, forest and chemistry sectors showed high mark ups. Textile and machines and equipment had low mark ups. The mark up estimatives from the production function estimation and the returns to scale analysis confirmed the high mark ups for the forest and chemistry sectors. For the extractive and food sectors the mark ups were lower, what is probably consequence of the decreasing returns to scale that these sectors may have. There were no statistically significant di_erence between the mark ups estimatives obtained from both methodologies for the metallurgy, electronics, textile and machines and equipment sectors, what support the evidences of constant returns to scale that were found. The other sectors did not showed relevant conclusions about the relations between the estimatives and the returns to scale. Hence, the perfect concorrence hypotesys is not valid for the brazilian industry.

Orientador: Renato de Campos / Banca: Vagner Cavenaghi / Banca: Marcel Andreotti Musetti / Resumo: Na dinâmica dos mercados globais, a função produção contínua a ser uma área essencial para obtenção da vantagem competitiva nas organizações, onde, a maturidade dos processos produtivos está diretamente relacionada com o potencial competitivo dos negócios, principalmente, nas empresas de manufatura. Este trabalho examina os principais conceitos sobre estratégia competitiva e de produção, destacando o conceito dos critérios de desempenho, proposto por Slack (1993); o conceito das cinco forças competitivas, proposto por Porter (1979); e o conceito dos quatro estágios da função produção, proposto por Hayes e Wheelwright (1985), tendo como objetivo a elaboração de um estudo em seis empresas do setor calçadista da região de Birigui-SP, buscando identificar perfil estratégico destas empresas e proceder uma classificação do grau de maturidade da função produção, baseando-se no modelo dos quatro estágios de Hayes e Wheelwright. A pesquisa detém uma abordagem qualitativa e descritiva, utilizando o método de estudo de casos múltiplos. Quanto à maturidade da função produção nas empresas, os resultados sugerem, segundo as pesquisas, classificações ligeiramente variadas, onde as empresas mantiveram-se entre os estágios 1 e 2 do modelo proposto. Quanto à visão estratégica das empresas, é possível observar uma preocupação distinta com o design de seus produtos e o bem estar de seus clientes. No que se refere às forças de competitivas, é possível notar que os fornecedores e os produtos substitutos destacaram-se como as principais forças de impacto nas empresas analisadas, e os principais critérios de desempenho foram o custo e qualidade. Entende-se que os resultados encontrados são significativos e a utilização do modelo de quatro estágios da função produção se aplica como uma ferramenta para avaliação e classificação da função produção ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In the dynamics of global markets, production function remains a key area for securing competitive advantage in organizations, where the maturity of processes is directly related to potential competitive business, especially in manufacturign companies. This paper examines the main concepts of the competitive strategy and production, highlighting the concept of performance criteria, proposed by Slack (1993), the concept of the five competitive forces proposed by Porter (1979), and the concept of the four stages of production function proposed by Hayes and Weelwright (1985), aiming at the elaboration of a study in six companies in the footwear sector in the region of Birigui-SP in order to identify the strategic profile of these companies and make a classification of the degree of maturity of the production function, based on the model of four stages of Hayes and Wheelwright. The research has a qualitative and descriptive, using the method of multiple case study. As for the maturity of the production function in business, the results suggest, according to polls, ratings varied slightly, where companies have remained between stages 1 and 2 of the proposed model. As for the strategic vision of companies, we can observe a distinct concern with the design of its products and the welfare of their customers. With regard to competitive forces, it is possible to note that suppliers and substitute products stood out as key forces in business impact analysis and key performance criteria were cost and quality. It is understood that the results are significant and use the model of the four stages of production function is applied as a tool for assessment and classification of production function, and may assist in performance measurement and strategic alignment of organizational practice / Mestre

The urban water demand in Southwest Texas has grown rapidly in recent years due to the population increases in urban areas, which caused conflict between municipal and agricultural water use. Deficit irrigation is one important measure for solving this problem. A field experiment with seven different irrigation treatments and four cotton varieties was conducted at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Uvalde in the summers of 2008 and 2009 to examine the water saving potential and related phenological/physiological responses in Southwest Texas. The results showed that: 1) The threshold deficit ratio for a traditional deficit irrigation scheme falls between 0.7 and 0.8 for cotton production in Southwest Texas under a low energy precision application (LEPA) sprinkler irrigation system. The 70 percent evapotranspiration (ET)-initialled regulated deficit irrigation scheme (70R) performed well in maintaining lint yield in most cotton varieties tested. The significant changes detected in lint quality failed to introduce premiums or discounts in cotton price. 2) The phenological parameters (plant height, node number and flower/fruit number) showed clear trends that illustrate the relationship between increased stress level and decreased plant growth and development. The observed inconsistency of the physiological responses in the two growing seasons may imply that physiological parameters are not good direct predictors of lint yield if measurements are conducted only on a point basis. The partitioning coefficients of boll dry weight in both years failed to show a significant difference between deficit irrigation treatments and the control, indicating that reallocation of carbohydrates may not be the major factor of maintaining lint yield for the deficit irrigation treatments. 3) Economic analysis showed that due to the low water price, it is not currently profitable to adopt deficit irrigation. In case that water price is increased, it may become more profitable to adopt deficit irrigation. This work provides reference information to water authorities and policy makers to set quotas for municipal and agricultural water use and to value water properly through setting different water prices.

