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The present paper discusses a theoretical model to explain the link between servitization and territorial competitiveness based on the situation in Italy. A key assumption of the model is that once the link between manufacturing and KIBS is established within a TES, there is a positive feedback between the increasing productivity (competitiveness) and the link between firms and KIBS, which becomes stronger and stronger triggering a self-reinforcing dynamic. This means that every evolutionary step of the system influences the next and thus the evolution of the entire system, so generating path dependence. Such a system has a high number of asymptotic states, and the initial state (time zero), unforeseen shocks, or other kinds of fluctuations, can lead the system into any of the different domains of the asymptotic states (1). In other words, both the theoretical assumptions and the empirical model outlined in this paper demonstrate that when a functional relationship between manufacturing and services is established (servitization), economic performance is positive or very positive.

The main objective of this paper is to describe the performance of the EU Cohesion Policy in terms of EU funds effectiveness. The effectiveness in the absorption of funds is a permanent challenge for EU member states, and therefore, the analysis of the absorption capacity is needed in its different spheres: its scope, its determinants and its effects. The present paper deals with the first one, the scope of the absorption of EU resources and focus on an aspect that has been widely forgotten so far: the regional variation in the absorption of the structural funds. Based on EU regional aggregate data on funds commitment and absorption provided by the European Commission for the Operating Program 2007-2013 at the NUTS2 level, we observe thatfull absorption was more the exception than the rule, with an important regional variation. In addition, we offer a discussion on how lack of timely available regional data on EU fund payments hinders the analysis of the effectiveness of the regional absorption of the funds.

This paper examines the determinants of localization of creative industries by using plant-level microdata. The paper proposes a model tailored to differentiate the effect of general-economic and specific-creative forces on the localization of creative industries. The model is applied to the local labour systems of Spain. The results show that traditional external economies (localization and urbanization) affect the location of creative industries in Spain, complemented by the effect of specific creative externalities. The results offer a novel insight into the determinants of location of creative industries. The work thus provides some empirical basis for the design of policies that may boost the capacity of territories for creativity and innovation, in line with the objectives set out by the European Commission.

Although the evaluation of European Union regional policy is necessary to improve the effectiveness of the operational programmes, it is not usual to find studies comparing the efficiency of two programming periods for the case of a particular region. This could be explained by the fact that, at regional level, the study of the efficiency of the European funds during two different programming periods faces many different problems; for example, it entails the consideration of both adequate and homogeneous data, and similar methodology. The goal of this paper is twofold. The first goal is to estimate the economic impact of the European Union structural and cohesion funds received by Extremadura, a Spanish convergence objective NUTS II region, during the programming period 2007-2013. To this end, it is provided a multipliers analysis based on a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of Extremadura for the year 2000. Secondly, the paper will compare the returns obtained in terms of output and employment by the European funds received in Extremadura during the periods 2000-2006 and 2007-2013. Our results allow quantifying the effects of the EU regional policy, showing and comparing the efficiency for these two programming periods.

In this paper we analyse the possible impact of Cohesion Policy 2014-2020, putting together the investments supported by EU funding in all NUTS2 regions and running a set of simulations. We make use of RHOMOLO, a spatial CGE model tailored for economic analysis at the subnational level, which is described in the paper. We do so by first considering infrastructure investment, human capital development and innovation climate support, including environmental amelioration, separately and then run a combined simulation of the three categories to give an impression of the pattern and time profile of the overall effect. The results of the simulation show substantial heterogeneity in the effects across the regions, which are not a mere image of the differences in input. The concentration of EU funding on the less developed regions, and on energy saving, innovation and social inclusion in the more developed regions receiving support, could be a fruitful mix for lifting the standards of living in the whole of Europe.

The 51st ERSA Conference held in Barcelona in 2011 was one of the largest ever. By examining the characteristics of the conference, this paper identifies the main trends in Regional Science and draws on a broad array of sources of information: the delegates’ demographic details, the conference program itself, a satisfaction survey conducted among delegates, a quality survey addressed to those chairing the sessions and, finally, a bibliometric database including each author signing a paper presented at the conference. We finally run a regression analysis from which we show that for ERSA delegates what matters most is quality, and this must be the direction that future conferences should move toward. Ultimately, ERSA conferences are comprehensive, all-embracing occasions, representing an ideal opportunity for regional scientists to present their work to each other and to network.

