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BBVA Foundation and Ivie wrap up 2024 with the release of five new books currently available

The BBVA Foundation and the Ivie have just published five new books on the challenges and opportunities faced by Spain since the pandemic. The first four offer a thorough analysis of the effects of covid-19 on aspects such as consumer reaction, development of knowledge as a way of finding solutions outside the pandemic, and response of both public and private sectors to the crisis. The fifth book addresses another of the fundamental issues of today’s politics and economy, namely the digital and energy transition.

The first book, Diversidad y descentralización en el Sistema Nacional de Salud Español. Una perspectiva económica (Diversity and decentralization in the Spanish National Health System), analyzes the factors that have shaped Spain’s health spending trajectory over the past few decades. It also examines the main components of health spending (primary care, specialized care, pharmacy) across regions and the possible effects of regional differences on service quality. The research team, led by Salvador Peiró and Francisco Pérez, is made up of Silvia Mollá, Marta Solaz, Enrique Bernal and Manuel Ridao.

El consumidor ante la crisis de la covid-19: reacciones y tendencias. Impacto en el comercio y en el turismo (Consumer behavior after covid-19: patterns and reactions. Impact on trade and tourism) was developed by a team headed by Ivie researcher Joaquín Aldás, with participation by Ivie technician Carlos Albert and professors Gloria Berenguer, Enrique Bigné and Marta Frasquet. The book offers an analysis of the effects of the pandemic on consumer behavior, especially on spending in commerce and tourism.

Another of the recently published books available for download is El valor del conocimiento para enfrentar la pandemia (The value of knowledge in response of the health system to the pandemic). In this book, the authors examine the importance of knowledge as a solution to problems as relevant as covid-19. In order to address the health crisis, the book directed by Beatriz González López-Valcárcel, and a team made up of Salvador Peiró, Patricia Barbe, Enrique Castellón, Jaime Pinilla and Irene Zaera, allows us to recognize the significance of both fundamental knowledge —the discoveries of biomedicine— and applied knowledge —its use for the production of treatments and vaccines—. In addition, the book shows the different capabilities of the public healthcare systems  (competencies of their human resources, technological resources, organization, managerial capacities, etc.) in other countries, in particular, Spain.

Similarly, in the book Impactos de la covid-19 y respuestas colectivas a la pandemia (2024) (Collective response to the covid-19 pandemic), the research team, directed by Francisco Pérez García, along with Francisco José Goerlich Gisbert, Ignacio Lago Peñas, Santiago Lago Peñas, Miguel Ángel Casquet Cano, Silvia Mollá Martínez and Juan Pérez Ballester, considers the collective response to the problems caused by covid-19 from a broad and multidisciplinary perspective. In this case, the ability of both governments and public and private entities (businesses, educational centers, health system, productive sectors, the world of knowledge, and citizens) to respond and coordinate is taken into account. This analysis allows to consider the overall learning capacity and resilience of the Spanish society. 

Finally, the book La adaptación de la industria española al escenario energético y la transición digital (The adaptation of the Spanish industry to the energy scenario and digital transition) by Joaquín Maudos (Dir.), Juan Fernández de Guevara, M.ª Dolores Furió, Miguel Ángel Casquet, Consuelo Mínguez and Jimena Salamanca offers a diagnosis of the Spanish industry in order to identify its strengths and weaknesses, as well as threats and opportunities for industrial sectors in the face of a future framed by three vectors: the risks associated with accelerated globalization, the need to address digital transformation as a lever for gaining competitiveness, and the reinforcement of environment respect, which makes it necessary to improve energy efficiency while also offering Spain an opportunity to invest profitably in the sectors producing renewable energies with new technologies.

The five books can be downloaded free of charge on the Ivie website.