EUROPEAN LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND CORPORATE E-LEARNING ACTIVITIES: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

The purpose of this analysis is to test the hypothesis which growth in workers’ competency level is affected by educational, training and workplace features. We focused above all on the corporate e-learning activities and labour productivity, in order to identify differences between European countries. Our findings showed some statistical significances related to six variables concerning a macro view of knowledge and innovation in the workplace, whereby we highlighted the comparison of mutual positions of European countries on the basis of a potential component of investments in human capital which is e-learning. According to statistical significativity we specifically noted that most Northern European countries have a comparative advantage in terms of labour productivity and direct investments than those in the south.corporate e-learning, European labour productivity, principal component analysis

AMERICAN AND ITALIAN PERSPECTIVES ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION CHOICES

This work is based on the analysis of the public and private support to education and human capital development in two specific national contexts: the U.S. and Italy. Recent researches have firmly demonstrated the value of higher levels of education for socio-economic development, poverty reduction, higher incomes, employment and eliminating child labour, gender equality. The increased competition and globalization of economic activity, acceleration in technological and scientific knowledge, information revolution and more recently the worldwide economic recession continue to raise the value of education and training in preparing individuals for future employment, upgrading skills for greater workplace mobility, and underpinning wealth creation and economic development through human capital formation. The International Labour Organization (2010) has pointed out the key role played by higher levels of education and skills training in employment and social protection policies. In the Western world, the education industry is complex and diverse. It combines a dominant public sector of schools and universities and community colleges which educate the majority of students; a varied private sector mainly consists of nonprofit organizations that encompass some of the world's most elite education and scientific institutes. The importance of education for economic growth and development is well documented from a historical and economic standpoints. In this research we examine some evolving relationships between the marketplace, the state, and education institutions, knowing that the context of these relations has evolved strikingly in recent years, which have seen three major developments: a growing system differentiation, changing governance patterns, and a diminished direct involvement of governments in the funding and provision of education. Therefore, we are interested in understanding on one hand the possible evolution of the studied phenomenon, and on the other if the experience of a leading country as the U.S. may represent a useful starting point of imitation. So that, our analysis is focused on the investigation, through a period of ten years, of students enrollment according to the willingness to invest in education, independently of the resources needed. In particular, we use the Box-Jenkins methodology to fit data by using an ARIMA model and in order to achieve more information about the phenomenon. Our findings show a similar trend over time both for public and private enrollments although backgrounds and rules are very different in the two nations considered.human capital, public and private education, time series analysis.

Interdependence of world markets: Economic growth and social well-being

AbstractThis paper considers the socio-economic world context in 2009 and is aimed at achieving two goals: on one hand, to carry out an economic quantitative analysis of interdependence of the world markets; on the other hand, to investigate the relationship between economic growth and social well-being.In order to reach the first aim, we use, as a starting point, Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory (1982) presenting a hierarchical but unfixed division of the world in three levels (core, semi-periphery and periphery); then we consider a group of 124 countries and assign each of these country to one of the three areas. The assignment has been realized by looking at the total score achieved by each country, with the addition of the partial scores based on the position occupied in three different rankings which consider three distinct economic indicators each of them has been divided by the population size (real GDP, exports and debt-external).Therefore we proceed by reaching our second goal concerning the examination of the nature of the relationship existing between the level of each country’s participation in the world economy and its social well-being. We have decided to calculate the Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) in order to show the level of well-being gained by each country considered. The PQLI was created by M. D. Morris (1979) to satisfy the need of constructing new indexes to overcome the limitations of economic parameters for measuring human development, which were highlighted by the social indicators movement of the 1960s and by very important works produced by Amartya Sen (1985, 1987, 1999). The construction of PQLI for each country has given us the possibility of comparing the results of the first part of our work with those coming from the second part, in order to focus on the relationship between economic growth and well-being.The results obtained have further been underlined by using a selected group of 9 countries reflecting the main trends which characterize the entire group of countries. In conclusion, the findings of this study reveal that the relationship between a high level of economic growth and an advanced degree of social well-being is not necessarily a cause/effect relationship because it may not occur in consequence of historical, cultural, social and/or political contingencies

Comparing Passenger Satisfaction, Employees’ Perspective and Performance on Quality and Safety Indicators: A field study

This paper aims to analyze the impact that different attributes related to a Regional Airport service and the socio-economic factors of the passengers have on the passenger’s overall satisfaction. The study also compared passenger and employee satisfaction in relation to the service offered by the airport, to identify possible critical areas of improvement. An Ordinal Logistic Regression (OLR) approach was used to model how the attributes considered for qualifying airport services and the socio-economic variables impact the predicted variable (i.e., passenger satisfaction). Furthermore, the results were triangulated to include quality and safety performance indicators as an objective anchor point for the performance of the company. The findings indicate interesting areas of difference between the perceptions of the passengers and airport employees regarding a company’s services and its performance. The company managers in the key areas of operation were then asked to select the main areas of improvement among the ones highlighted by the survey’s results. Quality and safety indicators were also helpful in enriching the analysis and indicating good synergy with the suggestions collected from the passengers’ and the employees’ surveys, offering yet another complementary perspective

from adam smith to amartya sen global market as a possible instrument to promote socio economic development

