Huvipoolte käsitlused põlevkivitööstusega seotud kogukonna jätkusuutlikkusest

https://www.ester.ee/record=b5251140*es

Investing in times of inflation fears: Diversification properties of investments in liquid real assets

The financial crisis and the rescue measures taken by governments and central banks increased investors' interest in liquidity and in real assets supposed to offer a hedge against inflation. Against this background, we investigate empirically four real assets (real estate, commodities, infrastructure, and shipping) for which there are investment instruments available which trade in liquid markets. Our empirical study using data from 1999 to 2009 yields several results: First, in most cases, the addition of real assets improved portfolio performance (measured with Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, Omega ratio, and Modified Sharpe ratio) in comparison with a base portfolio consisting only of standard stocks and bonds. Among the four real assets, infrastructure and shipping clearly outperformed commodities and real estate. Second, the time frame chosen for the analysis matters very much. This is bad news for investors because there is no such thing as the single 'true' time frame for this purpose. Due to our analytical approach, we regard our conclusions, in spite of their general time dependence, as rather solid. Third, despite great conceptual differences, our four performance measures lead to the same conclusions. This result is interesting for investors beyond our specific setting because the selection of a specific performance measure from the vast supply of such measures does not seem to matter much. --diversification,inflation,portfolio choice,investments in real assets

Overlap Between Industrial Niching and Workplace Segregation: Role of Immigration Policy, Culture and Country of Origin

This article focuses on two dimensions of labour market integration, sorting into different industries (niching) and sorting into workplace establishments (segregation) by share of migrant workers. We seek to understand to what degree these two dimensions of immigrants' lack of labour market integration - niching and segregation - overlap with each other. The study is based on Finnish individual, panel and relational registry data, and we focus on the three largest immigrant groups - Estonians, Russians and Swedes - who have arrived from countries with different wealth levels to the Helsinki metropolitan area. By applying generalised structural equation modelling, we estimate industrial niching and workplace segregation - measured as a degree of overconcentration of immigrants in particular industries and workplace establishments, respectively - jointly. Our main findings show a strong overlap between niching and segregation for all ethnic groups. Segregation and niching levels are the highest among Estonians, but very similar for Russians and Swedes. These findings do not support the cultural similarity argument in immigrant labour market integration. Rather, immigration policy and origin country wealth level may be determinant. Additionally, we found that females are more likely than males to be employed simultaneously in niched industries and segregated workplace establishments, supporting the thesis of gender-based networks

Overlap between industrial niching and workplace segregation: Role of immigration policy, culture and country of origin

Abstract:  This article focuses on two dimensions of labour market integration, sorting into different industries (niching) and sorting into workplace establishments (segregation) by share of migrant workers. We seek to understand to what degree these two dimensions of immigrants’ lack of labour market integration—niching and segregation—overlap with each other. The study is based on Finnish individual, panel and relational registry data, and we focus on the three largest immigrant groups—Estonians, Russians and Swedes—who have arrived from countries with different wealth levels to the Helsinki metropolitan area. By applying generalised structural equation modelling, we estimate industrial niching and workplace segregation—measured as a degree of overconcentration of immigrants in particular industries and workplace establishments, respectively—jointly. Our main findings show a strong overlap between niching and segregation for all ethnic groups. Segregation and niching levels are the highest among Estonians, but very similar for Russians and Swedes. These findings do not support the cultural similarity argument in immigrant labour market integration. Rather, immigration policy and origin country wealth level may be determinant. Additionally, we found that females are more likely than males to be employed simultaneously in niched industries and segregated workplace establishments, supporting the thesis of gender-based networks.Keywords:  country of origin wealth level; immigration; labour market; niching; segregation</p

COVID-19 information disorder:six types of harmful information during the pandemic in Europe

