Subsidies and Awards in Movie Production

This article analyzes the effect of subsidies and awards on the Spanish motion picture industry. We estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function using regional data, showing that it exhibits constant returns to scale and that awards positively affect movie production, while subsidies have no effect. In fact, awards affect the productivity of the sector since they allow for an increase in the output, which is not explained by an increase in inputs.Movie production, awards, panel data

And the Oscar goes to ..... Peeeeedrooooo!

Movie production, SUR model, Oscar Awards.

Testing for Political Effects on Total Factor Productivity

We test the effects of different combinations of parties simultaneously holding office in the central and regional governments on regional economic growth. We hypothesize that if such effects indeed exist, they should accrue through total factor productivity (T F P ). Using panel data for the Spanish regions over the 1988-2004 period, we find no effects of any combinations of parties on T F P growth rate. Our results are robust to different methods of estimation and different measures of T F P and could have a twofold interpretation. On the one hand, they could shed light on the consolidation of the governmental institutions of the Spanish federal state model. On the other hand, they could suggest, as shown by previous literature, that political effects on real economy could mainly accrue through aggregate demand policies.Growth Accounting, Panel Data, Pork Barrel Politics, Partisan Theory.

Political parties, two-level Governance and economic growth

Los profesores de la Universidad de Granada, Betty Agnani y Henry Aray Casanova, analizan en este Documento de Trabajo el efecto en el crecimiento económico de las regiones españolas a partir de las diferentes combinaciones de partidos políticos que gobiernan tanto a nivel central como regional. Los investigadores toman como referente datos correspondientes al período 1989-2004 en diferentes comunidades y aplican una serie variables específicas para determinar los posibles efectos que puedan derivarse en función de la titularidad en el gobierno.GrowthAccounting,PanelData,Federalism,TFP

Growth in an oil abundant economy: The case of Venezuela

This paper has been presented at DEGIT-X held in México 2005.-- Revised: 2008-08.non-renewable resources, growth accounting, TFP, oil rents

Growth in an oil abundant economy: the case of Venezuela

Venezuela's growth experience over the past fifty years is characterised by a high economic growth rate from 1950 to 1977 and a low economic growth rate over the 1977-2003 period. In particular, we show that the country has been in a ‘great depression’ since the late seventies. We also show that although Venezuela has an oil abundant economy, this growth experience is largely due to the evolution of its real non-oil GDP. We perform a growth accounting exercise to quantify the extent to which the growth experience in the non-oil sector is a result of physical capital accumulation, finding that non-oil sector behavior can largely be explained by the evolution of TFP. Finally, we also make some correlations to determine whether the oil sector has affected the non-oil sector, either through its capital accumulation or through its TFP. We find that the correlation between oil revenues and capital per worker or non-oil TFP is always negative.Financial support received from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science through Projects SEJ2007-62081/ECON and SEJ2006-10827/ECON, the University of the Basque Country through UPV GIU06/41 and the Basque Government through HM-2007-1-4

R&D policy in Economies with Endogenous Growth and Non Renewable Resources

The aim of this paper is to analyze how active R&D policies affect the growth rate of an economy with endogenous growth and non-renewable resources. We know from Scholz and Ziemens (1999) and Groth (2006) that in infinitely lived agents (ILA) economies, any active R&D policy increases the growth rate of the economy. To see if this result also appears in economies with finite lifetime agents, we developed an endogenous growth overlapping generations (OLG) economy à la Diamond which uses non-renewable resources as essential inputs in final good’s production. We show analytically that any R&D policy that reduces the use of natural resources implies a raise in the growth rate of the economy. Numerically we show that in economies with low intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES), active R&D policies lead the economy to increase the depletion of non-renewable resources. Nevertheless, we find that active R&D policies always imply increases in the endogenous growth rate, in both scenarios. Furthermore, when the IES coefficient is lower (greater) than one, active R&D policies affect the growth rate of the economy in the ILA more (less) than in OLG economies.Crecimiento endógeno, I+D, recursos no renovables, sendas de crecimiento, estable,endogenous growth, R&D, non-renewable resources, overlapping generations, infinitely lived agents, balanced growth path.

And the Oscar goes to ..... Peeeeedrooooo!

In this article we are interested in how the production of Spanish feature films reacts to an Oscar award. We use time series data for the 1953-2008 period and estimate a production function assuming that the Oscar effect accrues through an augmenting input factor. We consider a lag structure that allows the Oscar to have a diminishing effect over time. In general our evidence supports a positive Oscar effect. Nevertheless, the only significant Oscar award at the 1% and 5% levels is that of Talk to Her, which Penélope Cruz euphorically announced with her celebrated cry.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and the Junta de Andalucia through Projects SEJ2007-62081/ECON and SEJ-2547, respectively

Subsidies and awards in movie production

This article analyzes the effect of subsidies and awards on the Spanish motion picture industry. We estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function using regional data, showing that it exhibits constant returns to scale and that awards positively affect movie production, while subsidies have no effect. In fact, awards affect the productivity of the sector since they allow for an increase in the output, which is not explained by an increase in inputs.Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and the Junta de Andalucía through Projects SEJ2007- 62081/ECON and SEJ-2547, respectively

The january effect across volatility regimes

Using a Markov regime switching model, this article presents evidence on the well-known January effect on stock returns. The specification allows a distinction to be drawn between two regimes, one with high volatility and other with low volatility. We obtain a time-varying January effect that is, in general, positive and significant in both volatility regimes. However, this effect is larger in the high volatility regime. In sharp contrast with most previous literature we find two major results: i) the January effect exists for all size portfolios. ii) the negative correlation between the magnitude of the January effect and the size of portfolios fails across volatility regimes. Moreover, our evidence supports a decline in the January effect for all size portfolios except the smallest, for which it is even larger.Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, through Project SEJ2007-62081/ECON