Simulating the enforcement policies for irregular sector in the Italian labour reform

In this paper an agent-based model (abm) will be used to study the effects of enforcement policy in Italy: d.lgs. 124/2004. Three kinds of policy will be tested in the model: control, sanction and legitimacy-regulation. The first policy is based on the number of inspectors present in the economy; the second is defined by the magnitude of punishment; the third is measured by the social legitimacy of regulation. This simulation has produced a number of results, the most important of which are: the negligible influence of control increasing to enforce irregularity; the strong influence of the level of punishment on the irregularity ratio in all Italian areas; the good political choice to increase the social legitimacy to regulation in promoting regularity.enforcement policies; irregular sector; agent-based model

Exploring the components, asymmetry and distribution of relationship quality in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)

Social relationships between group members are a key feature of many animal societies. The quality of social relationships has been described by three main components: value, compatibility and security, based on the benefits, tenure and stability of social exchanges. We aimed to analyse whether this three component structure could be used to describe the quality of social relationships in wild Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). Moreover, we examined whether relationship quality was affected by the sex, age and rank differences between social partners, and investigated the asymmetric nature of social relationships. We collected over 1,900 hours of focal data on seven behavioural variables measuring relationship quality, and used principal component analysis to investigate how these variables clustered together. We found that relationship quality in wild Barbary macaques can be described by a three component structure that represents the value, compatibility and security of a relationship. Female-female dyads had more valuable relationships and same-age dyads more compatible relationships than any other dyad. Rank difference had no effect on the quality of a social relationship. Finally, we found a high degree of asymmetry in how members of a dyad exchange social behaviour. We argue that the asymmetry of social relationships should be taken into account when exploring the pattern and function of social behaviour in animal societies

An adaptive evolutionary behaviour for the demand-led growth adjustment

Investment activity produces effects on two different economic variables. On the one hand, it adds to the existing productive capacity, on the other, it represents a component of demand. What is required for demand may not be required for accumulation, and viceversa. As a consequence different adjustment mechanisms have been put forward in the economic literature to make the two aspects of investment compatible to each other. In all cases, a distinction has been made between the fundamentally macroeconomic nature of the demand aspect, and the fundamentally microeconomic nature of the capacity-augmenting aspect. This paper tries to discuss the foundations of a non-perverse adjustment mechanism based on the internalisation of the demand aspect of investment. The adjustment mechanism discussed earlier is based on investment reacting to positive or negative excess aggregate demand. Once it is shown that a collectively efficient equilibrium can be reached even on an entirely arbitrary basis, one may set out to show that a behaviour which gets selected in a small population can be easily extended to a large one.Investment; demand; capacity-aumenting; coordination rule; evolutionary analysis

A fully semi-Lagrangian discretization for the 2D Navier--Stokes equations in the vorticity--streamfunction formulation

A numerical method for the two-dimensional, incompressible Navier--Stokes equations in vorticity--streamfunction form is proposed, which employs semi-Lagrangian discretizations for both the advection and diffusion terms, thus achieving unconditional stability without the need to solve linear systems beyond that required by the Poisson solver for the reconstruction of the streamfunction. A description of the discretization of Dirichlet boundary conditions for the semi-Lagrangian approach to diffusion terms is also presented. Numerical experiments on classical benchmarks for incompressible flow in simple geometries validate the proposed method

The Role of Frictions on Academic Recruitment System

In a matching model of the academic labour market, with high-skilled (brain) and low-skilled (local) workers, this paper shows that brain workers are harmed by the local. This depends on two types of search frictions: information and cooptation frictions. Search frictions reduce the probability to get an academic job for brain workers compared to the local. A high level of cooptation discards the brain workers but, under certain conditions, the absence of cooptation does not decreases the possibility to get an academic job for the local workers. Whithin this framework, some explanations about the low probability to catch the brains and the obstacles for a e ective equal opportunity between local and outside candidates are discussed.academic labour market; search frictions; cooptation; recruitment system.

Flux form Semi-Lagrangian methods for parabolic problems

A semi-Lagrangian method for parabolic problems is proposed, that extends previous work by the authors to achieve a fully conservative, flux-form discretization of linear and nonlinear diffusion equations. A basic consistency and convergence analysis are proposed. Numerical examples validate the proposed method and display its potential for consistent semi-Lagrangian discretization of advection--diffusion and nonlinear parabolic problems