Evaluating the Move to a Linear Tax System in Germany and Other European Countries

This paper proposes a comparison of the results of tax policy analysis obtained on the basis of unitary and collective representations of the household. We first generate labour supplies consistent with the collective rationality, by use of a model calibrated on microdata as described in Vermeulen et al. [Collective Models of Household Labor Supply with Nonconvex Budget Sets and Nonparticipation: A Calibration Approach (2006)]. A unitary model is then estimated on these collective data and unitary and collective responses to a tax reform are compared. We focus on the introduction of linear taxation in Germany. The exercise is replicated for other European countries and other topical reforms. Distortions due to the use of a unitary model turn out to be important in predicting labour supply adjustments, in the design of tax revenue neutral reforms, and in predicting a reform’s welfare implications.

Minimum phi-divergence estimators for loglinear models with linear constraints and multinomial sampling

In this paper the family ofφ-divergence estimators for loglinear models with linear constraints and multinomial sampling is studied. This family is an extension of the maximum likelihood estimator studied by Haber and Brown (1986). A simulation study is presented and some alternative estimators to the maximum likelihood are obtained. This work was parcially supported by Grant DGES PB2003-892     

Participatory Skepticism: Ambivalence and Conflict in Popular Discourses of Participatory Democracy

In recent years researches have focused on the preferences of ordinary citizens towards democratic deepening, asking: Do people want more institutional participation? The present work analyzes how different classes of people envisage a participatory democracy and its problems. Supported by qualitative research based on 16 focus groups conducted in Spain between 2011 and 2013, it is shown that skepticism plays a central role in the views of participatory democracy. Doubts surrounding its viability, negative expectations on the responsiveness of governments and, overall, distrust of the capacities of ordinary citizens, contribute to skepticism. In some groups these beliefs lead to a rejection of participatory reforms. In other groups, participants harbor hopes and positive prospects. For them, the key point is faith in education as a shortcut to political equality.     

A Bayesian model for multinomial sampling with misclassified data

In this paper the issue of making inferences with misclassified data from a noisy multinomial process is addressed. A Bayesian model for making inferences about the proportions and the noise parameters is developed. The problem is reformulated in a more tractable form by introducing auxiliary or latent random vectors. This allows for an easy-to-implement Gibbs sampling-based algorithm to generate samples from the distributions of interest. An illustrative example related to elections is also presented.     

Powerful nonparametric statistics to compare k independent ROC curves

The authors deal with the problem of comparing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves from independent samples. From a nonparametric approach, they propose and study three different statistics. Their asymptotic distributions are obtained and a resample plan is considered. In order to study the statistical power of the introduced statistics, a simulation study is carried out. The (observed) results suggest that, for the considered models, the new statistics are more powerful than the usually employed ones (the Venkatraman test and the usual area under the ROC curve criterion) in non-uniform dominance situations and quite good otherwise.     

Cluster Suicides Among Unemployed Persons in Australia Over the Period 2001–2013

There has been no research on whether particularly vulnerable people such as the unemployed are prone to being in a suicide cluster (defined as an unusually high number of suicides occurring in a defined geographical area and/or over a relatively brief period of time). We investigated the presence of unemployed suicide clusters in Australia over the period 2001–2013 using a Poisson discrete scan statistic approach. Spatial, temporal and spatial/temporal clusters comprised 13.4, 4.4 and 1.7% of all unemployed suicides respectively. These results suggest the importance of targeting preventative efforts in where large numbers of unemployed persons who have died by suicide resided before death.     

LGBT Studies Without LGBT Studies: Mapping Alternative Pathways in Perú and Colombia

ABSTRACT

Our article tackles gender and sexual diversity scholarship in Colombia and Perú, two countries without institutionalized LGBT studies programs. By analyzing the impact of literary works in Perú and an annual conference in Colombia’s capital, we show how LGBT-related scholarship (and activism) has been advanced in these Andean countries with tactful maneuvering, as they offset contemporary violence—and a strong religious influence. Our comparison allows us to showcase two of the most common ways through which these countries have engaged in LGBT research and activism. This region-centered, dual-country approach underscores the broader need of researching and documenting these efforts.     

Population Structure and the Human Development Index

Social Indicators Research - This paper provides an alternative way of measuring human development that takes explicitly into account the differences in the countries’ population structures....     

Attitude towards career progression in Spanish dual-earner couples: A dyadic approach

This study addresses the relevance of gender roles and perceived gender discrimination against women in attitude towards career progression in heterosexual dual-earner couples. One hundred and thirty-nine wives and their husbands completed the questionnaires independently. From a dyadic data analysis, using the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM), we examined the actor and partner effect. The following findings were made: (a) an actor and partner effect of gender roles in husbands, (b) an actor effect of perceived gender discrimination in wives, and (c) an interaction effect between partner gender roles by actor professional status in wives. Overall, results showed that gender roles and perceived gender discrimination are useful factors in understanding couples’ interdependence in their attitudes towards career progression. Results are discussed in terms of the influence of traditional gender roles in perpetuating inequality between men and women and the relevance of perceived gender discrimination against women in attitude towards career progression.     

Postural analysis of eight university student wheelchair users when performing written exercises in their classroom: a case study in Santiago de Cali, Colombia

In students with physical disabilities, the more energy and time required and invested into finding a good posture, the longer the learning process takes. For this reason, the objective of this study was to characterize the posture in the act of writing of wheelchair users in a classroom. Eight students, (three women) aged 18-40, of some of the main universities of the city of Santiago de Cali participated. An observational field study filming of approximately 10 minutes was done while they took notes in their classes. Posture of the head, trunk, and upper extremities was analyzed with respect to its axis and the type of movement in each joint. The postures were classified depending on the location of support surface finding five different postures in the eight students. In these five postures some biomechanical risk factors, usually present in wheelchair users, are increased when they are associated with those postures. Those associated risk factors are: possible disc spine deformation, muscular stress and causing of pressure ulcer. In conclusion, in four of these five postures a poor interaction among person, task and work desk was observed. Therefore, seven of the eight students in this study were found to have a posture that could be considered risky.