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Purpose: Within the framework of EU policies and measures to develop a just and fair green energy transition model. This paper aims to offer valuable insights into a paramount concern not so well debated in the literature, i.e. the spatial variation of energy poverty. Design/methodology/approach: This empirical analysis investigates the regional variation of energy poverty we draw on a sample of more than 300,000 Spanish households, extracted from the Spanish Household Budget Survey (HBS) for the period 2006–2022. To characterize the probability of a household finding itself in a situation of energy poverty the authors use a discrete choice univariate probit model. Findings: The results confirm that energy poverty is a phenomenon that is asymmetrically distributed across Spain, and mainly occurs in un-densely populated regions. In addition, the findings demonstrate that the incidence of energy poverty drivers is highly heterogeneous across regions. Research limitations/implications: The paper ends with some recommendations for policymakers suggesting that countries need to design an energy poverty policy for the households that jointly pursue both a correct identification of vulnerable groups and a match with the type of measure to the characteristics of each region. Originality/value: This study enhances previous research by considering the case of areas at a lower level of aggregation (i.e. on the NUTS two regions in Spain called autonomous communities) and offers the opportunity to tailor policies to those regions most in need. Furthermore, to provide a more realistic picture of the complex phenomenon of energy poverty, the authors use the information for the period 2006–2022 differentiating by economic micro-cycle. This timespan allows the authors to understand the dynamics of energy poverty in periods of economic crisis, including the effects of the 2008 crisis and the present global energy crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adjustment of government redistributive policies in Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries following changes in income inequality over the period 1980–2021. Design/methodology/approach: The authors first modelled the time-varying dynamics between income inequality and redistribution and then used a non-linear framework to test for the existence of asymmetries and cointegration in their long-run relationship. The authors used two complementary measures of inequality – the share of total income accruing to top percentile income holders and the ratio of the share of total income accruing to top decile income holders divided by that accumulated by the bottom 50% – and computed redistribution as the difference between the two inequality indicators before and after taxes and transfers. Findings: The authors found that the sign of the relationship between income inequality and redistribution is mostly positive and time-varying. Overall, the authors also found evidence that the impact of increases in inequality on redistributive measures is higher than that of decreases. Finally, the authors obtained a significant long-run relationship between both variables in all countries except Denmark and Spain. These results hold for both Scandinavian and Mediterranean countries. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to account for the potential existence of non-linearities and to examine the asymmetries in the adjustment of redistributive policies to increases in income inequality using alternative income inequality metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the dynamics of the Spanish public debt–gross domestic product ratio during the period 1850–2020. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a recent procedure to test for recurrent explosive behavior (Phillips et al., 2011; Phillips et al., 2015a, 2015b) to identify episodes of explosive public debt dynamics and also the episodes of fiscal adjustments over this long period. Findings: The identified episodes of explosive behavior of public debt coincided with fiscal stress events, whereas fiscal adjustments and changes in economic policies stabilized public finances after periods of explosive dynamics of public debt. Originality/value: The longer than usual span of the data should allow the authors to obtain some more robust results than in most of previous analyses of long-run sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to estimate tax evasion and its impact on progressivity, redistribution and the measurement of inequality, using microdata from the Spanish income tax for 2001-2004. Design/methodology/approach - The approach follows Feldman and Slemrod (2007) by exploiting the relation of charitable donations with the composition of income but introduces two methodological innovations, which could be useful for further studies: correction for sample selection with a Heckman twostep setting and the calculation of different evasion rates for top incomes with an interaction term. Findings - Evasion in capital incomes was significant throughout these years. Financial incomes were reported at around 50-70 per cent of their real value, with the lowest estimates corresponding to the top decile. Revenues from fixed capital display similarly low compliance rates for the top 10 per cent. Tax evasion in selfemployment incomes (direct assessment) is estimated at 20 per cent for 2001. Mostly because of a composition effect, this means that fraud was higher at the top of the income distribution, thus having a regressive impact. Inequality statistics and top income concentration estimates should, therefore, be revised upwards. Originality/value - This is the first paper to estimate the distributive impacts of tax evasion in Spain, and one of very few internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper aims to model the efficiency of labour offices belonging to the public employment services (PESs) in Spain using a stochasticmatching frontier approach. Design/methodology/approach -- With this aim in mind, the authors apply a random parameter model approach to control for observed and unobserved heterogeneity. Findings -- Results indicate that when the information criteria of the estimates are analysed, it improves by controlling both, observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the inefficiency term. Also, results suggest that counsellors improve the productivity of labour offices and that the share of unemployed skilled persons, unemployed persons aged 44 or younger, as well as the share of unemployed persons in the construction sector, all affect the technical efficiency of PESs offices. Originality/value -- The model extends the previous specifications in the matching literature that capture only observed