Journal articles on the topic 'Social security – Spain – Econometric models'

Lockdowns introduced in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic have had a significant impact on societies from an economic, psychological, and health perspective. This paper presents estimations of their impact on well-being, understood both from the perspective of mental health and considering economic security and similar factors. This is not an easy task because well-being is influenced by numerous factors and the changes happen dynamically. Moreover, there are some obstacles when using the control group. However, other studies show that in certain cases it is possible to approximate selected phenomena with Google search queries data. Secondly, the econometric issues related to the suitable modeling of such a problem can be solved, for example, by using Bayesian methods. In particular, herein the recently gaining in popularity Bayesian structural time series and Bayesian dynamic mixture models are used. Indeed, these methods have not been used in social sciences extensively. However, in the fields where they have been used, they have been very efficient. Especially, they are useful when short time series are analyzed and when there are many variables that potentially have a significant explanatory impact on the response variable. Finally, 15 culturally different and geographically widely scattered countries are analyzed (i.e., Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Little evidence of any substantial changes in the Internet search intensity on terms connected with negative aspects of well-being and mental health issues is found. For example, in Mexico, some evidence of a decrease in well-being after lockdown was found. However, in Italy, there was weak evidence of an increase in well-being. Nevertheless, the Bayesian structural time series method has been found to fit the data most accurately. Indeed, it was found to be a superior method for causal analysis over the commonly used difference-in-differences method or Bayesian dynamic mixture models.

The financial balance of each country's social security system is a concern for countries, professional groups, and individuals. If the first social security systems were based on the principle of social solidarity and objectively the financial resources collected from the active generations were sufficient to cover the risks of the social security branches, nowadays the supporters of this principle are fewer. An objective problem is also the achievement of the system maturity state that occurs after 60-70 years after the scheme’s development that is almost after a period equal to a generation’s age. For the projection of social security models, demographic, economic, fiscal and legislative variables are typically used. In this article, the researcher approached the social security models. Since between social security and demography there is a biunique relationship, the researcher presented econometric and OLG models.

<p>The Segura Hydrographic Demarcation (DHS), in Southeastern Spain, is an area of hydric deficit caused by low and irregular rainfall and a dense population. In this region water scarcity is a burning issue that polarizes society for or against different models of ensuring water supply. Given the current demand for water throughout Spain, desalination has been used to increase water supply, and as insurance against drought. Ten seawater desalination plants and hundreds of brackish aquifer desalination plants treat water in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, both for human consumption and for irrigation, contributing to economic, energetic, processual and economic aspects of territorial organization in the Southeast of Spain. This article reviews debates over desalination, water transfers, and the best way to meet water demands in that region. While desalination allows an increase in water supply, dependence on that source increases energy costs and may lead to mistaken assumptions among users about water scarcity and availability.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>seawater desalination, brackish aquifer desalination, human water supply, social debate, irrigation, Southeast of Spain</p>

The aim of the work was to demonstrate the possibility of forming a strategy of innovative development of the region that could accelerate the transition of the regional economy to the dominance of new technological structures. By constructing econometric models of economic dynamics, the timelines for starting the pre-mining of the fifth mode in the economy of the Tula region are estimated. The strategy of accelerating the innovative development of the region’s economy are described. The strategy is based on the program-target approach, reflected in the state program of industrial development in the Tula region. The effectiveness of the program is shown.

Eliminating food insecurity is one of humanity’s greatest global challenges. Thus, the purpose of this research was to analyze the factors that determine food insecurity in households in the rural area of the Paute River Basin, Azuay Province, Ecuador. Stratified sampling was used as the sampling method, with proportional affixation. Moreover, we employed the Latin American and Caribbean Household Food Security Measurement Scale (ELCSA). We estimated the main determinants of household food insecurity using two binomial logit models and one ordered logit model. For the analysis of the data, the respective statistical and econometric tests were employed. The results show that housing size and access to food security information are the most important determinants of food insecurity in the three predictive models applied in this research. This research contributes to the existing literature on food insecurity and provides important information for policymakers, especially regarding food insecurity in rural areas, which has profound economic and social implications.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) can bring many benefits to the host country's economy, but not all citizens in that country benefit equally. This study aimed to analyze the impact of FDI on wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers in Vietnam. The study used an econometric model, applying systematic generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation to panel data from 63 Vietnamese provinces in the period from 2010 to 2018 to analyze the impact of FDI on wage inequality. The empirical results from the econometric models using systematic GMM showed that FDI tends to increase wage inequality in localities. The results of this study suggest that to ensure sustainable development, policies to attract and use FDI need to be linked with social security policies and efforts to reduce wage inequality. Based on the research results, the study proposes some policy implications to minimize the negative impact of FDI on wage inequality in Vietnam.

The consolidation of economic security of the state, its protection against all external threats should become one of the main directions in the realization of budget expenses in short-term and in long-term prospects. According to this conception, budget expenses are to finance top-priority components of economic security.Some theoretical and methodological approaches concerning the analysis of the influence of budget instruments on parameters of economic security and socio-economic development of the country are suggested.For conducting this investigation, certain econometric models with the best functional forms have been selected and analysed. The most important instruments in budget policy such as state buying, expenses for fundamental investigations, expenses for economic development and expenses for social sphere have been considered under the condition of the Ukrainian economy. The influence of budget instruments on certain parameters that characterize the economic security of the state has been worked out in detail. As a result of the investigation, the main threats for the Ukrainian economic security have been formulated and the ways out have been proposed.The authors state that in the process of the investigation almost all budget instruments have a positive influence on the level of Ukrainian economic security, they stimulate economic development and increasing of social living standards of the population.

In 2014-2018 the utilization of health facilities for inpatient treatment in Indonesia has ups and downs. according to data from the National Social Security Council (DJSN) and Social Security Administrator for Health (BPJS Kesehatan) in 2020, the average unit cost of claims per first-level inpatient admission nationally in 2014-2018 were Rp420,543, Rp323,687, Rp412,512, Rp531,496, and Rp472,984, respectively. The purpose of this study was to determine the socioeconomic factors that influence the utilization of health facilities for inpatient treatment in Indonesia. This study uses secondary data from the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) in 2020. The research respondents were individuals who were randomly selected as many as 1,258,328 in Indonesia. The method used in this study uses an econometric approach using the Binary Regression method, namely the logit and probit models. The results of this study found that age, education, occupation, income, and health insurance, with income assumed from the level of expenditure, all of these variables had a significant effect on the utilization of health facilities for inpatients.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze significant determinants to assess the probability of insureds’ intent to buy (ITB) insurance and willingness to pay (WTP) quantum of dollars for security benefits. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the Double Hurdle Model (DHM) and Neural Network (NN) architecture to analyze the insureds’ behavior for ITB and WTP. The authors apply these frameworks to all the 503 insureds of a branch of a leading insurer in the United Arab Emirates. Findings The DHM identified age, loans & liabilities, body mass index, travel outside the UAE, salary and country of origin (Middle Eastern and African) as significant determinants to predict WTP for social security benefits. In addition to these determinants, NN architecture identified insurance replacement, holding multiple citizenship, age of parents, mortgages, country of origin: Americas, length of travel, income of previous year and medical conditions of insured as additional important determinants to predict WTP for social security benefits; thus, NN is found to be superior to DHM due to its lowest RMSE and AIC in the holdout sample and also its flexibility and no assumptions unlike econometric models. Research limitations/implications Insureds’ data used from one UAE Branch limit the generalizability of empirical findings. Practical implications The study findings will enable the insurers to appropriately design the insurance products that match the insurers’ behavior of ITB and WTP for social security benefits. Social implications The study findings have the potential for insurance institutions to be more flexible in their insurance practices through public–private partnerships. Originality/value This is the authors’ original research work.

Energy is an important material basis for social and economic development. With the rapid economic development, energy is increasingly becoming an important issue of socio-economic development. As China's "two-oriented society" pilots Hunan Province, a major breakthrough occurred in the transformation of economic growth, adjusting the industrial structure and promoting energy conservation and environmental protection, but still faces shortage of energy supply and demand and supply imbalances, impacting on sustainable economic development. This paper introduces the economic growth based on the previous results and summarized the relationship between energy consumption and classification; also introduces the theory of economic growth, industrial structure and related econometric models providing a theoretical basis and methods of analysis for this study. Secondly, through the relevant data collected and selected first from second and third industry time series data of economic growth and energy consumption of the 1990-2013 year of Hunan Province, the paper established econometric model of industrial structure and the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in the analysis of the results obtained: the secondary industry is the leading cause of long-term increase in energy consumption which in turn is the driving force of the tertiary industry development. Finally, the relevant suggestions are made for industrial restructuring and for ensuring security of energy supply perspective.

En los últimos años se ha producido un incremento notable del número de mujeres que acceden al mercado de trabajo en España. Se observan, no obstante, diferencias significativas por comunidades autónomas, siendo Andalucía una de las menos favorecidas. En este estudio se analiza, el mercado de trabajo femenino en las empresas de Economía Social de la comunidad autónoma Andaluza, por ser ésta la que agrupa más del 25% de empresas de Economía Social a nivel nacional. Se trata con ello de conocer cómo está evolucionando el mercado laboral femenino andaluz con la finalidad de determinar cuáles son los factores más determinantes que influyen en la demanda y en la oferta de empleo femenino de acuerdo con esta tipología de empresas (cooperativas y sociedades laborales) utilizando, para realizar dicha investigación, un modelo econométrico para definir el perfil de la mujer andaluza trabajadora.<br /><br />In recent years there has been a notable increase in the number of women entering the labour market in Spain. There are, however, significant differences in autonomous regions, Andalusia being one of the least favoured. This study examines the female labour market in companies of Social Economy of Andalusia, since this where over 25% of these Spanish companies are located. The job market for women is studied with the aim of identifying the most determinant factors influencing demand and supply of female employment in this type of business (industrial cooperatives and similar). Econometric models are employed to define the profile of working women in the South of Spain

<p><em>Aim of study:</em> The goal of this paper is to analyse the importance of the main contributing factors to the occurrence of wildfires. <strong></strong></p><p><em>Area of study:</em> We employ data from the region of Galicia during 2001-2010; although the similarities shared between this area and other rural areas may allow extrapolation of the present results.</p><p><em>Material and Methods:</em> The spatial dependence is analysed by using the Moran’s I and LISA statistics. We also conduct an econometric analysis modelling both, the number of fires and the relative size of afflicted woodland area as dependent variables, which depend on the climatic, land cover variables, and socio-economic characteristics of the affected areas. Fixed effects and random effect models are estimated in order to control for the heterogeneity between the Forest Districts in Galicia.</p><p><em>Main results</em>: Moran’s I and LISA statistics show that there is spatial dependence in the occurrence of Galician wildfires. Econometrics models show that climatology, socioeconomic variables, and temporal trends are also important to study both, the number of wildfires and the burned-forest ratio.</p><p><em>Research highlights:</em> We conclude that in addition to direct forest actions, other agricultural or social public plans, can help to reduce wildfires in rural areas or wildland-urban areas. Based on these conclusions, a number of guidelines are provided that may foster the development of better forest management policies in order to reduce the occurrence of wildfires.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Cause-effect relationship; climatology; spatial and temporal indicators; fixed effects; random effects; socio-economic factors.</p>

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationship between internal governance structure and financial performance of listed Spanish companies. The effectiveness of the board of directors is analyzed through the use of different variables: size, composition, duality, number of annual meetings and busyness of the directors. The financial performance is measured by return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q. Design/methodology/approach – Our study is addressed through the use of a multi-theoretical approach followed by an empirical analysis. Schematic literature review serves as a basis for setting our hypotheses. We conduct the empirical part of the study by applying these to the listed companies in the Madrid Stock Exchange. An econometric model (multiple regression) is used to test the relation between board structure and financial performance. Findings – Empirical: We conclude that in the three estimated models, two of the dependent variables, ROE and ROA, have an explanatory value. The relationship between the number of the boards of directors’ meetings and performance has proved to be negative. Theoretical: Ample literature on corporate governance leads to two conclusions: First, corporative–financial relations must be studied by a multi-theoretical approach. Second, future research must be made only on specific studies coincident with the majority of their characteristics (country, type of firm, type of statistical model […]). Research limitations/implications – Future research will try to cover gaps, expanding this study in both space and time. Practical implications – The number of Spanish companies’ boards meetings is very high. As shown in our study, holding more than one meeting a month does not guarantee greater financial returns; the board can effectively establish its strategic lines of business by meeting up to 12 times per year. Social implications – The results show a negative relationship between ROE and the number of meetings, which may be linked to the country’s business culture, which traditionally has a higher number of annual meetings when compared to neighboring countries. Perhaps, this is an indicative symptom of the inefficiency associated with the Spanish system. Originality/value – Theoretical review is performed with two aims: first, to establish our research hypotheses, and second, to reflect on future research by fine-tuning the abundant previous studies.

The contribution of non timber forest products (NTFPs) has been acknowledged globally for their role in conservation, income generation, livelihood improvement and rural development. The potential of a NTFP-based bioeconomy has given a new dimension to the forest sector, and NTFPs are now considered favourably by the resource rich developing economies. The actual contribution of NTFPs has never been adequately estimated due to lack of sufficient baseline information on extraction, consumption patterns and traded quantities in Kashmir, India. Complicated management frameworks and fragmented value chains have eclipsed their diverse social life cycle in Kashmir. Therefore the present study investigates the bioeconomic transformation, livelihood contribution, income inequality mitigation and determinant socioeconomic factors of NTFP extraction in the Kashmir Himalayas. A multistage random sampling technique was employed to collect data through participatory household-based surveys from different villages. Data were collected through structured in-depth interviews, non-participant observation and focussed group discussions. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used for data analysis. The Lorenz curve and Gini index were used to evaluate the influence of household NTFP incomes on income inequality mitigation, and econometric models were developed to identify key factors that influence the level of household income from NTFPs to determine their potential for supporting livelihood security and bioeconomy in the region.

The article considers the impact of human development on changes and transformations in economics and on the general development of the state for the countries of the European Union and Ukraine in the period from 1990 to 2018, as well as ways of its modeling using statistical and econometric methods. The analysis of the factors influencing the development of human capital made it possible to draw a conclusion about the direct dependence of changes in the economic and social spheres and the level of quality of life of the population. Innovative universities, namely University 4.0, also in turn play a significant role in shaping the new modern knowledge economy and the development of the state as a whole, influencing society through cognitive technologies. To determine the results, time series models and multiple and panel regression models were developed based on the data of the Human Development Index and other socio-economic indicators that determine the financial stability of the state and the level of its security and welfare. The obtained models were tested for adequacy, significance of coefficients, stability and possibility of their use in practice in order to determine the most optimal of them. After conducting the necessary tests and calculating the error of RMSPE, the best of all constructed and analyzed models was the Holt-Winters model. It is universal and can be used to further forecast the economic, social and demographic indicators of other regions of the world with possible adjustments of the main parameters and coefficients to obtain the most accurate results and use this model in practice. The study concluded with an analysis of the main areas of reform and recovery of the Ukrainian economy and the spheres of education and health care to achieve social progress in the country and increase its level of development.

Since the liberalization of the Sino-Soviet border in 1990&rsquo;s, Chinese farmers have been actively engaged in the economy of Russian Far East. Literature suggests that Chinese workers fill a labour shortage, contribute positively to local food security, with negative impacts being more socially normative and political, than economic. So far no economic empirical research exists about Chinese farmers&rsquo; presence in Russian Far East. On the basis of a panel data, an econometric model was used to analyse socio-economic impact of Chinese agribusiness entrepreneurs in Russian Far East on local households. Regression models show that presence of Chinese farmers in Russian Far East increases the probability of higher well-being, farm income, food costs and share of Chinese food purchased among Russian Far East households. These results suggest that benefits of cooperation with Chinese farmers and retailers should not be ignored when designing policies towards sustainable development of rural areas in Russian Far East. Possible environmental, social and economic externalities of further soybean production in Russian Far East are also discussed.

The study is dedicated to developing an econometric model that can be used to make medium-term forecasts about the dynamics of the spread of the coronavirus in different countries, including Azerbaijan. We examine the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths worldwide to understand the data's intricacies better and make reliable predictions. Though it’s essential to quickly obtain an acceptable (although not perfect) prediction that shows the critical trends based on incomplete and inaccurate data, it is practically impossible to use standard SIR models of the epidemic spread. At the same time the similarity of the dynamics in different countries, including those which were several weeks ahead of Azerbaijan in the epidemic situation, and the possibility of including the heterogeneity factors into the model allowed as early as March 2020 to develop the extrapolation working relatively well on the medium-term horizon. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, has affected societies worldwide, but the experiences have been vastly different. Countries' health-care and economic systems differ significantly, making policy responses such as testing, intermittent lockdowns, quarantine, contact tracing, mask-wearing, and social distancing. The study presented in this paper is based on the Exponential Growth Model method, which is used in statistical analysis, forecasting, and decision-making in public health and epidemiology. This model was created to forecast coronavirus spread dynamics under uncertainty over the medium term. The model predicts future values of the percentage increase in new cases for 1–2 months. Data from previous periods in the United States, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Azerbaijan were used. The simulation results confirmed that the proposed approach could be used to create medium-term forecasts of coronavirus spread dynamics. The main finding of this study is that using the proposed approach for Azerbaijan, the deviation of the predicted total number of confirmed cases from the actual number was within 3-10 percent. Based on March statistics on the spread of the coronavirus in the US, 4 European countries: Italy, Spain, France, Germany (most susceptible to the epidemic), and Azerbaijan, it was shown how the trajectory would deviate exponentially from a shape; a trial was carried out to identify and assess the key factors that characterize countries. One of the unexpected results was the impact of quarantine restrictions on the number of people infected. We also used the medium-term forecast set by the local government to assess the adequacy of health systems.

The aim of the research, which constitutes the content of this article, is to analyze the impact of infrastructure provision on economic growth in industrial regions, as well as to substantiate the methodological approach to this analysis. Infrastructure and its constituent parts (production-economic, social and financial infrastructures) as an important factor in industrial and innovative development is the main subject of this study, and the industrial regions of the Russian Federation are chosen as the object of our study. The purpose of the study, as well as the specifics of the object of study determined the choice of the approach to this study. The realization of the approach involved the implementation of certain stages of the study. At the first stage, taking into account existing Russian and foreign studies, the criteria and indicators of industrial development were substantiated. Based on these, a sample of industrial-type regions from the entire set of regions (subjects of the Russian Federation) was built. At the second stage, the indicators of the provision of industrial regions with the three above-mentioned types of infrastructure were calculated using the algorithms proposed by the authors. The third stage consisted in the construction of econometric models of the dependence of economic growth on infrastructure factors. On the basis of the proposed approach, comparative estimates of infrastructure security were obtained and ratings of industrial regions were built on this basis. After performing the econometric analysis, the most significant infrastructure factors were selected, and their influence on the economic growth of this group of the Russian regions was assessed. The results of the study, according to the authors, can be useful for developing directions of the infrastructural development of industrial Russian regions as a condition for the smooth functioning of high-tech enterprises and ensuring economic growth under sanctions.

Hilly and mountainous areas are weak places for the development of agricultural mechanization in China. The way to improve the utilization rate of small agricultural machinery widely used in hilly and mountainous areas is of positive significance for optimizing resource allocation efficiency of agricultural production and ensuring food security supply. Taking microtillers as a representative tool, this study systematically analyzed the main factors affecting the utilization rate of small agricultural machines and its influencing mechanism. Then, based on the survey data of 4905 farmers in 100 counties in 10 hilly and mountainous provinces of China, empirical analysis was carried out by some econometric models, such as censored regression and the mediating effect model. Results show the following.: (1) Among farmers in hilly and mountainous areas, the average use time of each microtiller is 218.41 h per year. (2) Age, social identity, terrain conditions, crop types, land area, the number of microtillers, the number of large tractors, and the machinery purchase subsidy policy are the significant factors affecting the utilization rate of microtillers. (3) The increase of cultivated land area not only directly improves the utilization rate of microtillers, but also indirectly improves the utilization rate of microtillers due to the increase in quantity.

The urban–rural relationship has been a critical issue in studies on urban and rural geography. Urban–rural integration development (URI), as an integral part of the urban–rural relationship, needs to be understood under an integrated theoretical framework. Based on the conceptual analysis from productivism to post-productivism, this study constructs a multidimensional framework to understand urban–rural integration, restructuring from five layers that integrate population, space, economic, social, and environmental concerns, and the revised dynamic coordination coupling degree (CCD) model is used to measure the level of URI. Many studies have focused on the connection between URI and factor allocation. However, it is yet to be determined how both fiscal decentralization and factor allocation are linked with URI. This study focuses on this unexplored topic, and the impact mechanism among URI, factor allocation, and Chinese-style fiscal decentralization is investigated by adopting spatial econometric models, for achieving the high-quality development of China’s urban–rural relations. Empirical analysis of China’s three major urban agglomerations reveals that there are promising signs in China’s urban–rural integration development, with an orderly and coordinated structure shaping over the period 2003–2017. The rationality of factor allocation depends heavily on the power comparison between the helping hand and the grabbing hand of local governments under Chinese-style fiscal decentralization. Moderate fiscal decentralization, with a perfect market and social security system, leads to the free flow of factors and promotes urban–rural integration. By contrast, excessive fiscal decentralization causes resource misallocation and hinders urban–rural integration development. In light of our empirical evidence, the coordinated development of small- and medium-sized cities and subcities in urban agglomerations is suggested, it is highly necessary to establish a perfect social and employment security system. In addition, a reasonable space planning system for land use needs to be constructed by China’s governments at all levels. Chinese local governments should pay more attention to rural development in their jurisdiction by stimulating their information advantages under Chinese-style fiscal decentralization.

