Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Economics – Spain'

This thesis consists of four independent articles. The rst two study the causal e ect of being born by cesarean section on child health. In the rst paper, we use data from Spain and show that avoidable unplanned C-sections have a negative impact on neonatal health, which is however small compared to the associations reported by previous literature. The second paper uses administrative data from Finland to study the impact of C-sections on children's longerterm outcomes until age 15. Our results show that unplanned Csections increase the risk of childhood asthma, but do not seem to a ect the probability of other immune-related diagnoses previously associated with C-sections. In the third paper, I study the e ects of the increasing female-male gap in education in the marriage market on marriage and fertility, exploiting the gradual implementation of a school reform in Finland that increased women's relative level of education. My results show decreases in marriage and fertility in marriage markets with a larger female advantage in education. Finally, the last paper analyzes the evolution of inequality in mortality in Spain during 1990-2014, focusing on age-speci c mortality and considering inequality across small geographical areas, ranked by average socioeconomic status. We nd that mortality decreased substantially during this period, with little change in inequality in most age groups.
Aquesta tesi es composa de quatre articles independents. Els dos primers estudien l'efecte de néixer per cesària en la salut infantil. En el primer article mostrem, amb dades d'Espanya, que les cesàries no programades evitables tenen un impacte negatiu en la salut neonatal. Aquest impacte, però, és petit en comparació amb les associacions trobades per estudis previs. El segon article fa ús de dades administratives de Finlàndia per estudiar l'efecte de les cesàries en salut infantil a més llarg termini, fins als 15 anys d'edat. Els resultats mostren que las cesàries no programades augmenten el risc d'asma infantil, però no semblen afectar la probabilitat de patir altres malalties relacionades amb el sistema immunitari que havien estat associades prèviament amb les cesàries. El tercer treball estudia l'efecte d'un augment en la bretxa de gènere en nivell educatiu a favor de les dones al mercat matrimonial, fent ús d'una reforma escolar a Finlàndia que va augmentar el nivell educatiu relatiu femení. Els resultats mostren que en mercats amb un avantatge educatiu femení més gran els matrimonis i la fertilitat van decréixer. Finalment, el quart article analitza l'evolució de la desigualtat en mortalitat a Espanya entre 1990 i 2014, centrant-se en la mortalitat específi ca per edat i considerant desigualtat entre àrees geogràfiques petites, ordenades per nivell socioeconòmic mitjà. Trobem baixades substancials en mortalitat durant aquests anys, amb poc canvi en desigualtat a la majoria de grups d'edat.

This paper uses historical and economic references to evaluate the economic value of learning English in Spain. Seeing that English is the lingua franca in politics, business, and technology, it is a necessary skill for Spanish citizens to possess in order to efficiently interact in foreign relations of all kinds. Due to Franco’s harsh language policies, and Spain’s ineffective education system, Spain has lacked the same linguistic exposure to foreign languages—especially English—than the rest of Europe. By referencing the previous literature written about the relationship between language and earnings, this paper seeks to find the economic incentive for Spaniards to learn English. The six issues introduced by language economist, Francois Grin, provide an economic, cultural, and social compass to evaluate the overall impact English language learning would have on the Spanish labor market and national economy. The six issues analyze the relevance language has on economic processes, human capital, social investments, policies, wage distribution, and the general market. With tourism as Spain’s most lucrative business sector, better skills in English communication would only add to its economic success. While the Spanish government has named English as one of the seven basic skills within the labor market, effective teaching programs still have to be developed.

This paper looks for evidence of co-integration to the German inflation rate between the countries Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. The method applied is based on econometrics since some certain statistical tests need to be performed to obtain more accurate results. The main tests used are Dickey-Fuller and Augmented version of this test which is vital to test for unit-root and co-integration in this paper. Since the data need to be stationary to perform the analysis in this paper, second difference and the deseasonalisation methods are also used for this purpose. Deseasonalisation method helps this paper progress in two means; to determine the months which have seasonal effect and to form another model with the help of the seasonal months, to obtain stationary series. Finally the original co-integration model is then tested again after deseaonalisation with Dickey-Fuller and Augmented Dickey-Fuller tests. After the tests, I found evidence that Greece, Italy, Sweden, and Turkey are co-integrating with German inflation rate whereas there is no evidence for Spain.

This is a study of the relations between Spain and the United States from the end of the Second World War to the conclusion of the Madrid Agreements which were signed in September 1953. Through these agreements Spain obtained military and economic aid from the US. At the same time she was integrated into the western defence structure. In return Franco authorized the US to construct and use military bases, some of which were situated near Spanish cities. Furthermore the agreements limited Spain's foreign, economic and monetary policies. The structure of the thesis is determined by the chronological events of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The international background is analysed in the first part of the thesis, running up to July 1951. The second part covers the negotiations between the two countries. By following the chronological events of the negotiations, the thesis tries to assess which of the two parties was willing to compromise in key aspects. Most of the thesis is based on American primary sources throughout the period. Many of the arguments developed contrast directly with those already put forward, notably by Spanish historians. The picture which emerges indicates that Washington, as well as Spain, had great military and strategic interests in signing the Madrid Agreements. This is surprising given the findings by other investigators that Spain was forced almost by circumstances into these agreements. The thesis tries to develop a counter-argument which, hopefully, lays the foundation for a constructive discussion on the issue.

Neutrality has long been seen as impartiality in war (Grotius, 1925), and is codified as such in The Hague and Geneva Conventions. This dissertation empirically investigates the activities of three neutral states in the Second World War and determines, on a purely economic basis, these countries actually employed realist principles to ensure their survival. Neutrals maintain their independence by offering economic concessions to the belligerents to make up for their relative military weakness. Depending on their position, neutral countries can also extract concessions from the belligerents if their situation permits it.   Despite their different starting places, governments and threats against them, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland provided similar types of political and economic concessions to the belligerents. This thesis comparatively investigates neutral trade, labour and capital. Using standardized trade statistics, this study shows that while all three neutrals were dependent on the Germans for most basic goods, they were generally able to benefit from relative gains in prices and excess imports of goods in periods of German weakness. In trade with the Allies, at least two of the three countries permitted the illicit export of items necessary for the Allied war effort, and did so at reduced relative prices.   All three neutrals benefitted from substantial services revenue and positive balance of payments in all of their belligerent relationships. In several cases the neutrals were able to force the belligerents to cover their balance of payments deficits in gold because they needed to maintain access to the neutral markets. The final chapters demonstrate that despite political promises, the Spanish and Swiss governments constructed labour transfer systems to limit the number of workers for Germany.

This dissertation contributes to the long-standing debate between those who argue that the enclosure of the commons was as a precondition to foster economic growth and those who defend common property regimes can be efficient and sustainable. Exploiting historical evidence from 19^th century and early 20^th century Spain, this research shows that the persistence of the commons in some Spanish regions was not detrimental to economic development, at least relative to the institutional arrangements they were replaced with. On the contrary, during the early stages of modern economic growth, the communal regime not only did not limit agricultural productivity growth, but indeed constituted a crucial part of the functioning of the rural economics in a number of ways. On the one hand, these collective resources complemented rural incomes and, subsequently, sustained households' consumption capacity. The reduction in life expectancy and heights in the provinces where privatisation was more intense, as well as the negative effect on literacy levels, strongly supports that the privatisation of the commons deteriorated the living standards of a relatively large part of the population. On the other hand, the communal regime also significantly contributed to financing the municipal budget. Deprived from this important source of revenue, local councils became unable to adequately fund local public goods and ended up increasing local taxes. Lastly, the social networks developed around the use and management of these collective resources facilitated the diffusion of information and the building of mutual knowledge and trust, thus constituting a vital ingredient of the social glue that hold these rural communities together. All things considered, the persistence of the commons in some regions provided peasants with cooperation mechanisms different from the market and made the transition to modern economic growth more socially sustainable.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 22).
Whether or not the Madrid March 11th 2004 terrorist attacks affected the outcome of the Spanish general elections three days later has been the source of great controversy in the last years. This paper analyzes Spanish electoral data for the 2000 and 2004 Congressional elections, comparing the marginal effects of the proportion of voters who voted before the elections (and therefore, before the bombings in 2004) on the voting pattern in both years. A linear approach finds mild evidence that bombs undermined support for the incumbent conservative party and increased the share of the vote for the opposition socialists, similar to previous findings by Montalvo (2006) using a natural experiment design. A non-linear approach using binomial and multinomial logit models is not successful and yields no conclusive indications on how the attacks affected the outcome of the elections.
by Sandro Díez-Amigo.
S.M.

This paper looks at the determinants of length of a football manager’s reign before his sacking within the top clubs of England, Spain and Italy. I looked at five clubs in England, two in Spain and three in Italy. The dependent variable was the number of games a manager was in charge before his sacking and there were 10 independent variables. Out of these, the number of trophies won and transfer spending were significant at the 1% level and had a positive coefficient while being a manager in Spain was significant at the 10% level and had a negative coefficient. Lastly this paper tries to draw comparisons from these findings to CEO firings and finds that expectations of performance by the board of governors and meeting those standards could prove to be crucial for CEO’s to keep their job.