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This thesis comprises three essays on immigration, innovation, and trade. The first essay utilizes an enhanced gravity model to estimate the effect of lagged immigration waves on Canadian imports and exports, by province. Empirically, this model was tested using Canadian data on import and export flows to the top 40 countries of origin for immigrants to Canada based upon the composition of the most recent wave of immigrants. The results are consistent with previous studies, where immigrants increased both import and export trade flows. By adding the provincial immigrant wave variable, it was also found that new immigrants affect imports almost immediately, whereas for exports, the immigrant effect is not significant for at least 5 years and may take as long as 20 years to reach full impact.<p>The second essay utilizes an enhanced gravity model to estimate the effect of innovative capability on Canadian provincial exports to Canadas top 60 importing countries. Empirically, this model was tested using Canadian data on export flows to Canadas top 60 importing countries. The results are supportive of a provinces innovative capability leading to increased exports, where innovative capacity is measured by international patents, scientific journal articles, and R&D expenditures. For example, in terms of innovative capacity as measured by international (U.S.) patents, provinces with higher levels of international patents had higher levels of total exports, where this effect was greater for exports to developing versus developed countries. Furthermore, provincial R&D expenditures as well as the number of provincial scientific publications (in addition to provincial international patents) were found to be significant drivers in increasing the amount of provincial hi-tech exports to developed countries.<p>The third essay utilizes an augmented national ideas production function to examine skilled immigrants impact on Canadian innovation at the provincial level. Empirically, this model was tested using Canadian data by province on innovation flow over an 11 year time period, where innovation flow is defined in terms of international (U.S.) patents. It was found that skilled immigrants, who are proficient in either English or French, have a significant and positive impact on innovation flow in their home province. Further, in examining skilled immigrants by source region, it was found that skilled immigrants from developed countries have the greatest impact on their home provinces innovation flow. This is true of North American/European skilled immigrants for all skill-level categories including language proficiency, education, and immigrant class. For immigrants from developing countries, only highly educated Eastern Europeans and Low Income Asians classified as Independent Workers are both significant and positively related to their home provinces innovation flow.

This thesis comprises three essays on immigration, innovation, and trade. The first essay utilizes an enhanced gravity model to estimate the effect of lagged immigration waves on Canadian imports and exports, by province. Empirically, this model was tested using Canadian data on import and export flows to the top 40 countries of origin for immigrants to Canada based upon the composition of the most recent wave of immigrants. The results are consistent with previous studies, where immigrants increased both import and export trade flows. By adding the provincial immigrant wave variable, it was also found that new immigrants affect imports almost immediately, whereas for exports, the immigrant effect is not significant for at least 5 years and may take as long as 20 years to reach full impact.<p>The second essay utilizes an enhanced gravity model to estimate the effect of innovative capability on Canadian provincial exports to Canadas top 60 importing countries. Empirically, this model was tested using Canadian data on export flows to Canadas top 60 importing countries. The results are supportive of a provinces innovative capability leading to increased exports, where innovative capacity is measured by international patents, scientific journal articles, and R&D expenditures. For example, in terms of innovative capacity as measured by international (U.S.) patents, provinces with higher levels of international patents had higher levels of total exports, where this effect was greater for exports to developing versus developed countries. Furthermore, provincial R&D expenditures as well as the number of provincial scientific publications (in addition to provincial international patents) were found to be significant drivers in increasing the amount of provincial hi-tech exports to developed countries.<p>The third essay utilizes an augmented national ideas production function to examine skilled immigrants impact on Canadian innovation at the provincial level. Empirically, this model was tested using Canadian data by province on innovation flow over an 11 year time period, where innovation flow is defined in terms of international (U.S.) patents. It was found that skilled immigrants, who are proficient in either English or French, have a significant and positive impact on innovation flow in their home province. Further, in examining skilled immigrants by source region, it was found that skilled immigrants from developed countries have the greatest impact on their home provinces innovation flow. This is true of North American/European skilled immigrants for all skill-level categories including language proficiency, education, and immigrant class. For immigrants from developing countries, only highly educated Eastern Europeans and Low Income Asians classified as Independent Workers are both significant and positively related to their home provinces innovation flow.