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This paper examines the impact of regulatory reform on the performance of Spanish savings banks. To this end it uses panel data for the period 1986-1995 and a flexible variable profit function that incorporates time-varying technical efficiency. The focus is whether increased competition brought on by deregulation affected performance of banks over time. Bank performance, measured by the percentage change in profitability, ceteris paribus, is decomposed into technical change and change in technical efficiency both of which are defined in terms of the profit function. We also examine output technical efficiency, which is defined in terms of the production possibility frontier. Several alternative models with different specifications of technical efficiency are used to cheek robustness of the results. Empirical results show declining levels of output technical efficiency along with a significantly high rate of technical progress. In spite of declining technical efficiency during this period, we find evidence of an increasing trend in productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A framework is proposed to characterize the different roles that subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) can play within the firm's overall strategy. The framework is then applied to a sample of 50 Spanish subsidiaries of MNCs. There are found to be pursuing strategies consistent with the framework. At the same time, a strategy evolution is detected towards a closer integration of the Spanish sociopolitical context, especially the country's entry into the European Economic Community, are fueling that process of strategies change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian & Latin American Economic History is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An essay on the state of Spanish tourism from Franco regime in 1939 to the 2008 housing bubble is presented. It argues that the Mediterranean edge of Europe was significant to the tourism industry. It also examines how southern Europe promised relaxation away from Northwestern Europe using the case study of Spain's Costa Blanca, which became the emblematic escape and a market of post-Franco democratization and European integration.

Copyright of Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian & Latin American Economic History is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The recession that started in the United States in December 2007 has had a significant impact on the Spanish economy through a large increase of the unemployment rate and the bursting of the housing and financial bubbles. We explore how the crisis and changes in the labor, housing, and financial markets might have impacted retirement patterns of Spanish men and women nearing retirement age. We find that the recession primarily reduced women's retirement likelihood by 27%. The effect, which was associated with the labor market deterioration, as captured by higher unemployment rates, was circumscribed to women already at work, who chose to stay at work longer. In contrast, for the most part, men's retirement likelihood did not change with the labor, housing, and financial market fluctuations. Overall, the findings suggest that working women might have prolonged their working lives to make up for lost household income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the degree of interest rate exposure of Spanish industries for the period 1993-2012 using the quantile regression methodology. The empirical results show that the Spanish stock market exhibits a significant level of interest rate sensitivity, although there are notable differences across industries and over time. In addition, the impact of changes in interest rates on industry equity returns tends to be more pronounced in extreme market conditions, i.e. during crises or bubbles in stock markets, than in normal periods. This finding may be related to herding behavior of stock investors during periods of market stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyse the trajectory of FASA-Renault during the stagflation crisis. In late 1972, the Spanish government enacted the so-called Ford decrees. The intention was to stimulate specialisation in the European arena by inserting the Spanish subsidiaries within the international strategies of large transnational corporations. In doing so, the effects of the economic crisis were compounded by the restructuring of the sector. The goal is to understand how, in the midst of this situation, FASA-Renault was able to increase production and the size of its workforce, ultimately becoming the leading firm in the sector in terms of production and sales in Spain. This is remarkable, due to the fact that labour force participation in Spain fell by nearly 3 million people from 1974 to 1985. The article argues that FASA-Renault, albeit with nuances, kept its commitment to diversification, neither adopting practices inspired by the production systems of the large Japanese manufacturers nor following the model put forward by the US giants based on large-scale production of a single low- to mid-range car for export. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The evolution trend of the Spanish network has not differed essentially from the path of other Western European corporate networks, but the configuration and factors that explain it have a specific pattern in accordance with their economic and social characteristics. The exchange of directors among the largest banks and utilities in Spain was one of the instruments used to consolidate its hegemonic position and to limit competition in other sectors. Network analysis confirms the existence of a crony capitalism, created in a context of institutional weakness and dominance of undemocratic political systems. The extractive elite used the network boards to restrict competition in key economic sectors, at the expense of the economic development of the country, until the liberalisation of the domestic market and its integration into the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spain was the first developing country to exploit a nuclear power plant commercially. By the early 1970s Spain had become the major nuclear client of the USA, the world’s largest reactor exporter. Despite its importance, historians are just beginning to revisit and establish the sequence of the events that make up Spain’s nuclear history. This article analyses the role played by the state in enabling one of Western Europe’s poorest countries to join the exclusive nuclear power club. In a departure from the technological approach used in previous literature, the history of Spain’s progress in the nuclear power field is retraced against the background of its political and economic evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides evidence on the relationship between business cycle, employment and cooperative society employment in Spain over the 1995-2014 period. The aim was to examine to what point the cooperative employment cycle is led by the business cycle and whether it shows different cyclical behavior to that of Spanish employment as a whole. The turning points of the cooperative employment, economic activity and total employment cycles were identified; the synchronization level between series was assessed; and the effects of the 2007 crisis on cycle synchronization were studied. The results show little synchronization between the phases of the employment cycle of cooperative societies and of the business cycle, although significant counter-cyclical behavior was not found. However, the crisis has increased their linkage: cooperative employment has become more sensitive to the business cycle and its capacity to create or maintain jobs has decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles is the property of Universite Laval, Department of Industrial Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economía Aplicada is the property of Revista de Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Economía Aplicada is the property of Revista de Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Bilateral Spanish-Basque relations over the Basque model of near fiscal autonomy (Concierto Económico or Economic Agreement) have been characterized by more tension than harmony since the 1980s. The main source of discord lies in different conceptions of the model: While the Basque nationalists seek increasing fiscal autonomy verging on sovereignty within Europe, Spanish governments see it as a form of fiscal decentralization within Spain remaining subordinate to Spanish legislation. These different conceptions cannot easily coexist in a loose relationship of mutual tolerance because the development of the model continues to bring them into conflict, feeding into the broader political clash over how best to accommodate the Basque region within or with Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents empirical evidence about the contribution of family-controlled business groups as highly efficient alternatives to the large vertically integrated and professionally managed corporation in specific institutional and market environments. This hypothesis is tested with a single case study, SEUR, in the Spanish transport services sector. SEUR is one of the most prominent Spanish courier companies. It was founded during Franco's dictatorship, expanded in democratic times, and imaginatively adapted to the financial challenges of the late globalisation at the end of the twentieth century, while maintaining the traditional values based on personal trust and family ties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]