FSU Immigrants in Canada: A Case of Positive Triple Selection?

This paper investigates the economic performance of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries in Canada. The contribution of this paper lies in its use of a natural experiment to detect possible differential labour market performances of Soviet immigrants prior to and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In short, the collapse of the former Soviet Union allows an exogenous supply change in the number and type of FSU immigrants potentially destined to enter Canada. For this purpose, Census microlevel data from the 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 Canadian Census are utilized to estimate earnings and employment outcomes for pre- and post-FSU immigrants.immigration, integration

Income Polarization, Convergence Tools and Mixture Analysis

Modeling the cross-country distribution of per capita using mixture analysis provides a natural platform for the recovery or detection of clubs of countries. Unfortunately, these mixture methods, when based on a strictly univariate approach are limiting towards one's ability to learn about the underlying process of the emergence of the clubs. This paper takes a fresh look at the sources contributing to the emergence of clubs in the distribution of cross-country output using bivariate and multivariate mixture analysis.Convergence, Orientation, Mixture Densities

The Implementation of the European Copyright Directive Library Lobby in France

This paper presents a specific case, in other words, the situation in one of the 25 European countries. It goes over the more general aspects on the impact for libraries of the implementation of the European Copyright Directive. I have decided to select two aspects. The first part of my paper reviews briefly the French legal background. In the second part, I stress the actions undertaken at present by libraries and documentation associations in France

The Implementation of the European Copyright Directive Library Lobby in France

This paper presents a specific case, in other words, the situation in one of the 25 European countries. It goes over the more general aspects on the impact for libraries of the implementation of the European Copyright Directive. I have decided to select two aspects. The first part of my paper reviews briefly the French legal background. In the second part, I stress the actions undertaken at present by libraries and documentation associations in France

Institutions and geography: Empirical test of spatial growth models for European regions

This article provides an empirical assessment of the growth experiences of European regions, during the period 1991-2004, by taking into account the spatial effects due to both institutions and geography. These effects have been modeled by means of specific controls and by using a non-conventional spatial weight matrix. Results favour a model dealing with substantive spatial externalities. Within this framework, the country-specific institutions are strongly and positively related to the regional productivity’s growth rate. In addition, the geo-institutional proximity increases the spatial dependence of the regional output per worker and raises the speed of convergence. By contrast, the pure geographical metrics is underperforming, while underestimating the convergence dynamics.Regional growth, income convergence, institutions, geography, spatial effects.

Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Roofs and Pavements. A Case Study at Sapienza University Campus

The progressively emerging concept of urban resilience to climate change highlights the importance of mitigation and adaptation measures, and the need to integrate urban climatology in the design process, in order to better understand the multiple effects of combined green and cool technologies for the transition to climate responsive and thermally comfortable urban open spaces. This study focuses the attention on selected mitigation and adaptation technologies; two renovation scenarios were designed and modeled according to the minimal intervention criterion. The study pays attention to the effect on surface temperature and physiological equivalent temperature (PET) of vegetation and high albedo materials characterizing the horizontal boundaries of the site. The Sapienza University campus, a historical site in Rome, is taken as a case study. These results highlight the importance of treed open spaces and the combination of permeable green pavements associated with cool roofs as the most effective strategy for the mitigation of summer heatwaves and the improvement of outdoor thermal comfort

Decomposing The Conditional Variance of Cross-Country Output

A well established fact in the growth empirics literature is the increasing variation in output per capita across countries. This phenomena however does not adequately describe changes in the distribution of output since it does not account for changes in the covariates which undoubtedly in influence per capita output levels. We propose a robust, nonparametric decomposition of the conditional variation of per capita output and find that OECD countries have experienced diminishing conditional variation while other regions have experienced increasing conditional variation. Our decomposition suggests that most of these changes in the conditional variance of output is due to unobserved factors not accounted for by the traditional growth determinants. In addition to this we show as these factors played very different roles over time and across regions.Generalized Kernel, Nonparametric, Conditional Variation

SHOOTING DOWN THE PRICE: EVIDENCE FROM MAFIA HOMICIDES AND HOUSING MARKET VOLATILITY

In this work, we assess the role of a specific type of organized crime in influencing choices on where living within the city territory, and consequently, volatility in house prices. More specifically, we test how organized crime killing may influence house pricing behaviors. Firstly, we show evidences about how organized crime is associated with higher inequality of housing prices for Italian cities in 2011. Then, by collecting and geo referencing data on the city of Naples for the period 2002-2016, we test for the direct influence of homicides on the relevant territory, as on the neighboring districts. Results show a negative and significant impact of killing on the house prices either for sales or for rents and a positive effect in neighboring district, driving increases in within-city inequality