Highlights: Graphic tools and virtual reconstruction applied to watermills contribute to their overall understanding as an anthropogenic landscape. Virtual reconstruction of the milling mechanisms allows us to understand the mill operation beyond the mere construction preservation. The Riamonte mills are an example of a group of canal mills linked to a single dam and with a social typology of inheriting turns to grind. Abstract: Each concello (municipality) in Galicia is home to a large number of pre-industrial rural heritage assets integrated into the landscape. Among them are the water mills, usually made up of small constructions that are difficult to reuse in their original function. They are not easily compatible with other uses either. Their current state of abandonment requires their cataloguing and correct valorization as pre-industrial archaeological heritage. These constructions must be conceived as interrelated constructive groupings, in their original physical and social context. A good example of this is the unpublished sample of the Riamonte milling complex. Its study, digitalization and virtual recreation by means of computer-assisted graphics have great potential for dissemination to the public and better integration into the nature trail near the riverbed. Graphically presenting archaeological heritage through virtual media helps to promote social understanding in order to raise awareness of the importance of its protection and irreplaceable nature, especially in case of those vestiges lacking sufficient security to survive. Due to the large amount of vegetation around the wall remains, a rigorous planimetric survey of the entire complex was carried out, followed by three-dimensional (3D) modelling of representative elements. In addition, applying a rigorous principle of transparency, a chromatic differentiation is made in the 2D and 3D virtual reconstructions between already existing and newly added elements. Regarding the 3D model, a historical-archaeological evidence scale is used, allowing a graphic identification of the authenticity degree required to provide reliability in the reconstruction of lost or altered parts. This facilitates virtual recreation interpretation among future researchers from different disciplines. The Riamonte mill complex is part of a typology typical of the region, in which the use of virtual models makes it possible to reach the scales of the territory, the building and the machinery, facilitating the correct understanding of this cultural heritage.

The Common Agricultural Policy 2014–2020, set up in 2015 and extended until 31 December 2022, introduced a payment instrument called Greening. The aim of Greening was to encourage agricultural practices that are beneficial for the environment while also contributing to economic and territorial dynamism. The purpose of this article is to study the effect that Greening has had in Spain. We consider five difference-in-difference models, one for each of the variables proposed: ecological focus areas, permanent grasslands over utilised agricultural area, CO2 emissions stemming from agricultural land use changes and the presence of woody crops, agricultural income, and affiliates of the special agricultural regime. The data used come from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, the Ministry for Inclusion, Social Security, and Migrations, and the Spanish Emissions Inventory System. For the diff-in diff estimations, we use Spain’s regions as control and treatment units from 2011 to 2018, the aim being to provide observations ex ante Greening (2011–2014) and ex post (2015–2018). The results show that Greening had a limited impact, questioning its efficiency for meeting its goal, and that it is not a sound precedent for building the new green architecture of the CAP.

Urgency of the research. It is important to determine the impact of political cycles on budgetary policy in order to improve budget funding of Ukraine, accelerate reforms and stimulate economic development. Target setting. The assessment of Ukraine’s budgetary policy dependence on political cycles is important in terms of regulating the budget performance security and financial stability of the state. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Political cycles are the subject of research for a number of scientists among them I. Bardin, V. S. Boyko, D. Buchanan, А. Vdovychenko, R. Wagner, N. Dehtyarova, N. M. Lypko, Y. Mironovich, V. Nordhaus, V. Shevchuk. Definition of uninvestigated parts of general matters. Identification of interconnections and interinfluences of political cycles and Ukraine’s budget policy as well as effects of such relations remain insufficient. The research objective. The aim of the article is to determine the dependence of Ukraine’s budgetary policy on political cycles. The statement of basic materials. The article reveals the presence of the influence of political cycles in Ukraine on budget policy. The deterioration of the Ukraine's budget deficit and state debt indicators is analyzed. Based on econometric models the author proves an artificial increase in expenditures. It was found that the growth of social protection costs is a major factor of political cycles influence on the economy. The author also relates Inflationary processes before and after the elections to adjustments in monetary policy, which in turn requires coordination of fiscal and monetary policies. The author characterizes the challenges for the budget policy of Ukraine. Conclusions. The main challenge to the fiscal policy now is to settle indicators Ukraine's budget security com-bined with the financial support of the reforms in the economic and political life, despite the military conflict, shadow economy, the political crisis.

Bitcoin is the first implementation of a technology that has become known as a ‘public permissionless’ blockchain. Such systems allow public read/write access to an append-only blockchain database without the need for any mediating central authority. Instead, they guarantee access, security and protocol conformity through an elegant combination of cryptographic assurances and game theoretic economic incentives. Not until the advent of the Bitcoin blockchain has such a trusted, transparent, comprehensive and granular dataset of digital economic behaviours been available for public network analysis. In this article, by translating the cumbersome binary data structure of the Bitcoin blockchain into a high fidelity graph model, we demonstrate through various analyses the often overlooked social and econometric benefits of employing such a novel open data architecture. Specifically, we show: (i) how repeated patterns of transaction behaviours can be revealed to link user activity across the blockchain; (ii) how newly mined bitcoin can be associated to demonstrate individual accumulations of wealth; (iii) through application of the naïve quantity theory of money that Bitcoin's disinflationary properties can be revealed and measured; and (iv) how the user community can develop coordinated defences against repeated denial of service attacks on the network. Such public analyses of this open data are exemplary benefits unavailable to the closed data models of the ‘private permissioned’ distributed ledger architectures currently dominating enterprise-level blockchain development owing to existing issues of scalability, confidentiality and governance.

En este artículo se estudia el impacto de un conjunto de variables sobre la percepción del estado de salud de los individuos en las regiones que establece la Encuesta Nacional de Calidad de Vida (ECV), realizada por el Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísticas, DANE, en 2003. En el trabajo econométrico se utilizaron modelos Probit ordenados donde las variables adoptadas denotan diferentes factores socioeconómicos, demográficos, institucionales y familiares. El análisis por regiones sirvió para probar que existen elementos locales o regionales que hacen que el impacto de los factores que inciden en las condiciones de salud de los individuos difiera de una región a otra. Palabras clave: determinantes de la salud, seguridad social en salud, modelo probit ordenado, economía de la salud, región. Clasificación JEL: I11, I12, C25. Abstract: In this article the impact of a set of variables over the perception of individuals’ health state in the regions established by the National Life Quality Survey (ECV) performed by the Administrative National Department of Statistics (DANE) in 2003 is studied. The variables denote socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of individuals, institutional characteristics of the health system, and household characteristics. The econometric exercise is based on the use of ordered probit models for the determination of such impact. The analysis by regions was useful to prove the existence of local or regional elements that make the impact of the factors that impinge on the health conditions of people to differ from region to region. Keywords: health determinants, social security in health, ordered probit models, health economics, region. JEL classification: I11, I12, C25. Résumé: Cet article étudie l’impact d’un ensemble de variables socio-économiques sur la santé des individus. Pour amener à bien cette étude, nous utilisons la classification des régions établit par l’Enquête Nationale de Qualité de Vie (ECV), réalisée en 2003 par le Département Administratif National de Statistique -DANE. Nous utilisons dans le travail économétrique des modèles Probit Ordonnés dont les variables adoptées contiennent différents facteurs socio-économiques, démographiques, institutionnels et familiaux. L’analyse prouve que ces facteurs expliquant la santé des individus diffère entre les régions. Mots clés: déterminants de la santé, sécurité social, modèle probit ordonné, économie de la santé, région. Classification JEL: I11, I12, C25.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of emotions and social influences on loyalty formation towards online travel communities. Design/methodology/approach The individual (perceived risk) and social (subjective norm and social presence) antecedents of emotions as well as the impact of emotions on attitude and loyalty towards online travel communities are tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consists of 385 active users of online travel communities in Spain. Findings Data analysis shows that perceived privacy and security risk elicit negative emotions such as stress, frustration and fear towards the online travel community. Normative influences (subjective norm) and feeling the presence of other community members (social presence) boost positive emotions towards the online travel community. Interpersonal influences have a positive effect on subjective norm but not external influences. Positive and negative emotions affect preferences towards the online travel community (attitudes) as proposed by social impact theory. Subjective norm and attitude have a direct influence on loyalty towards an online travel community, confirming previous research grounded on theory of reasoned action models. Originality/value Despite the crucial impact of consumers’ affective states on loyalty formation, research on social media is mainly focused on the technological nature of consumer information exchanges, neglecting other drivers of consumer behaviour beyond the technology employed. This paper develops a model that integrates the relationships between consumer emotions and their individual (perceived risk) and social (social presence and subjective norm) antecedents and outcome variables (attitude and loyalty). The role of social influences is analysed, assessing the conjoint impact of one-way communication (interpersonal influences and mass media) and Web 2.0 communications (social presence) on positive emotions and loyalty formation towards the online travel community.

Homeownership is increasingly understood by policy makers and social scientists as a fundamental asset against poverty risks, especially in times of economic uncertainty. However, in several Western countries, homeownership among younger generations appears to be increasingly difficult to achieve, likely a result of growing employment instability and stringent criteria to access credit. This article uses multinomial logistic models and nationally representative EU-SILC data from six European countries to examine (a) to what extent precarious employment among young couples is linked to being a mortgage holder; (b) whether earned income can compensate for employment instability in being a mortgagee; (c) cross-national differences in the relationship between being a mortgage holder, earnings, and employment insecurity. Our results indicate that the higher the levels of employment insecurity, the lower the chances of being a mortgage holder in all countries. Moreover, we find that at a given level of employment insecurity, households with higher levels of earned income have higher chances of being mortgage holders than households with lower earned income. However, while earned income has a stronger effect in achieving a mortgage among couples who have secure employment in Italy, earnings are more important among couples with lower levels of employment security in France, the UK, Spain and Poland. These results suggest that the relationship between social inequalities and housing is partially mediated by the national context.

The aim of this study is to estimate the association between employment conditions and mental health status in the working population of Iberoamerica. In this cross-sectional study, we pooled individual-level data from nationally representative surveys across 13 countries. A sample of 180,260 workers was analyzed. Informality was assessed by social security, health affiliation, or contract holding. Mental health was assessed using several instruments. We used Poisson regression models to estimate the contribution of informality to poor mental health by sex and country, adjusted by sociodemographic and work-related characteristics. Then, we performed a meta-analysis pooling of aggregate data using a random-effects inverse-variance model. Workers in informal employments showed a higher adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) of poor mental health than those in formal employment in Peru (aPR men 1.5 [95% confidence intervals 1.16; 1.93]), Spain (aPR men 2.2 [1.01; 4.78]) and Mexico (aPR men 1.24 [1.04; 1.47]; women 1.39 [1.18; 1.64]). Overall estimates showed that workers in informal employment have a higher prevalence of poor mental health than formal workers, with it being 1.19 times higher (aPR 1.19 [1.02; 1.39]) among men, and 1.11 times higher prevalence among women (aPR 1.11 [1.00; 1.23]). Addressing informal employment could contribute to improving workers’ mental health.

Innovation is the main source of long-term economic growth, the basis of competitiveness in world markets and the source of solutions to social challenges, and human capital (HC) is the driver of economic efficiency and achievement of the country’s competitive advantages. Unfortunately, Russia is far behind the capacity not only of the developed world, but also to fast-growing economies, in most indicators that characterize the level of development of scientific and technical potential. This problem is further exacerbated by the negative dynamics of the HC. The technological inferiority can lead the country to dependence on highly developed countries, and, consequently, to worsening of its security situation and loss of sovereignty, to weakening and “diluting” the country’s HC. To address these problems, Mr. Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, signed the “May decree” defining the national development goals of the country until 2024. There was carried out data analysis of the reports of the UN, the World Bank, WEF in Davos, Russian Federal State Statistics Service and other sources to explore the level of the development of the Russian HC and its role in the national development. There were completed the calculations of the Human Development Index (HDI) according to the UN methodology for 2025 and 2030 on their basis. Econometric models for analyzing and forecasting the development of the Russian HC in the near future under different scenarios were constructed with the Eviews 9.5. The forecasting calculations of the HDI showed that if the “May Decree” is implemented at least to a greater extent, many of the Presidential instructions to the Federal Assembly will be fulfilled, and the digitalization of the Russian economy will contribute to “the country’s entry into the top 10 countries with economic growth rates higher than the world”.

