This paper uses firm-level data for each of the Spanish NUTS2 regions to estimate the effect of product and process innovations on firm’s export performance. It shows that the firm’s propensity to innovate and its export activity vary substantially across regions. Remarkably, results prove...

This paper uses Colombian micro-data to analyze the role of education and informality on regional wage differentials. Our hypothesis is that apart from differences in the endowment of human capital across regions, regional heterogeneity in the incidence of informality is another important source...

In this paper, we explore the connection between labor market segmentation in two sectors, a modern protected formal sector and a traditional- unprotected-informal sector, and overeducation in a developing country. Informality is thought to have negative consequences, primarily through poorer...

This paper examines the returns to education taking into consideration the existence of educational mismatches in the formal and informal employment of a developing country. Results show that the returns of surplus, required and deficit years of schooling are different in the two sectors....

The profound crisis that has affected the Spanish economy since mid-2008 has been characterized by significant job losses and a marked rise in the country´s unemployment rate. However, unemployment has had a differential impact on different population groups. Compared to native, immigrant...

We propose a nonparametric multiplicative bias corrected transformation estimator designed for heavy tailed data. The multiplicative correction is based on prior knowledge and has a dimension reducing effect at the same time as the original dimension of the estimation problem is retained. Adding...

We analyze a pooled annuity fund from a participant’s perspective by comparing it to a mortality-linked fund, a type of variable payout life annuity, that gives a return linked to the force of mortality but subject to a cost. Fixing the instantaneous volatility of return on wealth, we find...

The financial industry has recently seen a push away from structured products and towards transparency. The trend is to decompose products, such that customers understand each component as well as its price. Yet the enormous annuity market combining investment and longevity has been almost...

A transformation kernel density estimator that is suitable for heavy-tailed distributions is presented. Using a double transformation, the choice of the bandwidth parameter becomes straightforward. An illustration and simulation results are presented.