The study of the economic impact of immigration in receiving regions has been a highly researched area for the past 30 years and continues to attract much attention from academics and policymakers1. Recent large population displacements have renewed interest in analysing the effects of large immigration inflows across locations. For example, recent papers have looked at local impact of large refugee waves from Ukraine or Syria.

Housing affordability is an increasingly important problem in cities around the world. In Europe, approximately one in ten families spend more than 40% of their income on housing costs, a situation referred to as “housing overburden”, which is particularly acute in cities (Eurostat, 2021). In Spain, 20% of tenant households are overburdened by housing costs, spending over 40% of their income on housing (OECD, 2021). The
extent and importance of this phenomenon has led to the coinage of the term “housing affordability crisis” (UN-Habitat, 2020).

A society’s civic sense is commonly understood to mean the respect that its citizens show to the rules of collective life, their involvement in the definition of these rules, and the priority they give to the general interest over private ones. In modern democracies, good citizenship is also commonly understood to include tolerance for the diversity of religions and political opinions, as well as support for the idea of equal rights for all citizens, regardless of gender and origin. These civic virtues have long been identified as central to the stability of democratic societies and to their economic development (see Putnam, 1993; Tabellini, 2008; or Guiso et al., 2011).

Lifetime inequality is due to multiple factors, including the environment where individuals grow and innate differences, such as differences in health at birth or simply in genes. A large strand of literature in economics and psychology demonstrates the importance of characteristics shaped in childhood in determining later-life success. Crucially, this literature shows that at least 50% of the variability of lifetime earnings across people can be attributed to characteristics determined by age 18 (see, e.g., Heckman and Mosso, 2014). This suggests that our income is largely determined by characteristics beyond our choice. Does this imply that some part of inequality simply reflects differences in innate endowments and is unalterable? It does not. Inequality based on differences in innate characteristics can, like other inequalities, be ameliorated via redistributive policies, such as compensatory education, or via parental investments.

Spain is a decentralized country as far as government spending is concerned, operating a system in which its regions or autonomous communities play a particularly relevant role – administering roughly a third of total public expenditure – and where their fiscal outcomes have a significant impact on general fiscal policy and sustainability. Indeed, the literature dedicated to the finances of the autonomous communities has shown a specific concern for their fiscal outcomes and funding model, while their budget practices have been just partially examined by a number of specific publications.

The decision by the Spanish Council of Ministers on 28 September 2021 to approve a 2022-2026 Airport Regulation Document (DORA) that does not envisage the expansion of Barcelona airport may seem to close the
debate on whether or not such an expansion is necessary. However, because this decision does not solve the problem indefinitely, it can also be interpreted as an opportunity to take more time to delve into the debate
and rigorously analyse the various alternatives.