Ranking Regional Innovation Policies: DEA-based Benchmarking in an European Setting

Seudullinen innovaatio on monimutkainen ilmiö, joka usein sijaitsee paikallisten toimijoiden keskinäisen vuorovaikutuksen kentässä. Täten sitä on perinteisesti pidetty vaikeasti mitattavana ilmiönä. Työssä sovellettiin Data Envelopment Analysis menetelmää, joka on osoittautunut aiemmin menestyksekkääksi tapauksissa, joissa mitattavien syötteiden ja tuotteiden väliset suhteet eivät ole olleet ilmeisiä. Työssä luotiin konseptuaalinen malli seudullisen innovaation syötteistä ja tuotteista, jonka perusteella valittiin 12 tilastollisen muuttujan mittaristo. Käyttäen Eurostat:ia datalähteenä, lähdedata kahdeksaan muuttujsta saatiin seudullisella tasolla, sekä mittaristoa täydennettiin yhdellä kansallisella muuttujalla. Arviointi suoritettiin lopulta 45 eurooppalaiselle seudulle. Tutkimuksen painopiste oli arvioida DEA-menetelmän soveltuvuutta innovaatiojärjestelmän mittaamiseen, sillä menetelmää ei ole aiemmin sovellettu vastaavassa tapauksessa. Ensimmäiset tulokset osoittivat ylipäätään liiallisen korkeita tehokkuuslukuja. Korjaustoimenpiteitä erottelutarkkuuden parantamiseksi esiteltiin ja sovellettiin, jonka jälkeen saatiin realistisempia tuloksia ja ranking-lista arvioitavista seuduista. DEA-menetelmän todettiin olevan tehokas ja kiinnostava työkalu arviointikäytäntöjen ja innovaatiopolitiikan kehittämiseen, sikäli kun datan saatavuusongelmat saadaan ratkaistua sekä itse mallia tarkennettua.

European employment strategy and spanish labour market policies

The paper aim is to analyse the influence of the European Employment Strategy (EES)in the implementation of the Spanish labour market policies. The first part of the paper describes the evolution and content of the EES. In the second one, the definition of activation is also explained. In addition to that, the ways how the EES develops and promotes active labour market policies are examined. The evolution of labour market policies in Spain and the current configuration of both active and passive policies are studied in the next three chapters. In these parts, the paper investigates to which extent the provisions of the EES have been implemented in Spain. The paper shows that: i) activation has been rising in the European countries since the implementation of the EES; ii) this fact has also happened in relative terms (comparing the evolution of active to passive policies); iii) Spain has been one of the countries which has led these processes; iv) the EES seems to have been influencing

A proposal to establish indicators for the evaluation of municipal councils' socio-cultural policies

How can municipal sociocultural policies stimulate and promote community empowerment, civic creativity or social cohesion? What objectives should be proposed at the municipal level to promote processes of sociocultural community development? How can we identify local needs in order to stimulate community development processes? In response to these questions, our paper proposes a creative solution: indicators to evaluate sociocultural policies. The proposal will enable us to obtain information about our own reality and, at the same time, contribute to producing changes and to outlining possible de intervention strategies for local administrations. The proposal describes a system of creative, flexible and rigourous indicators intended for municipal technicians and politicians interested in evaluating their sociocultural actions and strategies. We present the result of a research process whose methods included validation of the indicators by experts and technicians in or related to sociocultural community development, and the application of this system based on a case study of a Spanish municipality. Among the proposed indicators specific consideration is given to the support of local creators and the promotion of civic creativity, as well as the use, the creation and the articulation of sociocultural activities as strategies to contribute to cultural and civic diversity

Tobacco control policies in hospitals before and after the implementation of a national smoking ban in Catalonia, Spain

