e-Repositori UPF :: Llibres (Departament d'Economia)

Enviaments recents

An international perspective on inflation during the COVID-19 recovery
(Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025) Fornaro, Luca; Romei, Federica
This chapter examines the global inflation surge that accompanied the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the role of international factors. It attributes the inflation primarily to a global scarcity of tradable goods, driven by supply chain disruptions and increased demand for manufactured goods. The chapter introduces a conceptual framework to understand the international transmission of inflation and explores the spillovers from monetary interventions by central banks worldwide. It also discusses the potential benefits of international monetary policy cooperation. Additionally, the chapter provides a historical perspective by comparing the post-pandemic inflation with past inflationary episodes, such as the high inflation of the 1970s and periods of global deflation following the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis.
Mean estimation in high dimension
(EMS Press, 2022) Lugosi, Gábor
In this note we discuss the statistical problem of estimating the mean of a random vector based on independent, identically distributed data. This classical problem has recently attracted a lot of attention both in mathematical statistics and in theoretical computer science and numerous intricacies have been revealed. We discuss some of the recent advances, focusing on high-dimensional aspects.
United States
(Springer, 2023) Garcia-Milà, Teresa; McGuire, Therese J.
The fiscal federal system in the United States is highly decentralized with strong revenue-raising authority as well as a high degree of spending discretion at the state and local levels. The result is a remarkable amount of diversity in tax structures and spending across the states, a characteristic we document in this chapter. Federal grants to state and local governments are important for financing specific programs, but unlike many other federations, there is no federal grant whose purpose is to redistribute resources across states. We highlight and discuss trends in the size of the government, the vertical distribution across levels of government, and the composition of spending. Like many other countries, the United States faces challenges associated with an aging population and rising healthcare costs. All three levels of government face the tasks of providing income security for the aging population and of how to fund education and other desired services as spending on healthcare continues to rise.
Privatization and social exclusion in Latin America
(Inter-American Development Bank, 2007) Chong, Alberto; León-Ciliotta, Gianmarco; Ñopo, Hugo; Ríos, Vanessa
Inequality in school resources and academic achievement: evidence from Peru
(Elsevier, 2015) León-Ciliotta, Gianmarco; Valdivia, Martín
This paper goes further in the discussion on the determinants of school attainment in developing countries. To properly estimate the effects of school resources on academic achievement, we need to take into account the large geographical inequalities in the distribution of school resources and the supply constraints faced by students living in poor areas. We do so by implementing a two-step correction that accounts for the constraints in school choice. Our findings suggest that failing to account for these constraints leads to an underestimation of the effect of school resources on school achievement of about 100%. This underestimation is particularly important for girls and in Math. Additionally, the contribution of school resources in explaining the gap in test scores between rich and poor students is doubled once we account for the constrained choices.
Clientelism in decentralized states
(Cambridge University Press - Core, 2019) León-Ciliotta, Gianmarco; Wantchekon, Leonard
Clientelistic networks and decentralization share common organizational features and interact in different ways. They are both multi-tiered structures plagued with agency issues. In this chapter we study these links, reviewing the current scholarship and emphasizing how the different features of political decentralization affect clientelistic politics, and point to avenues for future research. In particular, we emphasize the role clientelistic networks and upward and downward accountability play in undermining programmatic politics. We finally provide a brief analysis of the role local bureaucracies can play in counterbalancing the efficiency losses introduced by clientelistic politics in decentralized states.
Iterated local search: framework and applications
(SpringerNature, 2019) Ramalhinho-Lourenço, Helena; Martin, Olivier C.; Stützle, Thomas
The key idea underlying iterated local search is to focus the search not on the full space of all candidate solutions but on the solutions that are returned by some underlying algorithm, typically a local search heuristic. The resulting search behavior can be characterized as iteratively building a chain of solutions of this embedded algorithm. The result is also a conceptually simple metaheuristic that nevertheless has led to state-of-the-art algorithms for many computationally hard problems. In fact, very good performance is often already obtained by rather straightforward implementations of the metaheuristic. In addition, the modular architecture of iterated local search makes it very suitable for an algorithm engineering approach where, progressively, the algorithm’s performance can be further optimized. Our purpose here is to give an accessible description of the underlying principles of iterated local search and a discussion of the main aspects that need to be taken into account for a successful application of it. In addition, we review the most important applications of this method and discuss its relationship with other metaheuristics.
