The keys to success: the social, sporting, economic and communications impact of Barcelona'92

This book is a collection of articles which analyze the sporting, social, political, communicative, urban, technological and economic impacts of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

Economic crisis and recovery: changes in second birth rates within occupational classes and educational groups

This study assesses the decline in second birth rates for men and women across different skill levels in transitional Russia. Changes within educational groups and occupational classes are observed over three distinct time periods: the Soviet era, economic crisis, and economic recovery. The most remarkable finding is the similarity in the extent second birth rates declined within educational groups and occupational classes during the economic crisis. Although further decline occurred in the recovery period, more variation emerged across groups.

Transfers, social safety nets and economic growth

The role of social safety nets in the form of redistributional transfersand wage subsidies is analyzed using a simple model of criminal behavior. Itis argued that public welfare programs act as a crime--preventing ordisruption--preventing devices because they tend to increase the opportunitycost of engaging in crime or disruptive activities. It is shown that, in thepresence of a leisure choice, wage subsidies may be better than pure transfers. Using a simple growth model, it is shown that it is not optimal for the governmentto try to fully eliminate crime. The optimal size of the public welfare programis found and it is argued that public welfare should be financed with income(not lump--sum) taxes, despite the fact that income taxes are distortionary.The intuition for this result is that income taxes act as a user fee oncongested public goods and transfers can be thought of as {\it productive}public goods {\it subject to congestion}. Finally, using a cross-section of 75 countries, the partial correlation betweentransfers and growth is shown to be significantly positive.

Spain, Economic Crisis, and the New Enclosure of the Reproductive Commons

In the past f ew years numerous authors have examined how the current economic crisis in Spain has dif f erential impacts on women and men.1 While this is important to show, this article’s goal is to make the leap f rom a mere description of the gendered effects of the crisis, to an analysis of some of the very gendered processes that shape it at its core. In other words, the intent is to understand how both the crisis itself and the ways the state manages it are structurally shaped by gender.

Industrial emissions abatement: Untangling the impact of the EU ETS and the economic crisis

In this study we use historical emission data from installations under the European Union Emissions Trading System, -EU ETS- to evaluate the impact of this policy on industrial greenhouse gas emissions during the first two trading phases, 2005-2012. As such the analysis seeks to disentangle two causes of emission abatement: that attributable to the EU ETS and that attributable to the economic crisis that hit the EU in 2008/09. Using a panel data approach the estimated emissions reduction attributable to the EU ETS is about 21 per cent of the total emission abatement during the observation period. These results suggest therefore that the lion’s share of abatement was attributable to the effects of the economic crisis, a finding that has serious implications for future policy adjustments affecting core elements of the EU ETS, including the distribution of EU emission allowances.

L’assalt de l’aristocràcia gal•loromana al poder episcopal (darrer quart del s. IV-primer quart del s. VI): estratègies de persuasió social i controvèrsies doctrinals derivades de les interpretacions aristocratitzants de la comunitat cristiana

Estudi realitzat a partir d’una estada al Laboratoire d’études sur les monothéismes (UMR 8584, Centre national de la recherche scientifique / École pratique des hautes études / Université Paris IV-Sorbonne), França, entre 2010 i 2011. Anàlisi de la crisi estructural que afectà a l’església gal•la entre el darrer quart del segle IV i el primer del segle VI, crisi causada per la cristianització a gran escala de les elits aristocràtiques gal•loromanes i per la reivindicació per part d’aquest estament de la translació a l’esfera de la jerarquia institucional de l’Església de la seva preeminència econòmica i social. Aquest procés implicà l’aparició d’algunes interpretacions del “fet existencial cristià” que tractaven de legitimar en el plànol teòric la presa del control de les comunitats cristianes per part de la noblesa senatorial. En relació a aquest últim punt, s’ha donat particular rellevància a l’anomenada “controvèrsia semipelagiana” a Provença, amb especial èmfasi en dos punts: a) la relació entre l’oposició a la teologia agustiniana de la gràcia en alguns cercles monàstics provençals –Marsella, Lérins– i l’emergència en aquests ambients d’una literatura autobiogràfica en la que la reflexió sobre els conceptes de uocatio divina i conuersio a l’ascetisme cristià està estretament vinculada a un esforç teòric de redefinició i reorientació de l’ethos aristocràtic; i b) la relació entre els punts teològics debatuts en aquesta controvèrsia i les concepcions eclesiològiques dels pensadors que hi prengueren part –entengui’s aquí per eclesiologia la definició teòrica dels límits i dels fonaments de la “comunitat cristiana”, amb especial incidència en aquest cas en els plantejaments sobre el rol que l’aristòcrata havia d’exercir en aquestes noves comunitats “transversals”–. Aquest projecte bianual ha posat de manifest la inexistència d’una “teologia semipelagiana”, ateses les antagòniques concepcions eclesiològiques dels autors tradicionalment associats a aquesta corrent de pensament: Cassià entén la comunitat cristiana com una elit ascètica en la que els criteris “laics” d’estratificació social queden suspesos, i rebutja –en la teoria i en la pràctica– que aquesta elit hagi d’assumir el lideratge de la comunitat de fidels seglars; en els autors del cercle de Lérins, en canvi, l’oposició a la teologia agustiniana de la gràcia és inspirada per l’esforç d’importar a tota la comunitat cristiana els ideals monàstics, quelcom que fou també una via de legitimació de l’autoritat dels monjos-bisbes d’origen aristocràtic sorgits del cenobi de Lérins.