The changing character of the economic environment in the last quarter of the twentieth century has resulted in a continuous process of restructuring in the economy of Spain, mediated through the structure and regulatory framework of the economy. Three specific themes contributing to restructuring are addressed: globalisation of the economy, European integration, and the role of the public sector. Globalisation ofthe economy is demonstrated through increased international flows of goods, capital, people and information, and by the incorporation of businesses in Spain within the corporate networks of foreign multinational companies. Spanish businesses too have been extending their global reach, especially into Latin America. European integration has been part of the globalisation process. A substantial proportion of international flows are now concentrated within the European Union and business networks have been adapting to the 'Single European Market'. European integration has dominated economic policy, first in measures to secure membership of the European Economic Community, then in measures to adjust to the regulatory environment of the European Community and finally in the race to achieve the Maastricht criteria. The role of the public sector in restructuring has been to 'manage' the market forces unleashed by the liberalisation ofthe economy. Market forces, embracing increased competition and technological change, have driven the restructuring process demanding responses from the government. These responses have increasingly been constrained by the shedding of responsibilities upwards to international organisations and downwards to lower tiers of administration. Isolation, protection and goverrunent intervention in the economy have given way to a more liberal, open and international environment. Transformation in the mode of regulation from state corporatism to neo-liberalism has been accompanied by globalisation of the economy, particularly integration into the European economy and the corporate space of multinational companies. Nevertheless, despite the growing emphasis on globalisation, public policy continues to play a crucial role influencing the pace, if not the direction, of restructuring.

What factors explain pension reform decisions in countries with generous public pension systems and an ageing population? To answer this question I analyze four countries with some similar characteristics: (1) a well expanded and fragmented public pension system that follows the traditional Bismarckian structure of different funds for specific occupational categories; (2) a public pension system with high degrees of coverage and based on the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) principle in which current workers pay for current retirees; (3) increasing public pension spending levels that towards the 1990s made the public pension system unsustainable. The four selected countries differ along one significant dimension. Two of them are newly industrialized countries and in Latin America: Argentina and Uruguay. The other two countries are industrialized economies of the European Union: Italy and Spain.I hypothesize that while international and domestic factors matter in explaining pension reform, the former will play an indirect role by stressing the need to make the pension system more sustainable to put public finances in order. Thus, I contend that domestic economic and political factors will determine the reform outcome.I find support for my theory in the analysis of the four countries. International and supranational organizations played a role in supporting policymakers' reform efforts and highlighting the necessity to reduce pension liabilities in the long run to put public finances in order. However, these organizations did not determine the reform outcome. Instead, I find that domestic economic and political factors explain the final reform decision. On the economic side, the maturity of the pension system - represented by the magnitude of pension promises to future retirees - and the state of public finances, determined policymakers' first choice for reform; which ranged from proposals to change the parameters of the public pillar to that pillar's structural reform together with the introduction of a private pillar of individual accounts. Once this choice was made, the reform was negotiated with those with a special interest in the pension system: pensioners and labor. Thus, these actors' organizational strength and preferences explains the type of specific pension reform finally adopted in each country.

This essay studies the intergenerational transmission of education in four European countries, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Ordinal variables are used to distinguish between low, middle and high education for both the respondent and the respondent´s parents. The main findings are that Portugal has the highest intergenerational transmission of education from parents to children. Spain is on a second place, Norway on a third and on a last place, Sweden. Another finding is that the respondent´s that are 50-60 years old have a significantly higher risk of being low educated and a lower chance of being highly educated in comparison to the respondent´s that are 30-40 years old. Having a highly educated parent increases the chance of being highly educated and decreases the risk of being low educated in comparison to having a low educated parent. Having a low educated parent decreases the chance of being highly educated and increases the risk of being low educated in comparison to having a highly educated parent.

This thesis is concerned with the relationship between disability and working conditions. In the first two chapters we investigate how past and current working conditions, in conjunction with other socio-demographic variables, contribute to disability. We focus on differences by migrant status (first chapter) and by period or cohort (second chapter) specifically, by comparing successive cohorts of young people aged 25 to 34. In the third chapter we take up the opposite perspective and we analyse the effect of permanent disability on the working life of the individual. The main result of the first chapter is that migrant status – with differences among regions of origin – significantly affects both disability and the probability of being employed in a high-risk occupation. In spite of immigrants’ working conditions being objectively worse, they exhibit lower probability of becoming disabled than natives because the impact of such conditions on disability is much smaller in their case. Our results also suggest that not only the risks of illness and injury, widely recognized, involve higher rates of disability. Unskilled labour and employment instability are also associated with increased risks of disability and its impact is greatest among later-born cohorts, as the second chapter reveals. Attending to differences by cohort, job insecurity has a significant and huge impact on disability for all birth cohorts. By contrast, the effect of temporary employment “per se” is controversial without considering other factors, like the changes in Employment Protection Legislation motivated by the labour market reforms of the last two decades. Finally, the results of the third chapter show that only 10% of disabled people remain in the labour market after the occurrence of the disability. The potential disincentives to employment are controversial. While it is true that higher disability pensions are associated with lower probabilities of employment, it is also observed that, in general, wages and income decreases as a result of a disability, being the decision of remaining out of the labour market not entirely attributable to the worker and his pension level. Conversely, it is plausible that the alleged disincentives to employment come too, and largely, from the labour market. The wage gap between workers with and without IP are high and significant, and only in part can be explained by differences in productivity, so that the unexplained difference could be attributed to discrimination in the labour market against people with disability. The data sets employed in the three chapters have been elaborated from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives, known as the MCVL in Spanish (from "Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales"), a Spanish administrative data set containing work histories of workers and pensioners available since 2004.
Esta tesis se ocupa de la relación entre incapacidad permanente y condiciones de trabajo. En los dos primeros capítulos se investiga cómo las condiciones de trabajo, junto con otras variables sociodemográficas, contribuyen a la discapacidad. Nos centramos en diferencias asociadas a la condición de inmigrante (primer capítulo) y por periodo o cohorte (segundo capítulo), mediante la comparación de sucesivas cohortes de jóvenes entre 25 y 34 años de edad. En el tercer capítulo tomamos la perspectiva opuesta y analizamos el efecto de la incapacidad permanente en la vida laboral del individuo. Los resultados del primer capítulo indican que la condición de migrante - con diferencias por región de origen - tiene efectos significativos en la discapacidad y la probabilidad de estar empleado en una ocupación de alto riesgo. A pesar de que las condiciones de trabajo de los inmigrantes son objetivamente peores, presentan menor probabilidad de quedar discapacitados que los nativos. Nuestros resultados también sugieren que no sólo los riesgos de accidente y enfermedad profesional, ampliamente reconocidos, se asocian con probabilidades elevadas de discapacidad. Los trabajos poco cualificados y la inestabilidad en el empleo también se asocian con un mayor riesgo de discapacidad. En el segundo capítulo se muestra que el impacto de la inestabilidad laboral es mayor entre las cohortes de jóvenes actuales, si se comparan con los jóvenes en los años 80. Por último, los resultados del tercer capítulo muestran que sólo cerca del 10 % de las personas con discapacidad siguen trabajando después de la aparición de ésta. La brecha salarial entre trabajadores con y sin discapacidad es importante y significativa, y cerca del 30% de esta diferencia se atribuiría a discriminación de las personas con discapacidad. Nuestros resultados apuntan a que los efectos de esta discriminación en el empleo de las personas con discapacidad serían importantes, en particular para los hombres. Los conjuntos de datos utilizados en los tres capítulos se han elaborado a partir de la Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL), un conjunto de datos administrativos que contiene las historias laborales de los trabajadores y pensionistas desde 2004 .

Equality is part of the European policy and legislation. However there are still evident signs of women being treated unequally in the labour market. The aim of the thesis is to answer the question if women are more vulnerable to economic shocks in terms of wage distribution. The focus will be on women in Spain in the context of the financial crisis of 2008. The thesis examines the evolution of the salary structure in the period 2002-2014 using the microdata of the Structural Earning Survey. The taste-based and the statistical discrimination theory are going to be described in order to explain the causes of gender wage discrimination. The methods applied in this paper are the Mincer method, which explains the human capital theory and the Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, which separates the gender wage gap into explained and unexplained parts. The results from the study suggest that there is a decrease in the gender wage gap in Spain following the situation before and after the crisis.

Equality is part of the European policy and legislation. However there are still evident signs of women being treated unequally in the labour market. The aim of the thesis is to answer the question if women are more vulnerable to economic shocks in terms of wage distribution. The focus will be on women in Spain in the context of the financial crisis of 2008. The thesis examines the evolution of the salary structure in the period 2002-2014 using the microdata of the Structural Earning Survey. The taste-based and the statistical discrimination theory are going to be described in order to explain the causes of gender wage discrimination. The methods applied in this paper are the Mincer method, which explains the human capital theory and the Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, which separates the gender wage gap into explained and unexplained parts. The results from the study suggest that there is a decrease in the gender wage gap in Spain following the situation before and after the crisis.

Correction: Spring semester 2019

The thesis investigates the behavior of Spain’s persistently high unemployment rate. Rigid labor laws, unemployment insurance generosity, and the demographics of the unemployed are part of the cause, but they are only underlying factors driving the hysteresis that has been present for nearly four decades. The thesis attempts to extract explanations for this persistence by comparing Spain to other countries, such as its next-door neighbor, Portugal. Special attention is placed on the role that recessions and subsequent changes in real GDP growth play in sustaining a high rate of unemployment.

This dissertation examines the role and impact of the M&A’s created during the economic crisis in the tourism sector on the brand strategy, and their portfolio. We analyze different theories explaining brand concept, the advantages and disadvantages of building a new brand or buying an existing brand, how the portfolio can change after the merger and the concept of rebranding to draw conclusions thought the examination of a case study based on the biggest urban hotel chain in Spain: NH Hotels and its merger with Hesperia. This research has been made through secondary data regarding the hotels chains and all the theories studied during the study research and it has been completed through an in-depth interview made by telephonic and e-mail techniques, with the marketing department of NH Hoteles in Spain. The finding of this study provides useful information regarding brand strategies and portfolio strategies acquired during the economic crisis for many hotels and others industries.

