Households WTP for the Reliability of Gas Supply

26 p.

Optimal Minimum Wage in a Competitive Economy: an Alternative Modelling Approach

This paper analyzes whether a minimum wage can be an optimal redistribution policy when distorting taxes and lump-sum transfers are also available in a competitive economy. We build a static general equilibrium model with a Ramsey planner making decisions on taxes, transfers, and minimum wage levels. Workers are assumed to differ only in their productivity. We find that optimal redistribution may imply the use of a minimum wage. The key factor driving our results is the reaction of the demand for low skilled labor to the minimum wage law. Hence, an optimal minimum wage appears to be most likely when low skilled households are scarce, the complementarity between the two types of workers is large or the difference in productivity is small. The main contribution of the paper is a modelling approach that allows us to adopt analysis and solution techniques widely used in recent public finance research. Moreover, this modelling strategy is flexible enough to allow for potential extensions to include dynamics into the model.

Consumer Expertise or Credit Risk? An empirical analysis of mortgage pricing

Loan mortgage interest rates are usually the result of a bank-customer negotiation process. Credit risk, consumer cross-buying potential, bundling, financial market competition and other features affecting the bargaining power of the parties could affect price. We argue that, since mortgage loan is a complex product, consumer expertise could be a relevant factor for mortgage pricing. Using data on mortgage loan prices for a sample of 1055 households for the year 2005 (Bank of Spain Survey of Household Finances, EFF-2005), and including credit risk, costs, potential capacity of the consumer to generate future business and bank competition variables, the regression results indicate that consumer expertise-related metrics are highly significant as predictors of mortgage loan prices. Other factors such as credit risk and consumer cross-buying potential do not have such a significant impact on mortgage prices. Our empirical results are affected by the credit conditions prior to the financial crisis and could shed some light on this issue.

The Costs of Drought: the Exceptional 2007-2008 Case of Barcelona

35 p.

La encuesta sobre Equipamiento y Uso de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación en los hogares

El objetivo de este trabajo es informar acerca de La encuesta sobre Equipamiento y Uso de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) en los hogares que realiza el INE todos los años, reflejar el cambio que se está dando en el uso de las nuevas tecnologías e intentar explicar la influencia de algunas variables en los hogares a la hora de comprar en Internet. Para ello, se analizan los resultados de la encuesta en el año 2014 en líneas generales y la metodología llevada a cabo en esta, para posteriormente realizar un análisis más exhaustivo de determinadas variables y estimar un modelo Logit que pretende explicar la influencia de esas variables en la compra por Internet de los hogares. Se ha observado que el uso que la población hace de las nuevas tecnologías está cambiando de manera significativa y se ha comprobado que ciertas variables influyen en la decisión de los hogares de comprar por Internet.