Progressive digitalization accelerated by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is leading to the emergence of new employment models across Europe and beyond, including the so-called gig economy, sharing economy or crowd work. When applying existing laws to modern employment forms, it is often unclear as to how they fit into the existing legal framework and which regulations are applicable. Countries are trying to keep pace with how workers in the gig economy should be treated. Some countries are seeking to introduce new rules to deal with these new practices, whilst others are relying on court or regulators’ decisions to increase certainty. Not surprisingly, there is no standard approach, although there are some common themes. This article aims to raise awareness of existing risks from an employment, social security and tax law perspective relating to gig workers and online platform providers in the six largest economies in Europe - the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Spain. It also provides some guidance about how to manage such risks and ensure compliance. The analysis concludes with a short comparison of the current status of legal developments in the six countries and a request to policy makers to take action. Gig economy, sharing economy, crowd work, online platform, gig worker, employment status, personal service company (PSC), misclassification, deemed employment relationship, independent contractor.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and mortality over a three-year period for working-age Spaniards (2007–2009), paying particular attention to the effect of income level. The analysis is relatively new in Spain, and the studies are limited. Neither income nor wealth are included in existing Spanish mortality studies. The main reason for this limitation is the nature of the data sets used, mainly Census Records. We overcome this problem by using data on 693,994 individuals taken from a Social Security sampling and used to estimate the probabilities of death for each income decile and the mortality rate ratios in three different models: (1) using only income, controlled by age and sex, (2) adding socio-economic and geographical variables, and (3) adding level of education. However, the data used here also have some limitations. They do not include government employees, the military or the Department of Justice personnel, whose exclusion we believe causes an under-representation of highly educated people in our sample. The results confirm that there is a non-linear relationship between mortality and income. This non-linear relationship implies that income redistribution resulting from progressive taxation systems could lead to higher reductions in mortality for low-income groups than the reductions induced in the mortality of the high-income population, thus reducing overall mortality.

An integrated technical-economic modelling framework was developed to help planning and managing of water resources in a Mediterranean tourist area, Palma on Majorca island (Spain). Due to high water demand, groundwater resources are depleted and new water resources should be developed. Seawater desalination has become an important solution to water shortage, especially in the summer tourist season. Meanwhile, reclaimed water has been applied for agricultural and landscape irrigation. With regard to the treated wastewater not being effectively reused, further water reuse scenarios are envisaged in order to meet new water demand, restore over-exploited aquifers and reduce expensive seawater desalination. Three types of models were established and coupled: (i) hydrological models; (ii) water demand and/or need model; (iii) technical-economic model. In addition, a multi-criteria analysis completed the technical-economic modelling. The simulated water reuse scenarios are not alternative but complementary. They provide the possibilities for total reuse of wastewater in the Palma area. Compared with seawater desalination, water reuse is a cost-effective solution to address water scarcity issues in the Palma area. Using tertiary effluent for landscape irrigation allows over-exploited aquifers to recover. It is very attractive in terms of economic benefits and feasible with respect to technical and social aspects. Further water reuse for extending agricultural irrigation can greatly reduce seawater desalination but acquiring the farmers' agreement to give up pumping groundwater for irrigation would meet some difficulties. Water recharge would help to totally reuse wastewater but uncertainties related to public perception and the attitude or regulatory board and local authorities need dealing with. Because water reuse requires a long-term managing viewpoint in order to prepare and demonstrate its feasibility and security, seawater desalination was adopted as an emergency solution to meet peak demands during the tourist season and in case of drought.

Purpose: We try to find out differences between personal and job-related features to know which better explain job satisfaction. This study is made in a year of economic growth and in two years of economic crisis, in order to determine if the economic crisis affects to previous results.Design/methodology: The data are from the Quality of Labour Life Survey by the Ministry of Employment and Social Security in Spain, in 2007, 2009 and 2010. We use linear models (ANOVA), principal component analysis and stepwise multiple regression. The variables are degree of satisfaction with the current job and a group of personal variables (gender, age and education level) and job-related variables (with a maximum of 14 variables depending on the method).Findings: Using linear models get the variables related to work which provide better results to explain job satisfaction, and after a stepwise regression made with factors of principal component analysis, we find out that salary is one of the last factors in this explanation. The variables that influence on job satisfaction do not depend on the economic cycle, although the hierarchies are different among them.Social implications: During the crisis, the demands of workers are lower because they prefer to have a job with low working conditions and low salary than lose their job. Reducing the degree of satisfaction with stability and wages is due to the economic situation, because labour contracts are less stable and remunerated.Originality/value: We have compared the results of stepwise regression made with the original variables and the factors of principal component analysis. The combination of these methodologies is new in studies of job satisfaction, as well as the original combination of 14 variables related to work.

PurposeThis research explores the consequences of a health crisis provoked by a pandemic scenario on music festival impacts considered by the stakeholders involved. The purpose of this paper is to identify the perceptions from the stakeholders' point of view (host community, public and private sector) and to identify the impacts generated before and after a health crisis regarding the celebration of a festival.Design/methodology/approachThe study offers a holistic insight into impact research by music festivals. The methodology implemented is based on qualitative techniques. By conducting 20 in-depth interviews with essential stakeholders, it is possible to determine their perceptions of the impact of the event and the effects of a health crisis.FindingsThe results allow detecting a gap between internal and external stakeholders due to poor communication and planning of the event. The results show that a health crisis provokes negative impacts on the economic benefits of events' organisation. However, the cultural city's identity suffers an important damage that it is difficult to overcome. The community and visitors are the stakeholders that suffer a detrimental impact on their experience when attending the festival, considering the security measures. Moreover, results allow us to identify practical implications for event management and planning in a health crisis scenario.Originality/valueThe most important contribution of this research is the theoretical model proposed to analyse stakeholders' perception of the event celebration in a context of a health crisis. The model also considers different moments of the social exchange. The theoretical approaches considered theory of social exchange (SET) and Visitor, Industry, Community and Environment (VICE) models allow analysing the stakeholder's perception of a case study of a music festival (Viña Rock Festival, Spain). The emerging and central role of the cooperation between stakeholders constitutes another notable contribution to the literature.

The subject of the study is a set of theoretical and methodological foundations, as well as econometric tools for substantiating the representation of the shadow economy as a negative factor for the development of the Ukrainian economy. The purpose of the study is to empirically analyze the peculiarities of the impact of the main factors and risks on the level of the shadow sector in Ukraine and other countries in the world, as well as to determine the strategic directions for further reducing of shadow part of Ukrainian economy with the use of the developed econometric toolkit. Such general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis as methods of comparative analysis, generalization, systematization, and grouping of data, methods of graphic and scenario analysis, as well as econometric tools, in particular methods and models of panel (longitudinal) data wereused in the process of research. Results. A significant amount of the shadow sector in Ukraine poses additional threats to the effective functioning of the economy and its economic development, especially in conditions of political and economic instability. The conducted statistical and empirical analysis confirmed the hypothesis that during a deep economic crisis, the shadow economy may not only be a consequence but also a cause of a growing fall in gross domestic product and, in turn, can aggravate a crisis that is also characteristic of the Ukrainian economy. Even though in recent years there has been a tendency of reducing the shadow level of the Ukrainian economy, it is still a considerable amount, which threatens the financial and economic security of the state and requires the formation of a scientifically grounded strategy for its lowering. The current situation requires not only an adequate definition of the sources of the shadow economy, mechanisms and development, the relationship with the formal economy but also the definition of the main factors affecting its level, as well as quantitative assessment of such impact using economic and mathematical methods of research. The empirical analysis of the impact of the main financial and economic indicators on the level of the shadow economy on the basis of panel data tools for a sample of more than 31 countries of the world allowed to identify not only the main macroeconomic factors affecting the shadow economy, taking into account the specifics of each individual state, but also significantly increase the number of observations and thus increase the accuracy of calculations in the conditions of limited information in a time dimension. Besides, the presentation of countries of different groups in the sample allows, for example, to measure how the country's entry into the European Union affects the level of the shadow economy and whether it affects it overall. According to the modeling results, the clustering of the countries was carried out depending on the level of the shadow sector and the initial conditions for the tendency to shadow. The hypothesis is that the shadow economy of Ukraine exists and even develops in favorable terms that are accompanied by low rates of social and economic development, the imperfection of the legislative and the judicial system, the complexity of opening and doing business, a rather high level of tax rates and a significant spread of corruption. Moreover, a scenario analysis based on the developed model showed that, in the wake of the economic crisis, the shadow economy of Ukraine would tend to increase, which will further deepen the economic downturn in the country in the medium term. Accordingly, the definition of strategic directions for lowering the part of the shadow economy in Ukraine becomes one of the priority tasks of its economic policy. The results of the study can be used by public authorities to form economic policies and strategic directions aimed at ensuring a gradual reduction of the shadow economy in Ukraine, enhancing its financial security and economic development. Conclusions. The presence of the shadow sector is characteristic for almost all countries in the world, but under current conditions of economic development, a significant part of shadow economy becomes an obstacle to the development of a robust corporate sector, the establishment of a functioning market economy and economic growth. The statistical and empirical comparative analysis of the factors influencing the level of shadowing of the economy of different countries confirms the fact that due to imperfect economic, social and legal reforms, many of them still have a high level of the shadow economy, including Ukraine, which negatively affects the level of its economic development. Moreover, according to the optimistic scenario based on the developed econometric model of panel data, the positive dynamics of the gradual reduction of the level of shadow economy to 30.2% of the country's GDP in 2022 were obtained. Despite that fact, according to more realistic assumptions, the growth of the shadow sector is somewhat probable to the level that far exceeds its current value. Accordingly, the definition of strategic directions for further reducing of shadow part of the Ukrainian economy is one of the critical tasks of its economic policy. At the same time, as statistical and empirical studies have shown, the effectiveness of the policy of deterrence should increase as a result of the implementation of elaborate measures aimed, in particular, at reducing the impact of factors that increase the level of the shadow economy in the country; increase of expenses from attraction to shadow activity and riskiness for its participants; raising public awareness about the harmful effects of shadow economy; growth of personal income and living standards of the population, etc.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the wage distribution in Spain, its evolution in recent years and the implications for increased wage dispersion. Accordingly, its attention focuses on the following issues: first, the paper investigates how personal, job and firm attributes affect the wages distribution and examine earnings differentials between and within groups of workers according to their individual and job characteristics throughout the conditional wage distribution; and second, the paper analyses whether the business cycle may influence the magnitude of these differentials. Design/methodology/approach – Using administrative data from the Spanish Social Security and the Tax Administration National Agency, the paper estimates OLS and quantile regression (QR) models in order to assess the impact of personal, job and workplace attributes on between- and within-groups wage inequality. Findings – Among other things, we find that, although the average wage has been increasing over time (until 2009), changes have not been uniform across the earnings distribution, making the dispersion fall during boom years but rise during downturn years. Furthermore, changes in the impacts of some characteristics (types of contract, education/qualifications, region and employer size) contributed to higher wage dispersion, while others (tenure) made the distribution more equal. Originality/value – The analysis of the paper in novel in that it investigates whether wage differentials respond to the business cycle and what the source of that variation is. Moreover, it analyses wages differentials not only at the mean but also throughout the conditional earnings distribution, making it possible to assess the impact of these attributes on between- and within-groups wage inequality.

