Household's vulnerability to shocks in Zambia

Zambia is a county characterized by a high incidence of poverty and exposure to several types of shocks like HIV/AIDS, macroeconomic instability and periodic droughts. In this paper the authors conduct an in depth analysis of the incidence and impact of those shocks on poverty. The analysis of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, carried out using the data on the occurrence of the death of an adult in the previous 12 months and the existence of foster children, shows the existence of a generaldecrease in consumption with the exception of non poor rural families. The deterioration of the economic situation and the related high level of unemployment resulted in a lower level of economic wellbeing. Finally, the analysis of the impact of the drought shows that while a significant percentage (17 percent) of the poorest households in rural areas would experience significant losses in maize production (covering 8 percent of all the households), they are concentrated in a few communities in Southern, Central and Western provinces. In order to identify those households that might suffer more from the negative impact of the shocks and/or have a low level of human capital the authors defined"vulnerable households", those that are likely to be poor and exposed to shocks, and"chronically poor households", those that are likely to be poor and have low levels of human capital outcomes. According to this definition, about 20 percent of the households are vulnerable whilst almost 40 percent are chronically poor and 10 percent are at the same time both vulnerable and chronically poor and therefore at most risk. Private coping mechanisms and private transfers are very common, but they do not seem to be effective in helping households to deal with the adverse impact of shocks. On the other hand, household participation in food for work programs increase after the death of a household member. Therefore there is a need for long term household human capital investments, programs to alleviate the burden of HIV/AIDS, and targeted programs for the alleviating weather related shocks like the drought.Rural Poverty Reduction,Services&Transfers to Poor,Poverty Assessment,Small Area Estimation Poverty Mapping,Housing&Human Habitats

Non-convexities in the Adjustment of Different Capital Inputs: A Firm-level Investigation

Recent developments in investment research have highlighted the importance of non-convexities and irreversibilities in the firms’ adjustment of quasi-fixed inputs. However, aggregation across capital goods may smooth out the discontinuities associated with the adjustment of individual assets. The lack of suitable data is one of the reasons why empirical work has strongly relied on the assumption of capital homogeneity. In this paper we exploit a new data set of 1539 Italian firms which allows us to disaggregate capital and consider separately purchases and sales of assets. We disaggregate between equipment and structures and construct measures of fundamental Q to capture investment opportunities associated with each asset. To uncover the pattern of dynamic adjustment we use non-parametric techniques to relate each individual investment to own fundamental Q.Investment, heterogenous capital, non-convexities, fundamental Q, panel data

The Phillips Curve and the Italian Lira, 1861-1998

We examine Italian inflation rates and the Phillips curve with a very long-run perspective, one that covers the entire existence of the Italian lira from political unification (1861) to the entry of Italy in the European Monetary Union (end of 1998). We first study the volatility, persistence and stationarity of the Italian inflation rate over the long run and across various exchange-rate regimes that have shaped Italian monetary history. Next, we estimate alternative Phillips equations and investigate the extent to which nonlinearities, asymmetries and structural changes characterize the inflation-output trade-off in the long run. We capture the effects of structural changes and asymmetries on the estimated parameters of the inflation-output trade-off relying partly on sub-sample estimates and partly on time-varying parameters estimated with the Kalman filter. Finally, we investigate causal relationships between inflation rates and output and extend the analysis to include the US and the UK for comparison purposes. The inference is that Italy has experienced a conventional inflation-output trade-off only during times of low inflation and stable aggregate supply.inflation, Phillips curve, Italian lira

Investment and Time to Plan: A Comparison of Structures vs. Equipment in a Panel of Italian Firms

“Time to build” models of investment expenditures play an important role in many traditional and modern theories of the business cycle, especially for explaining the dynamic propagation of shocks. We estimate the structural parameters of a time-to-build model using firm-level investment data on equipment and structures. For equipment expenditures, we find no evidence of time-to-build effects beyond one period. For structures, by contrast, there is clear evidence of time to build in the range of 2-3 years. The contrast between equipment and structures is intuitively reasonable and consistent with previous results. The estimates for structures also indicate that initial-period expenditures are low, and increase as projects near completion. These results provide empirical support for including “time to plan” effects for investment in structures. More generally, these results suggest a potential source of specification error for Q models of investment and production-based asset pricing models that ignore the time required to plan, build and install new capital.Investment expenditures, Panel data, Italian firms, Time to build

Italian migration

Italy is a country with a long history of emigration and a very short experience of immigration. The paper first surveys the Italian emigration pattern describing the characteristics of the Italian emigrants (age, sex, skill level), their area of origins and the directions of their movement. The determinants of the migration choice are then analyzed as well as the policies affecting the decision to migrate. The end of the first section provides an analysis of the emigration effects in the areas of origin, namely the positive effect of the remittances and the changes in the composition of the remaining population. The second section surveys the recent Italian immigration phenomenon with a description of the immigrant characteristics, such as area of origin, sex, age, and location in the country. Special attention has been given to the illegality issue because the majority of the immigrants became legal by applying for an amnesty. The determinants of the emigration in the country of origins and the effects in the destination close the picture. The conclusion provides a look at the future and the policy changes that should be adopted