This introduction summarises the main contributions included in the special issue. These papers were discussed (among others) in the special session on «Wages and Regional Labour Markets» organised within the activities of the 51st Congress of the European Association of Regional Science (ERSA) and the 37th conference of the Spanish Regional Science Association held in Barcelona in August 2011. This special issue contains six of the nine papers discussed in the session, plus three additional papers clearly related to this topic that were discussed in other conference sessions or included at a later stage due to their relevance. Moreover, we also decided to include a brief discussion of each paper in order to incorporate other points of view and some additional thoughts on the topic.

Only a few studies have analysed the relationship between intraregional inequality and growth, although several studies have measured inequality at the regional level. The objective of this paper is to analyse the relationship between income (wage) inequality and economic growth in different regions of Mexico. We also try to identify factors that explain the variation of intra-regional inequality across Mexican regions and over time. Using macroeconomic databases and publicly available microdata, we apply techniques used in the fields of statistics and econometrics to obtain robust evidence on the relationship between growth and inequality. Our aim is to provide policy recommendations to support the design and implementation of growth-promoting measures thatavoid the exclusion of certain social groups. This paper provides reasons to use a spatial approach and an analysis of particular regions to avoid «one size fits all» policy recommendations.

This paper is the summary of the IAREG (Intangible Assets and RegionalEconomic Growth) European project, which analyzed the role of intangibleassets (IA) on regional economic growth. We focused on some of the most relevantintangible assets, for which statistical information is available and where the consortiumhad more expertise. Consequently, in this paper we put special attentionin four big factors: knowledge capital, human capital, social capital and entrepreneurshipcapital. Additional to the main characteristics of each of these IA (relatedwith their measurement and their effects on regional economic growth), we alsoanalyzed the ensemble effects of these IA over the location of firms. For each asset,we describe its main characteristics, the indicators for its measuring and its limitations,as well as the main results associated to its impact on regional growth. Wemust outline that in order to improve the analysis of the effects of the IA in regionaleconomic growth it is necessary to develop more and better databases. We presentsome thoughts in this respect, based on our research experience. Finally, we givesome policy implications and recommendations.

This introduction summarizes the main contributions of the papers selected to be published in this special issue. These papers were presented (among others) in the Fourth Seminar Jean Paelinck hold in Oviedo (Spain) in 2010 and their quality justified the edition of this Special Issue. As members of the organizing committee, we are pleased with the results of this Seminar which it is considered as a reference in the spatial econometric field.This special issue consists of two types of contributions. On the one hand, papers focus on the development of new methodologies linked to the concept of causality in spatial econometrics and, on the other hand, applied contributions where different economic problems are analyzed from a spatial or spatio-temporal perspective.

Recently, a significant share of the empirical analysis on the impact of public capital on regional growth has used multivariate time-series frameworks based on vector autoregressive (VAR) models. Nevertheless, not as much attention has been dedicated to the analysis of the long-run determinants of regional growth processes using multi-region panel data and applying panel integration and co-integration techniques. This paper estimates the dynamic domestic effects of public infrastructure using a structural vector autoregressive (S-VAR) methodology for the Spanish regions. From a methodological point of view, the paper contains several features that can be viewed as a contribution to the existing empirical literature. First, the important issues of the stationarity of the data and the existence and estimation of cointegrating relationships in the long-run are addressed in the context of the analysis of panel data. Secondly, the long-run cointegrating production function is embedded within structural vector error correction (S-VEC) shortrun models to produce consistent estimates of impulse responses, contrary to many researchers who have estimated unrestricted VAR models in levels or VAR models in first differences. The estimates reveal new results with respect to the previous empirical evidence.

The article aims to explain the different patterns of economic developmentin Europe based on an assessment of regional and national performancewith regard to innovation, entrepreneurship and difference in the industrial structure.The central hypothesis of the paper is that large intra-regional disparities donot necessarily lead to lower economic growth on the national level than smallerdisparities do. On the contrary, the polarization of economic activities can lead toexcess growth in some cases, and contribute to a process of convergence betweennations.To address the mechanisms behind this process, the long run patterns of convergenceand disparities in regional economic performance with regard to GDP and the distributionof employment are analyzed on the regional and the national level for selectedEuropean countries.The paper focuses on the apparent contradiction between increasing intra-nationaldisparities on the regional level in most industrialized countries and the overall tendencytoward convergence on the national level in Europe and tries to providesome tentative explanations based on empirical as well as theoretical considerations.

