The contribution of the population of disabled people to the attainment of Europe 2020 Strategy headline targets

This study seeks to quantify the potential contribution of one of the most disadvantaged groups in Europe, namely Europe’s population of disabled people, to the attainment of the Europe 2020 Strategy targets via the monitoring of a number of indicators, at a time when, given the current economic crisis, the majority of European countries are struggling to attain these goals. The impact of changes in the situation of disabled people is simulated using micro data drawn from the 2009 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Our results show that improving the socio-economic situation of the disabled population could be crucial for attaining Europe 2020 targets. However, future policy designs at national level will need to take into account the actual definition of disability that is employed, the heterogeneity of circumstances to be found within such a definition, and the gap between the situation of the disabled and non-disabled populations.     

Un análisis de la relación entre ambiente familiar y delincuencia juvenil

Resumen

En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre las interacciones afectivas y normativas del ambiente familiar, y la conducta delictiva de los adolescentes varones. La muestra del estudio estaba compuesta por tres grupos de adolescentes: no delincuentes, delincuentes no detectados y delincuentes detectados (institucionalizados). Los resultados de los análisis realizados ponen de manifiesto la existencia de diferencias significativas entre las características familiares de delincuentes y no delincuentes. Concretamente, los datos del estudio permiten afirmar que: 1) las variables afectivas parecen más importantes que las referidas a los aspectos normativos para discriminar entre los grupos de sujetos, y 2) entre las variables afectivas serían el apego del hijo hacia los padres y el conflicto familiar las que aparecen como especialmente relevantes para discriminar entre delincuentes y no delincuentes, asociándose un alto nivel de apego/bajo nivel de conflicto con no delincuencia, y un bajo nivel de apego/alto nivel de conflicto con delincuencia.     

Mobile Livelihoods: The Sociocultural Practices of Circular Migrants between Puerto Rico and the United States1

This article focuses on the bilateral flow of people between Puerto Rico and the United States ‐ what has come to be known as circular, commuter, or revolving‐door migration. It documents the migrants' livelihood practices based on a recent field study of population flows between Puerto Rico and the mainland. Specifically, the basic characteristics of multiple movers, one‐time movers and nonmovers residing in Puerto Rico are compared. More broadly, the article assesses the implications of circular migration for Puerto Rican communities on and off the island. The author's basic argument is that the constant displacement of people ‐ both to and from the island ‐ blurs the territorial, linguistic, and juridical boundaries of the Puerto Rican nation. As people expand their means of subsistence across space, they develop multiple attachments to various localities. In the Puerto Rican situation, such mobile livelihoods are easier to establish than in other places because of the free movement of labor and capital between the island and the mainland. The author hypothesizes that circulation does not entail major losses in human capital for most Puerto Ricans, but rather often constitutes an occupational, educational, and linguistic asset.     

Optimal sampling for spatial prediction of functional data

This paper combines optimal spatial sampling designs with geostatistical analysis of functional data. We propose a methodology and design criteria to find the set of spatial locations that minimizes the variance of the spatial functional prediction at unsampled sites for three functional predictors: ordinary kriging, simple kriging and simple cokriging. The last one is a modification of an existing predictor that uses ordinary cokriging based on the basis coefficients. Instead, we propose to use a simple cokriging predictor with the scores resulting from a representation of the functional data with the empirical functional principal components, allowing to remove restrictions and complexity of the covariance models and constraints on the estimation procedure. The methodology is applied to a network of air quality in Bogotá city, Colombia.     

Does higher income equal higher levels of happiness in every society? The case of the Mayan people

Guardiola J, González‐Gómez F, García‐Rubio MA, Lendechy‐Grajales Á. Does higher income equal higher levels of happiness in every society? The case of the Mayan people This study analysed happiness and several domains of life of Mayan people in the poor rural areas of Yucatan, Mexico. Using a sample of 373 households, we examined the influence of income on happiness and its domains, obtaining results that lend support to the ‘paradox of happy peasants and miserable millionaires’. According to the results, income influences happiness among the Mayan people, as do material domains and health, but income does not influence the domains related to intangible feelings and public goods. A number of reasons, such as a lack of a means for comparison, close contact with nature, adaptation to deprivation, general material improvements compared with the past, low aspirations and a Mayan culture that is devoted to solidarity and enjoyment of social relationships, could explain why the sample population reported high levels of happiness. Although the Mayans' level of happiness is high, their situation nevertheless requires political attention.     

Feasibility Study on the Use of Probabilistic Migration Modeling in Support of Exposure Assessment from Food Contact Materials

The use of probabilistic approaches in exposure assessments of contaminants migrating from food packages is of increasing interest but the lack of concentration or migration data is often referred as a limitation. Data accounting for the variability and uncertainty that can be expected in migration, for example, due to heterogeneity in the packaging system, variation of the temperature along the distribution chain, and different time of consumption of each individual package, are required for probabilistic analysis. The objective of this work was to characterize quantitatively the uncertainty and variability in estimates of migration. A Monte Carlo simulation was applied to a typical solution of the Fick's law with given variability in the input parameters. The analysis was performed based on experimental data of a model system (migration of Irgafos 168 from polyethylene into isooctane) and illustrates how important sources of variability and uncertainty can be identified in order to refine analyses. For long migration times and controlled conditions of temperature the affinity of the migrant to the food can be the major factor determining the variability in the migration values (more than 70% of variance). In situations where both the time of consumption and temperature can vary, these factors can be responsible, respectively, for more than 60% and 20% of the variance in the migration estimates. The approach presented can be used with databases from consumption surveys to yield a true probabilistic estimate of exposure.     

An effective algorithm for obtaining the whole set of minimal cost pairs of disjoint paths with dual arc costs

In telecommunication networks design the problem of obtaining optimal (arc or node) disjoint paths, for increasing network reliability, is extremely important. The problem of calculating k _c disjoint paths from s to t (two distinct nodes), in a network with k _c different (arbitrary) costs on every arc such that the total cost of the paths is minimised, is NP-complete even for k _c =2. When k _c =2 these networks are usually designated as dual arc cost networks.     

Associational Performance: The Influence of Cohesion, Decision-Making, and the Environment

The importance of associations in contemporary democratic societies is out of the question. Still, there is a need for a new approach that considers them as a specific and singular organization type, different from business firms and government agencies. There is also a need to evaluate their performance. Based on case studies and diverse theoretical insights, this article lays out some criteria for assessing the effects on associational performance of cohesion, decision-making and relation to environment.     

Monetary policy in the New-Keynesian model: An application to the Euro Area

This paper analyzes monetary policy in a stylized New-Keynesian model. A number of issues are focused upon: (i) optimal monetary policy under commitment or discretion versus ad-hoc monetary policy based on simple rules, (ii) the effects of fiscal policies and foreign variables on monetary policy, (iii) the effects of fiscal deficit and interest rate smoothing objectives and the role of forward-backward linkages in the model. The model is estimated for the Euro Area. Using simulations of the estimated model, it is analyzed how these aspects might affect monetary policy of the ECB and macroeconomic fluctuations in the Euro Area.     

Do unions always decrease wage dispersion? The case of Brazilian manufacturing

The literature on the impact of unions on wages has established that unionized workers earn a wage premium when compared to their nonunion counterparts and that the dispersion of wages within the union sector is lower than in the nonunion sector. I examine the validity of these findings in the context of a developing country labor market and show that unionism does create a positive wage differential but that wage dispersion is greater in the union sector. These findings are explained by the greater variance in the characteristics of unionized workers, the vulnerability of nonunion workers to market conditions, and the structure of wage bargaining.