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Benchmarking has been deemed useful for the study of regional competitiveness and innovation and is quickly expanding. The aim of this work is the formulation and validation of a method to select the right regions to compare. The proposed method is of general application and can therefore be used by any region across the world wishing to benchmark against others in the field of competitiveness and innovation. This method is carried out in two successive stages. In the first stage, regions with higher innovation and competitiveness than the region under study are identified. In the second, a subset of regions with a resource base similar to the one under study is selected, which makes them suitable for the comparison. The method is validated by applying it to a European region. The results show the validity and robustness of the proposed method.

En este trabajo se estudian las decisiones de participación laboral y fecundidad de las mujeres en España. Utilizando datos de la Encuesta de Población Activa (EPA), se examina la influencia de distintos factores sobre las decisiones de participar en el mercado de trabajo y de tener hijos. En primer lugar, se considera que estas decisiones se toman de forma independiente, y se propone un probit binario para ambas. Posteriormente, se tiene en cuenta la posible relación existente entre los factores inobservables que afectan dichas decisiones, y se estima un probit bivariante en el que las variables dependientes son participación y fecundidad. Mediante ambos modelos se puede comprobar que tanto la participación como la fecundidad están condicionadas por variables socioeconómicas.

This paper analyses labor force participation and fertility of women in Spain. Using data from the Survey of Active Population (EPA), we investigate how several factors may affect the decisions of participation in the labor market and motherhood. First, we consider both decisions in an independent setting and propose a binary probit for each of them. Then, we take into account that unobservable factors may affect both decisions jointly and estimate a bivariate probit where the dependent variables are participation and fertility. Both models show that participation and fertility are conditioned by socioeconomic variables.