
José Antonio AlonsoComplutense University of Madrid | UCM · Department of Applied Economy
José Antonio Alonso
Professor
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171
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Introduction
My research fields are economic growth and development, International Finance, Institutions and governance, International Trade, Development Cooperation, Migration,
Publications
Publications (171)
El artículo realiza un análisis de la evolución de la moderna teoría del desarrollo, desde sus orígenes hasta la actualidad. Al efecto, revisa las principales contribuciones del núcleo inicial de la disciplina, reivindicando algunas de sus intuiciones. Así mismo, destaca las nuevas líneas de investigación y el renovado estilo de trabajo intelectual...
El presente trabajo fue realizado a pedido del Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Energía de la República de Costa Rica, en colaboración con el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), con el objetivo de ofrecer un panorama aceptablemente comprehensivo de la financiación disponible para la agenda del agua y de las posibilidades que brinda la agenda de...
Cuba has moved from a lengthy first stage (1990–2008), in which reforms were considered a necessary but reversible evil, to another in which reforms are seen as necessary and desirable. However, the lack of a comprehensive and timely approach to those processes has severely hampered the outcomes of reforms already underway. The purpose of preservin...
Almost 800 million people lack access to basic water supply, and almost 2000 million lack access to sanitation. Therefore, achieving universal access remains a crucial goal of the global development agenda. In order to shed light on whether international aid might help accomplish that goal, this study evaluates its impact in a sample of 121 develop...
The economic crisis in the wake of the COVID pandemic is putting Cuba's socialism to a severe test. The government in Havana has added a fundamental reform of the economy, institutional structure and social policies to the agenda. This volume brings together contributions from leading international experts as well as from the island itself, analysi...
La crisis económica a raíz de la pandemia de COVID está poniendo a prueba el socialismo cubano. El gobierno de La Habana ha puesto en la agenda una reforma de la economía, la estructura institucional y el sistema de protección social. Este volumen reúne contribuciones de destacados expertos internacionales, así como de la propia isla, que analizan...
The need for regional development banks (RDB) is a straightforward question that does not have a straightforward answer. The authors assess the arguments claiming that RDB are called to play a substantive role—in fact an increasingly substantive role—in future development. They summarize these arguments in the following hypothesis: if RDB did not e...
Regional development banks (RDB) have become increasingly important in the world economy, but have also been relatively under-researched to date. This timely volume addresses this lack of attention by providing a comprehensive, comparative, and empirically informed analysis of their origins, evolution, and contemporary role in the world economy thr...
The development cooperation system is currently under pressure to change and demonstrate its usefulness for addressing more complex development challenges. Triangular Cooperation constitutes a modality of cooperation that can contribute to this change, opening space to more inclusive formulas of partnership. However, such results are neither guaran...
There is growing evidence that overcoming the low-income threshold and reaching middle-income status is not sufficient for countries to converge toward high-income levels. Few middle-income countries have successfully completed that transit in recent decades, with the majority remaining in the middle-income group, and so facing what has come to be...
The emergence of middle-income countries (MICs) has increased the complexity of the international system and opened the space to a more comprehensive and universal development agenda. Additionally, through their role as providers of South–South cooperation (SSC), MICs have broken the strict donor/recipient duality that has characterized development...
The chapter discusses the existence of potential economic traps that limit the capacity for middle-income countries (MICs) to converge towards high-income status. It presents an empirical exploration of the two interpretations (absolute and relative) of middle-income traps (MITs) and considers transitions between country categories that occurred du...
As countries progress, they require more complex institutions; however, economic and institutional processes frequently do not evolve at the same pace, as institutions are subject to greater inertia. This problem is particularly relevant in middle-income countries (MICs), as these countries experience episodes of intense economic growth. Therefore,...
La potencialidad del español como lengua internacional se pone de relieve en su contribución a los procesos de internacionalización empresarial, tanto en términos de
inversión como en el plano del comercio exterior. Al actuar como factor multiplicador de flujos financieros y comerciales, la lengua constituye un importante activo empresarial en dive...
