Tesis Doctorals - Departament - Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola
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TesiModelització de la durada dels estudis universitaris: una aplicació a la Universitat de Barcelona(Universitat de Barcelona, 1994) Alemany Leira, Ramon; Artís Ortuño, Manuel; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Econometria, Estadística i Economia Espanyola[spa] El objetivo del trabajo es el de profundizar en el conocimiento de los factores que determinan la duración de los estudios universitarios en la doble perspectiva de su finalización, bien sea el abandono, bien sea la obtención del título. En la primera parte del trabajo se ha realizado una revisión de las metodologías utilizadas hasta el momento y se ha propuesto el uso de la metodología del análisis de datos de supervivencia o duración por las ventajas que supone en el tratamiento de la duración de los estudios: es un análisis dinámico que incorpora la información muestral censurada. En la segunda parte del trabajo se han aplicado los métodos y modelos propios del análisis de supervivencia a una cohorte de estudiantes de la Universidad de Barcelona, para mostrar las ventajas de la metodología y hacer una primera aproximación a la realidad de los estudiantes de la Universidad de Barcelona.- TesiEssays on Urban Economics(Universitat de Barcelona, 2016-04-11) Sánchez Vidal, María; Viladecans Marsal, Elisabet; Jofre Monseny, Jordi; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia EspanyolaCities present high levels of worker and business productivity thanks to their agglomeration economies, which are usually capitalised in higher wages. Cities are, moreover, the perfect environment for consumption, thanks to their large supply of amenities. However, the density of cities is at the same time responsible for rising congestion costs and higher housing prices. Thus, and in line with the urban economics literature, the equilibrium city size depends on the trade-off between the benefits accrued from these agglomeration forces and the costs associated with larger cities. This thesis contributes to this literature by providing three interesting findings about the economics of city formation and city evolution. First, this thesis inspects one of the mechanisms driving the existence of different cities of different sizes. Using data from US cities, it studies the evolution of city growth throughout the twentieth century. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the role played by the new-born cities created during the decades between 1900 and 2000. The first finding is that there are differences in city growth rates according to the age of the city. In general, when a city is born it presents a very high growth rate but, as the decades pass, it matures and its growth rate stabilises or even declines. Second, the results suggest that most of the growth differential across cities is driven by their first decade of existence, which is generally in line with the parametric results. This thesis also estimates the real net local employment responses to large manufacturing plant closures as a result of their international relocations. Specifically, it estimates the employment effects of the closure of 45 large manufacturing plants in Spain, which relocated to (mainly) developing countries between 2001 and 2006. Each municipality experiencing a closure is matched to a small set of comparable municipalities in terms of employment level and industry mix in the year 2000. It is found that treatments and controls do not differ in their 1990-2000 (pre-treatment) employment trends either, thereby lending credence to the identification assumption underpinning the differences-in-differences estimates used in this chapter. The results show that when a plant closes, for each job directly lost in the plant closure, only between 0.3 and 0.6 jobs are actually lost in the local economy, with the adjustment being concentrated in local incumbent firms in the industry having suffered the closure. Finally, this thesis studies the effects of big-box store openings, usually located in out-of-town sites, on grocery stores, which are typically identified as city centre consumption amenities. Using an RDD analysis and focusing on the food sector, this chapter makes use of a regulation aimed at restricting the entry of big-box stores as the source of exogenous variation. The results indicate that, after a big-box opens, the affected municipality gradually loses grocery stores, typically from the city centre, showing evidence of downtown hollowing out. In fact, four years after the opening, between 20% and 30% of pre-existing grocery stores have closed down. Moreover, when evaluating the heterogeneity of these effects, the results seem to show that there are no significant short-run differences between big-box store openings in the city centre and those out-of-town. This indicates that, at least in the short-run, both downtown and suburb big-boxes act as direct competitors of grocery stores. An additional heterogeneity analysis is also performed by splitting the results between conventional and discount big-box stores, where the former are chains selling well-known brands whereas the latter typically sell their own brands at lower prices. In this case, all the effect on grocery stores can be attributed to conventional stores, showing evidence that these shops, which sell the same kind of products as grocery stores but in a one-stop shop, may match consumer preferences better and may also be more convenient for them.