A criança pequena argumenta? Uma proposta de estudo para o discurso de L. (2,6 a 3,6 anos)

This text, based on two data extracted from the corpus of our master’s research, aims to discuss L.’s argumentative discourse, specifically the role of gestures and multimodality (Cavalcante, 1994, 2012; Vasconcelos, 2017), within the discursive movements of argument – counter-argument – response (Leitão, 2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2008), based on the categories of analysis proposed by Vieira (2011) and from a dialogic-discursive theoretical perspective (Bakhtin, 2016; Bruner, 1983; Del Ré et al. 2006, 2014a, 2014b, 2016, 2021; Volóchinov, 2018; Vygotsky, 2005). This is therefore an excerpt from a longitudinal, naturalistic (observations take place in familiar contexts) and qualitative case study, the corpus of which is part of the NALíngua group database (Del Ré et al., 2016). The text provides a brief methodological and theoretical contextualization and, at the end, presents some considerations about the analysis and preliminary results.O presente texto, a partir de dois dados extraídos do corpus de nossa pesquisa de mestrado, tem como objetivo discorrer sobre o discurso argumentativo de L., especificamente o papel da gestualidade e multimodalidade (Cavalcante, 1994; Cavalcante/Brandão, 2012, 2018; Cavalcante/Almeida, 2018; Vasconcelos, 2017), dentro dos movimentos discursivos de argumento – contra-argumento – resposta (Leitão, 2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2008), a partir das categorias de análise propostas por Vieira (2011) e sob uma perspectiva teórica dialógico-discursiva (Bakhtin, 2016; Bruner, 1983; Del Ré et al. 2006, 2014a, 2014b, 2016, 2021; Volóchinov, 2018; Vygotsky, 2005). Trata-se, portanto, de um recorte de um estudo de caso, de caráter longitudinal, naturalístico (as observações se dão em situações de contexto familiar) e qualitativo, cujo corpus integra o banco de dados do grupo NALíngua (Del Ré et al., 2016). O texto realiza uma breve contextualização metodológico-teórica e, ao final, apresenta algumas considerações acerca das análises e resultados preliminares.&nbsp

Capital heterogeneity: Does it matter? Fundamental Q and investment on a panel of Italian firms

In this paper we study the determinants of investment decisions at the firm level with heterogeneous capital goods. We exploit a newly developed panel dataset of small and medium-sized firms which allows us to distinguish between purchases, sales, and net acquisitions of capital goods. We distinguish between equipment and structures and test the assumption of convex adjustment costs. Since our firms are mostly unlisted, the standard Q model based on stock market valuation is no longer appropriate. Instead, we use the fundamental Q approach proposed by Abel and Blanchard (1986) and Gilchrist and Himmelberg (1995) and extend it to the case of several capital inputs. The results show that the standard convex costs model fits very well equipment and but not structures. We find evidence for non-convexities in the case of structures

An Overview

UIDB/00749/2020 UIDP/00749/2020Editorial introduction to “Imago, ius, religio. Religious Iconographies in Illustrated Legal Manuscripts and Printed Books (9th-20th Centuries)”. The aim of this monographic issue is to analyse the use of religious iconographies in legal manuscripts and printed books, to create a basis for discussion and exchange on the diverse artistic, historical, and social aspects of these iconographies.publishersversionpublishe

Texture and sensory changes of a fresh ewe's cheese packed under different modified atmospheres

Shelf-life extension of fresh ewe's milk cheese packaged with three different MAP conditions was studied. Fresh cheeses were stored in barrier trays, hermetically sealed with a barrier to gas and water film. The gas mixtures used were: 20%CO2/80%N2, 30%CO2/70%N2 and 50%CO2/50%N2. Trays were stored at 4°C and inspected at 0,7, 14 and 21 days. Physical-chernical and rnicrobiological analyses (pH, colour, dry matter, aw, mesophilic micro-organisms, psychrotrops, total coliforrns, Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Staphilococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes), gas composition inside the packaging (CO2, O2 and N2), texture analysis (puncture test and Texture Pro file Analysis-TPA) and sensory evaluation (acceptability test by scoring for colour, flavour, taste and texture) were carried out. Samples packaged with 30%CO2/70% N2 and 50%CO2/50% N2 had a shelf life of 21 days. Pathogens were not found during all the storage. Cheese stored with 30%CO2/70%N2 reached the best acceptability score to the sensory evaluation