Do gender-related differences exist in Spanish entrepreneurial activity?

The participation of women in entrepreneurial activity forty years ago was virtually an exception. However, nowadays this is an important economic and social phenomenon, with an outstanding impact on the dynamics of both advanced and emerging economies. This is significant not only from a quantitative viewpoint. The fact that female personal features, motives and managerial methods differ from those of men gives a new and interesting perspective -which is still subject to debate- to the analysis regarding training and consolidation of enterprises. Gender-related differences can be the vehicle to introduce innovative aspects that could be influential in the uncertain and changing economic environment after the current crises, particularly in those fields where business output is related to the quality of life. Adopting a previous regional model as a basis of study, we analyse in this work the characteristics that differentiate entrepreneurial women in Spain on the grounds of data collected from an own drafted survey regarding the entrepreneurial activity (607 complete questionnaires) carried out in 2009. The results obtained indicate the coexistence of two different types of entrepreneurial women. The first group gathers those women whose enterprises show, generally speaking, a similar sectoral distribution to that of the whole productive fabric, although with a slight tendency to be more present in services activities. Their characteristics and attitudes are, in general, quite similar to those registered among entrepreneurial men and many of these women come from entrepreneurial families. The second group is mainly made up of entrepreneurial women -frequently with family burdens and low qualified- devoted to services, particularly personal services and retail trade. Technological and managerial characteristics of companies managed by the entrepreneurial women belonging to this group differ substantially from the average of the economy, with a much more traditional and less innovative profile

Financiación pública y emprendimiento: comportamientos y heterogeneidad regional de las pequeñas y medianas empresas

The existence of restrictions for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access long-term credit has led governments to establish institutional systems to facilitate such access and reduce the cost of credit, with the condition that its feasibility is justified (and assessed) and there are no distortions as regards competition. Very few empirical in-depth studies exist regarding this field of academic research, and scarce attention has been paid from a regional perspective. Due to the characteristics of the business structures in the different regions, as well as the existence of agglomeration economies and the regional dispersion of the entrepreneurship rate, this paper analyses the effects of the productive financing support model, provided by the Government of Spain, through the Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) [Official Credit Institute], on the behaviours and performances of the beneficiary companies. In the last decade, this source of financing has assigned 30,000 million euro. The results show the general acceptance of this policy due to its adaptation to the interests of the companies and its contribution to the improvement of the economic-financial efficiency indicators. Regionally, no substantial differences have been observed, but the results of this research show a greater contribution to the dynamism of the more progressive regions.La generalizada aceptación de la existencia de restricciones al acceso al crédito a largo plazo por parte de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (Pyme), ha inducido a los gobiernos al establecimiento de sistemas institucionales que faciliten dicho acceso y abaraten el coste del crédito, siempre que pueda justificarse (y evaluarse) su viabilidad y no introduzcan distorsiones en la competencia. Abundantes estudios han profundizado en esta vía de investigación académica, aunque apenas han particularizado la perspectiva regional. Debido a las distintas características que presenta la estructura empresarial entre las regiones, así como a la existencia de economías de aglomeración y a la dispersión regional de la tasa de empresarialidad, en este trabajo se analiza la incidencia del modelo de apoyo a la financiación productiva, proporcionada por el gobierno de España, a través del Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), en los comportamientos y desempeños de las empresas beneficiarias. Esta línea de financiación, de intermediación bancaria, ha destinado en la última década casi 30.000 millones de euros. Los resultados arrojan evidencias de la aceptación generalizada de esta política por su adecuación a los intereses de las empresas y por su contribución a la mejora de sus indicadores de eficiencia económico-financiera. Regionalmente, no se observan importantes disimilitudes, pero la investigación detecta una mayor contribución al dinamismo de las regiones más avanzadas

La política industrial en España: nacimiento, declive y regeneración, 1951-2021

50 p.La política industrial ha tenido como objetivo, tradicionalmente, la mejora de la productividad y competitividad del sector industrial, principalmente de las ramas manufactureras, al tiempo que fomentaba el crecimiento económico. En los pasados setenta años en España no ha habido propiamente una política industrial basada en un modelo contrastado, dotada de recursos suficientes y una institución fuerte que la coordinara. Más bien ha sido una política acomodaticia y defensiva ante la evolución del ciclo económico y la inestabilidad económica subsiguiente. Hasta la década de los años 1960, después de la aprobación del Plan de Estabilización de la economía española, no puede considerarse que existiera una política industrial. Las políticas de reconversión industrial entre 1977 y 1993 no fueron decididas ni pensadas para impulsar la modernización del sector industrial. Sin embargo, entrada ya la década de 1990 la promoción industrial fue tomando un tono más activo. Con la llegada de la crisis en 2008, la mayoría de las empresas del sector industrial sufrió una brusca desaceleración. Aun así, con la excepción del 2009, aumentaron considerablemente las exportaciones. En febrero de 2019 se presentaron las ‘Directrices Generales de la Nueva Política Industrial Española 2030’, enmarcadas en la agenda del nuevo Gobierno de 2018 y alineada con los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible.Industrial policy has traditionally aimed at improving the productivity and competitiveness of the industrial sector, mainly manufacturing branches, while promoting economic growth. In the past seventy years in Spain there has not really been an industrial policy based on a proven model, endowed with sufficient resources and a strong institution to coordinate it. Rather, it has been an accommodative and defensive policy in the face of the evolution of the economic cycle and the subsequent economic instability. Until the decade of the 1960s, after the approval of the Stabilization Plan for the Spanish economy, it cannot be considered that there was an industrial policy. The industrial reconversion policies between 1977 and 1993 were not decided upon or intended to promote the modernization of the industrial sector. However, already in the 1990s, industrial promotion began to take on a more active tone. With the arrival of the crisis in 2008, most companies in the industrial sector suffered a sharp slowdown. Even so, except for 2009, exports increased considerably. In February 2019, the 'General Guidelines of the New Spanish Industrial Policy 2030' were presented, framed in the agenda of the new Government for 2018 and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals

