La presente tesis se enmarca en la línea de investigación sobre cuestiones relativas al crecimiento y la convergencia regional iniciada en los últimos años en el seno del grupo de "Anàlisi Quantitativa Regional" (AQR), el cual se enmarca en el Departamento de Econometría, Estadística y Economía Española. La existencia de un grupo de investigación de análisis regional como el citado no es sino una clara evidencia de la relevancia que la ciencia regional ha adquirido en los últimos años. En este sentido, las regiones se han convertido en las principales protagonistas, ganando terreno a los países como centro de atención. Una de las razones que explicaría este hecho cabría encontrarla, como señala Rodríguez-Pose (1995), en el proceso continuado de integración de la economía mundial, el cual erosiona la autonomía del Estado a la hora de establecer su propia política independiente, desarrollándose la actividad económica cada vez más tanto a nivel supranacional como regional. A nivel europeo, el proceso de integración económica intensifica este hecho, perdiendo sentido el considerar las relaciones entre sus Estados miembros según el paradigma imperante en el comercio internacional. En este sentido, la mayor relevancia de las economías regionales se ve reflejada en una descentralización cada vez más intensa hacia entidades territoriales inferiores o en la construcción de una política específicamente regional en el marco de la Unión Europea (UE), destinada a conseguir el desarrollo armónico de todas las regiones y combatir la dualidad creciente en el interior de algunos de sus Estados miembros.Teniendo todo ello en cuenta, la presente tesis persigue un objetivo general: la reivindicación de la consideración explícita del espacio en el análisis regional, especialmente, en el análisis del crecimiento regional. Asimismo, dos son los objetivos específicos de la misma, los cuales está íntimamente relacionados con los dos puntos antes mencionados. El primer objetivo consiste en mostrar en qué medida la consideración de la localización en el espacio de una región y de la situación de dicha región en relación a sus vecinas puede complementar los resultados obtenidos tras el cómputo de los índices habituales de localización/concentración industrial y de desigualdad regional. El segundo de los objetivos perseguidos se centra en analizar explícitamente las consecuencias sobre el crecimiento y la convergencia regional de la presencia de externalidades entre regiones.Llegado este punto, es importante destacar que a lo largo de todo el trabajo apostamos con fuerza por la Econometría Espacial como una herramienta básica para la consecución de ambos objetivos. Por ello, la tesis que presentamos persigue como objetivo general no únicamente la reivindicación del espacio en el análisis empírico regional sino también la utilización de la Econometría Espacial en los modelos de ciencia regional, entendiendo a dichos modelos como "aquellas especificaciones que incorporan regiones, localizaciones e interacción espacial de forma explícita y/o están basados en datos geo-referenciados (por ejemplo, datos cross-section o series temporales) para su estimación y validación estadística" (Anselin y Florax, 1995a).La presente tesis se estructura en cinco capítulos. Tras la introducción general (Capítulo 1), en el Capítulo 2 se lleva a cabo un breve repaso de las viejas teorías de localización para pasar posteriormente a analizar los principales modelos desarrollados en el seno de la Nueva Geografía Económica, estudiando las diferentes explicaciones que dichas teorías han dado de la concentración espacial de la actividad. En el capítulo 3 se lleva a cabo una somera revisión de las teorías de crecimiento, desde el modelo neoclásico de Solow-Swan hasta los modelos de crecimiento endógeno desarrollados en los últimos años, analizando los supuestos básicos sobre los que se fundamenta cada uno de ellos, así como sus implicaciones tanto para el crecimiento a largo plazo como para la convergencia regional.Con el propósito de desarrollar el primero de los objetivos específicos presentados anteriormente, en el Capítulo 4 se lleva a cabo una discusión acerca de las limitaciones mostradas por los índices de concentración y de desigualdad habitualmente utilizados en la literatura en términos de su aespacialidad. El segundo de los objetivos específicos perseguidos en la tesis es abordado en el Capítulo 5. Tras justificar desde un punto de vista tanto teórico como empírico el supuesto de externalidades entre regiones, se presenta un sencillo modelo teórico de crecimiento donde se impone el supuesto de existencia de interdependencia tecnológica entre regiones, analizando las implicaciones de dicho supuesto tanto en el estado estacionario de una región como en su tasa de crecimiento de equilibrio.Finalmente, en el capítulo 6 se resumen los resultados más relevantes obtenidos en los capítulos precedentes, presentando asimismo las posibles líneas de trabajo futuras que permitirían proseguir con la investigación aquí iniciada.

