Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a measure of competitiveness of the Spanish autonomous communities from a multidimensional and dynamic perspective for the period 2008-2016. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a broad definition of competitiveness based on five key environments (productive capital, human capital, social and institutional capital, infrastructure and knowledge) and comprising 53 indicators. The method used to construct the competitiveness index is based on the P-distance proposed by Pena Trapero (1979), which objectively assigns weights to the indicators. There is an important advantage in the methodological proposal of this study, as it allows analyzing the behavior of partial and aggregated indicators from a dynamic perspective, taking the same value as a reference for the entire period. Therefore, not only a classification obtained for each year but also the variation that occurs in terms of the reference period can be analyzed. Findings The classification of the autonomous communities is established using common intervals based on the results obtained for the whole period, i.e. 2008-2016. The data point to the unequal situations of the autonomous communities. The results also reveal that the evolution of the regional competitiveness synthetic index is clearly cyclical and the drop recorded in the recessive period is less pronounced than the increase recorded in the growth phase. Originality/value The main innovation of the competitiveness index presented here lies in its allowing comparisons over time.

Objective. This article attempts to analyze tax evasion as a fundamental element of tax morale in the European countries from the perspective of spatial dependence. This research focuses on the contextual differences using country-level and cross-sectional European Value Survey data for the year 2008 to estimate the factors that affect the rejection of tax evasion. Method. The application of a generalized linear model using spatial filtering allowed us to observe robust results on the role of contextual variables in explaining different patterns of the rejection of tax evasion in the European countries. Results. The results confirm the influence exerted by spatial dependence, economies of agglomeration, income inequality, economic imbalances, and perceived corruption on the variable "rejection of tax evasion." A novel finding is the fact that income distribution is key in explaining the rejection of tax evasion. Conclusion. This study indicate that there is interaction of the rejection of tax evasion between neighboring countries, so that low/high levels of rejection of tax evasion at home are associated with low/high levels of rejection in a neighboring country. Therefore, policymakers should establish coordinated tax awareness measures in the supranational policies (e.g., European Union), since the rejection of tax evasion depends on internal factors of the country in which one lives and those of neighboring countries. Fiscal behavior (social norm) of individuals from neighboring countries affects the behavior of individuals in the country.

Mainstreaming gender analysis into all aspects of policy making, including infrastructure and economic policy, is a key aspect to achieving gender equality. The main objective of this paper is to examine the impact of several public infrastructures on well-being by gender, applying the Capability and Subjective Well-being approaches. An index of access to infrastructure is constructed and its effect on well-being is estimated using a new survey dataset from Spain. The results from the logistic regression model show that access to infrastructure positively affects subjective well-being, particularly of female respondents. All dimensions of infrastructure matter more for women’s well-being than men’s. Important differences in the impact on well-being by the types of infrastructures analyzed and the impact differs significantly by age are obtained. The findings suggest that designing public infrastructure policies can contribute to reducing gender well-being gap.

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