- TesiEssays on Tax Administration(Universitat de Barcelona, 2015-04-27) Salvadori, Luca; Durán Cabré, José María; Esteller Moré, Alejandro; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola[eng] Tax administration is central to the working of any tax system. This thesis focuses on the Spanish case and proves the existence of two kind of externalities that might arise in tax administration policies when decentralized. These are: inter-jurisdictional externalities due to the federal institutional design (competition vs. cooperation), and tax authority's endogenous reaction to external shocks (in terms of changes in tax enforcement) as a result of tax autonomy. The focus for the whole research line developed in this thesis is Spain, which provides a interesting federal framework for investigation. Indeed the regional governments of fifteen of the seventeen “common” regime autonomous communities have had the power to administer several wealth taxes since the mid-eighties and subsequent reforms, in 1997 and 2002, have conferred on them the normative power to make changes to certain statutory tax parameters (see Esteller, 2008, for further details on these reforms). The other two regions, the so-called “foral” autonomous communities (the Basque Country and Navarre), for historical reasons, administer almost all the taxes falling due within their territory – including VAT, personal income tax and corporate income tax – and they have the normative power to regulate most of them . This setting provides me with the opportunity to explore different types of externalities that might impact tax administration policies. In Chapter 2 the presence of horizontal competition in tax enforcement is examined in the context of the common regime autonomous communities. Chapter 3 presents an analysis of the potential room for cooperation derived from misreported tax returns in this federal context. Chapter 4 estimates the externality effect on tax enforcement caused by the costs of terrorism in the foral autonomous communities. The three central chapters of this thesis represent something of a novelty in the literature as they are the first empirical studies on externalities in tax administration policies. The whole research line shows that in a federal framework these policies are employed by tax authorities as strategic instruments, demonstrating that decentralizing tax administration gives regional governments additional degrees of tax autonomy. In particular, Chapters 2 and 4 show that tax enforcement policies can be used by tax authorities in order to counter the loss of revenues due to the potential mobility of tax bases. In both studies, tax administrations are found to lower the tax burden by cutting the tax audit rate in order to retain mobile tax bases, where the taxpayers’ incentive to move is based solely on classic horizontal tax competition or, alternatively, on an external shock such as terrorism. In the context of horizontal tax competition presented in Chapter 2, the mutual strategic reaction of tax authorities generates inefficiency in the setting of enforcement policies. Although this problem is partially reduced by the subsequent decentralization of normative power, the further inefficiencies that arise open the door for future research in this field so as to identify means, other than harmonization, that might circumvent this issue. Chapter 4 allows us to conclude that part of the shock due to terrorism is internalized by the tax administration and, thus, further research is needed in order to disentangle the actual impact of terrorism in terms of economic costs for the region. Chapter 3 shows that potential cooperation in tax management is possible when tax administration is decentralized at a sub-central level although it is partially undermined by short-sighted incentives caused by administrative, transaction and financial costs.
