The Lighthouse Effect and Beyond

A large body of empirical literature indicates that, contrary to predictions from economic theory, wages in the informal sector increase after a minimum wage hike. This phenomenon was so far explained as a byproduct of a signal (a lighthouse) conveyed by statutory minima to wage setting in the informal sector. A simple matching model shows that an increase in wages in the informal sector may also be induced by significant sorting and composition effects between the formal and the shadow sectors in the aftermath of the increase in the minimum wage. Using data on Brazil, we find that sorting accounts for at least one third of the increase in average wages in the informal sector after a minimum wage hike. This contribution of endogenous sorting to wage dynamics in the informal sector is also increasing over time.Minimum wage; Lighthouse effect; Sorting

Behind the Lighthouse Effect

A large body of empirical literature indicates that, contrary to predictions from economic theory, wages in the informal sector increase after any minimum wage hike. This phenomenon was so far explained as a byproduct of a signal conveyed by statutory minimum wages to wage setting in the informal sector, as if workers in the latter had significant bargaining power. A simple matching model shows that the lighthouse effect may be induced by significant sorting and composition effects between the formal and shadow sectors in the aftermath of the increase in the minimum wage. Using data on Brazil, we test this alternative explanation of the lighthouse effect, associated with the endogenous sorting of workers by skill in the formal and informal sectors. We find that sorting accounts for at least one third of the increase in average wages in the informal sector after the minimum wage hike. This contribution of sorting to wage dynamics in the informal sector is also increasing over time.minimum wage, lighthouse effect, sorting

An audience perspective on the second screen phenomenon

Second screen applications are among the latest of the TV industry’s innovations to retain the TV viewer’s attention in a challenging multi-screen environment. These applications can be regarded as an extension of TV content consumed on a TV set towards lightweight portable devices such as tablets. While numerous commercial instances are available internationally and the existing literature on the topic from a technical perspective is extensive, the audience side of this phenomenon has been paid far less attention to. Moreover, in the case of Flanders, the successful commercial implementation of second screen applications remains limited. In this research, we aim to elicit what TV viewers’ expectations and preferences are regarding second screen functionalities. By applying means-end theory and a laddering approach we were able to discern how these preferences subsequently relate to the TV show itself, the consequences for the viewing experience, as well as how second screen applications and usages are expected to fit in the viewer’s everyday life

The Mobility Case for Regionalism

In the discourse of local government law, the idea that a mobile populace can “vote with its feet” has long served as a justification for devolution and decentralization. Tracing to Charles Tiebout’s seminal work in public finance, the legal-structural prescription that follows is that a diversity of independent and empowered local governments can best satisfy the varied preferences of residents metaphorically shopping for bundles of public services, regulatory environment, and tax burden. This localist paradigm generally presumes that fragmented governments are competing for residents within a given metropolitan area. Contemporary patterns of mobility, however, call into question this foundational assumption. People today move between — and not just within — metropolitan regions, domestically and even internationally. This is particularly so for a subset of residents — high human-capital knowledge workers and the so-called “creative class” — that is prominently coveted in this interregional competition. These modern mobile residents tend to evaluate the policy bundles that drive their locational decisions on a regional scale, weighing the comparative merits of metropolitan areas against each other. And local governments are increasingly recognizing that they need to work together at a regional scale to compete for these residents.This Article argues that this intermetropolitan mobility provides a novel justification for regionalism that counterbalances the strong localist tendency of the traditional Tieboutian view of local governance. Contrary to the predominant assumption in the legal literature, competition for mobile residents is as much an argument for regionalism as it has been for devolution and decentralization. In an era of global cities vying for talent, the mobility case for regionalism has significant doctrinal consequences for debates in local government law and public finance, including the scope of local authority, the nature of regional equity, and the structure of metropolitan collaboration

