The Relationship between Economic Performance and the Rise of \u2018Unholy Alliances\u2019 in the European Union

This article investigates the phenomenon of \u2018unholy alliances\u2019: grand coalitions and ideologically-incoherent coalitions in the EU. In the last decade, these types of government majorities have proliferated, even in countries that have not previously experienced them. This substantial increase happened during the years of the so-called Great Recession, together with the electoral growth of populist movements and new political parties. This article investigates the potential correlation between these \u2018unholy alliances\u2019 and the economic situation of countries. The hypothesis is that negative economic trends might have led to fragmented electoral results, a decrease in the support for mainstream parties and the growth of populist parties and new parties. This generated additional difficulties in forming homogeneous coalitions, forcing the birth of these unholy alliances

Global calibrations for the non-homogeneous Mumford-Shah functional

Using a calibration method we prove that, if $\Gamma\subset \Omega$ is a closed regular hypersurface and if the function $g$ is discontinuous along $\Gamma$ and regular outside, then the function $u_{\beta}$ which solves $$\begin{cases} \Delta u_{\beta}=\beta(u_{\beta}-g)& \text{in $\Omega\setminus\Gamma$} \partial_{\nu} u_{\beta}=0 & \text{on $\partial\Omega\cup\Gamma$} \end{cases}$$ is in turn discontinuous along $\Gamma$ and it is the unique absolute minimizer of the non-homogeneous Mumford-Shah functional $$\int_{\Omega\setminus S_u}|\nabla u|^2 dx +{\cal H}^{n-1}(S_u)+\beta\int_{\Omega\setminus S_u}(u-g)^2 dx,$$ over $SBV(\Omega)$, for $\beta$ large enough. Applications of the result to the study of the gradient flow by the method of minimizing movements are shown.Comment: 33 page

Same-Sex Marriage and Other Moral Taboos: Cultural Acceptances, Change in American Public Opinion and the Evidence from the Opinion Polls

This article analyzes the evolution of gay and lesbian rights and same-sex marriage in American public opinion. It describes how Obergefell v. Hodges, state-level decisions and the public opinion trends can be considered as the outcome of a grassroots coordinated campaign which began more than a decade ago and was able to conquer the majority of Americans. It also focuses on the American public opinion trends related to moral issues, examining if it is true that U.S. citizens are moving leftward. The research shows that the shift toward more liberal attitudes on a number of social values and issues has occurred across the age spectrum, not just among young people, and that when Americans are asked about moral values they are thinking of things other than just the norms surrounding sexual behavior and reproduction issues. Thus, when Americans are largely saying that the overall moral tone of their culture is in bad shape and getting worse, they are only marginally thinking of former taboos such as gay and lesbian marriage and sexual behaviors in general

Cascade of minimizers for a nonlocal isoperimetric problem in thin domains

For \Omega_\e=(0,\e)\times (0,1) a thin rectangle, we consider minimization of the two-dimensional nonlocal isoperimetric problem given by \inf_u E^{\gamma}_{\Omega_\e}(u) where E^{\gamma}_{\Omega_\e}(u):= P_{\Omega_\e}(\{u(x)=1\})+\gamma\int_{\Omega_\e}\abs{\nabla{v}}^2\,dx and the minimization is taken over competitors u\in BV(\Omega_\e;\{\pm 1\}) satisfying a mass constraint \fint_{\Omega_\e}u=m for some $m\in (-1,1)$. Here P_{\Omega_\e}(\{u(x)=1\}) denotes the perimeter of the set $\{u(x)=1\}$ in \Omega_\e, \fint denotes the integral average and $v$ denotes the solution to the Poisson problem -\Delta v=u-m\;\mbox{in}\;\Omega_\e,\quad\nabla v\cdot n_{\partial\Omega_\e}=0\;\mbox{on}\;\partial\Omega_\e,\quad\int_{\Omega_\e}v=0. We show that a striped pattern is the minimizer for \e\ll 1 with the number of stripes growing like $\gamma^{1/3}$ as $\gamma\to\infty.$ We then present generalizations of this result to higher dimensions.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

Boundary integral formulation for interfacial cracks in thermodiffusive bimaterials

An original boundary integral formulation is proposed for the problem of a semi-infinite crack at the interface between two dissimilar elastic materials in the presence of heat flows and mass diffusion. Symmetric and skew-symmetric weight function matrices are used together with a generalized Betti's reciprocity theorem in order to derive a system of integral equations that relate the applied loading, the temperature and mass concentration fields, the heat and mass fluxes on the fracture surfaces and the resulting crack opening. The obtained integral identities can have many relevant applications, such as for the modelling of crack and damage processes at the interface between different components in electrochemical energy devices characterized by multi-layered structures (solid oxide fuel cells and lithium ions batteries).Comment: 43 pages, 9 figure

Functionals depending on curvatures with constraints

We deal with a family of functionals depending on curvatures and we prove for them compactness and semicontinuity properties in the class of closed and bounded sets which satisfy a uniform exterior and interior sphere condition. We apply the results to state an existence theorem for the Nitzberg and Mumford problem under this additional constraint.Comment: 20 pages. To appear on Rendiconti del Seminario Matematico dell'Universita' di Padov

Econometric Explorations on Bounded Rationality: The Case of Job Changing Behavior

In this paper we question the hypothesis of full rationality in the context of job changing behaviour, via simple econometric explorations on microdata drawn from WHIP (Worker Histories Italian Panel). A rational outcome of the job matching process implies a positive tradeoff between future wages and risk-on-the-job. The main result of this paper is that no “rational” tradeoff is observable after controlling for a variety of possible shifters. However, if we control for individual characteristics and replace wage growth by its predictor net of individual effects, the picture changes with the emergence of a significantly positive tradeoff between wage growth and risk-on-the-job. The interpretation is suggestive: while market forces (net of individual effects) drive towards a rational outcome, individual characteristics, instead of reinforcing the “rationality” of a positive tradeoff, lead towards the opposite direction of confounding good and bad options. Our explanation for these findings is that people act on the basis of bounded rationality à la Simon. If our assessment is correct, the implications are powerful: are there reasons to believe that such patterns are found only in the context of job search and worker mobility and not in other instances of economic behaviour ? Recent literature on bounded rationality strongly suggests the contrary. . Why, then, should economists leave unchallenged and unchallengeable the hypothesis of full rationality ? Had our investigation aimed at estimating the elasticities of wage growth and job safety of the workers’ utilities, we would have miserably failed. Is this a consequence of a mis-specified model or of the wrong behavioral assumptions ? Our support unquestionably goes to the latter.