Project acronym BICAEHFID
Project Biogeographic and cultural adaptations of early humans during the first intercontinental dispersals
Researcher (PI) Ignacio DE LA TORRE
Host Institution (HI) AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2018-ADG
Summary Our understanding of the emergence and dispersal of the earliest tool-making hominins has been revolutionised in the last decade, with sites in eastern Africa and China pushing both events more than half a million years earlier than previously thought. Traditional models linking biological speciation, cultural innovation and migration events with climatic pulses have remained theoretical, and recent discoveries suggest that the picture of the earliest human colonization across the Old World is far more complex, demanding heuristic approaches to understand the biogeography and adaptive behaviours of early humans.
This project will be the first substantive attempt to produce a global synthesis of earliest human occupation dynamics by comparing the world’s longest sequences of early archaeological sites, namely eastern Africa and China. Our objective is to understand the alternative evolutionary trajectories adopted by hominins that shared an overarching biological and cultural background, but who faced different climatic and biogeographic challenges and opportunities.
The ambition of our global-scale objectives is accompanied by the unmatched quality of our datasets and the ground-breaking perspective we will adopt in their study. Fieldwork in the two most renowned sequences in each region alongside a primary study of additional top-quality assemblages in both subcontinents, will be combined with extensive metadata sets to produce comprehensive views of temporal trends and paleoecological patterns. Our state-of-the-art methodological sets (which combine an exceptionally diverse range of disciplines from geochemistry to niche modelling) and ground-breaking analytical perspective (which considers data from micro-stratigraphy to satellite imaging) will enable us to develop new approaches to challenge established paradigms and produce a new picture of the biogeographic adaptations of early stone-tool makers.
Summary
Our understanding of the emergence and dispersal of the earliest tool-making hominins has been revolutionised in the last decade, with sites in eastern Africa and China pushing both events more than half a million years earlier than previously thought. Traditional models linking biological speciation, cultural innovation and migration events with climatic pulses have remained theoretical, and recent discoveries suggest that the picture of the earliest human colonization across the Old World is far more complex, demanding heuristic approaches to understand the biogeography and adaptive behaviours of early humans.
This project will be the first substantive attempt to produce a global synthesis of earliest human occupation dynamics by comparing the world’s longest sequences of early archaeological sites, namely eastern Africa and China. Our objective is to understand the alternative evolutionary trajectories adopted by hominins that shared an overarching biological and cultural background, but who faced different climatic and biogeographic challenges and opportunities.
The ambition of our global-scale objectives is accompanied by the unmatched quality of our datasets and the ground-breaking perspective we will adopt in their study. Fieldwork in the two most renowned sequences in each region alongside a primary study of additional top-quality assemblages in both subcontinents, will be combined with extensive metadata sets to produce comprehensive views of temporal trends and paleoecological patterns. Our state-of-the-art methodological sets (which combine an exceptionally diverse range of disciplines from geochemistry to niche modelling) and ground-breaking analytical perspective (which considers data from micro-stratigraphy to satellite imaging) will enable us to develop new approaches to challenge established paradigms and produce a new picture of the biogeographic adaptations of early stone-tool makers.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 996 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30
Project acronym BUBPOL
Project Monetary Policy and Asset Price Bubbles
Researcher (PI) Jordi GalI Garreta
Host Institution (HI) Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI)
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2013-ADG
Summary "The proposed research project seeks to further our understanding on two important questions for the design of monetary policy:
(a) What are the effects of monetary policy interventions on asset price bubbles?
(b) How should monetary policy be conducted in the presence of asset price bubbles?
The first part of the project will focus on the development of a theoretical framework that can be used to analyze rigorously the implications of alternative monetary policy rules in the presence of asset price bubbles, and to characterize the optimal monetary policy. In particular, I plan to use such a framework to assess the merits of a “leaning against the wind” strategy, which calls for a systematic rise in interest rates in response to the development of a bubble.