The location of ICT producing industries does matter for global competitivenessand long-run growth potential. For instance, the differing contribution ofICT to economic growth between the US and the EU is often mentioned as one of themain cause explaining the diverging growth performance of these two areas since themid-1990s. In turn, since the mid-1990s, countries with especially dynamic economicgrowth have tended to be highly specialized in ICT-producing and ICT-using industries,see van Ark and Inkaar (2005). More generally, ICT producing sectors, tendto promote technological change and innovative capability which are seen to be at thecore of economic growth and competitiveness. When considering the EU economy,ICT industries appear to be concentrated in a limited number of regions, see Koski etal. (2002) for empirical evidence. Afirst objective of the present paper is to documentthe location of ICT producing industries in European regions in order to map existingEU clusters as well as to analyze recent changes in these industries using recent dataon employment and firm location, especially in relation to the EU enlargement thathas taken place in May 2004. The location of the ICT-producing sectors is not the endof the story however. A crucial aspect concerns the nature of activities that are beingundertaken in different regions. Importantly, ICT industries do have different characteristicsin terms of human capital, skill requirement, and knowledge content. In particular,because of the positive association between human capital, knowledge andlong-run growth, it is important to analyze to what extent EU regional ICT clustersdiffer in according to these characteristics. The second question addressed in the paperconcerns the nature of ICT activities undertaken in EU regions. Finally, the paperprovides econometric estimates of the location of firms in ICT industries across EUregions. The paper considers more specifically the case of multinationals’ location.Results on the determinants of firms’ location appear to differ widely depending on the ICT sector considered as well as the type of companies considered. A number ofpolicy implications are derived from these results.

This paper investigates the concurrent effects on regional disparities ofthe speeds of innovation and of the spatial diffusion of knowledge. The aim is to investigatewhether an increase in the pace of innovation, identical in all regions, due toexogenous factors such as the «technological revolution» or policies targeting the«innovative effort» of territories, can give rise to increased disparities. In order toanswer these questions, the paper focuses on the role of interregionally shared knowledgeand shows that, due to the cumulativeness of knowledge, making the same innovativeeffort is not enough to maintain the same income per capita. Moreover, thespeed of innovation is not the only determinant, because a role of equal importance isplayed by the ease of interregional knowledge diffusion. To support this argument,first a new simple static model is built to extend symmetrically existing north-southmodels of trade and to rigorously represent the actual producers of goods whose productiontechnique is shared between regions. Then, building on the first model, tworeduced forms for the dynamics of innovation and diffusion flows are introduced -one probabilistically, the other with multiple equilibria. These lead to the same conclusion:an increase in the pace of innovation, even with structurally identical regions,may generate regional income disparities if knowledge is cumulative and spilloversare essentially local. It is finally shown, however, that the divergence effect ofincreased innovation pace can be counterbalanced by an increase in the speed of spatialknowledge diffusion.

This paper analyses a number of outcomes that the increase in the social demand for a higher environmental quality may have on the patterns of spatial specialization, irrespective of the scale of analysis. This paper aims at exploring how, together with new possibilities for backward regions, some sub-optimal solutions can also be found from a social viewpoint. On the other hand, we reflect on how an efficient allocation of resources (internalising environmental considerations), could well be incompatible with the dismantling of protectionism within the agricultural sectors of developed countries. The impact on biological diversity is specifically studied.

New technologies tend to exert a profound influence on modern city life. This paper addresses the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the city. After a broad overview of the potential of ICT in a geographical setting and its possible impact on urban policy in regard to the ICT sector, the paper focusses attention on urban public policy in regard to the ICT sector. This study offers the proposition that urban ICT policy is driven by the stakeholders attitudinal and perceptional factors which govern ultimately decisions of the urban administration. Based on an extensive survey among urban policy-makers, the paper seeks to test the above hypothesis by offering a wide variety of empirical findings.

This paper analyses the high-speed train from a spatial point of view. The basic characteristics of this transportation mode,the evolution of high-speed networks in several countries and the building of a trans-European high-speed railway network are studied.The paper analyses also the process of space-time convergence and its consequences on competitivity and cohesion;the tunel effect;the impact of the high speed-train on transportation demand;and the impacts on the city.

