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The long‐known, widely documented inverse relationship between body size and environmental temperature ("temperature‐size rule") has recently led to predictions of body size decline following current climatic warming ("size shrinking effect"). For keystone pollinators such as wild bees, body shrinking in response to warming can have significant effects on pollination processes but there is still little direct evidence of the phenomenon because adequate tests require controlling for confounding factors linked to climate change (e.g., habitat change). This paper assesses the shrinking effect in a community of solitary bees from well‐preserved habitats in the core of a large nature reserve experiencing climatic warming without disturbances or habitat changes. Long‐term variation in mean body mass was evaluated using data from 1704 individual bees (137 species, 27 genera, 6 families) sampled over 1990–2023. Climate warmed at a fast rate during this period, annual mean of daily maximum temperature increasing 0.069°C/year on average during 2000–2020. Changes in bee body mass verified expectations from the size shrinking effect. The mean individual body mass of the community of solitary bees declined significantly, irrespective of whether the analysis referred to the full species sample or only to the subset of species that were sampled in both the old (1990–1997) and recent (2022–2023) periods. On average, body mass declined ~0.7%·year−1, or an estimated average cumulative reduction of ~20 mg per individual bee from 1990 to 2023. Proportional size reduction was greatest among large‐bodied species, ranging from around −0.6%·year−1 for the smallest species to −0.9%·year−1 for the largest ones. Declining rate was steeper for cavity‐nesting than ground‐nesting species. The pollination and mating systems of bee‐pollinated plants in the study region are probably undergoing significant alterations as a consequence of supra‐annual decline in bee body mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pillars of open science are often included within the editorial policies of scholarly journals, including policies on open access publication, availability of underlying research data, preprints and open peer review. The aim of this paper is to examine and analyse perceptions and editorial practices related to open access, preprints, open research data and open peer review, from the perspective of editors of scientific journals published in Spain, to gain an insight into editorial policies related to open science. Results and data were obtained by a combined method of online interviews and an online questionnaire. The online survey was sent to editors from journals indexed in the Dulcinea directory, which at the time of the study included 1875 academic journals. A total of 420 responses (22.4%) were obtained. The results indicated that 92% of the journals were open access journals, 2% of the journals conducted open peer review, 15% of the journals had instructions to allow archiving preprints, and out of 375 responses, only 59 journals (16%) reported having a policy on underlying research data. Based on these results, there is a trend in favour of open access, but the perceived barriers to open peer review outweighed the advantages. There is also some reluctance to allow preprints to be made available. This concern might be because editors want authors and readers to read and cite the contents published in their journals, rather than their preprint versions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies individual preferences for place‐based attributes in the context of nature‐based domestic tourism trips. We examine the regional characteristics that explain tourist destination choice focusing on taste heterogeneity for distance and temperature. We examine the influence of a set of mean shifters in the marginal utilities for regional amenities, and how individuals are willing to trade distance in exchange for warmer (cooler) climates (i.e., marginal rates of substitution). Using a rich dataset of trips within Spain for nature‐based purposes, we find large heterogeneity in preferences for temperature differentials and distance, with trip purposes acting as moderators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first presents a fuzzy expert system to identify and classify conventional two‐lane roads based on geometric characteristics. Both fuzzy and neuro‐fuzzy techniques have been used. Fuzzy logic has proved suitable to address this problem, since in this case, there is a variability of input information, and classical rules are not suitable to be used due to the uncertainty introduced by some combinations of the variables. Each road's geometric features were measured by sensors in an equipped vehicle, and are subsequently used to classify the roads according to their real condition. The conventional two‐lane roads used for this research are located in the Madrid Region, in Spain. This intelligent system may be used to update the road database regarding the assigned type to each conventional road, according to their present features and state. Also, a risk identification system has been developed to assess whether a vehicle is driving on a two‐lane road with an inappropriate speed, combining variables such as the former identification model, vehicle type, road longitudinal gradient, the angle covered by each horizontal curve, and the existence or not of an additional traffic lane. A fuzzy risk index is proposed for this approach. This fuzzy model may be useful to detect road sections where safety must be enhanced by revising the speed limit, since less safe situations may arise from travelling at unappropriated speeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional shift‐share analysis and its existing spatial versions fail to detect the simple effects related to the underlying spillovers derived from the neighbourhood and regional contexts. This paper presents a formulation of the spatial shift‐share that incorporates novel effects and classifies the regions in a multi‐contextual framework (national, neighbourhood and regional). The use of different benchmarks is valuable since the performance