Open Access
Territorial mobility: a measuring proposal
(2005) Ezcurra Orayen, Roberto; Pascual Arzoz, Pedro; Rapún Gárate, Manuel; Economía; Ekonomia
As a contribution to the study of intradistributional mobility, this paper introduces a family of functions whose usefulness as mobility measures is justified by different theoretical results. Indeed, as a particular case, this family includes the Bartholomew index, which is widely used in the literature devoted to the dynamic analysis of personal income distribution. The paper also contains, by way of example, an application to the study of mobility in regional per capita income distribution in the European Union between 1977 and 1999.
Open Access
A centralized directional distance model for efficient and horizontally equitable grants allocation to local governments
(Elsevier, 2022) Arocena Garro, Pablo; Cabasés Hita, Fermín; Pascual Arzoz, Pedro; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
This paper proposes a directional distance model for efficient resource allocation when there is a centralized decision maker who oversees all units. The model is designed to allocate grants from an upper-tier government to the municipalities under its jurisdiction. Local governments employ the grants together with levied local taxes to provide services to their citizens. The objective of our formulation is to optimize grants allocation across municipalities taking into account efficiency, effectiveness and horizontal fiscal equity criteria. The model easily allows the setting of alternative priorities of the central decision maker, thus permitting quantification of the trade-off between the potential increase in the provision of local services and its associated cost. The model is applied to the allocation of current grants in the autonomous community of Navarre in northern Spain.
Open Access
Regional specializacion in the European Union
(2004) Ezcurra Orayen, Roberto; Gil Canaleta, Carlos; Pascual Arzoz, Pedro; Economía; Ekonomia
This paper examines productive specialization in the regions of the European Union over the period 1977 to 1999 using the information provided by various methodological instruments. The results obtained reveal a process of convergence in regional productive structures during the twenty-three years considered. This has been due to the behavior of regions with high levels of specialization at the start of the period, whose productive structures have tended to shift towards the European average over time. The analysis carried out also highlights the major role played by regional size, level of development and geographical location in explaining specialization in the European context. Finally, the empirical evidence provided suggests that changes in regional productive structures are closely linked to the evolution of the spatial distribution of per capita income in the European Union.
Open Access
Raising the accuracy of shadow economy measurements
(Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, 2021) Ríos Ibáñez, Vicente; Gómez Gómez-Plana, Antonio; Pascual Arzoz, Pedro; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
En este artículo se estima el tamaño de la economía sumergida en una región española (Navarra) para el período 1986-2016. Se han empleado métodos macroeconométricos indirectos, como el enfoque de Demanda de efectivo, dos métodos de Consumo de electricidad (inputs físicos) y el enfoque de Múltiples Indicadores y Múltiples Causas (MIMIC). Una característica diferencial del análisis empírico es la incorporación de varias innovaciones metodológicas (por ejemplo, el promediado bayesiano de modelos, un modelo de parámetros que varían en el tiempo, o la normalización de la variable latente) para refinar y aumentar la precisión de medición de cada uno de los métodos indirectos considerados. El patrón temporal del tamaño de la economía sumergida que surge de los diferentes enfoques es similar, lo que sugiere que las estimaciones obtenidas son sólidas y capturan la dinámica subyacente del sector oculto. Después de cuantificar la economía sumergida, se analizan sus determinantes mediante técnicas de promediado bayesiano de modelos. Encontramos que la evolución de la economía sumergida en Navarra puede explicarse por un conjunto pequeño y robusto de factores: la carga fiscal, el empleo en el sector de la construcción, la tasa de inflación, la pertenencia a la zona euro y la ratio del efectivo fuera de los bancos en relación a M1.
Open Access
Clearing the smog ceiling: the impact of women’s political empowerment on air quality in European regions
(Elsevier, 2024) Ríos Ibáñez, Vicente; Barba Areso, Izaskun; Gianmoena, Lisa; Pascual Arzoz, Pedro; Economía; Ekonomia
This study explores the impact of female political empowerment on air quality outcomes. Women's stronger environmental concerns and pro-environmental behaviors may lead to better air quality as they progressively break the glass ceiling in politics. To test this hypothesis, we employ a novel data set on regional air pollutant emissions and women's political empowerment for a sample of 230 European regions of 27 EU countries. We apply instrumental variables and partial identification methods to ensure that our results are not influenced by confounding variables. We find that female political empowerment is consistently associated with improved air quality.
Open Access
Inequality, polarisation and regional mobility in the European Union
(2004) Ezcurra Orayen, Roberto; Gil Canaleta, Carlos; Pascual Arzoz, Pedro; Rapún Gárate, Manuel; Economía; Ekonomia
This paper examines the distribution dynamics of regional per capita income in the European Union between 1977 and 1999. To achieve this aim, we combine a non-parametric approach with the information provided by various measures used in the literature on personal income distribution. The results obtained suggest that regional inequality and polarisation have decreased in the European context over the period considered. Likewise, the observed level of intradistributional mobility is relatively low. Furthermore, our findings reveal the important role played by the national component and the spatial dimension in the distribution dynamics.
Open Access
Tax collection efficiency in OECD countries improves via decentralization, simplification, digitalization and education
(Elsevier, 2022) Ubago Martínez, Yolanda; Pascual Arzoz, Pedro; Zabaleta Arregui, Idoia; Ekonomia; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Economía; Gestión de Empresas
This paper offers an assessment of tax administration performance and provides evidence of the relationship between fiscal decentralization (and tax structure) and the technical efficiency of tax collection. The initial stage of the investigation consists of a data envelopment analysis (DEA) to obtain technical efficiency estimates for a sample of 28 OECD countries over the period 2004–2017. In a second stage, we explore how technical efficiency is affected by fiscal decentralization and tax structure variables. The results show how the degree of fiscal decentralization has a positive and significant impact on the technical efficiency of tax collection. They also reveal a relevant role of tax structure choices and the ratio of indirect to direct taxes, which can significantly affect tax collection efficiency. Finally, we extract some policy implications.