The process of European integration, and particularly the enlargement of the EU, has substantial consequences for transport and the way it interacts with the rest of the economy. Transport intensity has been increasing and changing transport costs have different impacts on different sectors and regions depending on both traditional factors such as value to weight ratios and the competitive structure of industry. This paper explores some of the factors lying behind the rise in transport intensity, how it relates to trade and to changing activity patterns and the endogeneity of transport with the process of specialisation and regional concentration. This is set against the pressures arising from EU enlargement. This leads to questions concerning the sustainability of exiting transport policies which place emphasis on mobility. The paper explores the dynamics of the relationship, highlighting the way in which the modelling of the transport system needs to interact with that of the rest of the economy.

The present paper seeks to analyse regional and industry wage differentials in Spain. Differences in observed industry and regional earnings are to be expected, whenever the considered individuals differ with respect to their human capital characteristics. However, this paper shows, using data from Encuesta de Estructura Salarial (Structure of Earnings Survey), referring to 1995, that while controlling for these characteristics reduces the magnitude of derived industry-regional wage premia, they are insufficient to eliminate altogether. The results allow the authors to describe a dual wage determination system in Spain. That is to say, average hourly wage is closely related to cost of living in those industry-regions with a higher labour productivity and to labour productivity in those industry-regions with a lower level of value added per employee. This situation finds its institutional coverage in the collective bargaining system.

As a departing point, the paper presents the historical genesis of the concept of industrial district focusing on the scientific views of the pioneer of this field, Alfred Marshall. The concept has its origins in the observation of the current industrial reality, mainly of the British one. The purpose is to give an explanation to the difficulties of the classic theory and to study the challenges of the class conflicts. The economic conditions which launched British industrial districts were present, grosso modo, in Italy after the second World War. Some contributions have dealt with the little industrialisation of some Italian regions and using Marshallian thoughts have rediscovered the industrial districts phenomenon. This is the starting point of a high number of scientific contribution in Italy and abroad. Some of these international studies, particularly the ones made by Spanish experts, are quoted. The text analyses the link between districts-made in Italy with the competitive advantages of Italian products in many economic activities (i.e. clothing, shoes, furniture, etc.). Finally, in the third part the paper reviews some new contributions on the industrial district in Italy.

Through this paper we try to discuss the current situation of the research programme in Spatial Econometrics. This discipline has grown very fast during the last decades, in quantity as well as in quality, developing a wide variety of techniques. The results seem satisfactory although there remain some inconsistencies in the way of doing Econometrics on the Spatial dimension that merit greater attention. Some of them are discussed in the paper, while others are just highlighted.

This paper analyses the labour efficiency in Andalusia, and takes into account labour and demographic characteristics of the Andalusian municipalities. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is the methodology employed. The results obtained indicate differences at the municipal level that depend on the geographical arrangement, with the provincial capitals being the least efficient. An inverse relationship is established between the size of the municipality (in terms of number of inhabitants) and its labour efficiency: the smaller the size of the municipality, the greater the efficiency. The distance to the capital is also important in establishing the efficiency: the greater the distance to the capital, the greater the efficiency.

Territorial servitization is the analysis of how manufacturing firms and knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) sectors collaborate in working towards a renaissance of manufacturing competitiveness within regions of developed economies. This editorial note provides four insights. First, it sums up the existing body of knowledge on the topic. Second, it quantifies and maps the territorial servitization activity in Spanish regions. Third, it presents and reflects on the collection of five papers in this special issue, which bring new insights into how geographical proximity, innovation systems, and KIBS heterogeneity benefit our understanding of territorial servitization. Finally, the study provides a number of yet unresolved topics that deserve further academic attention.

This paper investigates the effect of co-national immigrant´s communities (social networks) and historical international trade relationships (business networks) on the decision of migrants to locate in a particular province within Italy, Portugal and Spain. We check whether these decisions are locally bounded or spur in neighboring territories and find that spatial dependence matters. Once it is accounted for, social networks enhance immigration of co-nationals, a positive effect that is moderated if contiguous provinces have large co-nationals communities. For the case of business networks, contiguous provinces having commercial linkages with the immigrants’ origin country compete as alternative destinations.

This paper aims to determine the urban wage premium in Ecuador. It estimates two wage equations with the nominal and real wage, using instrumental variables to control endogeneity. Four indicators are applied to measure up the urban premium: area, classification by size of a city, cantonal population, and number of firms per capita. The latter is used for the first time and proves to be a better measure to reflect the urban premium. The results show that workers located in metropolis and big cities earn wages 14% and 4% higher than those workers located in small towns, respectively. The wage elasticity is 0.03% with respect to cantonal population, and 0.06% with respect to the number of firms.

