La política regional en el primer franquismo, los Planes Provinciales de ordenación económica i social

En 1946 se inició en España una política de ordenación económica y social en dos ámbitos: el nacional y el provincial. Este trabajo se centra en éste último con la finalidad de estudiar la política de desarrollo regional en el primer franquismo (1939-1959). Concretamente, se analizan los Planes Provinciales de ordenación económica y social como instrumentos de desarrollo regional diseñados en los años cuarenta. Estos instrumentos permitieron al Estado conocer los recursos productivos existentes en todas las provincias, al objeto de emprender los planes de industrialización del país para alcanzar un mayor crecimiento económico nacional. Asimismo, pueden considerarse el precedente inmediato de actuaciones de política regional de la década de 10s años cincuenta, como el Plan Badajoz en I952 y el Plan Jaén en 1953.In 1946, a policy of economic and social organization began in Spain in two areas: national and provincial. This work focuses on the latter to study the regional development policy in the first Franco regime (1939-1959). Specifically, the Provincial Plans for economic and social planning are analyzed as instruments of regional development designed in the 1940s. These instruments allowed the State to know the existing productive resources in all provinces, to undertake the country's industrialization plans to achieve greater national economic growth. Likewise, they can be considered the immediate precedent of regional policy actions of the 1950s, such as the Badajoz Plan in 1952 and the Jaén Plan in 1953

Economic and social prosperity in time of COVID-19 crisis in the European Union

In recent decades, the Member States of the European Union have witnessed two international crises: the economic-financial crisis that began in 2008 and the COVID-19 crisis in 2019. Consequently, both poverty and income inequality have increased. Regarding public policies to help overcome these crises, macroeconomic policies of a different cut are observed. Even though the Europe 2020 Strategy had recognized the European Union as a social market economy, to overcome the economic crisis of 2008 it was decided to consolidate public finances to control the public deficit and debt. However, in the COVID-19 crisis, the European Union has opted for an expansionary economic policy to reduce the intensity and duration of the crisis. This study analyses the most remarkable changes introduced in the European Union since the 2000s, as well as the evolution of poverty, extreme poverty, and income inequality. Likewise, two composite indexes were built in 2019 for each Member State: one of human development according to the socio-economic context of the European Union, and another index of governance reflecting the degree of compliance with the European values of freedom, political stability, and Rule of Law. The main objectives are, firstly, to analyse the connection between poverty and income inequality with the economic cycle and the public policies carried out; and secondly, to study the position of the 27 Member States in 2019 to deal with the negative effects of COVID-19. The results allow the Member States to be classified into four typologies, as well as discussing which are better prepared for the next challenges.Research project P21_00032. Objective poverty and subjective economic status in the European Union. Regional Ministry of Economy, Knowledge, Enterprise, and Universities of Andalusia (Spain).Research group "Public Economy and Globalization-EPIC" SEJ39

Design thinking for developing a formative assessment system in a master's degree programme

De acuerdo a la política de publicación de la editorial, adjunto un preprint del trabajo.The main aim of this study is to share the experience in the design and implementation of an e-learning assessment system for students with a course of Master's Degree, following the model design thinking

Non-clinical factors and citizens’ satisfaction: A way to improve the quality of health systems

De acuerdo con la política de publicidad de la revista, hemos compartido la versión original del manuscrito o preprint.Users’ self-reported satisfaction is often employed to assess the quality of health services and systems and guide actions for improvement. For this reason, health providers and policymakers are increasingly interested in identifying factors that promote people’s higher satisfaction with the health system that protects them. Using data from the Spanish Healthcare Barometer survey, this paper aims at analysing the relation between non-clinical factors and people’s overall satisfaction with the public Spanish National Health System. Specifically, we study whether a better experience with factors such as doctor-patient communication or prompt attention is relevant in improving overall satisfaction with the health system and identify which factors contribute most to satisfaction. Probit-adapted ordinary least squares, which has been increasingly employed in the most recent subjective well-being literature, is used as a methodology. The findings show that non-clinical factors are relevant in reporting higher overall satisfaction with the health system. Factors related to prompt attention and dignity contribute most to increasing overall satisfaction. These findings provide health policymakers with information about where to best allocate economic resources to improve the quality of the health system.Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, and the European Regional Fund under grant number ECO2015-66553-RResearch Group SEJ-393, Public Economics and Globalization (EPIC), Andalusian Government (Spain

European Union Cohesion Policy: Socio‑Economic Vulnerability of the Regions and the COVID‑19 Shock

