How secular staganation can affect income class structure in european countries: institutional and policy implications

In recent years, there has been increasing debate about the low economic growth and the risk of secular stagnation in economically advanced countries. Some authors point out possible links between secular stagnation and income inequality, causally in both directions. Taking as a reference point the theoretical literature on the relationship between economic growth and income distribution, this study examines the extent to which different levels of economic growth are associated with the income class structure in European countries between 1993 and 2016, focusing on income distribution before taxes and transfers (market incomes). We highlight that in recession periods the size and income share of the middle class decrease, while the opposite occurs in periods with strong economic growth rates. Nevertheless, when growth rates are modest the patterns are much less clearly defined. Some policy and institutional implications are discussed in order to tackle the concerns of secular stagnation and inequality simultaneously.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Does history matter for the relationship between R&D, Innovation and Productivity?

This paper analyzes the relationship between R&D expenditures, innovation and productivity growth, taking into account the possibility of persistence in firms’ behaviour. We study this relationship for a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms between 1990 and 2005, estimating a model with four equations: participation in technological activities, R&D intensity, the generation of innovations and the impact of these technological outputs on total factor productivity growth. Our results reflect the existence of true state dependence both in the decision of R&D investment and in the production of innovations. The omission of this persistence leads to an overestimation of the current impact of innovations on productivity growth. However, the presence of persistence in technological inputs and outputs entails current R&D activities having long–run effects on a firm’s productivity.CDM model, productivity growth, persistence in R&D and innovation.

Institutional diversity in the euro area: Any evidence of convergence?

In recent years differences in the institutional structure across euro area countries are becoming a cause of concern both for some individual Member States and for the functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). From a global competitiveness perspective, we deal with the diversity in the institutional environment in the EMU. In particular, we assess whether the changes in the state of institutions provide convergence across euro area countries between 2006 and 2015. In addition, among the institutional indicators considered, we compute which institutional aspect contributes more to overall inequality in the state of institutions, as well as the contribution of each country to inequality considering as benchmark the country with the highest institutional quality. According to these country contributions, we highlight distinct patterns of convergence between ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ euro area countries and raise potential links between the institutional changes across euro area countries and both the differences in the intensity of the financial and economic crisis, and the policy responses in terms of fiscal consolidation applied by the respective national governments.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Software Design Guidelines for Usability

For years, the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community has crafted usability guidelines that clearly define what
characteristics a software system should have in order to be easy to use. However, in the Software Engineering (SE)
community keep falling short of successfully incorporating these recommendations into software projects. From a SE
perspective, the process of incorporating usability features into software is not always straightforward, as a large number
of these features have heavy implications in the underlying software architecture. For example, successfully including an
“undo” feature in an application requires the design and implementation of many complex interrelated data structures and
functionalities. Our work is focused upon providing developers with a set of software design patterns to assist them in the
process of designing more usable software. This would contribute to the proper inclusion of specific usability features
with high impact on the software design. Preliminary validation data show that usage of the guidelines also has positive
effects on development time and overall software design quality

Análisis de la variación temporal de las características físico-químicas y biológicas en el estuario de Oyambre (Cantabria)

Traballo fin de mestrado (UDC.CIE). Bioloxía mariña. Curso 2014-201

Welding in solid state

The importance of the Solid State Processes (SSP) has increased in the last decade due to the industry demands of improved properties of joined/surfaced materials, combined with cost reduction and energy saving. New and/or micro-scale solid state processed materials are used by aerospace, automotive and electrotechnics industry. Nowadays, classic SSP are mainly applied to light materials, but progresses were also reported in steels. In this field, the tools design, the technology and practical techniques surpassed the fundamental approach of the materials solid state processing. The SSP parameters evaluation is based on different experiments, approaching the material flow in the large plastic deformation domain. The paper approaches the solid state welding/joining and surface processing. The envisaged SSP are solid state joining processes as Cold Welding (butt and spot welding), Friction Stir Welding – FSW, and surface processing, Friction Stir Processing - FSP. Therefore, the investigation targeted the deformation and flow pattern of the parent metal in case of cold welding and FSW/FSP, processes parameters evaluation and correlation, local analysis of the material structural transformations, and material hardening

El cumplimiento de los Códigos de Buen Gobierno y la probabilidad de quiebra

El objetivo del presente trabajo es estudiar si el cumplimiento de las recomendaciones contenidas en los Códigos de Buen Gobierno por parte de las sociedades cotizadas españolas que integran el IBEX-35 contribuye a reducir la probabilidad de quiebra. Se ha estudiado el grado de seguimiento de las recomendaciones por bloques, analizando no sólo el efecto que pueda provocar el seguimiento de las mismas a nivel global, sino, además, el que provocaría el cumplimiento de las recomendaciones relativas al Consejo de Administración y a las comisiones del mismo. Se ha analizado la probabilidad de quiebra de las empresas que componen el IBEX-35 para los años 2013-2016 a través de dos medidas diferentes: la primera basada en el indicador Z-score propuesto por Altman (1968), y la segunda centrada en medidas propuestas por la literatura más reciente en esta materia. En relación al análisis empírico, se ha confeccionado un modelo econométrico (modelo logit) para establecer la relación entre las variables estudiadas, y se ha utilizado el programa Stata para obtener los resultados estadísticosUniversidad de Sevilla. Máster Universitario en Auditoría y Contabilidad Superio