Otoño 2013

The goal of this paper is to analyze changes in productivity and their relation with variations in citizens’ perceived satisfaction in the field of hospital care and specialized care in the Spanish regional health services for the period 1999-2004. To assess changes in productivity the Malmquist indices and Data Envelopment Analysis methodology are used, completing the analysis with bootstrap procedures. The average results show a rise in productivity accompanied by a drop in citizens’ satisfaction. However, the individual analysis does not allow identifying any correlation between variables. The inclusion of the hospital indicator of satisfaction in the production function improves the results, although does not change the regional administrations rankings.

We analyse regional convergence between Argentine provinces in well-being indicators for the period 1970-2001. More specifically, we examine the role of regional public policy in reducing the development gap between the provinces. We find strong evidence of conditional convergence in well-being indicators. However, we find no evidence that redistributive transfers from the federal government to the provinces have had a positive effect on convergence in these indicators. In fact, we find that for some schooling, health and housing measures, the effect of federal transfers on improvement rates might have been contrary to what was expected.

This paper analyses the impact of sectorial and territorial factors on the dynamics of employment in regional industries in Spain over the period 1980-2006. A dynamic panel data model is estimated using panel data techniques (System-GMM), which provide an alternative methodology for addressing the problem of variable endogeneity. The results confirm the robustness of the contemporary effects: diversification, market size and dynamics in the sector affect employment in the short term. However, effects in the long term are more uncertain.

This paper analyzes the evolution of gender segregation in Spanish labour market between 1996 and 2010, with particular emphasis on the different trends Spanish regions. For this purpose, two measures are used: the first one is Karmel and MacLachlan index and the second one uses «segregation curves» and applyes Gini index. The results show a deep heterogeneity in regional segregation, as well as a different gender contribution to explain the evolution of segregation.

The period between 2000 and 2007 was a period in which Spain was growing in a bubble around the construction sector driven by the boom in real estate and the high growth rate of public infrastructures. The macroeconomic consequences of this unbalanced growth of the construction are well known but the consequences for urban planning have been less studied. Although Asturias is one of the Spanish regions with the lower real estate bubble is clear that this region has participated with the national trend. The characteristics of this region make it particularly interesting for analysis due to the development of a polycentric conurbation in the central area and to the coexistence of different types of urban development in a small space. This paper proposes a methodology based on the description and analysis of information contained in the referenced digital cartography. Through the classification and interpretation of the píxels of the ortho-photos for Asturias we can identify how is the urban expansion distinguishing between industrial and urban uses of the new urban land. Applying statistical analysis with models that include spatial dependence of the information we can identify the causes of urban growth and describe the different patterns that were followed. We identify the sources affected by processes of real estate bubbles and the urban morphology that is consolidated as a result, among other things, of a reduce coordination between the municipalities of the asturian central area.

Geographical distribution of unemployment rates has been analyzed from different methodological perspectives in theoretical and empirical studies. In recent years, researcher on regional unemployment persistence which deals with the spatial autocorrelation in the levels and dynamics of unemployment has increased.

Following this line, our study presents new evidence about the behaviour of provincial unemployment rates in Spain. First, descriptive techniques are used to investigate the disparity and persistent differences in unemployment rates in the Spanish provinces (NUTS-3) during the period 1998-2007. Then, we use spatial filtering techniques in a panel estimation framework to check the existence of spatial patterns which are significant over time. Our results clearly show the existence of a process of polarization and persistent disparities in unemployment rates between the provinces with high unemployment rates and those with low values.

The role of the tertiarization processes on the growth of the overall productivity in the advanced economies has risen as one of the most controversial topics during the recent decades in the specialized literature. Despite the quantitative and the strategic importance of the service industries within the present economies, there has been a significant deficit of theoretical and empirical works on them since only a few decades. Talking about local, territorial and regional analyses —one of the most increasing research fields during the last years— this lack of attention is still evident. Following this motivation, the present «state of the art» should aim to help researchers and institutions in order to deep into the relationships and explaining factors between the growth of the service sector and the development of the overall productivity. In doing so, the paper reviews every theoretical and empirical works on this topic, both on conceptual and methodological issues, starting from the most conventional theses until the most updated revisions with a more positive and realistic point of view of the role of the tertiarization process on productivity.