Open Access
Development theories and development as social capability expansion
(2003) Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia
A reasonable social objective of some impartial observer could be providing people the possibility to achieve a better life. Achieving a better life depends, in its turn, on the personal living conditions. Hence, offering the best distribution of conditions from a set of possible distributions could be considered the mainstay of Development Theory. Experts on development rank the possible social states that a society could reach following di erent principles. These principles depend on different criteria of what a good life is, as well as on different principles of Justice. We will see three scenarios where the rankings of social states have been generally set. Linked to the third scenario, we offer a ranking, which considers that a good life is a 'full human life'. We interpret living a full human life as the capability for self-sufficiency, self-respect and agency. These three capabilities may be in conflict, so that, we treat them lexicograhically. Last but not least, this ranking supports the principle of equal opportunity for accessing a better life as a principle of justice.
Open Access
Theory on economic development: from growth of wealth to expansion of freedom
(2003) Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia
In Economic Theory, development is the topic, which delves into human welfare. Its aim is linked to welfare expansion in the context of regions. In this working paper, I am assuming that aims and strategies of development are linked to the evolution of welfare notion. At the same time, this paper supports the perspective that regional development occurs when there is a freedom expansion for living a full human life in that region.
Open Access
Gender bias in sex ratio at birth: the case of India
(2006) Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia
A deeply-rooted preference for sons may decrease the relative number of female births. Though there are variables that may help to erode the couple's preference for sons, these same variables may also increase the availability of means to ensure male births. This is the case of educational achievements. It is not difficult to assume, for example, that a higher level of education helps to erode the couple's preference for sons. However, the effect of an increase in education on female disadvantage at birth is not so straightforward. More education may increase the couple's awareness of the possibility of using prenatal sex detection. We discuss the issue throughout the paper by developing an empirical framework for the case of India.
Open Access
Ranking profiles of capability sets
(Springer, 2008-01-08) Echavarri, Rebeca; Permanyer, Iñaki; Economía; Ekonomia
In this paper, we present an innovative approach for ranking profiles of capability sets on the basis of equity. An interesting way of capturing the notion of equity is to take into account the extent to which each of the different functioning vectors is shared by the population under consideration (of size n). This is done by defining the ‘common capability sets‘ enjoyed by k individuals as the set of functioning vectors simultaneously available to at least k individuals (1 ≤ k ≤ n). These sets are closely related to the original capability sets and have some interesting properties that are examined throughout the paper. We define and axiomatically characterize a capability profile ranking that lexicographically compares the different common capability sets.
Embargo
Economía y género
(Aranzadi, 2020) Echavarri, Rebeca; Martínez de Morentin, Sara; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
La igualdad de oportunidades entre hombres y mujeres es un reto que las empresas afrontan hoy en día formulando planes de igualdad. En este capítulo exploramos razones para alcanzar dicha igualdad desde una perspectiva normativa, es decir la igualdad de género es un valor en sí mismo que las sociedades modernas y sus empresas deberían alcanzar. También examinamos las razones por las que es importante desarrollar planes de igualdad desde una perspectiva instrumental, es decir, discutiremos cómo la igualdad de oportunidades puede mejorar el rendimiento del personal y reducir costes para la empresa.
Open Access
Education and gender bias in the sex ratio at birth: evidence from India
(Duke University Press, 2010-02-01) Echavarri, Rebeca; Ezcurra Orayen, Roberto; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
This article investigates the possible existence of a nonlinear link between female disadvantage in natality and education. To this end, we devise a theoretical model based on the key role of social interaction in explaining people¿s acquisition of preferences, which justifies the existence of a nonmonotonic relationship between female disadvantage in natality and education. The empirical validity of the proposed model is examined for the case of India, using district-level data. In this context, our econometric analysis pays particular attention to the role of spatial dependence to avoid any potential problems of misspecification. The results confirm that the relationship between the sex ratio at birth and education in India follows an inverted U-shape. This finding is robust to the inclusion of additional explanatory variables in the analysis, and to the choice of the spatial weight matrix used to quantify the spatial interdependence between the sample districts.
