Gregorio Gimenez

University of Zaragoza | UNIZAR · Faculty of Economics and Business

Previous literature highlights the potential of ICT use to enhance mathematical learning. There are also several theoretical arguments supporting that gifted education benefits from ICT use. However, empirical studies have paid little attention to the relationship between ICT use and gifted students’ mathematics performance. It is also unclear whet...

Bullying is a recognised serious public problem affecting many students worldwide. Despite the well-established empirical evidence for the negative consequences of bullying on adolescents' mental and physical health and educational outcomes, little is known about the link between bullying victimisation and adolescents' subjective well-being. Moreov...

• Study whether the country's development affects the relationship between ICT use and outcomes. • More accurate measurement of ICT use at school: subject-specific time using ICT. • Two alternative measures to classify the countries' development level: GNI per capita and HDI. • Negative relationship between ICT use for learning at school and stu...

The regional concentration of poverty and the resulting disparities in living conditions create situations where educational inequalities are intensified. These adverse environments could lead teachers to refuse to work in disadvantaged locations that are characterized by high incidences of poverty and low-performing students. In this paper, we est...

The present study examines cross-national variation in school-based bullying victimization. Specifically, we address whether decommodification, a concept implicated in Institutional Anomie Theory that measures the degree of a society’s social welfare protection, is a protective factor against school-based bullying victimization. To test this theory...

This study seeks to measure the degree of agglomeration of educational quality in Colombia, based on the nonsocialization of the population that exhibits low educational quality, with the population that exhibits high educational quality, and thus determine how such agglomeration affects the phenomenon of academic segregation. To this end, we perfo...

The main goal of this research is to determine the link between happiness and individual subjective life expectancy (SLE) among Chilean senior citizens. We use data from the 2015 edition of the Chilean Social Protection Survey. Our sample consists of 1298 seniors: 700 aged 65–74, 421 aged 75–84, and 177 aged 85 and older. We provide a novel methodo...

Previous empirical studies have found a weak nexus between the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for learning and students’ outcomes. However, this literature has not considered the role that the countries’ stock of human capital can have in the successful use of ICT for learning. In this paper, we test empirically the existen...

Understanding how growth factors contribute to explaining the large differences in growth rates across countries remains an important research agenda. The common approach to exploring this issue is based on the use of multiple linear regression analyses. This work contributes to growth literature by applying a new perspective based on the use of va...

This paper investigates peer effects in the academic achievement of Costa Rican students. Two measures of peer effects are used: (1) a measure of a schools’ average socioeconomic status and (2) a measure of unsatisfied basic needs at district level. The estimation of a three-level hierarchical model allows us to deal with selection bias and unobser...

This article focuses on the effect of urbanization on violent crime – particularly homicide– in Costa Rica. Although violence is a major problem throughout Latin America, few empirical studies carried out in the area use high-quality socioeconomic and crime databases with a high level of geographical disaggregation. In this article, we employ data...

Objective: This study investigates the connection between crime rates and victimization by peer physical aggression in Costa Rican schools. Although previous research has demonstrated that peer victimization is related to community crime, no study to date has examined its association with homicides and drug trafficking, two criminal offenses that a...

The impact of ICT on educational achievements is a controversial issue which has attracted increasing attention from both policy makers and researchers. Policy makers have shown great enthusiasm over the positive impact of ICT on teaching and learning, investing substantially in this area. However, scientific evidence does not clearly support this...

We evaluate the effect of the 2008 pension reform in Chile, applying a difference-in-difference estimation method to longitudinal survey data representative of the Chilean population. Our evidence suggests that those who started to receive a basic pension increased their debt more than their assets. We interpret this as an indicator of debt sustain...

We analyse the effect of violent crime on students' results in Costa Rica. The combination of PISA data and highly disaggregated information on crime at the district level is a main contribution of this article. Our methodological approach provides also some novelties in the field, the most important being the use of a simultaneous equations model...

Resumen. A pesar de que la literatura ha señalado que la calidad del profesorado y el ambiente escolar son factores clave en el rendimiento académico, los estudios que cuantifican empíricamente en qué medida contribuyen al desempeño estudiantil en los países latinoamericanos son escasos. En este artículo, utilizamos datos de PISA 2012-Costa Rica y...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate which sectors are more vulnerable to human capital depreciation, with an emphasis on potential differences in skills and in ICT intensities. Design/methodology/approach The authors estimate an extended Mincerian earnings equation based on Neuman and Weiss’s (1995) model using the EU-KLEMS interna...

A pesar de que la literatura ha señalado que la calidad del profesorado y el ambiente escolar son factores clave en el rendimiento académico, los estudios que cuantifican empíricamente en qué medida contribuyen al desempeño estudiantil en los países latinoamericanos son escasos. En este artículo, utilizamos datos de PISA-Costa Rica y la técnica de...

