Do interregional transfers improve the economic performance of poor regions? The case of Spain

The 17 regional governments of Spain receive grants from both the central government and the European Union. The grants are generally redistributive and are intended to stimulate economic activity in the poorer regions. We evaluate the effectiveness of the grants by comparing the economic performance of the regions before and after the implementation of the grant programs using a differences--in-- differences approach. We find that these policies have not been effective at stimulating private investment or improving the overall economies of the poorer regions.Regional grants and economic development

Fiscal decentralization in Spain: An asymmetric transition to democracy

Asymmetric fiscal decentralization, by which we mean different fiscal arrangements between the central government and different groups of, or individual, lower-level governments, may be justified from an economic efficiency perspective. As argued by Tiebout (1956), Oates (1972) and others, a decentralized system of regional and local governments is better able to accommodate differences in tastes for public goods and services. This efficiency argument calls for decentralization of fiscal authority to regional and local governments, but not necessarily asymmetric decentralization. However, when the differences in tastes for public goods and services arise out of differences in history, culture and language across regions of a country, asymmetric treatment may be justified. History, culture and language may influence how a group of people (a region) views autonomy, independence and fiscal authority. Some regions may have had experience with autonomous government in the past, they may have a culture that is strongly reliant upon (or leery of) the central government, or they may be fearful of losing their separate languages if they do not have special arrangements. To accommodate differences in taste for independence, autonomy, and fiscal authority, it may be necessary to have different fiscal arrangements between the central government and the different regions comprising the country.Fiscal decentralization, autonomous communities, asymmetric devolution, Spanish regions, fiscal imbalance

Tax incentives and the city

It is difficult to justify tax incentives within the existing economics literature on tax competition. We develop a model in which communities are interested in attracting firms not only for their own capital but also for the “concentration externalities,” a form of agglomeration economies, their location bestows on existing firms. We find that it is efficient in this case for communities to offer tax incentives, defined as a tax rate below the benefit tax level, to firms. We present the recent relocation of the Boeing Corporation's headquarters from Seattle to Chicago as a case study.Tax incentives, concentration externalities, agglomeration economies, tax competition, benefit tax

The spatial prediction sandbox - Investigating the use of spatially-explicit modelling and cross-validation strategies in spatial interpolation machine learning problems

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesMachine Learning (ML) methods are increasingly used for spatial interpolation and di erent strategies have been proposed to introduce space into the modelling and validation phases. Nevertheless, a comparison of these methods under di erent landscape autocorrelation ranges and sampling designs is still missing. This Master Thesis investigates under which scenarios spatially-explicit ML modelling and validation strategies are appropriate for spatial interpolation problems. We designed a framework that allowed us to simulate predictor and outcome spatial elds with di erent autocorrelation ranges, as well as samples with di erent number of points and distributions. With these data, we tested di erent non-spatial and spatially-explicit (coordinates, EDF, RFsp) Random Forest ML models and evaluated them using the simulated surfaces as well as di erent standard (Leave-One- Out, LOO) and spatially-explicit (spatial bu er LOO, sbLOO) Cross-Validation (CV) strategies. We developed a new method called Nearest Distance Matching (NDM) to estimate the appropriate radius for sbLOO CV for spatial interpolation based on sample distribution and landscape range, and compared it to state-of-the art methods for radius search, only based on range. While for short ranges non-spatial models were superior to spatially-explicit models regardless of the sample size and distribution; for long ranges, spatial models performed better under regular and random sampling designs, but not clustered and non-uniform. CV results indicated that although LOO correctly estimated model performance under random designs, it yielded overestimated errors for regular samples and underestimated errors for clustered and non-uniform designs under long ranges. Results of sbLOO combined with NDM correctly addressed error underestimation of LOO in clustered and non-uniform samples, whereas sbLOO based solely on the range resulted in error overestimation for all designs under long ranges. This Master Thesis provides important insights to the eld of predictive mapping: it elucidates in which cases spatially-explicit methods may be preferred, and establishes that state-of-the-art approaches for spatial CV designed to assess model transferability are not suited for spatial interpolation and proposes an alternative

Arctic Sea Ice in a Warming World

Treballs Finals de Grau de Física, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2023, Tutora: María Santolaria OtínIn the past few decades the Arctic has been warming faster than the global average, a phenomenon known as Arctic Amplification. At present, there is an ongoing discussion among the scientific community on how to quantify the magnitude of this phenomenon and what the causes of it might be. The aim of this study is to investigate the evolution of Arctic sea ice in the past few decades and its link with global and regional temperatures and to quantify Arctic Amplification. For that purpose, observational data, as well as a general circulation model, have been use

Why do differences in the degree of fiscal decentralization endure?