Tesi realitzada al Dept. d'Econometria, Estadística i Economia Espanyola / This thesis consists of three self-contained essays on non-stationary panel data. We propose novel approaches to both cointegration and unit root analysis in panel data models. The main contribution of this thesis is allowing for the presence of cross¬section dependence through the specification of an approximate common factor model. Early studies assumed that time series in the panel data were either indepen¬dent or that cross-section dependence could be controlled by including time effects. In macroeconomic, microeconomic and financial applications, cross-section depen¬dence is more a recurrent than a rare characteristic and it is usually caused by the presence of common shocks (oil price shocks or financial crises) or the existence of local productivity spillover effects. Ignoring these factors can lead to spurious statistical inference. More exactly, in the case of unit root testing, the unaccounted cross-section dependence might lead one to conclude that panel data is actually I(0) stationary when in fact it might be I(1) non-stationary. Similarly, the panel data cointegration test statistics might indicate than there are more cointegrating relations than there exist. Thus, recent studies proposed several alternatives to over¬come this limitation. One popular approach is the factor structure applied to the error process, an approach that we employ throughout this thesis. In the first essay we extend the univariate Carrion-i-Silvestre, Kim and Perron (2009) GLS-based unit root tests with multiple structural breaks to panel data. The proposed statistics are general enough that they allow for cross-section dependence and multiple structural breaks in both the level and the trend of the units of the panel. We evaluate the finite-sample properties of these statistics via Monte Carlo simulations. Our simulation study shows that the panel tests perform well, espe¬cially for the cases of known structural breaks. We apply these statistics to a panel of annual data covering the period 1870-2008 for 19 OECD countries. We find strong evidence in favor of I(0) stationarity when we apply the unit root tests to idiosyncratic component. However, the empirical analysis also shows that the I(1) non-stationarity of the real per capita GDP is captured by the common factor. In the second essay we propose a test statistic to determine the cointegration rank of VAR processes both in a unit-by-unit analysis and in a panel data frame¬work. The cross-section dependence is accounted for through the specification of a common factor model, which covers situations where there is cointegration among the cross-section dimension. We perform a Monte Carlo experiment in order to investigate the small-sample properties of the proposed panel statistic and the sim-ulation results indicate a good performance of the tests in terms of empirical size and power. We show that in some cases not accounting for common factors when they are present can lead to overestimating the cointegrating rank. We apply our proposed tests to two empirical applications using the variables involved in the money demand equation and the monetary exchange model. The money demand model detects two stochastic trends while the monetary exchange model detects three stochastic trends. In the third essay of this dissertation we investigate the cointegration relation between output, physical capital, human capital, public capital and labor for 17 Spanish regions observed over the period 1964-2000. The novelty of our approach is that we allow for cross-section dependence between the members of the panel using a common factor model. This is interesting because we allow the model specification to capture unobservable variables (technological progress, total factor productivity) to be proxied by the common factors, something that has not been widely addressed in the literature. To see if the variables are cointegrated or not, we employ two different techniques at the panel level. More exactly, we compare the statistics from the single-equation method of Westerlund (2008) and Banerjee and Carrion-i-Silvestre (2011, 2013) with those from the VAR framework of Carrion¬i-Silvestre and Surdeanu (2011). Moreover, using the VAR method, we identify at least one common cointegrating relation among output, physical capital, human capital, public capital and labor. Finally, we use several estimators to estimate the long-run relation between these variables.