This article applies Oaxaca-Blinder and Shorrocks-Shapley decomposition techniques to a logistic diffusion model, in order to explain the differences in Total Factor Productivity Growth (TFPG) in European Union (EU) countries for the period 1950-2011. Human capital has a dual positive effect on TFPG, by boosting innovation and increasing the catch-...

This paper explores the relationship between student performance and social development in the districts where schools are located. The empirical research, which focuses on Costa Rica, combines geolocalized data of schools from PISA 2012 with a composite index of social development that has four components: health, economy, education and electoral...

The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of a new international estimate of human capital on the process of innovation and technology catch-up in developed countries. The new human capital variable is a measure of average human capital efficiency per hour worked that considers the role of both the quantity and quality of education. Our met...

This article identifies the main determinants of skill acquisition in Latin America. Not having repeated a grade, sex, the number of books in the home and the mother's education are defined as individual and family characteristics. In the case of school characteristics, the results are more heterogeneous between countries. The key factors seem to b...

El artículo identifica los principales condicionantes de la adquisición de competencias en América Latina. Para ello, se emplea información de los ocho países participantes en PISA2012. Para solventar el problema de endogeneidad, se estima la Función de Producción Educativa mediante el Método Generalizado de Momentos. Los valores ausentes han sido...

Purpose: This article offers a critical view of the impact of patents on economic activity. The article questions whether a strengthening of the patent system is optimal in economic terms, from a business and social perspective. Design/methodology/approach: We develop two analytic innovation models. They help us to understand how the strength of t...

Este trabajo utiliza un panel de datos balanceado, de los 31 estados mexicanos, durante 1997-2012 para identificar a qué se deben las diferencias entre estados con mayor y menor dinamismo innovador. Para ello, se aplica la descomposición de Oaxaca-Blinder y el estimador propuesto por Driscroll y Kraay. La diferencia en términos de éxito innovador s...

Resumen En este artículo se busca identificar qué causa las diferencias en resultados académicos entre colegios costarricenses públicos y privados empleando la técnica de descomposición de Oaxaca-Blinder, aplicada a la base pisa 2012. La conclusión es que las diferencias, por orden de importancia, se deben a: a) las características de los hogares,...

El presente artículo analiza las causas de las diferencias en resultados escolares entre centros educativos públicos y privados de América Latina. Para ello, se utiliza información de los 8 países latinoamericanos que participaron en PISA 2012. Las estimaciones de variables instrumentales en dos etapas, combinadas con la técnica de descomposición d...

This paper analyzes and explains the causes of the differences in school performance between public and private schools in Latin America. It uses information from the eight Latin American countries that participated in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The estimations, two steps with instrumental variables, combined wi...

Este libro explica de manera clara, accesible y rigurosa algunas ideas clave sobre el desarrollo económico y sus causas. Primeramente, se exponen una serie de conceptos introductorios acerca de la medición de la calidad de vida, el crecimiento y los procesos de convergencia. A continuación, se analizan los principales factores que determinan el cre...

Los estudiantes costarricenses obtuvieron resultados destacados en las pruebas PISA 2012, en el contexto de los ocho países latinoamericanos participantes. Sin embargo, los resultados fueron insatisfactorios al compararse con los países de la OCDE. A la hora de explicar de qué dependen los resultados académicos de los estudiantes costarricenses, el...

In this article, we analyze the relationship between levels of education and poverty for the different planning regions and also according to urban and rural areas. For the purposes of the study, we use the methodology of Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) to measure poverty in a multidimensional way: access to decent shelter, access to health, access t...

La educación como factor clave en la explicación de las diferencias en innovación entre entidades federativas mexicanas Abstract El presente trabajo utiliza un panel de datos balanceado que comprende 31 entidades federativas durante el periodo 1997-2012 con el propósito de identificar a qué se deben las diferencias entre entidades federativas mexic...

El rendimiento escolar de los centros públicos y privados en Costa Rica: factores que determinaron la brecha escolar en PISA 2012. Resumen El trabajo utiliza la base PISA (2012) y la metodología de Oaxaca-Blinder y para constatar la existencia de diferencias significativas en rendimiento escolar entre alumnos costarricenses de colegios públicos y p...

RESUMEN La literatura empírica tiene dificultades para medir el efecto del capital humano en el sector agrícola. Esto puede deberse a la baja calidad de las variables de capital humano utilizadas tradicionalmente. El presente trabajo elabora un indicador de capital humano más complejo que los que se vienen utilizando, y que tiene en cuenta las dime...

Empirical literature finds difficulties specifying and selecting proxies for human capital. These difficulties may explain why the indicators used in several international empirical studies are not closely linked to economic growth and its sources. This study offers an innovative perspective with an international indicator of human capital that tak...

La presente investigación se centra en el análisis de las diferencias en características y resultados académicos entre instituciones educativas de secundaria públicas y privadas. Para ello, utilizando información de la Megabase de Datos Georreferenciados de Centros Educativos de Costa Rica (2000-2011) –financiada por el Informe Estado de la Educaci...

