As infraestruturas portuárias em Cabo Verde: eficiência no curto e no longo prazo

Relatório de estágio de mestrado de Economia Industrial e da Empresa

Colaboração em inovação: parceiros ou concorrentes?

Dissertação de mestrado em Economia Industrial e da Empresa

Incentivos, desempenho e remunerações: o caso português

Dissertação de mestrado em Economia Industrial e da Empresa

Entrada de multinacionais num cluster e efeitos na estratégia das empresas instaladas

Dissertação de mestrado em Economia Industrial e da Empresa

Clúster creatius en entorns urbans: 22@Bcn i Shoreditch East London

La localització de les empreses de nova economia en zones urbanes, a pesar que el factor distància no sigui important, no deixa de ser considerable pels seus avantatges que els suposa estar situades conjuntament en relació amb les infraestructures, consum, beneficis socioculturals, i facilitat en les transaccions cara a cara. És inevitable que el primer quart del segle vint-i-un estigui lligat a l’economia creativa de forma similar amb que el començament del segle vint estava íntimament lligat a l’economia industrial i la invenció del sistema de producció en massa. La ciutat també va jugar un dels papers més importants per al desenvolupament de “la nova economia industrial” a les albors del segle vint, com ho és la ciutat del coneixement que acull “la nova economia creativa” al segle vint-i-un. És evident que els resultats morfològics, socials, econòmics i urbans són ben diferents en ambdós fenòmens, però l’impacte a les ciutats és molt gran. L’objectiu d’aquest estudi és analitzar els mecanismes d’aglomeració (clustering) d’activitats competitives basades en creació de coneixement i de serveis avançats que estan al darrera de desenvolupaments punters a ciutats com Barcelona, el projecte 22@bcn, i East London, el projecte Shoreditch. L’esforç que han posat les autoritats locals en crear l’entorn apropiat per atreure i crear empreses innovadores, com a motor de desenvolupament d’algunes ciutats modernes europees ha resultat en el sorgiment de nuclis o centres urbans molt dinàmics que suposadament estan preparats i acullen punts de creació de coneixement (“Urban Knowledge Hubs”), amb una demanda i llocs de treball altament qualificats. Aquest és el cas dels projectes de Barcelona (22@bcn) i East London (Shoreditch).

Quantiles of the Realized Stock-Bond Correlation

Abstract: We scrutinize the realized stock-bond correlation based upon high frequency returns. We use quantile regressions to pin down the systematic variation of the extreme tails over their economic determinants. The correlation dependence behaves differently when the correlation is large negative and large positive. The important explanatory variables at the extreme low quantile are the short rate, the yield spread, and the volatility index. At the extreme high quantile the bond market liquidity is also important. The empirical fi…ndings are only partially robust to using less precise measures of the stock-bond correlation. The results are not caused by the recent …financial crisis. Keywords: Extreme returns; Financial crisis; Realized stock-bond correlation; Quantile regressions; VIX. JEL Classifi…cations: C22; G01; G11; G12

Imagen y segmentación en un destino turístico de Patrimonio de la Humanidad: el caso de la ciudad de Tarragona

ABSTRACT: El proceso de decisión de compra del consumidor turístico viene condicionado en gran medida por la imagen que éste tiene de los diferentes destinos que configuran su campo de elección. En un mercado turístico internacional altamente competitivo, los responsables de las políticas de desarrollo y promoción de los destinos buscan estrategias de diferenciación que les permitan posicionarse en los segmentos de mercado más adecuados para su producto, con el fin de conseguir mejorar su poder de atracción de visitantes e incrementar o consolidar los beneficios económicos que la actividad turística genera en su territorio. En este sentido, el objetivo principal que nos planteamos en este trabajo es el análisis empírico de los factores que determinan la formación de la imagen de la ciudad de Tarragona como destino turístico de patrimonio cultural. Sin duda, la declaración como Patrimonio Mundial por parte de la UNESCO, en el año 2000, del conjunto artístico y monumental con el que cuenta la ciudad de Tarragona, supuso un importante reconocimiento internacional de la calidad de los elementos culturales y patrimoniales que ofrece la Ciudad a todos los visitantes que la escogen como destino turístico. También representa una oportunidad estratégica para impulsar la promoción turística de la Ciudad y su consolidación como destino singularizado por sus características culturales y patrimoniales. Nuestro trabajo se basa en la utilización de técnicas estructuradas para identificar los factores que determinan los componentes de la imagen turística de Tarragona y que influyen de manera decisiva en el proceso de elección del destino por parte de sus visitantes. Además de poder conocer la imagen turística global de Tarragona, consideramos que la heterogeneidad de sus visitantes requiere un estudio más detallado que nos permita segmentar la tipología de los visitantes. La información que nos aportan estos resultados nos han de permitir comparar la imagen percibida por los turistas que visitan Tarragona, con los objetivos de diseño de producto y promoción del destino que tienen los responsables de la política turística local. Key words: Imagen de destino turístico; análisis factorial; análisis cluster; política turística local.

Is there Descriminatory Mortgage Pricing against Immigrants in the Spanish Lending Market?

