Màster Oficial - Economia

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2445/67304

Treballs Finals del Màster d'Economia de la Facultat d'Economia i Empresa de la Universitat de Barcelona.

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The Causal Effect of Broadband Access on Regional Economic Development in Europe
(2026) Van Dyck, Mara; Moreno Serrano, Rosina
Broadband access is an important part of modern economic infrastructure and may influence regional economic development. However, broadband is not equally distributed across regions. This paper studies the causal effect of broadband access on economic development in Europe at the NUTS 2 level. The analysis uses panel data for the period 2013–2021 from Eurostat, combined with historical patent data. The analysis includes OLS with fixed effects, a heterogeneity analysis, a switchers–stayers approach, and an instrumental variable strategy based on a shift-share (Bartik) instrument. The instrument combines historical patent activity related to the precursors of modern communication technologies with national broadband speed. The historical patent component reflects path dependence in regional technology adoption. The results indicate a positive and significant relationship between broadband access and GDP per capita. The IV estimates confirm a causal effect and are larger than the OLS results. The effect is stronger in regions with low broadband access, suggesting diminishing returns. The switchers–stayers approach finds no evidence of differential pre-trends, while robustness checks confirm the stability of the results. Overall, the findings indicate that broadband expansion contributes to regional economic development and support policies that promote broadband investment, especially in less connected regions.
Availability Heuristic in the Real Business Cycle Model
(2026) Tuárez, Marcos; Brotherhood, Luiz; Delalibera, Bruno R.
This thesis studies the aggregate implications of the availability heuristic within a Real Business Cycle (RBC) framework with heterogeneous expectations. A natural intuition is that agents who systematically misperceive future productivity should make the economy more volatile. The opposite is true. The model considers an economy in which the true productivity process follows an AR(2), while a fraction of agents perceive it as an AR(1), overweighting recent productivity realizations and neglecting information in more distant lags. Quantitatively, a larger behavioral share reduces aggregate capital volatility while leaving long-run average output nearly unchanged. The channel is saving behavior: behavioral agents perceive productivity shocks as less persistent and adjust savings less aggressively in response to fluctuations. The largest policy gaps fall in regions of the state space that are rarely visited in equilibrium, so substantial local deviations do not produce equally large aggregate consequences. The availability heuristic changes aggregate dynamics by reducing the state sensitivity of saving decisions and smoothing the equilibrium capital law of motion. These results suggest that boundedly rational expectations need not amplify business cycle fluctuations. Under-extrapolation from the availability heuristic dampens aggregate volatility, while its largest effects on saving fall in low-probability states the economy rarely visits.
The Effect of Income Inequality on Corruption within EU Regions
(2026) Riedel Enríquez, Monica; López-Bazo, Enrique ; Royuela Mora, Vicente
This thesis examines the nexus between income inequality and corruption across European NUTS-2 regions, addressing the limitations of national-level aggregates that often mask regional heterogeneity. Utilising data from the European Quality of Government Index (2017–2024), it is investigated how local income disparities, measured by the S80/S20 ratio, shape institutional quality. To overcome the endogeneity inherent in the inequality-corruption cycle, an instrumental variable strategy is employed using an innovation-driven Bartik shifter. By interacting 1995 regional employment shares with exogenous US R&D intensity shocks, wage polarisation driven by skill-biased technological change is isolated. While baseline estimates align with the ‘elite capture’ hypothesis, IV results reveal a paradoxical divergent effect, where innovation-driven inequality significantly mitigates both the perception and experience of corruption. Specifically, a one-unit increase in the innovation-driven S80/S20 ratio leads to a 1.93-unit decrease in experienced corruption. These findings suggest that innovative sectors disrupt traditional rent-seeking networks and meritocratises local power structures.