El presente trabajo busca identificar los principales determinantes de las diferencias en el desempeño educativo entre las escuelas públicas y privadas en Colombia, utilizando los datos del Programa Internacional de Evaluación de Alumnos –PISA, 2009-. Se aplica la descomposición de Oaxaca-Blinder, haciendo uso de la metodología de variables instrum...

Resumen El presente trabajo trata de determinar, empíricamente, qué tipo de variables de capital humano pueden explicar mejor los procesos de innovación. Para ello, se utilizan seis variables educativas: dos variables de cantidad –años medios de estudio, totales y universitarios-y cuatro de calidad –basadas en los resultados obtenidos en distintas...

Purpose: This research attempts to determine, empirically and for a large sample of countries, which kind of educational variables can better explain technological innovation processes, approximated by the number of patents per capita. To do this, we use a model that explains the innovative capacity of the countries employing six educational variab...

Las modernas teorías explicativas del crecimiento económico sostienen que el capital humano es una de las variables más relevantes del mismo. Sin embargo, los estudios aplicados -que suelen aproximar el capital humano a través de las tasas de alfabetización, los niveles de escolarización o los años medios de estudio- no siempre encuentran que sea u...

The region of Latin America is characterized by having the highest rates of criminal violence. This violence has burning social end economics effects. This paper tries to go into these effects in depth. We make a review of the literature about main economic consequences of violence. In addition, we present a panel data for Latin American countries...

This paper develops a microeconomic model of technology production. Through it we analyse the factors that determine whether a producer will decide to invest resources in the development of his own innovations, instead of choosing to imitate the innovations created by other entrepreneurs, and sell them once the law allows. The decision he takes wil...

This paper looks at the growth of a varied sample of countries during the period 1985-2000, focusing on three key variables: investment in physical capital, human capital and institutions. The analysis pays special attention to the process of the accumulation of these variables and their interrelationships. The results show that empirical research...

The region of Latin America is characterized by having the highest rates of criminal violence. This violence has burning social end economics effects. This paper tries to go into these effects in depth. We make a review of the literature about main economic consequences of violence. In addition, we present a panel data for Latin American countries...

La mayoría de análisis y políticas económicas en el área de América Latina se centran en enfoques macroeconómicos de naturaleza coyuntural. Frente a este enfoque de corto plazo, la literatura sobre crecimiento destaca el papel que la inversión en capital físico, la inversión en capital humano, el desarrollo de innovación y la seguridad jurídica jue...

This paper uses a multi-equation model to achieve an overall study of two key factors which explain growth, technology and institutions. The paper focuses on the process of the accumulation of these factors and the interrelationship arising among them. A theoretical model is given, together with empirical evidence for the joint impact of these fact...

This paper presents a model designed to throw light on the economic mechanisms determining the decision to acquire a new technology to replace an existing one. The investment decision is governed by a cost-benefit analysis, which is influenced by the factors analysed in the model described. These factors are the lapse of time between the acquisitio...

Aunque los trabajos teóricos y empíricos que emplean el concepto de capital humano son muy numerosos, no hay una definición generalmente aceptada de él, y en muchos casos se le identifica con educación formal. En estas páginas se precisará el concepto de capital humano, atendiendo a sus vías de adquisición. Además, en ellas se elabora un indicador...

Although there are a great many theoretical and empirical studies which use the concept of human capital, there is no generally accepted definition of this term, and in many cases it is simply equated with formal education. This article will try to clarify the concept of human capital more precisely, with special reference to the ways in which it c...

El presente trabajo pretende reflexionar, desde un punto de vista teórico, en la relaciones y sinergias que se surgen entre tecnología y capital humano. La comprensión de las interrelaciones que existen entre los dos factores contribuirá a profundizar en el entendimiento de su proceso de acumulación y su influencia sobre el crecimiento económico.

Dos son los indicadores que tradicionalmente se vienen utilizando en economía para medir el capital humano: los años medidos de estudio de la población y el tanto por ciento de la misma que ha completado un determinado nivel de estudios. Ambos dejan de lado muchos matices que se encuentran dentro del concepto de capital humano. En este trabajo se p...

Aunque son muy numerosos los trabajos teóricos y empíricos que emplean el concepto de capital humano, no hay una definición generalmente aceptada, identificándose, en muchos casos, éste con la educación formal. En cuanto a la medición de dicho factor, la gran mayoría de indicadores utilizados se basan simplemente en la escolarización recibida, sin...

Los indicadores que tradicionalmente se vienen utilizando en economía para medir el capital humano dejan de lado muchos matices que se encuentran dentro de un concepto amplio de capital humano. En este trabajo se propone un nuevo indicador más elaborado, construido para una amplia muestra de ochenta y cuatro países y que tiene presente la educación...

En la tesis se profundiza en el concepto de capital humano y se elabora un indicador internacional que recoge todos los matices contemplados en la definición propuesta. Así, se tendrá en cuenta la salud, la educación de tipo formal e informal y la experiencia. La elaboración de este indicador constituirá un punto de partida fundamental para resalta...