Assessing the Impact of Incomes Policy: The Italian Experience

The Saint Valentine's decree (1984) and the ensuing hard fought referendum (1985), which reduced the automatisms of scala mobile, started a process of redefinition of wage fixing in Italy, which culminated with the final abolition of scala mobile (1992) and the approval of Protocollo d'intesa (1993). Since then, following New Corporatist principles, a national system of centralised wage bargaining (concertazione) and the so-called "institutional indexation" have governed the determination of wages. This paper aims to assess the impact of such incomes policy agreements on the long and short run equilibrium relationship between real wages, labour productivity and unemployment. Different time series econometric tools confirm that incomes policy has altered the relationship between real wages and productivity, generating not only a permanent downward impact on prices, but also on real wages. In a sense, incomes policy has caused a new form of (upward) wage rigidity. Interestingly, no impact of incomes policy on the weak relationship between real wages and unemployment is detected. The analysis calls for a careful revision of the 1993 Protocol aimed at: a) better protecting the purchasing power of real wages without losing control on inflation; b) introducing growth generating mechanisms.structural break testing, cointegration analysis, New Keynesian macroeconomic theory, neo-corporatism, models of industrial relations, Phillips Curve, incomes policy, centralised wage bargaining, macroeconomic policy evaluation, income distribution, scala mobile, Protocollo d'intesa, Italy

Semi-quantum communication: Protocols for key agreement, controlled secure direct communication and dialogue

Semi-quantum protocols that allow some of the users to remain classical are proposed for a large class of problems associated with secure communication and secure multiparty computation. Specifically, first time semi-quantum protocols are proposed for key agreement, controlled deterministic secure communication and dialogue, and it is shown that the semi-quantum protocols for controlled deterministic secure communication and dialogue can be reduced to semi-quantum protocols for e-commerce and private comparison (socialist millionaire problem), respectively. Complementing with the earlier proposed semi-quantum schemes for key distribution, secret sharing and deterministic secure communication, set of schemes proposed here and subsequent discussions have established that almost every secure communication and computation tasks that can be performed using fully quantum protocols can also be performed in semi-quantum manner. Further, it addresses a fundamental question in context of a large number problems- how much quantumness is (how many quantum parties are) required to perform a specific secure communication task? Some of the proposed schemes are completely orthogonal-state-based, and thus, fundamentally different from the existing semi-quantum schemes that are conjugate-coding-based. Security, efficiency and applicability of the proposed schemes have been discussed with appropriate importance.Comment: 19 pages 1 figur

Promoting fair globalization in textiles and clothing in a post-MFA environment

The working paper reports on the current trade conditions in the textile clothing industry in the post Multifibre Agreement era. Additionally, the paper advocates for a fairer globalization, promoting better work conditions, labor wages and general social equality in producer countries

Dynamic deployment of web services on the internet or grid

PhD ThesisThis thesis focuses on the area of dynamic Web Service deployment for grid and Internet applications. It presents a new Dynamic Service Oriented Architecture (DynaSOAr) that enables the deployment of Web Services at run-time in response to consumer requests. The service-oriented approach to grid and Internet computing is centred on two parties: the service provider and the service consumer. This thesis investigates the introduction of mobility into this service-oriented approach allowing for better use of resources and improved quality of service. To this end, it examines the role of the service provider and makes the case for a clear separation of its concerns into two distinct roles: that of a Web Service Provider, whose responsibility is to receive and direct consumer requests and supply service implementations, and a Host Provider, whose role is to deploy services and process consumers' requests on available resources. This separation of concerns breaks the implicit bond between a published Web Service endpoint (network address) and the resource upon which the service is deployed. It also allows the architecture to respond dynamically to changes in service demand and the quality of service requirements. Clearly defined interfaces for each role are presented, which form the infrastructure of DynaSOAr. The approach taken is wholly based on Web Services. The dynamic deployment of service code between separate roles, potentially running in different administrative domains, raises a number of security issues which are addressed. A DynaSOAr service invocation involves three parties: the requesting Consumer, a Web Service Provider and a Host Provider; this tripartite relationship requires a security model that allows the concerns of each party to be enforced for a given invocation. This thesis, therefore, presents a Tripartite Security Model and an architecture that allows the representation, propagation and enforcement of three separate sets of constraints. A prototype implementation of DynaSOAr is used to evaluate the claims made, and the results show that a significant benefit in terms of round-trip execution time for data-intensive applications is achieved. Additional benefits in terms of parallel deployments to satisfy multiple concurrent requests are also shown

A Novel Machine Learning Classifier Based on a Qualia Modeling Agent (QMA)