As the European Union enters into the next decade, its leaders seemingly strive towards more future integration rather than less, despite the recent setback of Brexit and the rise of anti-EU populist parties. In his state of the Union in 2018, Jean Claude Junker emphasized several ways forward - ‘European solidarity’, ‘rejection of exaggerated nationalism’, and support for ‘balanced migration reform’. Yet he did not mention one key policy tool for achieving a closer Union – Cohesion Policy and the Structural Funds, which are “the only real, significant redistributive mechanism in the EU…” (Fratesi 2017) and consistently constitute the second largest item in the EU’s budget. As Cohesion policy essentially redistributes resources from wealthier EU countries to poorer EU regions, creating winners (net recipients) and losers (net donors), it has been a target in anti-EU rhetoric, including in the lead up to Brexit. Despite elite commentary, we know surprisingly little about what EU citizens think of the rationale behind the policy of Cohesion – e.g. economic redistribution within the EU. As part of the PERCEIVE Horizon2020 project, we launched a unique survey to investigate how citizens feel about economic integration within the Union, where 17,200 citizens were interviewed. In this paper, we show how we measure support for the policy, the results as well as a host of correlates. Our analysis shows the variation in citizens’ support for EU Cohesion policy between countries, how support varies between demographic groups, as well as the extent to which support is correlated with utilitarian and ideational factors as well as cue taking. Implications for future developments of this policy are discussed.

This paper analyses the relationship between country and European identity, and how Cohesion Policy can influence it. While the two sentiments are positively correlated, empirical evidence shows that this association significantly decreased in the last two decades, jointly with an increase in the support of nationalisms and Eurosceptic parties. It is therefore interesting to understand what is the role of EU regional policy in mediating citizens’ identification. To elements of Cohesion Policy are expected to be associated to the citizens’ preference for their country over Europe: the intensity of funding and the perceived outcome of EU regional policy. Results show that regional divergence is mirrored by a divergence also in identity, i.e. citizens identify more and more with their country and less with Europe. On the other hand, the intensity of funding is substantially neutral in this process.

This paper reviews the theoretical arguments provided by the extant literature for understanding the process of creation of a European identity. We discuss the grounds of mechanisms and determinants driving citizens’ identification with Europe, stressing the role of the territorial dimension on European identity formation. More precisely, our focus is on the literature that have considered the link between European identity and EU policies that influence the citizens’ socio-economic conditions, in general, and Cohesion Policy in particular. This is a major policy within the EU that accounted for some 350 billion euros in the 2007-2013 programming period, about a third of total EU budget. Consequently, it is expected to determine the way citizens identify with the European project, both in the regions more and less benefited by the policy. The study also considers arguments supporting a sort of urban-rural divide in European identity, which could interact with the influence of the Cohesion Policy. Initial descriptive evidence on these links is provided based on results from a comprehensive survey for 15 EU member states.

This paper serves as a double purpose in the context of local administrations’ information on line disclosure of Social Responsibility (SR). First, this study examines how levels of information dissemination of SR are evolving. Second, some fiscal, political, population, and socioeconomic factors were investigated as determinants of this information disclosed. A content analysis of the websites of the local government in a region of Spain was carried out. This region is the first which has a Corporate Social Responsibility Lay. Later, according to literature review, the authors propose a multiple linear regression model based on disclosure index scores calculated previously. On the one hand, the results show an increase in the amount of SR information disclosed between 2013 and 2016. On the other hand, the study concludes that larger municipalities with more resources, progressive party governments, and intense political competition present higher levels of information disclosure of social responsibility.

This paper investigates the relationship between government quality and regional economic growth in 207 EU-28 regions during the period 2010-2016. We use the European Quality of Government Index, based on the pillars of quality, impartiality and corruption and provide results for both the aggregated index and its three components. We find a negative evolution of government quality across regions over the studied period. Overall, the econometric results suggest that improvements in the quality of government positively contribute to economic growth, although larger impacts are found for EU-15 regions in comparison with regions from countries that joined the European Union after 2004. When analyzing different components of government quality, corruption and impartiality appear as the main drivers of growth, whereas weaker evidence is found for the quality of government services. Finally, we find that spatial spillovers matter, as a great proportion of the effect of government quality on growth is indirect.

