Introduction.
The origin of the Department of Estructura Económica (Applied Economics II), University of Valencia can be dated in the academic year 1967-68, when the Faculty of Economics of this University was founded. Lecturer José Honrubia (Ph. D. Economics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) was the person in charge of starting the activities of the Department.
Afterwards three Professors, also coming from Universidad Complutense, chaired the departament. By chronological order, they were Professors Rafael Martínez Cortina, Angel Viñas Martín and Ramiro Campos Normand.
The initial stable core of lecturers of the department was compounded by, besides José Honrubia, students who graduated in the first intakes of the recently founded Faculty of Economics: Aurelio Martínez Estévez, Vicent Soler i Marco, Ernest Reig Martínez, José Antonio Martínez Serrano and Josep Sorribes Monrabal. All of them received classes from Professor Ernest Lluch, among others.
During the eighties, the first lecturers of the Deparment tried to improve their skills by means of post-graduated visits of different length to outstanding foreign universities, mainly in the United Kingdom. Along this decade, lecturer Aurelio Martínez Estévez got the position of Professor first, later also achieved by Ernest Reig Martínez and José Antonio Martínez Serrano. Aurelio Martínez Estévez chaired the Department.
At this time the Department became well known by both the articles and books written on the Spanish and Valencian Economy and the important effort to spread their main findings.
It is worth mentioning, that when the L.R.U. (a new Spanish law ruling the universities) and the Statute of the University of Valencia were put into force, the members of the Department had to integrate as a section of a much wider Department of Applied Economics. At that time, Professor Ernest Reig became the Chair of both the new Department (1987-88) and the section of Estructura Económica (until October 1991).
In this period, a second group of younger lecturers followed the steps of the first group by studying at foreign universities for a longer period of time in order to receive a more intensive education in economics.
From October 1991, Professor José Antonio Martínez Serrano chaired the Department. He initiated the process to transform the unit into a new Department. This process was completely necessary given that the scientific goals pursued diverged from those followed by the rest of the larger Department.
It was a difficult and long process that concluded with the creation of the Department of Estructura Económica (Applied Economics II), on the 24th October 1994. Professor José Antonio Martínez Serrano was the chair and the administrative tasks were carried by Mr. José Salvador Juanes.
In the nineties, the new members of the Department were required to carry post-graduate studies in outstanding foreign universities and also encouraged to obtain their PhD degrees there. This formation strategy was conveniently supervised by Professor José Antonio Martínez Serrano. The long absence of these members was made up, in a gesture of solidarity, by the rest of the members of the Department that had to carry out their teaching activity.
Later, the Department was chaired by Dr. Leandro García Menéndez (from 1 October 1997 to 30 March 1998) and by Professor Ernest Reig (from 1 April 1998 to 30 June 2001).
In 1997, Cecilio Tamarit Escalona obtained a Jean Monet Professorship; and Professor Ernest Reig Martínez and Juan Máñez Castillejo were awarded with the ‘Catalonian Award in Economics’ and the Young Economist Essay Award in the 24th Conference of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics.(EARIE), respectively.
With the return of the members of the Department that got a PhD in Universities abroad, the Department was capable of enhancing its academic and research activities. Thus, in 1999 the Department launched its own PhD program, focused on the research fields of International and Industrial Economics. The director of the program was Professor Aurelio Martínez, although the assistance by the lecturers Juan Sánchis Llopis, Juan Máñez Castillejo and María Rochina Barrachina was remarkable.
Juan Sánchis Llopis and María Rochina Barrachina were also responsible for initiating a program of high quality seminars, with the participation of foreign and national researchers, including members of the Department. In 2002, Andrés Picazo Tadeo further consolidated them. Previously, Juan Máñez had also initiated the publication of a series of Working Papers that, in some way, stem from these seminars.
In 2000, the Department took the responsibility of organising the ‘III Encuentro de Economía Aplicada’. In particular, the main efforts were made by José Antonio Martínez Serrano, Vicent Soler i Marco and Andrés Picazo Tadeo.
In 1999 Vicent Soler i Marco got the position of Professor and in 2002 Cecilio Tamarit Escalona also reached this position.
Currently, the main fields of research in the Department include International Economics and Industrial Economics. There also exist some small groups working on the field of Environmental Economics, the Analysis of Productive Efficiency, Planning and Territory, and Spanish and Valencian Region Economics.
In line with the research carried out, the Department has supported the creation of two University Institutes: The Institute of International Economics and the Institute of Local Development.
From June 2001 Vicent Soler i Marco is the chair of the Department, with the assistance of Francesc Hernández Sancho.
June of 2001.
