Cork oak forest grows endemically in the coastal regions of the western Mediterranean basin, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. The cork agro-forestry systems play a key role in ecological processes, and the outer bark, or cork, can be extracted sustainability without damaging the tree or affecting biodiversity. Because of the properties of the cork, an important forestry and industrial structure has been developed around its most valuable goods. This paper describes the current global trade patterns in the Iberian Peninsula, where Portugal and Spain are world leaders. Although these countries bring most of their cork trade flows together with the rest of the world, there are clear differences between these sectors. The aim of this study was to identify these differences and to characterize each analysed sector from an economic perspective. The primary difference between the sectors lies in the characteristics of their supply chain and their capacity to generate wealth from raw cork. Portugal primarily produces and processes raw cork into products with high added value. Spain bases its cork sector on raw material and half-manufactured cork, and it is not able to use the full potential that cork provides. Catalonia is an exception because it is the global leader in the champagne stopper market. To encourage the development of the entire cork sector, every link in the supply chain should be strengthened through the establishment of companies and the generation of employment, and therefore the development of rural areas. Moreover, this industry must establish its own development strategies for the future, thereby increasing its investment in R&D and innovation in relation to the opportunities identified as follows: the potential for diversification beyond the wine market, the improvement potential for forest management and the enhancement of sustainability and eco-efficiency in every link of the cork supply chain.

/pdf/production-and-trade-analysis-in-the-iberian-cork-sector-3kbopjuvw8.pdf

Production and trade analysis in the Iberian cork sector: economic characterization of a forest industry.

The author evaluates the progress in agricultural liberalization -and the welfare effects for least-developed and net food-importing countries- as a result of agricultural price shocks resulting from the Uruguay Round. She findsthat: (1) The changes in welfare are significantly affected by the structure of trade and distortions in the domestic economy. (2) Although many economies are hurt by increases in world prices, losses in terms of trade are small relative to total GDP. Only in a few countries does the estimated welfare change constitute more than 1 percent of GDP. (3) In several countries, the distortion effects are significantly larger than the terms-of-trade effects. In some cases, the distortion effects work in opposition to the terms-of-trade effects and are large enough to reverse the sign of the net welfare change. In short, removing policy distortions could convert the small loss in terms of trade to potential gains. But many least-developed, net food-importing countries did not use the Round to support domestic efforts at trade reform. As most studies show, most gains from multilateral liberalization come from the countries'own liberalization efforts, so countries that failed to liberalize their trade policy lost the opportunity for gains.

Has agricultural trade liberalization improved welfare in the least-developed countries? Yes

This article presents an overview of the study of living standards in Spain from the perspective of anthropometric history and new data from recent research. The aim is to examine changes in nutrition during the industrial age through anthropometric indicators. The paper provides new evidence on the changes in height among different socioeconomic groups and its relation with health and human well-being in different periods and geographical regions. It also explores inequality before and during the process of industrialisation. In addition to tracking the effects of environmental changes on well-being and inequality between the proto-industrial period in the eighteenth century and the industrial leap in the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, it explores the costs of industrialisation in biological standards of living in the short- and the long-term. Finally, it suggests future directions of research.

Living Standards, Nutrition and Inequality in the Spanish Industrialisation. An Anthropometric View

Diccionario geografico-estadistico-historico de España y sus posesiones de ultramar / por Pascual Madoz ; tomo VII, [Cordobelas-Ezterripa]

SUMMARY Two management scenarios are simulated: a cork oak stand with regeneration treatments (sustainable scenario) and, a cork oak stand with no-regeneration treatment (unsustainable scenario), which leads the cork oaks to age until they eventually disappear. The aim of the paper is to compare the present value of income changes from the sustainable and unsustainable management scenarios in Cadiz (Spain) and Ain Snoussi (Tunisia), considering the multiple commercial uses and forest amenities enjoyed by private owners (only in Cadiz) of cork oak forests. The results show that the sustainable cork oak forest management in Ain Snoussi generates a higher present value of aggregated labour and capital incomes and leads to a capital loss when compared to the current cork oak depletion scenario. In addition, the sustainable scenario in Ain Snoussi would reduce the total self-employed income for households that depend on open-access grazing resources. In Cadiz, the cork oak forest sustainable management scenari...

