Suchergebnisse

Ensayo de José Villaverde Castro, de la Universidad de Valladolid, de mayo de 1980, en el que analiza la política regional europea y su incidencia en España. El autor sostiene que si la situación actual se mantiene, tanto en la escala española como en la comunitaria, España no podrá beneficiarse tanto de la adhesión a la Comunidad Económica Europea (CEE)

RESUMEN. En este artículo se examinan, para el período 1980-1996, tres cuestiones relevantes desde una perspectiva regional europea: la existencia, o no, de convergencia, polarización y movilidad. El trabajo, que hace uso de distintas técnicas de análisis, concluye que: a) se ha seguido avanzando en el proceso de convergencia regional europea; b) no se aprecia la existencia de polarización; c> el grado de movilidad interregional es, para el conjunto del período analizado, relativamente elevado. Siendo estos resultados positivos, el trabajo muestra también que la velocidad de convergencia, el grado de polarización y el grado de movilidad parecen haber disminuido con el paso del tiempo, lo cual es interesante en lo que afecta a la polarización, pero preocupante en lo que concierne a la convergencia y a la movilidad. ; ABSTRACT. This article examines three important questions for the period 1980-96 from a European regional standpoint: the existence or otherwise of convergence, polarisation and mobility. The study, which utilises different analytical techniques, concludes that: a) progress continued to be made in the European regional convergence process; b) no apparent polarisation is observed; c) the degree of interregional mobility is relatively high, for the period analysed as a whole. Although these results are positive, the study also shows that the rate of convergence, the degree of polarisation and the level of mobility appeared to have declined with the passing of time, which is beneficial as fa as polarisation is concerned, but worriyng as regards convergence and mobility.

RESUMEN. Tras la crisis padecida durante 1993, la economía cántabra experimentó, a lo largo de 1994, un modesto proceso de recuperación que, plasmándose en un crecimientodel VAB del orden del 2 por 100, estuvo propiciado, fundamentalmente, por la expansión del sector secundario y por el tirón de las exportaciones. Ello no obstante, los registros alcanzados fueron menos intensos que a escala nacional, por lo que Cantabria continuó empeorando su situación relativa, lo que parece venir motivado por toda una serie de deficiencias infraestructurales, así como por la tensión político-institucional que se vive en la región, que hace que ésta sea poco atractiva para el colectivo empresarial. ; ABSTRACT. In 1994 the economy of Cantabria emerged from the previous year's recession, recording a certain recovery that was basically propelled by the expansion in the secondary sector an exports. Nonetheless, Cantabria's growth rate was weaker than that of the national economy. Its relative position continued to worsen, apparently due to a series of shortcomings in its infrastructure, in addition to ongoing political and institutional tensions, that thend to erode the region's attractiveness to the business community.

The aim of this paper is to propose a new way of computing the FDI Potential Index to address the issue of FDI attractiveness at the EU regional level. This new index employs a sound way of selecting the variables involved in its construction, for which a factor analysis is performed. Accordingly, six factors ("economic potential", "market size", "labour situation", "technological progress", "labour regulation" and "competitiveness") are identified. Next, by applying the methodology of composite indicators and considering different weighting and aggregation schemes, three versions (un-weighted linear, weighted linear and weighted geometric) of the new FDI Potential Index are computed. Afterwards, the comparison of the weighted linear version of the Potential Index with the conventional FDI Performance Index allows us to apply the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) FDI typology. The results reveal considerable heterogeneity among EU regions in terms of FDI attractiveness, and that regions belonging to the same group of the UNCTAD classification are highly concentrated from a geographical perspective. In view of these findings, we compute an additional version of both the FDI Potential and Performance indices, in which the geographical location of each region plays a key role. Based on these spatial indices, some general policy implications are drawn.

ABSTRACT. The reduction of EU regional disparities in development levels is a key goal in the European Commission's policy agenda, but there are at least two debatable points that have captured the attention of academics and policymakers: how to measure disparities between regions and the practical meaning of the word development. This paper attempts to contribute to this debate by shedding some light on these two points. First, as different measures have been proposed to evaluate the evolution of (regional) disparities, the report attempts to verify whether all of them roughly convey similar information. Second, given that different (single and composite) indicators, other than the traditional per capita GDP, have been proposed to represent the term development, the paper wants to see whether the conclusions drawn from the use of these single and composite indicators are generally similar to those from the per capita GDP. Regarding inequality measures, the results tended to show that all of them convey more or less the same information, namely, a common time pattern leading to a significant reduction of regional disparities in EU27 during the period 1995-2007. With respect to the development indicators, the results tend to support the conclusion that regional variations in development, whatever indicator is employed, are closely related to variations in per capita GDP. ; RESUMEN. La reducción de disparidades regionales en la UE constituye uno de los objetivos principales de la agenda política de la Comisión Europea. Al respecto, sin embargo, hay cuando menos dos cuestiones básicas que suscitan un amplio debate entre académicos y dirigentes políticos: cómo medir las disparidades entre regiones y cuál es el significado del término desarrollo. Este trabajo trata de arrojar algo de luz sobre estas cuestiones. Primero, y dado que se han propuesto diferentes medidas para calibrar la magnitud de las disparidades, el estudio trata de averiguar si todas ellas conducen, o no, a similares resultados. Segundo, considerando que diferentes indicadores (tanto simples como compuestos), distintos al tradicional PIB per capita, han sido sugeridos para determinar el grado de desarrollo de una región, este trabajo estudia si las conclusiones obtenidas a partir de todos ellos son, en esencia similares a las obtenidas con el PIB per capita. Las conclusiones del estudio muestran que, con respecto a las medidas de desigualdad, no importa cual se utilice ya que todas ellas conducen a similares resultados: una reducción de las disparidades regionales en la UE27 durante el periodo 1995-2007. En lo que se refiere a los indicadores de desarrollo, los resultados apoyan la idea de que las variaciones en el grado de desarrollo, sea cual sea el indicador utilizado para representar el mismo, se encuentran estrechamente correlacionadas con las variaciones en el PIB per cápita.