Year 2001
2001 can be considered by this department as the end of a highly productive period, initiated in 1990 under Professor José A. Martínez Serrano. During this stage new lecturers who joined the department were involved in their academic and professional improvement undertaking postgraduates studies (M.Sc. or Ph.D. or both) in internationally recognised UK universities (London School of Economics, University of Warwick, University College London and Queen Mary University). 2001 has been the final year of this extraordinary period as the last two members of this project have achieved their Ph.D. degree. In particular Francisco Requena, with the thesis dissertation: “The micro foundations of export behaviour: empirical investigations”, at the London School of Economics, defended in July, and Silviano Esteve, with the thesis dissertation: “Three essays on strategic competition and exit”, at University of Warwick, who defended in December.
This departmental policy turned out to be a highly profitable bet as allowed both to increase the convergence with respect to the performance level of internationally well-known universities and to establish contacts and relationships with world experts on new topics of knowledge and research in Economics and Social Sciences in general. Also, we should mention that the rate of return was quite successful as 10 out of 12 people who were involved in this international adventure -leaving apart short period visits abroad- are currently staff in this Department.
We should mention others indicators that signal the effort made to improve the quality of the teaching activities and the excellent level of research by members of this department. The average matk of the Department in the teaching assement was 3.s out of 5. The Department is also involved in postgraduate teaching, offering since 2000 a doctoral programme (Diploma de Estudios Avanzados, DEA), under the direction of Professor Aurelio Martínez. Since January 2001 weekly seminars are organised during term times (18 were organised during 2001 during two terms). There were several academic activities (seminars, visits, etc.) organised under the Jean Monet Chair.
Members of the Department published 12 journal articles (four of them in international journals and 12 articles as book chapters. As regards to participation in meetings, workshops and conferences, we account 30 presentations made by members of the Department. We should mention the participation in invited sessions or the lectures given in several institutions and conferences. The Department has been also quite successful in terms of research projects and research contracts. Currently our members are involved in two contracts and in 10 publicly financed research projects. There are also other external activities organised by members of this Department or in which the staff is involved, mainly teaching given in other Universities or institutions or the organisation of a M.Sc. in Environmental Management. It is worth to note that the growth in the academic activity of the Department has occurred parallel to a shift of some staff members to new research institutes.
As a new Head of Department, together with the invaluable assistance of the Secretary (Dr. Francesc Hernández), the members of the Department in the Steering Council (Junta Permanente) and members in charge of other areas, I feel committed to continue the achievements reached by the preceding chairman, Professor Ernest Reig, in office until June 2001. I would also like to thank to the Associate Lecturers who have been involved in the Department activities during the previous period for their help and generosity.
Finally, I would like to stress the important cohesion inside this Department although the diversity that can be observed in terms of tradition and cultural academic background. This fact helps to improve the professional environment and contributes to increase the research productivity, which in turn is a goal that justifies our existence in the Academia and in the Valencian society. In this new stage of the Department, the recruitment policy will be driven by the standard academic requirements used in high qualified economic departments all over the world opening new positions to the job market.
Dr. Vicent Soler i Marco, Chair of Departament.
January 2002.
Year 2002
In 2002 our Department has witnessed the consolidation of an important part of its staff. Some of the young fellows that went abroad to follow post-graduate and/or doctoral studies in outstanding UK universities, in particular, Salvador Gil, Rafael Llorca, Juan Sanchis, Maria Rochina and Juan Mañez, have passed their competitions and become tenured Associate Professors. At the same time, Cecilio Tamarit has been promoted to Full Professor.
Concerning the teaching activities, and according to the report prepared by Professor Ernest Reig, based on the statistics collected by the GADE, there is an important improvement in the marks obtained by the teaching body, and, notably, there is also a reduction in the variability of the marks (the mean for the 27 people under evaluation is 3.74 out of 5). In particular, it is worth to note the individual scores obtained by Salvador Gil, Vicent Soler and Juan Mañez.
As for the research activities, there has been an increasing trend, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. Thus, we have raised from 1 to 6 articles published in international academic journals with “citation index”, keeping, at the same time, the number in other kind of publications. It is worth to mention the articles by Rafael Llorca and Cecilio Tamarit in Applied Economics as well as the other four articles published by the last one in different outsanding international journals, and the paper by Salvador Gil In Review International Economics.
Is is also noteworthy the increasing role of the members of our Deparment as external referees in academic journals and organizations. In contrast, there is a reduction in the number of the papers delivered in Congresses. This fact may be related to the enormous effort devoted along this year by our staff preparing their competitions for tenured positions. Finally, I like to remark the presentation of two M.A. Dissertation papers elaborated under our Doctorate Program.
