Social security and the search behaviour of workers approaching retirement

This paper explores the links between unemployment, retirement and their associated public insurance programs. It is a contribution to a growing body of literature focused on a better understanding of the labor behavior of advanced—age workers, which has gained importance as the pension crisis looms. The analysis combines the development of a new theoretical model and a detailed exploration of the empirical regularities using the Spanish Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL) dataset. The model is a extension of the standard search model, designed to reproduce the non—stationary environment faced by workers approaching retirement and to explore the interaction of unemployment benefits and retirement pensions. Via calibrated simulations we show that the basic empirical reemployment and retirement patterns can be rationalized as the optimal responses to both the labor market conditions and the institutional incentives. Generous Unemployment Benefits (for durations of up to two years) together with very significant early retirement penalties, make optimal to stay unemployed without searching for large groups of unemployed workers. This moral hazard problem can he substantially alleviated through institutional reform. Setting the early retirement penalties according to the age when the individual withdraws from the labor force (rather than when he/she claims the pension for the first time) seems particularly beneficial. It increases the labor supply, reduces the financial cost for the social security system and generate enough extra resources to compensate for the welfare loss of those unemployed directly hit by the reform.Unemployment search, job benefit, retirement

Social Security and the search behaviour of workers approaching retirement

This paper explores the links between unemployment, retirement and their associated public insurance programs. It is a contribution to a growing body of literature focused on a better understanding of the labor behavior of advanced-age workers, which has gained importance as the pension crisis looms. It also contributes to the literature of optimal unemployment insurance by exploring the interaction of unemployment benefits and retirement pensions. The analysis combines the development of a new theoretical model and a detailed exploration of the empirical regularities using the Spanish Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL) dataset. The model is an extension of the standard search model, designed to reproduce the non-stationary environment faced by workers of advanced ages (in the age range 50/65). Via calibrated simulations we show that the basic empirical re-employment and retirement patterns can be considered as rational responses to both the labor market conditions and the institutional incentives. Generous Unemployment Benefits (for durations of up to two years) together with very significant early retirement penalties, make optimal to stay unemployed without searching for large groups of unemployed workers. This moral hazard problem can be substantially alleviated through institutional reform. We explore several potential reforms and find that changing the details of early retirement pensions seems more promising than changing the Unemployment Benefit system.Unemployment, Retirement, Search models

Retirement incentives, individual heterogeneity and labour transitions of employed and unemployed workers

In this paper we analyze the sensitivity of the labour market decisions of workers close to retirement with respect to the incentives created by public regulations. We improve upon the extensive prior literature on the effect of pension incentives on retirement in two ways. First, by modeling the transitions between employment, unemployment and retirement in a simultaneous manner, paying special attention to the transition from unemployment to retirement (which is particularly important in Spain). Second, by considering the influence of unobserved heterogeneity in the estimation of the effect of our (carefully constructed) incentive variables. Using administrative data, we find that, when properly defined, economic incentives have a strong impact on labour market decisions in Spain. Unemployment regulations are shown to be particularly influential for retirement behaviour, along with the more traditional determinants linked to the pension system. Pension variables also have a major bearing on both workers’ reemployment decisions and on the strategic actions of employers. The quantitative impact of the incentives, however, is greatly affected by the existence of unobserved heterogeneity among workers. Its omission leads to sizable biases in the assessment of the sensitivity to economic incentives, a finding that has clear consequences for the credibility of any model-based policy analysis. We confirm the importance of this potential problem in one especially interesting instance: the reform of early retirement provisions undertaken in Spain in 2002. We use a difference-in-difference approach to measure the behavioural reaction to this change, finding a large overestimation when unobserved heterogeneity is not taken into account.Retirement, unemployment, incentives, Pension system, Unobserved, heterogeneity, Spain.