The present paper is aimed both at analyzing how Amartya Sen's economic and moral thought is influenced by Adam Smith's works and at offering a perspective on global market which could be investigated through quantitative analyses. In order to achievethis purpose, the authors provide a potential definition of globalization which arises not from empirical evidences but from the analysis of the links existing betwee Adam Smith's thought and Amartya Sen's one. Globalization is here considered firstas a global division of labour, second as a global market where the products generated by the division of labour are exchanged, and third as a complex socio-economic phenomenon which generates positive outcomes under two conditions: on one hand, every agent has to respect the rules coming from a common ethic, and, on the otherhand, countries and International Organizations have to guarantee that every agent respects national and international laws. Therefore, the perspective on globalization here presented shows how global market could be a potential instrument to promote socio-economic development

Adrenergic Myocarditis in Pheochromocytoma

The clinical presentation of pheochromocytoma is variable and many biochemical and imaging methods have been suggested to improve the diagnostic accuracy of what has been termed "the great masquerader". This case-report is of a middle-aged woman with a non-specific clinical presentation suggesting acute coronary syndrome or subacute myocarditis. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) at presentation showed myocardial edema and intramyocardial late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). An adrenal mass was seen, which was confirmed as pheochromocytoma and surgically removed. Our case shows evidence for acute adrenergic myocarditis, with resolution of both the edema and the LGE after surgical excision

Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence, 11th International Conference

The 11th International Symposium on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence 2014 (DCAI 2014) is a forum to present applications of innovative techniques for studying and solving complex problems. The exchange of ideas between scientists and technicians from both the academic and industrial sector is essential to facilitate the development of systems that can meet the ever-increasing demands of today’s society. The present edition brings together past experience, current work and promising future trends associated with distributed computing, artificial intelligence and their application in order to provide efficient solutions to real problems. This year’s technical program presents both high quality and diversity, with contributions in well-established and evolving areas of research (Algeria, Brazil, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom), representing a truly “wide area network” of research activity. DCAI'14 Special Sessions have been a very useful tool in order to complement the regular program with new or emerging topics of particular interest to the participating community. Special Sessions that emphasize on multi-disciplinary and transversal aspects, such as AI-driven methods for Multimodal Networks and Processes Modeling and Multi-Agents Macroeconomics have been especially encouraged and welcome. This symposium is organized by the Bioinformatics, Intelligent System and Educational Technology Research Group of the University of Salamanca. The present edition was held in Salamanca, Spain, from 4th to 6th June 2014

Agent's behaviour in a sequential Dutch auction: evidence from the Pescara wholesale fish market

In this article we perform an empirical investigation to detect whether and to what extent agents' behaviour departs from those foreseen by the orthodox economic theory in the Pescara wholesale fish market, which has a centralized structure. Using non-parametric techniques and tools from statistical physics, we tackle the issue investigating features such as the dynamics of the structure of attendance in auctions, the varieties of fish presentation during the seller's turn and the presence of long-term relationships between buyers and sellers. We follow this way instead of focusing on the price dispersion and dynamics to avoid risking that the unobserved quality differences of the traded products might bias the results of the analysis.

13th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence

The special session Decision Economics (DECON) 2016 is a scientific forum by which to share ideas, projects, researches results, models and experiences associated with the complexity of behavioral decision processes aiming at explaining socio-economic phenomena. DECON 2016 held in the University of Seville, Spain, as part of the 13th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence (DCAI) 2016. In the tradition of Herbert A. Simon’s interdisciplinary legacy, this book dedicates itself to the interdisciplinary study of decision-making in the recognition that relevant decision-making takes place in a range of critical subject areas and research fields, including economics, finance, information systems, small and international business, management, operations, and production. Decision-making issues are of crucial importance in economics. Not surprisingly, the study of decision-making has received a growing empirical research efforts in the applied economic literature over the last sixty years. The recognition of the oversimplification and limitations of subjective expected utility theory has produced an extraordinary volume of empirical research aimed at discovering how economic agents cope with complexity. In the centenary of his birth, the international scientific community acknowledges Herbert A. Simon’s research endeavors aimed to understand the processes involved in economic decision-making and their implications for the advancement of economic studies. Within the field of decision-making, Simon’s rejection of standard decision-making models of neoclassical economics inspired social scientists worldwide to develop research programs in order to study decision-making empirically. The main achievements regarded decision-making for individual, firms, markets, governments and institution. There are many scholars in the world that claim that Herbert A. Simon has precipitated something like a revolution in microeconomics focused on the concept of decision-making. Among these scholars are the Editors of this book who believe that very few scientists produce seminal work in more than one field: Herbert A. Simon was one of them, that caliber of genius.

EUROPEAN LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND CORPORATE E-LEARNING ACTIVITIES: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

The purpose of this analysis is to test the hypothesis which growth in workers’ competency level is affected by educational, training and workplace features. We focused above all on the corporate e-learning activities and labour productivity, in order to identify differences between European countries. Our findings showed some statistical significances related to six variables concerning a macro view of knowledge and innovation in the workplace, whereby we highlighted the comparison of mutual positions of European countries on the basis of a potential component of investments in human capital which is e-learning. According to statistical significativity we specifically noted that most Northern European countries have a comparative advantage in terms of labour productivity and direct investments than those in the south