A special feature of our Deparment is the intense academic life brought by the Internal Seminar Program. This Program has been carried out by Dr. Andrés Picazo who has organized 29 seminars along the academic year, giving birth to a forum for the presentation of papers made by the members of our staff and also from other universities. We have also benefited by the 7 seminars organized by the Jean Monnet Chair on its 7th year of activities supervised by Dr. Cecilio Tamarit. Under this scheme we have received distinguished visitors like Dominick Salvatore (Fordham University) or Gianmarco Ottaviano (University of Bologna).
Dr. Vicent Soler i Marco, Chair of Departament.
January 2003.
Year 2003
In 2003 the Department has experienced a significant advance in the aim of research excellence with the consecution of three doctoral thesis which have obtained the maximum score: the thesis of Vicente Pallardo untitled “Política monetaria y resultados macreoeconómicos: una aproximación experimental” (whose directors are Enrique Fatàs and Juan A. Màñez ), the thesis of Teresa Fayos untitled “La evaluación de la promoción pública de la internacionalización: implicaciones sobre las empresas exportadoras de la Comunidad Valenciana” (whose directors are Frank Bradley, Alejandro Mollà, José M. Àlvarez Coque, Leandro García y Enrique Bigné) and, finally, the thesis of Vicent Almennar (UNED) untitled “El paper del creixement dels serveis a empreses en el desenvolupament economic: spillovers, productivitat i eficiència productiva” (whose directors are Vicent Soler, Aurelio Martínez y Francesc Hernàndez).
As far as teaching activities are concerned, the report prepared by Dr. Ernest Reig, based on the statistics collected by the GADE (although with incomplete information due to the fact that it is not yet compulsory to all the staff) shows an improvement with respect to previous years. In particular, Department averages are higher than University averages in 8 out of 14 items and only in the items “time devoted to topics” and “he/she motivates us in order to participate”, the average of the rest is below 3.5 (over a maximum of 5). It is worth noting the evaluations of Rafael Llorca, Vicent Soler, Francisco Requena, Cecilio Tamarit, Salvador del Saz y Juan Alberto Sanchis with scores that range between 4.27 and 4.84.
With respect to research activities there have been a reduction in the quantity (although not in the quality) of articles comparing to last year one. In particular, there are 2 international articles (6 in 2002 but 1 in 2001) and remains stable the publication in national journals. It is noteworthy the article of Salvador Gil “Pricing to market behaviour in European car markets” in European Economic Review.
It has been a year of considerable new research with 26 papers presented at different Meetings and Congress and 10 research projects (9 in 2002) with financial support (FEDER, DGCYT, CICYT or Generalitat Valenciana). There is also a high presence of Department members in referee tasks in academic journals and diverse Institutions. There have also been two dissertations in the doctorate program.
The program of weekly seminars, coordinated by Salvador Gil, which presents papers of researchers of this and other Universities has been of great interest and is a differential feature of the Department.
Finally, the four seminars of the Cátedra Jean Monet –with seven years under the organization of Cecilio Tamarit- have been attended by outstanding researchers.
Dr. Vicent Soler i Marco, Chair of Departament.
January 2004.
Year 2004
The academic year 2003-2004 has experienced an incremental improvement both in terms of research and teaching. However, it should be noted that when the aim is excellency any improvement although rewarding is insufficient.
As regards teaching, whereas in previous years some lecturers got marks below 3.3 (over 5) in the teaching quality assessment, this academic year all the assessed lecturers have got marks above 3.3. Thus all marks are in the range 3,3-4,2 and mark dispersion is lower than in previous years.
In particular, the average mark for the very interesting question Would you recommend this lecturer? is well above the university average for the lectures (3.94 for the department vs. 3.74 for the university and only slightly below for the classes ( 3.91 for the department vs. 4.05 for the university). Also it is important to recall that it is in the section evaluating the Attitude towards the students where the department lecturers obtain higher notes. However, in spite of our efforts, we are not completely satisfied with our marks in the questions regarding to Suitability of course materials and Adaptation of the course syllabus to the time length of the course.
It should be noted that students’ performance is far from satisfactory as it showed both the percentages of students that decide not to sit for the exam paper and students that fail their exams. However, it is difficult to disentangle whether the cause of this poor student performance is insufficient effort or lack of a proper educational background to cope with university requirements.
As for the departmental seminars, both quantity and quality should be highlighted. The department hosted 19 high-quality research seminars. Further, it should be noted that this is the only department in the Faculty of Economics with a regular seminar series. More information about the seminars, that this year were organised by Dr. Rafael Llorca, can be found in the Seminars section of this memory.