El lenguaje incorporado desde y para la cognición incorporada

El lenguaje incorporado desde y para la cognición incorporada fundamenta su origen en la evolución de la especie humana y en los contornos de la estructura cerebral actual del hombre. En el cerebro hay continuidad: las áreas sensoriales reciben estímulos, a los que se pone la voz, propio de la especie, y se produce el lenguaje conceptual; sobre esta base se separa lo que es sensorial de los términos y se llega a niveles de alta abstracción. Así se da razón, que la dimensión lingüística es la facultad que articula lo sustancial de la facultad fonética humana, con los elementos del ambiente. Por lo tanto, se rechaza las explicaciones lingüísticas tanto del internalismo como las del externalismo, que absolutizan sea la facultad o la periferia respectivamente. Este lenguaje incorporado permite el paso de una explicación, comprensión y aplicación del lenguaje, enfocado desde el objeto y la cosa, a una centrada en la articulación de las cosas desde la estructura cerebral cognitiva-lingüística. Los ejes que se desarrollan son: 1. La contextualización del lenguaje en los marcos del desarrollo de la especie humana, que capitaliza las expresiones evolutivas de las especies anteriores. 2. La ubicación del proceso lingüístico en la estructura cerebral. 3. El condicionamiento del sistema motor en la formación y construcción del lenguaje. 4. La discusión externalista e internalista de la naturaleza de la lengua. 5.La naturaleza del lenguaje incorporado dentro de la cognición. La metodología empleada es inductiva-deductiva-hermenéutica. Se parte de la configuración del cerebro somato-sensorial, que no es lingüístico, en donde se inserta el lenguaje como la forma de construir el conocimiento, pasando de una forma corporal-sensorial a una lingüística digital.// The embody cognition from and to the embody cognition, set the origen of language in the evolution of the human species and the contours of the current cerebral structure of the man. In the brain there is continuity: sensory areas receive stimuli, which gets the voice, of the species, and occurs the conceptual language; on this basis separates what is sensory terms and reach high abstraction levels. Thus is given “the why”, that the linguistic dimension is the faculty that articulates substantially phonetic faculty human, with the elements of the environment. Therefore, refuses the linguistic explanations both the internalism as the the externalism, which absolutizan be the faculty or the periphery, respectively. This embody language allows the passage of an explanation, understanding and application of the language, approached from the object and the thing, to one focusing on the articulation of the things from the cognitiva-linguistica brain structure. The axes that are developed are: 1. the contextualization of the language in the frames of the development of the human species, which capitalizes on evolving expressions of the previous species. 2. the location of the linguistic process in the brain structure. 3. the conditioning of the motor system in the formation and construction of the language. 4. the externalism and internalism of the nature of the language discussion. 5. The nature of the language incorporated into cognition. The methodology used is inductiva-deductiva - hermeneutics. Part of the configuration of the somato-sensory brain, which is not linguistic, where is inserted the language as the way to build knowledge, from a corporal-sensorial form to a digital language

The effects of employment uncertainty and wealth shocks on the labor supply and claiming behavior of older American workers

Unemployment rates in developed countries have recently reached levels not seen in a generation, and workers of all ages are facing increasing probabilities of losing their jobs and considerable losses in accumulated assets. These events likely increase the reliance that most older workers will have on public social insurance programs, exactly at a time that public finances are suffering from a large drop in contributions. Our paper explicitly accounts for employment uncertainty and unexpected wealth shocks, something that has been relatively overlooked in the literature, but that has grown in importance in recent years. Using administrative and household level data we empirically characterize a life-cycle model of retirement and claiming decisions in terms of the employment, wage, health, and mortality uncertainty faced by individuals. Our benchmark model explains with great accuracy the strikingly high proportion of individuals who claim benefits exactly at the Early Retirement Age, while still explaining the increased claiming hazard at the Normal Retirement Age. We also discuss some policy experiments and their interplay with employment uncertainty. Additionally, we analyze the effects of negative wealth shocks on the labor supply and claiming decisions of older Americans. Our results can explain why early claiming has remained very high in the last years even as the early retirement penalties have increased substantially compared with previous periods, and why labor force participation has remained quite high for older workers even in the midst of the worse employment crisis in decades.employment uncertainty, wealth shocks, retirement, labor supply, life-cycle models

Desarrollo de una aplicación web para gestionar la devolución de piezas prestadas para hacer reparaciones en averías de hardware informático

