Juan de Lucio

The effects of externalities on productivity growth in Spanish industry

Abstract The paper discusses the role of externalities in promoting industrial growth in Spanish regions. We try to identify whether the so-called dynamic externalities (technological spillovers) come from outside the industry (Jacobs type externalities) or whether they are generated between firms inside the industry (Marshall–Arrow–Romer or MAR type externalities). Moreover, this study attempts to test the effects of competition on innovation and growth (Porter type external effects). Related to earlier work by the authors on static and dynamic externalities analysis, this paper restricts the analysis to dynamic externalities using productivity, instead of labor. The empirical analysis is based on data from the Spanish Industry Survey from 1978 to 1992 for 26 manufacturing branches. We find evidence of dynamic effects due to specialization (MAR) that depend on the level of this variable. While specialization seems to affect productivity growth negatively, once it reaches a certain level, its effect on growth becomes positive due to knowledge sharing. However, we do not find clear evidence on the presence of diversity (Jacobs) and competition (Porter) externalities.

Local responses to a global monetary policy: The regional structure of financial systems

This paper contrasts the different regional effects of an homogeneous monetary policy, and studies the local characteristics that underlie these differential responses. To this purpose, we use Spanish regional data and estimate a vector autoregression (VAR) model using seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) techniques to characterise regional responses. Results provide evidence of statistically different regional responses of real variables to monetary policy shocks. We use these estimated responses to analyse if they depend on regional characteristics. Results show that manufacturing sectors, a negative financial position, as well as the degree of nominal wage indexation, enhance the effect of monetary policy.

Growth and the Welfare State in the EU: A Causality Analysis

In this paper, we test for causality between GDP growth andsocial protection expenditure in the European Union. To that end,we apply Hsiaos (1981) sequential procedure to data for twelveEU countries along the 1970–1994 period. Our results suggestthat, for Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,Portugal, and Spain, causality runs only from social protectiongrowth to GDP growth, while for Denmark, France, Greece, Italy,and the United Kingdom, no causality is found between socialprotection growth and GDP growth.

Social protection benefits and growth: evidence from the European Union

Using a harmonized data set for the European Union and panel data techniques, and following a production function approach, we find a positive growth effect of total social protection expenditure on growth. When evaluating the effects of different programmes, the results are mixed.

Why firms set different export prices? Evidence from Spain

ABSTRACT Using firm-level export data for the 2010–2014 period, we investigate the variation of export prices across and within Spanish manufacturing firms. We find that more productive firms set higher export prices. However, this result is not robust to controlling for other firm-level characteristics and alternative productivity measures. We show that firms set higher export prices in more distant markets and in destinations with high GDP per capita, and lower export prices in large and low-competition markets. These latter results suggest that firms adjust the quality of their products to destination characteristics.

Do new exporters grow so fast

The literature shows that new exporters have small levels of exports relative to regular exporters upon entry, and, if they survive, they have very high export growth rates between the entry year and the next year. However, these empirical facts might be biased by the partial year effect: firms that start to export late during the year have a lower level of exports upon entry and a higher growth rate between the entry year and the next year. We test the partial year effect for the whole universe of Spanish new exporters during the period 2002 to 2012. We confirm that the partial year undervalues entry levels and overvalues growth rates.