A stochastic recurrence equations approach for score driven correlation models

We describe stationarity and ergodicity (SE) regions for a recently proposed class of score driven dynamic correlation models. These models have important applications in empirical work. The regions are derived from sufficiency conditions in Bougerol (1993 Bougerol, P. (1993). Kalman filtering with random coefficients and contractions. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization 31(4):942–959.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and take a nonstandard form. We show that the nonstandard shape of the sufficiency regions cannot be avoided by reparameterizing the model or by rescaling the score steps in the transition equation for the correlation parameter. This makes the result markedly different from the volatility case. Observationally equivalent decompositions of the stochastic recurrence equation yield regions with different shapes and sizes. We use these results to establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of the maximum likelihood estimator. We illustrate our results with an analysis of time-varying correlations between U.K. and Greek equity indices. We find that also in empirical applications different decompositions can give rise to different conclusions regarding the stability of the estimated model.     

Institutionalization of a community action program targeting licensed premises in Stockholm, Sweden

The objective of this article is to evaluate the level of institutionalization of a community action program targeting licensed premises in Stockholm. Five key factors were identified for institutionalization: adoption, sustainability, key leader support, structural changes, and compliance. A scale was developed to assess the strength of each factor. The results indicate a high degree of institutionalization (score 13 on a scale from 5 to 15). The authors conclude that the program activities have been sustained at a high level. A written agreement ensures that the participating organizations take responsibility for the continuing work.     

The urban market of Açaí fruit (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) and rural land use change: Ethnographic insights into the role of price and land tenure constraining agricultural choices in the Amazon estuary

This paper examines the recent development of the açaí fruit economy in regional Amazonian urban markets (as a staple food) and more recently among national and international consumers (as a fashion food) and the consequences for agroforestry intensification by Caboclo communities in the Amazon estuary. The paper is based on long-term ethnographic research and field experiments; the açaí fruit economy is discussed from agricultural, social, and economic perspectives; attention is given to its historical development, the structure of açaí fruit production, its agents, the relationship among themselves and the urban market. Decadal price performance is presented for açaí fruit and açaí transportation costs and compared to major agropastoral products for the Eastern Amazon region. Dominant views about the economic rationality of rural producers' decision-making are discussed. Açaí fruit has performed as well as and in some cases surpassed most agro-pastoral products of the Northern region. Economic returns for producers reflect linkages between price signals from urban markets, harvesting decision, and land tenure condition of the producer. Urban markets for the fruit is expanding and bringing new participants to the açaí fruit economy further conditioning the ability of rural producers to take advantage of external markets for forest products. Discussion of factors conditioning agricultural development and integration between urban and rural areas conclude the article.     

Occupational variations in drinking and psychological distress: a multilevel analysis

The relationship between alcohol intake and psychological distress has been overlooked in studies on the working population. Using a multilevel multivariate model, this study reports results obtained from a sample of 8812 workers nested in 387 occupations. Results show that alcohol intake and psychological distress vary significantly at the worker and occupation levels, but they do not show a large variation at the occupation level. Occupational socioeconomic status appears to be a common factor explaining the correlation between alcohol intake and psychological distress at the occupation level. Semi-professionals, middle management, foreman and semiskilled clerical-sales-services occupations are particularly at risk. Gender is related to both outcomes, while work schedule and number of weekly working hours are associated only with psychological distress. Implications and limitations of these results are discussed.     

An efficient approach for large scale graph partitioning

In this paper, we consider the problem of partitioning the set of vertices of a graph intok subsets of approximately the same cardinality in such a way that the number of edges whose endpoints are in different subsets is minimized. A greedy heuristic, called Procedure1, based on the independent growth of each subset by fronts is proposed for constructing a good-quality graph partition. In addition, we present a more sophisticated version of the greedy heuristic, called Procedure2, which periodically calls a routine to refine the partition being built. We show that the partitions generated by Procedure1 are competitive with those obtained by several constructive heuristics in the literature, e.g. spectral, geometric, as well as other greedy heuristics. Moreover, the partitions produced by Procedure2 are compared with those produced by a leading graph partitioning method in the literature.     

Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas in Organizational Change Processes

Several theories exist on how managers think aboutethical responsibilities in a business environment.Some stress the economic way of thinking and explainwhy there is no space for moral reasoning in abusiness environment. Others claim that in a businessenvironment also moral considerations can play animportant role. In this article, we will explore theway managers have actually dealt with potentialdilemmas in organizational change processes,especially changes with drastic consequences foremployees. Do managers consider moral arguments? Dothey feel a moral responsibility towards theiremployees? And in what way do they include a moralresponsibility in the decision process and itsoutcomes? These questions were investigated throughcase studies in two organisations and interviews withsix managers in other companies. The framework whichis used in the research will be described and the mainresults of the field-research will be presented. Wedid find that managers actually strived to some extentfor fair and morally responsible solutions in dilemmasituations, but in another way then we expectedbeforehand. Managers did not base their acting onmoral arguments. Instead they used a more pragmaticapproach wherein acting in a morally responsible wayis based on strategic arguments, such as the positiveeffects for the organisation in the long run.     

