María Tugores

The role of training in changing an economy specialising in tourism

This paper compares the training requirements of alternative tourism development strategies which are differentiated by the quality of service offered. The paper focuses on the Balearic Islands and use an original database that consists of a representative sample of Balearic hotels. This database includes data on both employers and employees and allows us to identify differences in job characteristics, as well as differences in human capital, with respect to both education and on‐the‐job training, depending on the category of the hotel. The article uses a discrete choice model to identify the characteristics of both employer and employee that determine the provision of training. It concludes that educational level is not a strong constraint on the mobility of workers between categories, and we show that on‐the‐job training has a role to play in the transition to alternative tourism development strategies.

The potential effects of a change in the distribution of tourism expenditure on employment

Many mature tourist destinations are considering replacing low category hotel beds with high category beds. This study estimates the potential effects that these proposals will have on employment, assuming that labour is homogeneous. The methodology used is based on the input–output model and the social accounting matrix, which allow direct, indirect and induced effects to be taken into account. In addition to conventional employment and output multipliers, the paper presents projections for different bed replacement scenarios and analyses the replacement ratios which would allow aggregate gross value added or employment to remain constant. Finally, the analysis extends to include the change of tourist expenditure distribution on complementary tourism facilities.

Reconciling work and family from a gender perspective: an application to the Balearic hotel industry

This paper analyses gender inequality in the distribution of paid and unpaid work of men and women in the Balearic hotel industry. More precisely, the author considers the differences between men and women in the number of hours worked and the amount and type of family responsibility (household chores, caring for dependants, etc). She also examines, through a regression analysis, the factors that help explain how much time is spent on unpaid work, taking into account personal, family and job characteristics. In light of the studys findings, the author highlights the factors that may help to change the current situation and recommends appropriate active policy measures.

Implications of Human Capital Analysis in Tourism

Importance of the issue Even though Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations had already pointed out the importance of human capital as an explanatory factor of growth, there is no doubt that in the last forty years the economic theory has improved outstandingly its understanding of the role of human capital in economic development. From the first studies of Shultz (1960, 1961), an important part of the economic growth literature has focused on the effects of human capital on productivity. Starting with Solow (1957), an important part of the research dealing with growth accounting has tried to explain the determinants of growth apart from raw labour and capital accumulation. In some of the main papers on the issue (Griliches 1970, 1977; Kendrick 1976, 1994), human capital has been identified as one of the explanatory elements of the Solow residual ‘black box’. From a theoretical perspective, the proposal of Lucas (1988) has turned into a benchmark in the modelisation of human capital accumulation as the driving force of economic development. In fact, many of the new theories of growth are based on the existence of externalities in education (Topel 1998). From the microeconomic perspective, Gary Becker is considered to be the father of the contemporary human capital economic literature. The goal of these studies is the analysis of individual, family and social investment decisions in human capital and their policy implications. The topics under consideration are, among others, the relationship between individual demand for education and the supply of educated labour, the variance in earnings that can be explained through differences in the components of human capital endowments as education, on-the-job training, experience, migration or health, and the connection between them and labour productivity. During the last decades, an important increase in the average level of human capital has taken place in all developed economies. This has put the analysis of human capital issues at the forefront of labour studies. As

Innovation, hotel occupancy, and regional growth

In this article we contribute to the analysis of innovation in the tourism industry and more specifically to understanding the role of innovation on the hotel occupancy. Furthermore, we discuss how the growth in hotel occupancy due to innovation increases, directly and indirectly, production, added value and employment in other sectors of the economy. In this way, we calculated the total impact on the Balearic economy of an innovation process in the Balearic hotel industry as well as the specific effects on different economic sectors. Positive and significant impact on potential growth was found with added value of between 1.6% and 2.2%. The micro–macro model presented in this work justifies implementing policies promoting innovation in the hotel industry.

Differentiation in the tourism sector: an evolutionary analysis

The debate on the sustainability of mass tourism development strategies for given destinations has focused to a large degree on the advisability of shifting the pattern of specialization towards higher quality. However, little and limited theoretical analysis exists to support this idea. This paper proposes an evolutionary agent-based model for analysing this topic. Different initial configurations of the distribution of hotel qualities and varied saturation levels in the destination lead to different equilibrium configurations. It is found that high-quality and low-quality segments coexist in most of the simulations. Also, the saturation level of a given destination is crucial in determining the weight of the different quality segments up to a limit or maximum level beyond which a strategy of enhancing quality is no longer effective.

Human Capital and Firm Performance: An Analysis of the Hotel Sector in Majorca

Many efforts have been devoted in economics literature to discussing the importance of human capital variables in the economic performance of economic agents. In tourism literature, a number of studies have addressed these relationships. However, studies focusing on the direct impact of human capital on firm performance in the industry are scarce. Starting from previous works showing the positive correlation between human capital, innovation and some performance indicators for a representative sample of hotels in Majorca, this paper expands the analysis by means of an econometric approach. The results show that different education and training variables, and also the manager’s attitude towards human capital, positively impact most of the performance indicators analyzed, even when other key variables such as quality and size are controlled for. These impacts, however, are very much dependent on the performance indicators used, and the results cannot be generalized. Thus, it can be affirmed that human capital variables are important competitive elements in the hotel industry.

Price discrimination: A classroom experiment

ABSTRACT In this article, the authors describe a classroom experiment aimed at familiarizing students with different types of price discrimination (first-, second-, and third-degree price discrimination). During the experiment, the students were asked to decide what tariffs to set as monopolists for each of the price discrimination scenarios under consideration. The objective was to allow the students to work empirically, through trial and error, selecting tariffs for each type of discrimination that would maximize a monopolistic entrepreneurs profits. The purpose of the exercise also was to enable the students to differentiate each type of price discrimination and to set tariffs in each case, as well to help them understand the repercussions in terms of welfare for each type of price discrimination.