Background: Diverse projects and guidelines to assist hospitals towards the attainment of comprehensive smoke-free policies have been developed. In 2006, Spain government passed a new smoking ban that reinforce tobacco control policies and banned completely smoking in hospitals. This study assesses the progression of tobacco control policies in the Catalan Network of Smokefree Hospitals before and after a comprehensive national smoking ban. Methods: We used the Self-Audit Questionnaire of the European Network for Smoke-free Hospitals to score the compliance of 9 policy standards (global score = 102). We used two crosssectional surveys to evaluate tobacco control policies before (2005) and after the implementation of a national smoking ban (2007) in 32 hospitals of Catalonia, Spain. We compared the means of the overall score in 2005 and 2007 according to the type of hospital, the number of beds, the prevalence of tobacco consumption, and the number of years as a smoke-free hospital. Results: The mean of the implementation score of tobacco control policies was 52.4 (95% CI:45.4-59.5) in 2005 and 71.6 (95% CI: 67.0-76.2) in 2007 with an increase of 36.7% (p < 0.01). The hospitals with greater improvement were general hospitals (48% increase; p < 0.01), hospitals with > 300 beds (41.1% increase; p < 0.01), hospitals with employees' tobacco consumption prevalence 35-39% (72.2% increase; p < 0.05) and hospitals that had recently implemented smoke-free policies (74.2% increase; p < 0.01). Conclusion: The national smoking ban appears to increase tobacco control activities in hospitals combined with other non-bylaw initiatives such as the Smoke-free Hospital Network.

Tobacco control policies in hospitals before and after the implementation of a national smoking ban in Catalonia, Spain

Background: Diverse projects and guidelines to assist hospitals towards the attainment of comprehensive smoke-free policies have been developed. In 2006, Spain government passed a new smoking ban that reinforce tobacco control policies and banned completely smoking in hospitals. This study assesses the progression of tobacco control policies in the Catalan Network of Smokefree Hospitals before and after a comprehensive national smoking ban. Methods: We used the Self-Audit Questionnaire of the European Network for Smoke-free Hospitals to score the compliance of 9 policy standards (global score = 102). We used two crosssectional surveys to evaluate tobacco control policies before (2005) and after the implementation of a national smoking ban (2007) in 32 hospitals of Catalonia, Spain. We compared the means of the overall score in 2005 and 2007 according to the type of hospital, the number of beds, the prevalence of tobacco consumption, and the number of years as a smoke-free hospital. Results: The mean of the implementation score of tobacco control policies was 52.4 (95% CI:45.4-59.5) in 2005 and 71.6 (95% CI: 67.0-76.2) in 2007 with an increase of 36.7% (p < 0.01). The hospitals with greater improvement were general hospitals (48% increase; p < 0.01), hospitals with > 300 beds (41.1% increase; p < 0.01), hospitals with employees' tobacco consumption prevalence 35-39% (72.2% increase; p < 0.05) and hospitals that had recently implemented smoke-free policies (74.2% increase; p < 0.01). Conclusion: The national smoking ban appears to increase tobacco control activities in hospitals combined with other non-bylaw initiatives such as the Smoke-free Hospital Network.

The Impact of EU Membership on the Economic Governance of Spain

[spa] España no fue admitida en la Comunidad Económica Europea durante el régimen de Franco por razones políticas. Integrarse a la Comunidad Europea en enero de 1986 fue el último peldaño hacia la consolidación definitiva de la democracia en España y de la apertura de su economía.. Los resultados de los veinticinco años como miembro de la UE se han traducido en un impulso sin precedentes de modernización y progreso. España adoptó el “Acervo Comunitario” y recibió considerables beneficios de su integración a la Comunidad, eliminando barreras, siguiendo las políticas comunes, recibiendo fondos europeos y adoptando la moneda europea común. A partir de un nivel del 60% del promedio europeo de renta per capita en 1986, el nivel actual –incluso con la crisis que estalló en 2008- se sitúa en torno al 105 por ciento. Los últimos tres años han sido diferentes y difíciles como consecuencia de la severa crisis económica y financiera.En este contexto este trabajo analiza como los sucesivos gobiernos de España han organizado la gobernanza económica para adaptarla a los cambios cuantitativos y cualitativos que se han ido produciendo en la integración europea.