- TesiEssays on the Economics of Crime: Determinants of Crime in an Urban Context(Universitat de Barcelona, 2015-05-05) Planells Struse, Simón; Montolio, Daniel; Ramos Lobo, Raúl; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola[spa] La tesis titulada 'Essays on the economics of crime: Determinants of crime in an urban context' tiene el objetivo de analizar los principales determinantes de la delincuencia en el contexto urbano. En concreto, analiza en profundidad los efectos de los partidos de fútbol jugados por el Fútbol Club Barcelona en la delincuencia con un objetivo tanto de análisis espacial como temporal. Adicionalmente, se analiza otra dimensión de la delincuencia: la percepción del delito. Para tales objetivos, se divide la tesis en 3 principales capítulos que reflejan 3 artículos que pueden ser leídos de forma separada o conjunta. En el primer capítulo, se analiza el efecto que los partidos de fútbol tiene sobre la distribución espacial de la delincuencia en la ciudad de Barcelona. Para tal objetivo, se utiliza una base de datos que por una parte, contiene todos los partidos de fútbol jugados por el F.C.B (tanto los jugados en casa como los jugados en otros campos de fútbol). Adicionalmente, y como gran novedad, se utiliza una base de datos única en España que contiene todos los delitos registrados por los Mossos de Esquadra i la Guardia Urbana desde 2007 a 2011 con información específica de donde han ocurrido, cuando han ocurrido y de que tipología delictiva se trata. Esta base de datos, permite realizar un análisis primero para el conjunto de toda la ciudad de Barcelona, y luego para aquellas secciones censales cercanas al estadio del Campo del F.C.B. La metodología utilizada consiste en un análisis exploratorio de datos espaciales mediante funciones de densidad de Kernel y la comparación de estos valores cuando existen partidos de fútbol jugados en casa y fuera de casa. De forma adicional, se añade un análisis de regresión que consiste en una primera estimación con datos de serie temporal a nivel de día para analizar los efectos de los partidos de fútbol sobre los hurtos y los delitos violentos en toda la ciudad de Barcelona. A continuación, también se realiza una estimación espacial que consiste en la estimación del efectos de los partidos de fútbol sobre los delitos violentos y sobre los hurtos a nivel de sección censal y día. En el segundo capítulo de la tesis, se realiza un análisis de los efectos de los partidos de fútbol sobre el desplazamiento de hasta 8 tipologías delictivas en la ciudad de Barcelona. El análisis se realiza mediante los datos descritos anteriormente. La metodología utilizada consiste tanto en un análisis descriptivo de todas las tipologías delictivas al nivel de hora, día, semana y mes, como en un análisis de regresión a nivel hora de los efectos de los partidos de fútbol sobre el desplazamiento de los delitos en el tiempo. Los resultados reflejan que ciertas tipologías delictivas parecen aumentar después del partido de fútbol mientras que otras, como el consumo de substancias estupefacientes y los delitos contra la seguridad vial, parecen disminuir. Finalmente, el último capítulo analiza, mediante datos de la encuesta de victimización de Barcelona, que determina la percepción del delito de los individuos. Analizo desde los determinantes individuales como sexo, edad, nacionalidad o renta, hasta los determinantes de barrio. Es decir, variables relacionadas con el entorno de orden y del aspecto del barrio. Finalmente, en este mismo capítulo se analiza como el simple contacto con la policía puede incrementar o disminuir el nivel de percepción del delito. La metodología utilizada es un análisis multinivel logístico que tiene en cuenta tanto el orden de la variable dependiente como las variables independientes a dos niveles.
- TesiEssays on the Political Economy of Local Corruption(Universitat de Barcelona, 2014-10-17) Costas-Pérez, Elena; Solé Ollé, Albert; Sorribas, Pilar; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola[eng] This dissertation analyses the effects of information on corruption cases on citizens’ electoral behaviour and the media coverage of those scandals. Corruption, defined as the abuse of public office for private gain, has lately become a very prolific research field in both academic and policy areas. Considering the main factors driving corruption, some studies have identified democratic systems as a hurdle to political scandals. Advanced democratic institutions tend to be associated with higher transparency and better political accountability mechanisms, which are the channels through which they accomplish lower levels of corruption. Factors such as an independent judiciary, press freedom, and free elections are key elements that define an advanced democracy. This thesis is composed by three empirical studies. The study presented in Chapter 2 analyses how information on local corruption affected local electoral outcomes in Spanish municipalities between 1999 and 2007, a period characterised by the surge in local scandals. We use a novel database on those corruption cases to estimate an incumbent's vote share equation, accounting for the omission of popularity shocks, something that is lacking in prior studies. As an additional enrichment to the literature we have into consideration the degree of attention that the media devoted to each case and when the judiciary was involved in the scandal, analysing whether voters react to the amount of information and to information regarding the seriousness of the case. Thus, we account for the complementarity of these institutions in the fight against corruption. Chapter 3 studies how corruption affects voter turnout using information on local scandals occurring in Spain between 1999 and 2007 and survey data. This analysis has the advantage over the previous literature as it relies on a research strategy for differentiating between the ‘mobilisation’ and ‘disaffection’ effects of corruption on voter turnout. