Primavera 2006

This paper aims to present an assessment of changes in inequality and well-being differences across the Spanish regions in a wide time period (1973-2000). Using the basic Family Budget Surveys and the longitudinal-yearly Family Budget Continuous Survey 2000, we analyze inequality differences and trends, the changes in the structure of inequality and the convergence process. We also use abbreviated social welfare functions in order to capture regional differences and their changes over time.

In this paper fiscal balances of the Regions with respect to the Central Government are examined. After analyzing the methodological problems, the results are examined and compared with simulations based on normative criteria. Finally, in the conclusions a special reference to the interpretation of burden-benefit and the monetary flow approach is discussed. In opinion of the author the results with both approaches are not comparable. In addition, unlike the burden-benefit approach, the approach of monetary flow does not have a clear interpretation.

With the purpose of contributing to the advance of the knowledge on the labor productivity of the Mexican cities, in this paper the following issues are analyzed for the period from 1960 to 2003: a) to compare the changes in the occupational structure of the country with those of the Metropolitan Zone of Mexico City (ZMCM); b) to determine the magnitudes and tendencies of the labor average productivity according to 17 groups of tertiary activities in the ZMCM; c) to identify in which of those groups the ZMCM is specialized. The increasing hegemony of the service sector in the labor structure of Mexico, mainly in the ZMCM, means that the country advances within the denominated Service Revolution, but it is concluded that two negative processes exist that restrain the function of the tertiary sector like engine of the economic development: the high level of informal services and the significant fall of labor productivity in the tertiary activities.

This paper investigates the factor content of international trade of the Spanish regions with the EU-15, using the available regional Input-Output Tables around 1995. The results indicate that Spanish regions exhibit a revealed comparative advantage in line with the predictions of the factor proportions theory. All the regions but Asturias, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Catalonia, Madrid y Vasc Country are net exporters of land. There is a mix of regions that are net exporters of physical capital according to their level of development: Aragón, Canary Islands, Catalonia, Extremadura, Madrid and Galicia. Finally, only three regions, Aragon, Navarra and Vasc Country, are net exporters of human capital.

Transparency is a necessary condition in order to financial market could exert an adequate discipline over public agents’ borrowing policy. In federal and decentralized countries, the risk of insolvency is bigger, given that expenditure and revenue policies are shared among several tiers of government. In this article we analyze the determinants of ratings as an instrument that can contribute to improve transparency in borrowing operations. Discriminant analysis is used and the Autonomous Communities in Spain are the core of the investigation.

Maximum entropy econometrics is well suited to estimate models with very few observations or to deal with multicollinearity. These are common problems in the estimation of a regional production function. In this paper, maximum entropy is used to analyze two issues that, so far, have not been fully addressed in the literature: the temporal stability of output elasticity of infrastructure and the change on its values across regions. We estimate the elasticity for each region to calculate the productivity and the social returns of infrastructure. The results show a decrease over time and the existence of important regional differences in both productivity and social returns of infrastructure. Hence, the effects of infrastructures on production can be very different across regions.

In this paper we investigate the effect of public investment on output, employment and private investment in Spain and its regions, and evaluate the relevance and magnitude of the resulting regional spillover effects. To this aim, we estimate different models using the Autoregressive Vector (VAR) approach and find a positive impact in Spain and the majority of regions on GDP, private investment and, to a lesser extent, on employment. We also find significant spillover effects, whose economic relevance is interpreted from a regional perspective.

The aim of this paper is the analysis of mobility and spatial dispersion in internal migrations and its relation with GDP convergence in Spain. The study of mobility is carried out using two measures based on Markov chains, which belong to a general family of mobility measures based on the distance between locations of origin and destination. For the study of spatial dispersion, a measure coming from the concept of entropy is used. The application of these measures to the sequence of matrixes of migratory flows between regions in 1986-2003 provides evidence of the loss of the role of internal migrations as a correction element of regional income disparities.

Any study or research on economic, social and territorial subjects requires, of course, to arrange and to use data and statistical information. The article examines the present state of the production of official regional statistics in Spain and the UE. As a previous step, the author offers some interesting remarks on the advances experienced by Spain in this field, mainly from the constitution of the so-called «The State of the Autonomies» to now. The paper shows also some unsolved weaknesses and problems that would be important to solve as soon as possible. The second part of the article, surely the most substantial one, offers information on the statistical sources offered by EUROSTAT, the National Institute of Statistic of Spain, and the institutes or statistical services created by the Autonomies (Spanish regions). The subject of this contribution is, without a doubt, of high interest for all researchers who work on regional and urban matters. This is the reason why Investigaciones Regionales includes this contribution in this section. It is an updated revision of the statistical availabilities and of some problems to use them. The reader will also find references to the most interesting web sites of the different statistical institutions and some indications on its contents and possible use.