An analysis of inflation rates in the european union using wavelets: strong evidence against unit roots

In many fields of economic analysis the order of integration of some economic magnitudes is of particular interest. Among other aspects, the order of integration determines the degree of persistence of that magnitude. The rate of inflation is a very interesting example because many contradictory empirical results on the persistence of inflation rates can be found in the literature. Moreless, the persistence of inflation rates is of particular interest as much for the macro economy as for the taking of political decisions. Recently, Hassler and Wolters (1995) argue that these contradictions may be due to the fact that either process I(0) or I(1) are considered. In this paper we assume inflation rates in European Union countries may in fact be fractionally integrated. Given this assumption, we obtain estimations of the order of integration by means a method based on wavelets coefficients. Finally, results obtained allow reject the unit root hypothesis on inflation rates. It means that a random shock on the rate of inflation in these countries has transitory effects that gradually diminish with the passage of time, that this, said shock hasnt a permanent effect on future values of inflation rates.fractional integration, inflation rates, long memory

Ownership structure and innovation: Is there a real link

This work focuses on the study of the relationship between ownership and control structure of the company and its innovative activity. Its aim consists of analysing the role that may be played by determinants within the company related to ownership structure when the decision to incur research and development activities is taken as well as on the output of this innovative process. Among these determinants we may think of issues such as who owns the firm and how the control of decision-making is distributed, the nature of this control and the level of concentration of ownership, among others. The study is carried out for the year 2001 using a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing industries.ownership and control structure, agency theory, research and development

Design of Homogeneous Territorial Units: A Methodological Proposal

One of the main questions to solve when analysing geographically added information consists of the design of territorial units adjusted to the objectives of the study. This is related with the reduction of the effects of the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). In this paper an optimisation model to solve regionalisation problems is proposed. This model seeks to reduce some disadvantages found in previous works about automated regionalisation tools.contiguity constraint, zone design, optimisation, modifiable areal unit problem

El desempleo espanol: factores estructurales

Unemployment is one of the most important problems of the Spanish and European economies. A possible analysis, vastly extended in recent literature, focuses on mismatch problems between labour demand and supply. In this sense, the empirical relationship between the vacancy rate and the unemployment rate, the so-called Beveridge curve or UV curve, offers an instrument to characterise the unemployment of the considered economy. Different studies, such as Jackman et al. (1983) and Pissarides (1985) among others, point out that outward shifts of the Beveridge curve can be interpreted as increases in structural unemployment. The identification of these shifts provide some useful information that can be used for policy-making. The main objective of this paper is to identify the outward shifts of the Beveridge curve for the Spanish economy in the period 1978-96 using annual data from the Encuesta de Poblacion Activa (INE) and the Estadistica de Empleo, INEM. As both sources provide regional disaggregated data, it is possible to use a regional panel data to analyse a wide pool of factors that can explain the outward shift of the UV curve, a possible change in the elasticity of the unemployment rate with respect to the vacancy rate and the existence of different regional behaviours in the process of job-matching.uv curve, vacancy rate, structural unemployment, mismatch

Are commuting and residential mobility decisions simultaneous?: the case of catalonia

In this paper we study the commuting and moving decisions of workers in Catalonia (Spain) and its evolution in the 1986-1996 period. Using a microdata sample from the 1991 Spanish Population Census, we estimate a simultaneous, discrete choice model of commuting and moves, thus indirectly addressing the home and job location decisions. The econometrical framework is a simultaneous, binary probit model with a commute equation and a move equation.residential location choice, commuting, suburbanization