Cork Oak Forest Management in Spain and Tunisia: Two Case Studies of Conflicts between Sustainability and Private Income

http://www.ub.edu/rhi/es/novedades-bibliograficas/134-el-negocio-del-corcho-en-espana-durante-el-siglo-xx.pdf

El negocio del corcho en España durante el siglo XX

In this work the evolution of the foreign Spanish trade of cork products during the 1849-2000 period is analyzed, using the Estadistica del Comercio Exterior de Espana. This analysis sets up important changes in the cork business from the industrial and commercial point of view, emphasizing the concentration of the industrial activity in the Iberian Peninsula, the importance acquired by the import trade in the last quarter of the XXth century, and the return to the cork stopper, after frustrating the diversification process of the cork industry and trade initiated in the first years of last century.

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/2108114.pdf

Cambios en el negocio mundial corchero: un análisis a largo plazo de las exportaciones españolas (1849-2000)

The aim of this paper is to undertake a comparative analysis of the particular features of the foreign trade in cork products from Portugal and Spain between 1930 and 1974. In the first part, we analyse the main structural alterations that occurred in the foreign trade in cork products from the two countries. This analysis highlights the Spanish loss of leadership in the area of cork exports, which passed to Portuguese producers after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Next we explain the reasons for this change, beginning with a series of factors that we consider to be the most relevant for the period under study. Because of the State's heavy involvement in the economy, a feature that was inherent in the political regimes of Salazar and Franco, questions relating to the institutional framework of the cork sector appear to be particularly pertinent, especially matters relating to the industrial, commercial and foreign exchange policies that were implemented in the two countries. Furthermore, in relation to the institutional question, we highlight the processes leading to the opening up of the two economies to the outside world during the period under study- namely their links with EFTA and the EEC. Such changes were all the more important because the foreign markets represented the preferential destination for the two countries' cork production. In the last part of this work, consideration of the production costs also shows itself to have been a decisive factor in determining the capacity to compete in foreign markets, where the two Iberian countries were faced with competition both from other cork-producing countries and from substitute products.

O comércio externo corticeiro na Península Ibérica no período de 1930 a 1974: uma perspectiva comparada

Esta publicacion se realiza con el animo de contribuir a generar un mayor conocimiento, o, dicho de otro modo, un mayor debate en el seno cientifico y academico, sobre el sistema agrosilvopastoril mayoritario en algunas regiones de Espana y Portugal, que ha sido denominado dehesa en el caso de Espana y montado en Portugal. Concretamente el objetivo principal que nos marcamos es comprobar el estado en el que se encuentra la investigacion sobre estas realidades, asi como los temas que han sido obviados y los cuales son necesarios abordar. En este sentido, debemos adelantar que el desarrollo rural construido en base a las potencialidades que ofrecen estas realidades no han sido lo suficientemente abordados, de ahi que naciera la idea de realizar el Congresso Internacional O montado no desenvolvimiento rural do sudoeste peninsular del cual emana este monografico. Para ser mas concretos en este articulo introductorio se pretende realizar un analisis de la bibliografia existente relativa a estas realidades con una triple finalidad. En primer lugar, conocer la situacion en la que se encuentra el estado del arte de la investigacion sobre esta tematica desde un punto de vista cuantitativo, es decir, comprobar si se esta generando en la actualidad debate cientifico. Y, en segundo lugar, realizar un analisis cualitativo que nos permita detectar los temas a debate en el seno cientifico sobre estas realidades. En tercer lugar, servir de introduccion al lector para el resto de los articulos originales emanados del citado congreso.

/pdf/la-dehesa-y-el-montado-en-el-debate-academico-una-vision-2hrm49pr7n.pdf

La dehesa y el montado en el debate académico. Una visión desde la historia económica

Disputes over certain aspects of money, as its neutrality and the endogenous or exogenous nature of the money supply, have been ongoing between the various schools of thought and authors, its origin probably being at the time of development of scholastic thought. In this paper we intend, firstly, to make a chronological and historical overview about money, with the objective of highlighting the monetary developments of the orthodox macroeconomics, as well as the alternative approaches against this dominant thought. Finally, we try to value the post-Keynesian monetary developments, which are integrated into what is called “Monetary Economy of Production”, confronting them with the so-called New Neoclassical Synthesis.

/pdf/el-dinero-en-la-historia-del-pensamiento-economico-la-teoria-454qqrb24w.pdf

Francisco Manuel Parejo Moruno

Papers

El negocio del corcho en España durante el siglo XX

Cambios en el negocio mundial corchero: un análisis a largo plazo de las exportaciones españolas (1849-2000)

O comércio externo corticeiro na Península Ibérica no período de 1930 a 1974: uma perspectiva comparada

La dehesa y el montado en el debate académico. Una visión desde la historia económica

El dinero en la historia del pensamiento económico: la teoría monetaria postkeynesiana y su confrontación con la ortodoxia