Bubbly collateral and economic activity

This paper develops a model of the bubbly economy and uses it to study the effects of bailoutpolicies. In the bubbly economy, weak enforcement institutions do not allow firms to pledge futurerevenues to their creditors. As a result, "fundamental" collateral is scarce and this impairs the intermediationprocess that transforms savings into capital. To overcome this shortage of "fundamental"collateral, the bubbly economy creates "bubbly" collateral. This additional collateral supports anintricate array of intra- and inter-generational transfers that allow savings to be transformed intocapital and bubbles. Swings in investor sentiment lead to fluctuations in the amount of bubblycollateral, giving rise to bubbly business cycles with very rich and complex dynamics.Bailout policies can affect these dynamics in a variety of ways. Expected bailouts provideadditional collateral and expand investment and the capital stock. Realized bailouts reduce thesupply of funds and contract investment and the capital stock. Thus, bailout policies tend to fosterinvestment and growth in normal times, but to depress investment and growth during crisis periods.We show how to design bailout policies that maximize various policy objectives.

Wage inequality and economic growth in Mexican regions

Only a few studies have analysed the relationship between intraregional inequality and growth, although several studies have measured inequality at the regional level. The objective of this paper is to analyse the relationship between income (wage) inequality and economic growth in different regions of Mexico. We also try to identify factors that explain the variation of intra-regional inequality across Mexican regions and over time. Using macroeconomic databases and publicly available microdata, we apply techniques used in the fields of statistics and econometrics to obtain robust evidence on the relationship between growth and inequality. Our aim is to provide policy recommendations to support the design and implementation of growth-promoting measures thatavoid the exclusion of certain social groups. This paper provides reasons to use a spatial approach and an analysis of particular regions to avoid «one size fits all» policy recommendations.

Human Capital Composition and Economic Growth at a Regional Level

With this paper we build a two-region model where both innovation and imitation are performed. In particular imitation takes the form of technological spillovers that lagging regions may exploit given certain human capital conditions. We show how the high skill content of each region’s workforce (rather than the average human capital stock) is crucial to determine convergence towards the income level of the leader region and to exploit the technological spillovers coming from the frontier. The same applies to bureaucratic/institutional quality which are conductive to higher growth in the long run. We test successfully our theoretical result over Spanish regions for the period between 1960 and 1997. We exploit system GMM estimators which allow us to correctly deal with endogeneity problems and small sample bias.

Ecological and Economic Impacts within the Environmental Input-Output Framework

The environmental input-output approach reveals the channels through which the environmental burdens of production activities are transmitted throughout the economy. This paper uses the input-output framework and analyses the changes in Spanish emission multipliers during the period 1995-2000. By decomposing the global changes in multipliers into different components, it is possible to evaluate separately the economic and ecological impacts captured by the environmental input-output model. Specifically, in this study we distinguish between the effects on multipliers caused by changes in emission coefficients (the ecological impacts) and the effects on multipliers caused by changes in technical coefficients (the economic impacts). Our results show a significant improvement in the ecological impacts of production activities, which contributed negatively to changes in emission multipliers. They also show a deterioration in the economic impacts, which contributed positively to changes in emission multipliers. Together, these two effects lead to a small reduction in global multipliers during the period of analysis. Our results also show significant differences in the individual behaviour of different sectors in terms of their contribution to multiplier changes. Since there are considerable differences in the way individual sectors affect the changes in emission levels, and in the intensity of these effects, this means that the final effects will basically depend on the activity considered. Keywords: emission multipliers, multipliers' changes, ecological impacts, economic impacts.

