Disparities in entrepreneurship indicators across EU countries

The levels and characteristics of entrepreneurship differ widely across EU member countries due to diverse cultural, educational, economic-financial and institutional reasons. Taking as reference data provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), this paper analyzes the disparities in entrepreneurship indicators among the EU member countries in 2007 and 2013, highlighting the most significant changes occurred during the Great Recession. For this purpose, some of the major indices of inequality have been calculated, namely the Gini, Theil and Atkinson indices. In addition, the change in the Gini coefficient between these two years is additively decomposed into mobility and progressivity components, and growth incidence curves of some key indicators of entrepreneurial activity are estimated. Overall, we find that inequality among countries in most entrepreneurial attitude and aspiration indicators tends to diminish over the period 2007-2013. For all indicators the reduction is more generalized across the efficiency-driven economies than across the innovation-driven economies.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Entrepreneurship and Economic Liberalization in the OECD Countries

Entrepreneurship displays remarkable differences across countries because of diverse factors. In this sense, it is frequently argued that economic liberalization encourages entrepreneurship. In this paper we address the extent to which economic freedom, understood as market economy oriented institutions and policies, matters for entrepreneurial activity through a panel data analysis for 78 countries during the period 2001-2012. We examine the relationship between the Fraser Institute’s economic freedom index and its five areas, and three entrepreneurial activity indicators from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, namely total entrepreneurial activity, necessity entrepreneurship and opportunity entrepreneurship. Economic freedom seems to increase opportunity entrepreneurship and decrease necessity entrepreneurship. Focusing on the OECD countries, we highlight that economic freedom is positively associated with entrepreneurship. In terms of entrepreneurship motivation, we find that a more flexible regulation of credit, labor and business, as well as entrepreneurial attitudes, may contribute to enhance opportunity entrepreneurshipUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Examinig the roloe of economic liberalization in entrepeneurship: a cross-country study

In the last few decades some authors have underlined the role of institutions and policies for entrepreneurship. North (1990) underlines that entrepreneurs are the main agents of change and that organizations, such as firms set up by entrepreneurs, adapt their activities and strategies to fit the opportunities and limitations provided through formal and informal institutional frameworks. Baumol (1990) hypothesizes that entrepreneurial individuals channel their efforts in different directions depending on the quality of prevailing economic, political, and legal institutions. Sobel (2008) asserts that better institutions have both more productive entrepreneurship and also less unproductive entrepreneurship. He stresses that the best path to foster entrepreneurship is through institutional reforms that constrain or minimize the role of government. In this context, economic freedom may be seen as a significant aspect for entrepreneurial activity and it is frequently argued that economic liberalization encourages entrepreneurship. In this paper we address the extent to which economic freedom, understood as market economy oriented institutions and policies, matters for entrepreneurial activityUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Tourism and productivity: Case study of the hotel and catering industry in the Andalusian region

The object of this paper is to analyse the situation and evolution of the productivity of the tourism industry in the Andalusian region, and more specifically of the hotel and catering branch, relating it to the organisational structure of its businesses. First of all, the issue of the definition and limitation of the concept of productivity applied to the services sector is addressed, as traditionally this concept is focused on manufacturing, and the different ways of measuring and the analysis methods are reviewed. Then, using the accounting information provided by the Balances Centre of Andalusia (CBA), the general features of the organisational structure of the hotel and catering industry in de Andalusian region, stratifying the samples by the size of the companies and examining the medium size of the Andalusian hotel and catering businesses. Once the organisational structure of the sector is analysed, it is related to the state and evolution of its productivity, using a simple ratio between the brute added value and the personnel expenses, and completing this analysis with a relative efficiency index, the Baldwin efficiency index, with which the technical efficiency of each company is compared to the mass of most efficient companies. As a result of this research it is observed that the productivity indexes increase as web as the size of the companies and during the considered period, especially in the case of the medium sized and large companies. Nevertheless, these productivity increases are less relevant than the increase of employment, especially in case of smaller companies.

Estudio contrastivo de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras en España y francia en Educación Infantil

El conocimiento de una lengua extranjera es cada vez más importante en la sociedad en la que estamos inmersos. Por ello, todos los países de la Unión Europea dedican atención a la enseñanza de idiomas. En este estudio contrastivo dedicado a la comparación del modelo de enseñanza de la lengua extranjera en España y Francia, se muestran las características de los respectivos sistemas educativos, además de un análisis de los parámetros más relevantes sobre la enseñanza de idiomas, en el caso de España, resaltando la etapa de Educación Infantil.Grado en Educación Infanti

