La influencia de la productividad en la consolidación de los grupos nacionales de la banca privada española (1900-1914)

Este trabajo analiza el fenómeno de la crisis y auge de los grupos regionales de la banca española con una nueva metodología que permite estudiar el nivel de eficiencia y la productividad de las entidades financieras. Se han obtenido dos resultados relevantes. En primer lugar, se ha confirmado la influencia de los niveles de productividad en la trayectoria más o menos exitosa de los diversos grupos regionales bancarios. En segundo lugar, se ha demostrado que el progreso general de la banca privada durante el período inmediatamente anterior a la Primera Guerra Mundial fue debido más a un incremento generalizado de la competición, que redundó en un acercamiento de cada vez más entidades a los máximos niveles de eficiencia, que al desarrollo o/y adopción de innovaciones financieras.DEA, Indice de Malmquist, Historia financiera de España

Skill bias and employment frictions in the US labor market 1970-1990

This article studies simultaneous changes in four labor market variables: the unemployment rates for college and high-school graduates, the education wage premium, and the level of college participation. It develops an equilibrium search and matching model of the labor market where education is endogenously determined. Then the model is used to investigate quantitatively whether the change in the above labor market variables from 1970 to 1990 in the United States can be traced to changes in the environment. A skill-biased change in technology together with an increase in employment frictions can explain much of the observed variation in these variables

"Més que un joc?”: sport and contemporary political nationalism in Scotland and Catalonia

This article focuses upon two contexts which have arguably received the most academic and media attention with regard to the interconnection between sport and secessionist nationalism, Scotland and Catalonia, given that both “submerged nations” have held public referenda on the topic of independence/secession from the states of the United Kingdom and Spain, respectively. The analysis endeavors to draw parallels between the two contexts to critically examine the extent to which similarities and differences are evident in terms of the growth of political nationalism. Finally, the central discussion outlines the extent to which sport contributed to broader political developments in the recent campaigns for the establishment of independent Scottish and Catalan states, focusing upon the actions of prominent sporting personalities and organizations.This research was supported in part by grants from the Oxford Brookes University Central Research Fund as part of the Santander Bank Research Scholarship Visits program