Analysis of alternative proposals to reform the Spanish intergovernmental transfer system for municipalities

This paper offers an evaluation about the current design of the unconditional transfer system to the municipalities in Spain taking as a reference the precepts of fiscal federalism theory. The analysis carried out is based on the released results of the model during the period from 2004-2009, in which two different stages can be identified within the econòmic cycle; an expansive one up until 2007 and a recession period after that year. These data highlight that the design of the model along with the application of certain funding guarantees, have caused a disconnection between the evolution of the resources and the variables representative of need and capacity. Faced with this scenario, different reform alternatives are proposed with the aim of reconnecting the resources with these indicators. The potential impact of those proposals is evaluated using a simulation exercise in which the basic rule of status quo is assumed, i.e., that no municipality loses funding as a consequence of the new system

Efficiency measurement in the Spanish cadastral units through DEA

This paper proposes an approach to measure efficiency of a set of units operating in an administrative public service, namely real estate cadastral offices, which have not been analysed previously. This study has been made possible thanks to the database provided by the Directorate General of Real Estate Cadastral Assessment which includes information on the 52 local offices in Spain for the period between 2000 and 2005. Data Envelopment Analysis has been used to estimate the efficiency levels of these offices. Subsequently, a second stage model based on bootstrap techniques is applied in order to identify other potential factors (differences in management techniques, demographic and economic variables, etc.) that may affect the estimated efficiency measures

Revista de educación

Resumen basado en el de la publicaciónTítulo, resumen y palabras clave en inglés y españolLa investigación pretende contribuir a la literatura sobre los factores determinantes del output educativo tratando de explorar la relación existente entre las competencias cognitivas y no cognitivas. Para ello se dispone de una amplia base de datos sobre una muestra de alumnos del último curso de educación secundaria obligatoria del Principado de Asturias construida para el objetivo concreto de la presente investigación, con la que resulta posible medir aspectos no cognitivos tales como el esfuerzo, la motivación o la responsabilidad de los estudiantes. Asimismo, se dispone de información relativa al expediente académico de los alumnos, a través del cual se pueden aproximar las competencias cognitivas, y multitud de variables relativas al entorno familiar de los estudiantes, los hábitos de estudio, las actividades de ocio o la relación que tienen con los padres. Partiendo de la premisa de que las dos dimensiones del output educativo consideradas están interrelacionadas entre sí, se utiliza un enfoque econométrico basado en un modelo probit bivariante ordenado con variable endógena, con el que resulta posible estimar simultáneamente los factores determinantes de los dos indicadores del output educativo, así como el vínculo existente entre ellos. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la existencia de una relación positiva y estadísticamente significativa entre las habilidades y los resultados académicos. No obstante, la relación existente entre ambas dimensiones del output para el conjunto de la muestra no se mantiene cuando se consideran diferentes subgrupos de estudiantes. Concretamente, se observa que la significatividad de la relación entre las dos dimensiones desaparece cuando se consideran únicamente a los estudiantes varones o pertenecientes a familias numerosas. Otro resultado interesante es que existen importantes divergencias a la hora de identificar los principales factores determinantes de cada output educativo.ES

Secondary schools efficiencyand non-controllable inputs: sensibility of the results to different DEA model specifications

The aim of this paper is to study how much sensitive efficiency scores are when different approaches proposed in the literature are used to include exogenous factors in efficiency analysis. Specifically, we will concentrate on two crucial issues. One the one hand, although we have an extensive data set on these variables derived from school surveys, it is not possible to use all these data, so we consider the possibility of either including the most relevant variables in the efficiency analysis or using Principal Components Analysis to summarise information contained in such variables. On the other hand, two alternative methodologies are considered to include these factors in efficiency analyisis, we will compare the approach according to which such factors must be taken into account to calculate the final efficiency indices and alternative multi-stage approaches. The analysis covers 79 public high schools in the region of Extremadura (Spain) for the 2001-02 school year.Data Envelopment, Analysis (DEA), secondary schools, non-controllable inpunts

Assessing the level of happiness across countries: a robust frontier approach

In this paper we propose an innovative approach based on life satisfaction to estimate efficiency measures for individuals considering how they convert their resources into higher levels of happiness. We use an extension of the conditional nonparametric robust approach which allows us to consider a mixed set of individual and institutional variables that can affect the levels of life satisfaction. Our empirical analysis includes data about 31,854 individuals from 26 OECD countries participating in the last wave of the World Values Survey. Results obtained indicate that the most efficient individuals in achieving happiness tend to live in northern and central European countries whereas the less efficient individuals are found, in average, in Asian transitional economies. In addition, it is also found that most of the traditional determinants of wellbeing (e.g. age, marital status, religion or unemployment) also have a significant impact on efficiency measures

A comparison of public and private schools in Spain using robust nonparametric frontier methods

This paper uses an innovative approach to evaluate educational performance of Spanish students in PISA 2009. Our purpose is to decompose their overall inefficiency between different components with a special focus on studying the differences between public and state subsidized private schools. We use a technique inspired by the non-parametric free disposal hull and the application of robust order-$m$ models, which allow us to mitigate the influence of outliers and the curse of dimensionality. Subsequently, we adopt a metafrontier framework to assess each student relative to the own group best practice frontier (students in the same school) and to different frontiers constructed from the best practices of different types of schools. The results show that state-subsidised private schools outperform public schools, although the differences between them are significantly reduced once we control for the type of students enrolled in both type of centres

Factores explicativos del rendimiento en educación primaria: un análisis a partir de TIMSS 2011

Los resultados del estudio TIMSS 2011, en el que se evalúan las competencias de los alumnos de Educación Primaria a escala internacional, ponen de manifiesto la distancia que separa a España de los promedios de la OCDE, especialmente en matemáticas. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los principa- les factores que explican el rendimiento de nuestros estudiantes en esta competencia. Para ello, se emplean técnicas de regresión multinivel, puesto que los datos disponibles están anidados en diferentes niveles (alumnos, clases y escuelas). Los resultados obtenidos confirman algunas evidencias ya conocidas para la Enseñanza Secundaria y añaden otros aspectos específicos para el caso de Primaria.The results of the TIMSS 2011 study, an international survey that assesses the educational skills of students enrolled in primary education, highlight the gap between the level of Spanish students and the average of OECD countries, especially in mathematics. The aim of this paper is to analyze the main factors behind the Spanish student performance in this competence. For that purpose, we apply multilevel regression techniques, since the available data are nested at different levels (students, classes and schools). The results confirm some evidences found for secon- dary education as well as other specific aspects for the case of primary education

Evaluación de la eficiencia con factores exógenos mediante el Análisis Envolvente de Datos: Una aplicación a la Educación Secundaria en España

The aim of this research is the study of different methodological approaches that can be used to include the effect of external factors in efficiency scores obtained using DEA. For that, we analyze the results from an empirical application in secondary school context, in which those variables, represented by caracteristics of the students, play a main role.El objetivo de la investigación es el estudio de las distintas propuestas metodológicas que pueden utilizarse para incorporar el efecto de los factores exógenos sobre los resultados de un análisis de eficiencia mediante DEA. Con este fin, se analizan los resultados obtenidos en una aplicación empírica en el ámbito de la enseñanza secundaria, donde estas variables, representadas por las características de los alumnos, juegan un papel fundamental