This dissertation addresses a problem found in supervised machine learning (ML) classification, that the target variable, i.e., the variable a classifier predicts, has to be identified before training begins and cannot change during training and testing. This research develops a computational agent, which overcomes this problem. The Qualia Modeling Agent (QMA) is modeled after two cognitive theories: Stanovich\u27s tripartite framework, which proposes learning results from interactions between conscious and unconscious processes; and, the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of Consciousness, which proposes that the fundamental structural elements of consciousness are qualia. By modeling the informational relationships of qualia, the QMA allows for retaining and reasoning-over data sets in a non-ontological, non-hierarchical qualia space (QS). This novel computational approach supports concept drift, by allowing the target variable to change ad infinitum without re-training while achieving classification accuracy comparable to or greater than benchmark classifiers. Additionally, the research produced a functioning model of Stanovich\u27s framework, and a computationally tractable working solution for a representation of qualia, which when exposed to new examples, is able to match the causal structure and generate new inferences

A JSON Token-Based Authentication and Access Management Schema for Cloud SaaS Applications

Cloud computing is significantly reshaping the computing industry built around core concepts such as virtualization, processing power, connectivity and elasticity to store and share IT resources via a broad network. It has emerged as the key technology that unleashes the potency of Big Data, Internet of Things, Mobile and Web Applications, and other related technologies, but it also comes with its challenges - such as governance, security, and privacy. This paper is focused on the security and privacy challenges of cloud computing with specific reference to user authentication and access management for cloud SaaS applications. The suggested model uses a framework that harnesses the stateless and secure nature of JWT for client authentication and session management. Furthermore, authorized access to protected cloud SaaS resources have been efficiently managed. Accordingly, a Policy Match Gate (PMG) component and a Policy Activity Monitor (PAM) component have been introduced. In addition, other subcomponents such as a Policy Validation Unit (PVU) and a Policy Proxy DB (PPDB) have also been established for optimized service delivery. A theoretical analysis of the proposed model portrays a system that is secure, lightweight and highly scalable for improved cloud resource security and management.Comment: 6 Page

Health at Work and Low-pay:a European Perspective

This study investigates the relationship between health, working conditions and pay in Europe. In particular, we measure health at work using self-assessed indicators for overall, as well as physical and mental health, using the 2005 wave of the EWCS (European Working Conditions Survey) for 15 EU countries. We find that, controlling for personal characteristics, (adverse) working conditions are associated with poor health status – both physical and mental. Low pay plays a role, mainly for men and when interacted with working conditions, suggesting that stigma and deprivation effects may be correlated with health at work. We also account for the potential endogeneity arising from workers sorting by firms and job types with different working conditions, and provide evidence of a causal effect of (adverse) working conditions and (low) pay on health at the workplace.working conditions, physical and mental health, low-pay employment

The EU's Schizophrenic Constitutional Debate: Vertical and Horizontal Decentralism in European Governance

Normative discourses on the European institutional set-up have paid attention to both vertical and horizontal decentralism. Decentralism refers to the respect of the autonomy of lower or smaller decision-making levels, the procedures privileging these decision-making levels (subsidiarity), and the involvement of these decision-making units in the case that policy-making is (partially) defined (and implemented) at a more central level. Vertical decentralism indicates these processes with regard to territorial decision-making levels and actors. Horizontal decentralism consists in these processes with regard to functional levels and actors, in particular civil society organisations and private organisations.This paper argues that the vertical and horizontal dimension of decentralism have always been dealt with separately within the European constitutional debate. For long, the debate has focused on issues of territorial representation, and as far as it has paid attention to decentralism this has been interpreted in vertical terms. It is only by the end of the 1990s that the normative discourse on the European construction starts also to pay attention to horizontal decentralism. However, normative arguments on vertical decentralism meet hardly ever with those on horizontal decentralism, as can still be illustrated by the current constitutional debate, with the Convention-Constitutional Treaty debate on the one hand, and the (follow-up to the) White Paper on European Governance on the other hand. Institutional interests may explain this separation of discourses. However, in practice European governance is characterised by interactions between public and private actors at multiple territorial levels. Therefore, the vertical and the horizontal dimensions of decentralism are intertwined. As a consequence, the normative debate on the future of the European polity should not deal with these issues in complete isolation from one another.governance; constitution building; decentralisation

Regional Economic Integration in Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Africa has witnessed various efforts of economic integration at the continental and regional levels. While the idea of regional integrationis as old as the Organization of African Unity now renamed as African Union, recent summits have reaffirmed Africa’s commitment toward boosting intra-Africa trade and integration. With the grand aim of forming a continental economic community (African Economic Community) in the future, African countries aspire to use the various regional economic  communities as building blocs. Despite such endeavors, however, the continent’s economy has remained fragmented, inter alia, due to low level of infrastructure development and the state-centric nature of the integration efforts. The overlapping multiple memberships of countries to the regional groupings has complicated the integration effort. The absence of clear rule on the relationship between the existing regional economic communities and the ‘to-be-formed’ African Economic community has also contributed to the uncertainty in the integration process. In view of thesechallenges, I argue that the focus on speeding up the formation of thecontinental wide free trade area (FTA) does not seem timely; and the focus should rather be redirected at strengthening the regional economic communities. These pursuits meanwhile call for addressing the legal and non legal issues that are important steps in bringing the continent closer to integration.Key terms:Regional Integration, African Economic Community, ContinentalFree Trade Area, Intra Africa Trade, Regional Economic Communitie