In this paper, we investigate whether evidence of discriminatory treatment against immigrants in the Spanish mortgage market exists. More specifically, we test whether, ceteris paribus, immigrant borrowers tend to be charged with higher interest rates on their mortgages than their Spanish born counterparts. To do so, we use a unique dataset on granted mortgages that contains information not only regarding the conditions of the loan but also the socio-economic characteristics of the mortgagors. We observe that immigrants are systematically charged with higher interest rates. We apply the well known Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to measure the extent to which this disparate treatment of lenders in mortgage pricing against immigrants is due to discrimination. Our results indicate that approximately two thirds of the gap in the interest rate between Spanish born and immigrant borrowers can be attributed to discriminatory treatment. Key words: Immigration, discrimination, mortgage pricing, housing market. JEL codes: R21, G21, J14

Decentralization, happiness and the perception of institutions

This paper analyses whether the different powers and resources at the disposal of local and regional governments across Europe deliver greater satisfaction with political institutions and lead to greater personal happiness. The analysis uses microdata from the four available waves of the European social survey (2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008), including more than 160,000 observations of individuals living in 29 European countries. Our results reveal that political and fiscal decentralization have a positive and significant effect on individuals’ overall happiness. Fiscal decentralization also exerts a significant effect on the level of satisfaction with political and economic institutions and with the education and health systems, whereas the effect of political decentralization on these variables is more limited. The results show that citizens seem to be happier with the actual capacity of their local governments to deliver than with the general principle that they can have a say on their daily politics and policies. Keywords: Happiness, well-being, satisfaction, fiscal and political decentralization, Europe. JEL codes: H11, H77

A Model of Party Discipline in a Congress

This paper studies party discipline in a congress within a political agency framework with retrospective voting. Party discipline serves as an incentive device to induce office- motivated congress members to perform in line with the party leadership's objective of controlling both the executive and the legislative branches of government. I show fi…rst that the same party is more likely to control both branches of government (i.e., uni…ed government) the stronger the party discipline in the congress is. Second, the leader of the governing party imposes more party discipline under uni…ed government than does the opposition leader under divided government. Moreover, the incumbents' aggregate performance increases with party discipline, so a representative voter becomes better off. JEL classi…cation: D72. Keywords: Party discipline; Political agency; Retrospective voting; Office-motivated politicians.

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.

Water Reallocation in the Input-Output Model

Water reallocation between economic agents has been –and continues to be- the subject of a considerable amount of research. This paper proposes a method for evaluating how water is reallocated within the economy in response to changes in final demand and changes in the technical water needs of activities and consumers. The empirical application, which is for the Catalan economy, shows important asymmetries in the effects that exogenous inflows and changes in water technical requirements cause on water reallocation. In the process of water distribution, exogenous inflows mostly benefit agriculture and damage private consumers. On the other hand, increases in technical water requirements have negative effects on agriculture and positive effects on the other production activities. The results of the study suggest that agriculture is an important activity not only in terms of water distribution but also in terms of water reallocation due to changes in final demand and technical water needs. Keywords: Water reallocation, water distribution, exogenous shock, technical water needs.

Location Determinants of New Firms: Does Skill Level of Human Capital Really Matter?

This paper is about the role played by stock of human capital on location decisions of new manufacturing plants. We analyse the effect of several skill levels (from basic school to PhD) on decisions about the location of plants in various industries and, therefore, of different technological levels. We also test whether spatial aggregation level biases the results and determine the most appropriate areas to be considered in analyses of these phenomena. Our main statistical source is the Register of Manufacturing Establishments of Catalonia (REIC), which has plant-level microdata on the locations of new manufacturing plants. Keywords: agglomeration economies, industrial location, human capital, count-data models, spatial econometrics.

Smooth Transition Patterns in the Realized Stock- Bond Correlation

Abstract: We analyze the realized stock-bond correlation. Gradual transitions between negative and positive stock-bond correlation is accommodated by the smooth transition regression (STR) model. The changes in regime are de…ned by economic and …financial transition variables. Both in sample and out-of- sample results document that STR models with multiple transition variables outperform STR models with a single transition variable. The most important transition variables are the short rate, the yield spread, and the VIX volatility index. Keywords: realized correlation; smooth transition regressions; stock-bond correlation; VIX index JEL Classifi…cations: C22; G11; G12; G17

A never-ending debate: Demand versus supply water policies. A CGE analysis for Catalonia

Water scarcity is a long-standing problem in Catalonia, as there are significant differences in the spatial and temporal distribution of water through the territory. There has consequently been a debate for many years about whether the solution to water scarcity must be considered in terms of efficiency or equity, the role that the public sector must play and the role that market-based instruments should play in water management. The aim of this paper is to use a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to analyze the advantages and disadvantages associated with different policy instruments, from both a supply and a demand viewpoint, which can be applied to water management in Catalonia. We also introduce an ecological sector in our CGE model, allowing us to analyze the environmental impact of the alternative policies simulated. The calibration of the exogenous variables of the CGE model is performed by using a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for the Catalan economy with 2001 data. The results suggest that taking into account the principle of sustainability of the resource, the policy debate between supply and demand in water policies is obsolete, and a new combination of policies is required to respect the different values associated with water. Keywords: Water Policies; Computable General Equilibrium Model; Economic Effects; Environmental Effects.