Primavera 2012

The question of delocation in main industrial regions across the EU
is approached here, and its effects on job losses estimated. Seventy five regions are
selected following the double criteria of size of the manufacturing industries and
high per capita income levels. Delocation affected half of them in the period 2000-
2005 when competition in the international markets rose and is of higher intensity
in most of the British, French and Italian regions although its aggregate effect on
employment seems to have been offset by growth in the other sectors. On the other
hand, regions located in the continental area with more market potential have the
highest concentration of location effects. Therefore delocation has changed the
location of European manufacturing industry, benefitting those latter regions and
perhaps bringing higher spatial concentration.

The present work endeavours to carry out a study of the weaknesses/
errors detected by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in the reports presented
by 15 European countries on the economic and financial management of Structural
Funds in the period ranging from 2000 to 2006. The aim of our study is focused
on the description and analysis of the number and nature of the errors/weaknesses

made by the member states, carrying out an empirical analysis on the possible
causes at the root of this situation, conducting a study with univariate and multivariate
statistical techniques, using a probit choice model type and least squares
estimation. Amongst other conclusions, the current study establishes that the new
Council Regulation has had an uneven effect on the different countries, and that the
volume of such errors/weaknesses detected in the reports of the EU member states
is linked to the amount of resources allocated to each member state per Structural
Fund.

 

The model proposed in this paper characterizes economic development
as a three-phase process that involves: 1) non-market exogenous factors such
as territory, amenities, tolerance, diversity, artists and University, which attract
and produce talent; 2) talent that leads to the production of innovation and technology;
and, 3) the combination of exogenous factors with talent, innovation and
technology, which generates economic production. The process basically consists
in that non-market exogenous factors such as territorial, cultural, institutional,
regional factors together with diversity and University influence the production
and attraction of talent, which in turn influences the production of innovation and technology and, lastly, the right combination of the previous factors generates
economic production.

This paper examines the innovation processes of Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) in peripheral areas, particularly in the municipality of Guarda
and in the islands of Sao Miguel and Santa Maria in the Azores. For this purpose, a
survey was conducted, and three models were estimated: a Logit model, to measure
the difference between firms that innovate and those that do not; a Tobit model,
to measure the intensity of innovation; and a Probit model to analyze the type of
innovation. The results show a positive relationship between the introduction of innovations
in the market sector and the age and activity of the companies, an inverse
relationship in regards to the size of the company and in relation to the region.

This paper investigates the reasons that lead migrants to perform
multiple migrations in Spain. After describing the main features of these immigrants,
we specify a binomial logit and multinomial probit in which the probability
of re-migration depends on the personal characteristics of individuals and the
corresponding origins and destinations of their migratory paths. The information
used comes from the microdata of the Residence Variation Statistic. Results indicate
that repeated migration of nationals and non nationals respond to different
reasons. The analysis suggests that foreigners’ re-migrations depend on the results of their labor experiences, whereas other reasons can be found in those of
Spaniards.

The relationship between city size and territorial productivity has
attracted much attention in the urban economic literature. Some theories on the
field claim for a strong positive correlation between the size of the municipalities
and their income, mainly motivated by economical reasons, geographical characteristics
or other factor of the urban environment. Unfortunately, in many countries the empirical research on this topic is not possible given the lack of data of income
at a local level. This paper proposes the use of entropy econometrics to estimate
urban income and urban productivity according to city size from aggregate information,
which can be defined as an exercise of ecological inference. With the estimated
data a regional classification based on the relevance of the cities size allows
us to measure the relevance of agglomeration economics on the cities productivity
in Spain.

This article deals with the currently widely discussed entrepreneurial
orientation (EO) and investigates the roles this concept actually plays within
the LEADER+ development program and its implementation in three European
territories. The main question addressed in this analysis is whether or not the
LEADER+ envisaged EO as a basic element for rural development. Can we really
observe both at the rhetoric and at the implementation levels impacts of the EO on
the LEADER+? To answer this question the official programmatic documents of
the EU community initiative LEADER+ are analyzed against the background of
the most important EO concepts and characteristics. Subsequently, a deeper look
in the implementation of LEADER+ in three European territories shows that the
EO still has little impact in the actions implemented. Some major contradictory
rhetoric of the LEADER+ is identified regarding EO and its importance to the development
program. As well as some important suggestions for improving future
development program can be derived from the analysis. These show that, despite
the lack of focus on EO by the LEADER+, the concept has the potential to make a
significant contribution to the successful development of regions.

This paper analyzes from a regional perspective the use of Services
of General Economic Interest (SGEI), to which general access in equal conditions
is considered key for social and territorial cohesion by European regulation
policymakers.
In order to do so, citizens’ revealed preferences with respect to SGEI according to the characteristics of their place of residence are analyzed. Results
identify patterns of SGEI use by region, and also find lower use of some services
in areas of low population density related to access problems. These results have
significant implications for SGEI regulation in regional terms.

Creativity is the ability to generate something new, merging data,
perceptions and matters in order to produce new and useful things. About 22% of
the Spanish employees belong to the «creative class» and about 5.7% of the production
comes from the «creative industries». Despite these data, the general research
focusing on the creative economy in Spain is poor. The aim of this article is to fill
this space by providing a general view of the creative economy in Spain, focused
on the «creative industries». The article introduces the basic theoretical aspects, the
measurement of creativity, compared data about production, employment and the
location of creative industries, as well as the discussion about policy.