The European Union Cohesion Policy for the period 2021–2027 focuses on five goals to make the European Union smarter, greener, more connected, more social and closer to citizens. However, a macroeconomic index is proposed as the predominant criterion for allocating the Structural Funds among regions. In this paper, we hypothesise that it is possible to take into account new, complementary criteria that better reflect citizens’ quality of life. To that end, we build a composite index of socio-economic vulnerability for the 233 regions. The results show that following our multidimensional approach for allocating the Structural Funds, there are remarkable differences in the maps of priority regions. In addition, the COVID- 19 pandemic represents a threat to well-being. Are all regions equally exposed to COVID-19 in terms of their socio-economic vulnerability? To address this issue, we estimate multilevel models which indicate that country characteristics interact with regions’ characteristics to alter patterns of vulnerability. More specifically, increases in government expenditures in education and an improvement in political stability would reduce the regional vulnerability or foster the capacity for resilience, whereas increases in poverty would be associated with greater vulnerability. Likewise, more vulnerable regions would be the most exposed to the negative socio-economic effects of COVID-19. However, it is remarkable that several regions of Sweden and Finland would be among the group of regions whose socio-economic vulnerability would be the most negatively affected.Universidad de Granada/CBUAproject ERDF-University of Granada B-SEJ-242.UGR2

Improving People’s Self-Reported Experience with the Health Services: The Role of Non-Clinical Factors

The main aim of this study was to analyse the association between non-clinical factors and the self-reported experience of people with the main health services of the Spanish public healthcare system. Specifically, we analysed whether factors such as the treatment received from health staff, the confidence transmitted to the patient by the doctor, or waiting time for a diagnostic test had an influence on people reporting a more satisfactory experience with primary, specialised, and hospital care services. We used cross-sectional microdata from the Spanish Healthcare Barometer survey of 2015 comprising a sample of 7800 individuals. We applied a probit-adapted ordinary least squares estimation, which is one of the most widely used methods in recent studies on subjective well-being. Our findings suggest that individuals’ interaction with non-clinical factors was positively correlated with the overall health services experience. Treatment received from health staff was one of the most relevant factors to ensure that individuals report a more satisfactory experience with primary care. Time devoted by physicians to each patient and waiting time for a non-emergency admission were the most correlated factors in specialised and hospital care services, respectively. This study could have implications for public policies. First, it shows policy-makers the influence of non-clinical factors when individuals rate their overall experience with the main health services in Spain. Second, it identifies the key factors where the health system could reallocate more public resources to improve people’s experience and thus the health system responsiveness

Dealing with weighting scheme in composite indicators: An unsupervised distance-machine learning proposal for quantitative data

There is increasing interest in the construction of composite indicators to benchmark units. However, the mathematical approach on which the most commonly used techniques are based does not allow benchmarking in a reliable way. Additionally, the determination of the weighting scheme in the composite indicators remains one of the most troubling issues. Using the vector space formed by all the observations, we propose a new method for building composite indicators: a distance or metric that considers the concept of proximity among units. This approach enables comparisons between the units being studied, which are always quantitative. To this end, we take the P2 Distance method of Pena Trapero as a starting point and improve its limitations. The proposed methodology eliminates the linear dependence on the model and seeks functional relationships that enable constructing the most efficient model. This approach reduces researcher subjectivity by assigning the weighting scheme with unsupervised machine learning techniques. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that the proposed methodology is robust.European Commission European Commission Joint Research Centre 813234ERDF-Universidad de Granada B-SEJ-242-UGR20Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (MICINN) Spanish Government PID2019-105708RBUniversidad de Granada/CBU

Europe 2020 strategy: a strategy for which type of growth?

This paper constructs an index that synthesizes the eight targets of the EU 2020 Strategy into a one-dimensional target –EU 2020 synthetic target- and the situation of each EU28 Member States (the current 27 Members plus Croatia) in 2011 with respect to them –2011 synthetic situation-. Hence we can measure the distance of each EU Member State synthetic situation in 2011 to the EU 2020 synthetic target. We find that none of the Member States meets the EU 2020 synthetic target, Denmark is the closest and Malta is the furthest to it. In fact we could identify clusters of Member States in terms of the distances to the EU 2020 synthetic target: the North EU region is closer to and the Mediterranean region is further away from it. We extent the distance analysis above by adding three inequality targets -income distribution, female employment and child poverty- and find that all of the Member States increase their distance between their 2011 synthetic inequality-extended situation and the 2020 inequality-extended targeted situation. Finally, we want to analyse each Member State’s relationship between its objective position regarding the EU 2020 synthetic target and its life satisfaction level, inhabitants’ subjective position. Through a multivariate regression methodology, we analyse how much of the total effect of the synthetic index on life satisfaction is direct, and how much is mediated. The mediation analysis shows that a substantial part of the effect of the synthetic index on life satisfaction is mediated by the GDP per capita. These results are in line with recent views in human development and well-being research. That is, the GDP per capita is only a means to achieve socioeconomic progress, not the end