The Impact of EU Membership on the Economic Governance of Spain

[spa] España no fue admitida en la Comunidad Económica Europea durante el régimen de Franco por razones políticas. Integrarse a la Comunidad Europea en enero de 1986 fue el último peldaño hacia la consolidación definitiva de la democracia en España y de la apertura de su economía.. Los resultados de los veinticinco años como miembro de la UE se han traducido en un impulso sin precedentes de modernización y progreso. España adoptó el “Acervo Comunitario” y recibió considerables beneficios de su integración a la Comunidad, eliminando barreras, siguiendo las políticas comunes, recibiendo fondos europeos y adoptando la moneda europea común. A partir de un nivel del 60% del promedio europeo de renta per capita en 1986, el nivel actual –incluso con la crisis que estalló en 2008- se sitúa en torno al 105 por ciento. Los últimos tres años han sido diferentes y difíciles como consecuencia de la severa crisis económica y financiera.En este contexto este trabajo analiza como los sucesivos gobiernos de España han organizado la gobernanza económica para adaptarla a los cambios cuantitativos y cualitativos que se han ido produciendo en la integración europea.

The development of credit management

The objective of the examination was to create development suggestions to intensify the credit management in the subject enterprise. The target of the theory part was to add understanding concerning the credit management and to define the process of credit management. The target of the empirical part was to get to know the present conditions of the credit management in the subject enterprise as well as to establish the problems in the process. The research methodology is constructive, but there are also characteristics of action research.The target of constructive methodology is to create a solutionmodel for the relevant research problem. The methods used in the empirical part were participating observation, literary material and interviews. Within the results of the research a number of development suggestions for the credit management were presented. It is possible to achieve considerable returns while shortening the chain of cash payments. In the suggestions the importance of cooperation between different functions as well as training were emphasized.

Gold or green: the debate on Open Access policies

The movement for open access to science seeks to achieve unrestricted and free access to academic publications on the Internet. To this end, two mechanisms have been established: the gold road, in which scientific journals are openly accessible, and the green road, in which publications are self-archived in repositories. The publication of the Finch Report in 2012, advocating exclusively the adoption of the gold road, generated a debate as to whether either of the two options should be prioritized. The recommendations of the Finch Report stirred controversy among academicians specialized in open access issues, who felt that the role played by repositories was not adequately considered and because the green road places the burden of publishing costs basically on authors. The Finch Report"s conclusions are compatible with the characteristics of science communication in the UK and they could surely also be applied to the (few) countries with a powerful publishing industry and substantial research funding. In Spain, both the current national legislation and the existing rules at universities largely advocate the green road. This is directly related to the structure of scientific communication in Spain, where many journals have little commercial significance, the system of charging a fee to authors has not been adopted, and there is a good repository infrastructure. As for open access policies, the performance of the scientific communication system in each country should be carefully analyzed to determine the most suitable open access strategy. [Int Microbiol 2013; 16(3):199-203]

Best practice report on policy learning infrastructures in innovative labour market policies

This report synthesizes the findings of 11 country reports on policy learning in labour market and social policies that were conducted as part of WP5 of the INSPIRES project, which is funded by the 7th Framework Program of the EU-Commission. Notably, this report puts forward objectives of policy learning, discusses tools, processes and institutions of policy learning and presents the impacts of various tools and structures of the policy learning infrastructure for the actual policy learning process. The report defines three objectives of policy learning: evaluation and assessment of policy effectiveness, vision building and planning, and consensus building. In the 11 countries under consideration, the tools and processes of the policy learning, infrastructure can be classified into three broad groups: public bodies, expert councils, and parties, interest groups and the private sector. Finally, we develop four recommendations for policy learning: Firstly, learning processes should keep the balance between centralisation and plurality. Secondly, learning processes should be kept stable beyond the usual political business cycles. Thirdly, policy learning tools and infrastructures should be sufficiently independent from political influence or bias. Fourth, Policy learning tools and infrastructures should balance out mere effectiveness, evaluation and vision building.

Young people and youth policies in Spain in times of austerity: between juggling and the trapeze

The aim of this article is to present and discuss the situation regarding young people and youth policy in Spain via the parameters of the magic triangle linking policy, research and action: (1) the situation of young people in Spain today -some indicators are highlighted regarding the main challenges and opportunities for young people, with references to the so-called"Ni-Nis" (neither studying nor working)- and the movement of the"outraged" youth that occupied the streets of Spain"s major cities in May 2011; (2) the current approaches adopted by public youth policies in Spain and limitations and difficulties encountered by the government in attempting to meet the demands of young people; (3) social work with young people and professionals involved in youth policies. In the last section, we conclude with some open questions and proposals for the immediate future