La Rioja and Murcia are two single-province Autonomous Regions that have been governed by the Spanish conservative party since the mid-90s. Although they have developed different social inclusion models, they share common elements. This paper analyses their social inclusion models by means of a comparative analysis, taking into account the different stages of development over the past three decades. The analysis includes the areas of social services, employment, education, and income. The common elements – similar documentary commitment in law, programmes, and benefits; excessive delegation in the social economy sector; limited planning and lack of coordination – outweigh the differences – Murcia’s more unfavourable context; higher social risk, and lower spending on social protection.

Italy is one of the countries with the oldest population in the world. In spite of that and of the alarming estimates about future demographic trends, Long Term Care (LTC) policy in Italy is still struggling to be acknowledged as a relevant issue in the public debate and political agenda. So far, policy inertia has instead been prevailing at the national level, leaving the question of how to take care of the growing number of vulnerable elderly people largely dependent on the abilities of (shrinking) individual families. To date, while institutionalization rates are comparatively low and public home care services are weak, the major national measure to support elderly people in need of care consists in a flat-rate, unconditional cash-transfer. In this context, most families end up taking care of the elderly at home, either directly (through informal care) or indirectly (by hiring a caregiver or a helper, not rarely in the shadow economy). Against this backdrop, the interplay between high functional pressures and low public effort, compared to other social policy sectors, makes LTC policy likely to constitute a privileged area for investigating current and potential Social Innovation policy developments, especially at the local level. In sharp contrast with the frozen national scenario, in the last years many territories – especially in the North of the country – have indeed been experimenting new solutions in the field of LTC, addressing the challenge of building more inclusive local care environments for frail (dependent) elderly people and their families. Building on this, the paper aims at dealing with the most recent academic literature on Social Innovation and the policy discourse elaborated by the EU over the last decade in order to: i) develop a “working definition” of Social Innovation with specific reference to LTC and the notion of inclusive local care environment; ii) illustrate and provide a comparative analysis of a set of selected innovative solutions implemented in two Italian regions, Lombardy and Piedmont, which fall in between full institutionalization and full family-based care; iii) discuss the factors behind the adoption of socially innovative policy solutions at the local level, shedding light on the key role played by new actors (e.g. nonprofit organizations, bank foundations, social partners, private companies) and the building up of multi-stakeholder networks between them and local public institutions. Keywords: Ageing, Long Term Care, social innovation, inclusive local care environments, Italy JEL: I30 / I38

Information and communication provisions of cohesion policy have been gradually strengthened throughout successive programming periods, evolving from simple publicity to a more encompassing concept of communication and transparency and, most recently, visibility. Empirical evidence points to persisting shortcomings in the communication on the ground. In light of this, the paper suggests 10 ideas for improving the communication and visibility of the funds.

In the EU, a sizable part of innovation is attributed to the activities other than R&D such as purchases of advanced machinery, licenses, patents and minor modifications in products or processes. These non-R&D innovation activities receive substantial funding from the European cohesion policy (ECP). In this paper we applied the dynamic spatial computable general equilibrium model RHOMOLO to evaluate the ex-ante short and long run economic impacts of 2014-2020 non-R&D innovation subsidies allocated to the EU27 NUTS2 regions. The results of computer simulations show that the most notable welfare improvements (GDP, production and household consumption) were observed in the Eastern EU regions that receive the largest share of funding. Such outcome is in line with the goals of the European Cohesion Policy of stimulating economic convergence of the least developed regions. As was expected, the magnitude of macroeconomic impacts positively correlates with the amount of non-R&D subsidies allotted to the regions.

This paper outlines how regional labour market adjustments to macroeconomic and policy shocks are modelled in RHOMOLO through participation, employment and migration decisions of workers. RHOMOLO, being a multisectoral, inter-regional general equilibrium model, is complex both in terms of its dimensionality and the modelling of spatial interactions through trade flows and factor mobility. The modelling of the labour market is therefore constrained by the tractability and computational solvability of the model. The labour market module consists of individual labour participation decisions, including the extensive margin (to participate or not) and the intensive margin (hours of work). Unemployment is determined through a wage curve and inter-regional labour migration decisions are modelled in a discrete-choice framework, with backward-looking expectations.