El crecimiento del número de personas mayores, así como su mayor longevidad, plantea serios interrogantes acerca de los cuidados que serán demandados y la forma en que éstos serán prestados y financiados. España es uno de los países donde el proceso de envejecimiento se está desarrollando con mayor intensidad. En la actualidad, en este país, los cuidados de larga duración (CLD) están fundamentalmente a cargo de las propias familias. Sin embargo, los cambios sociales y demográficos que se están produciendo podrían llevar a una reducción de la capacidad de las familias para seguir "ofertando" estos servicios. Resulta pues fundamental, anticipar las demandas de servicios de cuidados, para lo cual es necesario estimar el número de personas con discapacidades, así como los años que se espera que las mismas vivan con distintos niveles de dependencia.La Tesis cubre un espacio poco desarrollado en la materia como es el análisis de la dependencia desde un punto de vista de su duración y su vinculación con los costes de los principales servicios de CLD. Se utiliza principalmente la información que brinda la Encuesta sobre Discapacidades, Deficiencias y Estado de Salud (INE, 1999), así como los costes de los servicios de CLD que brinda el IMSERSO (2000, 2004). Entre los objetivos alcanzados en la misma, se destacan: La propuesta de una metodología para el cálculo de probabilidades de transición en un modelo de múltiples estados (salud, discapacidad y muerte), bajo situaciones en las que no se cuenta con información completa. La estimación de la duración de la dependencia de la población española de 64 años y más, a partir del cálculo de esperanzas de vida condicionadas (al estado de salud) y de esperanzas de vida marginales, distinguiendo entre hombres y mujeres. El análisis de la dependencia desde una perspectiva microeconómica, combinando los costes unitarios de servicios de CLD con las estimaciones de duración en discapacidad. Un análisis prospectivo por edad y por generación de las prevalencias de las discapacidades. De los resultados obtenidos se observa que: Para las mujeres de 64 años y más, parte de la mayor esperanza de vida (respecto a la de los hombres) se espera sea en situación de dependencia. La tendencia parece indicar que en España se está produciendo una compresión relativa de la morbilidad, es decir, una menor proporción de años vividos con discapacidades respecto al total de años que se espera que vivan las personas. Sin embargo, las duraciones con discapacidad estarían incrementándose en términos absolutos como consecuencia de la mayor esperanza de vida global de la población. Del análisis de los costes esperados a nivel individual, se observa un mayor coste para las mujeres que para los hombres asociado con el mayor número de años que se espera que ellas vivan con discapacidades. A futuro, se espera un impacto positivo sobre los costes como consecuencia del incremento de la longevidad de las personas mayores, aún cuando las prevalencias de las discapacidades se reduzcan según la tendencia registrada en el pasado.En todos los casos analizados, y exceptuando situaciones en que se produjese un shock no predecible, se producirían incrementos sustanciales en los requerimientos de atención. Las perspectivas de una menor capacidad de las familias para atender las necesidades de dependencia y el ínfimo grado de cobertura actual, alertan sobre la necesidad de un planteamiento a corto plazo de políticas de atención a los mayores discapacitados más intensas. / DOCTORAL THESIS SUMMARY: "Disabilities of the Elderly People in Spain: Prevalence, Durations and Effect on Long Term Care Costs"One of the central problems facing societies experiencing rapid aging is the estimation of resources required to satisfy the demand for long-term care (LTC) of elderly individuals. This problem can be broken down into two components. The first is the distribution of years of life to be lived by individuals in various states. The second relates to the costs entailed by the occupancy of each of those states. The main objective of the thesis was to develop a methodology to:Calculate estimates of expected number of years to be lived in various states of disability for elderly people in Spain, with the available information (cross sectional information).Calculate alternative costs of LTC services associated with each disability state.Project short-term LTC costs, implied by projected expected durations in each disability state and by projected costs.Estimation of expected years of life to be lived in disability was carried out using two distinct methodologies. The first is the so-called Sullivan method that requires the least amount of information. Using this method we obtained the "Marginal Life Expectancies" in each health state. The second procedure also utilizes cross sectional information but additionally invokes assumptions about recovery rates and about differentials in mortality among individuals. We start with a simple three-state: Healthy, Disabled and Dead. This procedure leads to estimation of transition rates that can then be used to estimate the "Conditional Life Expectancies" in each health state. The results show that life expectancy in disability for women is larger than for men older than 64 years. In Spain a relative morbidity compression process is taking place. This means that a lower proportion of years are lived with disabilities with to respect the total life expectancy. Nevertheless, the durations with disability are increasing in absolute values. Expected LTC costs for women are larger than for men. In the short term, the expected costs of LTC will increase because of the larger longevity and in spite of the decreasing prevalence of disabilities.

