Spain Accession to the EMU - A Long and Hilly Road

Europe has been the driving force of economic policy in Spain over the last four decades and the key factor behind the modernisation and globalisation of the Spanish Economy. Being a founding member of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) marked the achievement of one of the key goals in the process of European integration. This process was carried out in several stages. First, trade openness, which was bolstered by Spanish accession to the EEC in 1986 and the single market in 1992, and foreign direct investment abroad and portfolio investment, which grew exponentially in the run-up to Euro membership. Second, the process of nominal convergence, which allowed a more stable macroeconomic framework. Lower inflation and fiscal consolidation have resulted in higher sustainable growth. However, the process of real integration could have been even more successful. Spain’s income per capita still lies at 84 per cent of the European average. The slow pace of reform, in particular in the labour market, with high labour costs leading to persistent unemployment, and an inappropriate policy-mix in the late 1980s prevented Spain from reaping the full benefits of integration and of EMU. Achieving real convergence is the key challenge facing the Spanish economy in the future and Europe will remain a focal point in this venture.

Reforming the Spanish contributory pension system

The debate on the reform of the pension system in Spain is not very lively, in contrast with the international experience. The Spanish economic boom since the mis nineties, the slowdown in the number of pensioners due to the retirement of the cohorts born during the Civil War, and the outstanding immigration flows have contributed to a transitory strengh of Social Security accounts. The paper aims at extending and fostering this public debate. We present an evaluation of the contriburoty pension system in Spain until 2059, based on recent demographic projections. We propose a set of simple indicators to evaluate periodically the situation and perspectives of the Social Security system. And we elaborate on the main reforms that may balance the Social Security Accounts, already implemented in Europe.España, Seguridad Social, prestaciones contributivas, sostenibilidad financiera, reformas

On a sharper bound on the stability of non-autonomous Schr\"odinger equations and applications to quantum control

We study the stability of the Schr\"odinger equation generated by time-dependent Hamiltonians with constant form domain. That is, we bound the difference between solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation by the difference of their Hamiltonians. The stability theorem obtained in this article provides a sharper bound than those previously obtained in the literature. This makes it a potentially useful tool for time-dependent problems in Quantum Physics, in particular for Quantum Control. We apply this result to prove two theorems about global approximate controllability of infinite-dimensional quantum systems. These results improve and generalise existing results on infinite-dimensional quantum control.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2108.0049

On global approximate controllability of a quantum particle in a box by moving walls

We study a system composed of a free quantum particle trapped in a box whose walls can change their position. We prove the global approximate controllability of the system. That is, any initial state can be driven arbitrarily close to any target state in the Hilbert space of the free particle with a predetermined final position of the box. To this purpose we consider weak solutions of the Schr\"odinger equation and use a stability theorem for the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figur

I+D como factor productivo en la economía española: un análisis empírico regional y sectorial

En los últimos años se asiste a un notable consenso internacional acerca de la relevancia de la inversión en nuevas tecnologías y en actividades de innovación como medio para fomentar el crecimiento de largo plazo de la economía. Este artículo tiene como principal objetivo contrastar cuantitativamente la aportación de la I+D a la actividad productiva en España en las dos últimas décadas. Ello se aborda desde una doble perspectiva, al contrastar la contribución del capital tecnológico – medido como el stock de I+D – a la producción desagregada por CC.AA. y por sectores productivos de la economía privada no agraria, diferenciando éstos en función de su intensidad tecnológica. Además, se evalúa la presencia de externalidades positivas derivadas de la inversión en I+D realizada fuera de la propia región o del sector.Crecimiento económico, Externalidades

The dynamic effects of shocks to labour markets : evidence from OECD countries

This paper uses a set of plausible long-run identifYing restrictions on a three-variable system, including output growth, real wage growth and the unemployment rate, to isolate three independent "structural" shocks which drive fluctuations in those variables in a sample of 16 OECD countries during 1950-96. These shocks are interpreted as aggregate demand, productivity and labour supply disturbances. As a by-product of the previous analysis, the cyclical behaviour of the real wages in response to a demand shock is re-examined and two indices of real wage rigidity are derived

On the Schrödinger Equation for Time-Dependent Hamiltonians with a Constant Form Domain

