How can competition be applied to the airport sector? Does competition between airports make them more efficient? What elements might distort this competition? These are just some of the questions that will be addressed at the Conference on Airport Competition, organised by the Barcelona Economics Institute and the Fedea-Abertis Chair at the University of Barcelona on November 19. At the meeting, international and national experts will present the results of their research in this field.

The conference is aimed at academics with interests in the field of transport and competition; government representatives in the field of transport and competition and representatives of firms operating in the sector.

I investigate the effect of transportation improvements on changes in population location patterns in Barcelona between 1991 and 2006. At a much finer geographical scale, I verify and extend the finding of Baum-Snow (2007a) that transportation cause suburbanization: highway and railroad improvements foster population growth in suburban areas, whereas the transit system also affects the location of population inside the CBD. To estimate the causal relationship between the growth of population (density) and transportation improvements, I rely on an instrumental variables estimation which uses distances to the nearest Roman road, the nearest 19th century main road, and the nearest 19th century railroad network as instruments for the 2001-1991 changes in distance to the nearest highway ramp and the distance to the nearest railroad station.

The aim of this paper is to classify the firms operating in the European telecommunications market according to their degree of internationalization and market knowledge, and to test the effects of this classification and the existence of access regulation on infrastructure investment in European broadband markets. To do so, we construct a (unique) data set for the 27 European countries for the period 2002 to 2009. We estimate, by means of panel data techniques (and instrumental variables to control for any potential endogeneity problem), an investment equation for all firms and separate equations for entrant and incumbent firms. Our results show no significant relation between regulation and total investment. The variables capturing the degree of internationalization and market knowledge have a positive and significant effect on total investment, being a positive and significant effect on entrants’ investment, but no significant impact on that of incumbent firms. This result indicates that, under the current regulatory framework, the firms that invest most are entrants with international experience, while the expansion of incumbents into other countries does not affect their investments in their home countries.

The liberalization of railway transport in Europe has paved the way to promote competition in this sector. The objective of this workshop is to analyze the role of competition in the provision of passenger and freight services according to available evidence. The main issues will be debated through the presentation of three academic papers followed by a round table with the participation of representatives of different economic agents with presence in these markets.

Mientras los sistemas de cultivo convencionales se enfrentan a serios problemas de sostenibilidad, la agricultura orgánica se ve como un sistema más amigable con el medio ambiente ya que favorece los recursos renovables, recicla los nutrientes, utiliza los propios sistemas medioambientales para controlar pestes y enfermedades, preserva los ecosistemas, protege las tierras y reduce la contaminación. Al mismo tiempo, el cultivo orgánico promueve el bienestar animal, el uso de comestibles naturales, la diversidad del producto y evita el desperdicio, entre otras prácticas. Sin embargo, el futuro de la agricultura orgánica dependerá de su viabilidad económica y de la determinación mostrada por los gobiernos proteger estas prácticas. En este artículo se llevan a cabo regresiones de panel con una muestra de granjas catalanas para analizar la influencia de los cultivos orgánicos en el rendimiento de la granja, así como en sus costes y en sus ingresos. Se analiza, también, la estructura de costes de ambos tipos de agricultura y se comenta su papel social y medioambiental.

Muchos gobiernos regionales en los países desarrollados diseñan programas para mejorar la competitividad de las empresas locales. En este papel, evaluamos la efectividad de programas públicos cuyo objetivo es reforzar la actuación de las empresas localizada en Cataluña (España). Se compara la actuación de empresas subvencionadas (tratadas) con empresas similares, pero no subvencionadas (no tratadas). Se utiliza el Propensity Score Matching (PSM) para construir un grupo de control que, con respecto a las principales características, es muy similar al grupo tratado, lo que permite identificar empresas que presentan la misma propensión a recibir subvenciones. Una vez se ha establecido un grupo de comparación válido, se comparan los resultados de cada empresa. Como resultado se encuentra que, en promedio, las empresas tratadas cambian sus prácticas comerciales, mejoran su actuación, y aumentan su valor añadido como resultado directo de los programas públicos.