The expansion of knowledge is commonly understood as a key driver of economic growth. Yet, while knowledge production and economic growth have been extensively studied in isolation, few studies have tried to formalise the mechanism connecting the two elements from a spatial general equilibrium perspective. To fill this gap, in this paper we propose a model of knowledge creation building upon the multiregional spatial CGE model RHOMOLO to allow for endogenous knowledge production and investment decisions at the regional level. The innovation process is modelled through the interaction between researchers, investors and final good producers. Specifically, researchers in each region use their human capital together with local R&D-embedded capital and intermediates to produce ideas, enhanced by knowledge spillovers crossing regional borders. These ideas are then purchased by local investors and combined with their human capital and intermediate goods to be turned into new R&D-embedded capital, which adds up to the existing stock after having replaced the obsolete one. Lastly, after having paid a fixed entry cost, in each region firms produce goods for final and intermediate consumption by renting local R&D-embedded and human capital and combining it with an interregional bundle of intermediate goods, their productivity being enhanced by the availability of local public goods and services. The model is designed to be calibrated using a regionalised version of standard Social Accounting Matrices, such as the ones provided by the World Input Output Database.

Este paper describe cómo los ajustes en los mercados de trabajo regionales tanto a los shocks de política como macroeconómicos se modelizan en RHOMOLO a través de decisiones de los trabajadores sobre participación, empleo y migración. RHOMOLO, como modelo de equilibrio general multisectorial e interregional es complejo tanto en términos de dimensionalidad como de modelización de interacciones espaciales a través de flujos de comercio y movilidad de factores. La modelización del mercado de trabajo está por ello limitada tanto por la capacidad computacional como por la facilidad para obtener una solución (en forma de expresión matématica, en forma reducida) del modelo. El módulo del mercado de trabajo consiste en decisiones de participación individuales, incluyendo el margen extensivo (participar o no) y el margen intensivo (horas de trabajo). El desempleo se determina a través de la curva de salarios y las decisiones de migración interregional se modelizan en un esquema de elección discreta basado en expectativas pasadas.

Informal investors play a key role to meet the financing needs of business projects in early stages. However, this is a group in which there are different kinds and ways of dealing with investment. One of these profiles is associated with the figure known as business angel, whose main distinguishing feature is its ability to add smart capital in the form of knowledge, experience and contacts. The aim of this paper is to determine to what extent the specific profile of business angels differ from the rest of informal investors. With a sample of over 800 informal investors in Spain, the empirical results of this study show that the higher income, skills and entrepreneurial training and the less family ties to the entrepreneur, the greater the probability of belonging to business angel investment group.

This paper evaluates whether the learning mechanisms of the European Cohesion policy have contributed to improve the economic impact of Structural Fund expenditure over time. It analyses whether the evolution of the policy in response to greater internal monitoring and external scrutiny has resulted in a more efficient and better targeted Cohesion policy. This is tested using an econometric model which evaluates the effect of Structural Fund expenditure on the growth of regional GDP per capita —conditional on factor endowments, institutional quality and initial conditions— during the last programming periods for which full sets of data are available (1994-1999 and 2000-2006). The results of the analysis unveil an increase in the effectiveness of the policy in successive periods. This positive association is robust to controlling for the level of development of the country and the relative economic position of a region within a country. The results also show that, when structural factors are taken into consideration, Structural Fund investment tends to yield higher returns in better-off countries and wealthier regions within countries

This paper analyzes the evolution of gender segregation in Spanish labour market between 1996 and 2010, with particular emphasis on the different trends Spanish regions. For this purpose, two measures are used: the first one is Karmel and MacLachlan index and the second one uses «segregation curves» and applyes Gini index. The results show a deep heterogeneity in regional segregation, as well as a different gender contribution to explain the evolution of segregation.

This paper aims to analyze regional variability in youth poverty in Spain. We deploy the Spanish Survey of Income and Living Conditions to conduct a random effects or multilevel logit model. Results point to regional variability due to diverse impact of age, human capital, living arrangements, number of children, nationality and the recent economic crisis. Regional differences do not entirely respond to the variables included in the analysis and may be explained by other indicators such as those related to the structure of the productive system or the redistributive capacity of the social benefits from the autonomous communities.

This paper examines the recent application of the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to the analysis of population distribution. We mention the efforts of the National Statistical Institutes in this direction boosted by the last census 2011.The stating point is a growing need to have available population figures for areas not related to administrative boundaries, either user defined zones or in grid format.This allows a convenient zonal system to combine demographic characteristics with environmental and pure geographic data, so the relation between the man and the environment can be analyzed in a unified way.Eventually, we offer a practical illustration of the interactions between GIS techniques and administrative population data in the study of spatial population distribution: We build a density grid for Spain by dasymetric methods from census tracts population data and Land Cover and Use Information System of Spain (SIOSE).The analysis is done within the spatial reference framework of the European Union.

