José Luis Roig Sabaté

Bio: José Luis Roig Sabaté is an academic researcher from Autonomous University of Barcelona. The author has contributed to research in topics: Productivity & Economies of agglomeration. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 23 publications receiving 302 citations.

Car ownership and access to jobs in Spain

Abstract: This study analyses the impact that job accessibility in public transport has on car ownership. An ordered probit explaining the number of cars per household is estimated as a function of head of household characteristics, household characteristics and job accessibility. The data used in the analysis come from the Microcensus of year 2001 of the Spanish Institute of Statistics for the areas of Barcelona and Madrid. Our results show a significant effect of accessibility on car ownership. Additionally, we carried out simulation exercises in which the expected number of vehicles decreases as accessibility improves. For instance, in the case of households living outside the central city, an improvement of accessibility up to the average level of the central city would offset the effect of the number of working adults on the expected number of vehicles.

Capital humano: un análisis comparativo Catalunya - España

Abstract: En este documento se analizan comparativamente algunos aspectos relativos al capital humano de la economia catalana y espanola. En primer lugar se compara la dotacion de capital humano tanto desde una metodologia mas tradicional, como es el caso de anos de educacion, como desde el punto de vista de la valoracion del activo mediante actualizacion de flujos salariales a lo largo del ciclo vital de los individuos. Los resultados muestran indicios de una cierta desaceleracion en el crecimiento del stock de capital humano. Adicionalmente, se lleva a cabo una estimacion de la existencia de externalidades de capital humano intra-establecimiento, con datos de la Encuesta de Estructura Salarial, desarrollando una metodologia menos restrictiva que la tradicional. Los resultados muestran comportamientos similares de la economia espanola y catalana, apuntando a la existencia de externalidades.

Los rendimientos de la educación y la inserción laboral en España

Abstract: espanolEl articulo analiza la evolucion temporal, desde principios de los ochenta hasta mediados de los noventa, de los rendimientos de la inversion educativa en Espana. Posteriorment desagrega los rendimientos de la educacion por niveles, asi como por titulaciones, dando tambien cabida al efecto que la educacion tiene sobre la menor probabilidad de paro de los mas educados. Se concluye que la inversion educativa es rentable y que esta rentabilidad ha experimentado un cierto aumento desde 1990, a pesar del fuerte incremento que se ha producido en el stock de capital humano, lo que indica un ritmo mas intenso de crecimiento de la demanda de capital humano que de la oferta, fenomeno que puede estar ligado al cambio tecnico en sentido amplio. EnglishThe article analyzes the changes with time in the returns on educational investment, from the early eighties to the midnineties in Spain. It then goes to the break down the returns on education by levels and byqualifications, whilst also making room for the effect that education has on the lower probability of unemployment amongst the most highly educated. We conclude that educational investment is profitable and that this profitability has undergone a certain increase since1990, despite the sharp rise that has taken place in the stock of human capitall, which indicates a higher rate of increase in the demand for human capital than in the supply, a phenomenon that may be linked to technical change in a broad sense.

Specifying human capital

Abstract: A review of the measures of the stock of human capital used in empiricalgrowth research - including adult literacy rates, school enrollmentratios, and average years of schooling of the working-age population -reveals that human capital is mostly poorly proxied. The simple use ofthe most common proxy, average years of schooling, misspecifies therelationship between education and the stock of human capital. Based onhuman capital theory, the specification of human capital is extended toallow for decreasing returns to education and for differences in thequality of a year of education. The different specifications give riseto hugely differing measures of the stock of human capital acrosscountries, and development-accounting results show that misspecifiedhuman capital measures can lead to severe underestimation of thedevelopment effect of human capital.

The link between public support and private r&d effort: what is the optimal subsidy?

Abstract: The effectiveness of R&D subsidies can vary substantially depending on their characteristics. Specifically, the amount and intensity of such subsidies are crucial issues in the design of public schemes supporting private R&D. Public agencies determine the intensities of R&D subsidies for firms in line with their eligibility criteria, although assessing the effects of R&D projects accurately is far from straightforward. The main aim of this paper is to examine whether there is an optimal intensity for R&D subsidies through an analysis of their impact on private R&D effort. We examine the decisions of a public agency to grant subsidies taking into account not only the characteristics of the firms but also, as few previous studies have done to date, those of the R&D projects. In determining the optimal subsidy we use both parametric and non-parametric techniques. The results show a non-linear relationship between the percentage of subsidy received and the firms’ R&D effort. These results have implications for technology policy, particularly for the design of R&D subsidies that ensure enhanced effectiveness.

Does Grade Retention Affect Achievement? Some Evidence from PISA

Abstract: Grade retention practices are at the forefront of the educational debate. In this paper, we use PISA 2009 data for Spain to measure the effect of grade retention on students' achievement. One important problem when analyzing this question is that school outcomes and the propensity to repeat a grade are likely to be determined simultaneously. We address this problem by estimating a Switching Regression Model. We find that grade retention has a negative impact on educational outcomes, but we confi rm the importance of endogenous selection, which makes observed differences between repeaters and non-repeaters appear 14.6% lower than they actually are. The effect on PISA scores of repeating is much smaller (-10% of non-repeaters' average) than the counterfactual reduction that non-repeaters would suffer had they been retained as repeaters (-24% of their average). Furthermore, those who repeated a grade during primary education suffered more than those who repeated a grade of secondary school, although the effect of repeating at both times is, as expected, much larger.

What Underlies Localization and Urbanization Economies? Evidence from the Location of New Firms

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to analyze why firms in some industries locate in specialized economic environments (localization economies) while those in other industries prefer large city locations (urbanization economies). To this end, we examine the location decisions of new manufacturing firms in Spain at the city level and for narrowly defined industries (three-digit level). First, we estimate firm location models to obtain estimates that reflect the importance of localization and urbanization economies in each industry. In a second step, we regress these estimates on industry characteristics that are related to the potential importance of three agglomeration theories, namely, labor market pooling, input sharing and knowledge spillovers. Localization effects are low and urbanization effects are high in knowledge-intensive industries, suggesting that firms (partly) locate in large cities to reap the benefits of inter-industry knowledge spillovers. We also find that localization effects are high in industries that employ workers whose skills are more industry-specific, suggesting that industries (partly) locate in specialized economic environments to share a common pool of specialized workers.