En los tiempos que corren, con la tecnología evolucionando de forma tan rápida e integrándose en cada uno de los aspectos de nuestras vidas, una empresa no puede permitirse el lujo de mantener ninguno de sus procesos de gestión sin digitalizar. La digitalización de dichos procesos supone un incremento de su eficacia al añadir funcionalidades de comunicación y almacenamiento indexado, entre otras, pero también incrementa su eficiencia debido al menor consumo de recursos. Por ello, la tendencia global es la de la digitalización total de las empresas. Siguiendo con este hilo de pensamiento, esta memoria muestra el trabajo realizado para conseguir la digitalización de un proceso de gestión de logística, de una empresa de soporte técnico en servicios tecnológicos. Para conseguir dicha digitalización, se va a crear una aplicación web para la gestión de la devolución de las piezas prestadas para la reparación de hardware por parte del servicio técnico de dicha empresa. La aplicación contará con una base de datos que guardará, entre otras cosas, las piezas prestadas y a quien han sido prestadas. Además, permitirá gestionar tres tipos distintos de devoluciones, entrega en una dirección fija, petición de recogida en una dirección no fija y petición de recogida más entrega con ambas direcciones no fijas. En este documento se detallan, de forma estructurada, los pasos seguidos para la creación de la aplicación, pasando por el análisis inicial para la obtención de los requisitos, por los diseños planteados y por el desarrollo e implantación finales.Ingeniería Informátic

CRISPR-ERA for switching off (onco)genes

[EN]Genome editing nucleases like the popular CRISPR/Cas9 allow generate knock - out cell lines and nulls zygotes by inducing site - specific DSB within a genome. In most cases, when a DNA template is not present, the DSB is repaired by non - homologous end joining (NHEJ) resulting in small nucleotide insertions or deletions that can be used to construct knockout alleles. However, for se veral reasons, these mutations do not produce the desired null result in all cases, generating a similar protein with functional activity. That undesirable effect could limit the therapeutic efficiency of gene therapy strategies focused on abrogating oncog ene expression by CRISPR/Cas9 and should be taken in account. This chapter reviews the irruption of CRISPR technology for gene silencing and its application in gene therapy

Hierarchy and Competition in CSCW applications: Model and case study

CSCW applications need to adapt themselves to the functional and organizational structures of people that use them. However they do not usually support division in groups with a certain hierarchical structure among them. In this paper, we propose and study a theoretical model of groupware appliations that reflects those hierarchical interactions. The proposed model is also intended to evaluate the effects in performance derived from competitive and collaborative relationships among the components of a hierarchy of groups. In order to demonstrate the above ideas, a groupware game, called Alymod, was designed and implemented using a modified version of a well-known CSCW Toolkit, namely Groupkit. Groupkit was modified in order to support group interactions in the same CSCW application. In Alymod, participants compete or collaborate within a hierarchical structure to achieve a common goal (completing gaps in a text, finishing numerical series, resolving University course examinations, etc.).Publicad

Audience Attention and Emotion in News Filmed with Drones: A Neuromarketing Research

Emotional journalism is being driven by audiovisual technology such as drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, which have demonstrated their usefulness in transforming objective news into news stories from a new visual perspective, facilitating access to dangerous or difficult places. They also allow for greater immersion by an audience that has become an active participant in the news, and they contribute to the storytelling of communication despite the risk to privacy and security that their misuse might entail. The aim of this research is to determine the differences in attention and intensity of the emotions experienced when viewing two pieces of audiovisual news: One was filmed with the technological support of a drone, and the other was produced in the conventional way. The techniques of eye tracking and galvanic skin response were used in 30 Spanish university students. The results suggest that attention was focused on the most spectacular visual elements, although the images filmed with a drone received a higher concentration of attention from the subjects, and this attention was spread throughout the entire image, which demonstrates that drones enhance the effectiveness of panoramic images with natural landscapes. The greatest emotion generated by viewing the images recorded with drones was statistically significant, but it was limited exclusively to these particular scenes, and not to the entire recording of the news

Fostering job search among older workers: The case for pension reform

Employment rates among senior workers (aged 55 or over) in southern Europe are among the lowest in OECD economies. Spain is a paradigmatic example, with high unemployment rates and very low workforce reentry rates for unemployed workers. Poor demand is typically blamed for this problem, but the interaction of pension rules and unemployment insurance may also play an important role in this outcome. Generous unemployment benefits, lax search requirements for the unemployed and strong early retirement penalties imposed on "regular" retirees effectively create an alternative path to early retirement. In this paper, we explore this alternative path quantitatively. We develop a model of job search and retirement behavior, calibrate it to the specificities of the Spanish case and verify its empirical validity in a large administrative dataset of employment histories. We then explore the effectiveness of pension reform in increasing the labor supply and overall welfare. We link early retirement penalties to the age at which an individual stops paying contributions. This reform removes the incentives to remain unemployed without searching and thus encourages individuals to either retire or actively engage in job seeking. The reform also leads to significant welfare losses, especially among the previously non-participating unemployed who are close to the early retirement age; however, the reform also raises sufficient additional resources that public authorities can use to compensate all affected workers