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that is able to analyse empirically how these two effects are influenced by partisan leanings or corruption at different times, untangling the conclusions of earlier studies. Chapter 4 studies the media coverage of 165 Spanish local scandals spanning between 2004 and 2007 by national and regional newspapers. It analyses the incentives that media outlets may have to bias the information they report on those scandals. The literature has identified ideological slant and capture on the part of the government as two political elements that may bias media coverage of scandals. The study presented in chapter 4 is an improvement respect previous papers since it analyses both ideological slant and media capture as complementary factors rather than independent drivers of media bias. As an additional contribution we also consider the role of government’s popularity on the coverage of scandals. The three empirical studies that compose this thesis provide strong evidence that, even under a biased provision of news, Spanish voters are willing to electorally punish corrupt practices. Together with the significant number of cases recently unveiled by media and investigations undertaken by individuals or citizens’ organizations through different digital platforms, we can be optimistic about the evaluation of practices to control corruption. The promotion of policies that endorse media freedom and independence would also reduce the influence of political powers on Spanish media. Taken together, these factors would have a clear positive effect on electoral accountability, allowing citizens to obtain the impartial information they need to use elections as a way to constrain corrupt practices.
- TesiThe Impact of EU Regulation in Network Industries(Universitat de Barcelona, 2014-09-15) Trujillo-Baute, Elisa; Trillas, Francesc; Montolio, Daniel; Costa, M. Teresa (Maria Teresa), 1951-; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola[eng] Within the European Union (EU), economic regulation is often used as a promotion mechanism to achieve specific objectives. In the telecommunications and the energy sectors this is observable through those regulations that promote the participation of new agents and/or new technologies Access regulation has been implemented in the EU to promote the entrance of new agents in the telecommunications sector. With the aim of stimulating competition and achieving its desired effects in markets and among consumers, new entrants have been provided with access to incumbents fixed-line infrastructure at the wholesale level. Similarly, as part of the EU 2020 energy strategy, the Climate and Energy Package undertook to implement the “20-20-20” targets. Among these, arguably the most challenging is raising up to 20% the share of EU energy consumption produced from renewable resources. Member States have embraced this target by promoting the production of electricity from renewable energy sources. Within the telecommunications sector, one of the markets affected by changes in the European regulatory framework is that of the broadband service. The rationale behind access regulation is that entrants be allowed initially to provide a service that requires minimum direct investment while relying on the incumbents existing network; however, subsequently, entrants are expected to increase their investments as they develop their own infrastructure in a process captured by the “ladder of investment” theory . This EU regulation has clear implications for the firms investment decisions and, as such, for aggregate infrastructure investment at the country level in the telecommunications sector. From a firm level point of view, in the context of the access regulation implemented in the EU, new market competitors are able to provide broadband access for customers by using the incumbents infrastructure, the prices for which are regulated. As such, firm performance is, in part, dependent on regulatory decisions, while the implementation of regulated rates directly affects firm performance in two ways: by impacting the entrants production costs through the input prices and by impacting the incumbents wholesale and retail income. In addition, a firms behavior will also be determined by the firms characteristics, and given that in most countries broadband services are now provided by a broad range of operators, including incumbents and entrants as well as national and multinational firms, these are fundamental for any regulatory analysis. Within the energy sector, following the setting of the 20-20-20 targets under the corresponding EU regulation, the feed-in tariff regulation has become the most widely adopted mechanism by Member States to encourage the take-up and development of electricity generation from renewable energy sources. Under the feed-in tariff regulation, a specific price is guaranteed per unit of electricity generated by the target technologies. In most Member States the cost of resources assigned to promoting the production of electricity from renewable energy sources is borne by the final consumer. In recent years, however, the recession has caused governments, industry and consumers alike to worry about high retail energy prices, and here some of the blame has been attributed to climate policies, in general, and to the feed-in tariff regulation, in particular. In this regard, two components of the electricity retail price can be expected to be influenced by the feed-in tariff regulation: the incentives to those firms producing electricity from renewable energy sources and the wholesale price of electricity. The two components, which act over the electricity retail price in opposite directions, are functions of the proportion and type of renewable sources in the energy mix. Technology-specific considerations are clearly therefore important for any empirical analysis of the impact of EU regulation on the energy sector. This dissertation undertakes an empirical analysis of the impact of EU regulation. More precisely, I analyze the effects of access regulation on the telecommunications sector and of the feed-in tariff regulation as a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies on the energy sector.
