The quality of work during the employment crisis: the Italian case

The paper aims to study empirically the relationship between the effects of the employment crisis and the quality of work in Italy using a multidimensional approach. The quality of work is identified and measured through five dimensions. Such dimensions have been regressed, both for linear and quantile regression, for the ‘employment crisis’ variable, controlling for a set of variables including worker's characteristics, firm's variables, and job characteristics. The main findings show an uneven impact of the employment crisis on the quality of work dimensions. The employment crisis seems in fact to have significantly changed quality of work just in some of the dimensions. Moreover, the changes do not apply homogeneously in respect to both the sector of activity and the distribution of the examined dimensions.     

Lot sizing and scheduling: a survey of practices in Brazilian companies

The lot sizing and scheduling (LSS) problem has motivated much research in production planning and control. However, while there are many papers on modelling this problem, there is scant research on how it is addressed in the industry. We present a survey of Brazilian industry practices in LSS, intending to understand the problem faced by operations managers, drawing parallels with academic findings to identify gaps between theory and practice and opportunities for future research. We confirm that the main objective of practitioners in companies operating under MTS strategy is to maximise service level, followed by inventory reduction. Availability of raw material, demand uncertainty and safety stock levels, lack of decision support software and the impact of sequence-dependent set-up times are other major concerns highlighted by the practitioners. Lastly, we confirmed that despite the relevant body of research on this problem, there is still a large gap between theory and practice.     

A Methodology for Assessing the Probability of Occurrence of Undesired Events in the Tietê–Paraná Inland Waterway Based on Expert Opinion

The market share of Tietê–Paraná inland waterway (TPIW) in the transport matrix of the São Paulo state, Brazil, is currently only 0.6%, but it is expected to increase to 6% over the next 20 years. In this scenario, to identify and explore potential undesired events a risk assessment is necessary. Part of this involves assigning the probability of occurrence of events, which usually is accomplished by a frequentist approach. However, in many cases, this approach is not possible due to unavailable or nonrepresentative data. This is the case of the TPIW that even though an expressive accident history is available, a frequentist approach is not suitable due to differences between current operational conditions and those met in the past. Therefore, a subjective assessment is an option as allows for working independently of the historical data, thus delivering more reliable results. In this context, this article proposes a methodology for assessing the probability of occurrence of undesired events based on expert opinion combined with fuzzy analysis. This methodology defines a criterion to weighting the experts and, using the fuzzy logic, evaluates the similarities among the experts’ beliefs to be used in the aggregation process before the defuzzification that quantifies the probability of occurrence of the events based on the experts’ opinion. Moreover, the proposed methodology is applied to the real case of the TPIW and the results obtained from the elicited experts are compared with a frequentist approach evidencing the impact on the results when considering different interpretations of the probability.     

Tâches,professions et salaires dans les pays de l'OCDE

Les auteurs examinent la relation entre les gains, le capital humain et les tâches. Ils reprennent le modèle théorique d'Autor et Handel (2013), tout en élargissant l'analyse empirique à 21 pays, grâce aux données de l'enquête de l'OCDE sur les compétences des adultes (PIAAC). Celles‐ci permettent en outre de caractériser plus précisément le capital humain des travailleurs, en fournissant une mesure directe des compétences cognitives. L'analyse empirique confirme l'influence du contenu en tâches de l'emploi sur les écarts de salaire, à la fois entre les catégories professionnelles et en leur sein. Les prédictions du modèle se vérifient dans la grande majorité des pays.     

Coverage versus generosity: Comparing eligibility and need assessment in six cash‐for‐care programmes

This paper investigates the potential trade‐offs between extension of coverage and adequate generosity in cash‐for‐care (CfC) programmes in six European countries (Austria, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Spain), which are characterised by different configurations of CfC programmes. Building on an empirical analysis of the eligibility rules, of the regulation applied to classify beneficiaries according to their level of dependency, and the ways CfC benefits are distributed among them, it becomes clear that these programmes differ substantially in terms of coverage and generosity. Such differences reflect the variety of ways by which universalism, selectivity, and adequacy are built up together throughout Europe.     

Validating protein structure using kernel density estimates

Measuring the quality of determined protein structures is a very important problem in bioinformatics. Kernel density estimation is a well-known nonparametric method which is often used for exploratory data analysis. Recent advances, which have extended previous linear methods to multi-dimensional circular data, give a sound basis for the analysis of conformational angles of protein backbones, which lie on the torus. By using an energy test, which is based on interpoint distances, we initially investigate the dependence of the angles on the amino acid type. Then, by computing tail probabilities which are based on amino-acid conditional density estimates, a method is proposed which permits inference on a test set of data. This can be used, for example, to validate protein structures, choose between possible protein predictions and highlight unusual residue angles.     

A Bayesian Markov-Switching Correlation Model for Contagion Analysis on Exchange Rate Markets

This article develops a new Markov-switching vector autoregressive (VAR) model with stochastic correlation for contagion analysis on financial markets. The correlation and the log-volatility dynamics are driven by two independent Markov chains, thus allowing for different effects such as volatility spill-overs and correlation shifts with various degrees of intensity. We outline a suitable Bayesian inference procedure based on Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms. We then apply the model to some major and Asian-Pacific cross rates against the U.S. dollar and find strong evidence supporting the existence of contagion effects and correlation drops during crises, closely in line with the stylized facts outlined in the contagion literature. A comparison of this model with its closest competitors, such as a time-varying parameter VAR, reveals that our model has a better predictive ability. Supplementary materials for this article are available online     

Contributions‐financed cash benefits: Selected examples of tiered pension systems

This article addresses the link between pensions and occupational earnings using the example of social security contributions in selected OECD countries. The rules of the pension schemes studied point towards a very strong link between occupational earnings and pension level. However, certain pension calculation methods, through pension calculation parameters or through the existence of tools to compensate for certain career discontinuities, may distort this link in the majority of the countries studied. Therefore, the examination of pension calculation parameters and of solidarity measures attached to retirement is necessary to provide a more finely‐tuned evaluation of the link between occupational earnings and pension level. Ultimately, comparison of pension systems across countries remains challenging given their specificities.