The second part of the project will seek to produce evidence, both empirical and experimental, regarding the effects of monetary policy on asset price bubbles. The empirical evidence will seek to identify and estimate the sign and response of asset price bubbles to interest rate changes, exploiting the potential differences in the joint behavior of interest rates and asset prices during “bubbly” episodes, in comparison to “normal” times. In addition, I plan to conduct some lab experiments in order to shed some light on the link between monetary policy and bubbles. Participants will trade two assets, a one-period riskless asset and a long-lived stock, in an environment consistent with the existence of asset price bubbles in equilibrium. Monetary policy interventions will take the form of changes in the short-term interest rate, engineered by the experimenter. The experiments will allow us to evaluate some of the predictions of the theoretical models regarding the impact of monetary policy on the dynamics of bubbles, as well as the effectiveness of “leaning against the wind” policies."
Summary
"The proposed research project seeks to further our understanding on two important questions for the design of monetary policy:
(a) What are the effects of monetary policy interventions on asset price bubbles?
(b) How should monetary policy be conducted in the presence of asset price bubbles?
The first part of the project will focus on the development of a theoretical framework that can be used to analyze rigorously the implications of alternative monetary policy rules in the presence of asset price bubbles, and to characterize the optimal monetary policy. In particular, I plan to use such a framework to assess the merits of a “leaning against the wind” strategy, which calls for a systematic rise in interest rates in response to the development of a bubble.
The second part of the project will seek to produce evidence, both empirical and experimental, regarding the effects of monetary policy on asset price bubbles. The empirical evidence will seek to identify and estimate the sign and response of asset price bubbles to interest rate changes, exploiting the potential differences in the joint behavior of interest rates and asset prices during “bubbly” episodes, in comparison to “normal” times. In addition, I plan to conduct some lab experiments in order to shed some light on the link between monetary policy and bubbles. Participants will trade two assets, a one-period riskless asset and a long-lived stock, in an environment consistent with the existence of asset price bubbles in equilibrium. Monetary policy interventions will take the form of changes in the short-term interest rate, engineered by the experimenter. The experiments will allow us to evaluate some of the predictions of the theoretical models regarding the impact of monetary policy on the dynamics of bubbles, as well as the effectiveness of “leaning against the wind” policies."
Max ERC Funding
799 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym editCRC
Project A genome editing-based approach to study the stem cell hierarchy of human colorectal cancers
Researcher (PI) Eduardo Batlle Gomez
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACIO INSTITUT DE RECERCA BIOMEDICA (IRB BARCELONA)
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS4, ERC-2013-ADG
Summary A hallmark of cancer is tumor cell heterogeneity, which results from combinations of multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations within an individual tumor. In contrast, we have recently discovered that most human colorectal cancers (CRCs) are composed of mixtures of phenotypically distinct tumor cells organized into a stem cell hierarchy that displays a striking resemblance to the healthy colonic epithelium. We showed that long-term regeneration potential of tumor cells is largely influenced by the position that they occupy within the tumor's hierarchy. To analyze the organization of CRCs without the constraints imposed by tumor cell transplantation experiments, we have developed a method that allows for the first time tracking and manipulating the fate of specific cell populations in whole human tumors. This technology is based on editing the genomes of primary human CRCs cultured in the form of tumor organoids using Zinc-Finger Nucleases to knock-in either lineage tracing or cell ablation alleles in genes that define colorectal cancer stem cells (CRC-SCs) or differentiated-like tumor cells. Edited tumor organoids generate CRCs in mice that reproduce the tumor of origin while carrying the desired genetic modifications. This technological advance opens the gate to perform classical genetic and developmental analysis in human tumors. We will exploit this advantage to address fundamental questions about the cell heterogeneity and organization of human CRCs that cannot be tackled through currently existing experimental approaches such as: Are CRC-SCs the only tumor cell population with long term regenerating potential? Can we cure CRC with anti-CRC-SC specific therapies? Will tumor cell plasticity contribute to the regeneration of the CRC-SC pool after therapy? Do quiescent-SCs regenerate CRC tumors after standard chemotherapy? Can we identify these cells? How do common genetic alterations in CRC influence the CRC hierarchy? Do they affect the stem cell phenotype?