This thesis is organized in three clearly differentiated chapters. The three of them deal with currently relevant issues: The effect of low-quality of standardized tests on research, the high levels of political corruption in Spain and the collective capacity of tackle climate change. In the first chapter “Straightening PISA: When Students do not Want to answer Standardized Tests”, I study one of the key elements on current education policies: The standardized-tests. Concretely, I analyze how students approach standardized tests in different ways. I use a measure of effort exerted by students belonging to different countries and social groups in order to assess the impact of low effort on the student's final score. The measure links an acknowledged psychological tests (Dot-Counting test) with one PISA-item, in which students had to merely count dots. In this chapter, I measure to which extent different effort levels may distort the score of students. This problem would affect social-science research when standardized-tests are use. At the end of the chapter, I propose a simple solution to design standard tests which would eliminate this problem. Given the importance of standardized-tests on the design of education programs, this paper may be a contribution to implement more accurate education policies. The second chapter focuses on one key issue of Spanish current political crisis: The level of political corruption. Political institutions developed during the Spanish transition to democracy are currently criticized due to their inability to stop political corruption. For instance, Spanish Attorney Generals are appointed by the government and their impartiality is usually criticized. In “Stories on Corruption: How Media and Prosecutors Influence Elections”, I analyze systematically the partiality of the last two Attorney Generals. Concretely, I study whether Attorney Generals try to influence elections by adjusting the tempo of their investigations to the electoral calendar. This possibility is combined with the mass media editorial decisions. I analyze whether mass media have a partisan bias and hide corruption activities of their preferred parties. For doing so, I have created a unique database: I have coded the number of articles containing the word “corruption” of the two main Spanish newspapers “El Pais” and “El Mundo" every week in the last ten years. After the econometric analysis I found significant evidence of the partisan behavior of both the Attorney Generals and mass media. The last chapter is a joint work with Karolina Safarzynska from the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien. “Responding to the Climate Change Challenge: Experimental Evidence” tackles the problem of climate change and the capacity of societies to overcome it. This chapter has also a different methodology. Precisely, it is based on experimental methods. We consider isolated groups of individuals which must extract resources form a renewable common-pool. The novelty is the study of the impact of resource uncertainty on individual harvests in common-pool resource dilemmas together with the possibility of group collapse. The uncertainty is modeled as a weather shock diminishing the groups' resources, which is drawn from the distribution known in advance to participants. On the other hand, the group collapses if the resources go below a certain threshold. In that case all accumulated resource-extraction get lost. This can be interpreted as the minimum harvests below which a group does not have sufficient nutrition to survive. We find that in the long run, sufficiently severe weather shocks can induce individuals to conserve resources. However, in the short-run uncertainty leads to resources over-exploitation. In addition, our results suggest that resource uncertainty undermines effectiveness of costly sanctioning. In some treatments, individuals can punish others at their own cost. We found that the possibility to punish others induce individuals to harvest significantly more resources in the beginning of the experiment, compared to the situation when sanctioning is not possible. The presence of punishment paradoxically increases the probability of resource exhaustion. We interpret these results in the context of the World climate change. We conclude that the positive impact of environmental pressure on individual behavior and the effect of new institutions are likely to come too late to prevent damage to the environment.
Questa tesi è organizzata in tre capitoli chiaramente differenziati. I tre capitoli riguardano argomenti attualmente rilevanti: l’effetto della bassa qualità dei test standardizzati in ricerca, gli alti livelli di corruzione politica in Spagna e la capacità collettiva di rispondere ai cambiamenti climatici. Nel primo capitolo “Rafforzando PISA: quando gli studenti non vogliono fare i test standardizzati”, studio uno degli elementi chiave nelle attuali politiche per l’educazione: i test standardizzati. Concretamente, analizzo come gli studenti affrontano i test standardizzati in modi differenti. Uso una misura di sforzo fatto degli studenti che appartengono a Paesi diversi e gruppi sociali diversi per stimare l’impatto del basso sforzo nel punteggio finale degli studenti. La misura collega un test psicologico molto affermato (il test di conta dei punti) con una domanda del test PISA, nella quale gli studenti devono semplicemente contare i punti. In questo capitolo, misuro fino a che punto diversi livelli di sforzo fatto degli studenti possono distorcere il punteggio del PISA. Questo problema avrebbe degli effetti sulla ricerca nelle scienze sociali, quando vengono utilizzati i risultati dei test standardizzati. Alla fine del capitolo, propongo una semplice soluzione per il design di test standardizzati che elimini questo problema. Data l’importanza dei test standardizzati nel design dei programmi educativi, questo articolo potrebbe essere un contributo per implementare politiche educative più accurate. Il secondo capitolo si focalizza su uno dei temi chiave della attuale crisi politica spagnola: il livello di corruzione. Le istituzioni politiche sviluppate durante la transizione spagnola verso la democrazia sono attualmente sotto forte critica a causa della loro incapacità nel fermare la corruzione politica. Per esempio, i procuratori generali spagnoli sono nominati dal governo e la loro imparzialità è spesso criticata. Nel capitolo “Storie sulla corruzione: come i media e I procuratori influenzano le elezioni”, analizzo sistematicamente la parzialità degli ultimi due procuratori generali. Concretamente, studio se i procuratori generali tentano di influenzare le elezioni modificando la tempistica delle loro indagini adattandola al calendario elettorale. Questa possibilità è combinata con le decisioni editoriali dei mass media. Analizzo se i mass media hanno un pregiudizio ideologico e nascondono le storie di corruzione dei loro partiti preferiti. Per fare questo, ho creato un database unico: ho codificato il numero di articoli contenenti la parola “corruzione” nei due quotidiani principali spagnoli, “El Pais” e “El Mundo”, ogni settimana negli ultimi dieci anni. Dopo un’analisi econometria ho scoperto una evidenza significativa di un comportamento partigiano sia dei procuratori generali che dei mass media. L’ultimo capitolo è un lavoro congiunto con Karolina Safarzynska della Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien. “Rispondendo alla sfida del cambiamento climatico: evidenze sperimentali” affronta il problema del cambiamento climatico e la capacità delle società di superarlo. Questo capitolo usa una metodologia differente. Precisamente si basa su metodi sperimentali. Noi consideriamo gruppi isolati di individui che devono estrarre risorse da un bacino di risorse rinnovabili. La novità è lo studio dell’impatto dell’incertezza di risorse sui raccolti individuali nei dilemma dei bacini di risorse rinnovabili, unita alla possibilità che il gruppo collassi. L’incertezza è modellata come uno shock atmosferico che diminuisce le risorse dei gruppi, che è estratto da una distribuzione conosciuta in anticipo dai partecipanti. D’altro canto il gruppo collassa se le risorse scendono sotto una certa soglia. In quel caso tutta l’estrazione accumulata di risorse viene persa. Questo potrebbe essere interpretato come il minimo raccolto sotto al quale il gruppo non ha nutrimento sufficiente per sopravvivere. Scopriamo che nel lungo termine, shock atmosferici abbastanza severi possono indurre gli individui a conservare le risorse. Comunque, nel breve termine l’incertezza porta ad un sovrasfruttamento delle risorse. Inoltre, i nostri risultati suggeriscono che l’incertezza nelle risorse danneggia l’effettività del sanzionamento costoso. In alcuni trattamenti, gli individui possono punire altri pagando un costo. Scopriamo che la possibilità di punire altri induce gli individui a raccogliere significativamente più risorse all’inizio dell’esperimento, comparato alla situazione in cui il sanzionamento non è possibile. La presenza della punizione paradossalmente incrementa la probabilità di un esaurimento delle risorse. Interpretiamo questi risultati nel contesto del cambiamento climatico mondiale. Concludiamo che l’impatto positivo della pressione climatica sul comportamento individuale e l’effetto di nuove istituzioni probabilmente arrivano troppo tardi per prevenire un danno all’ambiente.