Attention is increasingly being paid to the conceptualization of the sustainable development agenda that should guide global development efforts beyond 2015. New trends are shaping the international environment, suggesting that the world emerging from the recent economic and financial crisis will probably be very different from the one we have know...
The global economic crisis of 2008-2009 exposed systemic failings at the core of economic policy making worldwide. The crisis came on top of several other crises, including skyrocketing and highly volatile world food and energy prices and climate change. This book argues that new policy approaches are needed to address such devastating global devel...
Una de las tendencias que con más fuerza caracterizan este comienzo de siglo es el manifiesto impulso que ha cobrado el proceso de integración de la economía mundial. Como consecuencia, el conocimiento del entorno internacional se ha convertido en una exigencia para cuantos operan en la realidad económica. Al estudio de esa realidad global y compre...
Empirical studies confirm that the impact of capital account regulation (CAR) is highly case-specific, which underlines the need to identify the determinants of CAR effectiveness in greater depth. Coming from a political economy perspective, this article aims to contribute to this subject by comparing three experiences of intense regulation: Brazil...
This article seeks to explain the contradiction between the promises of welfare gains derived from the economic models recommending the removal of immigration restrictions, and the reality experienced by countries attempting to apply restrictions to immigration flows. A formal model is built in which the strategic reaction of countries takes into a...
Recent literature has underlined the role that institutions play in the process of development, making it essential to understand why differences exist in the quality of institutions across countries. The goal of this study is to investigate the determinants of institutional quality. Our results confirm that institutional quality is conditioned by...
This paper econometrically analyses the effectiveness of capital account regulation in Brazil and Peru between 2008 and 2013. The analysis, based on new indices that carefully compute regulatory changes in both countries, suggests that Brazil was successful only in shifting the composition of inflows toward longer-term, but not in curbing its aggre...
A lo largo de las dos últimas décadas se ha producido un cambio notable en la morfología y formas de funcionamiento del sistema internacional de cooperación para el desarrollo, en parte por las modificaciones habidas en la estructura del sistema internacional. Se ha incrementado el nivel de heterogeneidad de los países en desarrollo, con la presenc...
The paper focuses on two crucial issues that hinder the fiscal sovereignty of developing countries: the reduced level of international tax cooperation, and the lack of appropriate procedures for sovereign debt crisis resolution. The low level of international tax cooperation enables a “race to the bottom” in tax rates among countries, tax avoidance...
The development cooperation system is undergoing a dramatic process of change. New actors are on stage, new instruments (beyond ODA) are being used, and the fields of work have been clearly widened. The enlargement of the development cooperation system is in line with the ambitious and comprehensive 2030 Agenda. However, those changes also imply ma...
This paper analyzes the process of related diversification at the regional level in two emerging countries: Brazil and Mexico. It claims that apart from regional available capabilities, capabilities coming from abroad in the form of imports may play an important role in the development of new products. In this sense, it proposes a new index to meas...
Given governance is still a hazy concept, the chapter goes back to the fundamentals that enable collective action trying to understand good governance as the result of quality institutions shaping social interaction in the public realm. Going beyond available indicators, the chapter wants to provide some sound criteria for measuring the quality of...
The relevance acquired in recent years by South–South cooperation seems to be connected with deeper structural transformations occurring in the international system. However, the variety of cooperation models promoted by new providers in the South requires the identification of complementary factors to help explain current patterns. A set of socio-...
Greece is a striking example of how politicians can mess up a simple and easy-to-solve problem, purporting to ‘rescue’ an insolvent sovereign and transforming a minor problem into outright catastrophe. Greece’s debt burden has increased substantially since ‘rescue’ started, her GDP has shrunk sizeably, avoidable damages have been inflicted on Greec...
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Prior to the financial crisis of 2008 Ireland tended to run fiscal surpluses and have low government debt-to-GDP. But after the banking system blew up as a Minskyian property bubble unwound government debt skyrocketed as the government absorbed private sector debts. From a sectoral balances perspective what effectively occurred was that the governm...
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Grenada is a small island developing state (SIDS) in the Eastern Caribbean which has been driven into over-indebtedness by a combination of structural weaknesses and external shocks. The small size of the island’s economy and its limited diversification met with the shocks of the cessation of the EU banana trade preferences and hurricane Ivan in 20...
