On the convergence of social protection systems in the European Union

Member states of the European Union are autonomous when it comes to the design of their social protection systems. However, they are committed by a Recommendation accepted by the European Council addressing the convergence of social protection objectives and policies. Beside that, it is expected that convergence of social protection systems could come about as a result of economic integration. In this paper we have examined whether such convergence has occurred during the past decades, using data on replacement rates and social expenditure ratios. We find a rather strong trend of relative convergence, but it does not follow that this trend is the result of the European integration.Social protection, European Union

A superburst from 4U 1254-690

We report the detection with the BeppoSAX Wide Field Cameras of a superburst from 4U 1254-690. The superburst is preceded by a normal type-I X-ray burst, has a decay time that is the longest of all eight superbursts detected so far and a peak luminosity that is the lowest. Like for the other seven superbursts, the origin is a well-known type-I X-ray burster with a persistent luminosity level close to one tenth of the Eddington limit. Based on WFC data of all persistently bright X-ray bursters, the average rate of superbursts is 0.51+/-0.25 per year per persistently bright X-ray burster. Some systems may have higher superburst rates. For all superbursters, we present evidence for a pure helium layer which is burnt in an unstable as well as a stable manner.Comment: Accepted by A&A Letter

Understanding memorable tourism experiences: A case study

The desire for new experiences that are truly authentic has become an important mainstream in the tourism industry. The main goal of this empirical case study was twofold: 1) To determine which concept of authenticity in tourism literature is most connected to Pine and Gilmore’s theory on the search for authenticity in the context of the experience economy; and 2) after its application, to reflect on the scale of Kim et al.’s that measures memorable tourism experiences (MTEs). That scale was applied to Dutch tourists who visited the tourism destination Ylläs in Finnish Lapland during winter. This case study strengthens the idea that the increasing search for authentic tourism products within the experience economy does not imply a search for authenticity related to genuine artefacts alone. It also implies the search for constructed authenticity within existing, genuine places such as Ylläs. This outcome surprisingly fits Bruner’s theory on genuine border zones and with that, asks for more large-scale research on the concept of authenticity in genuine border zones. Finally, based on the reflection of the scale, it suggests to do more research on different tourist types in relation to domains that influence the memorability of tourism experiences.Keywords: authenticity, experience economy, memorable tourism experiences, tourism experienc