El sistema financiero español se ha visto gravemente afectado por la crisis de 2007–2008. En particular, las Cajas de Ahorros Españolas, entidades financieras con una naturaleza particular que llegaron a ostentar la mitad del sistema financiero, prácticamente han desaparecido a finales de 2012. Ciertamente este colapso fue precedido por otros en algunos países, pero estamos convencidos de que podemos extraer algunas lecciones importantes y novedosas gracias a ciertos elementos diferenciadores del caso español. En primer lugar, ya pesar de la ausencia de propietarios, las Cajas tenían una aparentemente sólida situación financiera y un crecimiento constante antes de la crisis. De hecho, su particular estructura de gobierno les permitió ganar cuota de mercado, ya desde los años 80, respecto los bancos comerciales, organizaciones muy competitivas a nivel internacional y sujetos a los tradicionales mecanismos de mercado de control corporativo. En segundo lugar, parece que la competencia en los mercados no fue suficiente para disciplinar el comportamiento de las Cajas durante los años de boom. De hecho, la presencia de una fuerte competencia animó a muchas Cajas (curiosamente con algunas excepciones relevantes) a involucrarse en políticas muy expansivas e inversiones cuestionables, exigiendo recursos mucho más allá de sus posibilidades internas. De cualquier manera, muchas Cajas compitieron y comenzaron a comportarse como los grandes bancos comerciales, sin tener en cuenta sus limitaciones para recaudar nuevo capital en los mercados. Como resultado, de las 45 Cajas existentes en 2008, sólo 12 de ellas quedaron en pie a finales de 2012. Además, en la práctica se han transformado en bancos comerciales, y su número final será todavía más bajo, a la espera de algunos movimientos adicionales aún por venir. ¿Qué tenían de especial las Cajas? ¿Qué sucedió con ellas durante la crisis? ¿Y por qué? El objetivo principal de esta Tesis es lograr una mejor comprensión de la naturaleza específica de las Cajas, el análisis de su comportamiento y su performance, y compararlas con sus competidores más directos, los bancos comerciales españoles, usando un período suficientemente largo que incluya tanto los años de auge como los de crisis. Creemos que este enfoque nos ayudará a responder a las preguntas antes mencionadas, añadiendo nuevos elementos de discusión a un debate que no ha sido lo suficientemente extenso. El debate sobre la caída de las Cajas rara vez ha ido más allá del ámbito político y de los medios, donde argumentos demasiado simplificados como la politización de las mismas han servido para señalar la fuente del problema. La falta de trabajo académico para analizar este tema tan relevante de manera profunda es notable. En consecuencia, el propósito de esta Tesis es analizar las Cajas bajo distintos ángulos bien diferenciados, aunque relacionados, con el fin de comprender al menos parte de la naturaleza subyacente de las grandes dificultades que han atravesado y su posterior desaparición. Consideramos que un enfoque diferenciado ante un problema complejo nos permitirá una interpretación más amplia e innovadora del mismo, así como la obtención de conclusiones realmente útiles.
The Spanish financial system has been severely affected by the 2007–2008 crisis. In particular, the Spanish savings banks (Cajas de Ahorros, or Cajas), an ownerless type of bank that used to constitute half of the financial system, have practically disappeared by the end of 2012. Certainly this collapse has been preceded by large failures in other countries’ financial systems, but we are convinced that some important and novel lessons can still be extracted from the differential elements present in the Spanish case. First of all, and in spite of their lack of owners, Spanish savings banks were apparently in great financial condition and growing steadily before the last financial crisis. In fact, their governance structure allowed them to gain market share, since the 80’s, from commercial banks, which were big and internationally competitive organizations subject to the usual market mechanisms for corporate control. Second, although market competition was in place, it seems that it was not enough to discipline the Cajas' behaviour in those boom years. In fact, the presence of an intense competition encouraged many of the Cajas (interestingly, with some important exceptions) to get involved in very expansive policies and questionable investments, demanding resources much beyond their own internal possibilities. Somehow, many savings banks competed and started to behave like large commercial banks, disregarding their limitations to raise new capital from the markets. As a result, from the original 45 Savings banks existing in 2008, only 12 of them remained by the end of 2012. On top of that, they have been transformed into commercial banks and their final number will be even lower, through mergers, with some additional moves still to come. What was special about the Cajas? What did it happen to them during the crisis? And why? The main goal of this Thesis is to achieve a better understanding of the particular nature of the Cajas, analyzing their behaviour and performance, and compare this with their most direct competitors (i.e., the Spanish commercial banks) using a long enough period that includes both a boom period and the years of the crisis. We believe that such approach will help us to answer the questions mentioned above, adding new elements to a debate that has been really extensive but not exhausted. Nonetheless, a debate on the Cajas fall has rarely gone beyond the political and public media spheres, where simple arguments such as the politicization have been pointed out as the unique source of the problem. The lack of academic work analyzing this relevant topic in an in-depth manner is noticeable. Thus, the purpose of this Thesis is to analyze the Cajas under several although related (and quite differentiated) angles in order to grasp the underlying nature of their large financial distress and later disappearance. We consider that this differentiated approach to a complex problem will allow us a broader and more innovative interpretation of the different events and behaviours involved.

This thesis analyses the impact of infrastructure on Spanish economic growth during the period 1845-1935. It is aimed at overcoming two shortcomings that have characterised historians’ interpretations on the subject so far. Firstly, it adopts an aggregate approach, as opposed to most previous analyses, which focused on only one type of asset. Secondly, it offers some answers to the main ongoing debate on the matter, i.e. the conflict between the high social saving of Spanish railways and the apparent failure of the railway system, as reflected in the results of the private companies. The thesis describes the evolution of infrastructure investment over the period and shows the prominent role of railways at least until 1895. The establishment of the railway network in a relatively short period of time was the most outstanding event in the process of infrastructure construction and gave an intense boost to the Spanish infrastructure endowment. The thesis also shows that infrastructure was relatively scarce in Spain compared to other European countries. However, despite that scarcity, the response of the economy to infrastructure increases was sluggish. Apparently, although infrastructure was essential for Spanish industrialisation, the country was very slow to adapt to new conditions, due to the presence of serious constraints in other areas of the economy. These results are confirmed by the analysis of railways, as the economic impact of the Spanish railway network seems to have been very high, but to have taken a long time to be reached. In addition, the thesis also indicates that the underdevelopment of the Spanish institutions precluded adequate regulation of railway construction and operation. As a consequence, the situation of railway companies was always critical and their ability to offer an adequate service was limited. These findings shed some light on the debate on the economic role of Spanish railways.

Dada la importancia del sector industrial para caracterizar las economías, la disponibilidad de un indicador con el que poder llevar a cabo un seguimiento a corto plazo de la actividad industrial es de gran utilidad. Así pues, en la tesis doctoral se analizan diferentes metodologías utilizadas en el ámbito regional: aproximar la producción industrial mediante el consumo de energía eléctrica para usos industriales y el método del IEC/INE consistente en censurar y estratificar las series de IPI sectoriales de la economía española. Las conclusiones a las que se llega en esta primera parte dela tesis llevan a proponer un método para la elaboración de IPI regionales: se trata de un modelo de frecuencia mixta específicado en términos de un modelo State-Space y estimado mediante el filtro de Kalman.

With the internationalization of financial markets, short-term capital flows to emerging market economies have become an important phenomenon in the world. The papers in this dissertation are concerned with investigating the effects of such flows in the receiving countries. The analysis is cast in a dynamic general equilibrium framework for small open economies. Two of the papers are quantitative investigations of the forces at work in small and relatively poor economies that liberalize trade and capital flows. The common approach of these papers is that of a computational experiment: calibrated simulations constitute a test of whether the models can explain certain dynamics which we observe in the data. The first paper investigates whether a calibrated two-sector neoclassical growth model can explain the magnitudes and the timing of capital flows in the Baltic countries after the fall of the Soviet Union. The results indicate that it can, and that the large and persistent trade deficits which we observe in the data need not be a reason to worry. However, the model also tells us that a reversal of capital flows and large sectoral adjustments lie ahead of the Baltic countries. In the second paper, the focus is on modelling the observed co-movement between consumption and the real exchange rate in Spain, which experienced large capital inflows following the entry into the European Community in 1986. In accordance with episodes of trade liberalization elsewhere, consumption in Spain boomed and the real exchange rate appreciated for several years after 1986. Standard two-sector models with traded and non-traded goods have problems accounting for these facts. The paper explores some mechanisms that can improve the standard modelling framework, and evaluates their quantitative importance in calibrated simulations for Spain. The third paper studies the government’s optimal bailout policy in an environment where sudden stops of capital flows cause financial crises in a small open economy. Real world events, such as the financial crises in the South East Asian countries in 1997, motivate the analysis. Compared to the previous essays, the paper is different in its nature in that it develops a highly stylized environment to analytically study the government’s optimal bailout policy. The paper shows that the government should optimally commit to a policy that only partially protects private debtors against inefficient liquidation.
Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2004

Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 21).
The nature of deregulated energy markets in the United States has forced several nuclear reactors into early retirement over the next few years subjecting the energy market and economy as a whole to uncalculated risk. The unforeseen implications of early retirements of nuclear assets has inspired a cause for concern in Spain where nuclear power faces similar problems. In order to assess the danger that Spain's current market structure incentivizes a premature retirement of nuclear assets and suggest possible implications for carbon emissions, this thesis research project analyzed the economic performance of nuclear power generators in Spain and identified the underlying factors driving it. This was done by calculating the short run profitability of each nuclear reactor. Historical data on the generation, operating costs, and marginal price from the Spanish electricity market was gathered to develop a net profit model. The model was then applied looking forward into the future and revealed an average profitability of +32.24523 E/MWh for the nuclear reactors in Spain. These results point to a positive future for nuclear power in Spain and an incentive to extend the licenses of soon-to-be-retired reactors.
by Fabrice A. Fils-Aime.
S.B.

