The patterns and causes of social exclusion in Luxembourg

The paper investigates the forms and determinants of social exclusion in Luxembourg and addresses both conceptual and empirical issues. We therefore examine the following issues: what definition of social exclusion is more appropriate for Luxembourg, if the economic and social disadvantages cumulate within the social exclusion process in Luxembourg, if the “spiral of precariousness” applies for Luxembourg, how poverty and deprivation lead to social exclusion, which are the main determinants of social exclusion and deprivation and if there are significant differences between them. The analysis is based on the data coming from the Luxembourg socioeconomic panel (PSELL-2).social exclusion ; deprivation ; cumulative disadvantage

Cross-National and Cross-Ethnic Differences in Political and Leisure Attitudes. A Case of Luxemburg

Using a case of Luxembourg a cross-cultural comparative perspective is linked to between as well as within country comparisons by answering a two-folded question. First we analyzed the level of measurement equivalence, i.e. the extent to which ethnic groups in Luxembourg and citizen of their countries of origin assign the same meaning to attitude questions. Secondly, we examined whether ethnic-cultural groups within Luxembourg resemble citizens from their native country more than Luxembourger?s attitudes, i.e. we compared the relative influence of a given national context and cultural background of Luxembourg?s minorities on their attitudes. We selected three scales from the EVS 2009 to demonstrate different types of result from such analyses. As expected, it turned out that cultural background is more important than national context in the case of the Portuguese minority that is culturally more distant to the Luxembourg?s native population, and that national setting is prevailing factor in the cases of German and French minorities that are well integrated in the Luxembourg society. The effect of a common national setting is also important with regards to the issue of measurement equivalence, where it contributes to greater comparability of intra-national, cross-ethnic comparisons.cross-cultural research; measurement equivalence; attitudes; latent class factor analysis; European Value Study

The geography of innovation in the Luxembourg metropolitan region: an intra-regional approach

The main objective of the paper is to analyse the local determinants of innovation in the Luxembourg metropolitan region. We are particularly interested in the impact of the local milieu and characteristics of firms. Our paper addresses two specific research questions. Firstly, we examine the extent to which geographic space is a determinant of innovation for five intra-regional units based on an aggregation of municipalities. Secondly, we investigate whether innovation is dependent on accessibility to the mean centre. In both cases, we examine innovation propensity and innovation output using microdata from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS 2006) carried out in Luxembourg. The paper shows that space matters both in terms of spatial units and accessibility within the intra-regional context of Luxembourg. It provides, in particular, first evidence of a close link between the effects on innovation at the intra-regional level of firms? profiles and agglomeration externalities. Both favour innovation for firms from Luxembourg-City and, to a lesser extent, from the Suburban Area.intra-regional innovation; firms' profile; location factors; local polynomial regression; Luxembourg metropolitan region

Removing EU milk quotas, soft landing versus hard landing

This paper analyses EU dairy policy reforms and mainly focus on EU milk quota removal scenarios. The model used to evaluate the scenario is a spatial equilibrium model of the dairy sector. It integrates the main competitor of the EU on world markets, Oceania, as well as the main importing regions in the rest of the world. The paper first assesses the impact of the Luxembourg scenario in the prospect of a new WTO agreement in the future. It then provide a quantitative assessment of the impact of the abolition of EU milk quotas on the EU dairy sector either through a gradual phasing out or through an abrupt abolition of milk quotas. Compared to a status-quo policy, the Luxembourg policy leads to a 7.6 percent milk price decrease and a 1.9 percent milk production increase. A gradual increase of milk quotas as recently proposed by the European Commission (+ 7% over 6 years) generate a 9% drop in the EU milk price (compared to the Luxembourg scenario) and an increase in production by 3.5%. A complete elimination of quotas leads to an additional 1% increase in production and an additional 3% drop in the EU milk price. As compared to the baseline scenario, in the Luxembourg scenario in 2014-15, producers gain 1.3 billion ¿, whereas in the same year they lose 2.6 billion ¿ in the soft landing scenario. As such the direct payments are more than sufficient to compensate producers for the loss of producer surplus in the Luxembourg scenario, but fall short to achieve full compensation in the soft landing scenario

Experiment Luxembourg

The earlier orbits and ephemerides for the Soviet satellites were not sufficiently accurate to be very useful in making observations in Alaska. Extrapolations from our own observations gave better predictions. This merely pointed out the fact that rough observations of meridian transits at high latitudes will give better values of the inclination of the orbit than precision observations at low latitudes. Hence, it was decided to observe visually the meridian transits estimating the altitude by noting the position with respect to the stars or using crude alidade measurements. The times of the earlier observations were observed on a watch or clock and the clock correction obtained from WWV. Later the times were determined with the aid of stop watches, taking time intervals from WWV signals. This rather meager program of optical observations of the Soviet satellites was undertaken to give supplementary data for use of the radio observations, and particularly to assist in the prediction of position of the satellite so that the 61-foot radar of Stanford Research Institute could be set accurately enough to observe it (the beam width at the half-power points is about 3°). This report contains primarily the visual observations made at the Geophysical Institute by various members of the staff, and a series of observations by Olaf Halverson at Nome, Alaska. In addition there is a short discussion of the geometry of the trajectory, the illumination of a circumpolar satellite, and a note on the evaluation of Brouwer's moment factors.The research reported In this document has been sponsored by the Geophysics Research Directorate of the Air Force Cambridge Research Center* Air Research and Development Command, under Contract AF 19(604)-3880.List of Figures -- Introduction -- Present knowledge of the electron densities and collision frequencies in the D region of the ionosphere. -- The theory of radio wave interaction. -- The outline of the planned experiment. -- Some comments about the planned experiment. Some comments about gyrointeraction. -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- ReferencesYe