Presentamos un estudio de producción educativa de carácter exploratorio en el contexto del sistema de formación profesional de grado superior español. Entendemos como outputs educativos las finalidades propias de la formación profesional consistente en responder a las demandas del mercado laboral y lograr una adecuada inserción sociolaboral de sus egresados. El objetivo es doble. Por un lado, analizamos la influencia de determinados inputs «no escolares» como la «personalidad eficaz» y la «clase social subjetiva». Por otro, comprobamos el grado de congruencia existente entre los distintos modelos evaluativos utilizados en los dos ámbitos en que se desarrollan actualmente estas enseñanzas: el educativo y el laboral. Para ello, utilizamos una muestra no probabilística por conveniencia de 374 estudiantes pertenecientes al segundo curso de distintos ciclos formativos de grado superior situados en centros educativos de la provincia de Barcelona (España). Se les administró un cuestionario informatizado donde se recogían las principales variables explicativas tomadas en consideración. El análisis se basó en un modelo econométrico logit ordenado. Los resultados obtenidos señalan como la «expectativa de éxito», en tanto dimensión del constructo «personalidad eficaz», y la «clase social subjetiva» determinan positivamente los resultados. En segundo lugar, podemos afirmar que no existe relación alguna entre los resultados medidos por las evaluaciones realizadas desde el ámbito educativo y laboral. De este modo, a falta de una mayor reflexión y evidencia científica, es posible que haya que replantear la política evaluativa del sistema de formación profesional dando un paso más hacia su necesaria integración. We present an exploratory education production study in the context of the Spanish higher vocational training system. We consider the educational outputs to be the very purposes of professional training, i.e., responding to the demands of the labour market and achieving adequate social and labour integration for graduates. This article pursues two aims. On the one hand, we analyse the influence of certain "non-school" inputs such as "effective personality" and "subjective social class". On the other hand, we check the degree of congruence among the different assessment models used in the two areas in which these teachings are currently developed: education and labour. To this end, we use a non-probabilistic convenience sample of 374 second-year students from different higher degree training cycles located in educational centres in the province of Barcelona, Spain. The students were administered a computerised questionnaire which included the main explanatory variables taken into consideration. The analysis was based on an ordered econometric logit model. The results obtained indicate that the "expectation of success", as a dimension of the "effective personality" construct, and the "subjective social class" determine the results positively. Furthermore, we can state that there is no relationship among the results measured by the assessments carried out in the areas of education and labour. Thus, in the absence of greater reflection and scientific evidence, the assessment policy of the vocational training system may have to be reconsidered, taking a further step towards a needed integration.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find out the factors affecting rentals of residential apartments in Pune, India. Design/methodology/approach Four regression models are developed, i.e. basic ordinary least square (OLS) regression model, OLS regression model with robust estimates, OLS regression model with clustered robust estimates and generalized least square (GLS) regression model with maximum likelihood (ML) robust estimates. Based on the Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion criteria, OLS regression model with clustered robust estimates and GLS regression model with robust estimates are best fit. The data are tested for multicollinearity and the models are tested for heteroscedasticity. The study uses the expected rent value data collected from Web portals and the data on factors affecting the rental value of residential property are collected through the study of land use maps, Google earth software and field visits. Findings Total floor area and number of rooms are structure related factors that positively affect the rental value, i.e. more the area and number of rooms, higher the rental value. The distances from the nearest police station and fire station are security and safety factors. The results suggest that higher distance from these factors leads to lower rental values, as safety and security is the top priority of residents seeking residential property on rental basis. The distance from employment zones, distance from nearest school/college and the distance from the nearest public transport terminal are convenience related factors that negatively affect the rental value, as greater the distance, lesser the rental value and vice versa. The distance from Central Business District and hospitals has a positive effect on the rental values of a residential property implying that higher distances from these places command higher rental value. Research limitations/implications The study relies on rental data that owner is expecting for a particular property, it is not certain that the property would be actually rented for the same value. Second, researchers had to drop certain important drivers of rental value because of the issue of multicollinearity. Practical implications This is one of the rare studies conducted in Indian context, and the findings of the study are useful from the owner, tenants, urban bodies and developers’ point of view. Knowing that India is one of the fastest growing markets and need for housing is increasing day by day (including housing facility on rental basis), the stakeholders need to take care of the factors that affect the rental values of a residential property. Social implications The authors suggest the governments and the municipal bodies in India to come up with a public rental housing policy that separately caters to the needs of the lower income group, middle and upper income group in at least metros, tier I and tier II cities that are witnessing unprecedented growth in job seeking immigrants, who are seeking properties on rental basis. While developing a public rental policy, they must keep in mind the factors that are driving the rental values, such as proximity to employment zones, proximity to proper school and college, efficient public transport system as well as all safety and security measures. Creation of such a public rental policy is a win–win situation for immigrants, property owners and government/urban development bodies. Originality/value This paper is the first empirical study about the factors affecting rental values in Pune, India. The study will help property owners, immigrant and local tenants, government and urban development bodies to develop an understanding about the important factors affecting rental value and come up with their respective plans. Advanced econometric regression models are used based on the data that is collected through actual field visits, study of maps and secondary information rather than use of survey method or creation of dummy variables.

