This paper develops a model which integrates the foral or cupo system applied to the Basque Country and Navarre, with the common system applied to the other fifteen Spanish autonomous communities. This approach contributes to the understanding of the relationship between foral, non-foral and...

The recent recession has generated a tremendous increase in unemployment rates in Spain. In this paper we use a very rich repeated cross-section dataset on workers’ job conditions, together with regional unemployment rates, to investigate whether peers’ unemployment affects individuals’...

The present work defines a measure that allows one to determine the actuarial cost of delivering a monetary unit of pension in the case of a pay-as-you-go system. This cost is connected with the system's actuarial viability. The basis is the model used by Devesa & Devesa (2008b) to determine the...

The main idea upon which this paper is based is that outlined by Samuelson (1958) -that a pensions system, financed by way of transfers between generations, will only be viable in the long term if the internal rate of return of the system does not exceed the growth rate of salaries plus the...

The aim of this paper is to examine the sensitivity of total factor productivity (TFP) to foreign competition in the case of a European country. Using the Olley and Pakes (1996) method, we calculate the TFP of Spanish manufacturing firms and study the impact of EU tariffs, foreign competition...

The aim of this work is twofold: on the one hand, to demonstrate the utility of the actuarial balance as an element of transparency, an indicator of the solvency, sustainability and financial solidity of the pay-as-you-go system and a tool capable of providing positive incentives to improve the...

In this paper, we propose a new approach to represent a country's outward orientation. Prior work mostly uses indicators of aggregate trade intensity, trade policy or trade restrictiveness. Our approach offers a broader perspective as it measures a country's level of integration not only by its...

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to the study of international trade that leads to a measure of country openness that is quite different from the various alternatives proposed by the received literature. In contrast to these, our measure does not use indicators of aggregate trade...