of some regional sectors can be diagnosed with a national focus, while for others, it may be necessary to resort to neighbourhood and regional characteristics. Thus, the technique facilitates the formulation of strategies to improve the regional economic planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By applying a stochastic production frontier approach, this paper investigates regional inefficiencies of job creation in Spain over the period 2006–2012. This paper represents a first attempt to test whether a more flexible labour market as designed by the 2010 reform reduces regional inefficiencies. Results suggest that the 2010 reform appears to have improved on average the efficiency of the Spanish labour market even if regional differences persisted over time. The paper also investigates the importance of local democracy for the labour market finding that local democracy positively influences regional efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between labour force participation and the business cycle is a common topic in economic literature. However, few studies have examined if the cyclical sensitivity of labour force participation is influenced by social effects. In this paper, we construct a theoretical model defining a relatively new hypothesis, the bandwagon worker effect (BWE). We use spatial econometrics techniques to test the existence of the BWE in the local labour markets in Spain. Our results reveal a positive spatial dependence in the cyclical sensitivity of labour force participation that decreases as we fix a laxer neighbourhood criterion, which verifies the existence of the BWE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the link between the employment structure of local labour markets and the schooling choices of the youth in Spain. We construct a panel of Spanish provinces, and the effect of local labour markets was identified by using the variation in the share of employment by industry and gender across provinces and over time. A model with province fixed‐effects and specific‐slopes is used, which makes it possible to control for both time constant and time‐varying unobserved heterogeneity across provinces. A sizable impact is found for both boys and girls of the industry structure of employment on educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show the development of regional and urban studies in Spain, pointing out the main factors that have influenced such development, the topics analysed by the Spanish researchers and why Spain has today a remarkable position in the field of regional science. Regional problems have always taken up a very important place among the concerns of the Spanish society. This has been closely linked to longstanding historical and internal political conflicts. But, leaving aside some very interesting contributions and territorial projects developed in the past, the research on regional issues emerged really in the 1960s and the consolidation phase took place from 1975 to 2000, as explained in Sections 2 and 3. From the beginning of this century the field has received a clear thrust, supported by a new generation of economists and geographers. The increasing presence of Spanish researchers in international congresses, workshops and specialized journals enable to state that Spain has reached a similar level as in more advanced countries. Section 4 collects the most outstanding topics and innovative contributions made from 2000 to now. A short final note (section 5) points out some final remarks and why a positive continuity of the progress observed can be expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to examine the commuting behaviour of self‐employed workers in Spain as well as its relationship with satisfaction with jobs and housing. According to our results although conventional estimations indicate that commuting trips are shorter among the self‐employed, the differences with employees vanish when the potential endogeneity of self‐employment is controlled for. We also show that the job and housing satisfaction levels of the self‐employed are less sensitive to commuting than those of employees, and that in fact no significant effect is observed for relevant segments of the former group, what gives partial support to the theoretical model that we propose where imperfect information problems affect the employees but not the self‐employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demand‐side multipliers have ruled within multisectorial models as the main indicators for policy effectiveness and key‐sector determination both in linear interindustry analysis and in non‐linear applied general equilibrium models. In this paper we shift the perspective to supply‐side injections by studying the effects of marshalling additional primary factors (K, L) that give rise to a general resource reallocation. We obtain estimates of supply multipliers by numerically approximating the underlying and unobservable general equilibrium Jacobian matrix. These estimates provide complementary information to standard demand multipliers. We illustrate the methodology using an empirical general equilibrium model for the region of Andalusia, Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The effectiveness of Science and Technology Parks (STPs) as instruments of innovation policy has generated thriving debate among academics, practitioners and policy makers. A gap in the existing literature on STPs is that research mostly does not consider STPs' heterogeneity. The present paper aims at filling this gap, analysing the influence of different STP characteristics on their tenants' performance. Using data on 849 firms and 25 STPs from the 2009 Community Innovation Survey for Spain and a survey of STP managers respectively and after controlling for a wide set of firms characteristics, we find that: (i) firms located in very new or longer established STPs show better innovative performance; (ii) the size of the STP and its management company positively affects the innovative performance of tenants while services provision has no effect on firms' achieving better results; and (iii) firms in less technologically developed regions benefit more from location in an STP. Theoretical, policy