Autumn 2017

This work summarises the main findings of the review of the implementation of the Cohesion Policy in Extremadura (Spain) during the Operational Program 2007-2013, which closed early 2017. The PERCEIVE project, developed within the H2020 framework, gives the opportunity to analyse the characteristics of the region, its main strengths and weaknesses together with the opportunities and threats, and how the Cohesion Policy addresses these challenges. We perform a general overview of the Operational Program 2007-2013 in Extremadura, analysing the final expenditure by priority themes, the absorption rate, the time-line of the implementation and execution, and a comparison with the current 2014-2020 programming period. We also analyse the governance of Cohesion Policy in Extremadura and the institutional setting. We finish this report by summarising the main conclusions and the expected outcomes of the research project in its next stages.

The theory of endogenous growth posited that technological change is endogenous and presents increasing marginal returns in factors, so there is not necessarily convergence between rich and poor countries. Based on this principle and integrating the theoretical approaches evolutionist and structuralist, in this article, using statistical indicators and econometric estimates, it is shown that at regional level, technological progress is positively associated with the industrial and economic development of each region. For this reason, regions of greater economic development attract and concentrate a greater proportion of scientific and technological resources, while regions whose predominant economic activity is agriculture present restrictions to generate, access and productively incorporate technological advances. Consequently, it is concluded that technological progress leads to divergent processes between regions in the long term.

Research on the location of cultural and creative firms has traditionally focused on large cities, but small towns are also likely to hold them. This work investigates which factors determine cultural specialisation in a group of 46 extrametropolitan Spanish towns with 30-50,000 inhabitants.

We consider factors related to markets and government policies —hard factors— and new factors related to amenities, tolerance, and the local climate —soft factors—. When we check them statistically, the greatest explanatory power is attributed to some hard-type factors such as economic activity and human capital, as well as the distance to urban markets. In contrast, the expectations raised by the soft factors are not confirmed.

Through this article, a first approach to the determinants of Spanish tourism demand is pursued from there, in order to analyse whether there has been a different response between the territories during the crisis, as the tourism sector is concerned, attending especially to the category of the hotel establishment in achieving the pro-cyclical theories of tourism and the more resistant character to economic downturns of luxury tourism. The results refute the conclusions reached in previous literatures and open new ways of research.

Social innovation is key to improving the territories, especially in developing countries. This paper analyzes the elements of local knowledge that facilitate the generation of social innovations in the case of the Municipal District of Quito (DMQ). Local knowledge is analyzed in three dimensions: human, structural and relational. It is shown that all of them are a source of social innovations, being at the base of the organizational reform, territorial structure, the digital agenda and the process of diffusion of these innovations to other territories.

Rural development policies applied by the European Union have evolved in parallel with changes in rural areas over the last few decades. The main innovation in 2007-2013 programming period was the inclusion of a new crossmethodological axis, the Axis LEADER or axis 4. In order to ensure a greater interaction between different economic agents and the public and private sectors, in this new approach, agricultural and rural groups embedded in the territory are entrusted with the design and implementation of rural development strategy. These local actors are the Local Action Groups or Rural Development Groups. The analysis of 264 Local Action groups in charge of the rural development in Spain discloses that they have few features in common, although they share the same regulatory framework. In fact, during the analysed period, they show big differences in their internal characteristics and, also, in the characteristics of territories where they have implemented their activities.

The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the internal characteristics of these Groups are related to their efficiency to achieve the development of rural municipalities, in particular for those municipalities where revitalising is a main priority. Contingency tables are used to statistically contrast the relationship between territorial revitalisation variables (demographic trends, labour market and business creation indicators) and variables that characterise the Local Action Groups and their territories (size of territories/groups, concentration of the population, structure of governance bodies, mechanisms of participation in governance bodies).

The studies that have analyzed the socioeconomic inequalities between Argentinean provinces do not usually take into account provincial differences in terms of knowledge, innovation and learning. In parallel, much of the literature about regional innovation systems has focused on the construction of empirical typologies that allow to account for these differences, but exercises of this nature have not been applied in Argentina until now. Through a combination of multivariate techniques (principal component analysis and cluster analysis) we aim to provide a first contribution in these research gaps.

In the quantitative and applied economic literature it is frequent to find references to the statistical measurement of capital and depreciation. In this paper we present an alternative method of estimating the capital stock and the depreciation rate. The equations that solve the dynamic optimization problem of the neoclassical firm also enable us to endogenously calculate the rate of depreciation and capital stock variables, yielding an economic estimate of both. Our calculation method uses profitability indicators such as distributed profits and Tobin’s q ratio. Our results differ from those obtained by applying the permanent inventory method for Spanish economy and its regions during the period 1964-2011. The economic depreciation rate fluctuates around the statistical rate. Two time profiles for the economic and statistical capital are markedly different, as attested to by the disparity of their growth rates. The paper also shows that economic shocks turn aside the economic depreciation rate of the statistical rate with different intensity in the Spanish regions. This allows us to approximate the relative regional resilience based on the behaviour of depreciation and to establish three groups of regions according to their capacity of absorption and adaptation to the different shocks.