Youth Poverty,Employment, and Leaving the Parental Home in Europe

This paper studies the nature of youth poverty dynamics in Europe. First, it analyzes to what extent experiencing poverty in a given period is in itself positively related to the probability of living below the poverty line again in the future. That is, we assess the degree of poverty genuine state dependence among young people. Second, we study the interrelationships between poverty, employment, and residential emancipation. The results show that youth poverty genuine state dependence is positive and highly significant, but this scarring effect is short‐lived in Scandinavia compared to Southern or Continental Europe. Moreover, although we find a strong association between poverty and leaving home in Nordic countries, time spent in economic hardship does not last long. On the contrary, in Spain and Italy, young adults tend to leave their parental home much later in order to avoid falling into a poverty state that is more persistent.     

An Exploratory Study on Nonlinear Causality Among the MILA Markets

According to conventional portfolio theory, an increase in the interconnectedness of international financial markets may reduce the potential for constructing diversified portfolios. This article explores the implications of the creation of the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA)¹ over the dependence structure of its members using correlation and cointegration analysis as well as linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests. The creation of MILA aimed to enhance the integration process that Latin American financial markets “naturally” present while still providing diversification opportunities to investors. The results of our empirical analysis suggest that such objective is being achieved. Evidence of a rise in cross-country linear correlations and their linear causal relationship supports the idea of an increasing financial integration process in the region, while the absence of cointegration and the weakening of the nonlinear causal relationship favors the creation of diversified regional portfolios. These findings provide valuable insights for investment portfolio designers, regulators, and supervisors.     

Visual displays: analytical study and applications to graphs and real data

Principal axis methods such as principal component analysis (PCA) and correspondence analysis (CA) are useful for identifying structures in data through interesting planar graphic displays. However, some kinds of data sets can be dealt alternatively with PCA or CA. This paper focuses on methods, such as PCA and CA, and on visual displays. Our aim is to illustrate the implications for a potential user of selecting either method, and its advantages and disadvantages, from an applied point of view. This is a matter covered broadly in textbooks and elsewhere considering theoretical arguments. Our purpose is to contribute to the comparison between these methods, over the same data set, in order to illustrate them for the practitioner. In the first part of this paper we present a novel analytical study of a binary matrix associated with a non-oriented axis-symmetric graph and show that CA outperforms standardized PCA for the reconstitution and visualization of such kind of graphs. In the second part we present a case using real data dealing with the distribution of employees in different economic sectors for the countries of the European Union, analyzed by means of standardized PCA and two-way CA, in order to see the differences between the two methods in practice.     

Altruism and the Economic Values of Environmental and Social Policies

Altruism is a type of non-use value which can have different definitions depending on the type of goods entering the utility function of the altruists and their expectations about the contributions of others. The purpose of this paper is to measure the trade-offs between different types of altruist values originating from social and environmental policies. Environmental policies are concerned with reducing health effects from a power plant while social policies involve both the attainment of public facilities for education and leisure and an increase in the income of the affected population. The empirical application utilizes a choice experiment technique which allows for valuation of multiple goods. Health effects are decomposed into the values of the risk of becoming ill, the duration of the episodes and the limitations imposed by illness. Altruist values are elicited from a population that is not affected by pollution. Results show that altruism is significant for policies directed to reducing health effects and improving the income level of the affected population, whereas there is egoism for a policy aimed at improving public facilities in the polluted suburb. The value of altruism is significantly influenced by the expectations of net benefits to be received by the affected population.     

A note on how to measure hubbing practices in airline networks

Benefits and costs associated to hubbing practices of airlines are still subject to much debate. In the previous literature, some standard spatial concentration indices have been proposed to measure it. However, we show that these indices are “ill-defined” because they do not take into account the salient characteristic of hubbing: connecting passengers. The purpose of this research is to present a new methodology which avoids the pitfalls of other methods. Our new methodology also analyzes the level of concentration of the connecting passengers studying two different dimensions: hub airports and routes. Finally, we apply our methodology to some US carriers.     

RESPONDING TO DISRUPTIONS IN THE SUPPLY NETWORK‐FROM DORMANT TO ACTION

Managing risks in supply networks is a complex task; more so in those supply networks where the core competence lies in dealing with natural disasters, complex emergencies, and large‐scale attacks—namely those of humanitarian, and military organizations where the price of failure can be counted in terms of the loss of life rather than, simply, reduced profits. This conceptual article examines the capabilities of these supply networks to manage such disruptions, based on their resource configuration in a dormant preparation state. The article concludes by presenting how different types of supply networks can manage large‐scale disruptions.     

ESTIMATION OF VALUE AT RISK AND RUIN PROBABILITY FOR DIFFUSION PROCESSES WITH JUMPS

In this paper we give upper bounds for both the Value at Risk   VaR _α,  0 < α < 1  , and for ruin probabilities associated with the supremum of a process driven by a Brownian motion and a compound Poisson process. We obtain lower bounds for the same Value at Risk, and for different cases we discuss the behavior of the bounds for small α. We prove our bounds are asymptotically optimal, as α tends to zero. The ruin probabilities obtained are related to other bounds found in recent literature.     

Linking corporate productivity to foreign direct investment: An empirical assessment

This paper examines whether foreign firms generate productivity spillovers. Despite the relevance of this question to public policy, previous studies have failed to find consistent and conclusive evidence to support the existence of positive spillovers. Using previously unexploited firm-level data over the 1994–1999 period, we attempt to contribute to the literature on productivity spillovers from FDI by analysing the Portuguese manufacturing industry. The results indicate that foreign firms in the same industry of the observed firms (horizontal spillovers) and linkages between foreign firms and their local suppliers or customers (vertical spillovers) do not impact significantly on firms’ productivity. Moreover, we detected no differences on productivity spillovers associated to firm-specific characteristics.     

Perception evaluation kit: a case study with materials and learning styles

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Materials are elements that configure our built environment and are key components in design and engineering education. This research aims...