- TesiEssays on Education Decentralization(Universitat de Barcelona, 2014-06-19) Salinas Peña, Paula; Solé Ollé, Albert; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola[eng]Differences in the division of education responsibilities between tiers of government and in the degree of autonomy the latter have to take decisions and raise their own revenues could imply differences in the level of efficiency with which these responsibilities are carried out. The aim of this study is, therefore, to analyze the effects of decentralization on the efficiency of educational policy, by examining the way in which different decentralization structures can have differential effects and by exploring the channels via which decentralization can affect educational outcomes. To achieve this, I first analyze the effects of a partial fiscal decentralization reform introduced in Spain at the beginning of the eighties, when educational responsibilities were devolved to regions that were not, however, granted any decision-making power for raising their own taxes. I believe that this study, reported in Chapter 2, makes a relevant contribution to the scarce empirical evidence gathered to date about the effects of decentralization on educational outcomes. First, this is the first study to analyze these effects in the context of a partial fiscal decentralization, which enables me to provide empirical evidence about one of the main points of debate in the fiscal federalism literature. Second, the way in which education policy has been decentralized in Spain, with a set of regions receiving educational powers at the beginning of the eighties and the remaining regions having to wait until the end of the nineties to receive the same powers, provides a unique benchmark against which to conduct a consistent identification of the effects of decentralization. Finally, I believe that the conclusions that can be drawn from this study are especially relevant at a time in which a process of recentralization of decision-making autonomy in the education sector in Spain is being undertaken. Second, I analyze the effects of decentralization on educational outcomes under different decentralization structures. That is, I analyze whether different degrees of subnational government autonomy, both on the expenditure and revenue sides, have the expected differential effects. The analysis in Chapter 3 contrasts with analyses reported in previous studies, since it draws on cross-national evidence to analyse the way in which different structures of expenditure and revenue decentralization have a differential impact on the efficiency of public education policies, a question hitherto unaddressed in this branch of literature. However, these studies tell us nothing about the process via which the educational outcomes might vary depending on whether a country operates a decentralized or a centralized system. In Chapter 4 I provide a number of insights into this question, by analyzing the role of teacher quality in a decentralization process, that is, how teacher quality might be affected by decentralization and the extent to which this effect explains the effects of decentralization on educational attainment. The relationship between decentralization and teacher quality has received little attention in the literature and, to the best of my knowledge, the study in chapter 4 is the first attempt to empirically analyze it. In addition to the empirical analysis, an effort has been made in Chapter 4 to summarize the arguments that underpin the relationship between decentralization and teacher quality. Finally, this is also the first study that seeks to analyze the process via which decentralization might affect educational attainment. The methodology used in this study to address this question, which decomposes the total effect of decentralization into a direct effect and an indirect effect via teacher quality has not been applied before in the economics of education empirical literature, which has always tended to focus on the estimation of reduced-form equations of educational attainment. Here, however, I estimate a structural model in which teacher quality variables are also considered endogenous variables. The three studies reveal that the effects of decentralization on the outcomes of the educational system are positive and, in line with theoretical prescriptions, that these effects depend on the autonomy of subnational governments and on the level of government awarded educational competences. Additionally, an important share of the overall effect of decentralization on educational outcomes is mediated through its effects on teacher quality.