Tesi llegida a la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas, Económicas y Comerciales / Fitxers digitals cedits per la Fundació Ernest Lluch

This dissertation analyses the effects of information on corruption cases on citizens’ electoral behaviour and the media coverage of those scandals. Corruption, defined as the abuse of public office for private gain, has lately become a very prolific research field in both academic and policy areas. Considering the main factors driving corruption, some studies have identified democratic systems as a hurdle to political scandals. Advanced democratic institutions tend to be associated with higher transparency and better political accountability mechanisms, which are the channels through which they accomplish lower levels of corruption. Factors such as an independent judiciary, press freedom, and free elections are key elements that define an advanced democracy. This thesis is composed by three empirical studies. The study presented in Chapter 2 analyses how information on local corruption affected local electoral outcomes in Spanish municipalities between 1999 and 2007, a period characterised by the surge in local scandals. We use a novel database on those corruption cases to estimate an incumbent's vote share equation, accounting for the omission of popularity shocks, something that is lacking in prior studies. As an additional enrichment to the literature we have into consideration the degree of attention that the media devoted to each case and when the judiciary was involved in the scandal, analysing whether voters react to the amount of information and to information regarding the seriousness of the case. Thus, we account for the complementarity of these institutions in the fight against corruption. Chapter 3 studies how corruption affects voter turnout using information on local scandals occurring in Spain between 1999 and 2007 and survey data. This analysis has the advantage over the previous literature as it relies on a research strategy for differentiating between the ‘mobilisation’ and ‘disaffection’ effects of corruption on voter turnout. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that is able to analyse empirically how these two effects are influenced by partisan leanings or corruption at different times, untangling the conclusions of earlier studies. Chapter 4 studies the media coverage of 165 Spanish local scandals spanning between 2004 and 2007 by national and regional newspapers. It analyses the incentives that media outlets may have to bias the information they report on those scandals. The literature has identified ideological slant and capture on the part of the government as two political elements that may bias media coverage of scandals. The study presented in chapter 4 is an improvement respect previous papers since it analyses both ideological slant and media capture as complementary factors rather than independent drivers of media bias. As an additional contribution we also consider the role of government’s popularity on the coverage of scandals. The three empirical studies that compose this thesis provide strong evidence that, even under a biased provision of news, Spanish voters are willing to electorally punish corrupt practices. Together with the significant number of cases recently unveiled by media and investigations undertaken by individuals or citizens’ organizations through different digital platforms, we can be optimistic about the evaluation of practices to control corruption. The promotion of policies that endorse media freedom and independence would also reduce the influence of political powers on Spanish media. Taken together, these factors would have a clear positive effect on electoral accountability, allowing citizens to obtain the impartial information they need to use elections as a way to constrain corrupt practices.

El propósito de la investigación es avanzar en la teoría sobre Indicadores de Gestión Difusos sobre experiencia del cliente, proponiendo un modelo de proceso de análisis de datos que plantea evaluar y validar continuamente los distintos indicadores. Las técnicas de análisis utilizadas fueron: Análisis Factorial Exploratorio (AFE), Análisis Factorial Concluyente (AFC) y Modelo de Ecuaciones Estructurales (SEM); y finalmente la identificación de los indicadores difusos mediante el modelo de inferencia difusa Mamdani. Softwares utilizados Matlab y AMOS. El estudio contribuye con evidencia empírica, que permite señalar que es posible definir un modelo teórico explicativo sobre indicadores de desempeño clave para la gestión de la experiencia interactiva del cliente, mediante datos clásicos y difusos. Con la investigación, además, se ha profundizado en la naturaleza del constructo valor de la experiencia, analizando cómo influyen las fuentes de valor de experiencia general en su construcción. Dejando evidencia de cómo el valor de la experiencia se forma con los puntos de contacto clave de la relación cliente-empresa. Tras la comparación de distintas metodologías para el análisis de datos inciertos, se pudo observar que es posible definir indicadores difusos clave de gestión sobre la experiencia del cliente, formados mediante la información lingüística entregada por los clientes. Finalmente, nuestro trabajo contribuye e incrementa la literatura sobre el valor de la experiencia y los análisis basados en la lógica difusa. Así, se aporta con metodologías para la gestión de la incertidumbre en el área marketing de las organizaciones. Su relevancia se encuentra en la entrega de una propuesta de análisis de datos lingüísticos trasformados en indicadores de gestión. / The purpose of the research is to advance the theory of Fuzzy Indicators on customer experience management, proposing a process model data analysis posed continually assess and validate the different indicators. The analysis techniques used were: Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Factor Analysis Conclusively (AFC) and Structural Equation Model (SEM); and finally the identification of fuzzy indicators by Mamdani fuzzy inference model. Softwares used Matlab and AMOS. The research contributes literature and increases the value of the experience and analysis based on fuzzy logic. Thus, it provides methodologies for uncertainty management in the marketing area organizations. Its importance lies in delivering a proposed analysis of linguistic data transformed into management indicators.

