On the Devaluation of Merit. An Economic Analysis of Spanish Premial Law

This paper studies the Spanish Premial Law applying an economic viewpoint. We reach the conclusion, that during the period studied (1995-2009) there has been a sharp increase in the number of civil order awarded, thus showing a phenomenon of “inflation”. This would imply a devaluation of the supposed merits underlying the awarding, meaning a corruption of the Premial system.