The First Privatization Policy in a Democracy: Selling State-Owned Enterprises in 1948-1950, Puerto Rico

In the 1940s, when the Governor of Puerto Rico was appointed by the US President and the Puerto Rican government was answerable only to the US Federal government, a large state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector was established on the island. Public services such as water, transportation and energy were nationalized, and several new manufacturing SOEs were created to produce cement, glass, shoes, paper and chalkboard, and clay products. These enterprises were created and managed by government-owned corporations. Later on, between 1948 and 1950, under the island’s first elected Governor, the government sold these SOEs to private groups. This paper documents both the creation and the privatization of the SOE sector in Puerto Rico, and analyzes the role played by ideology, political interests, and economic concerns in the decision to privatize them. Whereas ideological factors might have played a significant role in the building of the SOE sector, we find that privatization was driven basically by economic factors, such as the superior efficiency of private firms in the sectors where the SOEs operated, and by the desire to attract private industrial investment to the Puerto Rican economy.

Like milk or wine: Does firm performance improve with age?

Our empirical literature review shows that little is known about how firm performance changes with age, presumably because of the paucity of data on firm age. For Spanish manufacturing firms, we analyse the firm performance related to firm age between 1998 and 2006. We find evidence that firms improve with age, because ageing firms are observed to have steadily increasing levels of productivity, higher profits, larger size, lower debt ratios, and higher equity ratios. Furthermore, older firms are better able to convert sales growth into subsequent growth of profits and productivity. On the other hand, we also found evidence that firm performance deteriorates with age. Older firms have lower expected growth rates of sales, profits and productivity, they have lower profitability levels (when other variables such as size are controlled for), and also that they appear to be less capable to convert employment growth into growth of sales, profits and productivity.

What underlies localization and urbanization economies? Evidence from the location of new firms

The objective of this paper is to analyze why firms in some industries locate in specialized economic environments (localization economies) while those in other industries prefer large city locations (urbanization economies). To this end, we examine the location decisions of new manufacturing firms in Spain at the city level and for narrowly defined industries (three-digit level). First, we estimate firm location models to obtain estimates that reflect the importance of localization and urbanization economies in each industry. In a second step, we regress these estimates on industry characteristics that are related to the potential importance of three agglomeration theories, namely, labor market pooling, input sharing and knowledge spillovers. Localization effects are low and urbanization effects are high in knowledge-intensive industries, suggesting that firms (partly) locate in large cities to reap the benefits of inter-industry knowledge spillovers. We also find that localization effects are high in industries that employ workers whose skills are more industry-specific, suggesting that industries (partly) locate in specialized economic environments to share a common pool of specialized workers.

Estudi i disseny d'un bastiment arquitectònic en J2EE

L'objectiu final serà donar un model a mode de solució introductòriaper a poder realitzar aplicacions empresarials sota l'arquitectura J2EE, queservirà com a guia o plantilla per equips de desenvolupament.

Responsabilitat social i ambiental d’empreses multinacionals tèxtils: observatori ambiental

El treball tracta d’ explicar quines són les conseqüències sobre la societat i el medi ambient dels països que reben els processos productius de les empreses tèxtils deslocalitzades. El treball es divideix en: una part teòrica, on es fa un breu recorregut per la història del tèxtil i una relació entre medi ambient -indústria tèxtil i multinacionals tèxtils-societat. I en una part pràctica, on s’ analitzen les deu empreses amb major índex de vendes de roba a Espanya i també es comfigura un índex d’ ètica d’ empresa en termes socials i ambientals.Aquest treball pretén ser una eina per a futurs treballs d’ educació per al consum, per tal que els consumidors puguin escollir uns o altres productes, tenint en compte variables que vagin més enllà del renom de la marca, el preu o els colors atraients dels envasos que els contenen

Intranet corporativa de Miquel Alimentació Grup, S.A.

