Comunicación corporativa durante la pandemia por la COVID-19. Un análisis de las portadas de la prensa económica española durante el 2020 / Corporate communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of the front pages of the Spanish business press in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic that arrived in 2020 has affected the entire media landscape and also corporate communication. This research has analysed the main topics on the front pages of the three Spanish economic newspapers during 2020: Expansión, Cinco Días and El Economista. The evaluation of the main front page topics has made it possible to quantify the extent to which the pandemic has displaced the coverage devoted to corporate communications in organizations. In addition, it has been possible to observe which organizations have successfully spreading their messages and which specific issues have been most related to the pandemic. The results obtained show that the health crisis has absorbed the main topics of the front pages of the economic newspapers, leaving only half of the coverage available for other topics. Within this phenomenon of absorption, the effects on employment had the greatest prominence with a 10% presence in all the headlines analysed. The coverage on unemployment is especially important if it is related to the tourism sector, which was the industry with the highest presence on the front pages (36.6% of all topics categorized as COVID-19). The significant presence of both topics indirectly points to the important weight of tourism in the Spanish economy. However, it is not possible to state that all related topics were negative because there was also coverage focused on economic recovery (4.4%). On the other hand, in the space not occupied by the pandemic, it was observed that the coverage of the Caixabank - Bankia merger was the most important in comparison with the coverage of the rest of the organizations. This business initiative achieved 2.65% of front page topics since the pandemic began, in a scenario that was very limited. In general, mergers and acquisitions was the most important topic in 2020, as the second most covered specific topic was the failed merger between Banc Sabadell and BBVA. Telefonica was also among the companies with the most front-page coverage, although with a greater diversity of topics. The rest of the companies analysed also showed a wide variety of corporate topics as dividend management, cash flow movements and business diversification. It was also noted that the coverage achieved on the front pages maintained a business focus and wasn’t a vehicle for disseminating CSR efforts related to the pandemic. This is a very significant result because much recent literature has argued that during the pandemic, CSR has played an important role in the communication strategies of organizations. However, it seems that these actions have not been enough important to get a prominent position on the front page of Spanish business newspapers. The most important conclusion that can be drawn from this research is that corporate communication by organizations did not disappear during 2020 despite the ravages of the pandemic, but was reduced by 50%. This reduction also shows a very important effect to take into consideration. During the year 2020 organizations had to work much harder to be in the spotlight even though the economic coverage of the analysed media did not completely disappear because of the pandemic.

Seasonal adjustment of the Spanish sales daily data

We present a procedure to perform seasonal adjustment over daily sales data. The model adjusts daily information from the Immediate Supply of Information System for Value Added Tax declaration forms compiled by the Spanish Tax Agency. The procedure performs signal extraction and forecasting at the daily frequency, by means of an unobserved components model. The daily information allows a permanently updated monitoring of the short-term economic conditions of the Spanish economy.

The role of foreign direct investment in growth: Spain, 1964–2013

Purpose Foreign direct investment (FDI) has played a major role in the deep process of transformation experienced by the Spanish economy since the first 1960s, which even intensified, following the integration with the now European Union in 1986. This paper aims to analyse the long-run effects of FDI in Spain by estimating a production function including the foreign capital stock over the period 1964–2013. Design/methodology/approach The author estimates a production function including the foreign capital stock over the period 1964–2013, from which the contributions of the different explanatory variables on the accumulated growth of gross domestic product (GDP) are computed. Next, the author tested for the possible presence of structural change in the previously estimated equation, by means of the tests of Bai and Perron, re-estimating the production function for the different subperiods delimited by the structural breaks found. Finally, the analysis is completed by performing Granger-causality tests on the variables GDP and foreign capital stock in a multivariate setting. Findings The author finds a significant contribution of foreign capital on the accumulated growth of GDP over the period of analysis, which seems however to have been greater during the first years of the period analysed. Foreign capital can play a positive role in the economic growth of an economy, provided that FDI inflows are stable and permanent enough, but this effect on growth seems to be more important in the first stages of a growth process. Originality/value The author presents a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between FDI and growth for a particular country, which seems to be a more promising empirical approach rather than the approach based on panel regressions, where sometimes some dissimilar experiences are added together. The Spanish economy can provide a relevant case study, given the substantial process of growth it enjoyed starting from the early 1960s, characterized by the arrival of vast inflows of foreign capital.

An Automatic Algorithm to Date the Reference Cycle of the Spanish Economy

This paper provides an accurate chronology of the Spanish reference business cycle adapting a multiple change-point model. In that approach, each combination of peaks and troughs dated in a set of economic indicators is assumed to be a realization of a mixture of bivariate Gaussian distributions, whose number of components is estimated from the data. The means of each of these components refer to the dates of the reference turning points. The transitions across the components of the mixture are governed by Markov chain that is restricted to force left-to-right transition dynamic. In the empirical application, seven recessions in the period from 1970.2 to 2020.2 are identified, which are in high concordance with the timing of the turning point dates established by the Spanish Business Cycle Dating Committee (SBCDC).

Economic Effects of Employment Loss Among Young People During an Economic Crisis

This paper addresses the impact that the previous economic crisis had on Spanish economy, focusing on the effects on employment. To this end, the data on the employed population drawn from the Economically Active Population Surveys are broken down by age groups, to analyse the 2008 financial crisis. The results show that crises do not affect all workers equally, because younger workers have suffered disproportionate job losses. Through multisectoral modeling, the impact that this job loss has had on the Spanish economy as a whole is also analyzed.Jel Codes: C67; E24; J23

Impact of implementation of the Dependency Act on the Spanish economy: an analysis after the 2008 financial crisis

The aim of this paper is to assess the industry-wide impact of Long-Term Care (LTC) spending on the Spanish economy. LTC spending includes beneficiaries’ copayment and the impact is quantified in terms of output, employment and value added. To this purpose, we use an input–output model of the Spanish economy that allows us to further describe how the value added generated is distributed throughout the economy according to the existing benefit-mix (in kind services, cash benefit for informal care and cash benefit for personal assistance). Additionally, the model provides results on how the return on LTC spending would improve by using only in-kind services instead of the benefit mix currently in place. The 2012 Spanish Input–Output Table at current prices was extracted from the WIOD Database’s 2016 Release. Consumption data for dependent, employed, and unemployed households were collected from the Spanish Household Budget Survey for 2012. The findings reveal that the total annual costs are 7,205.43 million €, with total costs from in-kind services being almost 71% higher than total costs from cash benefits. Each million euros invested in in-kind services and CBPA would create 41.91 jobs (68.41% direct, 9.16% indirect and 22.43% induced). However, each million euros spent on cash benefits would result in 16.88 jobs overall (53.02% direct, 24.53% indirect and 22.45% induced). The total number of jobs is 151,353 at the aggregate level, being 46,840 depending on cash-benefits and 104,513 on in-kind services.