Background: Along with the austerity measures introduced in many countries, the economic crisis affecting Europe since 2008 seems to have impacted many aspects of the health of the Spanish population and has had a negative effect on the provision health services. An increasing body of knowledge has shown a clear impact of the current crisis on suicidal behaviour and mental health, and a less consistent effect on physical health and access to healthcare. However, little is known about the impact of the crisis on social inequalities in health and healthcare access, an area on which the present study seeks to shed light in the context of Spain, and specifically Andalusia, a region hit very hard by the crisis. Objective: To study the impact of the economic crisis starting in 2008 on health, health inequalities and health service utilisation in Spain and Andalusia and the roles of socio-demographic factors in these associations. Methods: Death rates were analysed to study the annual percent change in overall and cause-specific mortality in Spain between 1999 and 2011, and the Longitudinal Database of the Andalusian Population was used to study educational inequalities in overall mortality from 2002 to 2010 (study 1). To calculate suicide attempt rates, information from 2003 to 2012 on 11,494 men and 12,886 women provided by the Health Emergencies Public Enterprise Information System in Andalusia was utilised. The association between unemployment and suicide attempts was studied through linear regression models (study 2). Two waves of the Andalusian Health Survey (2007 and 2011–12) provided data for the third and fourth studies of this thesis. Educational and employment status inequalities in poor mental health in relation with the crisis were analysed through Poisson regression models (study 3). The change in inequalities (pre-crisis–crisis) in health care utilisation outcomes (general practitioner, specialist, hospitalisation and emergency attendance) was measured by the change in horizontal inequality indices. A decomposition analysis of change in inequality between periods was performed using the Oaxaca approach (study 4). Results: Study 1: Overall mortality in Spain decreased steadily during the period, with annual percent changes of -2.44% in men and -2.20% in women. An increase in educational inequality in mortality was observed in men in Andalusia. In women, the inequalities instead remained stable. Suicide mortality showed a downward trend in both sexes in Spain. Study 2: A sharp increase in suicide attempts in Andalusia was detected after the onset of the crisis in both sexes, with adults aged 35 to 54 years being the most affected. Suicide attempts were associated with unemployment rates only in men. Study 3: Poor mental health increased in working individuals with secondary and primary studies during the crisis compared to the pre-crisis period, while it decreased in the university study group. However, in unemployed individuals poor mental health increased only in the secondary studies group. Financial strain could partly explain the crisis effect on mental health among the unemployed. Study 4: Horizontal inequality in utilisation changed to a greater equality or a more pro-poor inequality in both sexes. In the decomposition analysis, socioeconomic position and health status showed greater contributions to the changes in inequalities. Conclusion: This thesis illustrates the complexity of the influences of the current economic crisis on health inequalities in a Southern European region. Specifically, no noticeable effects of the crisis on overall and suicide mortality were detected; instead, increasing educational inequalities in mortality in men and a large increase in suicide attempts in middle aged men and women were observed. The deterioration in poor mental health was mainly detected in those of intermediate educational level. Economic conditions such as unemployment and financial strain proved to be relevant. Finally, in the light of no increased inequalities in healthcare utilisation, the universal coverage health system seems to buffer the deleterious effect of the crisis and austerity policies in this context.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University
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This dissertation examines the economic, social and political life of La Plana, an area associated with an extensive irrigation system at the mouth of the Millars river in eastern Spain, in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. This was part of a new kingdom established by the Christian monarchs of Aragon in the wake of their conquest and seizure of it from its previous Muslim rulers. Historians have debated to what extent this was a feudal society on the northern European model and how its legal framework shaped, and was shaped by, economic factors, particularly urban-based commerce. La Plana is a fruitful area for such study owing to the rich documentary record left by municipal councils of its main towns. This dissertation, therefore, is the product of a trawl of those documents searching for evidence of economic activity, class conflict, legal structure, friction between different political forces and civic life in provincial towns. I argue that the main town of La Plana, Castello, though owing fealty to an often distant king, was in no way a feudal entity. It saw itself as essentially autonomous and defended its traditional rights and privileges against other towns, nearby feudal lords, ecclesiastical establishments, the ravenous metropolis of Valencia city and the monarchy. Also, the bourgeois and mercantile character of the towns of the new kingdom and the great autonomy granted to them in their charters of foundation and the many privileges bestowed upon them by subsequent monarchs led them to become independent nodes of power and fostered the creation of a socio-economic class whose interests were inimical to those of the nobility and, in the end, to those of the monarchy itself. Castello was also the arena of struggles between rival social classes and economic interests within the town itself. I also look at efforts by the town authorities to regulate trade, maintain infrastructure, keep public order and promote public health.
2031-01-01

Throughout all the chapters we have considered some union variables (particularly the proportion of workers representatives belonging to a given union) to capture any difference in bargaining power amongst unions.Concerning wage increases, we have not found any systematic difference amongst them in chapter 4 and we have found that regional unions obtain lower increases in chapter 5. Concerning wage levels (chapter 3) we have found that the variable representing the UGT union is associated with lower wage and higher employment levels. Jointly, they seem to suggest that the CCOO union adds more pressure to the bargaining process than other unionsThe effect of the strike variables on wage outcomes have been considered throughout chapters 3 (on wage levels) and 5 (on wage increases).In both chapters the set of strike variables have been found relevant (being the services wage equation an exception). However, whilst for services theestimated effect is of the same sign, for the manufacturing evidence is contradictory. In particular, for the latter sector, wage increase analysis suggests a negative relationship among wage increases and strike length. Onthe contrary, wage levels analysis suggests a positive relationship. Our suggestion for further work is to consider more carefully the specification of the set of strike variables, specially strike costs.As major conclusions on the wage setting process in Spain we would like to stress the implicit sequential bargaining structure and the extreme importance of aggregate setting. The first step of the implicit sequence is the wage increase setting, closely linked to aggregate setting (industry orupper) and to the achievement of the indexation clause. The second step, in which there is the bargaining over wage complements and the compensation for the expected productivity increase, is more closely related to the performance of the firm.Finally, we would like to remark that aggregate factors have a much greater influence in wage setting than the specific conditions of the firm.This structure can have several consequences. For instance, in an economy with null or small labour force mobility (as in Spain) the pressure of unit labour cost will squeeze out of the market, sooner or later, a significant number of firms.

La tesis analiza los determinantes de la localización de las industrias creativas utilizando microdatos de empresas. Se utiliza un modelo adaptado para distinguir el efecto de las fuerzas económicas generales y de las fuerzas específicas creativas sobre la localización de las industrias creativas. El modelo se aplica a los sistemas locales de trabajo de cinco países europeos: Francia, Italia, Portugal, España y Reino Unido. Los resultados revelan que las economías externas tradicionales (economías de localización y de urbanización) afectan a la localización de las industrias creativas y se complementan con fuerzas específicas creativas. Además, se observan diferencias a nivel nacional y supra-nacional con relación a los principales determinantes de la localización de las industrias creativas. El estudio constituye así pues una base empírica para el diseño de políticas destinadas a estimular la capacidad de los territorios para atraer la creatividad y la innovación, según los objetivos definidos por la Comisión Europea.
This thesis examines the determinants of localisation of creative industries by using plant-level microdata. The thesis proposes a model tailored to differentiate the effect of general-economic and specific-creative forces on the localisation of creative industries. The model is applied to the local labour systems of five European countries, namely, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. On the one hand, the results show that traditional external economies (localisation and urbanisation externalities) affect the location of creative industries, complemented by the effect of specific creative forces. On the other hand, differences are observed at the national level and at the supra-national level with regard to the main drivers fostering the localisation of creative industries. The results offer a novel insight into the determinants of location of creative industries. The work provides thus some empirical basis for the design of policies that may boost the capacity of territories for creativity and innovation, in line with the objectives set out by the European Commission.

Internal communication is very important in organizations as it has many advantages. Communicators such as marketers should have an internal market in mind and not just the external as it could be a key to success. Media channels that are used to communicate internally also play a big role in what the company is trying to convey to the internal market. Print communication plays a minor role, if any, in smaller companies now that electronic communication is making it easier for businesses to coordinate, educate and motivate internally. However, face-to-face was seen as the most effective tool in internal communication. Finally, there were no findings that the economic crisis in Spain 2013 was affecting the internal communication.

