Abstract. In other leading Western democracies, the effects of economic voting are well-established. However, for Spain, a strong scholarly current argues against economic voting in that nation. Unfortunately, these various studies are limited, because they are based on incomplete survey cross-sections, which use individual subjective measures of the economy. We employ a full survey pool (of eight elections, 1982–2008), to examine the effects of two national economic measures (one objective and one subjective).

Abstract. We investigate statistically the characteristics, functioning and incidence of pre-emptive patenting, defined as patent filings whose main effect is to hamper the grant of other patents. Patent applications can be used defensively to prevent the grant of exclusive rights over markets and technologies, in order to ensure freedom of operation or keep competitors out of a given technological field. Combining data from examination outcomes and prior art at the European Patent Office, we develop a methodology to identify pre-emptive patent applications.

Abstract. Governments continue to play a central role in the way research is conducted and organized by defining new models for research centers. How do existing research centers adapt to changes in their environment? Institutional theory suggests that organizations pursue efficiency and legitimacy by conforming to isomorphic pressures in their organizational field, which will eventually lead to a reduction of diversity in organizational practices and strategies.

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Abstract. In this study we use survival or event history analysis to explore the effect of international mobility, gender and productivity on career development of researchers in CONICET life science research institutes in Buenos Aires. We find support for our hypothesis that various productivity measures can explain the likelihood of promotion. Given the same level of productivity, female researchers tend to take longer to being promoted. Unconditionally international work experience has a positive effect on the hazard of being promoted.

Abstract. This article analyzes the media effects on political knowledge after controlling for the most common factors (motivation, ability, and opportunities) in Spain. In addition, it explores whether the media contribute to increasing the existent knowledge gap in the Spanish polity. The results show that only one medium appears to have significant effects on knowledge: newspapers. An additional finding is that exposure to political information in newspapers does not reinforce the knowledge gap between different socioeconomic groups.

Abstract. This article analyzes whether state repression in post—civil war situations can be explained by dynamics associated with previous civil wars. It claims that in post—civil war situations the state can more easily resort to indiscriminate repression against social groups, relying on information related to the civil war. Two civil war dynamics are tested: preemptive indiscriminate violence to eliminate opposition by the defeated population and retaliation for crimes committed during the war.

Abstract. Category cocitation and its representation through social networks is proving to be a very adequate technique for the visualization and analysis of great scientific domains. Its combination with pathfinder networks using pruning values r = ∞ and q=n–1 makes manifest the essence of research in the domain represented, or what we might call the ‘most salient structure’. The possible loss of structural information, caused by aggressive pruning in peripheral areas of the networks, is overcome by creating heliocentric maps for each category.

Abstract. This article investigates whether the quality of higher education and, in particular, its research performance stimulate graduates' research-oriented careers. More specifically, exploiting a very rich data set on university graduates and the higher education institutions they attended, we empirically study whether graduates from universities and programs that display better academic research records are more likely to be enrolled in PhDs or employed as researchers 3 years after graduation.

Abstract. This paper develops the concept of ‘shadow landscape’ in order to describe the essential otherness and seemingly distinctive if ever contingent properties of in-between rural places characterised by historical depopulation and cultural marginalisation. It does so first of all through a critically sympathetic assessment of how these areas have been portrayed in the fields of political ecology and rural studies. In political ecology, reference has long been made to ‘depopulated areas’ whereas in rural studies there has been recently talk of ‘marginal cultures’.