This paper discusses the determinants of two alternative measures of innovative success/output by looking at firm’s innovation strategies. These relationships are also discussed by distinguishing between firms belonging to manufacturing and services sectors.Our econometric analysis is based on an extensive sample of 3,919 firms taken from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for the period 2008–2012. Alongside the empirical analysis we applied a two-step procedure. We first identified a diverse range of innovation strategies by applying a principal component analysis (absence, mixed and oriented). Then, after controlling for positive skewness of the dependent variables, we used a generalized linear model (GLM) to examine the impact of these strategies. Our empirical results have some interesting aspects. Firstly, firms that do not design innovation strategies have a lower probability of being a successful innovative firm. Secondly, firms that design a strategy, but one that is not oriented on any specific direction, are prone to achieving lower success rates than firms with an oriented strategy. Finally, the results also show that there is a good fit between the oriented strategy pursued by a firm and its innovation success.
Jové-Llopis, E. (GRIT, XREAP); Segarra, A. (GRIT, XREAP)
Theoretical and empirical approaches have stressed the existence of financial constraints in firms’ innovative activities. Although a large number of innovation projects are abandoned before their completion, the empirical evidence has focused on the determinants of innovation while failed projects have received little attention. This paper analyses the role of financial obstacles on the likelihood of abandoning an innovation project by using panel data of potential innovative Spanish firms for the period 2005–2013. Our analysis differentiates between internal and external barriers on the probability of abandoning a project and we examine whether the effects are different depending on the stage of the innovation process. Controlling for potential endogeneity, we use a bivariate probit model to take into account the simultaneity of financial constraints and the decision to abandon an innovation project. Our results show that financial constraints most affect the probability of abandoning an innovation project during the concept stage.
García-Quevedo, J. (IEB, XREAP); Segarra, A. (GRIT, XREAP); Teruel, M. (GRIT, XREAP)
En este trabajo se estudia el efecto de la dependencia entre dos subcarteras en el requerimiento de capital obligatorio (SCR) por primas y reservas en una cartera de seguros no vida. Para ello, la dependencia se establece entre el número de siniestros de cada subcartera, que se modeliza mediante un choque común. A continuación, se plantean diversas opciones para el cálculo de la distribución del coste total en la cartera agregada, obteniéndose fórmulas explícitas en algunos casos. Finalmente, se incluye una aplicación práctica a partir de datos de una cartera real de seguros de automóviles.
Castañer, A. (CREB, XREAP); Claramunt, M M. (CREB, XREAP); Tadeo, A.; Varea, J. (CREB, XREAP)
Theoretical and empirical approaches have stressed the existence of financial constraints in innovative activities of firms. This paper analyses the role of financial obstacles on the likelihood of abandoning an innovation project. Although a large number of innovation projects are abandoned before their completion, the empirical evidence has focused on the determinants of innovation while failed projects have received little attention. Our analysis differentiates between internal and external barriers on the probability of abandoning a project and we examine whether the effects are different depending on the stage of the innovation process. In the empirical analysis carried out for a panel data of potential innovative Spanish firms for the period 2004-2010, we use a bivariate probit model to take into account the simultaneity of financial constraints and the decision to abandon an innovation project. Our results show that financial constraints most affect the probability of abandoning an innovation project during the concept stage and that low-technological manufacturing and non-KIS service sectors are more sensitive to financial constraints.
Segarra, A. (GRIT); García-Quevedo, J. (IEB); Teruel, M. (GRIT)
This study examines how structural determinants influence intermediary factors of child health inequities and how they operate through the communities where children live. In particular, we explore individual, family and community level characteristics associated with a composite indicator that quantitatively measures intermediary determinants of early childhood health in Colombia. We use data from the 2010 Colombian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). Adopting the conceptual framework of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), three dimensions related to child health are represented in the index: behavioural factors, psychosocial factors and health system. In order to generate the weight of the variables and take into account the discrete nature of the data, principal component analysis (PCA) using polychoric correlations are employed in the index construction. Weighted multilevel models are used to examine community effects. The results show that the effect of household’s SES is attenuated when community characteristics are included, indicating the importance that the level of community development may have in mediating individual and family characteristics. The findings indicate that there is a significant variance in intermediary determinants of child health between-community, especially for those determinants linked to the health system, even after controlling for individual, family and community characteristics. These results likely reflect that whilst the community context can exert a greater influence on intermediary factors linked directly to health, in the case of psychosocial factors and the parent’s behaviours, the family context can be more important. This underlines the importance of distinguishing between community and family intervention programmes.