and managerial contributions of our research are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Opioids are one of the most prescribed treatments for chronic pain (CP). However, their long‐term use (>3 months) has been surrounded by controversy, due to loss of beneficial effects. Objective: To explore the experiences of people with chronic non‐malignant low back pain in Spain undergoing long‐term treatment with opioids. Design: Qualitative study. Setting and participants: We conducted 15 semi‐structured interviews at the Pain Clinic with persons taking opioid treatment. Methods: The interviews were analysed by qualitative content analysis as described by Graneheim and Lundman, and developed categories and themes discussed in light of a biomedicalization framework. Main results: We developed one overarching theme—Living with opioids: dependence and autonomy while seeking relief—and three categories: The long pathway to opioids due to the invisibility of pain; Opioids: from blind date to a long‐term relationship; and What opioids cannot fix. Discussion: The long and difficult road to find effective treatments was a fundamental part of coping with pain, involving long‐term relationships with the health system. This study reflects the benefits, and drawbacks of opioids, along with struggles to maintain autonomy and make decisions while undergoing long‐term treatment with opioids. The paper also highlights the consequences of pain in the economy, family and social life of patients. Conclusions: Patients' experiences should be considered to a greater extent by health‐care professionals when giving information about opioids and setting treatment goals. Greater consideration of the social determinants of health that affect CP experiences might lead to more effective solutions to CP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollinator service is essential for successful sexual reproduction and long‐term population persistence of animal‐pollinated plants, and innumerable studies have shown that insufficient service by pollinators results in impaired sexual reproduction ("pollen limitation"). Studies directly addressing the predictors of variation in pollinator service across species or habitats remain comparatively scarce, which limits our understanding of the primary causes of natural variation in pollen limitation. This paper evaluates the importance of pollination‐related features, evolutionary history, and environment as predictors of pollinator service in a large sample of plant species from undisturbed montane habitats in southeastern Spain. Quantitative data on pollinator visitation were obtained for 191 insect‐pollinated species belonging to 142 genera in 43 families, and the predictive values of simple floral traits (perianth type, class of pollinator visitation unit, and visitation unit dry mass), phylogeny, and habitat type were assessed. A total of 24,866 pollinator censuses accounting for 5,414,856 flower‐minutes of observation were conducted on 510 different dates. Flowering patch and single flower visitation probabilities by all pollinators combined were significantly predicted by the combined effects of perianth type (open vs. restricted), class of visitation unit (single flower vs. flower packet), mass of visitation unit, phylogenetic relationships, and habitat type. Pollinator composition at insect order level varied extensively among plant species, largely reflecting the contrasting visitation responses of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera to variation in floral traits. Pollinator composition had a strong phylogenetic component, and the distribution of phylogenetic autocorrelation hotspots of visitation rates across the plant phylogeny differed widely among insect orders. Habitat type was a key predictor of pollinator composition, as major insect orders exhibited decoupled variation across habitat types in visitation rates. Comprehensive pollinator sampling of a regional plant community has shown that pollinator visitation and composition can be parsimoniously predicted by a combination of simple floral features, habitat type, and evolutionary history. Ambitious community‐level studies can help to formulate novel hypotheses and questions, shed fresh light on long‐standing controversies in pollination research (e.g., "pollination syndromes"), and identify methodological cautions that should be considered in pollination community studies dealing with small, phylogenetically biased plant species samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grammatical Swarm is a search and optimization algorithm that belongs to the more general Grammatical Evolution family, which works with a set of solutions called individuals or particles. It uses the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm as the search engine in the evolution of solutions. In this paper, we present a Grammatical Swarm algorithm for total energy demand estimation in a country from macroeconomic variables. Each particle in the Grammatical Swarm encodes a different model for energy demand estimation, which will be decoded by a predefined grammar. The parameters of the model are also optimized by the proposed algorithm, in such a way that the model is adjusted to a training set of real energy demand data, selecting the more appropriate variables to appear in the model. We analyze the performance of the Grammatical Swarm evolution in two real problems of one‐year ahead energy demand estimation in Spain and France. The proposal is compared with previous approaches with competitive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: Chronic hepatitis delta is a severe liver disease with rapid progression to cirrhosis. The impact of hepatitis delta virus (HDV)‐RNA on disease progression and interferon treatment in a real‐world cohort has been barely explored. Aim: To assess the development of clinical events in a cohort of chronic hepatitis delta patients according to the presence or absence of HDV‐RNA Methods: Multicentre study at four academic hospitals in Spain included anti‐HDV‐positive patients with compensated liver disease with a follow‐up ≥12 months. Results: Among 2888 HBsAg‐positive subjects, 151 (5.2%) tested positive for anti‐HDV, and 118 were included (58% men; median age, 49 years; 73% detectable HDV‐RNA and 30% cirrhosis, most often in subjects with HDV‐RNA). After a median follow‐up of 8 years, subjects with initially detectable HDV‐RNA were more prone to developing cirrhosis (31% vs 0%, P =.002) and/or liver decompensation (28% vs 3%, P =.019). Mortality rate was 0.44 per 1000 person‐months. The probability of a clinical event was 6%, 25%, and 80% according to initial baseline‐event‐anticipation score. HDV‐RNA became undetectable in 21 (24%) subjects either due to interferon or spontaneously (48% vs 52%, P =.29). Liver decompensation was reduced in interferon‐treated patients (13% vs 38%, P =.026). Conclusions: Subjects with persistently positive HDV‐RNA had a worse prognosis in terms of clinical events. Baseline‐event‐anticipation score is useful in predicting the risk of developing liver decompensation and hepatocellular carcinoma. Interferon was beneficial in reducing liver decompensation, even in the absence of virological response. LINKED CONTENT This article is linked to Sonneveld and de Knegt and Palom et al papers. To view these articles, visit https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15549 and https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.15558. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing historical data on riparian plant biodiversity and physico‐chemical parameters of stream water in Mediterranean mountains helps to assess the effects of climate change and other human stressors on these sensitive and critical ecosystems. This database collects data from the main natural headwater streams of the Sierra Nevada (southeastern Spain), a high mountain (up to 3479 m above sea level [m asl]) recognized as a biodiversity super hotspot in the Mediterranean basin. On this mountain, rivers and landscapes depend on snowmelt water, representing an excellent scenario for evaluating global change's impacts. This dataset covers first‐ to third‐order headwater streams at 41 sites from 832 to 1997 m asl, collected from December 2006 to July 2007. Our goal is to supply information on the vegetation associated with streambanks, the essential physico‐chemical parameters of stream water, and the physiographic features of the subwatersheds. Riparian vegetation data correspond to six plots sampled at each site, including total canopy, individual number, height and DBH (diameter at breast height) in woody species, and cover percentage for herbs. Physico‐chemical parameters were measured in situ (electric conductivity, pH, dissolved O2 concentration, stream discharge) and determined in the laboratory (alkalinity, soluble reactive phosphate‐phosphorus [SRP], total phosphorus [TP], nitrate‐nitrogen [NO3−–N], ammonium‐nitrogen [NH4+–N], total nitrogen [TN]). Watershed physiographic variables comprise drainage area, minimum altitude, maximum altitude, mean slope, orientation, stream order, stream length, and land cover surface percentage. We recorded 197 plant taxa (67 species, 28 subspecies, and 2 hybrids), representing 8.4% of the Sierra Nevada vascular flora. Due to the botanical nomenclature used, the database can be linked to FloraSNevada database, contributing to Sierra Nevada (Spain) as a laboratory of global processes. This data set can be freely used for non‐commercial purposes. Users of these data should cite this data paper in any publications resulting from its use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect of job accessibility on job-education mismatch in the metropolitan area of Barcelona with regard to both public and private transport. Transit accessibility is defined in terms of the spatial distribution of employment relative to travel time by public transport, whereas accessibility by private transport is approximated by car availability. The results obtained from a joint model for car ownership, employment selectivity and mismatch confirm that car availability matters for job-education mismatch. Moreover, public transport connectivity to job locations favours the matching between schooling and occupation in the urban labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research was to study the influence of related variety on the economic performance of Spanish provinces during the international crisis (2009–2013) and the post‐crisis period (2014–2018), with the goal of contributing to assess the validity of the skill‐relatedness approach. The research is based on labor flows in a sample of more than one million affiliated workers. Our results confirmed the influence of related variety on the growth of GDP and employment in knowledge‐based industries, in protecting against unemployment, as well as on the creation of new firms, although with marked differences according to the economic cycle. Robustness issues and possible lines of progress using this novel methodology are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses whether regions benefit from their neighbours' transport facilities. We focus on ports and estimate a gravity model of trade that includes port facilities indicators as explanatory variables. The model is estimated by using exports from 19 Spanish regions to 45 countries from 2000 onwards. To test for the existence of regional spillovers, we construct a weight matrix that takes into account the relative importance of the neighbouring ports, as well as the quality of port infrastructure in destination countries. The findings suggest that regional spillovers play a larger role than port facilities themselves in the growth of Spanish exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a spatial vector autoregressive (SpVAR) analysis of growth spillovers for the Spanish regions over the period 1965-2003. First, a spatial Granger causality analysis is performed that indicates the relevant impact of spatial spillover effects across regions in Spain. Second, the empirical research offers a contribution in the context of the SpVAR modelling estimating the push-in (from the neighbours to the region) and push-out (from the region to its neighbours) effects of growth spillovers within a regional economic system. Finally, the proposed methodology reveals empirical evidence about both the short-run