The origin principle and the welfare gains from indirect tax harmonization

The purpose of this paper is to establish a parallelism between the analyses in Keen (1987,1989.a) referred to indirect tax harmonization when taxes are levied according to the destination principle and its counterpart when taxes are imposed on an origin basis. Using a simple two-country model of international trade it is argued that indirect tax harmonization under the origin principle, considered as a movement of domestic taxes towards an appropriately designed "average" tax structure, is potentially Pareto improving, in the sense that the welfare of a given country can be increased provided that the other country's welfare is kept unchanged with the aid of an international transfer. In the same vein, it is shown that if the initial position is a Nash equilibrium, there are situations under which the above-mentioned reform may generate an actual Pareto improvement, so that both countries improve their welfare without any need for a compensating international transfer. As stated above, the definitive system will be a mixed one, so that the pure origin case is not the most realistic framework from a policy point of view. However, it may be useful in yielding indications that, coupled with the results that have been obtained under the destination principle, provide insights on the effects of the definitive system

Socio-economic inequalities in health in Catalonia

In this paper we measure the degree of income related inequality in mental health as measured by the GHQ instrument and general health as measured by the EQOL-5D instrument for the Catalan population. We find that income is the main contributor to inequality, although the share of inequality in mental health that can be explained by income is much greater than the corresponding share of inequality in general health. We also find that the variation in demographic structure reduces income related inequality in mental health but increases income related inequality in general health. The regional variations in both instruments for health are striking, with the Barcelona districts faring relatively bad with respect to the rest of geographical areas and Lleida being the health region where, all else held equal, the population reports the greatest level of health. A big share of inequality in the two health measures, but specially mental health, is due to the favourable position in both health and income of those who enjoy an indefinite contract with respect to the rest of individuals. We also find that risky working conditions affect both health measures and are able to explain an important share of socio-economic inequality.Health inequalities, decomposition analysis, Spain

Regional differences in socio-economic health inequalities in Spain

This paper reports an analysis of income related health inequalities at the Autonomous Community level in Spain using the self assessed health measure in the 2001 edition of the Encuesta Nacional de Salud. We use recently developed methods in order to cardinalise and model self assessed health within a regression framework, decompose the sources of inequality and explain the observed differences across regions. We find that the regions with the highest levels of mean health tend to enjoy the lowest degrees of income related health inequality and vice-versa. The main feature characterizing regions where income related health inequality is low is the absence of a positive gradient between income and health. In turn, the regions where income related health inequality is greater are characterized by a strong and significant positive gradient between health and income. These results suggest that policies aimed at eliminating the gradient between health and income can potentially lead to greate r reductions in socio-economic health inequalities than policies aimed at redistributing income.Health inequalities, decomnposition analysis, Spain

The evolution of inequity in the access to health care in Spain: 1987-2001

This paper reports an analysis of the evolution of equity in access to health care in Spain over the period 1987-2001, a time span covering the development of the modern Spanish National Health System. Our measures of access are the probabilities of visiting a doctor, using emergency services and being hospitalised. For these three measures we obtain indices of horizontal inequity from microeconometric models of utilization that exploit the individual information in the Spanish National Health Surveys of 1987 and 2001. We find that by 2001 the system has improved in the sense that differences in income no longer lead to different access given the same level of need. However, the tenure of private health insurance leads to differences in access given the same level of need, and its contribution to inequity has increased over time, both because insurance is more concentrated among the rich and because the elasticity of utilization for the three services has increased too.Health care utilization; health insurance; equity; Spain

Sobre la adecuación neurológica de los esquemas sintáctico-semánticos

Las teorías lingüísticas no sólo deben justificarse con criterios de verdad, también deberían preocuparse por su verosimilitud, pues la ciencia es una actividad social. En el trabajo se examina la teoría de los esquemas sintáctico-semánticos desde la perspectiva de su adecuación neurológica

Detranslation: Spanglish from a neurolinguistic point of view

Despite currently growing sociolinguistic research on Spanglish, it is a very peculiar linguistic variety, which cannot be understood without a careful analysis of its neurolinguistic background. This paper argues that a theoretical neurolinguistic view on Spanglish has to consider the cortex, where English-like words are located, the limbic system, where Spanish paradigms are stored, and the bundles of nerves that bind up both of them. Spanglish is an example of detranslation, a kind of negative translation

Tres actitudes ante un mismo problema: Cataluña, Galicia, País Vasco.

Sin resume

Incentivos a la inversión, acumulación de capital y bienestar

Este trabajo aborda algunos aspectos de la interacción entre los incentivos a la inversión, la imposición sobre la renta y la emisión de deuda pública en el marco de un sencillo modelo de generaciones solapadas en que los individuos viven dos períodos y el ahorro surge por motivos de ciclo vital. El análisis se centra en los efectos en términos de acumulación de capital y bienestar estacionarios. Se caracterizan las condiciones bajo las cuales, para un tipo impositivo sobre la renta dado, el crowding in de la formación de capital inducido por un incremento de incidencia diferencial en los incentivos a la inversión excede al crowding out asociado a la deuda pública que pueda resultar necesaria para hacer frente a los déficits potenciales. Se demuestra que una tasa neta de rendimiento del capital superior a la tasa de crecimiento de la población y una elasticidad del ahorro respecto al tipo de interés no negativa constituyen condiciones suficientes no sólo para que aumente la relación capital-trabajo estacionaria como consecuencia de un aumento de incidencia diferencial del parámetro que refleja los incentivos a inversión, sino también para que el bienestar sea mayor

Lo español en el mercado internacional de la cultura

Este trabajo se inserta en una línea de investigación de reciente aparición: la de la globalización y las lenguas transnacionales. La hipótesis que se defiende en el mismo es que, si bien el carácter global de la cultura hispánica es el resultado de las circunstancias históricas que determinaron su enorme expansión geográfica, sin embargo la lengua española como tal tiene dificultades para convertirse en un instrumento de comunicación transnacional. La razón parece estribar en la reticencia de ciertos sectores culturales, demasiado afectos al origen europeo del idioma

An Ecdotic Approach to Lorenzo Varela’s Poetry Editions

O obxectivo deste traballo é contribuír á fixación do corpus poético de Lorenzo Varela (A Habana, 1916 - Madrid, 1978) mediante unha análise ecdótica dos textos publicados en varias edicións da lírica deste escritor de vocación prematura, quen transcendeu o marco da literatura española para enriquecer proveitosamente a literatura en lingua galega.El objetivo de este trabajo es contribuir a la fijación del corpus poético de Lorenzo Varela (La Habana, 1916 - Madrid, 1978) mediante un análisis ecdótico de los textos publicados en varias ediciones de la lírica de este escritor de vocación prematura, quien transcendió el marco de la literatura española para enriquecer provechosamente la literatura en lengua gallega.The object of this essay is to contribute to the establishment of the poetic works of Lorenzo Varela (Havana, 1916 - Madrid, 1978) with a little textual critical analysis. Writer of premature vocation, Varela soon extended the frame of Spanish Literature to enrich Literature in the Galician language