L’auge de la cohabitació constitueix un dels canvis demogràfics més remarcables esdevinguts als països occidentals. A Espanya la cohabitació i el naixement de fills de parelles cohabitants han passat de ser un cas excepcional a constituir un comportament familiar socialment acceptat. La presència de fills en unions cohabitants està causant una greu preocupació entre els estudiosos i responsables polítics del benestar infantil. La pobresa infantil, un dels indicadors més habituals del benestar econòmic dels infants, ha anat augmentant de forma constant en molts països desenvolupats en dècades recents. El creixement de la complexitat familiar sembla anar acompanyada amb certs desavantatges econòmics. Encara que hi ha un creixent nombre d’estudis que examinen la relació entre la cohabitació dels pares i els riscos de pobresa infantil, els resultats són inconsistents i no existeix recerca rellevant feta a Espanya sobre la qüestió. Aquesta tesi té per objecte investigar la relació entre el tipus d’unió dels pares i els riscos de pobresa infantil des d’una perspectiva transnacional i al llarg del temps a partir del plantejament de tres preguntes: (1) fins a quin punt i com el benestar econòmic dels infants que viuen en llars de pares cohabitants difereix dels que ho fan en llars de pares casats? (2) fins a quin punt els pares cohabitants difereixen dels seus homòlegs casats en termes de les seves característiques socioeconòmiques i fins a quin punt les disparitats en termes de riscos de pobresa infantil entre les llars de pares cohabitants i casats poden ser explicades pel tipus d’unió dels pares per se o bé per un efecte de selecció? (3) fins a quin punt les elevades taxes espanyoles de pobresa infantil en comparació amb les d’altres països europeus són atribuïbles a diferències en el mercat de treball, les polítiques socials o les distribucions de la població infantil que viu en diversos arranjaments residencials? L’anàlisi fou portada a terme principalment amb dades d’EU-SILC 2006 i 2014. S’escolliren cinc països europeus (Suècia, França, Alemanya, República Txeca i Regne Unit) per tal de poderlos comparar amb Espanya. L’associació entre el tipus d’unió dels pares i els riscos de pobresa infantil o de privació material s’examinà mitjançant regressions logístiques binàries o OLS. Tot seguit, la comparació dels resultats de 2006 i 2014 per mitjà de la inclusió de la interacció entre el tipus d’unió dels pares i l’any de l’observació explora fins a quin punt i com les disparitats de pobresa infantil entre les famílies de pares casats i cohabitants canviaren abans i durant la Gran Recessió a Espanya. Finalment, es feren servir tècniques de descomposició per tal d’examinar la contribució dels factors institucionals als diferencials de pobresa infantil entre Espanya i altres països europeus. Els anys 2006 i 2014 a Espanya els infants de pares cohabitants mostraven riscos més alts de privació material que els de pares casats, mentre que els riscos de pobresa infantil foren diferents segons els anys. El 2014 els nens de pares casats tenien una millor prosperitat que els de pares cohabitants, però aquests resultats s’explicaven per les disparitats de les característiques socioeconòmiques dels pares casats i cohabitants. A més a més, entre 2006 i 2014 a Espanya els riscos de pobresa infantil després d’impostos i transferències de les llars de pares cohabitants augmentaren significativament. Finalment, les diferències en la redistribució pública de la renda contribuí més que altres factors a les disparitats de pobresa infantil entre Espanya i els altres països estudiats el 2006, però el 2014 les diferències de renda de mercat representaren més de la meitat de les dissemblances entre països en els riscos de pobresa infantil.
El auge de la cohabitación constituye uno de los cambios demográficos más significativos en los países occidentales. En España la cohabitación y el nacimiento de hijos de parejas cohabitantes han pasado de ser un caso excepcional a constituir un comportamiento familiar socialmente aceptado. La presencia de hijos en uniones cohabitantes está causando una grave preocupación entre los estudiosos y responsables políticos del bienestar infantil. La pobreza infantil, uno de los indicadores más habituales del bienestar económico de los niños, ha ido aumentando de forma constante en muchos países desarrollados en décadas recientes. El crecimiento de la complejidad familiar parece ir acompañado de ciertas desventajas económicas. A pesar de que hay un creciente número de estudios que examinan la relación entre la cohabitación de los padres y los riesgos de pobreza infantil, los resultados son inconsistentes y en España aún no existen investigaciones relevantes sobre la cuestión. Esta tesis tiene por objeto investigar la relación entre el tipo de unión de los padres y los riesgos de pobreza infantil desde una perspectiva transnacional y a lo largo del tiempo a partir del planteamiento de tres preguntas: (1) ¿hasta qué punto y cómo el bienestar económico de los niños en hogares de padres cohabitantes difiere de los residentes con padres casados? (2) ¿hasta qué punto los padres cohabitantes difieren de sus homólogos casados en términos de sus características socioeconómicas y hasta qué punto las disparidades en términos de riesgos de pobreza infantil entre los hogares de padres cohabitantes y casados pueden ser explicadas por el tipo de unión de los padres per se o bien por un efecto de selección? (3) ¿hasta qué punto las elevadas tasas españolas de pobreza infantil en comparación con las de otros países europeos son atribuibles a diferencias en el mercado de trabajo, las políticas sociales o las distribuciones de la población infantil según tipos de hogares? El análisis fue llevado a cabo principalmente con datos de EU-SILC de 2006 y 2014. Se seleccionaron cinco países europeos (Suecia, Francia, Alemania, República Checa y Reino Unido) con el fin de compararlos con España. La asociación entre el tipo de unión de los padres y los riegos de pobreza infantil o de privación material se examinó mediante regresiones logísticas binarias y OLS. La comparación de los resultados de 2006 y 2014 por medio de la inclusión de la interacción entre el tipo de unión de los padres y el año de la observación explora hasta qué punto y cómo las disparidades de pobreza infantil entre las familias de padres casados y cohabitantes cambiaron antes y durante la Gran Recesión en España. Finalmente, se usaron técnicas de descomposición para examinar la contribución de los factores institucionales a los diferenciales de pobreza infantil entre España y otros países europeos. Los años 2016 y 2014 en España los niños de padres cohabitantes mostraban riesgos superiores de privación material que los de padres casados, mientras que los riesgos pobreza infantil fueron diferentes según los años. En 2014 los niños de padres casados gozaban de una mejor prosperidad que los de padres cohabitantes, pero estos resultados se explicaban por las disparidades de los perfiles socioeconómicos de unos y otros. Además, entre 2006 y 2014 en España los riesgos de pobreza infantil de los hogares de padres cohabitantes aumentaron significativamente. Finalmente, las diferencias en la redistribución pública de la renta contribuyó más que otros factores a las disparidades de pobreza infantil entre España y otros países en 2006, pero en 2014 las diferencias de renta de mercado representaron más de la mitad de las desemejanzas entre países en los riesgos de pobreza infantil.
The rise in cohabitation is one of the most striking demographic changes to have occurred in Western countries. In Spain, cohabitation and having children in cohabitation have increasingly shifted from a rare and deviant pattern of family to a fairly normal and socially accepted family behavior. The presence of children within cohabiting unions is causing a great deal of concern to scholars and policymakers about child well-being. In addition, as the most common indicator of children’s economic well-being, child poverty has steadily been rising in many developed countries during the recent decades. Growth in family complexity is suggested to go together with economic disadvantages. Although there is an increasing number of studies that have examined the link between parental cohabitation and child poverty risks, the results are inconsistent and there is no relevant research conducted in Spain. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between parents’ union status and child poverty risks from a cross-national perspective and over time through focusing on three research questions: first, whether and how does the economic well-being of children living in cohabiting-parent households differ from those in married-parent households? Second, whether cohabiting parents differ from their married counterparts in terms of their socioeconomic characteristics and; whether disparities in child poverty risks between cohabiting- and married-parent households are explained by parental union status per se or by the selection effect. Third, whether the higher child poverty rate in Spain compared to other European countries is attributable to diversities in the labor market or social welfare or to the distributions of children in different living arrangements? The analysis was conducted mainly based on the EU-SILC 2006 and 2014. Five European countries, Sweden, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the UK, were chosen to be compared with Spain. The association between parents’ union status and child poverty risks or material deprivation was examined by applying binary logistic regressions and ordinary leastsquare regressions. Then, the comparison of results in 2006 and 2014 by the inclusion of the interaction between parental union status and year of observation explores whether and how the disparities in child poverty between married- and cohabiting-parent families changed before and during the Great Recession in Spain. Finally, the decomposition technique was applied to examine the contribution of institutional factors to the gap in child poverty risks between Spain and other European countries. Both in 2006 and 2014 in Spain children living in cohabiting-parent households had higher risks of material deprivation than those in married-parent households, while the results for risks of monetary child poverty varied across time. In 2014, children living with married parents fared better economically than those with cohabiting parents, but this was explained by the disparities in socioeconomic characteristics of married and cohabiting parents. Moreover, the risks of child poverty after tax and transfers in cohabiting-parent households significantly increased from 2006 to 2014 in Spain. In 2006 differences in governmental redistribution through tax and transfers contributed more than other factors to disparities in child poverty between Spain and other studied nations, but in 2014 market income differences accounted for more than half of cross-national dissimilarities in child poverty risks.

In this study we analyse some aspects of the interdependences between the economy and the environment by applying the input-output approach. Although economic activity affects the environment in many ways, in this study we only focus on one: the atmospheric pollution.

Concretely, we consider nine different gases. On one hand, the six greenhouse gases regulated by Kyoto protocol: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs). And, on the other hand, three gases related to local environmental problems such as acidification and eutrophication: sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and ammonia (NH3).

The study is structured in four self-contained essays that examine the relation between the economic activity and emissions in Spain from different perspectives. After an introductory chapter, in Chapter 2 we describe the methodology and the database used in other chapters. First, we present the basis of the input-output analysis emphasising those characteristics that make it a suitable approach to study the interdependences between the economy and the environment. Then, we describe the database and the procedure required to obtain an environmentally extended input-output table for Spain. We apply the environmentally extended input-output model presented in this chapter to describe the Spanish situation regarding atmospheric pollution in 1995 and 2000. In Chapter 3, we examine the contribution of the driving forces of the evolution of emissions in Spain from 1995 to 2000. For doing so, we decompose the change in emissions into the three main 'sources'. First, shifts in total intensity emission matrix (the eco-technological effect); second, changes in the composition of final uses (the structure effect); and third, changes in the level of final uses (the level effect). We quantify the effects of these three determinants performing a structural decomposition analysis. Chapter 4 shows the capacity of input-output analysis to study the relationship between the economic activity and the environment at a micro level.
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the different impact on atmospheric pollution of different households with different 'economic position'. We calculate total (direct and indirect) emissions generated by private consumption of Spanish households classified by quintiles of expenditure in the year 2000. In Chapter 5 we estimate the emissions embodied in Spanish international trade. By applying a multiregional input-output model we define and compare two approaches: the responsibility emission balance and the trade emission balance. We evaluate the international responsibility of Spain in 1995 and 2000. Finally, Chapter 6 summarises the conclusions of this study.
El propósito de esta tesis es el de analizar algunos de los factores que determinan las interdependencias existentes entre la economía y el medio ambiente. Aunque la actividad económica afecta al medio ambiente de forma muy diversa, el objeto de estudio de este trabajo está centrado en el análisis de un único problema medio ambiental: la contaminación atmosférica. Concretamente se consideran nueve gases diferentes. Por un lado los seis gases de efecto invernadero regulados por el protocolo de Kioto: dióxido de carbono (CO2), metano (CH4), óxido nitroso (N2O), hexafluoruro de azufre (SF6), hidrofluorocarbonos (HFCs), y perfluorocarbonos (PFCs). Y por otro lado, tres gases relacionados con problemas medioambientales de carácter más local y/o regional como son la acidificación y la eutrofización: óxidos de azufre (SOx), óxidos de nitrógeno (NOx), y amoniaco (NH3).

