Regional productivity variation and the impact of public capital stock: an analysis with spatial interaction, with reference to Spain

In this paper we examine whether variations in the level of public capital across Spain?s Provinces affected productivity levels over the period 1996-2005. The analysis is motivated by contemporary urban economics theory, involving a production function for the competitive sector of the economy („industry?) which includes the level of composite services derived from 'service' firms under monopolistic competition. The outcome is potentially increasing returns to scale resulting from pecuniary externalities deriving from internal increasing returns in the monopolistic competition sector. We extend the production function by also making (log) labour efficiency a function of (log) total public capital stock and (log) human capital stock, leading to a simple and empirically tractable reduced form linking productivity level to density of employment, human capital and public capital stock. The model is further extended to include technological externalities or spillovers across provinces. Using panel data methodology, we find significant elasticities for total capital stock and for human capital stock, and a significant impact for employment density. The finding that the effect of public capital is significantly different from zero, indicating that it has a direct effect even after controlling for employment density, is contrary to some of the earlier research findings which leave the question of the impact of public capital unresolved.Public capital, urban economics, spatial econometrics.

Analysing the impact of public capital stock using the NEG wage equation: a panel data approach

This paper examines the relationship between the level of public infrastructure and the level of productivity using panel data for the Spanish provinces over the period 1984-2004, a period which is particularly relevant due to the substantial changes occurring in the Spanish economy at that time. The underlying model used for the data analysis is based on the wage equation, which is one of a handful of simultaneous equations which when satisfied correspond to the short-run equilibrium of New Economic Geography theory. This is estimated using a spatial panel model with fixed time and province effects, so that unmodelled space and time constant sources of heterogeneity are eliminated. The model assumes that productivity depends on the level of educational attainment and the public capital stock endowment of each province. The results show that although changes in productivity are positively associated with changes in public investment within the same province, there is a negative relationship between productivity changes and changes in public investment in other regions.spatial economics, public infrastructure, productivity, panel data, economic geography

Analysis of competitiveness in Colombian family businesses

Purpose: Building on the resource-based view and the configuration theory, the purpose of this study uses a systemic and multidimensional competitiveness index (CI) i.e. that incorporates system constraints among the 10 competitive pillars that form the index to assess the competitiveness level and the connection between competitiveness and economic performance [return on assets (ROA)] in family businesses (FBs). Design/methodology/approach: For the empirical application, the use a unique primary data set drawn from the global competitiveness project (www.gcp.org) that includes information for 77 Colombian FBs for 2017. Cluster analysis is used to evaluate the potential relationship between competitiveness, the configuration of competitive pillars and economic performance (ROA). Findings: The results for the CI show that the main competitive strengths of the analysed firms are related to the introduction of product innovations and networks (suppliers and customers), while the limited use of technologies in their operations and the low online presence are the main competitive weaknesses of these firms. Additionally, the findings of the cluster analysis reveal that different configurations of competitiveness pillars are associated with different performance levels. Therefore, the results contribute to identifying how specific strategies aimed at improving different resources or capabilities contribute to enhance business competitiveness, and ultimately, performance. Originality/value: By using an index number that takes into account the multiple interactions between resources and capabilities, the proposed analysis not only sheds light on the drivers of competitiveness i.e. resources and capabilities, and its connection to performance but also contributes to understanding the boundaries of the businesses’ competitiveness system, as well as the strategies that can potentially enhance competitiveness, and subsequently, business performance.Peer ReviewedPreprin

One model, two languages: training bilingual parsers with harmonized treebanks

We introduce an approach to train lexicalized parsers using bilingual corpora obtained by merging harmonized treebanks of different languages, producing parsers that can analyze sentences in either of the learned languages, or even sentences that mix both. We test the approach on the Universal Dependency Treebanks, training with MaltParser and MaltOptimizer. The results show that these bilingual parsers are more than competitive, as most combinations not only preserve accuracy, but some even achieve significant improvements over the corresponding monolingual parsers. Preliminary experiments also show the approach to be promising on texts with code-switching and when more languages are added.Comment: 7 pages, 4 tables, 1 figur

The differentiated impact of role models and social fear of failure over the entrepreneurial activities of rural youths

