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Regional Competition (regional + competition)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Gresham on horseback: the monetary roots of Spanish American political fragmentation in the nineteenth century1

ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 3 2009
MARIA ALEJANDRA IRIGOIN
This article deals with the political economic consequences of the disappearance of the Spanish silver peso standard in Spanish America, the longest monetary union that ever existed. With the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808, the fiscal and political structure of the empire imploded and most colonies became independent. Regional competition for revenues exacerbated budget shortfalls driven by military expenditure. Local elites established in former colonial Treasury districts started highly diverse monetary experiments to procure funds. Those in control of mint houses started minting their own coins or debased existing silver currency. Elsewhere, inconvertible paper currency was also created to meet budget deficits. As a result, the most valuable feature of the Spanish American silver peso, its quality standard, was broken and the standard that had organized the early modern international economy for more than 300 years ceased to exist altogether. In Spanish America, as diverse monies co-existed within a formerly highly integrated economic space, a widespread Gresham's law effect exacerbated the conflict among local and regional elites. This fostered the political fragmentation of colonial Spanish America into an increasing number of political and monetary sovereign entities during the nineteenth century. [source]

Reconfiguring ,post-socialist' regions: cross-border networks and regional competition in the Slovak and Ukrainian clothing industry

GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 3 2008
ADRIAN SMITH
Abstract The global garment industry is currently being reshaped in dramatic ways through processes of trade liberalization, delocalization and interfirm and interregional competition. There has been much speculation about the increasing importance of factor (especially labour) costs in fuelling further rounds of de-localization of garment production towards low-cost production locations, such as China and India. However, the extent to which these processes mean the end to garment production in higher factor-cost locations, including those neighbouring the major clothing markets of the USA and the EU, is open to question. In this article we interrogate the interregional shifts in garment sourcing taking place in Europe and its surrounding regions. While factor costs (including labour) are important determinants of the geography of sourcing, a range of other costs (logistical and policy costs) are important in structuring the geographies of global and regional production. Firms in the Slovak Republic are responding to increasing competitive pressures and we assess how trans-border sourcing, subcontracting and FDI are being integrated into strategies to sustain European production networks. We highlight the emergence of cross-border production relocation to Ukraine as one specific strategy. We examine the product specificity of these changes and the ways in which they are embedded within already existing production networks, forms of cross-border contracting and central European trade regimes. In other words, we explore some of the forces that shape the somewhat tentative continuation of garment production for export to EU markets in central Europe despite the ,spectre of China'. [source]

Dynamics of regional coexistence for more or less equal competitors

JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2003
C. Patrick Doncaster
Summary 1Competition between two species in a metapopulation involves each inhibiting the other's ability firstly to colonize an already occupied area and then to persist in it. Models for regional competition of this kind have 3-D dynamics, from which it has proved difficult to extract useful predictions except for special conditions. We introduce a 2-D general model for species that are equally vigorous at inhibiting the ability of others to remain in an occupied patch as to arrive there. The model covers the full spectrum of competitive interactions, from weak to strong and symmetrical to asymmetrical. Its Lotka,Volterra dynamics extend the general theory of competitive coexistence by generating clear predictions for community structure, amenable to cross-system comparisons and experimental manipulations. 2Previous 2-D models of interactions between dominant and fugitive species are special cases of the 2-D general model. Moderately asymmetrical competition has two outcomes distinctly different from dominant,fugitive interactions, at both the scale of metapopulation and population: (i) slow growing and weak competitors coexist with faster growing superior competitors, albeit at reduced densities; and (b) habitat removal always yields relative gains in abundance for species with higher growth capacity, but the gains are absolute only for species subjected to competitive impacts that exceed within-species impacts. Extinctions of slow growing and weak competitors provide the most sensitive indication of habitat degradation, and their losses also have the least effect on community structure. 3The 2-D general model further predicts that highly productive communities will tolerate differences between species in their capacity for population growth, whereas less productive communities will tolerate stronger competitive interactions between species. This prediction applies equally to a population of resource consumers as to a metapopulation of colonists. The model explicitly links local and regional population dynamics to r,K selection in community structure by predicting a prevalence of growth-orientated species in resource-poor habitats and competition-orientated species in resource-rich habitats. [source]

"Sim Wars": A New Edge to Academic Residency Competitions

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 2009
Yasuharu Okuda
Introduction: Simulation training is an educational modality that is increasingly being utilized by emergency medicine programs to train and assess residents in core competencies. During a recent national conference, patient simulators were used in a competition to highlight multitasking, teamwork, and patient care skills. The combination of audience participation and an expert panel provided a creative forum for learning. Methods: the Foundation for Education and Research in Neurological Emergencies (FERNE) and the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association (EMRA) sponsored an innovative competition between emergency medicine residencies during the 2008 Scientific Assembly of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). This competition used high-fidelity simulations to create scenarios on neurologic emergencies. Six teams were selected to participate in the three-hour single-elimination competition. The three-member resident teams were then randomly paired against another institution. Three separate 10 minute scenarios were created for the initial round, allowing paired teams to compete on the same scenario. An expert panel provided commentary and insight on the management by each team. In addition, the experts provided feedback in the areas of communication and team training. Each round's winners were determined by the audience using an interactive system. Results: Based on the immediate feedback from participants, audience members and the expert panelists, this event was an entertaining and successful learning experience for both residents and faculty. Like the Clinical Pathological Cases (CPC) competitions, "Sim Wars" provides a showcase for residencies to demonstrate practice philosophies while providing a unique emphasis on teamwork and communication skills. The ability to expand this program to include regional competitions that lead to a national contest could be the framework for future exciting and educational events. [source]