- TesiLa gestión de festivales en tiempos de crisis: análisis de las estrategias financieras y laborales e impacto de la recesión económica(Universitat de Barcelona, 2014-04-02) Carreño Morales, Florentino; Bonet, Lluís (Bonet i Agustí); Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola[spa] La presente investigación tiene como finalidad el análisis de las principales estrategias que caracterizan la gestión de los festivales artísticos (artes escénicas, música y audiovisual) en un contexto de crisis económica y presupuestaria. A partir del contraste con la literatura teórica y comparada, y de la contextualización en el marco político y administrativo español, las hipótesis de la investigación se organizan alrededor de cuatro ejes: la caracterización tipológica de los modelos de gestión de los festivales, las estrategias de financiación, las estrategias de gestión de los recursos humanos y el impacto de la recesión durante el período 2008-2013. La corroboración de las mismas se realiza a partir de los datos obtenidos de tres trabajos de campo focalizados en dos territorios complementarios entre sí (el conjunto de España y Catalunya). El trabajo demuestra el carácter explicativo clave de la dependencia del organismo titular (correlacionado con el grado de financiación pública), el género artístico principal y el volumen total del presupuesto. Para comprender la mayoría de las estrategias adoptadas es necesario tener en cuenta el carácter intensivo, temporal e intermitente de los festivales hecho que explica tanto el potencial financiero como la particular gestión de sus recursos humanos. Finalmente, las bajas barreras de entrada y de salida de la industria de los eventos, revelan tanto la vulnerabilidad como la adaptabilidad y mutabilidad de los festivales en periodos de recesión económica.
- TesiThe Political Economy of the Tactical Allocation of Public Spending: Evidence from Spain(Universitat de Barcelona, 2013-05-21) Curto Grau, Marta; Solé Solé, Albert; Sorribas, Pilar; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia Espanyola[eng] Nevertheless, this peculiarity of the Spanish political system did not eliminate the incentives for governments to use pork-barrel policies. On the one hand, despite electoral results being centrally planned, Madrid’s limited capacity to intervene in society implied that elections outcomes had to be negotiated with the local elites, who demanded compensations (such as public funds) for their districts’ electoral support. On the other hand, the two-party system may be seen as a duopoly regime, in which opposition districts were actually those which did not respect the alternation system, and voted for either the dynastic party that was going to lose the election or for a third political force. Restoration Spain provides therefore an interesting case of a political system in which a dominating duopoly used pork-barrel strategies to persuade the electorate to change the sign of their votes in every electoral call. In this setting, two kinds of political economy models may be relevant to analyze pork-barrel in Restoration Spain. One can see the Spanish Restoration as a semi-democratic regime ruled by a duopoly that furthered its political goals by using the geographical allocation of public resources. More specifically, governments showered resources on those districts that were loyal to the alternation system, and starved the rebellious ones. This would be similar to a typical semi-democratic system, although one in which the hegemonic political force was not a single party but a duopoly. On the other hand, given the importance of local elites, non-partisan motivations may also offer a partial description of the political process. In non-partisan models, the distribution of public funds reflects the influence and ability of individual MPs, who compete for administrative resources to reinforce their links with their electorates. Indeed, bringing home the pork increases MPs’ reputation with local elites (Levitt and Snyder, 1995; Levitt and Poterba, 1999; Milligan and Smart, 2005).