Long-run Inflation-Unemployment Dynamics: The Spanish Phillips Curve and Economic Policy

This paper takes a new look at the long-run dynamics of inflation and unemployment in response to permanent changes in the growth rate of the money supply. We examine the Phillips curve from the perspective of what we call "frictional growth", i.e. the interaction between money growth and nominal frictions. After presenting theoretical models of this phenomenon, we construct an empirical model of the Spanish economy and, in this context, we evaluate the long-run inflation-unemployment trade for Spain and examine how recent policy changes have afected it.

Entrepreneurship, management services and economic growth

We model the joint production of entrepreneurs and workers where the former provide both entrepreneurial (strategic) and managerial (coordination, motivation) services, and management services are shared with individual workers in an output maximizing way. The static equilibrium of the model determines the endogenous share of entrepreneurs in the economy in a given moment of time. The time dynamics of the solution implies that a given growth rate in quality of entrepreneurial services contributes to productivity growth proportionally to the share of entrepreneurs at the start of the period and improvement in quality of entrepreneurial services is convergence enhancing. Model predictions are tested with data from OECD countries in the period 1970-2002. We find that improvements in quality of entrepreneurial services over time explain up to 100% of observed average productivity growth in these countries.

La revolución energética cubana en la UCLV: ¿un paso en el camino hacia la sostenibilidad?. Parte I: Análisis de los impactos ambientales

La Revolución Energética Cubana (REC) surge de las necesidades de resolver la situación social y económica de Cuba, sumergida en una crisis energética con constantes apagones que limitaban por completo todo desarrollo del país. La REC (2006) se basa en los principios de la autosuficiencia energética, el ahorro y uso racional de la energía, y el incremento de la eficiencia en todos los aspectos. En el presente trabajo se realiza el análisis de la sostenibilidad socio-ambiental de la REC en la Universidad Central Marta Abreu de Las Villas (UCLV), ubicada en Santa Clara (Cuba). La valoración se ha efectuado mediante el análisis de los impactos ambientales y sociales en dos estudios paralelos que se complementan aplicando la técnica de conmensurabilidad débil. El conjunto de los programas de la REC han propiciado mejoras en el suministro eléctrico y en el ahorro energético, disminuyendo en un 44% las emisiones de CO2, a pesar del incremento en la actividad docente y en la flota de equipos. Las medidas adoptadas han incidido en la calidad de la docencia, las condiciones de vida, la concienciación y la participación de la población, dando lugar a un impacto social positivo. De esta manera, el balance global de la REC es positivo ya que ha permitido el desarrollo de la UCLV sin incrementar los impactos ambientales, por lo que se puede considerar un paso en el camino hacia la sostenibilidad socio-ambiental.

La revolución energética cubana en la UCLV: ¿un paso en el camino hacia la sostenibilidad?. Parte II: Análisis de los impactos sociales

La Revolución Energética Cubana (REC) surge de las necesidades de resolver la situación social y económica de Cuba, sumergida en una crisis energética con constantes apagones que limitaban por completo el desarrollo del país. La REC (2006) es un conjunto de medidas basadas en los principios de la autosuficiencia energética, el ahorro y uso racional de la energía, y el incremento de la eficiencia en todos los aspectos. En el presente trabajo se realiza el análisis de la sostenibilidad socio-ambiental de la REC en la Universidad Central Marta Abreu de las Villas (UCLV), ubicada en Santa Clara (Cuba). La valoración se ha efectuado mediante el análisis de los impactos ambientales y sociales en dos estudios paralelos que se complementan aplicando la técnica de conmensurabilidad débil. El conjunto de los programas de la REC han propiciado mejoras en el suministro eléctrico y en el ahorro energético, disminuyendo en un 30% las emisiones de CO2, a pesar del incremento en la actividad docente y en la flota de equipos, en la universidad. Las medidas adoptadas han incidido en la calidad de la docencia, las condiciones de vida, la concienciación y la participación de la población, dando lugar a un impacto social positivo. De esta manera, el balance global de la REC se califica de positivo ya que ha permitido el desarrollo de la UCLV sin incrementar los impactos ambientales, por lo que se puede considerar un paso en el camino hacia la sostenibilidad socio-ambiental.