The sector of Information and Communication Technologies is one of the key instruments for the development of an economy. The literature emphasizes its capacity for both increasing productivity and generating new sources of income and wealth (Jorgenson, 2001; Colecchia and Schereyer, 2002; among others). Traditionally studies on the ICT sector have focused on the analysis of its economic impact, but not on its capacity as a "bridge" of information and knowledge flows across the economic network. Following Burt's approach (1992) about structural holes, the organization of the economic network defines where and for whom new opportunities lie. The structural hole methodology allows to analyze the capacity of the ICT sector as an enabler of technological diffusion and innovation. Our results show that the European ICT sector not only is important for its intermediary role in the flow of information across the economic network, but also for its low level of dependency on other sectors.

C67, D57, O33,

Although the importance of boundary-spanning in blended and online learning is widely acknowledged, most educational research has ignored whether and how students learn from others outside their assigned group. One potential approach for understanding cross-boundary knowledge sharing is Social Network Analysis (SNA). In this article, we apply four network metrics to unpack how students developed intra-and inter-group learning links, using two exemplary blended case-studies in Spain and the UK. Our results indicate that SNA based upon questionnaires can provide researchers some useful indicators for a more fine-grained analysis how students develop these inter-and intra-group learning links, and which cross-boundary links are particularly important for learning performance. The mixed findings between the two casestudies suggest the relevance of pre-existing conditions and learning design. SNA metrics can provide useful information for qualitative follow-up methods, and future interventions using learning analytics approaches.Keywords: blended learning, group learning, knowledge spillovers, structural holes, social networks analysis, higher education. 5Making the most of "external" group members in blended and online environments

The use of network theory in the input-output field supposes an interesting alternative that allows structural complexity, weakness and strength to be shown. To this end, we analyse the relative position of each industry via core-periphery models to offer an approach to fundamental economy structure. These models are very flexible and can be applied on Boolean or valued graphs. In order to overcome the usual criticisms, we extend previous works and develop core-periphery valued models. This novel proposal is applied to the analysis of the European and Spanish economies in 1995. JEL classification: C67

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have scarcely been considered in studies on green consumption. Likewise, little attention has been paid to the effects of informational feedback on household energy ICT-related consumption. This paper aims to fill these gaps in the literature. Using microdata from a representative sample of the European Union population, this paper analyzes, in a novel way, whether the provision of information about the energy consumed by online services would make internet users change to a greener ICT consumption behavior. To assess this issue, Heckman type selection models are estimated. The results show that people’s concerns about environmental problems, their environmental activism and self-perceived efficacy as consumers are directly related to the influence that information provision exerts. We also find that frequent internet users and those with better digital skills are more willing to change their online behavior if given information on energy consumption.

There is a long tradition of studies in the input-output field for determining key sectors (Perroux, 1955;Hirschman, 1958). Their analysis allows the identification of those sectors with great effect on the demand and supply system and therefore, they constitute the basis for the growth and development of a territory.In order to pinpoint, those sectors whose position is more relevant in the economy, we propose from the network theory a definition of centrality measures that we consider to be new in the input-output field. The definition is based on the consideration of three complementary characteristics: total effects, mediative effects and immediate effects. These measures we call multilevel indicators and they have the enormous advantage of allowing different-sized structures to be compared and the key sector concept to be approached from a relational and global viewpoint.

In competitive electricity markets, the growth of electricity generated by renewable sources will reduce the market price of electricity assuming marginal cost pricing. However, small renewable distributed generation (RDG) alone cannot modify the formation of electricity prices. By aggregating small RDG units into a Virtual Power Plants (as a single unit market) they are capable of dealing at the wholesale electricity market analogous to large-scale producer following in changes in wholesale prices. This paper investigates the socioeconomic impacts of different type of RDG technologies on Spanish economic sectors and households. To this end, we applied an input-output price model to detail the activities more sensitive to changes in electricity price due to RDG technologies deployment and the associated modifications in income and total output associated with the households’ consumption variation. Detailed Spanish electricity generation disaggregation of the latest available Spanish Input-Output table, which refers to 2015, was considered. It was found that the integration of RDG units in the electricity market project a better situation for the economy and Spanish households. This paper’s scope and information can be used to benefit decision-making with respect to electricity pricing policies.

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