Ethnic Gaps in the Chilean Labor Market: Evidence from CASEN, 2000–2024
(2026) Hernández-de-Lamotte, Ricardo; Di Paolo, Antonio
This master thesis analyzes Indigenous–non-Indigenous gaps in the Chilean labor market along four complementary dimensions—employment, formality, monthly earnings, and hourly wages—using eleven pooled rounds of the CASEN survey spanning 2000 to 2024 (approximately 1.5 million observations). Conditional gaps are estimated through pooled and group-specific regressions; for the three outcomes observed only among employed workers, I correct for selection into employment following the Heckman (1979) two-step procedure. The resulting gaps are then decomposed following the Oaxaca–Blinder approach. Four main findings emerge. First, the magnitude of Indigenous disadvantage differs markedly across margins: the raw gap is 4.5 percentage points in employment, 7.0 percentage points in formality, 23.9% in monthly earnings, and 18.8% in hourly wages; the difference between the latter two implies that part of the monthly gap is mediated by differences in hours worked. Second, the conditional Indigenous coefficient is robust to the selection correction, and the unexplained share of the gap ranges from essentially nil in employment, to roughly two-fifths in formality, to about half in both remuneration outcomes. Third, education and potential labor market experience are two of the main individual-level contributors to the ecompositions, although their channels differ across outcomes. Fourth, the rural penalty is consistently larger in the Indigenous subsample across all outcomes. The results suggest that, over the 2000–2024 period as a whole, Indigenous disadvantage in Chile is less a matter of exclusion from employment than of inferior remuneration, lower access to contributory social protection, and lower returns to human capital.
Income-Based Directional Price Discrimination Evidence from European Airline Markets
(2026) Brunner, Joshua Francisco; Calzada, Joan ; Fageda, Xavier, 1975-
This paper investigates income-based directional price discrimination on international airline routes. I construct a real-time dataset of directional fare differences for major European hub airports between February and July 2026 and compare mirrored roundtrips using matching strategies that either assign passengers to the same physical flight components or create closely matched counterfactual fares. The results show that passengers originating in higher-income markets systematically pay higher fares than passengers originating in lower-income markets. In the baseline national GDP specification, a 10,000 USD increase in the income difference raises the directional fare premium by approximately 3.00 to 3.43 USD. The dynamic specifications indicate that this premium tends to become larger in shorter booking windows, especially when the comparison isolates the same underlying flight components. The results also show that the income premium decreases with the number of effective competitors, suggesting that income-based directional fare premia are a signal of airline market power.
The Effects of Noise-Related Airport Charges: Greenwashing or Real Incentives for Airlines?
(2025) Baccichetto, Marco; Fageda, Xavier, 1975-
Aviation noise pollution, affecting one in five Europeans and tied to severe health risks, demands robust strategies to safeguard public well-being. This paper investigates whether noise-related airport charges in the European Economic Area (2006–2024) encourage airlines to use quieter aircraft, addressing a critical gap in the literature through a brandnew dataset of 84 airports. Employing a staggered Difference-in-Differences approach with the Callaway-Sant’Anna (2021) robust estimator, the study analyses airline responses to noise charge schemes at 16 airports in 9 different countries. Findings show that noiserelated charges, as currently implemented, do not significantly influence airline behavior, with no detectable changes in the use of quieter, new-generation or winglets-equipped aircraft, with ATTs statistically indistinguishable from zero. Ineffective policy design, characterized by minimal financial incentives and inadequate differentiation between aircraft types, helps to explain these null findings. A political economy lens suggests these charges may function more as instrument of greenwashing—designed to appease community concerns while minimizing disruption to airline interests—than as genuine environmental regulation. This research highlights the urgent need for stronger, bettercalibrated noise charge frameworks to reduce aviation’s acoustic footprint, offering actionable insights for policymakers to enhance environmental regulation and protect local communities’ public health.
The Green Transition: Regional Vulnerability, Opportunity and Migration Evidence from a Nested Logit Model
(2025) Marx, Yann; Royuela Mora, Vicente
The green transition, the European Union’s policy strategy to create a greener and more inclusive economy, is gaining momentum. How this transition unfolds across regions and affects mobility lacks evidence. This thesis investigates whether and how the green transition influences interregional migration within the European Union. By using individual-level data from the 2023 MOBI-TWIN survey and two constructed regional indices, the Green Transition Opportunity Index (GTOI) and the Green Transition Vulnerability Index (GTVI), we examine regional inequalities, realised migration and migration aspirations. The implementation of individual environmental preferences in the analysis gives a new perspective on how individual characteristics affect migration decisions. The results from conditional and nested logit models show that green opportunities tend to attract migrants. The green vulnerabilities show rather mixed results. The alignment between green preferences and migration choices is less straightforward. Environmentally conscious individuals do not always relocate to greener regions, clearly highlighting a potential gap between environmental values and actual behaviour.