A notable difference between the U.S. and many countries in Europe is in the degree of fiscal decentralization. Regional (and local) governments in the U.S. have significant autonomy in setting their own taxes and determining how to spend their revenues. This is not true of their counterparts in Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic and many other European countries. In recent years, many countries formerly subject to dictatorships or communism have been considering decentralizing fiscal responsibility to sub-national governments as part of the process of democratization (see Bird and Ebel, forthcoming). Yet, much of Europe remains immune to adopting effective decentralization in which sub-national units have true taxing authority.Fiscal decentralization, regional solidarity, efficiency, preferences for equality

Tobin meets Oates: Solidarity and the optimal fiscal federal structure

We explore the implications for the optimal degree of fiscal decentralization when people’s preferences for goods and services, which classic treatments of fiscal federalism (Oates, 1972) place in the purview of local governments, exhibit specific egalitarianism (Tobin, 1970), or solidarity. We find that a system in which the central government provides a common minimum level of the publicly provided good, and local governments are allowed to use their own resources to provide an even higher local level, performs better from an efficiency perspective relative to all other systems analyzed for a relevant range of preferences over solidarity.fiscal decentralization, specific egalitarianism, solidarity, externalities.

Crecimiento de las regiones españolas: estructura sectorial, dinámica regional y distribución de rentas.

El análisis de las regiones españolas en el período 1980-1995 indica que la composición sectorial explica la mayor parte de la evolución del empleo y de las diferencias en productividad, salarios medios y participación de las rentas del trabajo. Para el VAB el componente regional es más importante que el sectorial, aunque éste no es despreciable. Nuestro análisis permite identificar a lo largo del tiempo aquellas regiones que han crecido más (menos) que lo esperado dada su composición sectorial. Identificamos una clara relación inversa entre la participación de las rentas del trabajo en el producto y el componente puramente regional del crecimiento del empleo. Sin embargo no observamos relación entre la tasa de paro y la distribución del producto. Ello sugiere que los salarios son poco elásticos a las condiciones del mercado de trabajo, pero el crecimiento del empleo sí lo es a la evolución de las rentas del capital de la región.Crecimiento, regiones, estructura sectorial, rentas del trabajo, shift-share

La neologia al servei de l'ensenyament del lèxic

La Neolosfera és un blog (http://obneo.iula.upf.edu/neolosfera) de l'Observatori de Neologia de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra que es va presentar el gener de 2014 i que publica un neologisme cada dia, amb contextos d'ús i una explicació sobre el procés de formació i el significat. En aquest article es reflexiona sobre l'explotació que es pot fer d'aquest recurs a l'hora de treballar el lèxic a l'aula.Neolosfera is a blog (http://obneo.iula.upf.edu/neolosfera) created by Pompeu Fabra University’s Neology Observatory, which was started up in January 2014. One neologism is published on this blog every day with contexts of use and an explanation about its formation and meaning. This article considers how this resource may be put to use in the teaching of vocabulary in the classroom

What Is Meant by Argumentative Competence? An Integrative Review of Methods of Analysis and Assessment in Education

The need to enhance argument skills through education has become increasingly evident during the last 20 years. This need has resulted in an ongoing discussion that focuses on students' and teachers' argumentation, and its support. However, apart from the extended competence-based discourse, no clear and homogeneous definition exists for argumentative competence and its constituent skills. To respond to this deficiency, we conducted an integrative literature review focusing on the methods of argument analysis and assessment that have been proposed thus far in the field of education. Specifically, we constructed an interpretative framework to organize the information contained in 97 reviewed studies in a coherent and meaningful way. The main result of the framework's application is the emergence of three levels of argumentative competence, namely, metacognitive, metastrategic, and epistemological competence. We consider this result the beginning of further research on the psycho-pedagogical nature of argument skills and their manifestation as competent performance