Depopulation is a serious problem facing developed countries, among them Spain. It is especially severe in rural areas, where some vicious circles emerge, nourished by reduced infrastructures and services, deteriorated quality of life, the low inflow of new inhabitants, low local development and an aged population. In this context, social economy institutions may be a key factor in the fight against population decline, having a leading role in reactivating economic dynamism through the creation of stable, high-quality jobs, promoting the local endogenous development of rural areas, helping enhance income in those spaces, encouraging the arrival of people and impacting positively on social cohesion, and enabling sustainable growth. This paper focuses on Castilla-La Mancha, an eminently rural region, which is among the areas most severely impacted by the loss of population in Spain. The aim is to analyze the factors that affect the settlement of population, and to demonstrate that social economy institutions may be a resilience factor of rural population. A partial least squares model, composed of 8 constructs related to 21 variables extracted from data for 2017 and 2018 on the 613 municipalities, allows us to demonstrate that the existence of social economy entities helps to anchor population and increase the resilience of this territory.

Spain is one of the leading wine-producing and -exporting countries and has traditionally been dominant in trade and world production in the sector. In an increasingly changing context, in which worldwide wine exports are growing exponentially, it is essential to study their impact on climate change as the transport of goods generates a significant volume of greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this work, then, was to analyse the variation in the carbon footprint generated by Spanish wine exports between 2011 and 2016. To this end, a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model was used, showing that the emissions associated with wine operations have increased less than exports, which might suggest that sustainable growth has been included as a goal in the wine supply chain. The methodology used has the advantage of allowing the calculation of direct and indirect emissions. At the same time, the results can provide relevant information to practitioners and policymakers due to the expected evolution of European environmental regulations and trades, in terms of carbon footprint.

The continuous growth of the international wine trade and the expansion of international markets is having significant commercial, but also environmental, impacts. The benefits of vineyards in terms of ecosystem service provision are offset by the increase in CO2 emissions generated by transportation. Denominations of Origin, as quality labels, emphasise a wine’s links to the terroir, where specific elements of culture and environment merge together. However, Denominations of Origin can also have differentiating elements as regards environmental performance. Drawing on an extended multiregional input–output model applied to the Spanish Denominations of Origin with the largest presence in the international wine trade, this study shows that wines with the greatest exporting tradition are those that most reduced their carbon footprint per litre of exported wine in the period 2005–2018, thus being the most environmentally efficient.

La crisis asociada a la Covid ha puesto de manifiesto nuevamente la relevancia del sistema financiero. La pasada crisis, de carácter financiero había impactado intensamente en el sistema bancario, provocando un fuerte retroceso en la actividad crediticia, lo que, en muchos casos se ha traducido en riesgo creciente de exclusión financiera, sobre todo en aquellos territorios en retroceso demográfico. En este contexto, las cooperativas de crédito, caracterizadas por su reducido tamaño, localismo y vocación de banca de proximidad, han sufrido un deterioro patrimonial menos acusado que el resto de las entidades del sistema bancario. Además, actúan en las áreas donde la densidad de población es más baja, distinguiendo su actividad del negocio de la banca lucrativa, lo que permite paliar la menor implantación de entidades financieras, contribuyendo mitigar la exclusión financiera de carácter geográfico en estos espacios. Así, en un intento por reivindicar el papel de las cooperativas de crédito, en especial en el desarrollo de los territorios de la España Vacía, se plantea el presente trabajo con un doble objetivo: por un lado, analizar la relación existente entre sistema financiero, empleo y población, y por otro, comprobar si la presencia de las cooperativas de crédito es mayor allí donde ambos factores son más débiles, dando servicio en los espacios no atendidos por el resto de los intermediarios financieros. Para ello se presenta un estudio empírico realizado a partir de un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales mediante una técnica de mínimos cuadrados parciales para datos demográficos y de actividad financiera en 2018, donde la provincia se utiliza como unidad de análisis.

This study focuses on analysing the economic impact (in value-added terms) generated by Spanish wine exports during the period 2018–2020, characterized by significant geopolitical changes and market shocks produced by Brexit, the entry into force of the Federal Law on Viticulture and Winemaking in the Russian Federation, the imposition of tariffs by the USA and the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, the multiregional input–output model was used to identify the overall effects (direct and indirect) in different countries deriving from the changes in final demand. The paper shows that both the world wine trade and Spanish wine exports have been negatively affected by the recent changes in the analysed period. It is estimated that the accumulated losses since 2018 as a result of the decrease in the value-added generated by Spanish wine exports exceed 300 million euros. In addition, the results suggest that the negative effects of COVID-19 are greater than the effects caused by the rest of the geopolitical changes.