The Mobility Case for Regionalism

In the discourse of local government law, the idea that a mobile populace can “vote with its feet” has long served as a justification for devolution and decentralization. Tracing to Charles Tiebout’s seminal work in public finance, the legal-structural prescription that follows is that a diversity of independent and empowered local governments can best satisfy the varied preferences of residents metaphorically shopping for bundles of public services, regulatory environment, and tax burden. This localist paradigm generally presumes that fragmented governments are competing for residents within a given metropolitan area. Contemporary patterns of mobility, however, call into question this foundational assumption. People today move between — and not just within — metropolitan regions, domestically and even internationally. This is particularly so for a subset of residents — high human-capital knowledge workers and the so-called “creative class” — that is prominently coveted in this interregional competition. These modern mobile residents tend to evaluate the policy bundles that drive their locational decisions on a regional scale, weighing the comparative merits of metropolitan areas against each other. And local governments are increasingly recognizing that they need to work together at a regional scale to compete for these residents.This Article argues that this intermetropolitan mobility provides a novel justification for regionalism that counterbalances the strong localist tendency of the traditional Tieboutian view of local governance. Contrary to the predominant assumption in the legal literature, competition for mobile residents is as much an argument for regionalism as it has been for devolution and decentralization. In an era of global cities vying for talent, the mobility case for regionalism has significant doctrinal consequences for debates in local government law and public finance, including the scope of local authority, the nature of regional equity, and the structure of metropolitan collaboration

Looking for bimodal distributions in multi-fragmentation reactions

The presence of a phase transition in a finite system can be deduced, together with its order, from the shape of the distribution of the order parameter. This issue has been extensively studied in multifragmentation experiments, with results that do not appear fully consistent. In this paper we discuss the effect of the statistical ensemble or sorting conditions on the shape of fragment distributions, and propose a new method, which can be easily implemented experimentally, to discriminate between different fragmentation scenarii. This method, based on a reweighting of the measured distribution to account for the experimental constraints linked to the energy deposit, is tested on different simple models, and appears to provide a powerful discrimination.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Fluctuations of fragment observables

This contribution presents a review of our present theoretical as well as experimental knowledge of different fluctuation observables relevant to nuclear multifragmentation. The possible connection between the presence of a fluctuation peak and the occurrence of a phase transition or a critical phenomenon is critically analyzed. Many different phenomena can lead both to the creation and to the suppression of a fluctuation peak. In particular, the role of constraints due to conservation laws and to data sorting is shown to be essential. From the experimental point of view, a comparison of the available fragmentation data reveals that there is a good agreement between different data sets of basic fluctuation observables, if the fragmenting source is of comparable size. This compatibility suggests that the fragmentation process is largely independent of the reaction mechanism (central versus peripheral collisions, symmetric versus asymmetric systems, light ions versus heavy ion induced reactions). Configurational energy fluctuations, that may give important information on the heat capacity of the fragmenting system at the freeze out stage, are not fully compatible among different data sets and require further analysis to properly account for Coulomb effects and secondary decays. Some basic theoretical questions, concerning the interplay between the dynamics of the collision and the fragmentation process, and the cluster definition in dense and hot media, are still open and are addressed at the end of the paper. A comparison with realistic models and/or a quantitative analysis of the fluctuation properties will be needed to clarify in the next future the nature of the transition observed from compound nucleus evaporation to multi-fragment production.Comment: Contribution to WCI (World Consensus Initiative) Book " "Dynamics and Thermodynamics with Nuclear Degrees of Freedom", to appear on Euorpean Physics Journal A as part of the Topical Volume. 9 pages, 12 figure

Surveillance and identity: conceptual framework and formal models

Surveillance is recognised as a social phenomenon that is commonplace, employed by governments, companies and communities for a wide variety of reasons. Surveillance is fundamental in cybersecurity as it provides tools for prevention and detection; it is also a source of controversies related to privacy and freedom. Building on general studies of surveillance, we identify and analyse certain concepts that are central to surveillance. To do this we employ formal methods based on elementary algebra. First, we show that disparate forms of surveillance have a common structure and can be unified by abstract mathematical concepts. The model shows that (i) finding identities and (ii) sorting identities into categories are fundamental in conceptualising surveillance. Secondly, we develop a formal model that theorizes identity as abstract data that we call identifiers. The model views identity through the computational lens of the theory of abstract data types. We examine the ways identifiers depend upon each other; and show that the provenance of identifiers depends upon translations between systems of identifiers