R Graphics (3rd Edition) Paul Murrell. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, 2019. ISBN 978-1-4987-8905-9. 423 pp.

It has been fourteen years since the first edition of R Graphics was published (Murrell 2006) and eight since the second one was released (Murrell 2012). For readers, like me, who read the first edition of R Graphics but skipped the second one, this third edition of R Graphics represents a new, fresh updated version of the book. In transit from the first to the third edition, in addition to including new material, Dr. Murrell has introduced key changes and some rearrangements that have made the whole book more understandable, especially the concepts related to viewports and coordinate systems. Although major changes were made in the second edition of the book (Cook and Hofmann 2011), this third edition also introduces some changes. This is evident comparing the indexes of the second and the third editions. In particular, paraphrasing the preface of this third edition, Chapter 8 (devoted to developing new grid graphical functions and objects) has been completely rewritten and the fourth part of the book extensively restructured (and, I would add, reduced)

Key Electoral Institutions and Rules Influencing Proportionality and Partisan Bias in Spanish Politics

The current paper focuses on the Spanish electoral rules governing political competition for the central "Congreso de los Diputados". It is well-documented that the system as a whole has traditionally favoured one or the other of the two main political parties (PP and PSOE) at the expense of proportionality and the remaining political parties. This paper focuses on some key Spanish electoral rules and investigates how much the observed biases could be altered by introducing some alternative rules taken from the Swedish electoral system, ceteris paribus. Measures of disproportionality are made through the Loosemore-Hanby index and the Gallagher index. The electoral raw data used for our estimations comes from the 2011, 2015 and 2016 last three Spanish general elections. The basic contribution of the paper is an empirical one as it provides a new example that institutions matter for result

An analysis of loan default determinants: the Spanish case

The Spanish financial system is experiencing a very turbulent economic period in which loan defaults has lived an unprecedented increasing period, going from being less than 1% in 2004 to levels of above 13% in 2013. The impact of this, along with other circumstances, has led to the greatest financial restructuring ever made to date in Spain, with important macroeconomic and microeconomic consequences. This paper studies the determinants of delinquency (loan default) in Spanish credit institutions for the period of 2004-2011 and introduces new variables that have been disclosed as relevant in the current financial crisis as well as others non-previously considered internal variables, such as hedging derivatives (which are having an increasingly greater importance in accounts of Spanish credit institutions). Among the most prominent variables that have had a significant impact on the increase of delinquency are, among external variables, house prices, unemployment rates and the number of companies declaring bankruptcy and, among internal variables, property investment, customer credits over active, interest rate, participated companies and solvency rates. The analysis also shows significant differences in delinquency¿s behavior between savings banks and banks and between credit institutions that needed recapitalization and those that did not

Desagregando estadísticas de población

Debido a cuestiones de confidencialidad y a fin de evitar que cualquier persona concreta pueda ser identificada (de forma directa, o indirectamente en conexión con cualquier otra información publicada), las leyes de protección de datos de carácter personal, tanto nacionales como internacionales, obligan a que las estadísticas referidas a variables sociales, económicas y demográficas deban ser publicadas agregadas por unidades espaciales (BOE, 1999; OJEU 2013; USC 2002)

Improving Estimates Accuracy of Voter Transitions. Two New Algorithms for Ecological Inference Based on Linear Programming

The estimation of RxC ecological inference contingency tables from aggregate data is one of the most salient and challenging problems in the field of quantitative social sciences, with major solutions proposed from both the ecological regression and the mathematical programming frameworks. In recent decades, there has been a drive to find solutions stemming from the former, with the latter being less active. From the mathematical programming framework, this paper suggests a new direction for tackling this problem. For the first time in the literature, a procedure based on linear programming is proposed to attain estimates of local contingency tables. Based on this and the homogeneity hypothesis, we suggest two new ecological inference algorithms. These two new algorithms represent an important step forward in the ecological inference mathematical programming literature. In addition to generating estimates for local ecological inference contingency tables and amending the tendency to produce extreme transfer probability estimates previously observed in other mathematical programming procedures, these two new algorithms prove to be quite competitive and more accurate than the current linear programming baseline algorithm. Their accuracy is assessed using a unique dataset with almost 500 elections, where the real transfer matrices are known, and their sensitivity to assumptions and limitations are gauged through an extensive simulation study. The new algorithms place the linear programming approach once again in a prominent position in the ecological inference toolkit. Interested readers can use these new algorithms easily with the aid of the R package lpho

