The Relationship Between Firm Size and Innovation Activity: A Double Decision Approach†

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between firm size and innovation activity using Spanish data at firm level corresponding to the manufacturing sector for the period 1990-93. This exercise is different to previous applications because we allow for different size effects in the decision to innovate and the innovation count equation, in the context of a double-hurdle approach. Several tests confirm the hurdle negbin model. We find that firm size is a relevant factor, although size effects are different in both decisions. A robust result from the different specifications estimated is the rejection of the Gilbert and Newbery hypotheses. We find out that the behaviour of firm size is neither linear in the decision nor in thc count equation. We also provide additional, and sometimes different, evidence to previous Spanish studies on R&D.     

Housing deprivation and health status: evidence from Spain

Living in inadequate housing conditions not only supposes a failure of a basic functioning. It also has effects on other essential aspects of well-being such as health. This study questions to what extent living in poor housing conditions can determine individuals’ health status once the possible influence of other factors is controlled for. By estimating a logistic model with individual effects and a housing deprivation index based on a latent variable model, we reach a number of relevant conclusions concerning the relationship between these two different dimensions of multidimensional well-being. We find a negative effect of housing deprivation on the individuals’ health, both when housing conditions are introduced in a disaggregated manner in the model and when they are combined in a latent variable.     

Envy and Habits: Panel Data Estimates of Interdependent Preferences

We estimate the importance of preference interdependence from consumption choices. Our strategy follows the literature that tests the constraints imposed by optimality on the evolution of individual consumption. The introduction of habits and envy places additional restrictions on the evolution of the optimal consumption path. We use a unique data set to test these restrictions. Our estimates suggest that, if one defines utility over consumption services, a large fraction of these services is relative, with one third of the weight placed in the consumption of the reference group and another third placed in the agent's past consumption.     

The welfare loss associated to characteristics of the goods: application to housing policy

The subsidies in kind aimed at heterogeneous goods do not merely generate the traditional excess burden: there is an alternative welfare loss as the distortion also affects non-price characteristics of the good. The reason is that the beneficiary of this type of subsidy has to consume a good with some given characteristics which do not necessarily agree with his choice in the market. The welfare loss analysed here tries to overcome the lack of a correct measure of excess burden in the situations indicate above. Therefore, the paper constitutes an empirical novelty in the theory of excess burden. Moreover, we provide empirical evidence of the welfare loss after estimating a hedonic price model and using predicted prices in a quadratic almost ideal demand system for housing characteristics. The new excess burden is computed under standard assumptions from the theory of rationing. We identify the sources of the losses and we also provide a monetary measure suggesting that, under plausible parameter values, it can be quantitatively high.     

Further econometric evidence on the extent and sources of cost savings in competitively tendered contracts

Empirical Economics - By estimating a flexible nonlinear regression model of savings on an original dataset of service procurements conducted by the Spanish Armed Forces, this paper provides robust...     

ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO MODELLING ZERO EXPENDITURE: AN APPLICATION TO SPANISH DEMAND FOR TOBACCO*

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the importance of double-hurdle models in the estimation of tobacco demand equations. Using data from the Spanish Family Expenditure Survey (EPF), Tobit, P-Tobit and first hurdle dominance models are shown to be restrictive. This dataset also confirms the existence of separate individual decisions on participation and consumption. We propose to estimate a dependent version of a double-hurdle model, although independence is not restrictive once additional powers of total expenditure are included in the specification of the second hurdle. Several misspecification tests are also conducted among the different models.     

Combining input-output analysis and micro-simulation to assess the effects of carbon taxation on Spanish households

This paper explores the effects of a tax levied on Spanish energy-related CO2 emissions. After justifying the relevance of carbon taxation in the Spanish context, we consider the introduction of a product (fossil-fuel) tax with a rate obtained through the ‘actual damage cost’ method. Our empirical analysis proceeds in two stages. First, we employ an input-output demand model to calculate the price changes after the introduction of carbon taxation. In a second stage, simulation with Spanish household micro-data for 1994 yields the environmental and economic effects of a Spanish carbon tax. We find a limited short-run reaction to the carbon tax, which hampers its environmental success. The carbon tax burden is, however, significant, with a proportional distribution across households.