During the course of the Spanish Civil War Nazi Germany's intervention on behalf of General Francisco Franco and his fellow insurgents became increasingly dominated by economic considerations. National Socialist policies vis-à-vis Nationalist Spain developed into a programme of large-scale economic exploitation. Under the command of Hermann Goring two companies were founded in Spain in late July 1936 (HISMA) and in Berlin in early October 1936 (ROWAK) to take control not only of National Socialist supply operations for Franco but also of the whole economic relationship between Nazi Germany and Nationalist Spain. During the course of the civil war HISMA/ROWAK managed to alter the trading pattern between Spain and Germany away from mainly fruit imports towards a substantial increase in raw material supplies. As British companies controlled most of the pyrite and iron ore mines of Spain and were therefore directly affected by Franco's redirection of ore exports to Germany, this development was challenged by the British government. The Nazi regime was only partly successful in reducing non-German economic influence in Spain. Aware of the temporary nature of Franco's dependence on German war matériel, Hermann Goring initiated the MONTANA project in 1937 to build up a German-owned mining empire in Spain. While the purchase of Spanish mines by HISMA/ROWAK was reluctantly accepted by Franco in late 1938, the Nazi regime was left with very little time to proceed even further with its economic "colonization" of Spain. The outbreak of war in September 1939 put an effective halt to German-Spanish economic relations until the defeat of France in summer 1940 led to a reopening of rail links to Spain. Subsequent - unsuccessful - negotiations on a Spanish entry into the war were dominated by economic considerations. From 1941 onwards an increasing trade and clearing imbalance developed in favour of Spain. Germany was desperate to import certain goods from Spain, particularly wolfram ore, a vital raw material for German armaments producers. Yet, the Allied economic warfare campaign in Spain led to huge price increases and during the period 1942 to 1944 the Nazi regime found itself forced to export growing amounts of war matériel to Spain. The Allied invasion of France in 1944 finally led to the effective end of German-Spanish trade relations, although both regimes tried to maintain them until Hitler's final defeat.

At the beginning of the 1980s, when the process of democratisation was at best fragile or incomplete in Latin America and Southern and Eastern Europe, economic crisis provoked a debate about the relationship between economic and political transitions. Various questions were posed about the compatibility of democracy and economic development, the possibility of accomplishing political reform during a period of acute economic instability and the practicalities of co-ordinating structural changes in the productive and political systems. The thesis opens with an examination of the interrelationship between the political and economic transitions. This is followed by an account of structural change in Argentina and Spain in chapters I and II. Particular attention will be paid to events of the last decade but these will be placed in the context of the historical evolution of the international economy from the 1930s to the 1990s. Thereafter, the analysis will focus on changes in the social and productive systems. Chapters III and IV describe and appraise the process of transition. Emphasis is placed on differences between Spanish and Argentine economic nationalism. In part, the distinct chronology of liberalisation manifest in the two case-studies may be attributed to the specifics of nationalism. This will be illustrated by an examination of the attempts to implement adjustment plans, to reform the state, to stabilise the financial sector, to implement tax reforms and the management of social conflicts. It will be shown that a gradualist approach is more effective than "shock therapy" and that in managing a transition from interventionism to liberalism the key question confronting the state is which sectors to protect -and how. It will also be shown that, notwithstanding policy rethoric, the process of deregulation has been patchy. Both the Argentine an Spanish governments have been highly selective in targeting sectors to be liberalised. Chapters V and VI analyze the new productive structures that emerged from de-regulation. The following topics are considered: industrial policy; programmes of industrial restructuring; new levels of integration into the international economy; the process of policy-making; relations between industry and finance; the increasing role of the tertiary and informal sectors. Throughout, contrasts and comparisons will be made between Spain and Argentina and their evolving interaction with the world economy.

The new institutionalist school of economics addresses the divergence between countries' long-run economic performance by attributing it to differences in institutional heritage. Institutions which suppress the kleptocratic inclinations of governments and enshrine a 'credible commitment' to protect property rights encourage productive activity. But that is not to say states that cannot ensure universal property rights have not achieved economic growth. Such governments may resort to clientelist arrangements that guarantee a subset of asset holders their property rights will be protected in exchange for political and economic support. Such a system of 'crony capitalism' is an inefficient allocator of resources but it can ensure political stability which in turn allows an otherwise weak government to preside over sustained growth. This thesis compares the fortunes of Spain and Argentina, two 'crony capitalist states' characterised by distributional conflict, between 1950 and 2000. The principal hypothesis is that Spain's economic performance far outstripped that of Argentina over subsequent decades because the web of alliances between the state and society included a greater variety of economic interests than its Argentine counterpart and consequently achieved a closer approximation of a credible commitment to universally guarantee property rights. Argentine corporatism constructed in the late 1940s by president Juan Peron failed to integrate powerful interests and Argentine society is consequently defined by a variety of well-organised and powerful economic interest groups that compete for a share of national rent. The executive is forced to negotiate directly with these groups to secure support for new economic policy rather than operate through an effective state bureaucracy. Interests left out of the alliance will act to change the policy or remove the president, resulting in Argentina's perpetual cycle of economic and political instability. In Spain, the executive presided over a state segmented between interest groups. Each group was rewarded in return for loyalty with control over the ministry pertinent to a particular area of Spanish society. Economic interests such as labour, business and agriculture, meanwhile, were represented through compulsory membership of a monolithic syndicate. Within this bureaucracy, different factions representing a variety of economic interests engaged in a war of attrition to shape policy before the arbitrating dictator. This highly centralised state bureaucracy survived the transition to democracy and Spanish political parties abandoned their class-based identities and became mass movements organised under disciplined hierarchies of control. Thus negotiations over reform continued to operate within the state which ensured political stability which is a pure public good and encourages productive activity.

Obesity is a growing wide spread epidemic all over the world, in developed as well as developing countries. Taking into account its nature as a complex phenomenon affected by different aspects including economic ones, a growing body of literature has examined the effect of economic factors on obesity prevalence and the effectiveness of economic intervention policies in combating it. Many papers argue that economics could be a cure as well as one of the main causes of obesity. Despite the increasing obesity rate in Spain, to my knowledge, no known published research studied the economic factors affecting obesity prevalence, only there are some studies about the prevalence of obesity and the importance of socio-demographic factors that are affecting it (SEEDO and results from the project PORGROW)) in which the role of prices and income was neglected. The objective of this thesis has been to analyze the relevance of economic factors (mainly income and other socioeconomic characteristics of Spanish households and market prices) on the prevalence of obesity in Spain and to what extent market intervention prices are effective to reduce obesity and improve the quality of the diet, and under what circumstances. In relation to the existing literature, this thesis project is the first attempt in Spain trying to get an overall picture on the effectiveness of public policies on both food consumption and the quality of diet, on one hand, and on the prevalence of obesity on the other hand. The dissertation is consisted of four papers. The first paper which follows the thesis’ introduction includes a critical review of the literature on the economic approach used to understand and deal with obesity prevalence epidemic, diet quality and public intervention policies. Through the literature review, we also identified the gaps that other papers of the thesis tried to fill. How these gaps were filled by the present thesis and the aforementioned objectives were addressed is the subject the next three chapters of this thesis. In Chapter 3, the determinant factors that affect obesity prevalence were analyzed using a nonparametric approach, the Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS). The development and validation process of our new Obesity Specific- Healthy Eating Index (OS-HEI) is discussed in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 deals with the estimation of Spanish consumers demand for food and diet quality, approximated by the BMI, using the EASI demand system and the simulation of the effect of the different price intervention policies on food demand and diet quality in Spain. The thesis ends with some concluding remarks and some suggestions for further research. Although, this study has been proved to be useful in better understanding obesity prevalence and food demand in Spain, it can be extended through applying recent advances in experimental and behavioral economics. The majority of the papers dealing with the role of economic factors on obesity prevalence, including our papers, found economic factors to have a significant but a quite small effect on obesity prevalence. This suggests that non-economic factors are playing the major role in obesity prevalence. Just and Payne (2009) mentioned that because food decisions are made with little cognitive involvement, food policies designed to appeal to highly cognitive thought (e.g., fat taxes, detailed information labels) are likely to have little impact. With the aim of understanding this little impact of such policies and why consumers sometimes behave in ways that contradict standard assumptions of economic analysis and make decisions that prevent them from reaching rationally intended goals, the use of experimental economics tools in future research could be helpful in this pending question.