and long-term regional growth adjustment processes in space and time. The results for the Spanish regional panel data suggest the existence of strong spatiotemporal regional spillovers of growth output. This has important implications for the choice of regional policy goals and regional policy instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We suspect that the efficiency of intergovernmental grants is related to the level of fiscal autonomy of the subsidized government. In this paper we construct and estimate a panel data model capturing the role of fiscal federalism on the effectiveness of EU structural actions in enhancing public investment. We use data from the 17 Spanish regions for the period 1993-2007. Results unambiguously support the hypothesis that the effectiveness of the structural funds decreases with larger fiscal autonomy, which could reflect the fact that fiscal decentralization in Spain has been focused to larger taxation autonomy without affecting regional income redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses four statistical distributions used to describe city size distributions: lognormal, double Pareto lognormal, q-exponential, and log-logistic. We use un-truncated city size data for the US, Spain and Italy from 1900 until 2010, and, in addition, the last available year for the remaining countries of the OECD. We estimate the four functions by maximum likelihood. To check the goodness of the fit we use the Kolmogorov- Smirnov and Cramér-von Mises tests, and compute the Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion. The results show that the distribution which best fits data in most of the cases (86.76%) is the double Pareto lognormal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sprawl has recently become a matter of concern throughout Europe, but it is in southern countries where its environmental and economic impact has been most severe. This low-density, spatially expansive urban development pattern can have a highly marked impact on municipal budgets. Thus, local governments may see sprawl as a potential source of finance, in terms of building-associated revenues and increased transfers from upper tiers of government. At the same time, sprawl leads to increased levels of expenditure, as it may raise the provision costs of certain local public goods and requires greater investment in extending basic infrastructure for new urban development. What, therefore, is the net fiscal impact of urban sprawl? Do local governments consider the long-run net fiscal impact of new urban growth or do they simply focus on its short-term benefits, ignoring future development costs? This paper addresses these questions by analysing the dynamic relationship between urban sprawl and local budget variables. To do so, we estimate a panel vector autoregressive model using data for 4,000 Spanish municipalities for the period 1994-2005. Computed generalized impulse response functions show: ( i) that sprawl considerably increases demand for new infrastructure; ( ii) that the capital deficit generated by this new infrastructure is covered in the main by intergovernmental transfers and, to a lesser extent, by revenues linked to the real estate cycle; and ( iii) that sprawl leads to a short-term current surplus, as the increase in current revenues offsets the increase in current expenditures due to public service provision for new developments. Overall, these findings point to a moral hazard problem for local governments in which inordinate intergovernmental transfers and development revenues encourage excessive urban sprawl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the impact of competition in the television (TV) industry on the number of movie theaters, their attendance, and their box office revenues. Studies of firm entry usually focus on the impact of regulation on economic outcomes within an industry, thereby neglecting its impact on neighboring industries. Using changes in regulation in the Spanish local TV station industry, we estimate the impact of TV entry on the movie theater industry between 1993 and 2005. Our findings show that local TV entry decreased the number of theaters and screens in a province, as well as movie attendance and box office revenues. ( JEL L11, L43, L82) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on pollen, spores, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) and certain geochemical elements from the ombrotrophic blanket bog of Zalama (Basque-Cantabrian Mountains, northern Iberian Peninsula), with the support of a robust chronology based on 17 AMS 14C dates. The main results related to the last 8000 years show that, during the early middle Holocene, pines and deciduous forests were the most extensive tree formations. At the beginning of the succession, pines reach 44%, showing regional presence, whereas after 7600 cal. a BP, deciduous forests were particularly abundant. From c. 6500 cal. a BP the pollen diagram constructed from our samples shows the first anthropogenic evidence, linked with the new economic practices related to the Neolithic of the Basque-Cantabrian Mountains. From 3300 cal. a BP the expansion of Fagus sylvatica is particularly clear, and has since then become one of the dominant forest species in this region. We also discuss the Holocene evolution of other noteworthy plant communities in southwestern Europe, such as Taxus baccata, Juglans and shrublands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between collaboration, geography and innovation has been analysed in economic geography. However, little is known from a social‐network perspective about whether different geographical levels of embeddedness may determine the way networks affect innovation. To address this issue, we compare the effects of regional vs. country‐level Spanish networks on future patenting. If we consider the country‐wide network, our statistical analysis reproduces the findings of the previous literature. However, negative effects prevail at the regional level, while the influence seems to be rather positive at the country level. We thus conclude that the embeddedness at different geographical scales exerts differing influence on innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documenting