LSE-Miguel Dols Fellows' Workshop Winter 2024-5

Each term the Cañada-Blanch Centre at LSE organises a Fellow Workshop in which its visiting LSE-Miguel Dols Fellows present their ongoing research.

Meet our speakers

Dr. José Abad, consultant in the Economic and Market Research Department at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group. His research focuses on the usability of bank capital buffers and the political economics of subnational public finances.

Bank Capital Buffers: A Deep Dive into Their Usability

Prof. Astrid Krenz, Professor of Economics at the Ruhr University Bochum and an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Sussex in the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre.

Energy Costs, Infrastructure, and Firm (Re-)Location Decisions in Europe

In this paper, we analyse how developments in energy costs influence the performance and re-location choices of European firms. We use a discrete choice modeling approach as well as the variation of energy prices over time to analyse the relationship. Recent geo-political tensions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine have impacted energy prices worldwide. In the long term, energy supply will be affected by the need for energy transition due to climate change and related policy measures. European Union member states have taken different measures to address these challenges, resulting in regional differences in energy costs. For firms, energy is an important cost factor for production and it carries long-term consequences for their performance and spatial choices of production activities. The data show that regional disparities in terms of energy prices are immense. In the first half of 2023, electricity prices in Spain, for example, saw a large price drop (41%) as compared to one year ago and to other European countries. Other countries seeing drops in electricity prices were Denmark (16%), Portugal (6%), and Malta (3%). While Spanish households paid on average 18.23 cent/kwh, German households paid 41.3 cent/kwh and the UK even more with about 38 pence/kwh. However, Spain had one of the highest gas prices in the first half of 2022.

Prof. Francisco-Javier Mato Diaz, Professor at the Department of Applied Economics in the University of Oviedo.

Labour Market Benefit Sanctions: A Comparative Analysis

Offering Active Labour Market Policies (ALMP) is usually considered as one side of such policies, the other being the requirement that participants, especially if they are receiving unemployment benefits, actively search for work. And research on negative welfare is scarcer. The problem of moral hazard that lies behind potential opportunistic behavior by benefit recipients raises the question of what role benefit sanctions play in contributing to driving the unemployed into work. But the topic of sanctions does not only appeal to their effects, but also to their determinants. Research coming from the UK shows that regional socioeconomic differences are related to sanctions. This project aims at analyzing whether these differences are part of a general pattern and specially whether they occur in the Spanish case. Thus, this research analyzes the drivers of LMP benefit sanctions. Determinants like the alignment of different European nations’ LMP to the mainstream “active inclusion” strategy emanating from the European Union are considered. Further, the role of institutional settings, governments’ political orientation, the economic cycle, the labour market policy-mix, and the sociodemographic composition of the nations are also taken into account.

PhD. candidate Christos Papagiannis, Director of the Eteron Institute for Research and Social Change  and a PhD candidate in European Studies, specializing in the Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence, at Maastricht University.

How AI can shape business strategies while addressing ethical concerns, such as data privacy and job displacement?

This presentation explores the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business every-day practices, with a particular focus on Generative AI technologies -as the debate has been heated after the release of ChatGPT. Drawing on data from Greece and comparing to secondary data from UK and Spain, the presentation will emphasize on public awareness and societal concerns regarding AI, highlighting their key role in driving AI-acceptance and therefore implementation into businesses. Thematic fields, such as the potential for AI to enhance business operations, while also addressing crucial challenges like data privacy, job displacement, and the ethical considerations are critical in understanding the importance of broad participation in this transformative process. The presentation will try to navigate on how AI adoption in businesses is shaped by regional differences, public perception, and existing regulatory frameworks. By comparing these three different national contexts, it aims to offer insights into the opportunities and challenges that businesses face as they integrate AI, and how these technologies can be utilized to create value in an increasingly AI-driven economy.

Assist. Prof. Denis Ivanov, Assistant Professor of Political Economy at Corvinus University of Budapest and a research fellow at Vilnius University

Do anti-corruption reforms decrease concentration of wealth?

This study examines the causal effects of reducing corruption on wealth concentration. Using data from the World Inequality Database, World Governance Indicators, and V-Dem, I find that lower corruption is linked to decreased wealth for the top 1% and 10%, and increased wealth for the bottom 50% and 20%. These results are robust across various model specifications, including lagged dependent variables, national income, top 1% income, political violence, and inflation. Staggered difference-in-differences models indicate that significant anti-corruption reforms reduce wealth concentration at both the top and bottom. Mechanisms include breaking off rent extraction possibilities for top earners and reducing corruption costs for bottom earners, who save on expenses that would otherwise diminish their income.

PhD. candidate Marcos Valentinuz, PhD candidate in Social Studies at the National University of the Litoral (Santa Fe, Argentina). 

State capacity and industrial policy in the Global South. A multi-scalar analysis of Argentina and the province of Entre Ríos (2010-2023)

State capacity is increasingly recognized as a crucial component of development strategies in the Global South. This presentation outlines a theoretical framework for analyzing state capacity in the field of industrial policy, addressing both institutional and scalar dimensions of statehood. Drawing on this framework, the presentation provides an empirical analysis of state capacity in Argentina and the province of Entre Ríos from 2010 to 2023. The analysis, which incorporates semi-structured interviews, document reviews, and public spending data, highlights a range of challenges faced by both the national and provincial state to intervene effectively through industrial policy.

Dr. Mahir Yazar, postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET) at the University of Bergen, Norway.

Unpacking Backlash Dynamics amid Green Transitions in the Nordic-Baltic states 

Over the past two decades, decarbonizing energy systems has been the main focus of the European green policies. At the same time, there are concerns about the growing social opposition to these transitions, sometimes called the backlash. The backlash against green transition policies and actions that are expected in the Nordic-Baltic states will most likely entail disruptive change, reinforcement of incremental or transformational feedback, and political tipping points (e.g., populist backlash politics). The body of literature on backlash is growing. Still, most of the literature focuses on only one-dimension of backlash – populism. Knowledge about the varying drivers and consequences of backlashes, such as social opposition for just and democratic transitions at local level is considerably less developed. These social oppositions are embodied, especially within wind infrastructures, and range from indigenous communities and their pursuit of procedural justice in green energy decision-making to wind project rejections at the municipal levels; facing policymakers with a challenge of how to accelerate the transition while respecting democratic values and supporting local participation. I will present my ongoing work which aims to unpack backlash dynamics, drivers and strategies for green transitions in the Nordic-Baltic region.

Meet our chair

Prof. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose is the Princesa de Asturias Chair and a Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics. He is the Director of the Cañada Blanch Centre LSE. He is a former Head of the Department of Geography and Environment between 2006 and 2009. He is a past-President of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) (2015-2017) and served as Vice-President of the RSAI in 2014. He was also Vice-President (2012-2013) and Secretary (2001-2005) of the European Regional Science Association.

More about this event

The Cañada-Blanch Centre at LSE is the vehicle to achieve the objective of the Fundación Cañada Blanch: developing and reinforcing the links between the United Kingdom and Spain. This is done by means of fostering cutting-edge knowledge generation and joint research projects between researchers in the United Kingdom, and at the LSE in particular, on the one hand, and Spain, on the other.

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