Is the Fisher Effect Nonlinear? Some Evidence for Spain, 1963-2002

In this paper we examine the role of nonlinearities in the relationship between nominal interest rates and inflation, in order to shed some additional light on the mostly unfavorable evidence on the presence of a full Fisher effect. The analysis is applied to the case of Spain for the period 1963-2002, which allows us to re-examine and extend previous results on the subject. The empirical methodology makes use of recent developments on threshold cointegration, so that cointegration between a pair of variables should be expected once a certain threshold was reached.Interest rate, Fisher effect, Threshold cointegration, nonlinearity.

Fiscal policy and growth: new results for the Spanish regions, 1967-1995

In this paper we present a new assessment of the effects of fiscal policy on economic growth, focusing on the role of public expenditure. Starting from a theoretical model where only those public expenditure items strictly presumed to influence the production process (i.e., public capital and transfers) are incorporated into the production function, we provide an empirical application for the case of the Spanish regions during the period 1967-1995. The results confirm the positive effect on growth from both public capital and transfers, being relatively more intense that of public capital for the more productive regions, and that of transfers for the less productive ones

Optimal Endowments of Public Investment: An Empirical Analysis for the Spanish Regions

Regional infrastructures policies, through an increased public investment, are widely used to promote the development of poorer regions in the European countries. In this paper we try to find some evidence on the optimality in the provision of government capital for the case of the Spanish regions, during the period 1965-1995. To this end, a simple optimality condition is derived from an optimization growth model, namely, that marginal products of private and public capital should be equal. By comparing the values of both marginal products, obtained from the estimation of a simple production function, we should be able to infer whether the public capital stock in the Spanish regions is underprovided or not, relative to the private capital stock.Economic growth, government capital, regions

Assessing the effectiveness of EU’s regional policies:a new approach

In this paper, we propose a new methodology for the assessment of EU’s regional policies, making use of the HERMIN macroeconometric model. A major feature of our approach is that allows us to compare the actual evolution of the economy under analysis, with and without European funds, so that we should be able to assess in a more accurate way the effectiveness of the EU aid over the period of analysis. An empirical application of the methodology is also offered, using as a case study an Objective 1 Spanish region, Castilla-La Mancha, traditionally backward but showing in last years a special dynamism.EU’s regional policies, Community Support Frameworks, HERMIN-Spain model, Castilla-La Mancha.