This paper discusses the determinants of two alternative measures of innovative success/output by looking at firm’s innovation strategies. These relationships are also discussed by distinguishing between firms belonging to manufacturing and services sectors.Our econometric analysis is based on an extensive sample of 3,919 firms taken from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for the period 2008–2012. Alongside the empirical analysis we applied a two-step procedure. We first identified a diverse range of innovation strategies by applying a principal component analysis (absence, mixed and oriented). Then, after controlling for positive skewness of the dependent variables, we used a generalized linear model (GLM) to examine the impact of these strategies. Our empirical results have some interesting aspects. Firstly, firms that do not design innovation strategies have a lower probability of being a successful innovative firm. Secondly, firms that design a strategy, but one that is not oriented on any specific direction, are prone to achieving lower success rates than firms with an oriented strategy. Finally, the results also show that there is a good fit between the oriented strategy pursued by a firm and its innovation success.

Jové-Llopis, E. (GRIT, XREAP); Segarra, A. (GRIT, XREAP)

XREAP2016-03.pdf

Theoretical and empirical approaches have stressed the existence of financial constraints in firms’ innovative activities. Although a large number of innovation projects are abandoned before their completion, the empirical evidence has focused on the determinants of innovation while failed projects have received little attention. This paper analyses the role of financial obstacles on the likelihood of abandoning an innovation project by using panel data of potential innovative Spanish firms for the period 2005–2013. Our analysis differentiates between internal and external barriers on the probability of abandoning a project and we examine whether the effects are different depending on the stage of the innovation process. Controlling for potential endogeneity, we use a bivariate probit model to take into account the simultaneity of financial constraints and the decision to abandon an innovation project. Our results show that financial constraints most affect the probability of abandoning an innovation project during the concept stage.

García-Quevedo, J. (IEB, XREAP); Segarra, A. (GRIT, XREAP); Teruel, M. (GRIT, XREAP)

XREAP2016-02.pdf

En este trabajo se estudia el efecto de la dependencia entre dos subcarteras en el requerimiento de capital obligatorio (SCR) por primas y reservas en una cartera de seguros no vida. Para ello, la dependencia se establece entre el número de siniestros de cada subcartera, que se modeliza mediante un choque común. A continuación, se plantean diversas opciones para el cálculo de la distribución del coste total en la cartera agregada, obteniéndose fórmulas explícitas en algunos casos. Finalmente, se incluye una aplicación práctica a partir de datos de una cartera real de seguros de automóviles.

Castañer, A. (CREB, XREAP); Claramunt, M M. (CREB, XREAP); Tadeo, A.; Varea, J. (CREB, XREAP)

XREAP2016-01.pdf

The Korean government has struggled against the proliferation of private tutoring for more than four decades. In 2006, state education authorities imposed a restriction on operating hours of hagwon (private tutoring academies or cram schools) in an attempt at reducing the economic and time resources spent on private tutoring. Since then, some provincial authorities have modified the curfew on hagwon. We take advantage of these policy shifts to identify average treatment effects taking a difference-in-differences approach. Our findings suggest that enforcing the curfew did not generate a significant reduction in the hours and resources spent on private tutoring, our results being heterogeneous by school level and socioeconomic status. Demand for private tutoring seems to be especially inelastic for high school students, who increased their consumption of alternative forms of private tutoring. As the consumption of private tutoring is positively correlated with academic performance and socioeconomic status, the curfew may have a negative effect on the equality of educational opportunities.

Choi, H. (AQR); Choi, A. (IEB)

XREAP2015-06.pdf

We propose a new kernel estimation of the cumulative distribution function based on transformation and on bias reducing techniques. We derive the optimal bandwidth that minimises the asymptotic integrated mean squared error. The simulation results show that our proposed kernel estimation improves alternative approaches when the variable has an extreme value distribution with heavy tail and the sample size is small.

Bolance, C.; Bahraoui, Z.; Alemany, R.

XREAP2015-01.pdf

This research examines wage differences between part-time and full-time workers using microdata from the Spanish Structure of Earnings Survey. The main contribution of the paper is related to the analysis of differences along the wage distribution using econometric decomposition methods and introducing a regional perspective. The evidence shows that part-time workers in Spain experience a significant wage disadvantage. This disadvantage is worse in the case of female workers and it is not homogenous along the wage distribution, being comparatively more relevant for the most qualified women and becoming positive for the most qualified men. However, the disadvantage is practically explained by the endowments of characteristics, with a leading role of segregation of part-time workers in low-wage firms. From a regional perspective, although in the majority of the regions wage differences tend to be explained by endowments of characteristics, there are several regions where the unexplained part of the differential is significant, particularly in the case of male workers. These regional differences seem to be related to differences in the market power of firms at the regional level.

