Regulation and promotion of an addictive product : Spanish tobacco business in the spread of cigarette consumption (1880s to 1930s)

Tobacco is an addictive product, a big business and an important source of fiscal revenues. From 1880s to 1930s tobacco consumption spread in Western World mainly in the form of cigarettes. Supply changes such as mass production techniques, mass distribution and brand advertising and demand changes such as growing GNP or urbanization levels, interacted explaining changes and convergence in international consumption patterns. However, some differences have to be found regarding the national regulation framework. Tobacco industry was organized either under a fiscal monopoly or under a highly taxed industry mainly within an oligopoly. This paper analyses in depth and on a comparative basis, the Spanish case, paying special attention on the difference made by the regulatory framework and the lack of development of modern business tools such as brand advertising on consumption patterns and business activity. Spanish consumers were behaving as expected in the economic literature on addiction (rational addiction model) without brand advertising. That has to be related with the addictive character of tobacco consumption and more specifically with industrial organization of Spanish tobacco market. This is consistent with what is found in economic literature about addiction and market structure: for oligopoly or monopoly, if marginal cost is increasing, supply of an addictive good may be as high or higher than for perfect competition. This paper concludes that brand advertising is essential for market share mechanisms but its relation with the expansion of tobacco market is not as clear as it could be found on policies banning tobacco advertising or in Business and economic history literature. The lack of branding development in the Spanish case is just a consequence of the fact that tobacco industry was organized in Spain under a fiscal monopoly, and it was the lack of competence of the monopoly that make the Spanish products non-competitive, and as a matter of fact, the opportunities for a traditional tobacco producer of exporting or becoming a foreign direct investor were lost in Spain

REGULATION AND PROMOTION OF AN ADDICTIVE PRODUCT: SPANISH TOBACCO BUSINESS IN THE SPREAD OF CIGARETTE CONSUMPTION (1880S TO 1930S)

Tobacco is an addictive product, a big business and an important source of fiscal revenues. From 1880s to 1930s tobacco consumption spread in Western World mainly in the form of cigarettes. Supply changes such as mass production techniques, mass distribution and brand advertising and demand changes such as growing GNP or urbanization levels, interacted explaining changes and convergence in international consumption patterns. However, some differences have to be found regarding the national regulation framework. Tobacco industry was organized either under a fiscal monopoly or under a highly taxed industry mainly within an oligopoly. This paper analyses in depth and on a comparative basis, the Spanish case, paying special attention on the difference made by the regulatory framework and the lack of development of modern business tools such as brand advertising on consumption patterns and business activity. Spanish consumers were behaving as expected in the economic literature on addiction (rational addiction model) without brand advertising. That has to be related with the addictive character of tobacco consumption and more specifically with industrial organization of Spanish tobacco market. This is consistent with what is found in economic literature about addiction and market structure: for oligopoly or monopoly, if marginal cost is increasing, supply of an addictive good may be as high or higher than for perfect competition. This paper concludes that brand advertising is essential for market share mechanisms but its relation with the expansion of tobacco market is not as clear as it could be found on policies banning tobacco advertising or in Business and economic history literature. The lack of branding development in the Spanish case is just a consequence of the fact that tobacco industry was organized in Spain under a fiscal monopoly, and it was the lack of competence of the monopoly that make the Spanish products non-competitive, and as a matter of fact, the opportunities for a traditional tobacco producer of exporting or becoming a foreign direct investor were lost in Spain.

Regulation and promotion of an addictive product : Spanish tobacco business in the spread of cigarette consumption (1880s to 1930s).

Tobacco is an addictive product, a big business and an important source of fiscal revenues. From 1880s to 1930s tobacco consumption spread in Western World mainly in the form of cigarettes. Supply changes such as mass production techniques, mass distribution and brand advertising and demand changes such as growing GNP or urbanization levels, interacted explaining changes and convergence in international consumption patterns. However, some differences have to be found regarding the national regulation framework. Tobacco industry was organized either under a fiscal monopoly or under a highly taxed industry mainly within an oligopoly. This paper analyses in depth and on a comparative basis, the Spanish case, paying special attention on the difference made by the regulatory framework and the lack of development of modern business tools such as brand advertising on consumption patterns and business activity. Spanish consumers were behaving as expected in the economic literature on addiction (rational addiction model) without brand advertising. That has to be related with the addictive character of tobacco consumption and more specifically with industrial organization of Spanish tobacco market. This is consistent with what is found in economic literature about addiction and market structure: for oligopoly or monopoly, if marginal cost is increasing, supply of an addictive good may be as high or higher than for perfect competition. This paper concludes that brand advertising is essential for market share mechanisms but its relation with the expansion of tobacco market is not as clear as it could be found on policies banning tobacco advertising or in Business and economic history literature. The lack of branding development in the Spanish case is just a consequence of the fact that tobacco industry was organized in Spain under a fiscal monopoly, and it was the lack of competence of the monopoly that make the Spanish products non-competitive, and as a matter of fact, the opportunities for a traditional tobacco producer of exporting or becoming a foreign direct investor were lost in Spain.