Determinants of interest margins in Spanish credit institutions before and after the 2008 financial crash

As interest margins of credit institutions affect economic performance of countries, finding out which are the main determinants of their evolution is a research task of great interest at current times. This is the purpose of the present paper as regards to the Spanish case over the period 2004-2012. Based on the econometric contributions by Ho and Saunders (1981) and some of its extensions, the authors develop a model that includes as explanatory variables the factors usually examined in the literature and other singular variables that might be relevant. Particularly, the rate of leverage, the quality of their assets measured according to their risk, and the profit obtained from the selling of assets, including real estate ones. The research also provides an analysis of differences between banks and savings banks

Estimation of the combined effects of ageing and seasonality on mortality risk: An application to Spain

Despite the overwhelming evidence that shows the persistence of intra-annual variations on demographic events (deaths, birth dates and migration flows), life tables are computed and provided on an annual basis. This paper develops a new estimator for estimating sub-annual death rates that, considering the exact moment of occurrence (exact age and day) of events, concurrently accounts for ageing and calendar fluctuations. This paper also shows how modelling the intra-annual variations of death rates, through specific seasonal–ageing indexes, can be used as a tool for constructing new sub-annual tables from annual tables. This new methodology is exemplified using a real database of Spain made up of 186 million demographic events (1.5 million of which are deaths), from which seasonal–ageing indexes are estimated and conclusions drawn. First, seasonal effects are, as a rule, stronger than ageing effects. For a given integer age, season has a higher impact on increasing or decreasing the average risk of death at that age than the actual age of the exposed-to-risk. Second, the intensity of the effects varies among seasons and age-quarters. Third, neither seasonal nor ageing effects are age-stationary. Their impact, be it to varying degrees, intensifies as people get older. Fourth, there is interaction between seasonal and ageing effects. In short, life expectancies and probabilities of dying/surviving not only depend on people's age, but also on when their birthday falls within the year. This has implications, for instance, in managing pension systems or for insurance companies

Spanish electoral archive. SEA database

This paper introduces the SEA database (acronym for Spanish Electoral Archive). SEA brings together the most complete public repository available to date on Spanish election outcomes. SEA holds all the results recorded from the electoral processes of General (1979-2019), Regional (1989-2021), Local (1979-2019) and European Parliamentary (1987-2019) elections held in Spain since the restoration of democracy in the late 70s, in addition to other data sets with electoral content. The data are ofered for free and is presented in a homogeneous and friendly format. Most of the databases are available for download with data from various electoral levels, including from the ballot box level. This paper details how the information is organized, what the main variables are on ofer for each election, which processes were applied to the data for their homogenization, and discusses future areas of work. This data has many applications, for example, as inputs in election prediction models and in ecological inference algorithms, to study determinants of turnout or voting, or for defning marketing strategies

European Systemic Credit Risk Transmission Using Dynamic Bayesian Networks.

The analysis of systemic credit risk is one of the most important concerns within the financial system. Its complexity lies in adequately measuring how the transmission of systemic default spreads through assets or financial markets. The transmission structure of systemic credit risk across several European sectoral CDS is studied by dynamic Bayesian networks. The new approach allows for a more advanced analysis of systemic risk transmission, including long-term and more complex relationships. The modelling reveals as relevant only relationships between the original series and one- and twolagged series. Network structure learning displays a robust and stationary underlying risk transmission structure, pointing to a consolidated transmission mechanism of systemic credit risk between CDSs. Between 5% and 40% of sectoral CDS series variances are explained by the network relationships. The modelling allows us to ascertain which relationships between the CDS series show positive (amplifier) and negative (reducer) effects of systemic risk transmission