Gender gap index in Spain by regions

Every year, the World Economic Forum publishes the World Gender Gap Report mainly based on the results of the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) computed by country. This index is made out of four subindexes to capture the magnitude of the gender gap in 4 areas: educational attainment, economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, and health and survival; its methodology was reformed in 2006. In this paper we adapt the GGGI to construct a Regional Gender Gap Index (RGGI) and we compute it by regions (Comunidades Autónomas) in Spain with 2006 data. The RGGI could be applied to other regions. Results of the RGGI show that not only are there gender gap differences between Spanish regions in Spain, but that there are at the political empowerment and economic participation and opportunity categories that those differences are strongest. Geographic distribution of the gender gap shows that the deepest gaps are, in general, located in the northern regions (Euskadi, with a high score, and Murcia and Extremadura, with low scores, being exceptions); this is mainly due to the poor participation in politics of women in those regions.

Gender gaps in policy making: Evidence from direct democracy in Switzerland

In spite of increasing representation of women in politics, little is known about their impact onpolicies. Comparing outcomes of parliaments with different shares of female members does not identifytheir causal impact because of possible differences in the underlying electorate. This paper usesa unique data set on voting decisions to sheds new light on gender gaps in policy making. Ouranalysis focuses on Switzerland, where all citizens can directly decide on a broad range of policiesin referendums and initiatives. We show that there are large gender gaps in the areas of health,environmental protection, defense spending and welfare policy which typically persist even conditionalon socio-economic characteristics. We also find that female policy makers have a substantial effect onthe composition of public spending, but a small effect on the overall size of government.

Publiradio.net: innovación docente e investigación sobre publicidad radiofónica en el marco del EEES

La adaptación del sistema universitario catalán y español al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) está favoreciendo la aparición de nuevas metodologías docentes en respuesta a los requerimientos del llamado European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), una modalidad de crédito cuya principal característica consiste, como ya es ampliamente conocido, en focalizar la atención en el estudiante y, especialmente, en generar un proceso interactivo en el que el alumno se convierta en responsable activo de la adquisición de conocimientos. En el ámbito de las Ciencias de la Comunicación, una de las iniciativas más destacables de aproximación al EEES comienza en el año 2004, cuando el Departament d'Universitats, Investigació i Societat de la Informació de la Generalitat de Catalunya (DURSI) eligió a varios centros catalanes para que aplicaran de manera experimental el nuevo sistema común de créditos derivados de la Declaración de Bolonia. La Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB) fue uno de ellos, y ésta, a su vez, decidió poner en práctica la prueba piloto en la licenciatura de Publicidad y Relaciones Públicas. Es a partir de ese momento cuando los profesores del Departament de Comunicació Audiovisual i Publicitat de la UAB que forman el grupo de investigación Publiradio2 deciden poner en marcha un proyecto que, en el marco de las asignaturas de creatividad y de radio publicitaria, respondiera a las exigencias de la cultura docente en la que se inspira el crédito ECTS. Nace así Publiradio.net, un aplicativo on-line para la creación de publicidad radiofónica destinado, también, a facilitar y potenciar el aprendizaje autónomo entre los estudiantes, a fomentar, en sintonía con las apreciaciones de Aguaded, la utilización de 'técnicas y procedimientos que permitan al alumnado su análisis y uso como lenguajes propios' y a impulsar y facilitar a los estudiantes la investigación en publicidad radiofónica.

Turnout, political preferences and information: Experimental evidence from Perú

Electoral institutions that encourage citizens to vote are widely used around the world. Yet littleis known about the effects of such institutions on voter participation and the composition of the electorate.In this paper, I combine a field experiment with a change in Peruvian voting laws to identify theeffect of monetary (dis-)incentives on voting. Using the random variation in the fine for abstention andan objective measure of turnout at the individual level, I estimate the elasticity of voting with respectto cost to be -0.21. Consistent with the theoretical model presented, the reduction in turnout inducedby the reduction in the fine is driven by voters who (i) are in the center of the political spectrum, (ii)are less interested in politics, and (iii) hold less political information. However, voters who respondto changes in the cost of abstention do not have different preferences for policies than those who voteregardless of the cost. Further, involvement in politics, as measured by the decision to acquire politicalinformation, seems to be independent of the level of the fine. Additional results indicate that thereduction in the fine does not affect the incidence of vote buying, but increases the price paid for avote.