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Like countless countries grappling with the challenge of late development, South Korea has – since the 1960s – accumulated large volumes of foreign debt. And like so many others, Korea has subsequently suffered a series of debt crises, some prompting intervention by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Yet unlike other countries, Korea has tended...
This chapter is based on the country mission report the author presented to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2015. On the one hand, it assesses to what extent Iceland fulfilled its obligations to secure economic, social and cultural rights in the aftermath of its recent banking crisis. Though Iceland managed the crisis better than many other co...
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
This chapter shows in detail the remedies used by Malaysia during the East-Asian Crisis, which helped the economy to recover quickly, leading to a V-shaped recovery. Being part of the so-called East-Asian Miracle, Malaysia suffered from the outbreak of the East-Asian Crisis in 1997 and was hurt by sharp currency depreciations and massive capital ou...
Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - Sovereign Debt Crises - edited by Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky
Brazil has become a key player in development cooperation, Africa being the region where most of its aid is allocated (64 %). In this paper, we propose three factors influencing aid allocation (strict solidarity, positive identification and instrumentation) and we try to identify which of these factors is the most important for Brazilian aid alloca...
Los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), adoptados el 25 de Septiembre de 2015 por la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas, pretenden ser la columna vertebral de la Agenda de Desarrollo hasta el año 2030. No es una agenda de mínimos como fueron los ODM, sino una agenda ambiciosa y desafiante, que trata de impulsar el tránsito de los países y de...
The new role of middle-income countries (MICs) in the global econo-political landscape means a reconfiguration of development cooperation is to be expected. On the one hand, MICs still face considerable structural deficits that affect their process of development; on the other, the international community needs MICs to participate more intensively...
El presente estudio es consecuencia de una solicitud formulada por la Secretaría General de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (SEGID) para que un grupo de académicos elevase propuestas argumentadas sobre distintas fuentes y mecanismos de financiación para el desarrollo, en el contexto de los trabajos preparatorios de la III Conferencia I...
The growing economic entity of Spanish as a language of international communication, serves as a starting point for an extensive study which has been promoted since 2006 by Fundación Telefónica under the broad heading: ‘The Economic Value of Spanish: a Multinational Business’. This book, as well as evaluating and recapping the main contributions pr...
Resumen El articulo pasa revista a la literatura especializada en la eficacia agregada de la ayuda. En concreto, considera lo estudios orientados a determinar el efecto agregado que la ayuda internacional tiene sobre el crecimiento economico del receptor. En el analisis se considera tanto el enfoque y los procedimientos estadisticos utilizados por...
Ion exchange of Li for Na in the layered compounds NaEuTiO4 and Na2Eu2Ti3O10 transforms the (NaO)2 rock-salt layers into Li2O2 antifluorite layers. Li can be inserted reversibly into the Li2O2 layers to reduce the Eu3+ to Eu2+, not the Ti(IV) to Ti(III). An internal electric field perpendicular to the layers is reduced by Li insertion; this field i...
Broadly speaking, the balance-of-payments-constraint hypothesis as developed by Thirlwall (1979) has been empirically supported. Yet, it fails to interpret correctly the necessary conditions for convergence. Although the neoclassical explanation of economic growth is not necessarily the correct one, it is a fact that some countries have indeed conv...
This paper provides new evidences about the determinants of institutional quality. Prior to implementing our empirical research, we discuss the criteria that should be used to judge the quality of institutions. Then, we identify the factors that, according to these criteria, determine institutional quality. The results obtained in the estimated mod...
This chapter explores the insufficient progress that has been made in aid effectiveness. Studies reveal that aid dependency is a serious problem that reduces the capacity for resources to have an impact, and also reduces the development possibilities of the affected countries. Moreover, this is a problem that could become worse in the future, as ai...
This book revisits the causes of the 2008 global economic collapse, re-evaluating the international response to the crisis and suggesting more effective approaches to development cooperation. It explains how leading governments undertook extraordinary measures to offset the 2008 economic crisis, shoring up financial institutions, stimulating demand...
