"Constructing Long and Dense Time-Series of Inequality Using the Theil Index"

Year-to-year economy-wide measures of income distribution, such as the Gini coefficient, are rarely available for long periods except in a few developed countries, and as a result few analyses of year-to-year changes in inequality exist. But wage and earnings data by industrial sectors are readily available for many countries over long time frames. This paper proposes the application of the between-group component of the Theil index to data on wages, earnings, and employment by industrial classification in order to measure the evolution of wage or earnings inequality through time. We provide formal criteria under which such a between-group Theil statistic can reasonably be assumed to give results that also track the (unobserved) evolution of inequality within industries. While the evolution of inequality in manufacturing earnings cannot be taken as per se indicating the larger movements of inequality in household incomes, including those outside the manufacturing sector, we argue on theoretical grounds that the two will rarely move in opposite directions. We conclude with an empirical application to the case of Brazil, an important developing country for which economy-wide Gini coefficients are scarce, but for which a between-industries Theil statistic may be computed on a monthly basis as far back as 1976.

Constructing Long and Dense Time-Series of Inequality Using the Theil Index

This paper proposes the application of the between-group component of the Theil index to data on wages, earnings, and employment by industrial classification, in order to measure the evolution of wage or earnings inequality through time. We provide formal criteria under which such a between-group Theil statistic can reasonably be assumed to give results that also track the (unobserved) evolution of inequality within industries. The advantage of this approach lies in the widespread availability of data from which long and dense time-series of inequality may be constructed. We conclude with an empirical application to the case of Brazil, an important developing country for which satisfactory Gini coefficients are scarce, but for which a between-industries Theil statistic may be computed on a monthly basis as far back as 1976.Inequality; Wage

UMA REVISITA AO TEMA DAS FUNÇÕES DA AGRICULTURA NO PROCESSO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO

O trabalho tem como objetivo discutir as funções da agricultura no processo de desenvolvimento econômico do país. São relembrados textos clássicos que discutem esta questão como os de Jonhston & Mellor, Hayami & Ruttan, Schultz, De Janvry e são introduzidas questões contemporâneas acerca dos papéis da agricultura no processo de desenvolvimento.---------------------------------------------The paper aims to discuss the roles of Agricultural in the development process of a country. Some classical texts are remembered as Jonhston & Mellor, Hayami & Ruttan, Schultz, De Janvry besides this some contemporaneous questions about the development are also put in discussion.International Development,

The influence of training background on difference rate of force calculations during countermovement jump

The aim of this study was to look at differences in countermovement jump (CMJ) performance and selected kinetic parameters in athletes of different training backgrounds and to examine the relationships between these parameters. The subjects were 14 endurance athletes, 12 sprinters, and 13 fire-fighter aspirants (controls); each performed two CMJ on a force plate. The best jump of two attempts was selected and the following parameters were calculated: CMJ height (h), peak power (PP), normalized vertical stiffness (Kvert), rate of force development (RFD), peak RFD (pRFD) during concentric phase, and the ratio between pRFD and the time of its occurrence (iRFD). Sprinters exhibited greater h, PP, Kvert and RFD values than the other groups. A strong correlation was revealed between PP and h, and between pRFD and Kvert in all groups. The magnitude of correlations improved with iRFD when compared to pRFD (.5-.6 vs. .7-.9). There were strong correlations (r>.7) between PP, Kvert, and both pRFD and iRFD only for the endurance athletes group. From these results, it would be recommended to record different RFD calculations during CMJ evaluations, including the new RFD index (iRFD), in athletes of different training backgrounds

Predicting satisfaction: perceived decision quality by decision-makers in Web-based group decision support systems

In future, the organizations' likelihood to endure and succeed will depend greatly on the quality of every decision made. It is known that most decisions in organizations are made in group. With the purpose of supporting decision-makers anytime and anywhere, Web-based Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) have been studied. The amount of Web-based GDSS incorporating automatic negotiation mechanisms such as argumentation has been steadily increasing. Usually, these systems/models are evaluated through mathematical proofs, number of rounds or seconds to propose (reach) a solution. However, those techniques are not very informative in terms of the decision quality. Here, we propose a model that intends to predict the decision-makers' satisfaction (perception of the decision quality), specifically designed to deal with multi-criteria problems. Our model considers aspects such as: meeting's outcomes, decision-maker's intentions, expectations and emotional cost. To validate the proposed model in terms of its ability to predict decision-makers' satisfaction, we developed a prototype of a Web-based GDSS to be used in a case study where the participant had to make a joint decision. The decision process consisted in a set of 5 rounds, where the participant could (re) configure his/her preferences along the process. The satisfaction model ascertained its ability to predict the participants' satisfaction and allowed to understand that (as is stated in the literature) the inclusion of cognitive and emotional variables is essential to evaluate satisfaction more accurately.This paper is a revised and an expanded version of a paper entitled "Evaluating the Perception of the Decision Quality in Web-Based Group Decision Support Systems: A Theory of Satisfaction" presented at International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 2017, Porto, Portugal [12]. This work has been supported by COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043, by National Funds through the FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within the Projects UID/CEC/00319/2013, UID/EEA/00760/2013, NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-021958, and the PhD. grants SFRH/BD/89697/2012 and SFRH/BD/89465/2012 attributed to Joao Carneiro and Pedro Saraiva, respectively

IN VIVO STIFFNESS EVALUATION OF HUMAN TENDONS

The behaviour of tendons was largely studied in vitro conditions, both in human and animal tissues (Abrahams, 1967; Benedict et a/., 1968; Woo et al. 1981), but information available in the literature about human tendons in vivo is scarce. Meanwhile, an advance in real-time ultrasonography enables the non-invasive determination of the displacement of the fascicles during muscle contraction, which made possible the study of deformation of the aponeurosis and the tendon (Fukashiro et al. 1995). Such techniques were used in the past for the study of vertical jumps. For instance, Kubo et al. (1999) showed that tendons have a parabolic like force-length relationship at low stress, and an almost linear relation at higher loads. To our knowledge, however, it was never used for the analysis of long jumpers