Who benefits from Google’s SERP? The impact of the DMA on the Air Travel Market
(2025) Quirós, Nicandro; Calzada, Joan
This paper examines the impact of Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP) redesign, implemented on March 6, 2024, to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), on web traffic to airline and flight comparison websites. The reform removed the Google Flights module and introduced new sections — “Airlines Options” and “Flight Sites”—to improve visibility for third-party services. Using a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach and Similarweb traffic data for six EU countries and the United Kingdom as a control group, we estimate the causal effects of the SERP changes between July 2023 and December 2024. Results reveal significant increases in organic traffic to airline websites, especially for low-cost carriers (LCCs), smaller national operators, and airlines with limited visibility. Organic traffic to LCCs rose by 15% on desktop and 8.5% on mobile devices. In contrast, network carriers and dominant national airlines experienced negligible effects. For comparison sites, gains were concentrated on lesser-known platforms (up to 12.7%), while prominent platforms like Skyscanner and Booking.com did not benefit from increased organic traffic but may have gained indirectly through referral traffic. Overall, the redesign seems to have redistributive effects, enhancing visibility for smaller actors and increasing competition in the digital air travel market.
The Shapley Value in One-to-One Markets with Homogeneous Goods: An Application to the CO2 Emissions Trading System
(2025) Vallina Camporro, Aitana; Núñez, Marina (Núñez Oliva); Robles Jiménez, Francisco Javier
This thesis aims to derive an alternative formula for the Shapley Value in one-to-one markets with homogeneous goods, also known as Böhm-Bawerk markets. The formula is expressed in terms of the valuations of both buyers and sellers, considering all possible coalitions formation orders. As a corollary, we also compute a closed-form formula when goods are homogeneous for the Banzhaf Value. We provide the corresponding functions in R, enabling easy calculation of both índices and representing a significant computational improvement. To illustrate the applicability of these cooperative solution concepts, we analyze the CO2 emissions trading market, where buyers (airlines) purchase credits from sellers (sustainable projects such as reforestation or renewable energy initiatives). Our focus is on the European Union context, ending in a game involving 54 players in total. We compute the optimal matching, the distribution of bargaining powers and payoffs, and the exchange price at which the transactions take place for each pair.
Municipal Tax Incentives and Solar PV Adoption: Causal Evidence from Catalonia
(2025) Van Raalte, Lynn ; Teixidó-Figueras, Jordi
This paper evaluates the causal effect of municipal property tax exemptions on solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption in Catalonia. Using a balanced monthly panel of 398 municipalities from 2015 to 2022, we apply a covariate-adjusted difference-indifferences estimator under staggered adoption. The policy increased installed PV capacity by 34.4% and led to an average monthly increase of 0.79 installations per treated municipality. Heterogeneity analysis reveals stronger effects in municipalities characterised by low-rise housing and in rural areas with higher income levels, suggesting that both structural and socioeconomic conditions influence policy effectiveness. A back-of-the-envelope calculation for residential systems yields an implied abatement cost of €119 per tonne of avoided CO2, placing the policy within the range of other decentralised renewable energy support schemes. These findings underscore the potential of municipal fiscal instruments to accelerate residential decarbonisation and support climate policy goals.
Gender norms and adolescents’educational and career aspirations and expectations: Evidence from a survey experiment in Ghana
(2024) Emenalo, Chukwunonye; Aurino, Elisabetta; Thomas, Katherina
This study evaluates the influence of priming gender norms on adolescents’ self-reported educational and career aspirations and expectations in Ghana. We do so through a survey experiment with a sample of about 2400 adolescents. In the experiment, we assess whether making gender norms more salient will lead female adolescents to report having lower aspirations and expectations in educational attainment, less interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers, higher interest in female dominated careers, and lower career expectations, consistent with the predictions of the stereotype threat theory. For male adolescents, we test whether the converse is true, consistent with the predictions of the stereotype lift theory. Further, we assess whether such treatment effects are different by adolescent age, parental characteristics (socio-economic status: educational attainment and wealth levels, and gender bias), and enumerator gender. We find mainly null main and heterogeneous treatment effects, with few significant heterogeneous treatment effects that show the nuanced effects of gender norms in our sample. Our findings also speak to survey design, specifically questions order effects and experimenter demand effects, by showing that modules on aspirations and expectations appear relatively immune to survey response effects from priming gender norms and hence unproblematic for survey design.