La población infantil de hoy constituye la base de la sociedad del mañana, de ahí que su bienestar actual y las oportunidades que tenga a su alcance determinarán en buena medida la senda futura de desarrollo de un país. Una consulta a los indicadores internacionales sobre la infancia revela que en los últimos años se han producido mejoras reseñable...
La teoría del desarrollo ha sufrido importantes mutaciones en las últimas dos décadas. No obstante, la realidad internacional a la que esa teoría remite ha cambiado si acaso más intensamente. La incrementada heterogeneidad del mundo en desarrollo, la variada gama de experiencias de crecimiento, la nueva geografía de la pobreza, la multipolaridad de...
One of the main implications of the neoclassical approach to growth is the existence of convergence across economies — although not necessarily to the same steady states — as a consequence of decreasing returns to capital. But, according to the balance of payments constrained growth theory as developed by Thirlwall, international convergence cannot...
This article analyses current attempts to identify the factors underlying long-term economic growth. The author criticises some of the arguments and historical evidence on which the two main explanations that dominate recent literature are based: the institutional approach and the approach focusing on the importance of geographical factors. Using a...
This paper provides new evidence about the determinants of institutional quality. Given the shortcomings of governance indicators, we first discuss the criteria employed to judge institutional quality. Then. we identify the factors that. according to these criteria, shape the quality of institutions. The results of this empirical research show that...
Increasing international migratory flows in the last four decades is one of the most visible manifestations of the globalization process. In spite of its potential positive effect on global efficiency and well-being, little progress has been made in designing and promoting a normative and institutional framework to allow a better global governance...
El presente trabajo pretende aportar nuevas evidencias acerca de los factores que determinan la calidad institucional. Dada las deficiencias que presentan los indicadores existentes al respecto, una primera parte se orienta a discutir los criterios exigibles a una institución de calidad.
Sobre esos criterios se definen las relaciones que serán obje...
This paper provides new evidence about the determinants of institutional quality. Given the shortcomings of governance indicators, we first discuss the criteria employed to judge institutional quality. Then, we identify the factors that, according to these criteria, shape the quality of institutions. The results of this empirical research show that...
El presente documento contiene el marco estratégico sectorial para el ‘Crecimiento Económico y Promoción del Tejido Empresarial’ de la Cooperación Española. Su objetivo es profundizar en una de las áreas de intervención que, con distintas denominaciones, ha sido identificada como prioritaria en los tres Planes Directores que hasta ahora ha tenido l...
La ayuda al desarrollo constituye un pequeño capítulo dentro de las políticas públicas con efectos sobre los países en desarrollo. Otras políticas, como la comercial, agrícola o migratoria, por sólo citar algunas, pueden tener efectos de desarrollo de mayor entidad que la propia ayuda internacional. De poco servirá, por tanto, disponer de una polít...
Resumen: España accede a la crisis eco-nómica con un abultado desequilibrio exterior. En los primeros meses, tras la crisis, se ha producido un rápido proce-so de ajuste. En este artículo se analizan los factores que motivaron la extraordi-naria dimensión alcanzada por el déficit y se discuten sus implicaciones econó-micas. Al tiempo, se consideran...
La estructura del estudio se divide de la siguiente manera: un capítulo inicial que muestra una delimitación del concepto de ‘coherencia de políticas’, y sus diferentes dimensiones y limitaciones, así como una revisión de la tradición histórica de la idea de coherencia de políticas
y de la respuesta internacional a este desafío.
Posteriormente, se...
Diversos trabajos han puesto de manifiesto que la ayuda al desarrollo puede tener un efecto perverso sobre la calidad institucional de los países que la reciben, dando lugar a una especie de maldición de la ayuda. En opinión de los autores, sin embargo, esta literatura muestra dos graves deficiencias. En primer lugar, en ninguno de los trabajos se...
The article aims to identify those contributions to the development theory that could be of interest to enrich the growth theory. Therefore it reviews the basic contributions to growth theories and de-bates to what extent its prescriptions fit with reality. It follows an analysis of the basic contributions to development theories, trying to take th...