This paper aims to portray the overall picture of poverty in the world and mentions the key solution to overcome poverty from a critical perspective. The data and figures were quoted from a number of researchers and organizations in the field of poverty around the world. Simultaneously, the information strengthens the correlations among poverty and lack of education. Only appropriate philosophies of education can improve the country’s socio-economic conditions and contribute to effective solutions to worldwide poverty. In the 21st century, despite the rapid development of science and technology with a series of inventions brought into the world to make life more comfortable, human poverty remains a global problem, especially in developing countries. Poverty, according to Lister (2004), is reflected by the state of “low living standards and/or inability to participate fully in society because of lack of material resources” (p.7). The impact and serious consequences of poverty on multiple aspects of human life have been realized by different organizations and researchers from different contexts (Fraser, 2000; Lister, 2004; Lipman, 2004; Lister, 2008). This paper will indicate some of the concepts and research results on poverty. Figures and causes of poverty, and some solutions from education as a key breaker to poverty will also be discussed. Creating a universal definition of poverty is not simple (Nyasulu, 2010). There are conflicts among different groups of people defining poverty, based on different views and fields. Some writers, according to Nyasulu, tend to connect poverty with social problems, while others focus on political or other causes. However, the reality of poverty needs to be considered from different sides and ways; for that reason, the diversity of definitions assigned to poverty can help form the basis on which interventions are drawn (Ife and Tesoriero, 2006). For instance, in dealing with poverty issues, it is essential to intervene politically; economic intervention is very necessary to any definition of this matter. A political definition necessitates political interventions in dealing with poverty, and economic definitions inevitably lead to economic interventions. Similarly, Księżopolski (1999) uses several models to show the perspectives on poverty as marginal, motivation and socialist. These models look at poverty and solutions from different angles. Socialists, for example, emphasize the responsibilities of social organization. The state manages the micro levels and distributes the shares of national gross resources, at the same time fighting to maintain the narrow gap among classes. In his book, Księżopolski (1999) also emphasizes the changes and new values of charity funds or financial aid from churches or organizations recognized by the Poor Law. Speaking specifically, in the new stages poverty has been recognized differently, and support is also delivered in limited categories related to more specific and visible objectives, with the aim of helping the poor change their own status for sustainable improvement. Three ways of categorizing the poor and locating them in the appropriate places are (1) the powerless, (2) who is willing to work and (3) who is dodging work. Basically, poverty is determined not to belong to any specific cultures or politics; otherwise, it refers to the situation in which people’s earnings cannot support their minimum living standard (Rowntree, 1910). Human living standard is defined in Alfredsson & Eide’s work (1999) as follows: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” (p. 524). In addition, poverty is measured by Global Hunger Index (GHI), which is calculated by the International Food Policy Institute (IFPRI) every year. The GHI measures hunger not only globally, but also by country and region. To have the figures multi-dimensionally, the GHI is based on three indicators: 1. Undernourishment: the proportion of the undernourished as a percentage of the population (reflecting the share of the population with insufficient calorie intake). 2. Child underweight: the proportion of children under age 5 who are underweight (low weight for their age, reflecting wasting, stunted growth or both), which is one indicator of child under-nutrition. 3. Child mortality: the mortality rate of children under 5 (partially reflecting the fatal synergy of inadequate dietary intake and unhealthy environments). Apart from the individual aspects and the above measurement based on nutrition, which help partly imagine poverty, poverty is more complicated, not just being closely related to human physical life but badly affecting spiritual life. According to Jones and Novak (1999 cited in Lister, 2008), poverty not only characterizes the precarious financial situation but also makes people self-deprecating. Poverty turns itself into the roots of shame, guilt, humiliation and resistance. It leads the poor to the end of the road, and they will never call for help except in the worst situations. Education can help people escape poverty or make it worse. In fact, inequality in education has stolen opportunity for fighting poverty from people in many places around the world, in both developed and developing countries (Lipman, 2004). Lipman confirms: “Students need an education that instills a sense of hope and possibility that they can make a difference in their own family, school, and community and in the broader national and global community while it prepare them for multiple life choices.” (p.181) Bradshaw (2005) synthesizes five main causes of poverty: (1) individual deficiencies, (2) cultural belief systems that support subcultures of poverty, (3) economic, political and social distortions or discrimination, (4) geographical disparities and (5) cumulative and cyclical interdependencies. The researcher suggests the most appropriate solution corresponding with each cause. This reflects the diverse causes of poverty; otherwise, poverty easily happens because of social and political issues. From the literature review, it can be said that poverty comes from complex causes and reasons, and is not a problem of any single individual or country. Poverty has brought about serious consequences and needs to be dealt with by many methods and collective effort of many countries and organizations. This paper will focus on representing some alarming figures on poverty, problems of poverty and then the education as a key breaker to poverty. According to a statistics in 2012 on poverty from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), nearly half the world's population lives below the poverty line, of which is less than $1.25 a day . In a statistics in 2015, of every 1,000 children, 93 do not live to age 5 , and about 448 million babies are stillborn each year . Poverty in the world is happening alarmingly. According to a World Bank study, the risk of poverty continues to increase on a global scale and, of the 2009 slowdown in economic growth, which led to higher prices for fuel and food, further pushed 53 million people into poverty in addition to almost 155 million in 2008. From 1990 to 2009, the average GHI in the world decreased by nearly one-fifth. Many countries had success in solving the problem of child nutrition; however, the mortality rate of children under 5 and the proportion of undernourished people are still high. From 2011 to 2013, the number of hungry people in the world was estimated at 842 million, down 17 percent compared with the period 1990 to 1992, according to a report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) titled “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013” . Although poverty in some African countries had been improved in this stage, sub-Saharan Africa still maintained an area with high the highest percentage of hungry people in the world. The consequences and big problems resulting from poverty are terrible in the extreme. The following will illustrate the overall picture under the issues of health, unemployment, education and society and politics ➢ Health issues: According a report by Manos Unidas, a non- government organization (NGO) in Spain , poverty kills more than 30,000 children under age 5 worldwide every day, and 11 million children die each year because of poverty. Currently, 42 million people are living with HIV, 39 million of them in developing countries. The Manos Unidas report also shows that 15 million children globally have been orphaned because of AIDS. Scientists predict that by 2020 a number of African countries will have lost a quarter of their population to this disease. Simultaneously, chronic drought and lack of clean water have not only hindered economic development but also caused disastrous consequences of serious diseases across Africa. In fact, only 58 percent of Africans have access to clean water; as a result, the average life expectancy in Africa is the lowest in the world, just 45 years old (Bui, 2010). ➢ Unemployment issues: According to the United Nations, the youth unemployment rate in Africa is the highest in the world: 25.6 percent in the Middle East and North Africa. Unemployment with growth rates of 10 percent a year is one of the key issues causing poverty in African and negatively affecting programs and development plans. Total African debt amounts to $425 billion (Bui, 2010). In addition, joblessness caused by the global economic downturn pushed more than 140 million people in Asia into extreme poverty in 2009, the International Labor Organization (ILO) warned in a report titled The Fallout in Asia, prepared for the High-Level Regional Forum on Responding to the Economic Crisis in Asia and the Pacific, in Manila from Feb. 18 to 20, 2009 . Surprisingly, this situation also happens in developed countries. About 12.5 million people in the United Kingdom (accounting for 20 percent of the population) are living below the poverty line, and in 2005, 35 million people in the United States could not live without charity. At present, 620 million people in Asia are living on less than $1 per day; half of them are in India and China, two countries whose economies are considered to be growing. ➢ Education issues: Going to school is one of the basic needs of human beings, but poor people cannot achieve it. Globally, 130 million children do not attend school, 55 percent of them girls, and 82 million children have lost their childhoods by marrying too soon (Bui, 2010). Similarly, two-thirds of the 759 million illiterate people in total are women. Specifically, the illiteracy rate in Africa keeps increasing, accounting for about 40 percent of the African population at age 15 and over 50 percent of women at age 25. The number of illiterate people in the six countries with the highest number of illiterate people in the world - China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Bangladesh and Egypt - reached 510 million, accounting for 70 percent of total global illiteracy. ➢ Social and political issues: Poverty leads to a number of social problems and instability in political systems of countries around the world. Actually, 246 million children are underage labors, including 72 million under age 10. Simultaneously, according to an estimate by the United Nations (UN), about 100 million children worldwide are living on the streets. For years, Africa has suffered a chronic refugee problem, with more than 7 million refugees currently and over 200 million people without homes because of a series of internal conflicts and civil wars. Poverty threatens stability and development; it also directly influences human development. Solving the problems caused by poverty takes a lot of time and resources, but afterward they can focus on developing their societies. Poverty has become a global issue with political significance of particular importance. It is a potential cause of political and social instability, even leading to violence and war not only within a country, but also in the whole world. Poverty and injustice together have raised fierce conflicts in international relations; if these conflicts are not satisfactorily resolved by peaceful means, war will inevitably break out. Obviously, poverty plus lack of understanding lead to disastrous consequences such as population growth, depletion of water resources, energy scarcity, pollution, food shortages and serious diseases (especially HIV/AIDS), which are not easy to control; simultaneously, poverty plus injustice will cause international crimes such as terrorism, drug and human trafficking, and money laundering. Among recognizable four issues above which reflected the serious consequences of poverty, the third ones, education, if being prioritized in intervention over other issues in the fighting against poverty is believed to bring more effectiveness in resolving the problems from the roots. In fact, human being with the possibility of being educated resulted from their distinctive linguistic ability makes them differential from other beings species on the earth (Barrow and Woods 2006, p.22). With education, human can be aware and more critical with their situations, they are aimed with abilities to deal with social problems as well as adversity for a better life; however, inequality in education has stolen opportunity for fighting poverty from unprivileged people (Lipman, 2004). An appropriate education can help increase chances for human to deal with all of the issues related to poverty; simultaneously it can narrow the unexpected side-effect of making poverty worse. A number of philosophies from ancient Greek to contemporary era focus on the aspect of education with their own epistemology, for example, idealism of Plato encouraged students to be truth seekers and pragmatism of Dewey enhanced the individual needs of students (Gutex, 1997). Education, more later on, especially critical pedagogy focuses on developing people independently and critically which is essential for poor people to have ability of being aware of what they are facing and then to have equivalent solutions for their problems. In other words, critical pedagogy helps people emancipate themselves and from that they can contribute to transform the situations or society they live in. In this sense, in his most influential work titled “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (1972), Paulo Freire carried out his critical pedagogy by building up a community network of peasants- the marginalized and unprivileged party in his context, aiming at awakening their awareness about who they are and their roles in society at that time. To do so, he involved the peasants into a problem-posing education which was different from the traditional model of banking education with the technique of dialogue. Dialogue wasn’t just simply for people to learn about each other; but it was for figuring out the same voice; more importantly, for cooperation to build a social network for changing society. The peasants in such an educational community would be relieved from stressfulness and the feeling of being outsiders when all of them could discuss and exchange ideas with each other about the issues from their “praxis”. Praxis which was derived from what people act and linked to some values in their social lives, was defined by Freire as “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (p.50). Critical pedagogy dialogical approach in Pedagogy of the Oppressed of Freire seems to be one of the helpful ways for solving poverty for its close connection to the nature of equality. It doesn’t require any highly intellectual teachers who lead the process; instead, everything happens naturally and the answers are identified by the emancipation of the learners themselves. It can be said that the effectiveness of this pedagogy for people to escape poverty comes from its direct impact on human critical consciousness; from that, learners would be fully aware of their current situations and self- figure out the appropriate solutions for their own. In addition, equality which was one of the essences making learners in critical pedagogy intellectually emancipate was reflected via the work titled “The Ignorant Schoolmaster” by Jacques Rancière (1991). In this work, the teacher and students seemed to be equal in terms of the knowledge. The explicator- teacher Joseph Jacotot employed the interrogative approach which was discovered to be universal because “he taught what he didn’t know”. Obviously, this teacher taught French to Flemish students while he couldn’t speak his students’ language. The ignorance which was not used in the literal sense but a metaphor showed that learners can absolutely realize their capacity for self-emancipation without the traditional teaching of transmission of knowledge from teachers. Regarding this, Rancière (1991, p.17) stated “that every common person might conceive his human dignity, take the measure of his intellectual capacity, and decide how to use it”. This education is so meaningful for poor people by being able to evoking their courageousness to develop themselves when they always try to stay away from the community due the fact that poverty is the roots of shame, guilt, humiliation and resistance (Novak, 1999). The contribution of critical pedagogy to solving poverty by changing the consciousness of people from their immanence is summarized by Freire’s argument in his “Pedagogy of Indignation” as follows: “It is certain that men and women can change the world for the better, can make it less unjust, but they can do so from starting point of concrete reality they “come upon” in their generation. They cannot do it on the basis of reveries, false dreams, or pure illusion”. (p.31) To sum up, education could be an extremely helpful way of solving poverty regarding the possibilities from the applications of studies in critical pedagogy for educational and social issues. Therefore, among the world issues, poverty could be possibly resolved in accordance with the indigenous people’s understanding of their praxis, their actions, cognitive transformation, and the solutions with emancipation in terms of the following keynotes: First, because the poor are powerless, they usually fall into the states of self-deprecation, shame, guilt and humiliation, as previously mentioned. In other words, they usually build a barrier between themselves and society, or they resist changing their status. Therefore, approaching them is not a simple matter; it requires much time and the contributions of psychologists and sociologists in learning about their aspirations, as well as evoking and nurturing the will and capacities of individuals, then providing people with chances to carry out their own potential for overcoming obstacles in life. Second, poverty happens easily in remote areas not endowed with favorable conditions for development. People there haven’t had a lot of access to modern civilization; nor do they earn a lot of money for a better life. Low literacy, together with the lack of healthy forms of entertainment and despair about life without exit, easily lead people into drug addiction, gambling and alcoholism. In other words, the vicious circle of poverty and powerlessness usually leads the poor to a dead end. Above all, they are lonely and need to be listened to, shared with and led to escape from their states. Community meetings for exchanging ideas, communicating and immediate intervening, along with appropriate forms of entertainment, should be held frequently to meet the expectations of the poor, direct them to appropriate jobs and, step by step, change their favorite habits of entertainment. Last but not least, poor people should be encouraged to participate in social forums where they can both raise their voices about their situations and make valuable suggestions for dealing with their poverty. Children from poor families should be completely exempted from school fees to encourage them to go to school, and curriculum should also focus on raising community awareness of poverty issues through extracurricular and volunteer activities, such as meeting and talking with the community, helping poor people with odd jobs, or simply spending time listening to them. Not a matter of any individual country, poverty has become a major problem, a threat to the survival, stability and development of the world and humanity. Globalization has become a bridge linking countries; for that reason, instability in any country can directly and deeply affect the stability of others. The international community has been joining hands to solve poverty; many anti-poverty organizations, including FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), BecA (the Biosciences eastern and central Africa), UN-REDD (the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), BRAC (Building Resources Across Communities), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), WHO (World Health Organization) and Manos Unidas, operate both regionally and internationally, making some achievements by reducing the number of hungry people, estimated 842 million in the period 1990 to 1992, by 17 percent in 2011- to 2013 . The diverse methods used to deal with poverty have invested billions of dollars in education, health and healing. The Millennium Development Goals set by UNDP put forward eight solutions for addressing issues related to poverty holistically: 1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 2) Achieve universal primary education. 3) Promote gender equality and empower women. 4) Reduce child mortality. 5) Improve maternal health. 6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. 7) Ensure environmental sustainability. 8) Develop a global partnership for development. Although all of the mentioned solutions carried out directly by countries and organizations not only focus on the roots of poverty but break its circle, it is recognized that the solutions do not emphasize the role of the poor themselves which a critical pedagogy does. More than anyone, the poor should have a sense of their poverty so that they can become responsible for their own fate and actively fight poverty instead of waiting for help. It is not different from the cores of critical theory in solving educational and political issues that the poor should be aware and conscious about their situation and reflected context. It is required a critical transformation from their own praxis which would allow them to go through a process of learning, sharing, solving problems, and leading to social movements. This is similar to the method of giving poor people fish hooks rather than giving them fish. The government and people of any country understand better than anyone else clearly the strengths and characteristics of their homelands. It follows that they can efficiently contribute to causing poverty, preventing the return of poverty, and solving consequences of the poverty in their countries by many ways, especially a critical pedagogy; and indirectly narrow the scale of poverty in the world. In a word, the wars against poverty take time, money, energy and human resources, and they are absolutely not simple to end. Again, the poor and the challenged should be educated to be fully aware of their situation to that they can overcome poverty themselves. They need to be respected and receive sharing from the community. All forms of discrimination should be condemned and excluded from human society. When whole communities join hands in solving this universal problem, the endless circle of poverty can be addressed definitely someday. More importantly, every country should be responsible for finding appropriate ways to overcome poverty before receiving supports from other countries as well as the poor self-conscious responsibilities about themselves before receiving supports from the others, but the methods leading them to emancipation for their own transformation and later the social change.