heterogeneity. Moreover, as far as the authors know, it is the first paper that estimates a matching frontier for the Spanish case. Finally, the database they use is at the office level and includes the work carried out by counsellors, which is a novelty in the analysis of this type of studies at the Spanish level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changes in wealth and consumption inequality in Spain and estimate the consumption effects of housing and financial wealth. Design/methodology/approach - The estimations are made using micro-data from the Spanish Survey of Household Finances (2002-2014) applying cross-section, panel and interquartile techniques. Findings - The findings of this paper suggest that there was an increase in wealth inequality during the period under analysis and a reduction in consumption inequality. Also, the authors find a significant positive effect of wealth on consumer expenditure. Disaggregating by asset type, the value of the main residence is the category with the highest estimated effect on consumption, whereas the remaining types of assets, although still positive and generally significant, have more modest effects on consumption. However, the estimated coefficients and their significance can change substantially depending on the phase of the economic cycle and the position of the household in the income distribution. Originality/value - These results provide new empirical evidence on the effects of household wealth changes on their consumption behavior, the differences depending on the household's position in the distribution and the fluctuations of these estimated coefficients throughout a period of profound economic upheavals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the functioning of a non-sanction "soft" gender quota policy structure (a simple recommendation), using the case of Spain. In the first part of the paper, the authors have reported the dismal improvement regarding the increase of female percentage presence in the companies' boards of members. Design/methodology/approach - The authors provide a detailed sectorial analysis and a classification of board members by type (executive, proprietary, independent and other external). In the second part, the authors exploit the fact that since 2013, the stock-listed companies are legally obliged to respond to a series of questions on gender diversity issues in their annual reports. Using this requirement, the authors perform an analysis using text processing techniques. The authors find that "self-plagiarism" is common in the responses - i.e. they copy responses from previous years - as well as "plagiarism" - i.e. they copy responses from other companies in previous years. Findings - The insufficient progress in respect to the goals of the Law of Equality of 2007 (enacted by Spanish authorities) and the lack of interest that can be inferred from the companies' responses included in their annual reports lead the authors to consider the necessity of changing the law on the corporate policies gender quotas in Spain. Originality/value - It is the first study that realizes this type of analysis for Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of the 2008 and 2020 economic crises on employment in Spain. Design/methodology/approach: The authors perform a counterfactual analysis, combining intervention (interrupted time series) analysis and conditional forecasting to estimate a "crisis-free" scenario. These counterfactual estimates are used as a synthetic control, to be compared with the observed values of the main variables of the Spanish Labor Force Survey (EPA). Findings: The authors measure the effect on Spanish employment of the 2008 recession and the ongoing COVID/Ukraine crisis and the speed of recovery, which yields a rigorous dating for the beginning and end of the crises studied. Finally, the authors provide estimates about which part of the employed and unemployed people was in furlough (ERTE) based on microdata provided by the Spanish Institute of Statistics. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no counterfactual studies covering all the basic variables in EPA and no estimates for the effect of ERTEs on the basic employment variables. Finally, the authors combine well-known intervention and forecasting techniques into an integrated framework to assess the effects of both, past and ongoing crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Might a country's economic growth performance differ depending on the evolution of its human capital? This paper aims to consider education as a channel for human capital improvement and then for economic growth. The authors hypothesize the existence of a threshold for education, after which point the characteristics of economic growth change. Design/methodology/approach - To address this question, the authors turn from a linear framework to a nonlinear one by applying smooth transition specifications. Findings - This empirical analysis for Spain points to the existence of nonlinearities in the relationship between education and economic growth at country level, for both secondary and tertiary education. Next, as different patterns emerge in different regions, the authors provide a regional analysis for a number of representative Spanish regions. The results show that both secondary and tertiary education matter for economic growth and that nonlinearities in this relationship should be taken into account. Practical implications - What is learnt from using Smooth Transition Regression models for the education-economic growth link is that the educational level of the population can be understood as a source of nonlinearities in the economic activity of a country (and of a region). Thus, depending on national and regional educational levels, economic growth behaves differently. Originality/value - Although the importance of nonlinearities has been identified, linearity is usually assumed in this field of the literature. This paper calls into question the linearity assumption by using time series techniques for 1971-2013 in Spain, an OECD country, and testing whether the results at country level hold for different regions within Spain as a robustness check. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the association between drug consumption and unemployment. This paper also studies the differential association between these variables in both the preand current-crisis periods. The results are compared in an attempt to verify that the population of users is more vulnerable in terms of how likely they are to get and hold down a job in the labour market. Design/methodology/approach - Matching methods and microdata from the Survey on Alcohol and Drugs in Spain, EDADES are used. The use of these methods on the estimates carried out prove to be particularly effective in reducing treatment-selection bias. The authors' interest is also to analyse the differential association between the interest variables in both the pre- and current-crisis periods. For this purpose, the authors also use the differences-in-differences (DID) estimation method between the two periods to check if the impact of drug use on unemployment depends on the economic context. The estimations are compared in an attempt to verify that the population of users is less likely to attain and hold down a job in the labour market than non-drug users. Findings - The results obtained in the current study are consistent with the hypothesis that drug use decreases an individual's capacity and availability when he or she is trying to enter the labour market. In both 2007 and 2013, drug users were more likely to be unemployed, regardless of the type of drug. Differences in the probability of being unemployed intensify during an economic crisis. In light of these results, it is possible to conclude that the negative effect of drug consumption on an individual's employability is increased during periods of economic recession. Research limitations/implications - The study presented here has some limitations. Firstly, crosssectional data were used to examine the causal relationship between consumption and employment. In this sense, the results are susceptible to bias. The unavailability of longitudinal data on the same individual made it impossible for the researchers to consider periods of abstinence, the duration of periods of consumption and how this consumption affected an individual's productivity and his or her working situation. Another limitation is that certain relevant unemployment variables may have been omitted. Among the variables that affect an individual's labour participation is the existence of sources of income as an alternative to market salaries. With state subsidies, income from illegal activities and money sent by family or friends, an individual may decide not to work. This problem could be mitigated if omitted variables operate in a similar way throughout both of the periods examined. Social implications - Given the results obtained in this paper, the authors believe that public policy conclusions should be mainly concerned with the importance of implementing proactive employment policies, along with family support programmes and a greater role for primary care among the people with the highest risks of exclusion. Health treatment should go jointly with measures that make it easier for individuals to enter the workforce. These steps would only be possible with an improved level of education and more complete professional profiles, to increase motivation when individuals seek employment. Originality/value - This study could make various contributions to the existing body of evidence. In the authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt to document the effect of the economic crisis on the employability of the drug-using population in contrast with the general population. Moreover, a methodology is presented that provides an alternative to those used in earlier studies, in terms of reducing treatment-selection bias. At the same time, the use of a DID estimation method between pre- and current-crisis periods allow us to check if the impact of drugs consumption on unemployment depends on the economic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to study the concept of tax gap, that is the difference between the total amount of taxes collected and the total tax revenues that would be collected under full tax compliance. Design/methodology/approach -- The authors also present the methodology to estimate the gap for two taxes levied on wealth: the wealth tax and the inheritance and gift tax; both are administered in Spain by the regional tax authorities. Findings -- The authors point out that its estimation offers useful information about the relative size and nature of non-compliance, as well as its evolution over time. Likewise, the tax gap is a valuable instrument not only to define enforcement strategies of the tax administration but also to enhance its accountability. Nonetheless, the methodology used to estimate the tax gap and, consequently, the interpretation of the results is subject to limitations that are discussed in the paper. Originality/value -- Finally, the paper provides the results of the estimations obtained from using microdata: 44.34 per cent gap in thewealth tax and 41.26 per cent in the inheritance and gift tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper studies social inequality in the vital field of employment in Spain during the crisis period 2009-2014. Design/methodology/approach -- Factor analysis is used to build a synthetic index of employment exclusion. The starting information matrix collects data from a wide set of employment variables for all 17 Spanish autonomous communities and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Based on this information, four factors are extracted which explain employment exclusion in different situations of vulnerability, such as unemployment, temporality, poverty or low pay. Findings -- In the territorial ranking, Madrid, Basque Country, Aragon and Catalonia show the lowest risk of employment exclusion, whereas Ceuta, Andalusia, Extremadura and Canary Islands show the highest ones. Originality/value -- The main value of this research is that it confirms the need for coordination of public policies in order to foster social and territorial cohesion in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to construct the first short-term financial distress prediction model for the Spanish banking sector. Design/methodology/approach - The concept of financial distress covers a range of different types of financial problems, in addition to bankruptcy, which is not common in the sector. The methodology used to predict financial problems was artificial neural networks using traditional financial variables according to the capital, assets, management, earnings, liquidity and sensibility system, as well as a series of macroeconomic variables, the impact of which has been proven in a number of studies. Findings - The results obtained show that artificial neural networks are a highly suitable method for studying financial distress in Spanish credit institutions and for predicting all cases in which an entity has short-term financial problems. Originality/value - This is the first work that tries to build a model of artificial neural networks to predict the financial distress in the Spanish banking system, grouping under the concept of financial distress, apart from bankruptcy, other financial problems that affect the viability of these entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]