Ex-Ante Business Model Evaluation Methods: A Proposal of Improvement and Applicability

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to choose the best method for ex ante business model evaluation, improve it and provide a framework to put it into practice. Design/Methodology/Approach: After an in-depth review, we chose the best method for ex ante business model evaluation, improved this method, and applied it to a real case study in which business models had been proposed for a Sustainable Smart District project. Findings: We analysed existing ex ante business model evaluation methods, justifying our choice of the best one. We improved this key question-based method by combining classic management tools and a new, promising procedure. We finally found a strong tool to improve business models before their implementation or, in other words, to improve business model design. Practical implications: The resulting methodology can be applied in a broad range of situations in which a set of business models needs to be evaluated and ordered before making decisions about their implementation. Accordingly, we think it represents a significant contribution to the field of business model evaluation. Social implications: We applied this methodology to a set of business models to be used in a new Sustainable Smart District. This term has gained momentum over the last few years because it is understood to be a good way to combat climate change. Originality/value: We refined and improved an existing methodology for ex ante business model evaluation making it more accurate and credible, and we applied it in the context of a relevant social field, such as the fight against climate change

The ERDF Fund (2014-2020) in the Spanish regions

Este trabajo aborda la política de fortalecimiento de la cohesión regional de los programas cofinanciados con el Fondo FEDER en el periodo 20142020 en España. Se analiza la relación existente entre los desequilibrios regionales en investigación, TIC, PYME y economía baja en carbono y los fondos destinados para su corrección. Las inversiones programadas son en general relativamente más cuantiosas en las regiones con peor situación de partida en los desequilibrios citados. No obstante, en todas se avanza hacia la transformación del vigente modelo económico hacia uno más sostenible y vinculado con la innovación y la sociedad digital. Partimos de los resultados agregados para la economía española que obtuvimos en un trabajo previo y aquí cuantificamos los efectos que sobre el crecimiento económico y el empleo de las regiones españolas tendría la ejecución de los programas cofinanciados con el Fondo FEDER 2014-2020. El impacto regional de los programas cofinanciados con el Fondo FEDER tiende a crear más empleo y aumentar más el PIB per cápita en las regiones más deprimidas económicamente.This work addresses the policy of strengthening the regional cohesion of the co-financed programs with the ERDF fund in the period 2014-2020 in Spain. The relationship between regional imbalances in R&D, ICT, SMEs and low-carbon economics and the funds allocated for their correction is analyzed. The planned investments are, in general, relatively larger in the regions with the worst initial situation in the imbalances mentioned. However, in all of them, progress is being made towards the transformation of the current economic model towards a more sustainable one, linked to innovation and the digital society. We start from the aggregate results for the Spanish economy that we obtained in a previous work and here we quantify the effects that on the economic growth and the employment of the Spanish regions would have the execution of the co-financed programs with the FEDER Fund 2014-2020. The regional impact of co-financed programs with the ERDF fund tends to create more employment and increase GDP per capita in the most economically depressed regions

The technological capital as production factor in Spanish regions, 1980-2000

Los autores agradecen la ayuda financiera recibida del FEDER, de la Fundación Rafael del Pino y del proyecto de la SEJ2006-05116/ECONEn este trabajo se aborda la construcción de series de stock de capital en I+D en el ámbito regional con el máximo nivel de desagregación compatible con la Contabilidad Regional de España. Adicionalmente se analiza la bondad de estas series construidas y sus efectos económicos a partir de la estimación de funciones de producción en el ámbito regional ampliadas con capital tecnológico propio y ajeno y se obtienen unos valores razonables de las elasticidades que implican tasas de rentabilidad del capital tecnológico muy superiores a las de cualquier otro tipo de capitalIn this work we construct a database of regional technological capital, with the maximun disaggregation compatible with Official Regional Accounts of Spain. In addition, we analyze the goodness of these series and their performance in the estimation of regional aggregate production functions. In the estimations both own technological capital and external capital are included. The results show reasonable estimated values of the output elasticities, which imply rates of return to technological capital much higher that to other types of capita

The effectiveness of public infrastructure investment: an overview for the Spanish economy and its regions

En este trabajo se realiza una revisión de la literatura económica de los últimos años que ha abordado la cuantificación de los efectos macroeconómicos de las infraestructuras públicas, especialmente en el ámbito regional. El trabajo ofrece una visión de cuáles han sido, desde el punto de vista de los autores, las contribuciones y los planteamientos más significativos dentro de los enfoques de funciones de producción y de costes. En el análisis se pone el énfasis en los resultados obtenidos para el caso particular de la economía española. Asimismo, las conclusiones están íntegramente dedicadas a extraer algunas recomendaciones que deberían tenerse en cuenta en el futuro, a la hora de llevar a cabo las políticas económicas de inversión pública en infraestructuras en España.In this work we go through the economic literature that has quantified in the last years the macroeconomic effects of public infrastructures at the regional level. The paper offers, from the point of view of the authors, a review of the most significant contributions to the production function and cost function approaches. In the analysis we put the emphasis on results obtained for the Spanish economy. Likewise, the conclusions are entirely devoted to extract recommendations, that should be taken in mind, when designing public investment policies of infrastructure endowment in Spain

