2,093 research outputs found
Changes in coastal sedimentary environments and remote sensing data in French Guiana
Present-day morphological shoreline changes in French Guiana are very dynamic, striking and specific, directly linked to the huge Amazon discharge. One pan of this supply moves in suspension offshore: the other part (some 110 million mÂł/year) moves in the form of vast migrating shoreface-attached mudbanks, separated one from the other by erosilonal Interbank zones. On account of this dynamics, shoreline is continually changing and a specific sedimentation pattern (with alternating deposition and erosion sectors) characterizes the coastal area. Remote Sensing Data processing (LANDSAT MSS and SPOT) is being widely used (ORSTOM-Cayenne) as an essenciai research strategy and methodology that also helps to an approach of some significant questions on coastal palaeoenvironments
A new approach for the quantification of qualitative measures of economic expectations
In this study a new approach to quantify qualitative survey data about the direction of change is presented. We propose a data-driven procedure based on evolutionary computation that avoids making any assumption about agents' expectations. The research focuses on experts' expectations about the state of the economy from the World Economic Survey in twenty eight countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The proposed method is used to transform qualitative responses into estimates of economic growth. In a first experiment, we combine agents' expectations about the future to construct a leading indicator of economic activity. In a second experiment, agents' judgements about the present are combined to generate a coincident indicator. Then, we use index tracking to derive the optimal combination of weights for both indicators that best replicates the evolution of economic activity in each country. Finally, we compute several accuracy measures to assess the performance of these estimates in tracking economic growth. The different results across countries have led us to use multidimensional scaling analysis in order to group all economies in four clusters according to their performance
A new approach for the quantification of qualitative measures of economic expectations
In this study a new approach to quantify qualitative survey data about the direction of change is presented. We propose a data-driven procedure based on evolutionary computation that avoids making any assumption about agentsâ expectations. The research focuses on expertsâ expectations about the state of the economy from the World Economic Survey in twenty eight countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The proposed method is used to transform qualitative responses into estimates of economic growth. In a first experiment, we combine agentsâ expectations about the future to construct a leading indicator of economic activity. In a second experiment, agentsâ judgements about the present are combined to generate a coincident indicator. Then, we use index tracking to derive the optimal combination of weights for both indicators that best replicates the evolution of economic activity in each country. Finally, we compute several accuracy measures to assess the performance of these estimates in tracking economic growth. The different results across countries have led us to use multidimensional scaling analysis in order to group all economies in four clusters according to their performance. We obtain the best results for Belgium, Norway, Austria, Lithuania, Japan and the United Kingdom.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Rijkswaterstaat:Guardian of the Dutch Delta
Founded in 1798, Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch governmentâs agency for infrastructural works, brought flood security, navigable waterways and highways to the Netherlands. It is an iconic institution within Dutch society, best known for its âbattle against the waterâ. The Zuiderzee Works (1920â1968) and the Delta Works (1954â1997) brought worldwide acclaim. This chapter tells the story of a humble semi-military organization that developed into a formidable institution of civil engineers with a strong technocratic mission mystique. It also recounts the institutional crisis the agency experienced in the 1970sâ1990s when it was too slow to adapt to major sociocultural and political changes. To ride the waves of change, it eventually developed several proactive adaptation strategies and reinvented its mission mystique in managerial terms. Adaptation to climate change now presents another key challenge, for which Rijkswaterstaat will have to develop a new âsocial license to operateâ
Deliberative Democracy in the EU. Countering Populism with Participation and Debate. CEPS Paperback
Elections are the preferred way to freely transfer power from one
term to the next and from one political party or coalition to another.
They are an essential element of democracy. But if the process of
power transfer is corrupted, democracy risks collapse. Reliance on
voters, civil society organisations and neutral observers to fully
exercise their freedoms as laid down in international human rights
conventions is an integral part of holding democratic elections.
Without free, fair and regular elections, liberal democracy is
inconceivable.
Elections are no guarantee that democracy will take root and
hold, however. If the history of political participation in Europe over
the past 800 years is anything to go by, successful attempts at gaining
voice have been patchy, while leadersâ attempts to silence these
voices and consolidate their own power have been almost constant
(Blockmans, 2020).
Recent developments in certain EU member states have again
shown us that democratically elected leaders will try and use
majoritarian rule to curb freedoms, overstep the constitutional limits
of their powers, protect the interests of their cronies and recycle
themselves through seemingly free and fair elections. In their recent
book How Democracies Die, two Harvard professors of politics write:
âSince the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have
been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments
themselvesâ (Levitsky and Ziblatt, 2018)
Economic complexity and inequality: does regional productive structure affect income inequality in Brazilian states?
Recent research on the effects of the productive structure of an economy has turned to examining whether economic complexity is associated with lower income inequality. In contrast to the commonly adopted approach that estimates the impact of economic complexity in a cross-country setting, we use panel data for Brazilian states to identify the relationship between economic complexity and income inequality at the subânational level. Our findings show that the relationship between economic complexity and income inequality has an inverted Uâshape, indicating that growing levels of complexity first worsen and then improve the income distribution in Brazilian states. Our findings also show that this relationship is particularly prominent in those states that have relatively high levels of urbanization and overall development. Furthermore, we identify separate effects on income inequality from the degree to which regional productive structures are characterised by diversity in terms of industries and occupations. These effects are particularly pronounced in less developed states with a more rural character. In combination, these findings confirm the important role that the productive structure plays in processes that drive improvements in income distributions and suggest that more research on this impact is warranted at the regional level
The subnational electoral coercion in India (SECI) data set, 1985â2015
This research note introduces the Subnational Electoral Coercion in India (SECI) Data Set, which provides comprehensive data on electoral coercion in 186 Indian Vidhan Sabha elections between 1985 and 2015. SECI draws on news reports to capture instances of electoral coercion, including coercive fraud, election boycotts by non-state armed groups, and deaths resulting from electoral violence at the assembly constituency level. SECI differs from existing data in its focus on subnational elections, its temporal coverage and its broad definition of electoral coercion, thus opening up new directions for research on electoral politics across Indian states
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