Exploring the relation between technology and growth: The Spanish experience.

The New Growth Theory has put the issue of endogenous technical change back into the center of attention. Although the statistical material available to the researcher wanting to investigate the economic influence of technological innovation is not very adequate, the aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of the technological change on long run growth in Spanish regions by means of the statistical analysis. Using a panel data for Spanish regions, we apply some econometric exercises to assess the significance of the relationship between technology and growth.

Long-run neutrality of money and inflation in Spanish economy, 1830-1998

33 p.In this article, we test a classical model of ináation with rational expectations for the case of Spain during the period 1830ñ1998. The principal testable implication is that money growth and ináation are cointegrated ruling out speculative bubbles. First, to detect episodes of potential explosive behaviour in the Spanish ináation rate, we use the recursive unit root tests for explosiveness recently proposed by Phillips, Wu, and Yu (2011), and Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015a,b). Second, we consider the possibility that a linear cointegrated regression model with multiple structural changes would provide a good empirical description of the classical model of ináation for Spain over this long period. Our methodology is based on the instability tests recently proposed in Kejriwal and Perron (2008, 2010) as well as the cointegration tests developed in Arai and Kurozumi (2007) and Kejriwal (2008)

The Dynamics of Entrepreneurship: Hysteresis, Business Cycles and Government Policy

This paper estimates an unobserved components model to explore the macro dynamics of entrepreneurship in Spain and the US. We ask whether entrepreneurship exhibits hysteresis, defined as a macro dynamic structure in which cyclical fluctuations have persistent effects on the natural rate of entrepreneurship. We find evidence of hysteresis in Spain, but not the US, while in both countries business cycle output variations significantly affect future rates of entrepreneurship. The article discusses implications of the findings for the design of entrepreneurship policies.hysteresis, unobserved components model, time series models, business cycles, self-employment, entrepreneurship

Unraveling the relationship between firm size and economic development: The roles of embodied and disembodied technological progress

In the last decade, an increasing body of literature has studied the relation between economic development and the rate of independent entrepreneurship. For several developed countries, this relation seems to have changed from a negative relation into a positive one. However, the role of technology, and in particular the roles of embodied and disembodied technological progress, in shaping this relation has not yet been established. We estimate a model, based on Lucas (1978), able to disentangle the roles of both these types of technological progress in determining average firm size (a concept closely but inversely related to the rate of independent entrepreneurship) for 23 OECD countries over the period 1972-2008. Our estimations allow us to establish, for each country, the relative importance of embodied technological change, vis-�-vis disembodied technological change, in determining average firm size. Our results suggest that, notwithstanding the rise of independent entrepreneurship observed in many countries over the last few decades, economies of scale and scope (embodied technological change) continue to play an important role in many advanced economies.�

El problema de desempleo en la economía andaluza (1990-2001): análisis de la transición desde la educación al mercado laboral

In this paper we examine some differential facts of the Andalusian labour market in comparison with the Spanish one, concentrating on the higher incidence of youth unemployment in Andalusia. Our results show that the probability that the Andalusian young workers quickly find their first significant employment is much lower than that of the rest of Spaniards. We find clear evidence that the main effects upon this probability are that of the business cycle, of individual education and also of parents educational attainment. Furthermore, the effect of this variable is much larger in Andalusia than in the rest of Spain, what we interpret as evidence about channels of information in Andalusia being more imperfect. Finally, we find some evidence that an university degree contribute less to have a lower expected unemployment duration in Andalusia than in the rest of Spain.duration analysis, unemployment duration, marital sorting

Testing for Hysteresis in Entrepreneurship in 23 OECD Countries

We explore the macro structure of entrepreneurship rates in a panel of 23 OECD countries over 1972-2006. We find that rates of entrepreneurship in OECD’s countries exhibit persistence rather than hysteresis. Implications for the design of entrepreneurship policies are discussed

The Dynamics of Entrepreneurship: Hysteresis, Business Cycles and Government Policy

This paper estimates an unobserved components model to explore the macro dynamics of entrepreneurship in Spain and the US. We ask whether entrepreneurship exhibits hysteresis, defined as a macro dynamic structure in which business cycle fluctuations have persistent effects on the natural rate of entrepreneurship. We find evidence of hysteresis in Spain, but not the US, while in both countries business cycle output variations significantly affect future rates of entrepreneurship. The article discusses implications of the findings for the design of entrepreneurship policies

The value of an educated population for an individual's entrepreneurship success

Human capital obtained through education has been shown to be one of the strongest drivers of entrepreneurship performance. The entrepreneur’s human capital, though, is only one of the input factors into the production process of her venture. In this paper we will analyze to what extent the education levels of other (potential) stakeholders affect the entrepreneur’s performance. The education level of consumers may shape the demand function for an entrepreneur’s output, whereas the education level of employees may affect the entrepreneur’s productivity and thereby shape her supply function. Based on this, we hypothesize that the performance of an entrepreneur is not only affected positively by her own education level but in addition, also by the education level of the population. We find empirical support for this hypothesis using an eight years (1994-2001) panel of labor market participants in the EU-15 countries. An implication of our finding is that entrepreneurship and higher education policies should be considered in tandem with each other.

Deficit sustainability and fiscal theory of price level: the case of Italy, 1861–2020

We test sustainability of the Italian government deficit over the period 1861–2020 using the fiscal theory of the price level (FTPL). This approach takes into account monetary and fiscal policy interactions and assumes that fiscal policy may determine the price level even if monetary authorities pursue an inflation-targeting strategy. We consider a cointegrated model with multiple structural changes to characterize the sustainability of public finances and the prevalence of monetary or fiscal dominance during subperiods. We also use recursive unit root tests for explosiveness to test fiscal sustainability and to detect episodes of potential explosive behaviour in Italian public debt. We find two structural changes for the public debt and one change in the primary budget surplus, the alternation of monetary and fiscal dominant regimes, as well as evidence of bubbles related to three episodes of the Italian fiscal performance. Our results reveal the sensitiveness of the primary balance and the debt paths to shocks hitting fiscal, macroeconomic, and financial variables.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The Project is funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Grant No. PID2020-114646RB-C42, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación Grant no. PID2020-115183RB-C22, and EPIT SEJ-487

On the substitutability between paid-employment and self-employment: evidence from the period 1969–2014 in the united states

This paper provides estimates of the elasticity of substitution between operational and managerial jobs in the US economy during the years 1969–2014, derived from an aggregate CES production function. Estimating the long-term relationship between (the log of) the aggregate employment/self-employment ratio and (the log of) the returns from paid-employment relative to self-employment and testing for structural breaks, we report different estimates of the elasticity of substitution in each of the two regimes identified. To this end we apply the methodology on instability tests proposed in Kejriwal and Perron (2008, 2010) as well as the cointegration tests developed in Arai and Kurozumi (2007) and Kejriwal (2008). Our results help to understand and interpret one of the most intriguing aspects in the evolution of self-employment rates in developed countries: the reversal of the trend in self-employment rates. Our estimates show that a higher level of development is associated with a greater number of entrepreneurs and smaller firms. Some rationales for understanding the growth of the elasticity between paid-employment and self-employment, including the recent trends in the digital economy, are also suggested