Microsimulating the Effects of Household Energy Price Changes in Spain

In this paper we present a microsimulation model to calculate the effects of hypothetical ex-ante price changes in the Spanish energy domain. The model rests on our prior estimation of a demand system which is especially designed for simultaneous analysis of different energy goods and uses household data from 1973 to 1995. Our objective is to obtain in-depth information on the behavioural responses by different types of households, which will allow us to determine the welfare effects of such price changes, their distribution across society and the environmental consequences within the residential sector. Although the model used is able to reproduce any type of price change, we illustrate the paper with an actual simulation of the effects of energy taxes that resemble a 50 Euro tax on CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions. The results show a significant response by households, sizeable emission reductions, tax revenues, welfare changes and distributional effects. The simulated policy can thus be considered a feasible option to tackle some of the current and severe inefficiencies in Spanish energy and environmental domains.Energy, taxation, demand, Spain; CO2

Unobserved Heterogeneity and Intertemporal Nonseparability: Evidence from Consumption Panel Data

In this paper we analyze the importance of intertemporal non-separabilities for consumption decisions using household data. We follow the test suggested by Meghir and Weber (1996), so we exploit the variability of the within-period marginal rate of substitution (MRS) between commodities. We also check for the presence of liquidity constraints by comparing the results obtained from theMRS to those of the Euler equations. For that purpose, we use a Spanish data set in which households are observed up to eight consecutive quarters. This length of the temporal dimension is crucial, since it allows both to account for the dynamics of consumption in the preferences as well as to control for time invariant unobserved heterogeneity across households. Our results confirm the importance of accounting for fixed effects when analyzing intertemporal consumption decisions allowing for time non-separabilities. Once we control for fixed effects and use the adequate set of instruments we do not find evidence of misspecification and the results yield supporting evidence of habit formation.Consumption, panel data, unobserved heterogeneity, habits, durability

Consistent estimation of panel data sample selection models

Consistent estimation of panel data sample selection model

Analisis de las actividades de innovacion de las empresas industriales españolas utilizando modelos de eleccion discreta y datos de panel

El principal objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar las determinantes de las actividades de innovacion de empresas españolas del sector manufacturero con datos de panel durante el periodo 1990 - 1993