Crime is more than just a sociological and psychological phenomenon. The economic effects of any criminal activity are intriguing and vice versa. This paper attempts to profile crime scenario in Pakistan in the socio-economic context at aggregated and disaggregated level. Three crime supply models have been constructed using formal econometric techniques i.e., aggregated crime, crime against person and crime against property. These models depict the various socioeconomic variables effecting different crimes. The paper also captures the deterrence effect but on a very limited scale using police strength as proxy. The paper has drawn many conclusions indicating effects of social and economic injustices making people choose illegal activities over lawful ways of earnings and the role of government to intervene and promote socio-economic equity. Government should introduce effective social security programs to create more jobs and to minimize income inequalities. Policing and effective justice system is key to control crime.

AbstractCrime consistently penetrates public and political debate, where crime, either perceived or real, shapes one’s sense of security, safety and wellbeing. This matters, as the perceived versus real dilemma influences policy decisions. But what matters most? Here the evidence is mixed with often highly inconsistent findings. Against this background, and employing more recent and arguably more robust econometric models, we compare the effect of real crime and perceived crime on self-reported life satisfaction after controlling for the effect of victimisation. We also explore the heterogenous effects of real crime and perceived crime among different socioeconomic and demographic groups. Overall, our results, across all model specifications, demonstrate that perceived crime always matters, while real crime only matters to those on high-incomes. We also find that females tend to be more sensitive to their perceptions, while living outside major cities does not have a significant effect. Our results support our belief that more should be done to reduce the misperceptions of crime. Further, public media coverage related to crime should be more objective and informative to avoid inflating misperceptions and public distress.

Objective: This study aims to determine the effects of chronic diseases and socio-economic factors on payment difficulty in medical care. Methods: The variables used in the analysis were obtained from the “2016 TURKSTAT Health Survey” micro data set. Three models were established to determine the degree of chronic disease data and socio-economic variables affecting the payment difficulty in medical care. Binary Logit Regression analysis was used to analyze the models. Findings: In terms of payment difficulty in medical care; age, education, household income, social security institution (SGK) treatment cost, general health insurance (GSS) treatment cost, other treatment cost, reason for not working, work continuity, working method, overall health status, being sick longer than 6 months, vital activity restriction, asthma, bronchitis, coronary heart failure, arthrosis, waist and neck disorders, allergy, liver failure, kidney disease, depression, other chronic diseases, wearing glasses, physical pain state, pain preventing life, feeling worthless, receiving bed service for the last 12 months, receiving daily service for the last 12 months, drug use by his own decision, cholesterol measurement status, blood glucose measurement status, stool occult blood test measurement status, being late for appointment, payment difficulty in dental care, in drug and in spiritual treatment, tobacco use status and exposure to tobacco smoke were effective (p 0,8). Conclusions: According to the results of the research, it was determined that chronic diseases and socio-economic variables are effective in the payment difficulty of medical care. Policymakers can benefit from evidence-based on econometric models of the comparative burden of different chronic conditions, demographic and economic structure.

Background: Economic institutions are considered as the fundamental cause of economic growth. Economic institutions affect economic growth through allocation of resources like physical and human capital. Unfortunately, there is dearth of empirical studies showing the impact of economic institutions on growth of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).Aim: This study investigates the impact of economic institutions on economic growth of the ECOWAS.Setting and method: The study applied cause and effect relationship. The study used econometric research techniques of unit root and co-integration tests to establish the time series properties of the data; the vector error correction and co-integration regression models to estimate the population parameters. The research data comprised data obtained from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Transparency International (TI) and Heritage Foundation databases. The variables employed were the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (RGDPPC), corruption perception index (CPI), property rights protection (PROPRGT), private investment per capita (INVESPC), government expenditure per capita (GOEXPPC) and trade openness (TRAOPN).Results: The results of the data analysed showed that economic institutions represented by the property rights index engender RGDPPC growth in ECOWAS. The CPI could not stimulate RGDPPC growth in ECOWAS. The results also show that all the other variables stimulated growth except trade openness.Conclusion: The study concludes that good economic institutions, private investments, and government intervention by providing security, economic and social infrastructural facilities are conducive for economic growth in the ECOWAS region. The study recommended that more efforts be made at curbing corruption in the region.Background: Economic institutions are considered as the fundamental cause of economic growth. Economic institutions affect economic growth through allocation of resources like physical and human capital. Unfortunately, there is dearth of empirical studies showing the impact of economic institutions on growth of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Aim: This study investigates the impact of economic institutions on economic growth of the ECOWAS. Setting and method: The study applied cause and effect relationship. The study used econometric research techniques of unit root and co-integration tests to establish the time series properties of the data; the vector error correction and co-integration regression models to estimate the population parameters. The research data comprised data obtained from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Transparency International (TI) and Heritage Foundation databases. The variables employed were the real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (RGDPPC), corruption perception index (CPI), property rights protection (PROPRGT), private investment per capita (INVESPC), government expenditure per capita (GOEXPPC) and trade openness (TRAOPN). Results: The results of the data analysed showed that economic institutions represented by the property rights index engender RGDPPC growth in ECOWAS. The CPI could not stimulate RGDPPC growth in ECOWAS. The results also show that all the other variables stimulated growth except trade openness. Conclusion: The study concludes that good economic institutions, private investments, and government intervention by providing security, economic and social infrastructural facilities are conducive for economic growth in the ECOWAS region. The study recommended that more efforts be made at curbing corruption in the region

Grassland is the largest terrestrial ecosystem in China, and its ecological environment is currently facing several challenges. The service assessment of scientific and effective grassland ecosystem and in-depth analysis of its change mechanism is of great significance to clarify its protection demand and spatial optimization layout. This study used a set of quantitative surrogate biophysical indicators to evaluate the capability of grassland ecosystem services (i.e., carbon fixation, soil protection, water purification and provision, and biodiversity conservation) in the Hulunbuir grassland from 2000 to 2015 and use econometric models to explore their dynamic change mechanism. The results showed that from 2009 to 2012, the grassland ecosystem service value significantly declined, and from 2013 to 2015, its value significantly improved, but the overall level was still lower than that of 2000. The factor that has the highest degree of impact on grassland ecosystem services is the soil potassium content, and there is a significant positive correlation. This is mainly due to the important role of potassium in the photosynthesis of grassland plants; the least influential factors are social economic factors such as population and gross domestic product (GDP). It shows that the sparsely populated grassland ecosystem is not sensitive to these factors. In addition, climate, topography, and grassland management policies all have a significant impact on grassland ecosystem services. Against the backdrop of intensified pressure on ecological grassland protection and surging market demand for livestock products based on grassland resource input, the sustainable development of grassland areas needs to improve the supply capacity of grassland while ensuring its ecological security, so as to realize a win-win situation for its ecological and production functions.

Abstract Background Previous studies have focused on the relationship between employment pathways and health-related outcomes based on cross-sectional or longitudinal approaches. However, little is known about the cumulative effects of employment status mobility on sickness absence (SA) over time. The aim of the present study was to examine the association between prior labour market participation (LMP) patterns and SA trajectories from a life-course perspective. Methods This cohort study was based on a sample of 11,968 salaried workers living in Catalonia and affiliated with the Spanish Social Security system, who accumulated more than 15 days on SA in at least one quarter during 2012–2014. Individuals were grouped into three different working life stages: early (18–25 years), middle (26–35 years), and late (36–45 years). To identify LMP patterns, we applied sequence analysis and cluster analysis (2002–2011), and we used latent class growth modelling to identify SA trajectories (2012–2014). Finally, we applied multinomial logistic regression models to assess the relationship between LMP patterns and SA trajectories. Results The analyses yielded six LMP patterns: stable employment (value range: 63–81%), increasing employment (5–22%), without long-term coverage (7–8%), decreasing employment (4–10%), fluctuant employment (13–14%), and steeply decreasing employment (7–9%). We also identified four SA trajectories: low stable (83–88%), decreasing (5–9%), increasing (5–11%), and high stable (7–16%). However, the only significant association we identified for LMP patterns and SA trajectories was among young men, for whom an increasing employment pattern was significantly associated with a lower risk for increased days on SA (adjusted odds ratio: 0.21; 95% confidence interval: 0.05–0.96). Conclusions SA trajectories are generally not related to prior 10-year LMP patterns at any stage of working life. To disentangle this relationship, future research might benefit from considering working life transitions with a quality-of-work approach framed with contextual factors closer to the SA course.

Реализация финансово-бюджетной политики государства имеет цель социально-экономическое развитие, обеспечение безопасности страны, повышение благосостояния населения. В данной статье рассмотрена методика агрегированного распределения расходов бюджета на следующие группы, в зависимости от сферы деятельности: расходы на развитие человеческого капитала, на инновационное стимулирование экономики, на управление государством. Для количественного исследования такого влияния нами составлены три модели множественной регрессии, рассматривающие влияние на ВВП расходов каждой из рассмотренных выше групп. Данными для расчета являются статистические данные Республики Казахстан за 2013-2019 гг. В качестве инструмента проведения эконометрического моделирования использована программа Stata14.Полученные результаты свидетельствует о возрастающей роли затрат бюджета на развитие человеческого капитала в формировании ВВП.Для повышения эффективности использования государственных финансов предлагаем использовать целостную систему открытости деятельности государственных органов на базе информационной системы управления общественными финансами «Электронный бюджет», применение которой повысит достоверность учета обязательств и скорости формирования отчетности, прекратит постоянную сверку информации между органами казначейства и бюджетополучателями, обеспечит прозрачность бюджетных расходов и создаст систему непрерывного автоматического казначейского контроля на всех этапах исполнения бюджета. The implementation of the financial and budgetary policy of the state has the goal of social and economic development, ensuring the country's security, improving the well-being of the population. This article examines the methodology for the aggregated distribution of budget expenditures into the following groups, depending on the field of activity: expenditures on the development of human capital, on innovation stimulation of the economy, on government management. To quantitatively study this effect, we have compiled three multiple regression models that consider the impact on GDP of expenditures of each of the groups considered above. The data for the calculation are the statistical data of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2013-2019. The Stata14 program was used as a tool for carrying out econometric modeling. The results obtained indicate the growing role of budget expenditures on the development of human capital in the formation of GDP. To increase the efficiency of the use of public finances, we propose to use an integral system of openness of the activities of state bodies based on the information system for managing public finances "Electronic Budget", the use of which will increase the reliability of accounting for obligations and the speed of reporting; stop the ongoing reconciliation of information between treasury authorities and budget recipients; will ensure transparency of budget expenditures and create a system of continuous automatic treasury control at all stages of budget execution.