The research quality of the department is shown by various factors. First, there is a growing number of staff members publishing in international journals. Among them it is necessary to point out that a paper by Salvador Gil in the European Economic Review- 2003 is one of top-ten cited papers of this journal. Second, S. Esteve, Juan A. Mañez,M. Rochina, A. Sanchis and Juan.A. Sanchis were awarded with the first and the second ALdE Young Economists Prizes. Third, our department has hosted two visiting professors, Dr. Kevin Fox (South Wales University) and Dr. Oscar Bajo (Universidad de Castilla-la Mancha). Finally, the amount of books and book chapters has actually grown, with especial regard on the book Economia Espanyola i del Pais Valencià, where a lot of members of department have participate.
The Head of the Department
Dr. Vicent Soler i Marco.
Year 2005
Research Memory Departament; Introduction Year 2005
Year 2011
2011 was a year of great activity and significant changes for the Department of Economic Structure. Undoubtedly the most emotional event was the retirement of our friend Pepe Honrubia, our founder and mentor of several generations of economists. Also, the 2011-2012 academic year has brought us hiring two new professors: Gaetano D'Adamo and Fabio Pieri. They constitute the starting point of the new recruitment policy of the Department through the Doctors’ labour market, which aim is to reduce inbreeding and facilitate the internationalization of the Faculty. Note also that Loles Añón has obtained the position of Associated professor and three colleagues have received their accreditations for a Chair: Rafael Llorca, Paco Requena and Francesc Hernández whereas Rafael Boix has received his accreditation for Associated professor. Moreover, this year several members of our department have received important appointments and awards: Vicent Soler has been elected Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Ernest Reig received the medal of the University of Valencia for his research career, Rafael Lostado has been appointed President of the Spanish Society of General Systems (SESGE) and lastly (but certainly not least) Andres Picazo has been appointed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Manager National of R&D in the area of Applied Economics.
As regards teaching, the Department has continued to pursue the introduction of degree plans and has been involved in a growing number of graduate programs. Of special interest were the Summer School, organized by Juan Sanchis and the Olympics of Economy, organized by Mari Luz Marco and Silvio Esteve. According to GADE reports, this year the results of teacher assessment puts us close to the average university degree courses and well above average in graduate courses, which corresponds to the research profile of our Department. This year special mention and economic incentive given by our department for teachers with the best results in their surveys teachers have gone to Cristóbal Andrés, Rafa Boix y Vicente Pallardó.
In the area of research, our Department has remained very active another year. Without doubt, the most important facts have been the PhD theses of our fellow Merche Beltran and María Molinos. Also, as an indicator of leadership in research, we note that our department has organized two workshops: the "III Good times, bad times. Entrepreneurship and the cycle ", which took place on November 29 and organized by Juan and Amparo Sanchis, Juan Máñez, Loles Añón and Maria Rochina, and a new edition of the Worshop INTECO on Economic Integration, as always, took place the first week of December. Also, Vicent Soler and Rafael Boix have been part of the Organizing Committee of the European Congress of European Regional Science Association, held in Barcelona. Rafael LLorca has been coordinator of the Scientific Committee of the XII Jornadas de Economía Internacional, which took place in Castellón on 16-18 June. Maria Rochina, Amparo and Juan Sanchis, and Juan Máñez have been part of the Committee of the XXVI Jornadas de Economía Industrial and, finally, Andrés Picazo was part of the Scientific Committee of the Encuentro de Economía Aplicada held at the University of Huelva during the first week of June.
This year, all indicators of research activity (publications, seminars, attendance at conferences etc) continue to show a positive progression. Special mention merit stays at external centres, among which the stays program conducted by Professor Vicente Esteve at the University de la Laguna under the agreement signed between these universities, those stays by Juan and Amparo Sanchis at the University of Edinburgh, Paco Requena at LSE, Francesc Hernandez at the University of California, and Cecilio Tamarit at the University of Göttingen. The Department is promoting a program of visiting researchers to increase visitors in the near future under a new Ph.D. program, and in which have participated Oscar Bajo (UCLM), Carmen Díaz (UCLM), Manuel Salas (Granada), Asier Minondo (Deusto), JA Gómez-Limón(Cordoba), Josep-Lluís Carrión i Silvestre (Barcelona), Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann (Goettingen) y Marisú Prats (Murcia).
Finally, the new collection of working papers of the Department has reached a sound position, which has allowed a better ranking REPEC EDIRC. In fact, the Department currently stands at No. 27 among all research centres in Spain in Economics and in the second place among the Departments of Applied Economics Area after the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.
The above data serve only to maintain our enthusiasm and commitment to a quality public education.
Cecilio Tamarit, Head of Department
Valencia, May 2011.
