Alberto Ruiz-Villaverde

Analysis of urban water management in historical perspective: evidence for the Spanish case.

The level of public and private involvement in economic activity in societies has changed over time. One may talk about the existence of a cyclical trend in which the most important periods of public management are replaced by periods in which private management dominates the situation. This phenomenon may also be observed in local areas. Some authors have pointed out the existence of an alternation in the provision of municipal services, resulting in periods dominated by public management compared with other stages dominated by private management. In order to illustrate this cyclical trend at the local level, this paper intends to analyse the evolution of the governance of the Spanish water supply since the mid-19th century to the present day. Recent evidence from the industry suggests the possibility that a further change in the trend may currently be being witnessed.

Public Participation in European Water Management: from Theory to Practice

Public and stakeholder participation in water management is a crucial element in the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Theoretically, the WFD identifies several advantages of public participation, such as the better use of knowledge and experiences from different stakeholders, increases in public acceptance and reduced litigation, delays, and inefficiencies in implementation. However, few studies have gone as deep, in practical terms, as the existing difficulty to introduce public participation in water management. The aim of this study was to cover this issue. It aims to conduct a literature review on public participation looking for successful social innovation experiences by the EU member states and also for the main limitations and difficulties of implementation detailing the study of the Spanish case.

Public choice of urban water service management: a multi-criteria approach

Local policy makers in developed countries have to make decisions in increasingly complex scenarios. Consequently, they should use all the tools available when deciding which management option is the most suitable for urban water service, given how important that service is and the variety of criteria involved in making such a decision. This article employs ‘analytic hierarchy process’ techniques to perform an ex post analysis of the decision to transfer the management of the urban water service in Granada (in southern Spain) to a public-private partnership. The main conclusion is that the decision was rational, in that it was the best possible alternative considering the hierarchy of preferences at the time. Furthermore, confronting the serious financial difficulties faced by the local government took clear precedence over other aspects when the decision was taken.

A computer tool for cardiovascular risk estimation according to Framingham and SCORE equations

Background  Currently, we have different scales to estimate the cardiovascular risk of one individual. The most commonly used in clinical practice are the Framingham method and the SCORE project. Both are based on mathematical models that take into account the presence and intensity of various risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Aims and objectives  The aim of our study was to develop a measurement system that allows unifying criteria of both models. Thus, we will be able to estimate the cardiovascular risk globally in a cohort of patients instead of individually. Methods  The study included a representative subgroup of 50 patients treated at in the Endocrinology Service of Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, Granada, below 30 years or above 75 years. The equations used in the present study were in strict compliance with the original publications. The reliability and validity of results were tested, comparing them with results obtained using calculation programs developed, available on-line. The degree of similarity was determined by means of the Dice index and the distance between our values and those of the other programs were compared by using the expression: Da-b  = √Σ(a - b)(2) Results  The results of the present study demonstrated our application to be reliable and valid for cardiovascular risk assessment. Our observations also demonstrated differences in the criteria applied to create cardiovascular risk calculation tools. This may have repercussions on clinical decisions for some patients, suggesting a need to compare and standardize these criteria, ensuring that programs developed for this calculation correctly manage the different risk categories considered. Conclusion  The present study validates a computer tool developed for the simultaneous calculation of cardiovascular disease probability by applying Framingham-Anderson and Framingham-Wilson methods, the Spanish adaptations of Regicor and Dorica, and the SCORE project.

Health-Related Quality of Life, Gender, and Culture of Older People Users of Health Services in the Multicultural Landscape of the City of Ceuta (Spain) A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Perceptions of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are influenced by sociodemographic variables and by cultural-religious concepts of health, disease, and old age, among others. Purpose: To assess the HRQOL of older people in a population with a long history of multiculturalism, the city of Ceuta (Spain), and to compare the results with Spanish reference values. Method: A total of 372 individuals (55.4% females) were interviewed using the Spanish version of the Short Form-36 questionnaire. The subjects’ mean age was 70.9 (SD = 5) years: 253 were Christians, 93 Muslims, and 26 Jews, representing the proportions in the overall population of these cultural-religious groups. Results: HRQOL differs according to the cultural-religious affiliation, which specifically affects social and psychological dimensions. Discussion and Conclusions: All groups obtained lower social function scores than the reference values, especially the Muslim and Jewish groups. Implications for Practice: Health care providers may consider integrating culturally sensitive interventions to improve HRQOL.

Patience Predicts Cooperative Synergy: The Roles of Ingroup Bias and Reciprocity

Patience — low delay discounting — has been shown to predict cooperative behavior in environments where cooperation demands the suppression of competitive aspirations. But what about intergroup-conflict situations, where within-group cooperation is importantly motivated by competitive sentiments against other groups? We analyze the connection between delay discounting and performance in two problem-solving tasks with either individual or intergroup competition incentives. We find a positive relationship between a group’s mean patience and the within-group cooperative synergy, defined as the group members’ performance in the intergroup-competition task relative to their performance in the individual task. Furthermore, ingroup bias cannot account for this result: in a follow-up social preferences task, patience relates positively (negatively) to cooperative (competitive) choices toward unknown students but not toward ingroup members. However, more patient individuals were more willing to reduce the benefits of their uncooperative group partners and increase the benefits of the cooperative ones in a reciprocal manner.

Do small municipalities imitate larger ones? Diffusion of water privatization policies

Abstract Studies on local services privatization have traditionally focused on factors such as pragmatic, ideological and political issues, with little attention paid to the option of policy diffusion processes. The main contribution of this paper consists of introducing the possibility that local policymakers can be influenced by policy adopted by other local governments. The presence of a policy diffusion process, which explains part of the decision to privatize, is expected. Three new variables, not considered in previous studies, are introduced in order to test three hypotheses of policy diffusion. In doing so, data from 755 municipalities in Andalusia (southern Spain) for the period 1995–2013 are used. For data analysis a Logit Multilevel Model is applied. Results confirm the importance of the mechanisms of policy diffusion when adopting privatization policies.