Miquel Alimentació es una empresa líder en distribución de artículos de consumo en España. El objetivo principal del proyecto es concebir un punto de trabajo común de acceso centralizado para ubicar toda la información, aplicaciones de empresa y servicios tanto dentro como fuera de ella. Contener herramientas para la gestión, análisis y enlace de datos que permitirá la colaboración de varios usuarios

AutoGest, aplicació de gestió per a empresaris autònoms

L’ objectiu principal d’ aquest projecte és dissenyar una aplicació o una base de dades que permeti: gestionar els diferents objectes que interaccionen en una empresa, gestionar els serveis o productes que s’ofereixen a la venda, gestionar la facturació de l’ empresa, gestionar les compres a empreses externes, controlar els estocs dels diferents articles i poder fer consultes sobre les dades i obtenir-ne llistats, per comprovar si l’empresa té beneficis o dèficit

Creació de l’empresa i estudi de viabilitat Eat & Guide Girona

La base del treball és un pla d’empresa d’un ens turístic no existent a la ciutat de Girona, que oferirà visites guiades gastro-culturals d’una manera original. S’aspira a arribar a un projecte de creació d’una empresa turística, viable al seu mercat i especialitzada en uns serveis específics per combatre la competència existent. Un ampli estudi del mercat i un pla d’empresa han de servir per poder determinar la viabilitat d’aquest projecte empresarial

Creació de l'empresa Mediterranean Hunting

Treball sobre la creació d'una empresa de turisme cinegètic. Es pretén aprofundir en la temàtica del turisme cinegètic; aprofundir en la temàtica del les agències de viatges; aprofundir en la temàtica de caça i fer una proposta novedosa i viable des del punt de vista empresarial

Diseño e implementación de un framework de presentación

El objetivo de este proyecto es la construcción de un framework de presentación para el desarrollo de aplicaciones Web basadas en la plataforma J2EE. El proyecto comprende el estudio de las características de los frameworks más importantes disponibles en el mercado, prestando una atención especial a su arquitectura.

El Branding a les empreses familiars turístiques: El cas del Grup Mas de Torrent

El projecte estudia la influència de la família en el procés de creació d’una marca cooperativa (branding) d’una empresa familiar turística, així com en l’activitat empresarial que desenvolupa. Aquest es centra en el Grup Mas de Torrent

Las relaciones económicas internacionales de la "España Europea"

[eng] Since the year 1986 in which Spain became full member of the European Communities, the quantity and quality of the Spanish international economic relations measured in terms of Balance of Payments have change dramatically. In the past Spanish workers moved to Europe. Now Spain is among the three major countries attracting immigrants from developing countries. In the past Spain received a lot of Foreign Investment, today many Spanish companies are investing abroad. The changes are not only due to membership to the EU but also to the Spanish accommodation to the Globalization.

Foreign trade traps in the european periphery: Spain, 1870-1913

In this article we research into the difficulties that foreign trade imposed onSpanish process of integration into the international economy in the years priorto the First World War. We start out by examining some features of the foreigntrade structure of the country. By means of an econometric analysis of importand export series, it is possible to observe the presence of a trend towards tradedeficit, which was in force when Spain grew at a rate similar to that of itstrading partners. We also check that, in the absence of these compensatorymechanisms, adjustment in foreign payments could be reached by means ofprotective measures and the exchange rate.

Against the mainstream: Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany

The Great Depression spurred State ownership in Western capitalist countries. Germany was no exception; the last governments of the Weimar Republic took over firms in diverse sectors. Later, the Nazi regime transferred public ownership and public services to the private sector. In doing so, they went against the mainstream trends in the Western capitalist countries, none of which systematically reprivatized firms during the 1930s. Privatization in Nazi Germany was also unique in transferring to private hands the delivery f public services previously provided by government. The firms and the services transferred to private ownership belonged to diverse sectors. Privatization was part of an intentional policy with multiple objectives and was not ideologically driven. As in many recent privatizations, particularly within the European Union, strong financial restrictions were a central motivation. In addition, privatization was used as a political tool to enhance support for the government and for the Nazi Party.

Gender and family firms: an interdisciplinary approach

This study contributes to developing our understanding of gender and family business, a topic so crucial to recent policies about competitive growth. It does so by providing an interdisciplinary synthesis of some major theoretical debates. It also contributes to this understanding by illuminating the role of women and their participation in the practices of the family and the business. Finally, it explores gender relations and the notion that leadership in family business may take complex forms crafted within constantly changing relationships. Leadership is introduced as a concept that captures the reality of women and men in family firms in a better way than other concepts used by historians or economists like ownership and management.