Implicaciones económicas de la huella ecológica

¿Alguna vez ha reflexionado acerca de cuánta extensión de tierra se necesita para producir lo que consumimos diariamente y para absorber los desechos derivados de nuestro modo de vida? Lo cierto es que el paradigma de desarrollo predominante en el mundo actual, ha considerado como objetivo casi exclusivo el crecimiento económico constante. Sin embargo, en las dos últimas décadas se ha tomado conciencia del elevado coste que este modo de vida representa para la humanidad, por estar basado en la dilapidación incesante del capital natural con el que cuenta el planeta, comprometiendo seriamente la calidad de vida de generaciones futuras. La introducción del concepto de sustentabilidad en la toma de decisiones públicas, requiere del diseño y aplicación de herramientas, que proporcionen un marco de referencia capaz de cumplir un reto: establecer nuevas prácticas económicas más acordes con el medio ambiente, que incorporen estrategias de prevención en origen. Asimismo, estas metodologías permiten evaluar el resultado de las políticas que ya se están aplicando en este sentido. Entre todos los indicadores sintéticos de impacto medioambiental formulados hasta el momento, nuestro trabajo analiza la huella ecológica (ecological footprint), puesto que permite determinar el grado de sostenibilidad y deterioro ambiental, asociados a un sistema socioeconómico ubicado en un territorio, mediante una metodología sencilla y fácil de interpretar. Entre otras ventajas, destacan su flexibilidad y elevada capacidad de síntesis, lo que permite estimar y comparar en distintos ámbitos territoriales, la presión que, sobre los ecosistemas mundiales, ejercen los procesos de producción, distribución y consumo. Con este objetivo, estructuramos nuestra exposición en tres partes: en primer lugar, introducimos el concepto de desarrollo sostenible, uno de los pilares básicos sobre los que se asienta la huella ecológica, uno de los principales indicadores sintéticos de impacto ambiental. La segunda parte analiza el concepto de huella ecológica, y explica su origen, haciendo especial hincapié en la metodología de cálculo. Y en la tercera parte, ofrecemos un conjunto de soluciones viables para minimizarla. La exposición finaliza con un apartado de conclusiones y un anexo de datos ilustrativos

Técnicas de análisis de la política ambiental

Este trabajo tiene por objetivo analizar el concepto y campo de estudio de la política ambiental, también denominada, economía política ambiental. Los principales problemas ambientales a los que se enfrenta la humanidad, constituyen la materia prima sobre la que las distintas Administraciones aplican las herramientas del análisis económico. Tanto para determinar la relación que su evolución guarda con el propio devenir económico, como para diseñar y arbitrar las medidas más eficientes para darles solución. Estas páginas realizan una síntesis de las principales técnicas de valoración económica del medio ambiente, teniendo en cuenta que, el arduo proceso de toma de decisiones en que consiste la política ambiental, debe fundamentarse en información adecuada sobre la problemática existente. Resulta necesario traducir las múltiples observaciones científicas, en un número reducido de parámetros, denominados indicadores ambientales, capaces de ofrecer información útil sobre el problema, en cuanto a sus causas, su situación y sus tendencia

Do more trucks lead to more motor vehicle fatalities in European roads? Evaluating the impact of specific safety strategies.

Truck operations have recently become an important focus of academic research not only because road freight transport is a key part of logistics, but because trucks are usually associated with negative externalities including pollution, congestion and traffic accidents. While the negative environmental impacts of truck activities have been extensively analyzed, comparatively little attention has been paid to the role of trucks in road accidents. A review of the literature identifies various truck-traffic safety related issues: frequency of accidents and their determinants; risk factors associated with truck driver behavior (including cell phone use, fatigue, alcohol and drugs consumption); truck characteristics and facilities (roadway types, specific lanes and electronic stability programs) to improve performance of vehiclemaneuvering; and the safety characteristics of heavy and large trucks. However, to date, there seems to have been developed few studies evaluating the complex coexistence of trucks and cars on roads and that may support the implementation of differential road safety strategies applied to them. This paper focuses on the impact on the traffic fatalities rate of the interaction between trucks and cars on roads. We also assess the efficiency of two stricter road safety regulations for trucks, as yet not harmonized in the European Union; namely, speed limits and maximum blood alcohol concentration rates. For this, econometric models have been developed from a panel data set for European Union during the years 1999–2010. Our findings show that rising motorization rates for trucks lead to higher traffic fatalities, while rising motorization rates for cars do not. These effects remain constant across Europe, even in the most highly developed countries boasting the best highway networks. Furthermore, we also find that lower maximum speed limits for trucks are effective and maximum blood alcohol concentration rates for professional drivers are only effective when they are strictly set to zero. Therefore, our results point to that the differential treatment of trucks is not only adequate for mitigating an important source of congestion and pollution, but that the implementation of stricter road safety measures in European countries for the case of trucks also contributes significantly to reducing fatalities. In summary, and as a counterpoint to the negative impact of trucks on road traffic accidents, we conclude the effectiveness of efforts made in road safety policy (based on specific traffic regulations by vehicle type imposed by member States) to counteract the safety externalities of freight transportation in the European Union. In certain sense, our study might provide indirect support to public policies implemented at the macro European level to promote multimodal transport corridors. In this respect, there is an increasing focus at the European level on how freight transport can be moved from trucks on roads to more environmentally-sustainable modes, such as rail and ship.Dirección General de Tráfico SPIP2014127