This book addresses a number of vital economic convergence issues in the European Union. These are both general and specific issues relating to financial and monetary matters as well as social and labour market concerns. The book opens with a discussion of problems of a general nature. Questions posed include: What is the convergence record in the EU so far? Is there a sign of Baumol and Quah's 'convergence clubs' and 'twin peaks'? Have the 'structural funds' of the European Commission made any difference? The authors then analyse questions of a fiscal and monetary nature: Can we expect the monetary policy of the ECB to have similar effects in the EMU member-states, or is it in itself a source of asymmetric shocks? Has EU membership made any difference, with respect to the initial differences in tax revenue structures? Finally the book focuses on questions regarding social and labour markets: Is global economic convergence compatible with sustainable differences in national social protection levels? Does European globalisation force labour markets to 'de-institutionalise' and do European labour markets converge to a 'Third Way' model? Academics and researchers of European studies and economic policy will find this up-to-date book of great interest, as will policymakers and business leaders both affected by and from within the EU

This paper tries to unveil the main factors behind the triumph of the proindependence vote in the 2017 Regional Election in Catalonia. The empirical analysis, which is carried out at the county level and by using a spatial econometric model, reveals that geographical location matters. The estimation results also suggest that the pro-independence vote is mainly linked to the birthplace of individuals. More specifically, it shows that the independence feeling is weaker the higher the share of citizens born outside Catalonia. On the other side, young and highly educated people are more prone to independence. Additionally, it is shown that people working in the public sector are more likely to vote for a political party in favor of Catalonia remaining in Spain, while the opposite happens for those voters working in construction. Finally, the results seem to dispel some myths associated with the role played by the county's size and level of income on the proindependence vote.

RESUMEN: Durante las ultimas decadas la literatura sobre los gastos en investigación y desarrollo (I+D) como motor de desarrollo, tanto a nivel nacional como regional, ha crecido de forma notable. En este contexto, el objetivo de este trabajo es examinar el papel jugado por los gastos en I+D como instrumento de cohesion. Para ello, el trabajo evalua la conexion entre patentes (como proxy de gastos en I+D) y el crecimiento economico entre las provincias espanolas (NUTS3) durante el periodo 1995-2010. En otras palabras, queremos averiguar si las provincias con mayor numero de patentes crecen a un ritmo mas alto que aquellas con poco impulso innovador. Ademas, el trabajo analiza la presencia de efectos desbordamiento, asi como si el efecto de las patentes sobre el crecimiento depende del grado de desarrollo de cada provincia. Los resultados ponen de relieve, primero, que las patentes impulsan el crecimiento. Segundo, que no hay evidencia que apoye la existencia de efectos desbordamiento. Tercero, que el efecto de las patentes sobre el crecimiento parece ser mayor en las regiones mas desarrolladas que en la menos desarrolladas. De acuerdo con estos resultados, una politica de cohesion enfocada en la inversion en I+D en las regiones menos desarrolladas parece ser necesaria. ; ABSTRACT: Over the last decades, there has been a vast amount of literature on the subject of Research and Development (R&D) expenditure as a main driver of economic growth, both at national and sub-national levels. This being so, the main purpose of this manuscript is to investigate the role played by R&D as a cohesion instrument. To accomplish this aim, the paper assesses the link between patents (as a proxy for R&D) and economic growth across the Spanish provinces (NUTS3) over the period 1995-2010. In other words, we want to evaluate whether provinces with high patent production grow at a higher rate than those with low innovative performance. In addition, we want to test for the presence of spatial spillovers, and to assess if the effect of patents on economic growth depends on the development degree of provinces. The results show, firstly, that patents act as a growth driver. Secondly, that there is no evidence of spatial spillovers. And, thirdly, that the effect of patents on growth seems to be higher for developed than for less developed provinces. In view of these findings, major efforts should be devoted to promote a cohesion policy focused on R&D investment in the less developed territories.

This paper examines health care expenditure (HCE) disparities between the European Union countries over the period 1995-2010. By means of using a continuous version of the distribution dynamics approach, the key conclusions are that the reduction in disparities is very weak and, therefore, persistence is the main characteristic of the HCE distribution. In view of these findings, a preliminary attempt is made to add some insights into potentially main factors behind the HCE distribution. The results indicate that whereas per capita income is by far the main determinant, the dependency ratio and female labour participation do not play any role in explaining the HCE distribution; as for the rest of the factors studied (life expectancy, infant mortality, R&D expenditure and public HCE expenditure share), we find that their role falls somewhat in between.