Displaying from 1 to 10 of 301 available piece of news
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Knowledge might not be enough: acceptance of energy communities across the urban-rural divide
The transition towards a sustainable energy model requires broad
consensus for success. This paper analyses the role of
environmental conscience, (general and specific) knowledge, and
social context on the acceptance of Energy Communities (ECs) in
a sample of individuals living in urban and rural Catalan
municipalities with and without Energy Communities. Regression
estimates show that while having an environmental conscience
has direct and positive, albeit small, effects on the acceptance of
ECs, the effects of social context and specific knowledge of the
ECs are larger and only arise through the urban-rural divide and
differences in individual characteristics (education and labour
status), respectively. In contrast, a general knowledge of climate
agreements and environmental regulations does not change the
acceptance of ECs, neither directly nor mediated by the urbanrural
divide. Public policies supporting energy communities
should prioritize removing legal barriers, target rural areas first,
and tailor communication and education efforts to diverse social
groups. Solving these ones should be a priority and a starting point for
policy makers. -
Cross-country dependence and financial integration in the last 150 years
Over the last two centuries, the international financial system has
undergone significant developments, with key historical events shaping
financial markets and economies worldwide. We offer a new long-term
perspective on international financial market integration using a flexible
dynamic panel approach that accommodates heterogeneous slope
coefficients while accounting for cross-country dependence. Our analysis
uncovers several interesting findings. For real long-term interest rates, we
observe a distinct U-shaped pattern. In contrast, the integration of global
financial markets for equities has significantly increased in recent years.
Additionally, long-term nominal interest rates and bond markets have
become considerably more integrated since the Bretton Woods era,
exhibiting a J-shaped pattern throughout the period under study. -
Merging-splitting-proofness in financial systems: A characterization result
In this paper, we explore the issue of manipulability in the setting of financial systems by considering two weak forms of immunity: merging-proofness and splitting-proofness. Not surprisingly, splitting-proofness conflicts with basic requirements such as the priority of debt over equity and the limited liability of equity. Remarkably, we provide a comprehensive characterization of the class of bankruptcy rules that gives rise to financial rules that satisfy merging-proofness.
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Self-consistency for multi-valued solutions and reasonable outcomes
We explore the compatibility of uniform self-consistency and ordinary self-consistency, two extensions for handling multi-valued solutions within the consistency principle introduced by Hart and Mas-Colell (1989), with basic properties, such as reasonableness, which establishes bounds for payoffs based on the marginality principle. Our analysis focuses on convex games and balanced games through the study of almost positive games, a subset of convex games that plays a crucial role in the vector lattice structure of games. Further, we provide new axiomatic foundations of the core incorporating these consistency properties.
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Cooperative TU-games: Dominance, stable sets, and the core revisited
"Stable sets are introduced by von Neumann and Morgenstern (1944) as
«the solution» of a cooperative game. Later on, Gillies (1953) defines the
core of the game. Both notions can be established in teStable sets were
introduced by von Neumann and Morgenstern (1944) as "the solution" to
a cooperative game. Later, Gillies (1953) defined the core of the game.
Both concepts can be formulated in terms of dominance. It is well known
that the core may be empty, while stable sets may fail to exist or may
yield multiple proposals. We introduce a new dominance relation such that
the stable set obtained under this notion (the delta-stable set) always
exists, is unique, and coincides with the core of the cooperative game
whenever the core is non-empty. We apply this concept to certain specific
classes of transferable utility games (TU-games) that typically have an
empty core: voting (majority) games, minimum cost spanning tree games
with revenue, controlled capacitated networks, and m-sequencing
games." -
Can Uncertainty Increase Investments in the Hospitality Industry? Understanding Overbuilding and Overcapacity
Investing in tourism lodging capacity is often a gamble, as decisions must be made long before demand is known. This uncertainty creates a challenging environment where investors must anticipate future market conditions. In our research, we developed a two-stage theoretical model to analyze how firms make capacity investment decisions under uncertainty and how strategic competition shapes these choices. Surprisingly, we found a U-shaped relationship between investment and uncertainty-an insight that reconciles previously conflicting studies on the subject.
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Renovation and Sustainability in Hospitality: When Going Green Increases Market Concentration
In this publication in Tourism and Hospitality Research (2025), Juan Antonio Duro, António Osório, and Alejandro Pérez-Laborda (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, ECO-SOS) explore the unintended consequences of sustainability transitions in the hospitality sector. The article, titled "Renovation and sustainability in hospitality: The danger of concentration and less competition", raises a red flag: while green investments are essential for the future of tourism, they could inadvertently deepen market concentration and reduce competition if left unregulated.
Using a stylized game-theoretical model, the authors show that when renovation and sustainability investments are costly, many small accommodation providers may delay action, leading to two troubling outcomes: (i) no firms invest (with environmental damage and reputational decay), or (ii) only the largest firms invest, gaining a durable competitive advantage and the ability to acquire weaker competitors. Over time, this dynamic foster concentrated structures in the industry.
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AI, robots and innovation in European SMEs
This study explores how artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics drive innovation in European SMEs, analyzing key factors influencing their adoption and their impact on product, process, organizational, and marketing innovation. he study uses data from Flash Eurobarometer 486 and employs a two-stage residual inclusion strategy to analyze the relationship between the adoption of new digital technologies and the innovative potential of European SMEs, controlling for endogeneity and multicollinearity.
The main findings are as follows. First, start-ups and scale-ups lead in the adoption of AI and robotics. Both types of companies stand out as the most innovative SMEs. Second, internationalization, company size, and access to digital talent significantly influence digitalization. Third, digital skills and infrastructure at the national level are key factors that incentivize digitalization. Fourth, the simultaneous adoption of both technologies is confirmed. Finally, in manufacturing, AI and robots have more specialized applications in the development of innovations, while in services, their use is broader.
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The Environmental Challenge in Aviation: Can Airport Charges Be Part of the Solution?
Aviation is becoming a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and generates local pollution with harmful health effects. This paper studies the effects of airport charges by means of a theoretical setup and an empirical application. The equilibrium analysis identifies how airport charges affect fares, frequencies, and aircraft emissions. The welfare analysis concludes that frequencies are excessive when the damage caused by emissions is severe. Finally, our model explores mechanisms for revenue-neutral airports to compensate rises in emission charges by lowering non-emission charges to generate incentives for airlines to renew their fleets. The empirical analysis concludes that NOx-emission charges have a modest effect on fares and frequencies as compared to per-passenger and per-flight charges. Although only emission charges spur the use of newer aircraft, they should be much higher than their actual values to play a relevant role in contributing to a more sustainable aviation.
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Asymmetry in Inflation Persistence under Inflation Targeting
This study empirically documents that inflation is significantly more persistent when it is below the Central Bank's target than otherwise, in five inflation targeting countries (Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, United States and the Euro-Area). We use a threshold autoregressive model to test for this asymmetry in inflation persistence; above and below some estimated threshold. We find that the threshold estimates are reasonable in light of a central bank's announced inflation target. Theoretically, we postulate that this phenomenon occurs because while forming their expectations, agents pay attention to recent observations asymmetrically along the business cycle. It is shown that a New Keynesian model with adaptive learning and an adaptive gain can explain the asymmetry in inflation persistence. Due to relatively larger forecasting errors, agents tend to put more weight on recent events in periods of high inflation, forcing inflation persistence to deteriorate. Our empirical evidence supports the theoretical findings that inflationary periods are associated with larger forecasting errors.