The Length of Working Life in Spain: Levels,Recent Trends,and the Impact of the Financial Crisis

While there has been considerable debate about extending the length of working life, relatively little is known about this issue. We use data from the Spanish Continuous Working Life Sample for 2004–2013 to calculate period working life tables, which in turn allows us to assess the impact of the financial crisis on working life expectancy in Spain. Before the recession hit, working life expectancy in Spain was around 38 years for males and 33 years for females. The recession had a tremendous impact on the Spanish labor market, but the effects differed considerably by gender and occupational category. Men working in skilled non-manual jobs were less affected, while men working in unskilled manual jobs lost close to 14 years of working life expectancy. Women were less affected than men. With working life expectancy decreasing, the average proportion of lifetime spent in unemployment and outside the labor market increased markedly, whereas the average number of years spent in retirement changed only a little. When we decompose losses in working life expectancy by age group, we find that economic fluctuations affect both older and younger workers. This result suggests that policies that focus on retirement ages only are incomplete. We also compare our findings to the results obtained by Sullivans method, which is based on prevalence rates rather than the incidence-based working life table approach. We find that the use of Sullivans approach does not accurately reflect the levels of and the trends in working life expectancy.     

State and towns in the Middle Ages

Conclusion The relationship between state and towns in medieval Scandinavia was a close and a complicated one. Towns were part of the political power, but they were also something else outside the state. p ]From an internal perspective the towns can be regarded as forming part of the power-cum-control system of the state. In medieval Scandinavia this meant that towns should, above all, be considered against the background of the extent and possession of the supremacy right. During the 1000–1150 stage, towns formed political and religious points d'appui for the new feudal sovereignty. In the course of the 1150–1350 stage, they also became vital centers for that exchange of goods that was instigated by the people who were in possession of feudal supremacy. Finally, from 1350 to 1550, the towns became the original bases for the new, mercantile supremacy, in a mutual relation with the emerging territorial state. In feudal society, it was of decisive importance from the beginning to be in control of production; as time went by, however, it turned out to be just as essential to control distribution as well.From an external perspective the medieval towns of Europe had specific features, which set them apart from towns in other epochs and in other places. This externality is best regarded as a part of the structure of feudal society, which was founded on the exercise of power by means of enfeoffments. The towns were subservient to feudal supremacies, but groups in the towns gradually came to exercise lordship within as well as outside the towns. In medieval Scandinavia this externality can be conceived as a gradual process of liberation from the state. First a period in 1000–1150, when towns were totally subordinate to the political power. Then a stage in 1150–1350, when the external delimitation and the internal partial autonomy were developed. And lastly a period from 1350 to 1550, when towns obtained internal independence and external influence as well. This external influence was, in a few instances, directed against the state, too.Though the main lines of the internal and external development of the towns can be traced in Scandinavia as a whole, there were important regional differences between the countries. The formation of a state and the urbanization were most evident in Norway, and above all in Denmark, at an early stage. The Danish urban profile kept its structure for a long time, and was radically changed only in the late Middle Ages. In Norway minor adjustments were made in the urban profile at an earlier stage, but during the late-medieval agrarian crisis both the state and the towns stagnated. In Sweden the formation of a state and the urbanization were of a later date, which meant that the urban profile became more adjusted to international trade, at an earlier stage. The importance of mining also meant that several towns were connected with a partly different kind of economy than Danish and Norwegian towns. Besides, the most far-reaching autonomy can be traced in Swedish cities, such as Visby, Stockholm, and Kalmar.In connection with the formal dissolution of the Union in 1523, and with the Reformation in Sweden (in 1527) and in Denmark-Norway (in 1536), the bases of new bureaucratic states were laid in Scandinavia. As before, it is possible to trace evident differences in the character of the two states. In Denmark an aristocratic state was organized, where the burghers had less influence than before. In Sweden the position of the aristocracy was dominant, too, but the state was more consistently organized in a bureaucratic way and the burghers maintained some of their influence. An expression for the new Swedish administration was the national land registers that were set up in the 1540s. Similar surveys did not occur in Denmark until the end of the seventeenth century.The development of the bureaucratic state, above all in Sweden, meant that a new form of politically controlled exploitation was created. This new political order opened up economic and social possibilities for urban settlements in new areas. At the end of the sixteenth century and in the seventeenth century the previous ecological limit of urbanization was exceeded, and many new towns were founded in the boreal zone, along the shores of the Bothnian Gulf (see figure 5). This urban burst of the ecological setting of previous periods can be regarded as one of the conditions for the Swedish empire in the Baltic, in the seventeenth century.

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The business environment in the 1980s

Dr. Harold Linstone, the editor of ‘Technological Forecasting and Social Change’ holds that too often the future is too much discounted. This seems particularly true in the case of business corporations, which tend to pay lip service to long-range planning—especially when prospective studies point to threats rather than to opportunities.The author believes that truly long-range planning will rarely be operative until business corporations muster the political will to jointly write a scenario of their (interlinked) future, and to act accordingly. Illustratively and speculatively, such a scenario might read as follows: