Working Papers (Fac. de Económicas y Empresariales)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10171/70343
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198 results
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- Market competition and the adoption of clean technology: evidence from the taxi industry(Elsevier, 2022) Bajo-Buenestado, R. (Raúl); Borrella-Mas, M.A. (Miguel Ángel)Environmental policies may be ineffective when firms lack incentives to adopt cleaner technologies due to their market power. This paper examines whether a competition shock in a concentrated industry can stimulate the adoption of policy-favored cleaner technologies. Using a unique panel dataset covering the universe of vehicles purchased by taxi drivers in Spain, we exploit the entry of ride-hailing platforms as a natural experiment to identify the impact on their vehicle choices. We find that increased competition led to a 30% surge in the adoption of electric-powered vehicles among taxi drivers. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest an overall reduction in CO2 emissions, highlighting the potential of competition policy to promote environmental sustainability while mitigating market power.
- The effect of blackouts on household electrification status: Evidence from Kenya(Elsevier, 2021) Bajo-Buenestado, R. (Raúl)A number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have recently deployed billions of dollars to improve their electricity infrastructure. However, aggregate data shows that the relative number of households with an electricity connection at home has barely increased. In this paper we study the role of blackouts to partially explain why there have been relatively few additional households with electricity access despite the increase in electrification expenditure. Using geo-localized survey data from Kenya, we find that households that live in neighborhoods in which power outages are relatively more frequent are (at least) about 6–9% less likely to have electricity at home. We also find that households that have electricity access but which experience frequent power outages are also less likely to purchase electrical appliances.
- Datos de mortalidad diarios durante la crisis del COVID-19: una propuesta de mejora(University of Navarra, 2020) Equiza-Goñi, J. (Juan)Cuando una crisis epidemiológica recrudece, el exceso de mortalidad publicado diariamente por MoMo (CNE-Instituto de Salud Carlos III) está gravemente sesgado a la baja. La razón es que el retraso habitual en la notificación de las defunciones se prolonga precisamente en esos momentos en los que dichas estimaciones tienen mayor relevancia social y epidemiológica. Proponemos ajustar los datos diarios (o “en tiempo real”) aplicando proyecciones en el futuro de revisiones observadas de datos ya publicados. Dichas revisiones suman defunciones que se notifican con retraso a excesos de mortalidad ya anunciados. Aplicamos este método a los excesos de mortalidad publicados por MoMo entre el 15 de abril y el 25 de mayo de 2020 durante la crisis del COVID-19 en España. Las correcciones basadas en los modelos polinómicos reducen entre un 18 y un 25% la raíz del error cuadrático medio (RMSE) de los datos “en tiempo real”.
- Long-term business relationships, bargaining and monetary policy(University of Navarra, 2019) Abbritti, M. (Mirko); Aguilera-Bravo, A. (Asier); Trani, T. (Tommaso)A growing empirical literature documents the importance of long-term relationships and bargaining for price rigidity and firms’ dynamics. This paper introduces long-term business-to-business (B2B) relationships and price bargaining into a standard monetary DSGE model. The model is based on two assumptions: first, both wholesale and retail producers need to spend resources to form new business relationships. Second, once a B2B relationship is formed, the price is set in a bilateral bargaining between firms. The model provides a rigorous framework to study the effect of long-term business relationships and bargaining on monetary policy and business cycle dynamics. It shows that, for a standard calibration of the product market, these relationships reduce both the allocative role of intermediate prices and the real effects of monetary policy shocks. We also find that the model does a good job in replicating the second moments and cross-correlations of the data, and that it improves over the benchmark New Keynesian model in explaining some of them.
- Market prices, spatial distribution of consumers and firms' optimal locations in a linear city(Universidad de Navarra, 2019) Bajo-Buenestado, R. (Raúl)We study a game of spatial competition in prices. In particular, we focus on the linear-city duopoly model to see what we can learn about the distribution of consumers, which is not required to be uniform –as in the original Hotelling model. Using variation in firms’ prices and costs, we identify points of the distribution of consumers. Based on these points, we estimate the spatial distribution of consumers along the linear city. We apply our methodology to a dataset of prices of two gas stations on a straight highway. By estimating the distribution of consumers, we are able to find the optimal location of an entrant gas station. Using our estimated distribution of consumers and the entrant’s optimal point, we simulate welfare gains under counterfactual locations of an entrant.
- Vertical market structure and tax pass-through: Evidence from the spanish gasoline market(University of Navarra, 2019) Bajo-Buenestado, R. (Raúl); Borrella-Mas, M.A. (Miguel Ángel)Many papers have explored the relationship between the horizontal market structure and consumers’ tax incidence. However, the extent to which the vertical market structure affects tax incidence is an unexplored question. In this study we examine whether —and to what extent— the vertical market structure explains differences in the pass-through of a tax change onto consumers. First, we characterize the optimal pricing rule for a price-setting retailer; we embed this optimal pricing problem in the classical “successive monopolies” framework. Then, using a unique confidential dataset on gas stations’ vertical contracts, in combination with prices at the pump and gas stations’ characteristics in Spain, we show that —consistent with the theoretical predictions— the pass-through of the gas tax is higher in vertically-integrated gas stations than in non-vertically integrated one.
- RFID technology as a strategic tool to improve inventory management: a case study(University of Navarra, 2010) Alfaro, J.A. (José Antonio); Rábade, L.A. (Luis Arturo); Rodríguez-Chacón, V. (Victoria)Academic literature about RFID shows that this technology has being steadily used as a tool by firms in their efforts to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the last decade. But the fact is that as of today, there are still many differences in terms of the degree of success in implementing RFID technology in different business environments. The main objective of this paper consists on identifying those variables that influence its successfully implementation and handling, specifically in reducing inventory costs. To do so, we develop a case study of a fodder firm that has implemented in a very profitable way the RFID technology in its warehousing facilities.
- An estimated new-keynesian model with unemployment as excess supply of labor(University of Navarra, 2010) Casares, M. (Miguel); Moreno-Ibáñez, A. (Antonio); Vázquez, J. (Jesús)As one alternative to search frictions, wage stickiness is introduced in a New-Keynesian model to generate endogenous unemployment uctuations due to mismatches between labor supply and labor demand. The effects on an estimated New-Keynesian model for the U.S. economy are: i) the Calvo-type probability on wage stickiness rises, ii) the labor supply elas ticity falls, iii) the implied second-moment statistics of the unemployment rate provide a rea sonable match with those observed in the data, and iv) wage-push shocks, demand shifts and monetary policy shocks are the three major determinants of unemployment uctuations.
- Contractual implications of international trade in tacit knowledge(University of Navarra, 2004) Mendi, P. (Pedro)This paper searches for evidence on the additional difficulty the parties have in contracting for the transfer of know-how relative to the transfer of patented technology. There is empirical evidence, drawn from a sample of contracts for the acquisition of technology by Spanish firms in 1991, that contracts scheduled to last shorter are less likely to include the transfer of know-how. It is also found that technical assistance is bundled together with the transfer of know-how, so as to mitigate opportunistic behavior on the seller’s side.
- Exchange rate and inflation dynamics in dollarized economies(2008) Carranza, L. (Luis); Galdón-Sánchez, J.E. (José E.); Gómez-Biscarri, J. (Javier)We use a panel of a hundred-plus countries with differing degrees of dollarization to perform an empirical analysis of the effects of exchange rate depreciations in economies with high liability dollarization. The results qualify the common view that countries with higher dollarization exhibit higher inflation pass-through. We show that large depreciations tend to generate a negative impact on the pass-through coefficient, this impact being more intense the higher the level of dollarization of the economy. We interpret this as evidence that, in highly dollarized economies, the classic inflationary effects of a real depreciation -higher internal demand and imported inflation- can be offset or diminished by both the larger financial costs and the balance-sheet effect, especially if the depreciation is "large". Additionally, the exchange rate regime is shown to matter: countries with fixed exchange rates suffer more noticeable balance-sheet effects of large depreciations