Una alternativa para el desarrollo del mercadeo en Colombia

El presente trabajo busca de una manera constructiva desarrollar el concepto de consumo y sus manifestaciones en la contemporaneidad desde una perspectiva crítica, destacando el análisis de lo que se ha considerado es el consumismo desde la posmodernidad. Todo lo anterior con el objeto de desarrollar un análisis sistemático e integral para su aplicación en la investigación del consumidor y en las estrategias de mercadeo aplicables a los problemas reales y a las necesidades particulares del mercado colombiano y mas ampliamente del latinoamericano. La propuesta incluye también el tener en cuenta herramientas cualitativas (como la etnografía), tomadas de diversas disciplinas tanto de las ciencias económicas como de las ciencias humanas que tendrán en cuenta nuevas variables y nos dirán nuevas cosas acerca del consumidorThe presente paperwork looks for a constructive way to develope the concept of consume and its manifestations in contemporaneity from a critic perspective, remarking the analisys of what has been considered the consumerism fenomena from posmodernity. All this with the porpuse to develop a systematic and integral analysis for its application in the researching of the consumer and the marketing strategies applicables to real problems and to the particular needs of the colombian market and in a wider way to the latinamerican one. This offer inclues also the having in focus of some cualitative tools (like etnography), took from the various disciplines of the economics sciences and human sciences that will have on mind new variables and will tell us more new stuffs about the consume

The transcription factor optomotor-blind antagonizes Drosophila haltere growth by repressing decapentaplegic and Hedgehog targets

In Drosophila, decapentaplegic, which codes for a secreted signaling molecule, is activated by the Hedgehog signaling pathway at the anteroposterior compartment border of the two dorsal primordia; the wing and the haltere imaginal discs. In the wing disc, Decapentaplegic and Hedgehog signaling targets are implicated in cell proliferation and cell survival. However, most of their known targets in the wing disc are not expressed in the haltere disc due to their repression by the Hox gene Ultrabithorax. The T-box gene optomotor-blind escapes this repression in the haltere disc, and therefore is expressed in both the haltere and wing discs. Optomotor-blind is a major player during wing development and its function has been intensely investigated in this tissue, however, its role in haltere development has not been reported so far. Here we show that Optomotor-blind function in the haltere disc differs from that in the wing disc. Unlike its role in the wing, Optomotor-blind does not prevent apoptosis in the haltere but rather limits growth by repressing several Decapentaplegic and Hedgehog targets involved both in wing proliferation and in modulating the spread of morphogens similar to Ultrabithorax function but without disturbing Ultrabithorax expressionThis work was supported by grants Biología Fundamental (BFU2011-25987) and Consolider Program (CDS 2007-00008) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Commutativity (http://www.mineco.gob.es), by Initial Training Networks (ITN) - Marie Curie Actions (ITN 238186) (http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/ about mca/actions/itn/indexen.htm) and by an institutional grant to Centro Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” from the Fundación Ramón Areces (http://fundacionareces.es/fundacionareces). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip

La dramatización histórica como estrategia emocional para la concienciación contra la intolerancia religiosa en Educación para la Ciudadanía. Una experiencia con futuras/os maestras/os de Educación Primaria.

La investigación se desarrolla en el marco de la asignatura “Educación para la Ciudadanía y los Derechos Humanos” del Grado de maestra/o de Educación Primaria de la Universidad de Málaga, donde, partiendo del patrimonio histórico-artístico y documental conservado en el Museo del Patrimonio Municipal de la ciudad, y a través del diseño y realización de un teatro musical titulado “Málaga en el Tiempo. Un musical que hace Historia”, el alumnado universitario trabajó temas como la intolerancia religiosa hacia la cultura islámica durante la toma de Málaga en el siglo XV. Una vez representada la dramatización ante alumnado de 5º curso de Educación Primaria, se realizaron unas actividades didácticas complementarias diseñadas por los maestros en formación inicial, con el objetivo de vincular los temas del pasado histórico, ya trabajados en la actividad dramatizada, con problemas sociales relevantes de nuestro presente en torno a la intolerancia religiosa y la guerra.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The Development of Moral Harassment (or Mobbing) Law in Sweden and France as a Step Towards EU Legislation

Moral harassment (or mobbing) is one of the most rapidly emerging workplace violence complaints, affecting around twelve million workers in the EU annually. In 1993, Sweden was the first EU country to enact legislation against moral harassment with its Ordinance on Victimization at Work. Through the Social Modernization Law in 2002, France added both civil and criminal provisions condemning moral harassment. This Note explores the Swedish and French laws and the psychological theories by Heinz Leymann and Marie-France Hirigoyen, respectively, that preceded them. Since existing EU legislation is inadequate in covering moral harassment, a new directive should be adopted. This new directive could be modeled off of several exemplary existing directiYes and should consider various proYisions of the Swedish and French laws, as well as the analyses ofLeymann and Hirigoyen