Manuel Rapún Gárate

Regional Economic Disparities and Decentralisation

The study of the influence of decentralisation on economic growth has received some attention in recent years, but very few studies deal with its impact on regional inequalities. This paper analyses the impact of both fiscal and political decentralisation on regional inequalities using alternative measures for a sample of 17 OECD countries. In order to check for other possible influences, the study also includes measures of public-sector size and the type of party in government. The final section studies the relevance of fiscal decentralisation in the regional convergence process observed by several authors during the past two decades. The research reveals a strong negative correlation between decentralisation, especially fiscal decentralisation, and regional inequalities, and also a positive influence of decentralisation on regional convergence.

Structural Change, Infrastructure and Convergence in the Regions of the European Union:

This paper tries to give a better understanding of the convergence process among the regions of the EU. It focuses on the role of structural change and infrastructures in this process. First we analyse the convergence of production, labour and productivity among the European Union (EU) regions for the period 1980-96. We then study the impact of structural change in this process. The second part of this article deals with infrastructure, which - since the beginning of the application of EU regional policy - has been one of the main instruments for generating cohesion among EU countries and regions, and was one of the determinants of regional growth and convergence for three periods, namely: 1970-80, 1980-86 and 1988-94. The main findings are: first, that convergence seems to be a complex process, in which structural change is a relevant force; and, second, that infrastructure could be one of the factors that fosters regional growth and convergence.

Technical efficiency in the Spanish agrofood industry

This study estimates frontier production functions with cross-section data for the Spanish agrofood industry by using deterministic and stochastic parametric approaches. We compute the individual technical efficiency for each firm, compare the results and explain the relationship between technical efficiency and other relevant quantitative variables. The results indicate that the Spanish agrofood industry has a level of efficiency between 68% and 93%; which means that it is potentially capable of increasing production without increasing its consumption of inputs. This efficiency level is positively related to factor productivity and unitary labour costs.

Product Differentiation in the Spanish Beef Industry

Abstract This paper aims to investigate changes in the structure of the Spanish quality beef industry in response to the significant decline in beef consumption happened over the last few decades. The role of product differentiation, mechanisms and factors involved in it, are specially studied. We use focus groups and a survey to examine the outlook for the organization of the beef industry, and trends in the development of product differentiation mechanisms and vertical co-ordination strategies. Results reveal the existence of a restructuring process that is being implemented in two ways: Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) and Quality Certified Brands (QCB). Each strategy forms its own entry barriers: the origin of calves in the case of PGI and farm size in QCB; they are therefore complementary rather than competitive.

Evolution of the Agrifood complex in Navarra. An analysis using input-output tables 1980-1995.

This paper analyses the agrofood system in Navarra (Spain) using the Input-Output data for 1980-1995. The aim is to analyse the evolution and changes taking place between the economic activities in the region. Streit, Chenery-Waanabe and Rasmussens indicators are constructed. As is usual, we have also calculated the inconme and employment multipliers. This indicators show the very important role of the agriculture and the vegetables canning industry in the regional economy.