Education Signalling and the School-to-work Transition

This paper studies the relation between labour market institutions and educational systems and how this relation may affect youth unemployment rates. By constructing a signalling model in which education can be used as a signal of workers’ unobserved productivity and firms face firing costs, we investigate how the structure of the educational system and the labour market institutions may influence the school-to-work transition of young unexperienced workers. In particular, we find that different educational systems can lead to different youth unemployment rates, even for high-skilled individuals. Besides, the framework presented in this paper allows to understand how the existence of minimum wages affects individual’s education decision and helps to explain some of the observed empirical regularities.Educational systems; youth unemployment; minimum wages.

Gastronomic Paradigms in Contemporary Western Cuisine: From French Haute Cuisine to Mass Media Gastronomy

Thomas Kuhn brings the concept of “paradigm” as the fundamental engine in the progress of humanity. Kuhn defines paradigms as the set of formal theories, experiments and work methods that define a process (scientific, economic, social, and in this case, contemporary haute cuisine), in a given time. According to Kuhn, progress does not happen by gradual accumulation of knowledge, but rather by abrupt advances. In this review, the conceptual evolution experienced by contemporary gastronomy (from the French Revolution to today) is analyzed applying the paradigm structure in light of the scientific knowledge of each era. It is thus reviewed how the first and second gastronomic paradigms, proposed, respectively, by Carême and Escoffier and based on food smell and taste the first and the flavor of the sauces the second, have been replaced by the third and fourth paradigms, led, respectively, by the Nouvelle Cuisine in France and Ferrán Adriá in Spain, and in whose development touch, sight, and sound have become increasingly prominent in gastronomic pleasure. Finally, it is analyzed how new trends in gastronomy: (1) worldwide diffusion of the Spanish tapas; (2) globalization of ethnic and fusion cuisines; (3) the growing disappearance of the professional gastronomic critique and its replacement bymassmedia influencers; (4) the increase of sustainability in cooking with development of local-, vegan-, and paleo-cooking, comfort, and smart food and finally, (5) the growing role of social networks and the self-itis linked to photography or foodstagramming in the gastronomic experience are leading toward a new gastronomic paradigm based on the global socialization of classic gastronomy

The study of a leadership focused on the improvement, commitment and social justice. The experience of a secondary school in Granada (Spain)

Este trabajo representa uno de los estudios de caso, que desde la Red de Investigación sobre Liderazgo y Mejora Educativa (RILME), se están realizando en diferentes centros de España, para contribuir al “International Successful School Principal Proyect” (ISSPP). El estudio en cuestión se ha desarrollado en un centro de educación secundaria ubicado en la provincia de Granada. El objetivo de la investigación concuerda con el objetivo general de dicho proyecto (Day, 2005a): analizar los rasgos y, especialmente, las estrategias que desarrollan los líderes escolares exitosos. Para ello, durante el curso académico 2013-2014, bajo el método del estudio de caso, se han llevado a cabo entrevistas a diferentes miembros de la comunidad educativa del centro (equipo directivo, profesores, madres y padres, alumnos y representantes de la administración), empleando los guiones propuestos por el proyecto ISSPP y se ha realizado un grupo focal con profesores. De este modo, se ha recogido información desde distintas perspectivas, al tiempo que, se han analizado algunos documentos del centro (Proyecto Educativo de Centro e Informe definitivo de resultados curso escolar 2013/2014). Los resultados recogidos en la investigación evidencian el desarrollo de prácticas eficaces de liderazgo por parte de la dirección, al tiempo que muestran la presencia de un estilo de liderazgo post-heroico (Gurr y Day, 2014); en el que la dirección, apoyada en el trabajo del profesorado, impulsa la capacidad de mejora del centro y promueve el compromiso por una educación para la justicia socialThis paper represents one of the case of studies, that are being realiced by the group of research on leadership and educational improvement (RILME) at differents schools of Spain, to contribute to the "International Successful School Principal Project (ISSPP)”. This study was developed in a secondary school located in Granada. The objective of this research is similar to the overall objective of the project: analyze the features and strategies that successful school leaders develop. For the academic year 2013-2014, we have conducted interviews to different members of the educational community in a Secundary School (management team, teachers, mothers and fathers, students and representatives of the Administration). We have used the scripts offered by ISSPP. So is picked up information from different perspectives, at the time that we have analyzed documents of the school. The result findings show a style of leadership post-heroico (Gurr and Day, 2014); the management team, based on the teachers´ work, promotes the improvement ability of the school and promotes commitment to education for social justic