This paper analyses the effect of the perceived advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship surrounding the starting of a new business and it is based on the Theory of Reasoned Action. The sample contains 274 students of the Faculty of Business and Economics (University of Cantabria). A structural equation approach is used to test the research hypotheses. The results obtained show that the entrepreneurship advantages influence a college student’s attitude and later have an impact on their entrepreneurial intentions. However, the disadvantages associated with entrepreneurship have no significant effect.

The role of the tertiarization processes on the growth of the overall productivity in the advanced economies has risen as one of the most controversial topics during the recent decades in the specialized literature. Despite the quantitative and the strategic importance of the service industries within the present economies, there has been a significant deficit of theoretical and empirical works on them since only a few decades. Talking about local, territorial and regional analyses —one of the most increasing research fields during the last years— this lack of attention is still evident. Following this motivation, the present «state of the art» should aim to help researchers and institutions in order to deep into the relationships and explaining factors between the growth of the service sector and the development of the overall productivity. In doing so, the paper reviews every theoretical and empirical works on this topic, both on conceptual and methodological issues, starting from the most conventional theses until the most updated revisions with a more positive and realistic point of view of the role of the tertiarization process on productivity.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the determinants of labour productivity growth in the hospitality industry in Spain using regional data over the period 1996-2004. The results obtained suggest that the increase in the number of 3-star hotels and the reduction process in the stock of physical capital per worker are factors which may have contributed to the fall in productivity growth. However, increased regional tourism intensity has a positive impact on the growth of labour productivity. Nonetheless, changes in demand-related factors, such as average length of stay and the seasonality of demand, have not had a significant aggregate impact on labour productivity growth during this period.

This paper investigates the effect of uncertainty on household decisions regarding consumption. Based on Spanish regional data and taking as a theoretical reference precautionary saving models, we investigate whether macroeconomic uncertainty significantly affects household consumption. To analyze the potential association between these two factors, we used the predicted conditional volatility based on ARMA-GARCH models estimated on regional data. The results show that this measure of uncertainty has a significant effect on household consumption, especially when uncertainty is measured using an ADL model of past uncertainty. As an additional step, we attempt to identify regional patterns to account for the results.

The goal of this paper is to analyze changes in productivity and their relation with variations in citizens’ perceived satisfaction in the field of hospital care and specialized care in the Spanish regional health services for the period 1999-2004. To assess changes in productivity the Malmquist indices and Data Envelopment Analysis methodology are used, completing the analysis with bootstrap procedures. The average results show a rise in productivity accompanied by a drop in citizens’ satisfaction. However, the individual analysis does not allow identifying any correlation between variables. The inclusion of the hospital indicator of satisfaction in the production function improves the results, although does not change the regional administrations rankings.

This paper analyses the impact of sectorial and territorial factors on the dynamics of employment in regional industries in Spain over the period 1980-2006. A dynamic panel data model is estimated using panel data techniques (System-GMM), which provide an alternative methodology for addressing the problem of variable endogeneity. The results confirm the robustness of the contemporary effects: diversification, market size and dynamics in the sector affect employment in the short term. However, effects in the long term are more uncertain.

This paper explores the contribution of a selection of elements representative of human capital and perception as determinants of entrepreneurship in different stages of the economic cycle. The results confirm the significance of selfefficacy, the perception of opportunities, and the fear of failure, and highlight the importance of personal knowledge of entrepreneurs. They remain influential in different economic times in which their analyses have been replicated, although some differences are felt that point to, in contraction periods, a loss of influence of the confidence in one’s own abilities, compared to an increase in the case of judgment on the existence of opportunities in the environment, and in the case of the presence of entrepreneurs in the surrounding context. In contrast, the behavior of the fear of failure, as a barrier to entrepreneurship, remains unchanged in an adverse context with respect to a positive context due to reduced opportunity costs.

This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the relation between where a firm is located and its productivity. The analysis distinguishes two location characteristics measured at the municipality level: local agglomeration measured by population density and access to markets captured through market potential. The results show a significant positive relation between both local population density and market potential and firm-level productivity. The results further indicate that while productivity is higher in urban areas, the cross-sectional association between market potential and firm-level productivity appears higher outside urban areas.