The guiding theme of this thesis is the empirical analysis of recent food price behavior. It is composed of three applied studies that address the impacts of energy prices on both food price levels and volatility, as well as the impact of public information release on futures markets of major agricultural commodities. Non-structural time series econometric techniques are applied for such purpose. In the first chapter, the impact of the Spanish biodiesel industry on agricultural feedstock prices is investigated. Both price level and volatility interactions are evaluated. Three relevant prices are considered: the international crude oil price, the Spanish biodiesel blend price and the Spanish sunflower oil price. Weekly Prices are observed from November 2006 to October 2010, yielding a total of 205 observations. Blended biodiesel, sunflower and crude oil prices are found to be interrelated in the long-run. This parity is preserved by the biodiesel industry in order to be in equilibrium. The impact of biodiesel on sunflower oil price levels is found to be very modest, which is reasonable given the small size of the Spanish biodiesel industry. Volatility spillovers between sunflower and biodiesel markets are found to be significant. Evidence of asymmetries in price volatility patterns is also found, with price declines causing more price instability than price increases. Asymmetries can be triggered by the availability of alternative feedstocks in the market, as well as by the unwillingness of biodiesel producers to increase food prices when feedstocks become more expensive. In the second chapter, the impact of the EU biodiesel market on agricultural feedstock prices is analyzed. The study comprises the period between 06/11/2008 to 14/06/2012, and is based on 189 weekly prices. Cointegration analysis suggests that the three prices have a long-run equilibrium relationship that is preserved by the pure biodiesel price. Biodiesel prices are not found to have an effect on rapeseed oil prices. Volatility of pure biodiesel price is affected by its own past volatility and past pure biodiesel and rapeseed market shocks. Also, evidence is found of asymmetries in price volatility, with negative market shocks having a greater impact than positive ones. While pure biodiesel prices cannot affect rapeseed oil price-levels, they can bring instability to these prices. Inventory building and the euro-dollar exchange rate are found to be relevant risk management instruments that can be used to mitigate the biodiesel and rapeseed oil price volatilities. In the third chapter, the impact of public information in the form of USDA-NASS crop production reports on daily corn and soybeans futures prices is evaluated. The study period is between 1970 to 2004, with a total of 700 observations. Results show that USDA-NASS crop production reports significantly affect futures price levels. Report releases at the beginning and at the end of the harvest season are usually the ones exerting a stronger impact. Report releases are not however found to have an effect on price volatility, which suggests gradual price-level changes as a response to published information. Cross-market effects of news are also found to be significant.

Tax administration is central to the working of any tax system. This thesis focuses on the Spanish case and proves the existence of two kind of externalities that might arise in tax administration policies when decentralized. These are: inter-jurisdictional externalities due to the federal institutional design (competition vs. cooperation), and tax authority's endogenous reaction to external shocks (in terms of changes in tax enforcement) as a result of tax autonomy. The focus for the whole research line developed in this thesis is Spain, which provides a interesting federal framework for investigation. Indeed the regional governments of fifteen of the seventeen “common” regime autonomous communities have had the power to administer several wealth taxes since the mid-eighties and subsequent reforms, in 1997 and 2002, have conferred on them the normative power to make changes to certain statutory tax parameters (see Esteller, 2008, for further details on these reforms). The other two regions, the so-called “foral” autonomous communities (the Basque Country and Navarre), for historical reasons, administer almost all the taxes falling due within their territory – including VAT, personal income tax and corporate income tax – and they have the normative power to regulate most of them . This setting provides me with the opportunity to explore different types of externalities that might impact tax administration policies. In Chapter 2 the presence of horizontal competition in tax enforcement is examined in the context of the common regime autonomous communities. Chapter 3 presents an analysis of the potential room for cooperation derived from misreported tax returns in this federal context. Chapter 4 estimates the externality effect on tax enforcement caused by the costs of terrorism in the foral autonomous communities. The three central chapters of this thesis represent something of a novelty in the literature as they are the first empirical studies on externalities in tax administration policies. The whole research line shows that in a federal framework these policies are employed by tax authorities as strategic instruments, demonstrating that decentralizing tax administration gives regional governments additional degrees of tax autonomy. In particular, Chapters 2 and 4 show that tax enforcement policies can be used by tax authorities in order to counter the loss of revenues due to the potential mobility of tax bases. In both studies, tax administrations are found to lower the tax burden by cutting the tax audit rate in order to retain mobile tax bases, where the taxpayers’ incentive to move is based solely on classic horizontal tax competition or, alternatively, on an external shock such as terrorism. In the context of horizontal tax competition presented in Chapter 2, the mutual strategic reaction of tax authorities generates inefficiency in the setting of enforcement policies. Although this problem is partially reduced by the subsequent decentralization of normative power, the further inefficiencies that arise open the door for future research in this field so as to identify means, other than harmonization, that might circumvent this issue. Chapter 4 allows us to conclude that part of the shock due to terrorism is internalized by the tax administration and, thus, further research is needed in order to disentangle the actual impact of terrorism in terms of economic costs for the region. Chapter 3 shows that potential cooperation in tax management is possible when tax administration is decentralized at a sub-central level although it is partially undermined by short-sighted incentives caused by administrative, transaction and financial costs.