Una política industrial verde orientada a la reindustrialización que acompaña a la transición ecológica/energética

46 p.Tras una mirada hacia atrás sobre la evolución del sector y la política industrial (aprovechando el impulso europeo y global que acomete la transición ecológica y energética), se trata ahora de dar un fuerte salto adelante en busca de un entramado industrial y energético integrado en torno a sectores productivos emergentes. La oportunidad de una reindustrialización viene de la mano de los abundantes -casi no finitos- recursos naturales disponibles en la península Ibérica de sol y viento (y en menor escala, el agua) y del cambio innovador que acompaña a esta inédita trasformación, que se extiende a otras y nuevas tecnologías energéticas e industriales. El reto es poner en marcha por parte del Gobierno el diseño e implantación de una Política Industrial (y Energética) Verde que señalice y acompañe a un nuevo modelo de compromiso que correspondería impulsar a los empresarios y empresas, con la colaboración del resto de agentes sociales e instituciones y el conjunto de la sociedad civil. Esta nueva política industrial verde tendría una importante perspectiva territorial, que soporta el despliegue de las tecnologías renovables, y que compensaría la dicotomía entre el espacio urbano, más habitado, rico e industrializado, y el espacio rural, interior, secularmente despoblado -hoy casi vacío- y alejado de las rentas medias y de oportunidades de prosperidad. A partir de la literatura académica y experiencias en el ámbito institucional de algunos de los principales países involucrados, en el trabajo se formulan las preguntas a hacerse y los principios, objetivos y restricciones que han de manejarse para formular una política industrial verde. Finalmente, se propone un modelo para España.After looking back at the evolution of the sector and industrial policy (taking advantage of the European and global momentum that the ecological and energy transition is undertaking), the aim is now to take a strong leap forward in search of an integrated industrial and energy framework around to emerging productive sectors. The opportunity for reindustrialization comes hand in hand with the abundant -almost non-finite- natural resources available in the Iberian Peninsula for sun and wind (and to a lesser extent, water) and the innovative change that accompanies this unprecedented transformation, which is extends to other and new energy and industrial technologies. The challenge is to set in motion, by the Government, the design and implementation of a Green Industrial (and Energy) Policy that signals and accompanies a new commitment model that would correspond to promoting entrepreneurs and companies, with the collaboration of the rest of the social agents. and institutions and the whole of civil society. This new green industrial policy would have an important territorial perspective, which supports the deployment of renewable technologies, and which would compensate for the dichotomy between the urban space, more inhabited, rich and industrialized, and the rural, interior space, secularly depopulated - today almost empty - and away from average income and opportunities for prosperity. Based on the academic literature and experiences in the institutional sphere of some of the main countries involved, the paper formulates the questions to be asked and the principles, objectives and restrictions that must be managed to formulate a green industrial policy. Finally, the work proposes a model for Spain

Entrepreneurship and firms' mobility

The location of new establishments is a major issue from the perspective of economic activity and the analysis of the territory. Although both its determinants and consequences are multiple and complex, most studies are focused on single factors or aggregate approaches. This paper presents an agent-based model (ABM) with the main objective to analyze, with high spatial accuracy, the effects of public policies on the behaviour and performance of firms. The starting point is the building, trough statistical matching techniques making use of microdata sources, of a database that replicates the attributes and location of all individuals and companies that are located in a specific spatial context. Then, individual behaviours are established for both companies and human beings who are interacting according to their preferences and endowments. Individuals are an essential part of the model as they operate as consumers, workers and entrepreneurs, conditioning the carrying out of firms, their entries and closures. In addition to these agents we include a raster of locations, built through with downscaling techniques, that includes for each cell the number of individuals, establishments or land use as well as other key variables such as distance to transport networks, land price or GDP generated. Patterns of mobility and consumption are identified with the matching of several sources of data and the building of relationships between agents. Furthermore, the current situation of different policies is displayed, in order to measure properly the changes later introduced to do simulations. Then we are able to forecast the growth of agglomeration economies and simulate the impact of changes in public policies on SMEs location and performance. A new contribution of this work is the inclusion of a complete modeling of entrepreneurial activity, from the generation of the idea to the decision of the location and the final implementation of the project. That is, it is possible a more realistic approach to the behaviour of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in which location decisions is related more to personal conditions of the employer that to business efficiency criteria. The model is implemented in MASON and the results are presented in stochastic terms thus enabling a better assessment of both policy outcomes and their risks

