Public capital and productive efficiency in the Spanish regions (1964–89)

The article analyses the evolution of the differences in economic conditions among Spanish regions from the perspective provided by the recent advances made in economic growth empirics. Although convergence is usually established in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA) per capita, in the case of Spain it is of special interest to break it down into three separate elements: activity rate, employment rate, and productivity of labour. Regional differences in unemployment rates, which persist for long periods of time, are identified as a force against convergence. After describing the distinction between conditional and non conditional convergence, the paper considers the role played by the product…

Indicators of banking efficiency: An international application

Growth and convergence profiles in the Spanish provinces (1965-1997)

.  Economic performance in Spanish provinces has led to a considerable improvement in standard of living of their populations. Intense capital accumulation since the 1950s played a key roll in this process. Provincial inequalities may increase or decrease as a result of this growth pattern. This study analyzes the evolution of the disparities by means of distribution dynamics techniques. It explicitly considers economic size of each province and whether spatial spillovers exist. Results indicate that the convergence process has been especially intense for labor productivity, total factor productivity, and capital intensity, while for per capita income the patterns of convergence are less ma…

Estimation of the stock of capital in Spain

The paper presents the methodology and results of the estimation of the endowments of capital in the Spanish economy. It distinguishes between endowments of public capital and private capital. The series corresponding to the public sector cover the period 1955–97 and consider seven categories (or functions). The estimates are disaggregated by 17 regions and 50 provinces. The level of disaggregation is regional and provincial (NUTS2 and NUTS3 in European terminology). The private capital series cover the period 1964–97 and consider 17 sectors of production, with disaggregation at regional level. The information refers to two variables: gross formation of fixed capital (in current and constan…

Infrastructures and Productivity in the Spanish Regions

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of public capital, the types of infrastructures in which it is invested, and their territorial distribution in the gains in productivity of the private sector in the Spanish regions in the period 1964-1991 using panel data techniques to control for unobserved state-specific characteristics. The results obtained show how the infrastructures most directly linked to the productive process present a significant and positive effect on productivity. They also show the importance of the network effect of the infrastructures of a productive nature as well as a decrease in the elasticity associated with such infrastructures as development progresses. El p…

A network perspective on international banking integration

Abstract The aim of this article is to develop new international banking integration indicators together with their components: openness and regularity (balance) of the bilateral bank flows. We define the Standard of Perfect Banking Integration (SPBI), which characterizes the scenario attainable when bank flows are not geographically biased, and cross-border asset trade is not affected by home bias. We assess the gap between a hypothetical scenario of geographic neutrality and the current level of banking integration, along with both of its components. The empirical application to the banking systems of 23 countries over the 2003–2009 period enables us to conclude that the level of banking …

Cost and profit efficiency in European banks

El analisis de ratios contables como indicadores de competitividad ha sido completado y ocasionalmente revisado por la creciente utilizacion de indicadores mas sofisticados de eficiencia. En los ultimos anos, mas de un centenar de trabajos han analizado la eficiencia de las instituciones financieras, centrandose mayoritariamente en la vertiente de los costes. Sin embargo, los escasos estudios que estiman funciones frontera de beneficios obtienen niveles de eficiencia en beneficios mucho menores que en costes, lo que implica la existencia de importantes ineficiencias en la vertiente de los ingresos. Ademas, son pocos los estudios que realizan comparaciones a nivel internacional, y ninguno de…

Public capital, productive efficiency and convergence in the Spanish regions (1964-93)

This paper analyses the behaviour of productive efficiency in the Spanish regions for the period 1964–93. From a growth accounting approach, it describes the regional evolution of total factor productivity (TFP'), based on a private inputs production function. A stricter measure of efficiency is then quantified, which is not equivalent to Solow's residual, since public capital is included in the production function and constant returns to scale are not imposed. Finally, on the basis of the measures of total factor productivity and efficiency, the study discusses the existence of technological convergence among Spanish regions and the role played in it by public capital. The renewed interest…

Integration and competition in the European financial markets

Financial integration in Europe should affect the competition between markets and intermediaries and generate a convergence of both interest rates and margins among the different countries. This paper analyses the evolution of the convergence in interest rates and the level of competition and its inequalities among the European banking systems for the period 1993 to 2001. The inequality index used ?the Theil index- allows us to break down the inequalities so that the importance of either a country effect or a specialization effect is quantified. If the former effect dominates it would mean that the national banking markets are segmented as a consequence of the existence of obstacles or barr…

Estimating the long-term economic impacts of Spanish universities on the national economy

In contrast to previous studies on the economic impact of universities that focus on the demand side, this study centres on universities' effects on the supply side of the economy. Through a case study of the Spanish University System, this paper proposes a methodology based on counterfactual scenarios and growth accounting to estimate the long-term impacts of universities on their regional economies. Our study evaluates the stylized impacts of universities' activities on human capital, salaries and occupation of the working age population, on generation of technological capital and, finally, on the GDP growth of the Spanish economy in the period 1989–2010.

Measuring Globalization of International Trade: Theory and Evidence

Measuring globalization requires a Standard of Perfect International Integration as a benchmark that a single world space would reach under conditions of geographic neutrality in international trade. We define this standard and present indicators for openness, connectedness and integration, for each specific economy, and for the world economy. We apply our indicators to data on trade flows for 59 countries for the 1967-2004 period. Results show that trade integration is higher than what traditional openness indicators suggest. Several economies find high levels of integration, but the low degree of openness in some large economies jeopardizes the progress of globalization. © 2008 Elsevier L…

Nuevas poblaciones de especies protegidas en el sur de la Comunidad Valenciana, I

Se comentan nuevas poblaciones de algunas especies protegidas de plantas vasculares observadas en el Sur de la provincia de Alicante. Some new populations of protected species of vascular plants found in the South of Alicante province are commented.

The financing of Spanish public universities

The main features of the recent evolution of the Spanish universities are described in this paper. Of the three sets of reforms that are currently in progress (reforms of the teaching process, institutional evaluation and new financing models) we concentrate on the last one, introducing and discussing some proposals for the financing of Spanish public universities.

Efficiency analysis in banking firms: An international comparison

The intensive process of financial European integration, together with the profound transformation and deregulation that has taken place in the Spanish Banking System, justifies the evaluation of its efficiency in comparison with that of other banking systems. In this context, the aim of this study is to analyze the productivity, efficiency and differences in technology of several banking systems. Using a non-parametric approach together with the Malmquist index, we compare the efficiency, productivity and differences in technology of different European and US banking systems for the year 1992. Finally, for a subsample of banks belonging to the same group of countries, using real as opposed…