La Política 2.0 amb la generació Nintendo

The eruption of Web 2.0 has transformed the uses and strategies of political communication. The campaign developed by Obama's team is a good example of the electoral efficiency of these new tools whose results we are now analysing and evaluating. While our present leaders could be classified as the "fax generation", the North American experience opens the doors to a new way of relating with the electoral masses. With these new instruments of interactive communication, voters have the space to be able to make their voices heard and to be able to affect the electoral programme, something which undoubtedly benefits an election campaign's degree of democratic quality

¿Innovar o 'maquillar'? La incorporación de las TICs a los procesos político-administrativos

What criteria should guide the process of incorporating ICTs into political realm? Are ICTs, per definitionem, an instrument that always generates positive effects for political activity? Our reflection aims to influence the necessary and essential process of analysis prior to the introduction of ICT in the field of political processes, focusing primarily on the delimitation of its effects. In this sense it highlights the need to assess the added value of introducing a technological solution in the political process prior to do it, what will validate or not its desirability. There is, in this sense, the excessive use of 'make-up' technology of political processes, that is, the absence of real & practical innovation.

Newspaper attention and policy activities in Spain

Spain"s newspapers are characterised by strong partisan identities. We demonstrate that the two leading newspapers nonetheless show powerful similarities in the topics of their coverage over time. The media system is strongly related to the policy process and it shows similar levels of skew (attention focuses on just a few topics) and friction (attention lurches rapidly from topic to topic) as others have shown for policy processes more generally. Further, media attention is significantly related to parliamentary activities. Oral questions in parliament track closely with media attention over time. Our assessment is based on a comprehensive database of all front-page stories (over 95,000 stories) in El Paı´s and El Mundo, Spain"s largest daily newspapers, and all 7,446 oral questions from 1996 to 2009. The paper shows that explanations of friction and skew in governmental activities should incorporate media dynamics as well. Political leaders are clearly sensitive to media salience.

"La influencia de Internet en la participación: ¿menor relevancia de la motivación política?"

In this paper we aim to investigate the relationship between Internet use, motivation and political participation. In particular, we aim to find out if, by reducing participation costs, use of the Internet changes the importance of motivation in the classic explanations of participation. In order to explore this question, we have used data from survey 2736 by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), which addresses the issue of political participation andInternet use. The analysis shows that Internet use has a direct impact on participation, regardless of motivation, and that skilled Internet users do not need to be motivated or interested in politics in order to participate in at least one online political activity.

Surfing the Net: A Pathway to Participation for the Politically Uninterested?

This article explores whether use of the Internetchanges the role that political motivation hastraditionally played in classic explanations ofparticipation. We ask if, by reducing so dramatically the costs of political participation,the Internet causes interest in politics to loseimportance as a causal factor of participation.We examine this issue analysing a representativesurvey of the Spanish population which deals withpolitical participation and Internet use. Theresults show that use of Internet has a directeffect on participation independently of motivation, and that, in order to participate online, skilled Internet users do not need to be motivated or interested in politics.

The Politics of Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in Argentina

The search for political determinants of intergovernmental fiscal relations has shaped much of the recent literature on the economic viability of federalism. This study assesses the explanatory power of two competing views about intergovernmental transfers; one emphasizing the traditional neoclassical approach to federal-subnational fiscal relations and the other suggesting that transfers are contingent on the political fortunes and current political vulnerability of each level of government. The author tests these models using data from Argentina, a federation exhibiting one of the most decentralised fiscal systems in the world and severe imbalances in the territorial distribution of legislative and economic resources. It is shown that overrespresented provinces ruled by governors who belong to opposition parties can bring into play their political overrepresentation to attract shares of federal transfers beyond social welfare criteria and to shield themselves from unwanted reforms to increase fiscal co-responsibilty. This finding suggests that decision makers in federal countries must pay close heed to the need to synchronize institutional reforms and fiscal adjustment.

Cronyism in Business, Public Sector and Politics

This paper contrasts the incentives for cronyism in business, the public sector and politics within an agency problem model with moral hazard. The analysis is focused on the institutional differences between private, public and political organizations. In business, when facing a residual claimant contract, a chief manager ends up with a relatively moderate …rst-best level of cronyism within a …firm. The institutional framework of the public sector does not allow explicit contracting, which leads to a more severe cronyism problem within public organizations. Finally, it is shown that the nature of political appointments (such that the subordinate's reappointment is conditioned on the chief's re-election) together with implicit contracting makes political cronyism the most extreme case. JEL classifi…cation: D72, D73, D86. Keywords: Cronyism; Meritocracy; Manager; Bureaucrat; Politician.

Presidents and parties in regional politics: Italy and Spain compared

This article examines the relationship between political parties and regional presidents in Italy and Spain, adopting a comparative case study approach based on extensive archival analysis and in-depth interviews with regional politicians. The findings confirm a strong pattern of growing presidentialism at regional level, regardless of whether there are formal mechanisms for direct election, and regardless of the partisan composition of regional government. Regional presidents tend to exert their growing power through a personalised control of regional party organisations, rather than governing past parties in a direct appeal to the electorate. Nevertheless, parties can still present a significant constraint on regional presidents, so successful regional presidents tend to maintain a mediating form of leadership and fully exploit the opportunities for party patronage to build up their support and smooth governing tensions. An autonomist drive helps presidents hold together disparate coalitions or loose parties at regional level, but their lack of internal coherence presents major problems when it comes to political succession.