Temperature effects on firms’ electricity demand: an analysis of sectorial differences in Spain

Global warming, intermittent production, and efficient use of energy require adequate demand response policies. The price inelasticity of electricity demand represents the main obstacle for developing adequate measures. A potential source of demand inelasticity is the temperature effect ‐ the reaction of electricity demand to variations in temperature. Studies using aggregate data show that temperature‐driven electricity demand is growing in most countries. Using disaggregated data by sectors, we analyze the sectorial breakdown of temperature effects on firms’ electricity demand. In‐depth knowledge of sectorial demand responses to temperature changes is fundamental for improved energy planning. If electricity consumption in a sector heavily reacts to temperature, “flattening” electricity demand will eventually become infeasible. Our findings indicate that in Spain firms’ aggregate electricity demand is rather insensitive to temperature. However, there are marked differences among sectors, with the highest sensitivity found for firms in the service sector

Integrating long-term economic scenarios into peak load forecasting: An application to Spain

The treatment of trend components in electricity demand is critical for long-term peak load forecasting. When forecasting high frequency variables, like daily or hourly loads, a typical problem is how to make long-term scenarios - regarding demographics, GDP growth, etc. - compatible with short-term projections. Traditional procedures that apply de-trending methods are unable to simulate forecasts under alternative long-term scenarios. On the other hand, existing models that allow for changes in long-term trends tend to be characterized by end-of-year discontinuities. In this paper a novel forecasting procedure is presented that improves upon these approaches and is able to combine long and short-term features by employing temporal disaggregation techniques. This method is applied to forecast electricity load for Spain and its performance is compared to that of a nonlinear autoregressive neural network with exogenous inputs. Our proposed procedure is flexible enough to be applied to different scenarios based on alternative assumptions regarding both long-term trends as well as short-term projection

Economic evaluation of small desalination plants from brackish aquifers. Application to Campo de Cartagena (SE Spain)

The Campo de Cartagena (Eastern Spain) is one of Europe’s driest areas with a mean precipitation of around 300 mm. One of the main challengesin the region is to secure a reliable water supply in both quantity and quality terms, to provide a water supply and agricultural irrigation, while water desalination has become an extensively applied solution, and one of the most sustainable solutions to the water scarcity problem. As water availability is lacking and groundwater quality is poor, the agricultural sector in Campo de Cartagena has developed small private brackish groundwater desalination plants (15-20 m3/h) through already existing agricultural wells. Costs and benefits (C-B) for citrus cultivation (1 ha) in three such plants have been assessed. The results indicate that for the studied cases, current agricultural management is feasible and costs outweigh benefits, with a positive NPV and a cost/benefit ratio higher than 1. The internal rate of return is also positive and higher than 11%. The results evidence practical and theoretical implications as to how to increase water resources in areas where water is scarce by closing the loop, ensuring farmers’ profitability and encouraging private sector investments.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Required mathematical properties and behaviors of uncertainty measures on belief intervals

The Dempster–Shafer theory of evidence (DST) has been widely used to handle uncertainty‐based information. It is based on the concept of basic probability assignment (BPA). Belief intervals are easier to manage than a BPA to represent uncertainty‐based information. For this reason, several uncertainty measures for DST recently proposed are based on belief intervals. In this study, we carry out a study about the crucial mathematical properties and behavioral requirements that must be verified by every uncertainty measure on belief intervals. We base on the study previously carried out for uncertainty measures on BPAs. Furthermore, we analyze which of these properties are satisfied by each one of the uncertainty measures on belief intervals proposed so far. Such a comparative analysis shows that, among these measures, the maximum of entropy on the belief intervals is the most suitable one to be employed in practical applications since it is the only one that satisfies all the required mathematical properties and behaviors