- TesiEssays on universities and economic development(Universitat de Barcelona, 2013-01-11) García Estévez, Javier; Parellada, Martí, 1951-; Duch Brown, Néstor; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia EspanyolaThis dissertation seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the roles that universities currently play in economic development. This topic is particularly relevant in the current situation, in the aftermath of the world financial crisis, when the leading industrial nations are increasing their support for universities and for scientific research in particular (Hughes and Mina, 2012). The main questions that this dissertation will deal with are therefore the following: How do universities affect economic development? To what extent do universities generate impacts on economic development that would otherwise not occur? These are big questions. We can start by answering smaller questions: What happens in a region in terms of firm creation when a university is created? What is the role of the universities in terms of creating of human capital? What are the effects of the universities on industrial innovation? After the general introduction of the dissertation, the second chapter evaluates the effects of the establishment of new universities by measuring its impact on the formation of new firms. I study this effect making use of the differences-in-differences methodology. I create a quasi-experimental design based on the enacting of the Spain’s 1983 University Reform Act (LRU), which opened the door to the foundation of new universities and faculties. The results indicate that the establishment of a new university has a positive and significant effect on new firm start-ups. When the analysis is carried out at faculty level, the findings indicate that the foundation of science and social science faculties has had a marked impact on the creation of firms. The third chapter aims to analyse university characteristics that affect the graduation rate, and to determine whether regional characteristics influence university performance in terms of graduation. The results show that university expenditure has been a key determinant of the graduation rate in Spain over the last decade. Moreover, results obtained through quantile regression analysis show that a policy of increasing university expenditure only makes sense for universities with low graduation rates. However, universities whose graduation rates do not belong to the 20th percentile can improve their ranking by raising financial-aid to students. The universities’ roles in industrial innovation are tested in chapter fourth. Four different roles of universities are analysed: 1) as source of information, 2) as a partner of cooperation, 3) as an agent helping to enhance absorptive capacity and, 4) as a supplier of R&D services. The main findings can be summarised as follows. Firstly, the role of universities as a source of information and knowledge is found to be a very important channel in enhancing firms’ innovative performance. Secondly, carrying out formal collaboration with universities in order to perform research is a very effective mechanism for improving firms’ innovation outcomes. Moreover, the effect of collaborating with universities over four years is found to have a strong and positive impact on firm innovative performance. Thirdly, universities as a creator of highly skilled workers are found to be one of the natural and most important mechanisms through which they boost innovation. Finally, universities play another role in the innovation process as suppliers of R&D services. It is confirmed that firms that undertake the development of complex innovations buy R&D services from universities. In a nutshell, the dissertation’s chapters are concerned with questions of universities and economic development. The first two of them with a regional perspective - firm location and creation of human capital - and the other deals with the links between universities and industry. Overall, this dissertation provides strong evidence for the importance of universities and demonstrates the wide range of mechanisms by which universities influence economic development.
- TesiLos consejos de las artes y el principio de "arm's length" en las políticas culturales subnacionales: Un estudio comparativo entre Cataluña (España), Escocia (Reino Unido) y Jalisco (México)(Universitat de Barcelona, 2012-01-20) Chávez Aguayo, Marco Antonio; Bonet, Lluís (Bonet i Agustí); Universitat de Barcelona. Departament d'Economia Pública, Economia Política i Economia EspanyolaSe realiza una investigación comparada de los consejos de las artes de tres regiones subnacionales de países distintos: Cataluña (España), Escocia (Reino Unido) y Jalisco (México) para investigar la aplicación del principio de “arm’s length”, su ejecución, su relación con el contexto cultural y político, así como su inclusión en sistemas institucionales distintos al anglosajón. Con una metodología cualitativa y el uso de estudios de caso, se llevan a cabo trabajos de campo en cada lugar mediante entrevistas, observaciones y trabajo documental, aplicando el canon conjunto de concordancias y diferencias para su análisis. Se concluye que un consejo de las artes no es necesariamente un organismo bajo el principio de “arm’s length” y se reflexiona sobre la influencia que los actores involucrados buscan ejercer a través de sus diversos recursos. La relación entre los consejos y sus contextos muestra las dialécticas entre legitimidad/eficiencia, transparencia/clientelismo y diferenciación/estandarización y tensiones entre centro/periferia. Desde la política se utiliza este principio como argumento retórico, mientras se pretende tener mayor control sobre las decisiones, aunque esto aumente su nivel de responsabilidad. Desde el sector cultural se ignora que el principio busca también mantener su distancia con él para evitar clientelismos. Se evidencia un mimetismo que copia modelos ajenos sin adaptarlos suficientemente al contexto y sin profundizar en experiencias externas ni con reflexiones teóricas, lo cual deja al descubierto algunos errores del proceso.