Summary
A hallmark of cancer is tumor cell heterogeneity, which results from combinations of multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations within an individual tumor. In contrast, we have recently discovered that most human colorectal cancers (CRCs) are composed of mixtures of phenotypically distinct tumor cells organized into a stem cell hierarchy that displays a striking resemblance to the healthy colonic epithelium. We showed that long-term regeneration potential of tumor cells is largely influenced by the position that they occupy within the tumor's hierarchy. To analyze the organization of CRCs without the constraints imposed by tumor cell transplantation experiments, we have developed a method that allows for the first time tracking and manipulating the fate of specific cell populations in whole human tumors. This technology is based on editing the genomes of primary human CRCs cultured in the form of tumor organoids using Zinc-Finger Nucleases to knock-in either lineage tracing or cell ablation alleles in genes that define colorectal cancer stem cells (CRC-SCs) or differentiated-like tumor cells. Edited tumor organoids generate CRCs in mice that reproduce the tumor of origin while carrying the desired genetic modifications. This technological advance opens the gate to perform classical genetic and developmental analysis in human tumors. We will exploit this advantage to address fundamental questions about the cell heterogeneity and organization of human CRCs that cannot be tackled through currently existing experimental approaches such as: Are CRC-SCs the only tumor cell population with long term regenerating potential? Can we cure CRC with anti-CRC-SC specific therapies? Will tumor cell plasticity contribute to the regeneration of the CRC-SC pool after therapy? Do quiescent-SCs regenerate CRC tumors after standard chemotherapy? Can we identify these cells? How do common genetic alterations in CRC influence the CRC hierarchy? Do they affect the stem cell phenotype?
Max ERC Funding
2 499 405 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31
Project acronym EPNET
Project Production and distribution of food during the Roman Empire: Economics and political dynamics
Researcher (PI) Jose Remesal RodrIguez
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2013-ADG
Summary The project aims at detecting and defining the political and economic dynamics of the Roman Empire trade system by designing and implementing an experimental laboratory to explore different historical hypoteses through computer simulations. Empirical data will be used to correct and validate the results of the simulations and define rigourous and falsifiable models of ancient trade sytems.
The Roman Empire trade system is generally considered to be the first complex European trade network. Many theories and hypotheses about its organization have been proposed but no formal model has been put forward so far. We propose to study this system using complex network analysis, formal modelling and computer simulation. The different existing research hypotheses will be modelled in a formal framework that will be used for running computer simulations and create possible scenarios of the development of the trade network. The archaeological and historical datasets will offer the means for validation processes in order to verify the explanatory power of the different models and to choose the best-fitting representation of the investigated phenomena.
The project counts with one of the richest database for amphorae and epigraphy, one of the most precise archaeological and historical semantic markers available for the Roman Empire market. They provide information on geographical origin, the products transported and traded, economic transactions, as well as the social position and relationships between the traders.
The project will provide the research community with a powerful tool for the study and interpretation of past political and economic systems, which will benefit our understanding of long-term social trajectories. This will be achieved through an innovative methodology based on transdisciplinarity and therefore will constitute a groundbreaking in the field of historical studies.
Summary
The project aims at detecting and defining the political and economic dynamics of the Roman Empire trade system by designing and implementing an experimental laboratory to explore different historical hypoteses through computer simulations. Empirical data will be used to correct and validate the results of the simulations and define rigourous and falsifiable models of ancient trade sytems.
The Roman Empire trade system is generally considered to be the first complex European trade network. Many theories and hypotheses about its organization have been proposed but no formal model has been put forward so far. We propose to study this system using complex network analysis, formal modelling and computer simulation. The different existing research hypotheses will be modelled in a formal framework that will be used for running computer simulations and create possible scenarios of the development of the trade network. The archaeological and historical datasets will offer the means for validation processes in order to verify the explanatory power of the different models and to choose the best-fitting representation of the investigated phenomena.
