Wage inequality in Spain: recent developments

This paper analyses wage inequality in Spain from 1995 to 2002. Inequality has decreased slightly in this period although the fall has not been constant over the whole distribution. We use non-parametric techniques to distinguish the effect on inequality of changes in the composition of the labour force and changes in relative returns. We focus mainly on three factors that have varied substantially between 1995 and 2002: female participation, educational attainment and changes in the tenure level. On one hand, changes in the composition of the labour force would have increased inequality had the structure of wages not changed in relation to the 1995 level. Changes in education and especially tenure would have been responsible for most of the higher dispersion. On the other, changes in relative returns between 1995 and 2002 are predominant and are responsible for the lower dispersion observed in the latter year. Changes in the returns to education are the main important factor underlying this decrease in inequality. JEL Classification: J30, J00Inequality, labour force composition, wage distribution

Security in networks of unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance with an agent-based approach inspired by the principles of blockchain

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can support surveillance even in areas without network infrastructure. However, UAV networks raise security challenges because of its dynamic topology. This paper proposes a technique for maintaining security in UAV networks in the context of surveillance, by corroborating information about events from different sources. In this way, UAV networks can conform peer-to-peer information inspired by the principles of blockchain, and detect compromised UAVs based on trust policies. The proposed technique uses a secure asymmetric encryption with a pre-shared list of official UAVs. Using this technique, the wrong information can be detected when an official UAV is physically hijacked. The novel agent based simulator ABS-SecurityUAV is used to validate the proposed approach. In our experiments, around 90% of UAVs were able to corroborate information about a person walking in a controlled area, while none of the UAVs corroborated fake information coming from a hijacked UAV

Testing the 'Brain Gain' Hypothesis: Micro Evidence from Cape Verde

Does emigration really drain human capital accumulation in origin countries? This paper explores a unique household survey purposely designed and conducted to answer this research question. We analyze the case of Cape Verde, a country with allegedly the highest 'brain drain' in Africa, despite a marked record of income and human capital growth in recent decades. Our micro data enables us to propose the first explicit test of 'brain gain' arguments according to which the prospects of own future migration can positively impact educational attainment. According to our results, a 10pp increase in the probability of own future migration may improve the average probability of completing intermediate secondary schooling by 8pp for individuals who do not migrate before age 16. Strikingly, this same 10pp increase may raise the probability of completing intermediate secondary schooling by 11pp for an individual whose parents were both non migrants when the educational decision was made. Our findings are robust to the choice of instruments and econometric model. Overall, we find that there may be substantial human capital gains from lowering migration barriers.household survey, Cape Verde, brain drain, brain gain, international migration, human capital, effects of emigration in origin countries, sub-Saharan Africa

Evolución reciente de la desigualdad reciente en España e implicaciones para la política económica

La ponencia hace un breve repaso de los argumentos que la literatura económica ha ofrecido para relacionar desigualdad y crecimiento económico. Posteriormente, presenta diferentes estadísticas que describen el nivel y la variación de la desigualdad en España en el pasado reciente. En tercer lugar, se recopila evidencia de otros trabajos, principalmente empíricos, que explicarían el nivel y la variación de la desigualdad en nuestro país. Finalmente, a la luz de la evidencia anterior se valoran diferentes actuaciones de política económica con el objetivo de reducir el nivel de desigualdad de esta economíaInequality affects economic growth via different channels. It is for this reason that its analysis is particularly relevant and there is an increasing necessity to understand the mechanisms that determine its evolution. Within the EU27, Spain tends to have higher than average inequality due to a greater heterogeneity of its population instead of high wage differentials among workers. Over time, Spain presents a more countercyclical inequality. In particular, inequality increases in recession and decreases in expansions. As a consequence fiscal policies affecting relative earnings might be less effective than structural reforms aiming to decrease school early dropouts and the high cyclicality of employmen

Catalan industrial architecture in the last quarter of the 19th century and first quarter of the 20th century

The economy of Catalonia experienced a major surge from the mid-19th to the early 20th centuries, primarily because of two crucial factors: first, the industrialisation process, chiefly with the development of the textile sector, and secondly the revival of the agricultural sector, with the extensive cultivation of vineyards around the land. In both cases, non-traditional architectural typologies had to be “reinvented” or built in Catalonia: the factories that manufactured textiles or other products, industrial colonies, the wineries where wine and its spirits were crafted, and the flour mills

Controlling the Home: Material Expressions of Anti-Roma Sentiment

The Romani people, also known as the Roma diaspora or simply the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group that has experienced centuries of oppression and stigmatization. Largely seen as a “nomadic” group, the issue of housing is at the core of exploring modern Roma struggles. One key question to further the research on the connection between anti-Roma sentiment and housing is questioning how housing has served as a physical expression of cultural anti-Roma sentiment. Though the Roma are commonly perceived as choosing their nomadism, this article seeks to deconstruct this stereotype through the lens of housing law, forced nomadism, and Roma settlement patterns. In particular, I examine the definition of “home” in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the connection between this law, anti-Roma sentiment, and present Roma housing conditions. Looking at forms of resistance to anti-Roma sentiment, I analyze the role of squatting in bringing attention and sympathy to Roma housing issues. Finally, I look at how the stereotype of the “nomad” has affected the identities and self-perception of the Roma. Through this examination, my research shows the connections between the social degradation of a particular group and housing degradation. Because matters of the home are so intertwined with matters of identity, the control of the home has deep-rooted impacts that are clearly seen when examining the control of Roma’s right to housing

Arquitectura industrial catalana en el darrer quart del segle XIX i primer quart del segle XX

L’economia de Catalunya va experimentar un fort impuls des de mitjan segle XIX i a l’inici del XX a causa, fonamentalment, de dos factors que foren definitius: d’una banda, el procés d’industrialització, bàsicament amb el desenvolupament del sector del tèxtil, i de l’altra, la recuperació del sector agrari amb el conreu, força extensiu al país, de la vinya. En tots dos casos calgué la «reinvenció» o construcció d’unes tipologies arquitectòniques no tradicionals al territori català: les fàbriques tèxtils o d’altres productes i les colònies industrials, i els cellers per a l’elaboració del vi i els seus destil·lats, a més de les farineres

Alignment of the Atlas Inner Detector tracking system

The ATLAS experiment is equipped with a charged particle tracking system built on three subdetectors, which provide high precision measurements made from a fine detector granularity. The pixel and microstrip subdetectors, which use the silicon technology, are complemented with the transition radiation tracker. The alignment of the ATLAS Inner Detector tracking system requires the determination of its almost 36000 degrees of freedom. From the tracking point of view, the alignment parameters should be known with few microns accuracy. This permits to attain an optimal measurement of the parameters of the charged particles trajectories, thus enabling ATLAS to achieve its ambitious physics goals. The implementation of the alignment software, its framework and the data flow will be discussed, including the selection of an alignment and calibration stream at the ATLAS Event Filter stage. The results obtained on the recent computing challenges, where large scale simulation samples have been used in order to mimic the off-line ATLAS operation, will be presented. Special attention will be payed on the alignment results obtained from the real cosmic ray data taking. Using those samples one has derived the first ever alignment constants set for the commissioned ATLAS Inner Detector. These constants are ready to be used for the reconstruction of the first LHC collisions