Ramos, R. (AQR-IREA); Sanromá, E. (IEB); Simón, H.

XREAP2015-02.pdf

We exploit the 1983 language-in-education reform that introduced Catalan alongside Spanish as medium of instruction in Catalan schools to estimate the labour market value of bilingual education. Identification is achieved in a difference-in-differences framework exploiting variation in exposure to the reform across years of schooling and years of birth. We find positive wage returns to bilingual education and no effects on employment, hours of work or occupation. Results are robust to education-cohort specific trends or selection into schooling and are mainly stemming from exposure at compulsory education. We show that the effect worked through increased Catalan proficiency for Spanish speakers and that there were also positive effects for Catalan speakers from families with low education. These findings are consistent with human capital effects rather than with more efficient job search or reduced discrimination. Exploiting the heterogeneous effects of the reform as an instrument for proficiency we find sizeable earnings effects of skills in Catalan.

Cappellari, L.; Di Paolo, A. (AQR-IREA, XREAP)

XREAP2015-03.pdf

This paper studies the role of trading partner’ growth and a domestic import tariff in the possibility of growing through trade. To this purpose, a Ricardian model is developed in which a backward economy seeks to increase its long-run growth rate simply by trading with a faster growing partner. It is found that domestic growth may be either negatively affected or unaffected by a domestic import tariff, while it is always positively impacted by foreign growth. Furthermore, convergence in growth rate can emerge both with an import tariff and under free trade. Ours results are consistent with the empirical evidence.

Álvarez-Albelo, C., D.; Manresa, A. (CREB); Pigem-Vigo, M. (CREB)

XREAP2015-04.pdf

Do languages matter beyond their communicative benefits? We explore the potential role of preferences over the language of use, theoretically and empirically. We focus on Catalonia, a bilingual society where everyone is fully proficient in Spanish, to isolate linguistic preferences from communicative benefits. Moreover, we exploit the language-in-education reform of 1983 to identify the causal effects of language skills. Results indicate that the policy change has improved the Catalan proficiency of native Spanish speakers, which in turn increased their propensity to find Catalan-speaking partners. Hence, the acquisition of apparently redundant language skills has expanded cooperation across speech communities.

Caminal, R.; Di Paolo, A. (AQR)

XREAP2015-05.pdf

Una gran parte de las empresas de todo el mundo, y especialmente las PYMES occidentales, están perdiendo mucho dinero, y como consecuencia de ello gran parte de su competitividad potencial, debido a que los costes totales de calidad en que incurren, son inaceptablemente elevados. En la mayoría de los casos no existe modelo coherente alguno para gestionar dichos costes, y en otros, los modelos aplicados se utilizan de forma parcial, rutinaria y con escaso convencimiento. El resultado de ello, como cabría esperar, es obviamente decepcionante. Evidentemente hay también empresas, generalmente las de gran tamaño (líderes del mercado y multinacionales), conocedoras de la gran importancia que para la disminución de sus costes supone disponer de un sistema adecuado de gestión de los costes de calidad. Invierten sistemáticamente en ello, obteniendo resultados satisfactorios, tanto en sus cuentas de resultados como en el nivel de motivación de sus empleados. Éstos, conscientes del interés de la Dirección por mejorar la calidad de sus productos y servicios, se sienten de alguna manera partícipes de ese proyecto, entendiendo que, en definitiva, el éxito de la empresa es también el suyo propio. Hemos analizado las causas de esta situación, utilizando las experiencias plasmadas en numerosos estudios llevados a cabo por expertos internacionales. Una vez localizados, acotados y definidos los aspectos débiles de los procedimientos aplicados en la actualidad, hemos diseñado un par de nuevos modelos de gestión de los costes totales de calidad, que tienen la virtud de haber eliminado aquellas etapas que, en la práctica, se han mostrado ineficaces, e incorporando otras, que han resultado ser muy útiles en diversos campos de la gestión de la calidad. El primero de los modelos, el más simple, puede ser utilizado para gestionar presupuestos de costes de calidad sencillos, mientras que el segundo contempla la posibilidad de lograr una mayor exactitud en las cifras de las previsiones, al tiempo que introduce alguna situación de incertidumbre.

Cristóbal Cebolla, A. R.; Gil-Lafuente, A. M. (RFA-IREA); Merigó-Lindahl, J. M. (RFA-IREA)

XREAP2014-03.pdf