The effects of International Airline’s Groups acquisition of Aer Lingus on the Irish air transportation market
(2024) O’Gorman, John; Fageda, Xavier, 1975-
In this study, I employ a Differences-in-Differences methodology to estimate the impact of the International Airlines Group’s (IAG) acquisition of Aer Lingus, Ireland’s former national airline, on flight frequency across various routes. By controlling for multiple route-level characteristics and competition factors. I show that there was a significant increase in annual flight frequencies departing Irish airports after the acquisition while there is also no evidence of anti-competitive effects on routes in which IAG and Aer Lingus competed prior to the acquisition. There is also evidence of a shift in flight frequency from Shannon to Dublin Airport. These findings support the European Commissions decision to approve IAG’s acquisition of Aer Lingus and shows the acquisition was beneficial for the Irish air transportation market as a whole.
Broadband Deployment and M&A Activities: Evidence from Listed Firms in China
(2024) Liu, Xuegang; Calzada, Joan
This paper explores the causal effect of broadband deployment on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) using data from Chinese-listed firms between 2011 and 2022. Leveraging the ”Broadband China” policy as an exogenous source of variation, we employ a staggered Differencesin-differences methodology to analyze how access to broadband Internet affects the decision of firms to engage in M&A transactions and its impact on firm performance. Our findings indicate that broadband deployment significantly increases the probability of firms initiating M&A transactions and finishing them successfully. These results are mainly driven by transactions that involve the complete acquisition of targeted firms, and that occur between f irms of the same city or the same province. Our analysis reveals that broadband-driven M&As do not significantly impact the firms’ total factor productivity, but we do find that they lead to a decrease in labor productivity and an increase in employment. The positive impact on employment occurs in all industries, whereas the reduction in labor productivity is significant only in some regulated activities such as electricity, heat, gas, and water production industries.
The Effects of Education Subsidy in an R&D Based Economy
(2024) Wan, Hansi; Raurich, Xavier
This paper aims to study the effects of education subsidies in an R&D-based economy. I develop a Schumpeterian growth model that incorporates both variety innovations and quality improvements, with endogenous population growth and the accumulation of human capital. The results show that the effects of education subsidy policy may be contrary to its intended objectives. Specifically, it hinders long-term economic growth when the population growth rate is constant or decreases with the education subsidy. This occurs because the subsidy expands variety innovation but impedes quality improvements, and also reduces the value of the quality-adjusted market size of intermediate goods, which determines the long-term economic growth rate. However, the effects become ambiguous if the population growth rate increases with the education subsidy, which tends to reduce or even reversing the subsidy’s impact.
Analyzing Fiscal Decentralization: Findings from a Quasi-Experimental Study in Municipalities
(2024) Oporto Velasquez, Alejandro; Moreno Serrano, Rosina; Gamalerio, Matteo
This thesis investigates the impact of fiscal decentralization on health management at the municipal level, especially during health emergencies. Using Bolivian municipalities as a case study, the research employs a quasi-experimental design incorporating instrumental variable (IV) models and spatial autoregressive (SAR) regressions to analyze the effects of fiscal autonomy on health outcomes. The main finding is that increased fiscal autonomy significantly enhances health management, as evidenced by a higher detection rate of covid cases. This improvement is linked to better resource management and increased health expenditure in municipalities with greater fiscal autonomy. Additionally, the study reveals positive spillover effects on neighboring municipalities. These results underscore the importance of decentralization and fiscal autonomy in improving the ability of local governments to respond to health crises. This research provides valuable insights for policymakers aiming to design more effective decentralization policies that enhance public Health management.
When are we having the second? Effects of paternity leave extensions on the decision to have a second child
(2024) Moral Picazo, Javier; Ruiz-Valenzuela, Jenifer
In a context of low fertility rates in developed countries, some governments are adoptin family policies in an attempt to encourage childbearing. I exploit a set of three paternity leave extensions in Spain from 2017 to 2019 to analyze whether this kind of policy affects second order fertility decisions. For that purpose, I use a rich administrative dataset of birth statistics provided by the Spanish National Statistical Institute and employ a regression discontinuity difference-in-differences approach. I compare the trends in birth spacing between the first two children of women who had their first infant near each reform, to those who had them during the same period in non-reform years. In line with some previous literature, the results do not show any generalized response of mothers in the time they take to have their second child, which suggests that Spain may have entered a new phase in which policies that break gender norms do not have, at least, a negative impact on fertility. Moreover, the analysis of heterogeneous effects contributes in understanding possible mechanisms through which family policies could alter fertility decisions.