and understanding long‐term biodiversity change is limited by the availability of historical data, particularly from periods preceding major anthropogenic changes associated with the Industrial Revolution. We mined the information of a standardized historical survey developed in 628 localities across Spain between 1574 and 1582 (Relaciones Topográficas de Felipe II) with the goal of producing a general characterization of Spanish settlements, including, though not limited to, natural resources. From this survey, we were able to gather 7309 records for 75 wild plant taxa, 89 wild animal taxa, and 60 crop and domestic animal taxa. These data can be used to reconstruct historical land use and habitat cover, and model historical distributions of many species, including emblematic ones such as wolf and bear, which can establish reference distributions to assess range and niche expansion, contraction, and shifts. Data are provided under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC‐BY‐NC) 4.0 License. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications. The authors are open to collaborate in projects based on this dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public and private partnerships (PPPs) are widely considered to be efficient tools for promoting urban renewal and commercial revitalization. The Business Improvement Area (BIA) concept, which originated in Ontario, Canada in the 1970s, partners local municipalities (government) with local businesses (commercial property owners) and promotes collaborative efforts to revitalize commercial areas. The BIA approach to PPP has been implemented by many European countries with the model adapted to fit within the confines of varying urban morphologies and commercial structures. In Spain, the Centros Comerciales Abiertos (CCA) model has been the formula used for executing urban commercial PPP. Based on case study research undertaken in 2011 with 18 BIAs in Canada and 16 CCAs in Spain this paper compares their mandate, structure, and partnership model. The findings from the interviews with BIA and CCA managers highlight the nature and extent of the challenges associated with urban commercial revitalization projects. Despite the differences between the BIA and CCA concepts, the level of engagement by the private sector stakeholders is a common critical factor identified by management in determining their success. Une comparaison des modèles de partenariats publics-privés dans les projets de revitalisation urbaine commerciale au Canada et en Espagne Les partenariats publics-privés (PPP) comptent parmi les outils de promotion de la rénovation urbaine et de la revitalisation commerciale des plus efficaces. Le concept de Zones d'amélioration commerciale (ZAC), qui a vu le jour en Ontario, Canada dans les années 1970, se fonde sur un partenariat entre des municipalités locales (instances gouvernementales) et des entreprises locales (propriétaires d'immeubles commerciaux) et favorise la collaboration visant à revitaliser des zones commerciales. Une approche de PPP appliquée aux ZAC a été mise en œuvre par de nombreux pays européens qui ont adapté le modèle afin de tenir compte des éléments propres aux différentes morphologies urbaines et structures commerciales. En Espagne, les PPP commerciaux en milieu urbain se sont appuyés sur le modèle des Centros comerciales abiertos (CCA). Des travaux menés à partir d'études de cas réalisés en 2011 sur 18 ZAC au Canada et 16 CCA en Espagne ont comparé leur mandat, structure et modèle de partenariat. Les résultats issus des entrevues menées auprès des gestionnaires de ZAC et de CCA soulignent la portée et l'étendue des défis qui découlent des projets urbains de revitalisation commerciale. Bien que les concepts de ZAC et de CCA se distinguent sur plusieurs plans, les gestionnaires s'accordent à dire que le niveau d'engagement des partenaires du secteur privé est un élément essentiel de leur réussite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in unemployment during the economic recession led to widespread support for active labour market policies (ALMP) from public and private institutions. Among these measures, Spain has developed the so‐called discounted flat rate for self‐employed workers, which consists of a series of reductions and subsidies applied to their social security contributions when they start their activity. The aim of this study is to evaluate this policy in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain), a region with an unemployment rate of over 20%, comparing the survival of a group of self‐employed workers who benefited from this subsidy with that of another group without the discounted flat rate. The results suggest the survival of the group with the subsidy surpasses that of the group without, although the positive effects of the measure disappear over the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential effect of some factors involved in the decline of a winter population of the European robin Erithacus rubecula in southern Spain. The area receives extra-Iberian immigrants that come into contact with resident conspecifics. Given this interspersed distribution, three hypotheses were tested to explain the decline: a) the depletion of the carrying capacity of the area during winter, b) the decline of the resident population, and c) the reduction of foreign individuals in this wintering area. Winter robin and fruit (a main winter food) abundances were assessed at 43 sites from 1999 to 2014, and the abundance of breeding robins was evaluated from 1998 to 2012. Rainfall and temperatures were recorded throughout this period and changes in forests occupied by breeding robins were assessed in 1999 and 2013. Results showed a decline in winter temperatures and an increase in fruit availability. Given that food increases could buffer the thermoregulatory costs of colder conditions, the depletion of the carrying capacity of the area was discarded as a main driver of robin decline. Spring counts showed a reduction of 45% in the breeding population that was not explained by changes in forest management. However, a significant increase in summer temperatures could boost the pervasive effect