El sistema español de garantías recíprocas

El trabajo describe y analiza la evolución del sector de garantías recíprocas en España desde creación en la década de los setenta hasta el año 2000. Cerca de 65.000 Pyme se han beneficiado 225.000 avales por un importe que alcanza escasamente un billón de Ptas. en el período. En actualidad existen 21 Sociedades de Garantía Recíproca (SGR), resultado de un largo proceso ajuste y acomodación a la nueva normativa que rige el sector, basada principalmente en consideración de entidades financieras (y de apoyo y asesoramiento a las pequeñas y medianas empresas) y, por tanto, sometidas a la específica regulación de las mismas, así como a la disciplina del Banco de España. Figura también clave para esta consecución ha sido el sistema y nuevo modelo de reafianzamiento, que opera desde una única sociedad pública (CERSA) que ha permitido profundizar en los principios de solvencia, seguridad y rigor en la gestión de las SGR. Dentro complejo marco de funcionamiento de los mercados financieros y de la nueva configuración empresarial quedan pendientes algunas cuestiones e incertidumbres sobre el sistema de garantías España. No obstante, el camino aparece ahora más despejado y, pese a su todavía reducida participación en el conjunto del crédito intermediado dirigido a las Pyme, va consolidándose como adecuado instrumento que, con el apoyo de recursos públicos, permite afrontar parcialmente problemas de acceso al crédito y coste que sufren las unidades productivas de menor dimensión

Model for the evaluation and selection of projects

El objetivo de este trabajo es establecer, de entre un conjunto de proyectos y mediante técnicas multivariantes, un proceso de selección que permita elegir aquellos que lograron el mejor desempeño y determinar los factores y variables que caracterizan los casos de éxito. De esta manera se está en condiciones de ofrecer un modelo para la evaluación y selección de proyectos de desarrollo. De la extracción de patrones y comportamientos comunes entre los casos de mejor performance deberían desprenderse nuevas ideas y enfoques para las políticas de promoción de servicios a empresas. En concreto, para el desarrollo empírico de esta investigación, se ha empleado la cartera de proyectos de servicios de desarrollo empresarial del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo en el período 1995-2002.The objective of this paper is to set up, among a group of projects and by means of multivariate techniques, a selection process that allows to choose those with the best performance and to establish the factors and variables characterising successful cases. This way, we can offer a model for the evaluation and selection of development projects. New ideas and approaches for the promotion politics of business services should come out of the extraction of common models and behaviours among the cases with best performance. More specifically, for the empirical development of this research, we have used the project portfolio of business development services of the Inter-American Development Bank between 1995 and 2002

Crecimiento y dinamismo de los servicios a la empresa : EU-15, España y la Comunidad de Madrid

La dinámica del sector servicios a empresas en el conjunto de la Unión Europea (UE-15) está ligada a la extendida práctica actual de externalización de servicios y actividades integrados en los procesos productivos. Con altas de tasas de crecimiento en los últimos años, se ha convertido en uno de los más importantes y dinámicos de la economía de la UE, con una aportación superior al 10% del valor añadido y el empleo. El trabajo se centra en el análisis de la productividad del sector y de sus principales ramas a partir del estudio específico de la Comunidad de Madrid y bajo el telón de fondo de España y la UE-15. Para profundizar en el comportamiento de la productividad, se examinan algunas variables fundamentales como la estructura de costes por ramas y los costes laborales por ocupado, así como la contribución de cada rama y país a la productividad global del sector. Desde la perspectiva de la localización, se observa el fenómeno de la concentración del sector en la capital madrileña frente al resto de la región, pese a que entre 1991 y 2001 aparece una tendencia, todavía débil, hacia la desconcentración regional. Además, el número de establecimientos crece más rápidamente que el de empleados.The aim of this study is to evaluate the structure and dynamism of Business Services in the Autonomous Region of Madrid together with the Spanish and the European cases. In particular, it focuses on the comparative analysis of productivity and its components, as well as a specific geographical and location study of these services in the Region of Madrid. The sector productivity structure of countries and regions is similar. From this, it may be deduced that productivity units of the different countries, within the same branch, use fairly similar productivity methods and technologies. Maybe the distinguishing factor is the labour cost in terms of added value per employee. The relative size of the different branches rendering Business Services differs among the regions compared. This not only implies differences among the three cases in question, but also more general economic discrepancies, mainly related to the processes of economic organisation. Regarding the location of the services, the city of Madrid takes almost three quarters of Business Services of the whole region. In spite of this spatial concentration, the comparative evaluation of 1991 and 2001 data proves the existence of a trend, still weak, towards the de-concentration of areas, or geographical growth, of Business Services. Also the dynamic analysis has permitted the discovery of another interesting asset: in the majority of the areas, the establishments have increased faster than the number of employees. This indicates that, on average, the size of new establishments has tended to be reduced