Far-Left Populists in Power: The Legacy of Podemos on Spanish Local Governments
(2024) Llurda Marí, Roger; Solé Ollé, Albert
This paper investigates the impact of the far-left Spanish party Podemos on municipal governance, focusing on budgetary, economic, and social outcomes. Emerging from the 15-M Movement's protests against corruption and the economic crisis, Podemos disrupted Spain's traditional bipartisan system. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design based on the 5% electoral threshold for municipal representation, this study reveals that Podemos had limited effects on municipal budgets, and on socio-economic indicators. However, Podemos' presence was associated with increased political polarization, evidenced by higher vote shares for far-right parties in subsequent elections. This research enhances understanding of the consequences of political fragmentation on governance and social cohesion in Spain.
The impact of host language proficiency on employability and workplace language use
(2024) Comet Donoso, Joan; Di Paolo, Antonio
The paper investigates the impact of Spanish language proficiency among immigrants on employability and the use of Spanish in the workplace in Spain, using data from the "Encuesta de Características Esenciales de la Población y las Viviendas" which complements the 2021 census. Employing an Instrumental Variable (IV) strategy based on the critical period hypothesis of language acquisition, we refine the methodological approach by considering the mother tongue effects of immigrants and enhancing the exogenous assignment of Spanish proficiency through the instrument. Contrary to previous findings in Spain, the IV results suggest that Spanish proficiency does not significantly affect employment probability. However, proficient individuals show a substantial increase in the use of Spanish in the workplace, with slightly heterogeneous effects by sex. Correcting for endogeneity and classification error, Spanish-proficient immigrants present a significantly higher workplace host language use. The findings suggest a considerable downward bias in the OLS estimates, indicating that the effect of Spanish proficiency results in much greater integration benefits in the workplace, measured by host language use on the job. The study underscores the role of language in facilitating labor market integration by examining a new labor market integration outcome in a recent context. Our findings provide nuanced insights into immigrant labor market dynamics, offering valuable implications for policymakers aiming to foster inclusive workplaces.
Firm Dynamics and COVID-19 Crisis: An Empirical Approach
(2024) Bilanishvili, Lana; Delibera, Bruno Ricardo; Brotherhood, Luiz
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the operations of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) worldwide, posing unprecedented challenges. This thesis investigates the dynamics of SMEs in Georgia during the pandemic, focusing on the effects of government policies aimed at mitigating these impacts. Employing a stage-based identification strategy, this study provides a novel analysis of policy effects on SME closures and new openings. The results indicate that government policies effectively reduced closure rates by 15%, demonstrating their role in supporting business continuity. However, these policies also resulted in a 20% decrease in new SME openings, highlighting a critical trade-off between preserving existing businesses and encouraging new ventures. This nuanced understanding of policy impacts offers valuable insights for future crisis management strategies to enhance SME resilience.
Goal or Foul? Unravelling the Link between the 2006 FIFA World Cup and Criminal Activity in German Cities
(2023) Varalli, Luca; López-Bazo, Enrique
Sport events are seen as a method for governments and organizations to obtain economic, employment, and tourist benefits while also enhancing city infrastructure. Scholars, on the other hand, doubt the real advantages, claiming that they are frequently inflated to justify high expenditures. Little study has been conducted on the negative consequences, particularly on criminal reactions, of large-scale events. This research explores the aftermaths of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, concentrating on crime rates in the host cities. Using a two-way fixed effects model combined with a matching methodology, the study examines the influence of the World Cup on crime rates in 2006, accounting for disparities across cities while considering heterogeneous responses for the country's historical East-West divide and population density. When crime statistics in 2006 are compared to those three years prior to the tournament, it is discovered that, in the short term, hosting the World Cup had no effect on crime, robbery, or burglary. When checking for the heterogeneity of the effect, however, statistically significant findings for two of the three outcome variables are discovered.

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