of drought on robins inhabiting this marginal area of the species' range. Foreign immigrants, despite the increase in breeding populations in most of Europe, did not buffer the decline caused by the reduction of residents. In fact, an analysis of ring recoveries reported in this area depicted a sharp decrease in extra-Iberian wintering individuals. These results may be related to the effect of global warming on migratory schedules (the northwards retreat of wintering areas) and on the suitability for robins of local habitats in this peripheral region of the Palaearctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Load forecasts of short lead times ranging from an hour to a day ahead are essential for improving the economic efficiency and reliability of power systems. This paper proposes a hybrid model based on the wavelet transform (WT) and the weighted nearest neighbor (WNN) techniques to predict the day ahead electrical load. The WT is used to decompose the load series into deterministic series and fluctuation series that reflect the changing dynamics of data. The two subseries are then separately forecast using appropriately fitted WNN models. The final forecast is obtained by composing the predicted results of each subseries. The hourly electrical load of California and Spanish energy markets are taken as experimental data and the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), Weekly MAPE (WMAPE) and Monthly MAPE (MMAPE) are computed to evaluate the forecasting performance of the next-day load forecasts. The forecasting efficiency of the proposed model is evaluated using db2, db4, db5 and bior 3.1 wavelets. The results demonstrate the forecasting accuracy of the proposed hybrid model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural experiment provided by the opening of a section that completed the A8 motorway in Mariña de Lugo, a rural area in Galicia (Spain), offers an opportunity to identify whether spread or backwash effects in economic activity are observed. The new section directly affects only a small strip of the territory—where the transition from the inland rural areas to the more dynamic coastal area takes place. This allows us to test a separate dual inner‐coastal socio‐economic performance after the opening of the new road—an analysis that has rarely been performed for rural areas in developed countries. We study the impact over population growth, employment and business financial results, using the differences‐in‐differences approach. The results we obtain are consistent with the spread hypothesis for the nearest municipality to the new road section, while the spread effects did not disseminate to the neighbouring municipalities. These global results hide a different performance at the sector level, positive for transport and manufacturing companies, and negative for retail firms and hospitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the contribution of transport infrastructure to the regional convergence in Spain for the period 1980–2008. Spatial econometric techniques are employed to decompose the direct, indirect and total effects of roads, railways, ports and airports. In addition, the analysis is complemented by estimating the determinants of the regional allocation of transport investments. Evidence confirms the presence of absolute and conditional convergence. However, only roads appear to have an impact on this convergence process. It is also understood that the main driver of transport investments has been the equalization of the infrastructure endowment between the different Spanish regions. The reduction of inequalities between regions in terms of road provision could explain the positive contribution of roads to the process of regional convergence in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing a complete data set with species and trait information for a given area is essential for assessing plant conservation, management, and ecological restoration, for both local and global applications. Also, these data sets provide additional information for surveys or data collections, establishing the starting point for more detailed studies on plant evolution, vegetation dynamics, and vegetation responses to disturbance and management. This data base covers Sierra Nevada mountains (southeastern Spain), a recognized plant biodiversity hotspot within the Mediterranean context. According to previous available data (before this augmented compilation), these mountains host 7% of the 24,000 Mediterranean vascular plants, despite covering just 0.01% of its area. Another characteristic of the Sierra Nevada is the great singularity of its flora, with 95 taxa being endemic to the high‐mountain area of Sierra Nevada and surroundings. From these endemic taxa, 70% are endangered by different threats, global warming being a leading cause. We seek to provide a complete and updated database of the flora of the Sierra Nevada mountains (southeast Spain). The goal of the present data set is to compile the names of all the vascular plant taxa inhabiting Sierra Nevada, together with relevant features including taxonomical, morphological–ecological traits, distribution, habitats, abundance, and conservation status. The data were compiled according to all the available information sources on taxonomy, ecology, and plant‐species distribution. The resulting data set includes 2,348 taxa belonging to 1,937 species, 377 subspecies, and 34 hybrids, from a total of 756 genera and 146 families represented in the collection. For each taxa, together with taxonomical information (Phylum, Class, Family, Genus, Taxa), we compiled plant traits (life form, spinescence, flower symmetry, flower sexuality, plant gender, androecium:ginoecium ratio, flower color, perianth type, pollinator type, flowering, seed dispersal, and vegetative reproduction), and their environmental association (origin, endemic character, general distribution, substrate, elevation, habitat, local abundance, hygrophilous behavior, and conservation status). All these traits were compiled from all the available information sources, resulting in a complete and updated database for Sierra Nevada vascular flora. This data set provides valuable information on plant traits