BD.EURS (NACE Rev.1) Database

El objetivo de este documento es el de presentar la base de datos de regiones europeas desagregadas sectorialmente BD.EURS. Esta base es el resultado de analizar la calidad y la congruencia de las diferentes fuentes estadísticas disponibles sobre las variables macroeconómicas básicas —VAB en nominales y reales, empleo, formación bruta de capital fijo y stock de capital— para los países y a nivel NUTS-2. En esta primera versión de la BD.EURS nos hemos limitado a 121 regiones de nueve países europeos, aquellas regiones en las que se dispone de mayor calidad y cantidad de información para el periodo 1995-2007. Éstas son: las regiones de Bélgica, Alemania, Francia, Italia, Holanda, Austria, Portugal, Suecia y España. La fuente básica de información son las series regionales de EUROSTAT y utilizando también como referencia la información existente para países especialmente en las bases AMECO y EU-KLEMS.The purpose of this document is to present the European regional database of economic indicators with disaggregated information in six sectors (BD.EURS). This basis is the result of analyzing the quality and consistency of the different statistical sources available on the basic macroeconomic variables —GVA in current and constant prices, employment, gross fixed capital formation and capital stock— for countries and at level NUTS-2. In this first version of the database, only information about 121 regions from nine European countries is presented. These are those regions which provide higher quality and quantity of information for the period 1995-2007. They are: the regions of Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Sweden and Spain. The basic source of information is the regional series of EUROSTAT and also using as a reference the existing information for countries especially in databases, AMECO and EUKLEMS

Economic measurement of endogenous capital and depreciation: an application to the spanish economy and its regions

En la literatura económica cuantitativa y aplicada es frecuente encontrar referencias a la medición estadística del capital y la depreciación. En este trabajo presentamos una forma diferente de estimar el stock de capital y la tasa de depreciación. Las ecuaciones que resuelven el problema de optimización de la empresa también permiten calcular endógenamente las variables tasa de depreciación y stock de capital, obteniendo una estimación económica de ambas. Nuestro método de cálculo usa los valores bursátiles de la ratio q de Tobin, y genera unos resultados que difieren de los obtenidos al aplicar el método del inventario permanente para el conjunto de la economía española y sus regiones durante el periodo 1964-2011. La tasa de depreciación económica fluctúa alrededor de la tasa estadística. El stock de capital económico ofrece un perfil temporal diferente del que muestra la medida estadística, y esto se visualiza en unas diferencias claras en sus correspondientes tasas de crecimiento. Los shocks económicos desvían la tasa de depreciación económica de la tasa estadística con diferente intensidad en las regiones españolas. Ello permite aproximar la resiliencia regional relativa centrada en el comportamiento de la depreciación y establecer tres grupos de regiones en función de su capacidad de absorción y adaptación ante los diferentes shocks.In the quantitative and applied economic literature it is frequent to find references to the statistical measurement of capital and depreciation. In this paper we present an alternative method of estimating the capital stock and the depreciation rate. The equations that solve the dynamic optimization problem of the neoclassical firm also enable us to endogenously calculate the rate of depreciation and capital stock variables, yielding an economic estimate of both. Our calculation method uses profitability indicators such as distributed profits and Tobin’s q ratio. Our results differ from those obtained by applying the permanent inventory method for Spanish economy and its regions during the period 1964-2011. The economic depreciation rate fluctuates around the statistical rate. Two time profiles for the economic and statistical capital are markedly different, as attested to by the disparity of their growth rates. The paper also shows that economic shocks turn aside the economic depreciation rate of the statistical rate with different intensity in the Spanish regions. This allows us to approximate the relative regional resilience based on the behaviour of depreciation and to establish three groups of regions according to their capacity of absorption and adaptation to the different shocks.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitivida

Endogenous capital stock and depreciation in the United States

There are several puzzles and unresolved problems in empirical economics that depend on the reliability of capital series. Productivity paradoxes, and certain recent trends in the US macroeconomic data, cannot be addressed correctly with the available standard measures of capital stock. Our paper contributes to the theory of capital by endogenizing capacity utilization and depreciation in an intertemporal optimization model with adjustment and maintenance costs. This model allows for corporate taxation and identifies the impact on the variables that shape the capital accumulation process. Depreciation is a control variable that is no longer assumed proportional to the capital stock. The model provides a system of equations that we run empirically with a data set of the US economy for the period 1960–2016. We obtain an empirical measure of the depreciation rate and the capital stock based on profitability and market values. They are economic estimations that consider the entire capital deterioration and obsolescence. Aggregate capital stock is a key variable in the description of the economy, and our results, which better fit the foundations of economic theory, can provide policymakers with a good understanding of the field in which specific public policy measures are to be implemented

Role of Haptoglobin as a Marker of Muscular Improvement in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis after Administration of Epigallocatechin Gallate and Increase of Beta-Hydroxybutyrate in the Blood: A Pilot Study

Here, we report on the role of haptoglobin (Hp), whose expression depends on the synthesis of interleukin 6 (IL-6), related to the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS), as a possible marker of muscle improvement achieved after treatment with the polyphenol epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and an increase in the ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) in the blood. After 4 months of intervention with 27 MS patients, we observed that Hp does not significantly increase, alongside a significant decrease in IL-6 and a significant increase in muscle percentage. At the same time, Hp synthesis is considerably and positively correlated with IL-6 both before and after treatment; while this correlation occurs significantly reversed with muscle percentage before treatment, no correlation is evident after the intervention. These results seem to indicate that Hp could be a marker of muscle status and could be a diagnosis tool after therapeutic intervention in MS patients.Enfermerí