Ricard Rigall-I-Torrent

Public goods in tourism municipalities: formal analysis, empirical evidence and implications for sustainable development.

This paper formally analyses the effects that public goods (in a broad sense) have on tourists and private tourism firms. By approaching the tourism product as a bundle of characteristics, the paper shows how the supply of public goods in tourism municipalities positively affects both the tourists utility functions and the private firms production functions. Some implications of this fact regarding the sustainability of tourism are discussed. By means of hedonic methods, empirical evidence of location on prices for hotels on Catalonias coast (Spain) is provided.

Hotel Characteristics and Seasonality in Prices: An Analysis Using Spanish Tour Operators' Brochures

Seasonality in the tourism sector has been a major concern for policy makers, managers and other stakeholders. Many studies have analysed seasonality from the point of view of the number of visitors. However, there appear to be no studies focusing on seasonality in prices and on how to smooth out seasonal patterns. This paper analyses how hotel characteristics affect seasonality in prices using brochure data on 1,776 hotels in 32 sun-and-beach destinations in 11 countries. The authors find that, after controlling for destination-specific variables that may cause variations in prices through demand shifts (such as climatic conditions, exchange rates or marketing expenditures), more hotel services and higher star ratings are associated with fewer seasonal variations in hotel prices.

Differences in seasonal price patterns among second home rentals and hotels: Empirical evidence and practical implications

Hotels and second home rentals are two of the most important tourist accommodation options in Spain. In terms of seasonality, almost all previous studies have analysed tourism demand from the point of view either of total arrivals or the number of tourists lodged in a single accommodation type (hotels, rural accommodation, etc). However, there are no studies focusing on price seasonality or comparing seasonality among different accommodation types. By using seasonality indicators and a price index constructed by means of hedonic methods, this paper aims to shed some light on seasonal pricing patterns among second home rentals and hotels. The paper relies on a 2004 database of 144 hotels and 1,002 apartments on the Costa Brava (northeast Spain). The results show that prices for second home rentals display a smoother seasonal pattern than hotels due to reduced price differences between shoulder (May and October) and peak periods (August).

Coastal erosion perception and willingness to pay for beach management (Cadiz, Spain)

Coastal zones are complex systems where many different human activities and natural processes converge. One of the most profitable and enjoyable activities is beach tourism and recreation; however, coastal erosion can cause not only loss of land and asset values but also loss of environmental and landscape qualities and therefore their recreational value due to passive erosion from shoreline armouring and coastal development. This paper reports results from economic and demographic factors affecting public coastal erosion awareness and willingness to pay on the urban beaches of Cadiz, SW Spain. Although there is a great public awareness of coastal erosion among the interviewed adults from town, the willingness to pay for beach management improvement is minimal. The fact is possibly explained by the low regional economic status and the large number of local residents among the beachgoers. The majority of the respondents said that there should not be any extra charges because they pay regular local taxes and already pay for using beach services.

Using problem-based learning for introducing producer theory and market structure in intermediate microeconomics

This paper shows how instructors can use the problem-based learning method to introduce producer theory and market structure in intermediate microeconomics courses. The paper proposes a framework where different decision problems are presented to students, who are asked to imagine that they are the managers of a firm who need to solve a problem in a particular business setting. In this setting, the instructors’ role is to provide both guidance to facilitate student learning and content knowledge on a just-in-time basis.This paper shows how instructors can use the problem‐based learning method to introduce producer theory and market structure in intermediate microeconomics courses. The paper proposes a framework where different decision problems are presented to students, who are asked to imagine that they are the managers of a firm who need to solve a problem in a particular business setting. In this setting, the instructors’ role is nto provide both guidance to facilitate student learning and content knowledge on a just‐in‐time basis

The impact of inbound demand on price levels in tourism municipalities: empirical evidence from Catalonia.

It is usually argued that tourism exerts negative economic impacts in host jurisdictions through the increase in prices linked to increasing demand for basic services and goods from tourists. This paper surveys 149 products in 45 tourism and non-tourism jurisdictions in Catalonia (which represent a total of 18,500 prices) in order to test empirically several hypotheses related to differences in price levels in tourism and non-tourism jurisdictions. The main results show that prices in tourism jurisdictions are not significantly higher than those in non-tourism ones. The analysis suggests that tourists are likely to pay higher prices than natives for some products.

Teaching Adverse Selection at the Principles of Economics Level

The paper proposes a framework for teaching adverse selection at the principles of economics level based on simple graphical and numerical arguments. The proposed approach is useful for putting the emphasis on the beliefs of individuals about the behavior of others and for considering thin markets and market vanishing as outcomes of dynamic processes.

Learning Undergraduate Microeconomics by Reading the Masters

The article presents an experience developed with upper undergraduate microeconomics students which consists of reading selected classical articles on key microeconomics topics rather than attending typical lectures. The paper has two main goals. First, to give a detailed account of the structure for an upper-intermediate microeconomics course based on students reading original research articles. The presentation emphasizes the aspects which may help instructors when implementing the approach to other courses. Second, in order to evaluate the proposed method, the paper determines whether student learning improves with such an approach. Besides, the paper’s results also allow instructors to determine what kind of article is more appropriate for upper-undergraduate students in microeconomics.

Using Cournot Games for Introducing Producer Theory and Market Structure in Intermediate Microeconomics

This paper adopts a pedagogical approach inspired in the problem-based learning method to show how instructors can use Cournot games for introducing producer theory and market structure in intermediate microeconomics courses. A decision problem is presented to students, who are asked to imagine that they are the owners/managers of a firm. The instructors role is to provide both guidance to facilitate student learning and content knowledge on a just-in-time basis. This approach is useful to highlight the connection between perfect competition, oligopoly and monopoly and to present students with opportunities to simulate complex situations which they may encounter in real life.