La flexibilité, une arme contre le chômage? Analyse empirique du marché du travail espagnol

L'Espagne a connu en 2010 et 2012 deux réformes majeures du marché du travail. Celles-ci reposaient sur l'idée qu'il suffisait d'accroître la flexibilité du travail et de décentraliser la négociation collective pour faire baisser le chômage (thèse de la flexibilité). Les auteurs estiment pour leur part que le comportement du chômage dépend largement de la demande et de la structure sectorielle de l'économie (thèse structurelle). Ils évaluent l'apport de ces deux hypothèses dans une analyse reposant sur des données de panel de niveau infranational. Leurs résultats tendent à infirmer la thèse de la flexibilité et font ressortir le rôle primordial des facteurs cycliques et structurels.     

Quality of College Life (QCL) of Students: Further Validation of a Measure of Well-being

This paper reports a study designed to further validate a measure of quality of college life (QCL) of university students (Sirgy, Grzeskowiak, Rahtz, Soc Indic Res 80(2), 343–360, 2007). Two studies were conducted: a replication study and an extension study. The replication study involved surveys of 10 different college campuses in different countries. The results of the replication study provided additional nomological (predictive) validation support of the measure based on a theoretical model mapping out the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction with college life. With respect to the extension study, the focus was to further test the nomological validity of the QCL measure by arguing and empirically demonstrating that the consequence of QCL is life satisfaction. The extension study involved a survey of three college campuses in different countries. The results were also supportive of the nomological validity of the QCL measure.     

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.     

The municipal solid waste and the quality of life of collectors of recyclable materials in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais

The generation growing and diversified of Municipal Solid Waste is configured as an environmental problem, economic and social deterioration, especially, by application of inappropriate management of them. Faced with this urban context, the research in development presents as specific objective assessment of the quality of life of the gatherers of recyclable materials were active in the city of Juiz de Fora, in the brazilian state of Minas Gerais. In addition, the objective is, still, the recognition of the activity of sorting performed by "scavengers" in order to maximize the reduction, reuse and recycling energy and material waste daily. The proposed methodology is based on the application of the questionnaire Word Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-100), prepared by the World Health Organization, in order to value the quality of life of the gatherers of recyclable materials, involved, even in educational workshops in order to discuss and organize strategies of health care and scouting to the basement to public policies.     

Ergonomics at Volkswagen Brasil. Multidisciplinary work to equalize health, productivity and quality

Following the technological developments and presented to the multidisciplinary processes as automakers, Volkswagen Brazil, represented by its ergonomists, through this paper, shows the importance of ergonomic efficiency of management applied to various levels of life of a product, since its creation to its final implementation on production lines.The preventive work of ergonomists during the processes leading to production of a vehicle is accomplished through assessments on a simulated system called the Digital Factory. Since the initial stages to final product delivery there is a need for a multidisciplinary aligning the concepts of ergonomics, productivity and quality of product. Industrial Engineering, Process Engineering, ergonomists and workers are involved in the analysis made through the Workshop's showing the importance of discussion between the various users of the systems. The processes of series are also equipped with a set of certifications flow of job and planned audits on items that describe processes and applied ergonomics.     

ZONING UNDER SPATIAL PRICE DISCRIMINATION

This paper investigates zoning in a duopoly model of spatial price discrimination. We find that the zone in which the firms are not allowed to locate depends on the bias of the regulator. A bias toward firms is deduced when locations around the central area are forbidden, and a bias toward consumers exists when firms are only allowed to locate at places around the central area. The design of the zoned area guarantees that firms locate optimally and works under simultaneous or sequential choice of locations by the two firms. (JEL L13, R38)     

Television news consumption and public attitudes towards immigration: a multi-level approach / Consumo de información televisiva y actitudes publicas hacia la inmigración: un enfoque multinivel

This paper analyses the association between TV news consumption and public attitudes towards immigration. A multi-level model is used to study the complex relationship between TV news consumption, how the media treat immigration and public attitudes towards minority groups based on a survey of university students. Multi-level analysis results show the impact of aggregate consumption of TV news on the perception of the current immigration phenomenon and the cognitive/affective components of attitude. It also demonstrates the usefulness of this analytical approach for understanding the processes that describe the relationship between the media and attitudes towards immigration.     

Remittances and labour market outcomes: Evidence from Mexico

The effects of remittances on labour market outcomes have been studied by many researchers, primarily using micro‐level data. While a few studies have also used macro‐level data, they suffer from endogeneity bias due to the inclusion of remittances in their estimations. The present study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by using a set of panel data of Mexican states and by addressing the endogeneity bias with a system GMM (generalized method of moments) estimator. The main conclusions are that remittances increase labour force participation rates and reduce median hours worked, critical employment and unemployment duration.     

Nonparametric estimation of transition probabilities in a non-Markov illness–death model

In this paper we consider nonparametric estimation of transition probabilities for multi-state models. Specifically, we focus on the illness-death or disability model. The main novelty of the proposed estimators is that they do not rely on the Markov assumption, typically assumed to hold in a multi-state model. We investigate the asymptotic properties of the introduced estimators, such as their consistency and their convergence to a normal law. Simulations demonstrate that the new estimators may outperform Aalen–Johansen estimators (the classical nonparametric tool for estimating the transition probabilities) in non-Markov situation. An illustration through real data analysis is included.     

On strategy-proof social choice correspondences: a comment

In a recent paper, Sato (Soc Choice Welf doi:) has provided two alternative definitions of strategy-proofness for social choice correspondences and proved that they are incompatible with the joint requirements of anonymity, neutrality, and a minimal range condition. In this note, we use the results in Rodríguez-álvarez (Soc Choice Welf 29:175–199, 2007) to directly prove stronger versions of Sato’s theorems. The author wishes to thank Shin Sato and John Weymark for their comments and suggestions. Financial support from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia through the Programa Ramón y Cajal 2006 and grant SEJ-2005-04805, the Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa, Junta de Andalucía through grant SEJ-01645, and the Fundación Ramón Areces is gratefully acknowledged.