A “Swedish” actuarial balance for a notional defined contribution pension scheme with disability and minimum pension benefits

This article proposes a “Swedish” type actuarial balance sheet (ABS) for a notional defined contribution (NDC) scheme with disability and minimum pension benefits. The proposed ABS splits the pension system in two parts: the pure NDC part and the redistributive part, which includes the assets and liabilities originating from non‐contributory rights. The article contains a numerical example that sheds light on the real applicability of our proposal. The model has practical implications that could be of interest to policy‐makers, given that it integrates actuarial and social aspects of public pensions and discloses the real cost of redistribution through minimum pensions.     

Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotion is Related to their Frequency in Everyday Life

Cross-cultural and laboratory research indicates that some facial expressions of emotion are recognized more accurately and faster than others. We assessed the hypothesis that such differences depend on the frequency with which each expression occurs in social encounters. Thirty observers recorded how often they saw different facial expressions during natural conditions in their daily life. For a total of 90 days (3 days per observer), 2,462 samples of seen expressions were collected. Among the basic expressions, happy faces were observed most frequently (31 %), followed by surprised (11.3 %), sad (9.3 %), angry (8.7 %), disgusted (7.2 %), and fearful faces, which were the least frequent (3.4 %). A significant amount (29 %) of non-basic emotional expressions (e.g., pride or shame) were also observed. We correlated our frequency data with recognition accuracy and response latency data from prior studies. In support of the hypothesis, significant correlations (generally, above .70) emerged, with recognition accuracy increasing and latency decreasing as a function of frequency. We conclude that the efficiency of facial emotion recognition is modulated by familiarity of the expressions.     

Migration at a Time of Global Economic Crisis: The Situation in Spain

In this paper, we offer an initial assessment of the impact of the economic crisis on Spain's migration flows. After a period of intensive economic growth and the ensuing immigratory appeal (1995–2007), Spain has been hit hard by the recession. This has modified the trends that had so far characterized foreign immigration in Spain. The impact of the economic recession has been particularly severe in the case of immigrant workers and, consequently, from an institutional point of view, the Spanish government has adopted various measures to restrict the arrival of new immigrants: it has reduced work permit quotas and it has modified the Foreign Residents Law, toughening residence permit requirements. It has also tried to encourage voluntary returns with a programme devised to provide assistance to immigrants originating from countries with which Spain has social security agreements. The response to this programme has, however, been very limited. Immigration flows have continued and rates of return have stayed low, although new trends are also detectable, such as a decrease in the number of irregular arrivals and a rise in informal employment, as well as differences in the impact of unemployment according to nationality and gender. This reveals the complexity of migration processes beyond the supply and demand of labour and the political will to regulate human mobility. Consequently, immigration patterns in Spain reveal the degree of complexity reached by human mobility, which has increased beyond the logic of the labour market and the government's attempts at regulating migration flows by means of institutional measures. The immigrants' hope of raising their standard of living and the socio‐economic differences between source and receiving countries, even at a time of severe economic crisis, do still serve as explanations for current migration networks, one of the key points in the current debate on international migration.     

Intention of activism and radicalism among Muslim and Christian youth in a marginal neighbourhood in a Spanish city / Intención de activismo y radicalismo de jóvenes musulmanes y cristianos residentes en un barrio marginal de una ciudad española

The aim of this research is to assess the intended level of religious and political activism and radicalism in a sample of Muslim and Christian youth living in a marginalised neighbourhood in a southern city in Spain. Interrelations between activism and radicalism and other psychosocial factors potentially contributing to religious and political mobilisation processes are analysed, such as group identification, self-esteem, violent disinhibition, religious extremism and perceived oppression. Important differences in religious and national identification were found. Muslims scored higher in a statistically significant way on various indicators of religious extremism. Both perceived oppression and shared ideology inside the endogroup seem to be contributing factors to having an intention of radicalism in the Muslim group where social identity anchored in religion prevails. These results point to the fact that there is a polarisation that can serve as the threshold of conflict and radical mobilisation in the critical context analysed. The results are discussed within the framework of previous research into psychology of radicalisation and terrorism.     