This thesis examines the question of environmental dilemmas from both a local and a global perspective. It explores the open question of cooperation in the climate commons and provides evidence in favor of a key role of trust in spurring cooperation in global dilemmas. Given the potential for cooperation in both local and global environmental dilemmas, this thesis explores the rationales for the limited diffusion of environmental taxes. It encompasses the issues of effectiveness and public acceptability in local and global situations and concludes that what most likely hampers the implementation of environmental taxes is the general public’s perception of ineffectiveness rather than any empirical ineffectiveness. Finally, it provides new insights on how to overcome this barrier to effective policymaking tackling local and global externalities. Overall, this thesis sheds new light on the question of environmental dilemmas. It examines from different perspectives the issues related with the application of market-based instruments to environmental externalities and provides original evidence-based insights to the political economy of commons. While different in terms of methodology, all chapters share the same behavioral implications. Individuals may be willing to play cooperatively in environmental dilemmas if they trust others to do so. That is, people's reticence to environmental taxes most likely stems from a general suspicion with respect to the taxes themselves rather than from a pure unwillingness to cooperate. This thesis provides the literature with a better understanding of cooperation and policy formation in the environmental arena, bringing to the issue both a touch of optimism, by underlying the importance of social norms, and a touch of pessimism, by recalling the endogeneity of environmental policy and emphasizing the obstacles to its acceptability. With no spirit of cooperation, the future would not look very bright for environmental taxation. There is no surprise though, it always takes two to tango.

In this dissertation a critical review of talent and the talent management (TM) literature is provided. Three key questions for TM research are covered within three chapters, defined as three different papers, with the aim to help fill the gap in solid theoretical foundations for TM research. Hence, it can be defined as mainly a conceptual dissertation. In chapter one, we deal with the question that marks the starting point for our research: What is meant by talent in the world of work? We questioned the meaning of talent, since it is critical in order to know how to manage it. By doing so, we offer an in-depth review of the talent concept within the specific context of the world of work, and we propose a framework for its conceptualization. We group different theoretical approaches to talent into ‘object’ (i.e., talent as natural ability; talent as mastery; talent as commitment; talent as fit) and ‘subject’ approaches (i.e., talent as all people; talent as some people) and identify dynamics existing within and between them, as well as implications for TM theory and practice. Finally, we discuss different avenues for further research aimed at developing the talent—and consequently, the talent management—construct further. Chapter two goes on to deal with the next challenging question: How is talent identified? Despite all the talk about talent and its importance for achieving new sources of competitive advantages, most companies report great difficulty in operationalizing and measuring talent accurately, reflecting the lack of theoretical foundations for talent identification. Building on from insights from different literature streams (giftedness, vocational psychology, and positive psychology literature), this chapter contributes to the establishment of a stronger theoretical basis for TM by discussing two components of talent (an ability and an affective component) that are complementary. Moreover, we identify three central characteristics of talent (manifestation in excellent performance, developed innate abilities and passion) that will help us to distinguish between talent, competence and potential; terms that are usually misused as interchangeable within the TM field. In addition, we argue how this distinction will help in talent identification. We also provide a summary with different discussed measures and methods to identify talent. By discussing managerial implications in terms of measures and methods, we provide practical guidelines for designing talent identification practices grounded in sound theory. Finally, in chapter three, we concentrate our efforts on the talent management construct through a proxy research question: How much do we know about talent management? Hence, we used a bibliometric method to both analyze the structure of the TM research and to define its boundaries and trends. Based on 703 peer-reviewed publications in English that appeared between 1990 and 2013, the analysis covers the following issues: productivity (e.g., number of papers published by author, country of origin, and author’s affiliation), visibility and impact (e.g., ranking of authors and documents according to citations, documents published in indexed journals), and collaboration (i.e., co-authorship). Our study shows underlying patterns in scientific outputs and academic collaborations and serves as an alternative and innovative way of revealing global research trends in TM. It should be noted that this bibliometric analysis is the first to address a complete and in-depth analysis of the structure of the field of TM as an academic discipline. It will allow new researchers in the field to be fully aware of seminal authors and must-read articles, as well as identifying those journals and institutions most closely related to this subject.