A rhetoric of freedom characterises much of the literature dealing with online communities: freedom from fixed identity and appearance, from the confines of geographic space, and from control. The prevailing view, a combination of futurism and utopianism, is that the lack of order in cyberspace enables the creation of social spaces that will enhance personal freedom and advance the common good. Sherry Turkle argues that computer-mediated communication allows us to create a new form of community, in which identity is multiple and fluid (15-17). Marcos Novak celebrates the possibilities of a dematerialized, ethereal virtual architecture in which the relationships between abstract elements are in a constant state of flux (250). John Perry Barlow employs the frontier metaphor to frame cyberspace as an unmapped, ungoverned territory in which a romantic and a peculiarly American form of individualism can be enjoyed by rough and ready pioneers (“Crime” 460). In his 1993 account as an active participant in The WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), one of the earliest efforts to construct a social space online, Howard Rheingold celebrates the freedom to create a “new kind of culture” and an “authentic community” in the “electronic frontier.” He worries, however, that the freedom enjoyed by early homesteaders may be short lived, because “big power and big money” might soon find ways to control the Internet, just as they have come to dominate and direct other communications media. “The Net,” he states, “is still out of control in fundamental ways, but it might not stay that way for long” (Virtual Community 2-5). The uses of order and disorder Some theorists have identified disorder as a necessary condition for the development of healthy communities. In The Uses of Disorder (1970), Richard Sennett argues that “the freedom to accept and to live with disorder” is integral to our search for community (xviii). In his 1989 study of social space, Ray Oldenburg maintains that public hangouts, which constitute the heart of vibrant communities, support sociability best when activities are unplanned, unorganized, and unrestricted (33). He claims that without the constraints of preplanned control we will be more in control of ourselves and more aware of one another (198). More recently, Charles Landry suggests that “structured instability” and “controlled disruption,” resulting from competition, conflict, crisis, and debate, make cities less comfortable but more exciting. Further, he argues that “endemic structural disorder” requiring ongoing adjustments can generate healthy creative activity and stimulate continual innovation (156-58). Kevin Robins, too, believes that any viable social system must be prepared to accept a level of uncertainty, disorder, and fear. He observes, however, that techno-communities are “driven by the compulsion to neutralize,” and they therefore exclude these possibilities in favour of order and security (90-91). Indeed, order and security are the dominant characteristics that less idealistic observers have identified with cyberspace. Alexander Galloway explains how, despite its potential as a liberating development, the Internet is based on technologies of control. This control is exercised at the code level through technical protocols, such as TCP/IP, DNS, and HTM, that determine disconnections as well as connections (Galloway). Lawrence Lessig suggests that in our examination of the ownership, regulation, and governance of the virtual commons, we must take into account three distinct layers. As well as the “logical” or “code” layer that Galloway foregrounds, we should also consider the “physical” layer, consisting of the computers and wires that carry Internet communications, and the “content” layer, which includes everything that we see and hear over the network. In principle, each of these layers could be free and unorganized, or privately owned and controlled (Lessig 23). Dan Schiller documents the increasing privatization of the Net and argues that corporate cyberspace extends the reach of the market, enabling it to penetrate into areas that have previously been considered to be part of the public domain. For Schiller, the Internet now serves as the main production and control mechanism of a global market system (xiv). Checking into Habbo Hotel Habbo Hotel is an example of a highly ordered and controlled online social space that uses community and game metaphors to suggest something much more open and playful. Designed to attract the teenage market, this graphically intensive cartoon-like hotel is like an interactive Legoland, in which participants assemble a toy-like “Habbo” character and chat, play games, and construct personal environments. The first Habbo Hotel opened its doors in the United Kingdom in 2000, and, by September 2004, localized sites were based in a dozen countries, including Canada, the Unites States, Finland, Japan, Switzerland and Spain, with further expansion planned. At that time, there were more than seventeen million registered Habbo characters worldwide with 2.3 million unique visitors each month (“Strong Growth”). The hotel contains thousands of private rooms and twenty-two public spaces, including a welcome lounge, three lobbies, cinema, game hall, café, pub, and an extensive hallway. Anyone can go to the Room-O-Matic and instantly create a free guest room. However, there are a limited number of layouts to choose from and the furnishings, which must be purchased, have be chosen from a catalog of fixed offerings. All rooms are located on one of five floors, which categorize them according to use (parties, games, models, mazes, and trading). Paradoxically, the so-called public spaces are more restricted and less public than the private guest quarters. The limited capacity of the rooms means that all of the public spaces are full most of the time. Priority is given to paying Habbo Club members and others are denied entry or are unceremoniously ejected from a room when it becomes full. Most visitors never make it into the front lobby. This rigid and restricted construction is far from Novak’s vision of a “liquid architecture” without barriers, that morphs in response to the constantly changing desires of individual inhabitants (Novak 250). Before entering the virtual hotel, individuals must first create a Lego-like avatar. Users choose a unique name for their Habbo (no foul language is allowed) and construct their online persona from a limited selection and colour of body parts. One of two different wardrobes is available, depending on whether “Boy” or “Girl” is chosen. The gender of every Habbo is easily recognizable and the restricted wardrobe results in remarkably similar looking young characters. The lack of differentiation encourages participants to treat other Habbos as generic “Boys” or “Girls” and it encourages limited and predictable conversations that fit the stereotype of male-female interactions in most chat sites. Contrary to Turkle’s contention that computer mediated communication technologies expose the fallacy of a single, fixed, identity, and free participants to experiment with alternative selves (15-17), Habbo characters are permitted just one unchangeable name, and are capable of only limited visual transformations. A fixed link between each Habbo character and its registered user (information that is not available to other participants) allows the hotel management to track members through the site and monitor their behavior. Habbo movements are limited to walking, waving, dancing and drinking virtual alcohol-free beverages. Movement between spaces is accomplished by entering a teleport booth, or by selecting a location by name from the hotel Navigator. Habbos cannot jump, fly or walk through objects or other Habbos. They have no special powers and only a limited ability to interact with objects in their environment. They cannot be hurt or otherwise affected by anything in their surroundings, including other Habbos. The emphasis is on safety and avoidance of conflict. Text chat in Habbo Hotel is limited to one sixty-one-character line, which appears above the Habbo, floats upward, and quickly disappears off the top of the screen. Text must be typed in real time while reading on-going conversations and it is not possible to archive a chat sessions or view past exchanges. There is no way of posting a message on a public board. Using the Habbo Console, shorter messages can also be exchanged between Habbos who may be occupying different rooms. The only other narratives available on the site are in the form of official news and promotions. Before checking into the hotel, Habbos can stop to read Habbo Today, which promotes current offers and activities, and HabboHood Happenings, which offers safety tips, information about membership benefits, jobs (paid in furniture), contest winners, and polls. According to Rheingold, a virtual community can form online when enough people participate in meaningful public discussions over an extended period of time and develop “webs of personal relationships” (Virtual Community 5). By restricting communication to short, fleeting messages between individual Habbos, the hotel frustrates efforts by members to engage in significant dialogue and create a viable social group. Although “community” is an important part of the Habbo Hotel brand, it is unlikely to be a substantial part of the actual experience. The virtual hotel is promoted as a safe, non-threatening environment suitable for the teenagers is designed to attract. Parents’ concerns about the dangers of an unregulated chat space provide the hotel management with a justification for creating a highly controlled social space. The hotel is patrolled twenty-four hours a day by professional moderators backed-up by a team of 180 volunteer “Hobbas,” or guides, who can issue warnings to misbehaving Habbos, or temporarily ban them from the site. All text keyed in by Habbos passes through an automated “Bobba Filter” that removes swearing, racist words, explicit sexual comments and “anything that goes against the “Habbo Way” (“Bad Language”). Stick to the rules and you’ll have fun, Habbos are told, “break them and you’ll get yourself banned” (“Habbo Way”). In Big Brother fashion, messages are displayed throughought the hotel advising members to “Stay safe, read the Habbohood Watch,” “Never give out your details!” and “Obey the Habbo way and you’ll be OK.” This miniature surveillance society contradicts Barlow’s observation that cyberspace serves as “a perfect breeding ground for both outlaws and new ideas about liberty” (“Crime” 460). In his manifesto declaring the independence of cyberspace from government control, he maintains that the state has no authority in the electronic “global social space,” where, he asserts, “[w]e are forming our own Social Contract” based on the Golden Rule (“Declaration”). However, Habbo Hotel shows how the rule of the marketplace, which values profits more than social practices, can limit the freedoms of online civil society just as effectively as the most draconian government regulation. Place your order Far from permitting the “controlled disruption” advocated by Landry, the hotel management ensures that nothing is allowed to disrupt their control over the participants. Without conflict and debate, there are few triggers for creative activity in the site, which is designed to encourage consumption, not community. Timo Soininen, the managing director of the company that designed the hotel, states that, because teenagers like to showcase their own personal style, “self-expression is the key to our whole concept.” However, since it isn’t possible to create a Habbo from scratch, or to import clothing or other objects from outside the site, the only way for members to effectively express themselves is by decorating and furnishing their room with items purchased from the Habbo Catalogue. “You see, this,” admits Soininen, “is where our revenue model kicks in” (Shalit). Real-world products and services are also marketed through ads and promotions that are integrated into chat, news, and games. The result, according to Habbo Ltd, is “the ideal vehicle for third party brands to reach this highly desired 12-18 year-old market in a cost-effective and creative manner” (“Habbo Company Profile”). Habbo Hotel is a good example of what Herbert Schiller describes as the corporate capture of sites of public expression. He notes that, when put at the service of growing corporate power, new technologies “provide the instrumentation for organizing and channeling expression” (5-6). In an afterword to a revised edition of The Virtual Community, published in 2000, Rheingold reports on the sale of the WELL to a privately owned corporation, and its decline as a lively social space when order was imposed from the top down. Although he believes that there is a place for commercial virtual communities on the Net, he acknowledges that as economic forces become more entrenched, “more controls will be instituted because there is more at stake.” While remaining hopeful that activists can leverage the power of many-to-many communications for the public good, he wonders what will happen when “the decentralized network infrastructure and freewheeling network economy collides with the continuing growth of mammoth, global, communication empires” (Virtual Community Rev. 375-7). Although the company that built Habbo Hotel is far from achieving global empire status, their project illustrates how the dominant ethos of privatization and the increasing emphasis on consumption results in gated virtual communities that are highly ordered, restricted, and controlled. The popularity of the hotel reflects the desire of millions of Habbos to express their identities and ideas in a playful environment that they are free to create and manipulate. However, they soon find that the rules are stacked against them. Restricted design options, severe communication limitations, and fixed architectural constraints mean that the only freedom left is the freedom to choose from a narrow range of provided options. In private cyberspaces like Habbo Hotel, the logic of the market rules out unrestrained many-to-many communications in favour of controlled commercial relationships. The liberating potential of the Internet that was recognized by Rheingold and others has been diminished as the forces of globalized commerce impose their order on the electronic frontier. References “Bad Language.” Habbo Hotel. 2004. Sulake UK Ltd. 15 Apr. 2004 http://www.habbohotel.co.uk/habbo/en/help/safety/badlanguage/>. 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Hewlett-Packard. 1 Apr. 2004 http://www.cooltown.com/cooltown/mpulse/0302-habbo.asp>. “Strong Growth in Sulake’s Revenues and Profit – Habbo Hotel Online Game Will Launch in the US in September.” 3 Sept. 2004. Sulake. Sulake Corp. 9 Jan. 2005 http://www.sulake.com/>. Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon, 1997. Citation reference for this article MLA Style McGuire, Mark. "Ordered Communities." M/C Journal 7.6 (2005). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0501/06-mcguire.php>. APA Style McGuire, M. (Jan. 2005) "Ordered Communities," M/C Journal, 7(6). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0501/06-mcguire.php>.