Open Access
Dimensión económica de los principios rectores: carencias de un marco conceptual contradictorio
(La Ley (Wolters Kluwer), 2011) Archel Domench, Pablo; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
La Ley 2/2011 de 4 de marzo de Economía Sostenible nace con el objetivo, según reza su artículo primero, de introducir las reformas estructurales necesarias para crear las condiciones que favorezcan un desarrollo económico sostenible. Lo que nos encontramos a lo largo de un abanico de artículos y disposiciones es un compendio de medidas de lo más diverso que abarcan, entre otros asuntos, desde el modelo energético deseable para nuestro país hasta las descargas en Internet. La oportunidad de la Ley viene justificada, tal y como se nos dice en el Título Preliminar, por la necesidad de adoptar medidas que permitan afrontar la crisis económica y financiera mundial que ha interrumpido el largo periodo continuo de crecimiento, una de cuyas consecuencias más negativas es el fuerte incremento del desempleo en un corto espacio de tiempo. El objetivo de nuestro trabajo es analizar los conceptos y principios que aparecen en el Título Preliminar (artículos 1 a 3) donde se define el objetivo de la ley, el concepto de Economía Sostenible y se enuncian brevemente los principios resultantes, hasta un total de nueve, de la acción de los poderes públicos. De esta manera, el Título Preliminar vendría a ser una especie de marco conceptual, un espacio en el que se fijan los conceptos básicos sobre cuya base se va a construir el resto del articulado posterior. Para ello, nuestro trabajo lo estructuramos de la siguiente manera. En primer lugar, la siguiente sección efectúa un breve repaso de los conceptos económicos básicos que han ilustrado la literatura sobre el Desarrollo a lo largo de los últimos años y que son empleados para articular el Titulo Preliminar de la Ley de Economía Sostenible. Partiendo de la obra de Adam Smith (La riqueza de las naciones) y pasando por los planteamientos que identificaban desarrollo con crecimiento de la riqueza, nuestro trabajo se abre a otras voces que, como las de Amartya Sen (1988, 1999), analizan de forma crítica la relación entre crecimiento y desarrollo. Seguidamente, el epígrafe tercero analiza en detalle los tres artículos del Título Preliminar. Nuestro trabajo no se limita a exponer el contenido de los mismos, sino que pretende ser una aportación crítica al debate existente sobre el significado de la expresión Desarrollo Económico Sostenible. Por último, la sección cuarta presenta un resumen del capítulo y efectúa unos comentarios finales.
Open Access
Sex-selective abortions and fatal neglect of young girls
(Springer, 2024-12-31) Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
A significant portion of female neonatal, infant and child mortality could be avoided. These girls form part of the phenomenon known as missing women. Previous literature has examined whether families that prevent unwanted (female) pregnancies from reaching term provide greater care to the surviving daughters, but it reports mixed results. An avenue that has received limited attention is the possibility that explicit discrimination against girls legitimates otherwise non-realized behaviors, leading to additional fatal neglect. This paper contributes to the literature, going a step further in the causal identification of aggregate prenatal discrimination effects on postnatal discrimination by comparing the survival outcomes of brothers and sisters who were exposed to different levels of prenatal discrimination around the time of their births. The sample of siblings is reconstructed from the birth history of women in the Indian National Family Health Survey (2016-2017). Prenatal discrimination is measured by the male to female sex ratio at birth (SRB), computed by backward induction from the Census of India (2011). Results show that the greater the difference between the SRB in the birthyears of sisters and the SRB in the birthyears of brothers, the greater the difference in mortality between sisters and brothers. This finding lends support to the idea that prenatal discrimination legitimized otherwise latent discrimination. Furthermore, the excess female mortality associated with this mechanism is found in rural areas, but not in urban ones, and this relationship is more intense for infant girls born in high parities and therefore more likely to belong to families that did not resort to sex-selective abortions to control family sex-composition. This paper contributes to the problematization of the intertwining dimensions of discrimination, providing a better understanding of the missing women phenomenon.
Open Access
The missing link between parents' preferences and daughters' survival : the moderator effect of societal discrimination
(Elsevier, 2016-02-01) Echavarri, Rebeca; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
The premature mortality of female children is an alarming demographic outcome in many countries of the world. The most popular explanation for this phenomenon is the prevalence of son preference. However, empirical findings indicate that the assumption of a positive relationship between wanted daughters and female children¿s survival is not found in every scenario, and it does not have a clear explanation in the literature. To fill this gap, we present a simple model that provides insights into how the positive marginal effect of wanted daughters on their survival might decrease with higher societal discrimination against young females. The model draws on the emerging literature that examines the erosion of cognitive and noncognitive skills that results from poverty and discrimination. Our theoretical findings are tested for the case of India, using the third round of the National Family Health Survey, with Zero-Inflated Poisson models. Our estimates provide support for the interaction of parents¿ preferences and societal discrimination against female children. In particular, we show that the statistical significance of the marginal effect of wanted daughters on their survival disappears in contexts of high societal discrimination against female children. Our study contributes to the literature by questioning the commonly held assumption of additive separability between the effect of family and societal characteristics. One central implication is that the alleviation of poverty alone might fail to automatically reduce sex-based discriminatory practices, and that multidimensional interventions are required that target the individual and society
Open Access
Using visual stimuli to promote healthy snack choices among children
(Elsevier, 2021) Benito Ostolaza, Juan Miguel; Echavarri, Rebeca; García Prado, Ariadna; Osés Eraso, Nuria; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Economía
Most interventions against obesity use information to persuade people to change their behavior, with moderate results. Because eating involves automatic routines, new approaches have emerged appealing to non-reflective cognitive processes. Through a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the impact of visual stimuli (positive and negative) on children's snack-choices at school. Results showed that the negative stimulus had no effect, while the positive stimulus increased the probability among girls of choosing a healthy snack. We also found that children with excess weight had a larger baseline probability of choosing the healthy snack than those without. We conclude that happy emojis, used to nudge non-reflective processes, can steer children towards healthy choices.