{Sten Hansson and Kati Orru and Sten Torpan and Asta Bäck and Austeja Kazemekaityte and Sunniva Frislid Meyer and Johanna Ludvigsen and Lucia Savadori and Alessandro Galvagni and Ala Pigrée}, {COVID-19 information disorder: six types of harmful information during the pandemic in Europe}, {Journal of Risk Research}, {24}, {3-4}, {380-393}, {2021}, {Routledge}, {10.1080/13669877.2020.1871058}, { https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1871058}The outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 propelled the creation, transmission, and consumption of false information – unverified claims, misleading statements, false rumours, conspiracy theories, and so on – all around the world. When various official or unofficial sources issue erroneous, misleading or contradicting information during a crisis, people who are exposed to this may behave in ways that cause harm to the health and well-being of themselves or others, e.g., by not taking appropriate risk reducing measures or blaming or harassing vulnerable groups. To work towards a typology of informational content that may increase people’s vulnerability in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, we explored 98 instances of potentially harmful information that spread in six European countries – France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Lithuania, and Estonia – between March and May 2020. We suggest that during the pandemic, exposure to harmful information may have made people more vulnerable in six ways: (1) by discouraging appropriate protective actions against catching/spreading the virus, (2) by promoting the use of false (or harmful) remedies against the virus, (3) by misrepresenting the transmission mechanisms of the virus, (4) by downplaying the risks related to the pandemic, (5) by tricking people into buying fake protection against the virus or into revealing their confidential information, and (6) by victimising the alleged spreaders of the virus by harassment/hate speech. The proposed typology can be used to guide the development of risk communication plans to address each of these information-related vulnerabilities.publishedVersio

Approaches to ‘vulnerability’ in eight European disaster management systems

Orru, K., Hansson, S., Gabel, F., Tammpuu, P., Krüger, M., Savadori, L., Meyer, S.F., Torpan, S., Jukarainen, P., Schieffelers, A., Lovasz, G. and Rhinard, M. (2022), Approaches to ‘vulnerability’ in eight European disaster management systems. Disasters, 46: 742-767. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12481While social vulnerability in the face of disasters has received increasing academic attention, relatively little is known about the extent to which that knowledge is reflected in practice by institutions involved in disaster management. In this study, we chart the practitioners’ approaches to disaster vulnerability in eight European countries: Germany, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Estonia. The study draws from a comparative document analysis and 95 interviews with disaster managers and reveals significant differences across countries in terms of the ontology of vulnerability, its sources, reduction strategies, and the allocation of related duties. To advance the debate and provide conceptual clarity, we put forward a model for explicating different understandings of vulnerability along the dimensions of human agency and technological structures as well as social support through private relations and state actors.acceptedVersio

Vulnerability and vulnerable groups from an intersectionality perspective

In general, the identification and protection of vulnerable groups in the case of hazards or when a crisis unfolds is an issue that any crisis and disaster risk management should address, since people have different levels of exposure to hazards and crises. In this article, we promote the application of the intersectionality perspective in the study of vulnerable groups, and we call for intersectionality as a guiding principle in risk and crisis management, to provide a better and more nuanced picture of vulnerabilities and vulnerable groups. This can help national and local authorities and agencies to formulate specific guides, to hire staff with the skills necessary to meet particular needs, and to inform vulnerable groups in a particular way, taking into account the differences that may coexist within the same group. Intersectionality allows us to read vulnerability not as the characteristic of some socio-demographic groups. It is rather the result of different and interdependent societal stratification processes that result in multiple dimensions of marginalisation. In this vein, we argue that research should focus on 1) self-perceived vulnerability of individuals and an intersectionality approach to unpack vulnerable groups; 2) cases of crises according to the level and/or likelihood of individual exposure to hazards, to better nuance issues of vulnerability.publishedVersio

Wild Carpathia Future Development: From Illegal Deforestation to ORV Sustainable Recreation

Romanian Wild Carpathia constitutes the ultimate pristine wilderness of the old European continent. Carpathian Mountains landscape experiences and outdoor recreation represents quite unique cultural ecosystem services. The new annotations to the Forest Law are restricting any public access in the woods without authorities’ pre-approval for organised sport, leisure and tourism activities. However, off road vehicle (ORV) recreation is a popular activity and a growing transparency concern of National Forest Administration Authorities that is not managed accordingly. Here we show that our ORV recreation frame model can securely allow public access and protect all Romanian mountains. Our results demonstrate how growing ORV recreation popularity can be used in an honest and open way if it is well organized and controlled. We anticipate our assay to be a starting point for a regional and national forest administration sustainable development plan. Furthermore, stopping illegal forest activities is a major target of the anti-logging movement. A well-defined assay for the ORV recreation frame model will be relevant for such developments