The europeanization of the common road safety policy: an econometric analysis

The 2001 White Paper and its development in the 3rd European Road Safety Action Program, represent a turning point in the history of the European Road Safety Policy. The possible determinants of the road mortality in the EU over (2000-2009) are examined using a panel data. Our main finding is the negative effect and statistical significance of the Europeanization variable (the number of years that a country has been in the EU). By this variable, we test the effectiveness of EU programs to save lives in road accidents according to the years that each country has been in the EU

Un análisis de los gastos de capital de las Comunidades Autónomas ante la estabilidad presupuestaria

En este trabajo analizamos la repercusión del adelanto, en un lustro, de la estabilidad presupuestaria sobre los gastos de capital de las Comunidades Autónomas españolas. Partimos de la hipótesis de que el coste del equilibrio presupuestario, recae íntegramente sobre los gastos de capital, que no podrían financiarse vía deuda pública, generando así un ahorro financiero. A lo largo de este estudio, señalamos qué CC.AA. dependerían del endeudamiento para financiar los gastos de capital, y por tanto, tendrían que hacer un esfuerzo adicional, para que la disciplina presupuestaria no perjudicara a la actividad inversora, comprometiendo el nivel de competitividad económica. También consideramos el comportamiento de las finanzas públicas de las CC.AA. tras la entrada en vigor de la normativa española de estabilidad presupuestaria

The relationship between public and private bicycle use: the case of Seville

Despite the success achieved by Public Bicycle Sharing Systems (PBSS) across the world, several researchers provide evidence on their limitations and constraints in a medium-long term, and bicycle ownership may be considered as a complementary tool to promote a 'bicycle-culture'. This paper aims to cover the gap about the interaction between both systems (public bicycle / private bicycle) and which are the key aspects to explain the bicycle-buying decision. After a fieldwork based on surveys conducted in Seville (Spain), one of the cities currently acknowledged worldwide for its successful policy of promoting cycling, we apply a Discrete Choice Model. Our findings show that among the socio-demographic factors that favor the move from the PBSS to the private bicycle are: having a higher level of education, being more progressive ideologically-speaking, and being a resident of the city itself; while age and gender do not appear to be conclusive. Experienced users, for whom the bicycle is a part of his /her healthy lifestyle, state a greater willingness to buy a bicycle. And the main obstacles to make the jump from the PBSS to the private bicycle, and that any action plan to support private bicycle usage should take into account, are: the lack of proper parking at the origin/destination, and fear of theft

A comparative study on Spanish regions’ investment capacity in a budgetary discipline anticipated scenario, by means of multicriteria Promethee method.

The principle of the budgetary discipline, compulsory for the Spanish regions by the Law 18/2001, December 12th [General Law of Budgetary Stability] and the Organic Law 5/2001, December 13th, complementary to the former one, established in the frame of the European Agreement for Stability and Growth, can generate conflicting situations with those Spanish regions which investment capacity depends on external borrowing. This paper deals with the corresponding relative position of the different regions, according to its investment capacity, using for that purpose a simulation exercise, in which we advance the budgetary stability constraint for the period 1997-2000. In this paper, the public financial activity is treated, for each region, through different public revenue and expenditure ratios per capita. This situation leads to consider a multicriteria Promethee method as the apropriate one to obtain a global ranking for all of them. In the opinion of Al-Shemmeri, Al-Kloub and Rearman (1997), this method is the most adequate one because of the following advantages: public authorities, as decision takers, can understand easily the results, regardless the knowledge they may have about it; the method uses understandable economic parameters; the method avoids distorting scale effects among different alternatives and, as well, makes possible the deviation evaluation between alternatives and, finally, allows for sensibility analysis.

Measuring the LCC effect on charter airlines in the Spanish airport system

Using a robust transfer function model methodology, the present paper seeks to offer empirical evidence regarding the size and type of effects that low-cost carriers (LCCs) have had on traffic for charter carriers (CCs) in the Spanish airport system by geographic market. We show an unmistakable substitution relationship between CCs and LCCs in the latter’s typical niche markets, national and European flights, while there is no reaction from the CCs in the segment of international flights outside the EU. Furthermore, substitution effects are smaller between CCs and LCCs on the domestic level than effects between LCCs and network carriers (NCs) and slightly larger on the European level. Lastly, CC traffic’s different sensitivity to terrorist attacks, day of the week, air accidents and the economic crisis is also evident. CCs should therefore be considered an independent category that warrants individualized analyses