Experiments for teaching economics
(Edward Elgar Publishers, 2024) Llavador, Humberto
The rise and decline of children’s labor participation levels during the early stages of industrialization: Catalonia (1850-1925)
(Peter Lang, 2011) Camps Cura, Enriqueta
The impact women's educational and economic resources on fertility: Spanish birth cohorts 1901-1950
(Peter Lang, 2007) Baizán, Pau; Camps Cura, Enriqueta
Children's work in Spanish textiles during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
(Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2015) Camps Cura, Enriqueta
The hot stove effect
(Cambridge University Press, 2023) Denrell, Jerker; Le Mens, Gaël
People revisit the restaurants they like and avoid the restaurants with which they had a poor experience. This tendency to approach alternatives believed to be good is usually adaptive but can lead to a systematic bias. Errors of underestimation (an alternative is believed to be worse than it is) will be less likely to be corrected than errors of overestimation (an alternative is believed to be better than it is). Denrell & March (2001) called this asymmetry in error correction the “Hot Stove Effect.” This chapter explains the basic logic behind the Hot Stove Effect and how this bias can explain a range of judgment biases. We review empirical studies that illustrate how risk aversion and mistrust can be explained by the Hot Stove Effect. We also explain why even a rational algorithm can be subject to the same bias.
Del imperio a la globalización: historia económica de la España contemporánea
(Editorial Planeta S. A., 2018) Carreras, Albert; Tafunell, Xavier
L’economia catalana: una visió plurisecular. Discurs de recepció d’Albert Carreras de Odriozola com a membre numerari de la Secció de Filosofia i Ciències Socials, llegit el dia 10 de desembre de 2019, resposta d'Andreu Mas-Colell, membre emèrit de la Secció de Filosofia i Ciències Socials
(Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 2019) Carreras, Albert
Between empire and globalization: an economic history of modern Spain
(Springer, 2021) Carreras, Albert; Tafunell, Xavier
Turbulències i tribulacions: els anys de les retallades
(Edicions 62, 2018) Carreras, Albert; Mas-Colell, Andreu; Planas, Ivan
Presentación
(Pasado & Presente, 2020) Carreras, Albert
Historical forerunners in Spanish policy analysis
(Policy Press, 2022) Carreras, Albert; Aubanell Jubany, Anna Maria
This chapter focuses on the development of policy analysis tools, mostly policy evaluation and assessment. Spain has a fairly long tradition – albeit not a continuous one – of policy evaluation, starting in the late 18th century, but it has undergone important institutional shifts and setbacks, which reflect major political conflicts. Up until the mid-19th century the major contributions to designing and implementing policies came from outstanding individuals. This was followed by an era of parliamentary commissions that provided a political space to advocate for conflicting interests, a model that later became institutionalised. During World War I a new formula for evaluating and designing policies emerged: the research bureau. Under the Franco dictatorship, the development of policy evaluation suffered a major setback. There was no interest in promoting institutions to assess public policy. Given the very nature of the Franco regime, these institutions only emerged when they were promoted by business leaders and lobbies. As relations with Western countries improved and technocrats became more important in Franco’s government, more policy evaluation was developed and a new university-trained elite took care of it. They became very influential after Franco’s death.
Spanish business performance in the twentieth century
(Oxford University Press, 2016) Binda, Veronica; Carreras, Albert; Tafunell, Xavier
The achievements of the Spanish economy in the last forty years of the old millennium were impressive, especially taking into account that Spain was largely an agricultural country at the beginning of the twentieth century. Spanish corporations were important protagonists in this catch-up process. This chapter deals with the business development and performance of Spanish big companies in terms of both return on equity and holding return throughout the century. After describing the transformations in the activity of firms by industry, and their corporate ownership, the chapter focuses on these corporations’ results. According to the main outcomes of the investigation, the experience in terms of Spanish business performance in the twentieth century seems to have been one of high profitability. This could be viewed in the light of the fact that the perceived risk was above average, and consequently the returns were expected to be higher than normal.
The organization of public registries: a comparative analysis
(2023) Arruñada, Benito
This work analyzes the main tradeoffs in the organization of public registries, comparing five forms of organization: (1) the bureaucracies or “discretionary expense centers” used to provide privately valuable services in the welfare state; (2) the internal markets introduced to reform them, and the hybrid solutions that have been used by the liberal state since the 19th century to provide such privately valuable services, including (3) revenue centers based on user fees; (4) franchised systems in which professional civil servants are paid from the profit of an office; and (5) the contemporary variant in which the Government contracts out the provision of the whole service to a private firm. This comparison suggests that hybrid forms allow market forces to play a more effective role in organizing public registries because they are limited to a few variables, which makes stronger incentives possible while, at the same time, reducing the need for extensive planning and supervisory staff.

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Enviaments recents