We study two seminal approaches, developed by B. Simon and J. Kisynski, to the wellposedness of the Schrödinger equation with a time-dependent Hamiltonian. In both cases, the Hamiltonian is assumed to be semibounded from below and to have a constant form domain, but a possibly non-constant operator domain. The problem is addressed in the abstract setting, without assuming any specific functional expression for the Hamiltonian. The connection between the two approaches is the relation between sesquilinear forms and the bounded linear operators representing them. We provide a characterisation of the continuity and differentiability properties of form-valued and operator-valued functions, which enables an extensive comparison between the two approaches and their technical assumptions.A.B. and J.M.P.-P. acknowledge support provided by the “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación” Research Project PID2020-117477GB-I00, by the QUITEMAD Project P2018/TCS-4342 funded by Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) and by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) under the Multiannual Agreement with UC3M in the line of “Research Funds for Beatriz Galindo Fellowships” (C&QIG-BG-CM-UC3M), and in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation). A.B. acknowledges financial support by “Universidad Carlos III de Madrid” through Ph.D. Program Grant PIPF UC3M 01-1819 and through its mobility grant in 2020. D.L. was partially supported by “Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare” (INFN) through the project “QUANTUM” and the Italian National Group of Mathematical Physics (GNFM-INdAM)

Determination of U isotopic ratios in environmental samples by ICP-MS

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been used for the determination of trace elements in a variety of materials. For uranium, the concentration of 238U can be measured with a detection limit of less than 0.1 ppt in a few minutes. However, because of the extremely low 234U concentrations in environmental materials, it is necessary to separate U from the matrices and to remove interfering elements from the sample solution for measurement of the 238U/234U ratio by ICP-MS. In this study, a simple and rapid separation method for U with an extraction chromatographic resin (TEVA resin) was developed for ICP-MS and the U isotopic ratios in phosphogypsum samples, collected in Spain, were measured. The resin efficiently retained U in 6 M HCl medium and more than 98% of the U was easily eluted with the first 30 mL of 0.1 M HNO3. The separated solutions were free from most of the matrix elements and the concentrations of U in the solutions ranged from 35 to 70 ppb. The 238U/234U isotopic ratios in the solutions were measured by ICP-MS. Moreover, due to the presence of a higher number of 235U atoms in comparison with 234U, the 238U/235U isotopic ratios were also determined with high precision by ICP-MS. The results obtained agreed well with the ratios measured by alpha-spectrometry. The method for this determination is more rapid than alpha-spectrometry, and is considered to be more suitable for environmental monitoring

The Diffusion Process of Metastable Carrieres in Bismuth

The diffusion process of electrons and holes which have been pumped into a metastable band in bismuth films by a 1.064‐μm laser pulse is considered in the calculation of the induced thermal gradient. The fit between the temporal evolution of this calculated thermal gradient and that of the thermoelectric response of films to the laser excitation allows us to estimate an upper limit of the ambipolar diffusion coefficient of metastable carrier

Measurement of Pu and U isotopes on the 1 MV AMS system at the Centro Nacional de Aceleradores

In the last decade, compact AMS systems have demonstrated their potential to measure actinides (236U, 239,240,244Pu, 237Np). With an appropriate detection system, kinematic filters with enough mass resolution, and a simple chemical procedure, the determination of plutonium isotopes and 237Np at environmental levels is currently possible with this new generation of facilities with even better performance than with conventional AMS systems. However, the measurement of 236U (T1/2=23.4 My), produced by neutron capture on 235U, is still a challenge, due to the interference caused by 235U and 238U. In this work, we will explore the possibilities that the 1 MV AMS system at the CNA offers for the measurement of uranium isotopes at environmental levels, in terms of detection limit, efficiency, and precision. Considering the very promising 239Pu/238U mass suppression factor achieved with our system, of about 10-9, a limiting 236U/238U atomic ratio of about 10-11 was expected, approaching the levels expected in natural uranium. However, to date, only the 10-9 level has been obtained, possibly due to the lack of an appropriate uranium material. Currently, different natural uranium materials are being studied, in order to elucidate the origin of the interference. On the other hand, we will discuss the status of the plutonium measurements at our facility, based on the experience we have accumulated in recent years from the analysis of different matrixes over a wide range of plutonium concentrations