The main objective of this study is to determine the differential impact of certain socio-cultural variables (such as entrepreneurial self-confidence, role models and fear of failure) on the entrepreneurial process of Spanish rural youths. In consonance with the new rural policy paradigm, the European Commission and the OECD are proposing entrepreneurship as a tool for economic diversification and endogenous rural development. Entrepreneurship is associated in rural areas with economic vitality and prosperity. Entrepreneurship in rural areas becomes a means for capturing and optimizing the true natural, social and human capital of a territory as well as a source of opportunity and welfare for the local population. However, in a context where many rural areas are suffering from an aging and retiring population, the emphasis on developing an entrepreneurially active community becomes especially important within the segment of rural youths. Environmental and social-cultural factors have been used to explain differences in entrepreneurship across territories, including the rural urban divide. This line of research has found that certain variables, such as the local presence of role models and the social stigma of failure, have a differential impact over entrepreneurial activity across certain segments of the population (gender, immigrant status). Therefore, this study has the objective to verify whether age affects the impact that certain socio-cultural variables have on the entrepreneurial process of rural and urban youths. The methodology used in this study is the logistic regression model for rare events, with a database of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in Spain for 2009, which has a sample of 26,990 adults. The study shows that young adults in Spain have a higher propensity for entrepreneurial activity than the rest of the population, but discriminating between urban and rural youth, the latter are less likely to be entrepreneurs. Amongst younger-aged individuals, social-cultural factors are found to have a differential impact on entrepreneurship across the rural-urban divide.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Environmental Impacts of and Material Recovery from Biodegradable Waste

The environmental impact of biodegradable waste has resulted in legislative drivers that are designed primarily to reduce the impacts arising from (a) pathogens in the waste, (b) gaseous emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, and (c) the effects of biodegradation in landfill sites on leachates to groundwater. These drivers are considered in this research under three applications: (i) the development of a sustainable technology for the treatment of food wastes to obtain a high quality compost product in a closed-loop situation within a single premises, (ii) the development of a programme to assess the environmental impacts and carbon footprints of food waste treatment options and of other secondary recovery processes, and (iii) the development of a methodology to assess the effects of landfill leachate on groundwaters resulting from deleterious landfill practices and management. Technology to overcome the challenges associated with the conversion of food waste to compost has been developed. The resulting in-vessel composting process produces a high quality compost that meets the highest BSI PAS 100 standard. The key factors in the methodology are the rapid transfer of food waste from the kitchen to composter, the efficient maceration and dewatering of the feedstock, optimisation of the C:N ratio, and the achievement of temperatures high enough to destroy pathogens. The fundamentals of the concept of benchmarking was developed in this work as part of a study to permit the determination of carbon dioxide savings in secondary metal recovery, and extended to carbon footprinting of alternative processes to landfill of food waste to permit a comparison of alternative treatments of food waste. The in-vessel composting methodology described in this work compares favourably with the alternative methods of food waste treatment. A computer software programme, HEDAS, for the statistical analysis of landfill monitoring data to predict borehole behaviour, has been developed. The programme permits assessment of the reliability of the data and ultimately determines the extent of groundwater contamination. In the course of the development of the software, a novel concept was used to determine the best applicable experimental standard deviation (BAESD) to be used to assess the reliability of individual borehole and analyte data. The BAESD is used with the measured standard deviations for individual boreholes and analytes to produce a reliability rating for the individual borehole and analyte. These ratings effectively measure the analytical data against the most stable boreholes at the site and provide viable indicators of step changes in concentration or other anomalies. HEDAS was developed using historical data from the UK Environment Agency’s Thames region, and is now used as their standard for assessing monitored data at landfill sites. The application of HEDAS has now been extended from groundwater and leachate analysis to landfill gas emissions

Efficiency in the management of urban water services. What have we learned after four decades of research?

The analysis of efficiency in the management of urban water services offers valuable information both for the managers of this service and for public bodies in order to introduce improvements in business practices and in the design of public policies. Since the pioneering study carried out by Ford and Wardford (1969), there have been many attempts to follow this line of research. Due to the importance of the subject and the volume of publications in this field, we believe it is necessary to provide a balance of the work carried out over the last four decades. In this overview, we look at the main questions which have arisen over this period, we provide a synthesis of the results obtained and, finally, we point out some challenges for future research.Water utilities; Efficiency; Firm behaviour; Water