A comparison of multidimensional deprivation characteristics between natives and immigrants in Luxembourg

This paper applies a multidimensional approach to poverty measurement based on fuzzy set theory, and its decomposition properties, in order to measure the deprivation level in Luxembourg and to identify the different characteristics of poverty between natives and immigrants (knowing that almost 40% of the population in Luxembourg are immigrants). The database used in this study is the 2006 wave of the Panel Socio-Economique Liewen zu Lëtzebuerg (PSELL-3) survey.Decomposition ; Immigrants ; Luxembourg ; Multidimensional Poverty ; Fuzzy Set Theory

Adaptation strategies of Luxembourg's financial centre under pressure

The financial crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of International Financial Centres (IFCs). However, very little is known about specialised IFCs, in particular about the impact on their niche activities and the strategies they have developed to return to growth. This article addresses these questions by examining the case of Luxembourg. Firstly, the findings suggest that the increasing concentration of financial services companies has over time created agglomeration economies and contributed to making Luxembourg one of the few global specialist financial centres. IFCs such as Luxembourg are part of a new environment in which competitive advantage will increasingly be based less on regulatory issues and more on the diversity and quality of the services offered. Secondly, the evolution of the financial industry in Luxembourg suggests that a strategy of continuous innovation has been adopted to maintain the comparative competitiveness of the financial centre.

Cross-validating administrative and survey datasets through microsimulation and the assessment of a tax reform in Luxembourg

Using EUROMOD, we cross-validate two types of micro-data presently available in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, administrative data on one hand and survey data on the other hand. While administrative data, extracted from the recently implemented Social Security Data Warehouse, contain information of the whole population of Luxembourg (449,000 observations) in 2003, survey data, extracted from the Luxembourg household panel PSELL3/EU-SILC for 2004 (incomes from 2003), is a representative sample of around 3,600 private households (9,800 individuals) living in Luxembourg with detailed information on incomes, household structure and other socio-economic dimensions. As a concrete application of this cross-validation, we analyze the 2001-2002 tax reform in Luxembourg. The main aspects of this reform are the reduction of the number of the tax brackets and the fall of the maximal marginal tax rate (from 46% in 2000 to 42% in 2001 and to 38% in 2002). The distributional effects of the tax reform are measured in terms of losers and winners, change in inequalities and poverty rates. The results issued from different types of input data are compared for cross-validation and allow us to emphasize methodological difficulties as well as to underline the advantages and limitations of each dataset.EUROMOD ; Microsimulation ; Tax reform ; Validation

Stress testing: The impact of shocks on the capital needs of the Luxembourg banking sector

We use data on loan loss provisions and total loans over the period spanning 1995 until 2009 to estimate a stress testing model for the Luxembourg banking sector. The sample encompasses the recent global crisis and covers a period in which the average probability of default of the Luxembourg banking sector?s counterparties is observed to increase significantly. A joint model, consisting of several macroeconomic variables and the logit-transformed probability of default, is specified and estimated via seemingly unrelated regression (SUR). The results suggest that counterparty default rates are significantly affected by the euro area real GDP growth rate, the real interest rate and a domestic property price index. Conversely, changes in the Luxembourg real GDP growth rate have a much smaller effect on counterparty risk. We attribute this to the large number of foreign subsidiaries operating within Luxembourg. The estimated model is then used to simulate values of the probability of default and the macroeconomic variables over a horizon of 10 quarters. This allows us to construct distributions for the probability of default under both baseline and adverse scenarios. From the results of these simulations stressed Basel II tier 1 capital ratios are calculated and compared to their associated unstressed capitalization levels. Our calculations suggest that, under all the given adverse macroeconomic scenarios, the aggregate Luxembourg financial sector remains above the 4% minimum Basel II tier 1 capital requirement. Repeating the exercise on a limited sample of 5 individual banks produces similar results.financial stability; stress testing; Luxembourg banking sector; tier 1 capital ratio; counterparty risk

Des villes moyennes industrielles entre permanence et transition économiques (Le Creusot, Gennevilliers, Valenciennes)

Les villes moyennes se sont industrialisées pour les premières à la fin du XIXe siècle, mais pour la majorité d'entre elles c'est la décentralisation industrielle qui a dessiné, sinon renforcé le profil industriel, le plus souvent spécialisé dans un seul type de production. Cette mono-activité a ainsi pu employer jusqu'aux trois quarts de la population active. Cette dépendance rend, aux temps actuels de désindustrialisation, particulièrement fragiles ces villes intermédiaires de la structure urbaine. Elles se trouvent dans un entre-deux où la spécialisation industrielle est encore présente, à l'état de traces mais pas uniquement : la répartition spatiale des pôles de compétitivité est là aussi pour rappeler la reconnaissance des savoir-faire et leur valorisation