in an outstanding micro hotspot within the Mediterranean hotspot. This data set can be freely used for noncommercial purposes. This data set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). When you use this data set, we request that you cite the data and this data paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the local determinants of destination choices of foreign immigrants to the Madrid metro area using data for 2005 and 2009 from the Spanish annual municipal-level registers of inhabitants. Taking advantage of the equivalence relation between conditional logit and Poisson, we estimate a location-choice model using the Poisson fixed-effects estimator. Origin-destination fixed effects are incorporated to account for the persistent spatial structure of the immigrants' settlement patterns and to control for potential violations of the independence of irrelevant alternatives ( IIA) assumption. The Poisson regression model is estimated for seven different groups of immigrants according to world regions or countries of origin. Our modelling strategy has important empirical implications, with magnitudes and/or signs of the estimated coefficients changing in the expected directions. It is found that newly arriving immigrants tend to settle in low-to-middle-income locations in the suburban reaches of the Madrid metro area. Moreover, the effects of the size of local communities of established immigrants are found to be insignificant and even negative in several instances, reflecting hetero-local settlement preferences and/or the saturation of local networks causing in-group job rivalry, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great deal of regional research has focused on the innovation-competitiveness-growth chain, which is implicit in territorial innovation models ( TIMs). TIMs literature has neglected or subordinated social and ecological regional conditions. This research adopts a broader perspective by: ( i) studying an interscalar intergovernmental network aimed at meeting tridimensional sustainable development ( SD) goals; and ( ii) showing why this arrangement is successful. The network members are the regional government and provincial councils, which act as network promoters, and the municipalities. We model the network as a platform for integrating both pre-existing idiosyncratic resources and emergent resources/benefits that come from rich and regular interactions (in the shape of learning, enjoyment, reputation, identification, and attitude towards citizen participation); resources integration leads to network member satisfaction. This view is supported by data concerning a network in a Spanish autonomous community (region), Castile- La Mancha. We see this study as a first step towards more systematic research on what might be termed 'territorial sustainability models'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determination of optimal population densities underlies the economic rationality when planning the provision of basic public infrastructure by local governments. Using econometric techniques based on the translog cost function, we investigate the existence of economies of scale, associated to a larger urban size in terms of population and housing, determine the effect of alternative urban patterns - compact or dispersed - on the cost of provision, and calculate optimal population densities as targets for urban planning. We illustrate the practicality of our model using Spanish municipal data, and unveil latent economies of scale and suboptimal urban densities due to excessive dispersion. Based on these findings we propose specific policy guidelines in terms of desirable urban structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the feasibility and added value of using the seasonal hindcasts of the ECMWF System 4 as a hazard event set for European winter windstorms damage calculations. The windstorms are identified for every ensemble member and every year by an objective windstorm tracking algorithm. The damages are calculated directly from the obtained wind footprints via the open source natural catastrophe damage model CLIMADA for Germany, the UK, France and Spain and compared to the loss from ERA‐Interim. The results show that the ensembles of losses in System 4 nicely capture the inter‐annual loss variability of the reanalysis. Due to more than 1,500 years of "virtual reality" windstorm data from the hindcasts, the return levels of extreme losses can be estimated fairly accurately. Based on System 4, the losses in the scale of 1990 (January, February, March and December including the prominent windstorm Daria) represent a 20‐year event in Germany whereas they represent a 100‐year event for the UK. Thus, a considerably shorter return period compared to return periods calculated from ERA‐Interim alone. Further we investigate the link between the annual losses and large‐scale drivers derived from mean‐sea‐level‐pressure (MSLP) data in System 4. We can show that within System 4 there is a significant link between increased loss potentials for strongly positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phases for Germany and the UK as well as a reduced loss potential for Spain. The link between the other analysed indices is weak bar the East Atlantic (EA) pattern index. Thus, if the NAO in System 4 is correct we can assume that the windstorms in System 4 are useable. If this premise is given our study shows that the loss estimates and ultimately the return levels of losses from System 4 can be used in an operational way. The seasonal hindcasts of the ECMWF System 4 are used as a hazard event set for European winter windstorms loss calculations. The windstorms are identified for every ensemble member and every year by an objective windstorm tracking algorithm. The loss is calculated directly from the obtained wind footprints via the open source natural catastrophe damage model CLIMADA for Germany, the UK, France and Spain and compared to the loss from ERA‐Interim. Losses of the magnitude up to double the losses from 1990 are physically possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Click here to view the accompanying paper in this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]