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo buscar las causas del retroceso militar andalusí ante los reinos y condados cristianos de la Península Ibérica, un problema que se detecta en el siglo XI y que continúa durante la mayor parte del siglo XII. El método escogido para lograr este objetivo ha consistido en un estudio cuantitativo sobre 500 expediciones armadas que ocurrieron entre los años 711 y 1172. El análisis compara el potencial bélico, la actuación militar y los ejércitos musulmanes en las diferentes fases de la historia andalusí. Los resultados de la comparación muestran que a pesar de la mayor extensión de al-Andalus, de la introducción de nuevos objetivos militares y de los cambios en la composición de las tropas musulmanas, el potencial bélico cristiano fue aumentando progresivamente. Este hecho indica que el retroceso militar andalusí estuvo causado principalmente por motivos socioeconómicos. Esta interpretación se confirma por la existencia de otros textos y datos, en los cuales se observa que los gobernantes musulmanes de al-Andalus destinaban al ejército un porcentaje de bienes e ingresos más pequeño que el invertido por los líderes cristianos. El trabajo concluye que los gastos para alcanzar el istibdād –el poder absoluto– obligaban a los gobernantes musulmanes entregar al ejército un porcentaje inferior al de los cristianos. El emir o califa fue capaz de compensar esta realidad con las cifras absolutas de su inversión militar. Sin embargo, las cifras absolutas también fueron superadas cuando al-Andalus perdió su unidad política en el siglo XI y los poderes cristianos aumentaron su base territorial.
The aim of this paper to look for the reasons for the Andalusian military setbacks against the Iberian Christian Kingdoms, a problem which arose in the XI century and continued throughout most of the XII century. The method chosen to achieve this objective consisted of a quantitative study of 500 armed expeditions that occurred between 711 and 1172. The analysis compares the war potential, the military action and the Muslim armies over the different phases of Andalusian history. The results of the comparison show that in spite of al-Andalus’s greater territorial reach, and despite the introduction of new military objectives and changes in the composition of the Muslim forces, the Christian war potential progressively increased over this period. This fact indicates that the Andalusian military setbacks were mainly due to socio-economic reasons. This interpretation is confirmed by the existence of other texts and data, which note that the Muslim rulers of al-Andalus devoted a smaller percentage of the goods income available to them for military spending than the Christian leaders. This study concludes that the expenditures made as part of the effort to achieve istibdād –absolute power– forced the Muslim rulers to provide their army with a lower percentage of the available resources than the Christians. The emir or caliph was able to compensate for this reality with greater absolute numbers in terms of military investment. However, this advantage in absolute numbers was also wiped out when al-Andalus lost its political unity in the XI century and the Christian powers increased their territorial base.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Oct. 10, 2007). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in the Transatlantic Masters (TAM) Program in the Department of Political Science." Discipline: Political Science; Department/School: Political Science.

The introduction of a cultural art complex into the world market inevitably results in modifications to its original form. This article explores the evolution of the Flamenco art complex as an export, and examines the question of whether the economic viability of this art form comes at the cost of cultural integrity. In congruence with this question, it analyzes how the relationship between artist and consumer has shaped the art complex into its contemporary form. Through a case study based in Albuquerque, New Mexico this article contrasts the existing Flamenco microcosm in New Mexico with Flamenco as it is performed in Andalucía, Spain, to bring to light the viability of the Flamenco art complex in two distinct regions of the world. It argues that as an import in the United States, Flamenco depends on the role of consumers for its economic viability. Findings based on this case study imply that the adaptation of an art complex to a foreign audience can in some cases, result in a positive reinforcement of its traditional elements while promoting its economic viability in the world market.

During the 1980's, many European countries introduced flexibility measures in their labour market to fight high and persistent levels of unemployment. In particular, in many countries reforms consisted of the introduction of more flexible labour contracts (fixed-term contracts) in comparison to the predominant ones (permanent contracts). The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the effects of such contracts on the overall performance of the labour market. First, an economy with firing costs is analysed theoretically. Firing costs are generally considered one of the most important elements in making a labour market rigid. This chapter stresses the fact that it is not just the level of severance payments what matters, but a wider view of employment protection. In particular, dismissal conflicts are modeled explicitly and their cost is derived. In the second chapter, the effects on employment of introducing fixed-term contracts in an economy with only permanent contracts are analysed theoretically. Our findings are that higher employment at the expense of segmentation of the labour market only arises if wages are very flexible. Otherwise, employment is not necessarily higher than in a system with only permanent contracts. Moreover, from the social point of view, market segmentation is too large. The last two chapters are empirical work applied to Spain. The Spanish experience appears to be particularly useful in this context to draw some lessons of these policies because the unemployment rate is the highest among OECD economies despite the several "policy experiments" implemented in the last two decades. In Chapter 3 the duration pattern of fixed-term contracts and the determinants of the transformation of these into permanent ones are analysed. Evidence is found that fixed-term contracts are used as a screening device instrument. Also, employers use fixed-term contracts until their legal limit. In Chapter 4, we study the effects of fixed-term contracts on the duration distribution of unemployment. It is found that the chances of leaving unemployment for a reference group have increased at short durations, while they have decreased at long durations of unemployment.

Despite its importance, there is remarkably little consensus among scientists on the definition of “social exclusion” and, therefore, on the best way to measure it. My aim in this thesis has been to address key problems regarding how to identify an adequate measure of social exclusion and how to analyse social exclusion dynamics. I then proceeded to develop an approach to measurement which was in accord with the working definition of social exclusion (considering also the previous literature), and I used it to establish if social exclusion was partially transitory, and to study eventual dependence paths that exclusion might generate. Note that my analysis proposes new approaches to study social exclusion and offers fresh empirical evidence on social exclusion dynamics in Spain from 1994 to 2000 (using ECHP data). I define social exclusion as a multidimensional dynamic process leading to a state of individual exclusion relative to the rest of the society where the individual lives in. Social exclusion at a point in time is defined as the impossibility to achieve some relevant functionings. The choice of an index able to adequately measure exclusion is not easy. I have proposed to use a special case of the multidimensional generalization of the Foster-Green-Thorbecke index. The main reason has been that this index fulfils a set of axiomatic properties (Bourguignon and Chakravarty, 2003) and it is able to operazionalize Sen’s capability approach. Note that this index is also adequate to capture the multidimensionality of social exclusion and gives us information about the intensity of exclusion. I have performed a detailed analysis of social exclusion mobility following the relative approach and using transition matrices (two-stage analysis). The main advantages of using transition matrices are the following: first, two-stage analysis provides a simple picture of the “movement” of the individuals among the specific social exclusion classes and, second, it is shown to be robust to data contamination. This kind of analysis have shown that social exclusion was partially a transitory phenomenon. I have also focused on the causes leading to social exclusion process. I did find that an individual experiencing exclusion today was more likely to experience exclusion tomorrow due to both observed and unobserved individual heterogeneity and true state of dependence. The analysis has been done estimating a dynamic non-linear panel data model. I have used the random effects approach, and I have applied the solution proposed by Wooldridge (2002) to solve the initial condition problems. This approach have shown evidence of the importance of both true state dependence and observed/unobserved heterogeneity.

Background: The increased amount and diversification of migration flows to Europe are shaping new contexts forthe study of determinants of remittance-sending. Senegalese migration in Spain is one important case,because has increased its presence among other groups in the country and has different characteristics(e.g. younger age structure) compared to Senegalese migrants in Europe. This paper addresses aresearch challenge which can be framed in the three following aspects. First, it analyzes the migrant’sremittance behavior of a particular group of migrants in a specific national context. Second, itacknowledges remittances as transnational practices determined by factors related to incorporationinto host society and ties at origin. Thirdly, the paper provides a longitudinal approach which looks atmigration histories and changes in remittance-sending over time. Objective: The main objective of this paper consists on disentangling the way in which migrant’s remittancebehavior is affected by changes, over time, in individual characteristics (e.g. gender, education),economic integration, (e.g. employment status), and their ties at origin (e.g. family reunification).Thus, there are two research questions to be answered, namely: how are the trajectories of migrantremittances deployed since their arrival into Europe? And, how are these trajectories affected byindividual and family characteristics, as well as economic integration over time? Methodology: The paper is based on retrospective data from the Migration between Africa and Europe (MAFE) andthe Migrations Between Senegal and Spain (MESE) projects. The analysis of determinants ofremittance-sending is divided in two parts. First, a multivariate logistic regression which analyzes theodds of sending remittances (or logit) at any year since arrival into Europe is carried out. Secondly,event history analysis is used to explore the risk of initiating remittance-sending for the first time andthe risk of remittance-sending termination, respectively. In particular, a discrete-time logistic model isperformed to analyze these two processes. Results: Results indicate that despite having arrived relatively recently to Europe, lower educationalattainments and less access to the labour market, compared to other important destinations (e.g.France, Italy), the great majority of Senegalese migrants in Spain start sending remittances duringtheir first years of arrival. Once initiated, international money transfers are kept over time, as morethan two thirds of remitters maintain this economic flow over their stay. In this sense, empiricalevidence of this paper confirms remittances as an important aspect in South-North migration flows,both in terms of the proportion of migrants sending remittances and as a sustained transnationaleconomic practice.

Defence date: 28 September 2022
Examining Board: Prof. Pieter Judson (European University Institute); Prof. Tamar Herzog (Harvard University); Prof. Christopher Storrs (University of Dundee); Prof. Regina Grafe (European University Institute)
Why and how did modern states emerge in Southwestern Europe? These are the main questions that this thesis answers by examining the debt of six municipalities of the Crown of Aragon during the 18th century through a multiscale, transversal, and comparative approach. The ancient practices which constituted the Aragonese polity appeared in the mid-fourteenth century and survived at least until the mid-eighteenth century partially thanks to the debt of the municipalities. Towns and kingdoms were in many cases ruled by assemblies of creditors by virtue of debt restructuring agreements. Debt accounts for the long survival of the Aragonese polity, but also for its sclerosis. The financial situation of the debtholders, mostly ecclesiastical institutions, prevented rulers from defaulting on municipal debt and adopting drastic measures against the Church, as they feared a financial meltdown. The emergence of the modern state was an intricate process which started by 1750, mainly due to the collapse of the ancient mechanisms. The modern state appeared as a set of practices devised and implemented by a myriad of actors who tried to recompose social and political life. State formation was first and foremost a local process in which municipal debt proved crucial too. The examination of local dynamics reveals that modern states in Southwestern Europe followed similar paths during the early phases of their formation.