Contamos trabajadores o contamos con los trabajadores. Trabajo y empresa en la España contemporánea

Los novísimos en la Historia Económica de España. Edición a cargo de Francisco Comín y Blanca Sánchez AlonsoEditada en la Fundación Empresa PúblicaEn este artículo se reflexiona sobre la necesidad de crear un marco analítico específico que comprenda el trabajo como un factor esencial dentro del conjunto de las relaciones internas y extemas que definen la competitividad de las empresas y las estrategias que éstas desarroUaron para adaptarse al medio. Se centra en el caso español, atendiendo a las diversidades regionales y sectoriales. Frente al concepto de trabajo como fuerza comprada y apbcada, y al estudio del conflicto entre trabajadores y empresarios, en este articulo se analiza la evolución de las formas de organización del trabajo y se considera al trabajo como un elemento que puede incentivar, impedir, facilitar, retrasar y, sobre todo, adaptar a las distintas condiciones de partida el cambio tecnológico. Frente al énfasis en el capital físico a la hora de explicar las fuentes de competitividad de las empresas, se incide en la importancia del capital humano, sobre todo de las cualificaciones adquiridas en los talleres y de las cualificaciones organizativas y de investigación. Especial atención se presta al contexto institucional y a la interacción de las empresas con el Estado en materia laboral en su triple papel de empleador, regulador e intermediano en la transmisión de cualificaciones y conocimientos.This article tries to provide a specific analytical framework which includes labour as an essential factor within the internal and extemal set of revotions defining the competitiveness of firms and their strategies to adapt to the enviroment in which they operate. Special attention is given to the Spanish case, taking into considerañon its regional and sectorial diversity. Instead of studying labour as an input to be bought and applied, or the history of the conflict between employers and employees, this article analyses the evolution of how different forms labour have been organised within firms. Labour is considered as an element with the potential to provide an incentive, to impede, facilitate, delay, and mainly adapt technological change to the different factor endowments. The emphasis is put on human capital ?mainly shopfloor skills, organisation skills and research skills? instead of physical capital to explain the competitiveness of firms. Special attention is reserved to the institutional context and the interaction between business and govemments on labour issues, analysing the state as an employer, regulator and intermediary in the transmission of skills and knowledge.Publicad

La desigualdad de género en las crisis económicas

This article presents a historical analysis of the economic crises of the last hundred years from a feminist economics perspective, highlighting three historical patterns that can help to advance in a deeper understanding of the current crisis and, above all, to guarantee a way out of this crisis with more and not less equality. The first pattern is that crises result in an intensification of women's work, especially the unpaid care work. The second one is that after economic crises male employment recovery is always previous to the female employment, which always ends even more precarious; and the third pattern is that crisis lead to setbacks in the advances made in gender equality in terms of regulation, equality policies and the rules of the game in general.Este artículo realiza un análisis histórico desde la economía feminista de las crisis económicas de los últimos cien años, poniendo de manifiesto tres pautas históricas que nos pueden servir para avanzar en una mejor comprensión de la crisis actual y sobre todo, para garantizar una salida de la crisis con más y no con menos igualdad. La primera es que de las crisis se sale con una intensificación del trabajo de las mujeres, incluyendo el trabajo remunerado y sobre todo, el no remunerado. La segunda que tras la crisis el empleo masculino se recupera siempre antes que el femenino y éste último acaba siempre aún más precarizado que cuando se inicia la crisis; y la tercera que de las crisis se sale con retrocesos en los avances en igualdad conseguidos en épocas de bonanza en lo relativo a la regulación, las políticas de igualdad y las reglas de juego en general