Assessing the Regional Economic Impact of Higher Education Institutions: An Application to the University of Cardiff

I evaluate the regional and local economic impact of the University of Cardiff, dividing its effects into two major sides: expenditure impacts and knowledge impacts. I review the major tools and methodologies available in the literature to assess the two sides. The expenditure impact in the financial year 2000–2001 is measured through a Keynesian multiplier model developed by the Centre for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Cardiff University, in order to compare that same impact in the 1994–1995 financial year. The university’s knowledge impact is assessed through two main variables: (1) employment and destination of graduates, or people impact, and (2) kind of knowledge produced. Cardiff University’s graduates enjoy full-employment, and according to our conceptual framework, Cardiff’s higher education system is classified as “nonactive” positional competition and “social” knowledge production.      

Support for gay and lesbian civil rights: development and examination of a new scale

This research outlines the development of a psychometrically sound, uni-dimensional scale to assess support for gay and lesbian civil rights. Initial scale development involved examining item-pool responses from 224 undergraduate students. The resulting Support for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights (SGLCR) scale consisted of 20 items. In a series of studies, the SGLCR demonstrated a stable factor structure, strong internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity. The relationships between SGLCR scores and participants' sex, religiosity, political ideology, gender role beliefs, and attitudes toward lesbians and gays were significant and in the predicted directions.     

Support of the upper limbs of office workers during a daily work journey

Generally, the studies assess the upper limbs postures during the work with Visual Display Terminal - VDT through the measurement of the angles formed by the segments or through the relation with the pre-defined anatomical postures (e.g., flexion, extension, abduction). However, few studies were found in the literature which had focused in the measurement of the upper limbs support during a real situation of work with VDT and in the definition of analysis categories for this kind of behavior. The main objective of this study was to measure, in a real situation and using a systematic observation method through video analysis, the main kinds of support for the upper limbs. The analysis was done considering 480 work hours of 30 office workers. Data were collected using a methodology proposed by Rebelo, Filgueiras & Soares [1] and related with the work organization and workspace conditions, the participants had: a) minimum of eight hours daily of work; b) similar activities, characterized as office work; c) same furniture and equipment; and, d) computers with the same hardware, software and peripherals. Results were analyzed 46554 dynamic events, considering only the fourteen Interaction Categories - ICs, for upper limps support. In this way, percentage was computed, considering the total number of occurrence, for the Right arm is: arm support (0.06%); forearm support (31,8%); elbow support (31,92%); hand support (7,41%); multiple supports (12,32%) and without support 16,41%- For the Left arm the results is: forearm support (0,11%); arm support (53,69%); elbow support (8,70%); hand support (7,97%); multiple supports (8,43%) e without support (21,11%). This systemic and ecological approach was obtained through a method which enables experimental Biomechanics and Physiology methods to develop more efficient functional requirements and recommendations for the work with VDTs.     

On the volume-ranking of opportunity sets in economic environments

We provide a characterization of the volume-ranking of opportunity sets as defined on the set of all polyconvex sets, i.e. finite unions of convex, compact, Euclidean sets. In fact, such a domain is large enough to encompass most of the opportunity sets typically encountered in economic environments, including non-linear or even non-convex budget sets, and opportunity sets arising from production sets. Our result relies on a valuation-based volume-characterization theorem due to Klain and Rota (Introduction to Geometric Probability, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997) and helps to highlight some quite unusual conditions under which the volume-ranking can be justified as a freedom-ranking of opportunity sets. Therefore, it may also help to understand why the latter has been so conspicuously ignored in welfare analysis. Thanks are due to Larry Kranich, Massimo Marinacci, Uri Rothblum, Ernesto Screpanti, John Weymark, Yongsheng Xu, Claudio Zoli and two anonymous referees for helpful comments and suggestions.     

The Working Families’ Tax Credit and Some European Tax Reforms in A Collective Setting

A framework for simplified implementation of the collective model of labor supply decisions is presented in the context of fiscal reforms in the UK. Through its collective form the model accounts for the well known problem of distribution between wallet and purse, a broadly debated issue which has so far been impossible to model due to the limitations of the unitary model of household behavior. A calibrated data set is used to model the effects of introducing two forms of the Working Families’ Tax Credit. We also summarize results of estimations and calibrations obtained using the same methodology on data from five other European countries. The results underline the importance of taking account of the intrahousehold decision process and suggest that who receives government transfers does matter from the point of view of labor supply and welfare of household members. They also highlight the need for more research into models of household behavior.

On the integrated maximum likelihood estimators for a closed population capture–recapture model with unequal capture probabilities

Nuisance parameter elimination is a central problem in capture–recapture modelling. In this paper, we consider a closed population capture–recapture model which assumes the capture probabilities varies only with the sampling occasions. In this model, the capture probabilities are regarded as nuisance parameters and the unknown number of individuals is the parameter of interest. In order to eliminate the nuisance parameters, the likelihood function is integrated with respect to a weight function (uniform and Jeffrey's) of the nuisance parameters resulting in an integrated likelihood function depending only on the population size. For these integrated likelihood functions, analytical expressions for the maximum likelihood estimates are obtained and it is proved that they are always finite and unique. Variance estimates of the proposed estimators are obtained via a parametric bootstrap resampling procedure. The proposed methods are illustrated on a real data set and their frequentist properties are assessed by means of a simulation study.     

The “Big Bang” of the populist parties in the European Union: The 2014 European Parliament election

A significant number of voters are turning their backs on traditional parties. The stability of European party systems is being defied by a growing number of (new) radical parties, whose presence in the European Parliament has never been as strong as it is now. Faced with the worst global economic crisis of the last 80 years and with growing socio-economic inequalities, a series of political groups, referred to as populists, have secured almost a quarter of the seats in the European Parliament. This paper aims to highlight some of the reasons why these parties attract so much support and to reach a better understanding, from a comparative perspective, of the profile of these electorates as well as their motivations and aspirations. The analysis is based on the study of microdata (N?=?30,064) from the European Election Study 2014 conducted in the EU after the European elections of 2014.