Socio-historical foundations of citizenship practice: after social revolution in Portugal

This article shows how macro-historical processes of change can activate robust and enduring forms of citizenship practice, providing both survey-based evidence for this claim and a theorization of the causal mechanisms involved. Focusing on the case of Portugal, where democratization followed the historically unusual path of social revolution, we examine survey data on civic practice covering twenty countries and find Portugal to be a world leader in public participation in the electronic public sphere. When we examine the subsection of the population socialized politically in the country’s post-revolutionary democracy, we find another important indicator of lively citizenship practice. The article takes the examination of this specific national case as the basis for developing an argument of broad theoretical relevance on the social underpinnings of lively and participatory citizenship practice. With an empirical foundation for our claims in survey data and other sources, our analysis of Portugal offers an interpretation of the case, leading to substantial revision of assumptions in the extant literature. More importantly, through our examination of this case, we show how large-scale macro-historical processes of change can encourage lively civic practice manifested at the individual level. Our argument highlights the importance of hierarchy-challenging collective experiences that reconfigure cultural frameworks and reorient the character of institutional practice. We take up the implications of this argument for cases lacking a history of revolution and find certain parallels with national cases shaped by movements of social reform as in the social democracies of Scandinavia.     

Élaboration et validation d'un questionnaire sur le travail décent

Les auteurs cherchent à élaborer un outil de mesure du travail décent reposant sur un questionnaire inédit axé sur les perceptions des travailleurs. Les items proposés se fondent sur les «éléments fondamentaux» du travail décent selon l'OIT. Une première version de soixante‐douze items est administrée sur deux grands échantillons au Portugal et au Brésil. Les analyses factorielles exploratoire et confirmatoire menées sur cette base permettent d'isoler sept facteurs spécifiques et un facteur global du travail décent. Avec de bons coefficients de fiabilité et une bonne validité convergente et discriminante, le questionnaire proposé ouvre la voie à de nouvelles études empiriques dans le domaine.     

“They love death as we love life”: The “Muslim Question” and the biopolitics of replacement

This article approaches the analytic of the “Muslim Question” through the prism of the discursive and conspiratorial use of demographics as an alleged threat to Europe. It argues that concerns about “Muslim demographics” within Europe have been entertained, mobilized, and deployed to not only construct Muslims as problems and dangers to the present and future of Europe, but also as calls to revive eugenic policies within the frame of biopower. The article begins by sketching the contours of the contemporary “Muslim Question” and proceeds with a critical engagement with the literature positing a deliberate and combative strategy by “Muslims” centered on birth rates—seen by these authors as a tactical warfare—to allegedly replace European “native” populations. The analysis continues by focusing on two images juxtaposing life and death as imagined within the replacement discourse, and that capture that discourse in powerful albeit disturbing ways. Finally, the article proposes reading the population replacement discourse as a deployment of biopolitics and one of its many techniques, namely, eugenics.     

Optimal Monte Carlo integration on closed manifolds

Statistics and Computing - The worst case integration error in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces of standard Monte Carlo methods with n random points decays as $$n^{-1/2}$$. However, the...     

Determining Factors in Online Transparency of NGOs: A Spanish Case Study

The social demand of transparency in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has increased. This is due to their social and economic impact and the incidences of fraudulent behavior by some international NGOs managers. In this regard, an improved and abundant dissemination of information by NGO is essential. The Internet is considered a strategic communication tool in such dissemination. Following an explanatory research line, this article aims to identify the influence of the factors ??organizational size??, ??organizational age??, ??public funding??, ??legal form??, ??internationalization??, ??board size??, and ??board activity?? in the dissemination of web page information. The results show that only the factors of ??organizational size??, ??public funding,?? and ??organizational age?? are statistically significant.