The project counts with one of the richest database for amphorae and epigraphy, one of the most precise archaeological and historical semantic markers available for the Roman Empire market. They provide information on geographical origin, the products transported and traded, economic transactions, as well as the social position and relationships between the traders.
The project will provide the research community with a powerful tool for the study and interpretation of past political and economic systems, which will benefit our understanding of long-term social trajectories. This will be achieved through an innovative methodology based on transdisciplinarity and therefore will constitute a groundbreaking in the field of historical studies.
Max ERC Funding
2 432 056 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2019-02-28
Project acronym RISK AND DIVERSITY
Project Labor Market Risk and Skill Diversity: Implications for Efficiency, Policy, and Estimation
Researcher (PI) Jan Eeckhout
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Country Spain
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2013-ADG
Summary Labor market risk and skill diversity are central features of the labor market. Arguably, employment risk is one of the biggest sources of uncertainty most individuals face in their life time. Likewise, exploiting the synergies and complementarities between differentially skilled workers is amongst the greatest challenges to firms' hiring decisions. The objective is to analyze the efficiency properties and as a consequence evaluate the role for policy. In order to establish the implications of the mechanisms that govern risk and diversity, I elaborate on concrete applications and discuss estimation in different labor market settings.
In the presence of Labor Market Risk I address the question how asset holdings exacerbate wage inequality. Workers are exposed to the risk of unemployment, and workers with few assets will trade off the lower riskiness of a job against lower wages. Different asset holdings translate into different wages, thus amplifying inequality due to assets with wage inequality. The proposed analysis of unemployment risk can solve for an equilibrium model that incorporates the distribution of assets, while at the same time allowing for heterogeneity in skills. There is no doubt that fully understanding the asset-skill tradeoff is of primary importance for labor market policy. I then study a different angle of labor market risk, namely risk that is due to matching stochastic types, which introduces ex post mismatch. Ex ante, agents match based on the distribution of possible realizations of ex post types. This model is conducive to identification of complementarities between workers and the value of risk sharing.
Skill Diversity, or the allocation of differentially skilled workers across firms of different productivity, is a central feature of the labor market. The aim of this research is to embed the optimal worker composition within firms into standard macro environments to study technological change, information aggregation and spatial diversity.
Summary
Labor market risk and skill diversity are central features of the labor market. Arguably, employment risk is one of the biggest sources of uncertainty most individuals face in their life time. Likewise, exploiting the synergies and complementarities between differentially skilled workers is amongst the greatest challenges to firms' hiring decisions. The objective is to analyze the efficiency properties and as a consequence evaluate the role for policy. In order to establish the implications of the mechanisms that govern risk and diversity, I elaborate on concrete applications and discuss estimation in different labor market settings.
In the presence of Labor Market Risk I address the question how asset holdings exacerbate wage inequality. Workers are exposed to the risk of unemployment, and workers with few assets will trade off the lower riskiness of a job against lower wages. Different asset holdings translate into different wages, thus amplifying inequality due to assets with wage inequality. The proposed analysis of unemployment risk can solve for an equilibrium model that incorporates the distribution of assets, while at the same time allowing for heterogeneity in skills. There is no doubt that fully understanding the asset-skill tradeoff is of primary importance for labor market policy. I then study a different angle of labor market risk, namely risk that is due to matching stochastic types, which introduces ex post mismatch. Ex ante, agents match based on the distribution of possible realizations of ex post types. This model is conducive to identification of complementarities between workers and the value of risk sharing.
Skill Diversity, or the allocation of differentially skilled workers across firms of different productivity, is a central feature of the labor market. The aim of this research is to embed the optimal worker composition within firms into standard macro environments to study technological change, information aggregation and spatial diversity.
Max ERC Funding
2 116 971 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30