Public Policies of Welfare State and Child Poverty in the European Union

Combating child poverty is desirable to ensure equality of opportunities across children, as well as fostering the sustainability of the societal well-being for future generations. This paper focuses on the study of child poverty in the 28 Member States of the European Union over the period 2008–2018. We analyse the relationship between child poverty and government social expenditure by controlling it with tax structure (ratio direct taxes over indirect taxes), economic growth and socio-demographic characteristics. For that, we rely on panel data methodology. This paper has verified that the effectiveness of the government social spending programmes to reduce child poverty also depends on the progressiveness of the country’s tax structure. Government spending on health and education programmes could be more effective in reducing child poverty in Member States with less progressive tax structure, provided they reached the average level of public spending for the whole of the European Union. By contrast, a positive relationship between child poverty and government social protection spending regardless of the tax structure of countries was found. In this case, the underlying forces that lead to less effectiveness of social protection programmes are also stronger in the less progressive Member States.Junta de Andalucia SEJ-39

A Progressive Approach to the Measurement of Regional Performance in the European Union

The shared file includes (starting on page 6) the full text that we presented at the Progressive Economy Forum 2014, held at the European Parliament, Brussels 5-6 March 2014. Our work won the award for best paper in the area "Rethinking Economy Policy" and a summary of our presentation was published in the Journal for a Progressive Economy, 3, 62-64 (first pages of this file).El archivo compartido incluye (a partir de la página 6) el texto completo que presentamos en el Foro de Economía Progresista 2014, celebrado en el Parlamento Europeo, Bruselas, 5 y 6 de marzo de 2014. Nuestro trabajo ganó el premio al mejor artículo en el área "Rethinking Economy Policy" y un resumen de nuestra presentación fue publicada en el Journal for a Progressive Economy, 3, 62-64 (primeras páginas de este archivo).With a view to promote the European Union (EU) overall harmonious development, the EU Regional Policy –or Cohesion Policy- focuses on reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions. Structural Funds, the main instrument to achieve the EU Regional Policy objectives, are allocated by regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Furthermore, in the EU context, the socio-economic inequalities between both people and regions have been rising in the majority of Member States over the last three decades and are now higher than in 1980 regardless of consistent objectives for economic and social cohesion (Eurostat). This separation between economy and society could be potentially overcome by including a measure of social well-being in models of regional performance. However, and despite economic and social cohesion being core EU objectives since its foundation, the community regional performance is defined in a strict economic sense by the size and growth of the economy. Regions whose per capita income falls short off the threshold of the 75% of the EU average GDP per capita are less developed regions, and are thus eligible for Structural Funds support. The aim of this paper is to present a multidimensional approach to the measurement of regional performance as an alternative to a single criterion approach based on the GDP per capita. With this in mind: 1st. Drawing on the capabilities approach and the recent trends in well-being (i.e. Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report of 2009), we discuss the reasons that justify the revision of the current allocation mechanism of EU Structural Funds. 2nd. We develop a composite index to measure regional performance in the 269 regions of EU28 in 2009 from a multidimensional perspective (16 indicators of health, education, employment, inequalities, poverty, etc.) following two distinct multivariate methods (Principal Component Analysis and Distance P2). 3rd. We discuss some regional policy implications of a change in the rules. That is, we analyse the consequences of applying a multidimensional approach instead of the traditional GDP based allocation mechanism. We find that, with an equivalent budgetary effort regarding the population benefited from these funds, a distinct map of priority regions results. Based upon the indicators considered, Stockholm in Sweden is the most developed region with a development level that triples that achieved by the least developed region (Severozapaden in Bulgaria). Hence large territorial disparities exist. Employment (female and male) related aspects and GDP per capita adjusted by inequality are the key determining factors of regional development. Were the Structural Funds allocated by our regional development index instead of the GDP per capita, some regions of Belgium, France, Greece, Germany, Italy and Spain would be considered priority regions; whereas some other regions, mainly from Eastern Europe, would not be considered so