Spacialisation in Europe and asymmetric shocks: potential risks of EMU

Most optimistic views, based on Optimum Currency Areas (OCA) literature, have concluded that the probability of asymmetric shocks to occur at a national level will tend to diminish in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as a result of the intensification of the integration process during the most recent years. Therefore, since Economic Geography Theories predict a higher specialisation of regions, it is expected that asymmetric shocks will increase. Previous studies have examined to what extent asymmetric shocks have been relevant in the past using, mainly, static measures of asymmetries such as the correlation coefficients between series of shocks previously calculated from a structural VAR model (Bayoumi and Eichengreen, 1992). In this paper, we study the evolution of manufacturing specific asymmetries in Europe from a dynamic point of view (applying the model proposed by Haldane and Hall, 1991) in order to obtain new evidence about potential risks of EMU.structural var models, economic and monetary union, optimum currency areas, specialisation, asymmetric shocks, kalman filter

Trimestralizacion y conciliacion de magnitudes economicas: una ampliacion del metodo Chow-Lin

One of the more important statistical tools for the monitoring and analysis of the economic activity evolution in the short term is the availability of estimations of the quarterly GDP components, whether the supply side or whether the demand side. The need for having this information with a short lag, makes it essential the use of quarterly distribution methods that allow distribute the annual information to quarter. The more applied tool, due to the fact that it allows to solve this problem in a very graceful way under an statistic point of view of optimal estimator, is the Chow-Lin method. Nevertheless, this method do not guarantee the coincidence between the GDP quarterly estimations by the supply side and the demand side. This leads to the need of a conciliation method. In this paper it is developed a multivariate extension of the Chow-Lin method that allows to solve the quarterly values estimation problem in an optimal way, subject to several restrictions. One of the potential applications of this method, that we have named the restricted Chow-Lin method, is the joint estimation of quarterly side, conditioned to the need that both GDP estimations have to be equal, avoiding the need of applying further conciliation methods.best linear unbiased estimation, quaterly distribution, chow-lin nethod, national accounts

Regional economic dynamics and convergence in the european union

Deepening in the European Union (EU) integration process has enhanced the question of economic disparities at a regional level. The convergence process observed until the late seventies was exhausted onwards in coincidence with important changes in the economic activity. The paper shows how these factors would have provoked a regional differenciated response that, despite being important, would have not strengthened the decrease in regional inequalities. We use an alternative and (in our opinion) richer approach to the traditional convergence analysis, where the evolution of the whole regional distribution is what matters and not that of a representative economy. Moreover, when analysing inequalities among regional economies, the geographical space acquire an outstanding role. Hence, we apply spatial association tests and relate them to the convergence analysis.convergence, distribution dynamics, eu regions

Evidence on the complex link between infrastructure and regional growth

Most studies analysing the infrastructure impact on regional growth show a positive relationship between both variables. However, the public capital elasticity estimated in a Cobb-Douglas function, which is the most common specification in these works, is sometimes too big to be credible, so that the results have been partially desestimated. In the present paper, we give some new advances on the real link between public capital and productivity for the Spanish regions in the period 1964-1991. Firstly, we find out that the association for both variables is smaller when controlling for regional effects, being industry the sector which reaps the most benefits from an increase in the infrastructural dotation. Secondly, concerning to the rigidity of the Coo-Douglas function, it is surpassed by using the variable expansion method. The expanded functional form reveals both the absence of a direct effect of infrastructure and the fact that the link between infrastructure and growth depends on the level of the existing stock (threshold level) and the way infrastructure is articulated in its location relative to other factors. Finally, we analyse the importance of the spatial dimension in infrastructure impact, due to spillover effects. In this sense, the paper provides evidence of the existence of spatial autocorrelation processes that may invalidate previous results.regional grwoth, infrastructure, spatial dependence, varying parameters

Topics, techniques and applications in urban and regional science in the nineties: a bibliometric analysis

The current state of regional and urban science has been much discussed and a number of studies have speculated on possible future trends in the development of the discipline. However, there has been little empirical analysis of current publication patterns in regional and urban journals. This paper studies the kinds of topics, techniques and data used in articles published in nine top international journals during the 1990s with the aim of identifying current trends in this research field.regional and urban science, bibliometric analysis