LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTING IN SPAIN

This paper provides an analysis of the present situation concerning local government accounting in Spain following recent reforms introduced in the early nineties. It presents a picture of the main features of Spanish local finance—budgeting and accounting, the measurement focus, and the basis of accounting—and analyses the financial reporting system adopted by Spanish municipalities. This is followed by a critical review of several weak points in the reform which in the author's view will encourage further developments.     

A new measurement procedure for attitudinal research. Analysis of its psychometric and informational properties

Since measurement errors have strong effects in all relationships (statistical or otherwise) studied, there is an increasing interest in the data quality, which is the major justification for this research. This paper aims to present a new measurement procedure, the letter scale, which avoids many of the problems connected with the response modalities traditionally used in attitudinal research, especially the ordinal categorical scales. This paper analyzes the error composition of the scores obtained with this new measurement procedure. The validity of the procedure is also analyzed and the observed variance is assessed to determine which part of the observed variance is “valid”, which part is random error (attenuating relationships) and which is correlated error (magnifying relationships). Structural equation models will be used to provide estimates of the measurement quality: (i) Reliability, (ii) Construct validity, method effect and residual variance. In addition, this letter scale is evaluated under another different perspective, Information Theory measures are also used to assess the amount of information transmitted. The relative merits of this new measurement procedure as opposed to other common response modalities will be discussed in both cases.     

The ideological influence in Schumpeter's thought

Journal of Economics -     

Nonparametric neural network modeling of hedonic prices in the housing market

This article addresses the contribution to hedonic modeling of a nonparametric approach based on artificial neural network (ANN) regressions. ANNs provide consistent estimates for the hedonic price of each attribute and permit a number of hypotheses on the hedonic price relationship to be tested nonparametrically. In particular, we exploit results by Stinchcombe and White (Econom Theory 14:295?C324, 1998) in order to carry out misspecification testing in linear and semiloglinear hedonic models. The same approach directly applies to testing misspecification of any parametric specification for the hedonic relationship. A nonparametric significance test for the variables in the hedonic model is also proposed. The test extends the approach developed by Racine (J Bus Econ Stat 15(3):369?C378, 1997) in kernel-based nonparametric testing to ANN-based inference. The finite sample performance of the proposed tests is analyzed through Monte Carlo experiments, and simulation-based algorithms for computation of the null distribution of the tests are proposed. Then, the performance of three classes of regression models??linear, semi-log, and ANNs??applied to hedonic price modeling in a Spanish regional housing market is compared. Our results indicate the presence of nonlinear behavior, as predicted by economic theory, with the ANN-based tests detecting statistically significant evidence of misspecification??both in the linear and the semilog specifications??and ANN regressions providing moderate improvement of predictive performance.     

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Vehicle to Reveal the Corporate Identity: A Study Focused on the Websites of Spanish Financial Entities

This study explores the relevance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an element of the corporate identity of Spanish financial institutions. Specifically, it aims to analyze the CSR actions developed by financial entities through the analysis of all the available information disclosed in their websites. A content analysis applied to 82 banking institutions, followed by different quantitative analyses, reveals the multidimensionality of CSR. Findings show that, while the number of entities institutionalizing CSR values as core elements of their identities is still reduced, most organizations disclose CSR information to construct communicated identities and legitimate behaviours. Besides, these dimensions are classified depending on the stakeholder the action is aimed to, and that entities favour the generation of distinctive identities through the implementation and communication of more visible CSR actions like those involving their customers or the community. In any case, results indicate that organizations with certain characteristics are more likely to construct distinctive identities through CSR activities and to establish ethical and social values within their corporate statements and cultures.     

Correction: The Bill,Please! Households’ Real Returns on Financial Assets Since the Introduction of the Euro

Intereconomics - In the article “The Bill, Please! Households’ Real Returns on Financial Assets Since the Introduction of the Euro” by Marc-Peter Radke and Manuel Rupprecht in...     

What Do Wages Add to the Health‐Employment Nexus? Evidence from Older European Workers

The role of wages in the health‐employment nexus can be important for designing employment policies aimed at older workers with health limitations. We, therefore, estimate the direct effect of health on employment and hours worked and its indirect effect that is mediated through wages using individual‐level panel data from SHARE. The endogeneity of self‐reported health is controlled for by instrumenting it with severe health conditions in a correlated random effects model. For men, we find that the direct effects of health deterioration, as measured by a reduction in health from the 75th to the 50th percentile of the health distribution, are about a 20% point lower employment probability and about 171 fewer hours worked per year. The indirect health effects through wages work in the opposite directions as health positively affects wages and wages negatively affect employment and hours worked. The total effects of this health deterioration amount to a 12% point lower employment probability and 95 fewer hours worked per year. In particular our finding of a large direct health effect on employment suggests an instrumental role for policy aimed at accommodating workers with health limitations to keep them employed at older ages.     

Market reaction to supranational banking supervision in Europe: Do firm- and country-specific factors matter?

This paper investigates the financial market´s perception regarding the effectiveness of the Single Supervisory Mechanism in Europe. Do investors believe that centralized supervision adds value compared to multiple supervision? . Do they feel uncertain about the supervisory role of the ECB? To answer these questions, a sample of 118 European Banks has been used finding that whereas in early dates the market reaction was positive reflecting the expectation of greater stability, it turned negative at the time the scope of the supervision was limited to only a group of banks. As might be expected, the reaction is significantly more negative for the directly supervised entities, anticipating a different and more demanding style of supervision that could lead to higher cost. This negative wealth effect is intensified for banks with higher price-to-book ratios or those located in countries with more developed financial systems and better investor protection. However, solvency and productivity firm indicators or low levels of perceived corruption moderate it. This research not only highlights the doubts and uncertainty of investors about the final applications of the SSM, but it could be also useful for policy makers and regulators in order to achieve a more harmonized supervision that improves the credibility of the systems and promote financial stability.

     

Which projects are selected for an innovation subsidy? The Portuguese case

Portuguese Economic Journal - Several empirical studies have analyzed which firm characteristics influence government evaluators in the decision to select specific firms to participate in Research...