THE EFFECTS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS ON WAGE INEQUALITY AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

In the context of the current economic crisis in Spain, in this Reaserach Project we aim to analyze the economic and social effects it has caused, focusing mainly on two aspects: wage inequality and unemployment.

Period: 2014-2016

BY ESTIMATING THE COST OF REDUCING THE WAITING LISTS: A NEW APROACH.

The quality of the service perceived by the patients highly depends on the time they have to wait to receive medical care. At a time when National Health System must grapple with challenges ranging from adaptation to the budget cuts to aging population, the main objective of this paper is to know the cost of reducing the waiting lists. This is possible to achieve by using a theoretical model based on duality theory which allows identifying the trade-off between the waiting lists and the rest of the inputs. In this way, the relationship the marginal rate of technical substitution is obtained. Moreover, as an innovation in the literature, our study goes beyond and it obtains the monetary cost necessary to lift patients out of the waiting list. Moreover, the model permits us to analyse the technical inefficiency of the hospitals in the sample.

Period: 2014

THE EFFICIENCY OF THE SPANISH POSTAL SECTOR.

We analyze economic efficiency (technical and allocative) and scale economies of the Correos’ units of production (cost centers). To do this, we employ a methodology based of an input distance function which is the dual of the cost function. Applying duality theory, we also develop an economic model to assess the effect of postal infrastructures on the operators’ costs. In order to carry out the empirical model, bayesian econometrics is applied to estimate the parameters in the input distance function and the technical efficiency terms.

Period: March 2012. March 2013

The National Health System is a substantial part of the model of protection and guarantees of the welfare State and has great achievements such as equity and accessibility to health care. But it also has weaknesses such as high demand of health care, long waiting lists in some specialties or the existence of a bureaucratic structure which hinder its management. Besides, the progressive aging of the population and the current economic crisis make difficult to finance the System. Consequently, the efficiency with which the activity is carried out and the control of the health care costs become crucial issues from both the social and economic point of view. This

has contributed to the introduction into the system of new ways in order to achieve more efficient management and planning of the health care activity. The objective of this research is to perform a comparative analysis of the economic (technical and allocative) efficiency of healthcare organizations by analyzing the determinants of the efficiency and its evolution over time. This will allow us to draw conclusions about the impact that these management changes have had during the period under consideration. By using existing tools from the production economics literature, we will compare the impact of the new ways of management in different organizations, and identify the scope for improving performance and the economic costs of doing so.

Period: Año 2013

INMIGRACIÓN, DIFERENCIAS SALARIALES, SATISFACCIÓN Y ESFUERZO LABORAL

Period: 2008-2011