Productivity, wages, and the returns to firm-provided training: fair shared capitalism?

In this study, we develop an alternative modelling that examines a) the determinants of firm productivity and wages and b) the internal rate of return (IRR) to firm training for both firms and workers. Using a six-year linked employer-employee dataset, our estimates indicate that an additional hour of training per worker results in an increase of 0.12% in productivity and 0.04% in wages, or an increase of 0.16% and 0.08%, respectively, if one uses firm training as a stock variable. We then find that 82% of the gains in productivity are captured by firms and 18% by workers. Given the training costs, we finally obtain an IRR of 13% for firms and 33% for workers at sample means. Firms are heterogeneous, and we do find that dispersion in the rates of return across firms is high.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A cyclic time-dependent Markov process to model daily patterns in wind turbine power production

Wind energy is becoming a top contributor to the renewable energy mix, which raises potential reliability issues for the grid due to the fluctuating nature of its source. To achieve adequate reserve commitment and to promote market participation, it is necessary to provide models that can capture daily patterns in wind power production. This paper presents a cyclic inhomogeneous Markov process, which is based on a three-dimensional state-space (wind power, speed and direction). Each time-dependent transition probability is expressed as a Bernstein polynomial. The model parameters are estimated by solving a constrained optimization problem: The objective function combines two maximum likelihood estimators, one to ensure that the Markov process long-term behavior reproduces the data accurately and another to capture daily fluctuations. A convex formulation for the overall optimization problem is presented and its applicability demonstrated through the analysis of a case-study. The proposed model is capable of reproducing the diurnal patterns of a three-year dataset collected from a wind turbine located in a mountainous region in Portugal. In addition, it is shown how to compute persistence statistics directly from the Markov process transition matrices. Based on the case-study, the power production persistence through the daily cycle is analysed and discussed

Gestão Participativa

O presente trabalho, cuja temática é Gestão Participativa, enquadra-se no âmbito de uma investigação efectuada para a realização da memória monográfica que servirá de suporte para a obtenção do grau de Licenciatura em Gestão e Planeamento da vertente Gestão e Direcção Escolar. Com as rápidas mudanças da sociedade e consequentemente a democratização do Sistema do Ensino, a participação das famílias, das comunidades, dos professores, dos alunos, ou seja de toda a comunidade educativa na vida da escola é uma exigência para a obtenção da qualidade que se quer do ensino.Universidade de Cabo Verd

Teaching with Moodle in higher education

Nowadays, with the use of technology and the Internet, education is undergoing significant changes, contemplating new ways of teaching and learning. One of the widely methods of teaching used to promote knowledge, consists in the use of virtual environments available in various formats, taking as example the teaching-learning platforms, which are available online. The Internet access and use of Laptops have created the technological conditions for teachers and students can benefit from the diversity of online information, communication, collaboration and sharing with others. The integration of Internet services in the teaching practices can provide thematic, social and digital enrichment for the agents involved. In this paper we will talk about the advantages of LMS (Learning Management Systems) such as Moodle, to support the presential lectures in higher education. We also will analyse its implications for student support and online interaction, leading educational agents to a mixing of different learning environments, where they can combine face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction, blended-learning, and increases the options for better quality and quantity of human interaction in a learning environment. We also will present some tools traditionally used in online assessment and that are part of the functionalities of Moodle. These tools can provide interesting alternatives to promote a more significant learning and contribute to the development of flexible and customized models of an evaluation which we want to be more efficient

Do mito aos mitos irrecicláveis: reflexões

No Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa encontramos as seguintes definições de mito: narrativa fabulosa de origem popular; relato das proezas de deuses ou de heróis, susceptível de dar uma explicação do real satisfatória para um espírito primitivo; alegoria, etc. O Dicionário esclarece ainda que a palavra mito provém do grego mÿthos, que significa palavra expressa, dando mais tarde origem à palavra latina mythu, que significa fábula. Nenhuma das definições anteriores parece convincente no contexto da sociedade pós-industrial, pós-capitalista, pós-moderna, pós-humana(?) em que vivemos. Assim, e porque esta matéria me interessa, tanto em termos pessoais, como académicos, centro-me em obras que abordem a temática com maior acuidade

Anos 20 : maldição ou bênção para Babbitt?

O romance Babbitt, de Sinclair Lewis, foi publicado no ano de 1922, dealbar de uma época reconhecidamente conturbada e controversa: a década de 20. O presente trabalho tem por objectivo averiguar em que medida a mundividência de Babbitt deixa transparecer factores de pendor ideológico, núcleos temáticos e sócio - culturais que, corroborados com outros vectores periodológicos, constituem um universo imaginário, onde as suas coordenadas podem perfeitamente servir de base para que a época em questão possa ser reconstituída. É que, não obstante estarmos conscientes de que o texto literário tem como característica primeira a ficcionalidade, sabemos também que o discurso estético mantém com o mundo empírico uma inevitável e indelével correlação semântica. Também considerámos que seria pertinente incluir algumas breves achegas relativas aos temas que Sinclair Lewis privilegiou nas suas obras, por nos parecerem elementos elucidativos para uma visão mais sólida do seu universo ficcional

Regional Heterogeneity in the Individual Unemployment Vulnerability After COVID-19 Outset

Acknowledgments: The authors gratefully acknowledge the Institute of Employment and Professional Training and Professor Pedro Martins for the authorization to use their databases, which were essential for the investigation. This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT– Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project «UIDB/04928/2020». Funding: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the UIDB/04928/2020 - FCT– Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.The COVID-19 crisis increased unemployment all over the World, with significant regional heterogeneity. This paper intends to analyze this territorial heterogeneity for the Portuguese case and investigate which regional factors complement personal and job characteristics in explaining individual vulnerability to COVID-19 unemployment. By considering personal, job and regional dimensions, we extended the literature and provided a more comprehensive understanding of this new phenomenon in the immediate and medium-term. Furthermore, this knowledge is essential to support policy suggestions for quick and effective action in preventing job losses in the current and future crises. Detailed information on all individuals that lost their jobs in Portugal 1 year after (and before) the COVID-19 outset was used to estimate three logit models that compare the odds of losing a job after and during the pandemic. Significant territorial heterogeneity of the COVID-19 impact on unemployment is obtained. Along with personal and job characteristics, we conclude that regional characteristics are essential for explaining individual vulnerabilities. In particular, workers are more prompted to lose their jobs if they live in regions with higher population densities, lower pre-crisis unemployment, and more dependable international flow. Conversely, individual and regional human capital investment contributes to protecting employment, revealing the existence of external effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio