Industrial agglomerations and wage gradients: the Spanish economy in the interwar period

This paper gives new evidence on the relationship between integration and industrial agglomeration in the presence of scale economies, by testing directly one of the predictions that can be derived from Krugman (1991), that is, the existence of regional nominal wage gradients and its transformation following changes in trade regimes. Our case study analyzes the effects of the substitution of an open economy by a closed economy regime, exactly the opposite process studied by Hanson (1996, 1997). In Spain, during the interwar period, protectionist policies would have favored the loss of centrality of the coastal location (Barcelona) and the relative rise of central locations (such as Madrid). Our results indicate the existence of a wage gradient centered in Barcelona during the interwar period (1914-1930) and its weakening after 1925.

The geographical concentration of industry across Spanish Regions, 1856-1995

New economic geography models show that there may be a strong relationship between economic integration and the geographical concentration of industries. Nevertheless, this relationship is neither unique nor stable, and may follow a ?-shaped pattern in the long term. The aim of the present paper is to analyze the evolution of the geographical concentration of manufacturing across Spanish regions during the period 1856-1995. We construct several geographical concentration indices for different points in time over these 140 years. The analysis is carried out at two levels of aggregation, in regions corresponding to the NUTS-II and NUTS-III classifications. We confirm that the process of economic integration stimulated the geographical concentration of industrial activity. Nevertheless, the localization coefficients only started to fall after the beginning of the integration of the Spanish Economy into the international markets in the mid-70s, and this new path was not interrupted by Spain¿s entry in the European Union some years later

The effects of tax deductibility on the mix of property taxes and use charges: an empirical analysis of the spanish case

This paper tests some hypothesis about the determinants of the local tax structure. In particular, we focus on the effects that the property tax deductibility in the national income tax has on the relative use of the property tax and user charges. We deal with the incentive effects that local governments face regarding the different sources of revenue by means of a model in which the local tax structure and the level of public expenditure arise as a result of the maximizing behaviour of local politicians subject to the economic effects of the tax system. We attempt to test the hypothesis developed with data corresponding to a set of Spanish municipalities during the period 1987-9l. We find that tax deductibility provides incentives to raise revenues from the property tax but does not introduce a biass against user charges or in favor of overall spending growth

Testing the bivariate distribution of daily equity returns using copulas: an application to the Spanish stock market

In this paper we deal with the identification of dependencies between time series of equity returns. Marginal distribution functions are assumed to be known, and a bivariate chi-square test of fit is applied in a fully parametric copula approach. Several families of copulas are fitted and compared with Spanish stock market data. The results show that the t-copula generally outperforms other dependence structures, and highlight the difficulty in adjusting a significant number of bivariate data series

Identifying the socioeconomic determinants of crime in Spanish provinces

In this paper we study, having as theoretical reference the economic model of crime (Becker, 1968; Ehrlich, 1973), which are the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of crime in Spain paying attention on the role of provincial peculiarities. We estimate a crime equation using a panel dataset of Spanish provinces (NUTS3) for the period 1993 to 1999 employing the GMMsystem estimator. Empirical results suggest that lagged crime rate and clear-up rate are correlated to all typologies of crime rate considered. Property crimes are better explained by socioeconomic variables (GDP per capita, GDP growth rate and percentage of population with high school and university degree), while demographic factors reveal important and significant influences, in particular for crimes against the person. These results are obtained using an instrumental variable approach that takes advantage of the dynamic properties of our dataset to control for both measurement errors in crime data and joint endogeneity of the explanatory variables

Boring activity of Epibionts in an Early Holocene molluscan fauna of Spanish Catalunya

Using X-Ray techniques, the boring activities of various Invertebrates on Bivalvia of wmian age were studied. Emphasis is placed on the boring activity of Porifera and their apparent preselection of the species bored, based on: a) the mineralogical composition, and/or b) the microstucture, andlor c) some special environmental conditions, or d) combinations of these three posibilities.

Avalanches in a fluctuationless first-order phase transition in a random-bond Ising model

We study the behavior of the random-bond Ising model at zero temperature by numerical simulations for a variable amount of disorder. The model is an example of systems exhibiting a fluctuationless first-order phase transition similar to some field-induced phase transitions in ferromagnetic systems and the martensitic phase transition appearing in a number of metallic alloys. We focus on the study of the hysteresis cycles appearing when the external field is swept from positive to negative values. By using a finite-size scaling hypothesis, we analyze the disorder-induced phase transition between the phase exhibiting a discontinuity in the hysteresis cycle and the phase with the continuous hysteresis cycle. Critical exponents characterizing the transition are obtained. We also analyze the size and duration distributions of the magnetization jumps (avalanches).

Vibrational behaviour of bcc Cu-based shape memory alloys close to the martensitic transition

Experimental data from ultrasonic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements are analyzed for different families of Cu-based shape-memory alloys. It is shown that the transition occurs at a value, independent of composition and alloy family, of the ratio between the elastic constants associated with the two shears necessary to accomplish the lattice distortion from the bcc to the close-packed structure. The zone boundary frequency of the TA2[110] branch evaluated at the transition point (TM), weakly depends, for each family, on composition. A linear relationship between this frequency and the inverse of the elastic constant C', both quantities evaluated at TM, has been found, in agreement with the prediction of a Landau model proposed for martensitic transformations.

Hysteresis in a system driven by either generalized force or displacement variables: martensitic phase transition in single-crystalline Cu-Zn-Al

We report on experiments aimed at comparing the hysteretic response of a Cu-Zn-Al single crystal undergoing a martensitic transition under strain-driven and stress-driven conditions. Strain-driven experiments were performed using a conventional tensile machine while a special device was designed to perform stress-driven experiments. Significant differences in the hysteresis loops were found. The strain-driven curves show reentrant behavior yield point which is not observed in the stress-driven case. The dissipated energy in the stress-driven curves is larger than in the strain-driven ones. Results from recently proposed models qualitatively agree with experiments.