Osorio, A. M. (RFA-IREA, XREAP); Bolancé, C. (RFA-IREA, XREAP); Madise, N.
We study whether there is scope for using subsidies to smooth out barriers to R&D performance and expand the share of R&D firms in Spain. We consider a dynamic model with sunk entry costs in which firms’ optimal participation strategy is defined in terms of two subsidy thresholds that characterise entry and continuation. We compute the subsidy thresholds from the estimates of a dynamic panel data type-2 tobit model for an unbalanced panel of about 2,000 Spanish manufacturing firms. The results suggest that “extensive” subsidies are a feasible and efficient tool for expanding the share of R&D firms.
Suburbanization is changing the urban spatial structure and less monocentric metropolitan regions are becoming the new urban reality. Focused only on centers, most works have studied these spatial changes neglecting the role of transport infrastructure and its related location model, the “accessibility city”, in which employment and population concentrate in low-density settlements and close to transport infrastructure. For the case of Barcelona, we consider this location model and study the population spatial structure between 1991 and 2006. The results reveal a mix between polycentricity and the accessibility city, with movements away from the main centers, but close to the transport infrastructure.
Drawing on data contained in the 2005 EU-SILC, this paper investigates the disparities in educational opportunities in Italy and Spain. Its main objective is to analyse the predicted probabilities of successfully completing upper-secondary and tertiary education for individuals with different parental backgrounds, and the changes in these probabilities across birth cohorts extending from 1940 to 1980. The results suggest that the disparities in tertiary education opportunities in Italy tend to increase over time. By contrast, the gap in educational opportunity in Spain shows a marked decrease across the cohorts. Moreover, by using an intuitive decomposition strategy, the paper shows that a large part of the educational gap between individuals of different backgrounds is “composed” of the difference in the endowment of family characteristics. Specifically, it seems that more highly educated parents are more able to endow their children with a better composition of family characteristics, which accounts for a significant proportion of the disparities in educational opportunity.
Di Paolo, A. (GEAP & IEB) Publicado en Revista de Economía Aplicada, forthcoming
Various methodologies in economic literature have been used to analyse the international hydrocarbon retail sector. Nevertheless at a Spanish level these studies are much more recent and most conclude that generally there is no effective competition present in this market, regardless of the approach used. In this paper, in order to analyse the price levels in the Spanish petrol market, our starting hypothesis is that in uncompetitive markets the prices are higher and the standard deviation is lower. We use weekly retail petrol price data from the ten biggest Spanish cities, and apply Markov chains to fill the missing values for petrol 95 and diesel, and we also employ a variance filter. We conclude that this market demonstrates reduced price dispersion, regardless of brand or city.
Public authorities and road users alike are increasingly concerned by recent trends in road safety outcomes in Barcelona, which is the European city with the highest number of registered Powered Two-Wheel (PTW) vehicles per inhabitant,. In this study we explore the determinants of motorcycle and moped accident severity in a large urban area, drawing on Barcelona’s local police database (2002-2008). We apply non-parametric regression techniques to characterize PTW accidents and parametric methods to investigate the factors influencing their severity. Our results show that PTW accident victims are more vulnerable, showing greater degrees of accident severity, than other traffic victims. Speed violations and alcohol consumption provide the worst health outcomes. Demographic and environment-related risk factors, in addition to helmet use, play an important role in determining accident severity. Thus, this study furthers our understanding of the most vulnerable vehicle types, while our results have direct implications for local policy makers in their fight to reduce the severity of PTW accidents in large urban areas.
Albalate, D. (PPRE-IREA), Fernández-Villadangos, L. (PPRE-IREA