Abstract Over ninety percent of the students taking the Spanish university admissions test (PAU) in recent years have passed on their first try. However, many public university degree programmes require high grades of their applicants. This requirement was reinforced in 2010 with the approval of the new PAU, which introduced a set of voluntary tests,…
Abstract How has wellbeing evolved over time and across regions? How does the West compare to the Rest? What explains their differences? These questions are addressed using an historical index of human development. A sustained improvement in wellbeing has taken place since 1870. The absolute gap between OECD and the Rest widened over time, but…
Abstract This paper introduces a novel semi-nonparametric (SNP) distribution that we name Expansion of Moments (ME hereafter). The innovation of this density lies in its polynomials given by the difference between the n-th power of the variable and the n-th moment of the parametric density used as basis. We show that the ME keeps the…
Abstract This paper analyzes the volatility transmissions between the different sessions of the Spanish intra-day electricity market for the period 2002-2013 using hourly prices. Based on the intra-day realized volatility and the organization of the market, volatility can only be transmitted from session 1 to 6 in chronological order, which allows formulate six Autoregressive Distributed…
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of domestic and foreign sourcing on firm-level productivity. We develop a simple framework which permits the introduction of both domestic outsourcing and offshoring in a conventional production function. We find that the decision to outsource has a positive impact on the level of productivity…
Abstract El objetivo del estudio es evaluar el efecto de las políticas de copago farmacéutico en la cantidad y la tendencia de consumo de medicamentos. Se trata de un estudio observacional retrospectivo con datos de prescripción de medicamentos en atención primaria y especializada en la Región de Murcia, obtenidos de los registros correspondientes a las…
Abstract En este trabajo documentamos la existencia de aglomeración geográfica de empresas exportadoras según el país de destino de las exportaciones utilizando microdatos de la Balanza de Pagos. En este sentido, encontramos que las empresas que venden a países con peores instituciones, donde no se habla español y que tienen una moneda diferente tienden a…
Abstract El Banco de Barcelona se creó en 1844 alrededor de un grupo de individuos que, hacia mediados de la década de 1850, tenían establecida una amplia red social conformada a través de las inversiones del grupo en las principales sociedades anónimas de la época ((Badia-Miró, Blasco-Martel, Lozano, & Soler, 2013) y (Badia-Miro, Blasco-Martel, Lozano,…
Abstract En este trabajo se presenta una metodología para la construcción de un Sistema de Cuentas Públicas Territorializadas (SCPT) elaborado desde la óptica carga-beneficio, así como una aplicación de esta metodología al caso del año 2011. El SCPT ofrece una radiografía detallada de la distribución regional de los flujos de gastos e ingresos públicos y…
Abstract There appears to be notable differences in average effort at work (pace and attentiveness) across countries, which affect relative TFP and comparative advantage. These differences are typically assumed to be the consequence of an exogenous cultural trait: industriousness; more industrious countries would thrive relative to more indolent ones. However, it is hard to accept…
