Type of judge and decisions in dismissal cases: An analysis of Labour Courts in Spain

El objetivo de este artículo es profundizar en la relación existente entre las decisiones judiciales de lo social en España en los casos de despido y los costes asociados a la extinción de los contratos laborales. Primero justificamos que los cambios en la probabilidad de que un juez falle a favor de un trabajador afectan a los costes de despido del empleador. En segundo lugar, examinamos cómo difiere dicha probabilidad cuando el juez es titular o sustituto. Se observa una mayor dispersión en la resolución de los casos de los jueces sustitutos, y un significativo repunte en los años de crisis económica de los fallos judiciales a favor del trabajador al considerar los jueces titulares, siendo este más débil en los casos de los sustitutosThe aim of this paper is to examine in detail the relationship between the decisionsof the Spanish labour courts regarding dismissal, and the costs associated with the terminationof employment contracts. We explain the changes in the probability that a judge ruling infavour of a worker affects the effective firing costs that the employer faces. We also examine how this probability differs depending on whether the judge is in charge of the court or is asubstitute. There is a greater dispersion in the resolution of cases when there are substitute judges, with a significant rise, during the economic crisis, of court decisions in favour of theworkers with permanent judges, which is less so with substitute judge

Estromatolitos pelágicos fosfatados relacionados con discontinuidades estratigráficas en el Cretácico del Penibético (provincia de Málaga)

En relación con discontinuidades estratigráficas en el Cretácico del Penibético se encuentran estromatolitos pelágicos fosfatados, constituidos por apatito criptocristalino (3 al 45 %). Muestran dos tipos  de morfologías: a.- Oncoides en el seno de sedimentos. b.- Recubrimientos de superficies de paleokarst con morfología nodular, LLM o laminar. Son estructuras organosedimentarias constituidas por asoci aciones simbióticas de bacterias y foraminíferos encostrantes que se formaron en un alto fondo marino, en medio reductor, a profundidades próximas al nivel de mínimo contenido en oxígeno y en una zona afectada por corrientes ascendente

A composed error model decomposition and spatial analysis of local unemployment

The differences in the regional unemployment rates, as well as their formation mechanism and persistence, have given rise to a great number of papers in the last decades. This work contributes to that strand of literature from two different perspectives. In the first part of our work, we follow the methodological proposal established by Hofler and Murphy (1989) and Aysun et al. (2014). We make use of an estimation of a stochastic cost frontier to breakdown the Spanish provincial effective unemployment (NUTS-3) in two different components: first one associated with aggregate supply side factors, and the other one more related to the aggregate demand side factors. The second part of our research analyzes the existence of spatial dependence patterns among the Spanish provinces in the effective unemployment and in both above mentioned components. The decomposition performed in the first part of our research will let us know the margin that the policymakers have when they deal with unemployment reductions by means of aggregate supply and aggregate demand policies. Finally, the spatial analysis of the unemployment rates amongst the Spanish provinces can potentially have also significant implications from an economic policy viewpoint since we find that there are common formation patterns or clusters of unemployment

Labor supply and the business cycle: The “Bandwagon Worker Effect”

The relationship between the labor force participation and the business cycle has become a topic in the economic literature. However, few studies have considered whether the cyclical sensitivity of the labor force participation is influenced by “social effects”. In this paper, we construct a theoretical model to develop the “Added Worker Effect” and the “Discouraged Worker Effect”, and we integrate the “social effects”, coining a new concept, the Bandwagon Worker Effect (BWE). To estimate the cyclical sensitivity of the labor force participation, we employ a panel dataset of fifty Spanish provinces for the period 1977–2015. Finally, we use spatial econometrics techniques to test the existence of the BWE in the local labor markets in Spain. Our results reveal that there exists a positive spatial dependence in the cyclical sensitivity of the labor force participation that decreases as we fix a laxer neighborhood criterion, which verifies the existence of the BWE. From the perspective of economic policy, our work confirms that “social effects” play a key role at the time of determining the economic dynamics of the territories

Labor supply and the business cycle: The “Bandwagon Worker Effect”

The relationship between the labor force participation and the business cycle has become a topic in the economic literature. However, few studies have considered whether the cyclical sensitivity of the labor force participation is influenced by “social effects”. In this paper, we construct a theoretical model to develop the “Added Worker Effect” and the “Discouraged Worker Effect”, and we integrate the “social effects”, coining a new concept, the Bandwagon Worker Effect (BWE). To estimate the cyclical sensitivity of the labor force participation, we employ a panel dataset of fifty Spanish provinces for the period 1977–2015. Finally, we use spatial econometrics techniques to test the existence of the BWE in the local labor markets in Spain. Our results reveal that there exists a positive spatial dependence in the cyclical sensitivity of the labor force participation that decreases as we fix a laxer neighborhood criterion, which verifies the existence of the BWE. From the perspective of economic policy, our work confirms that “social effects” play a key role at the time of determining the economic dynamics of the territories

Natural and cyclical unemployment: a stochastic frontier decomposition and economic policy implications

The main goal of the present work is to split effective unemployment into two components, one dealing with the natural rate of unemployment, and another with cyclical unemployment. With this purpose in mind, an estimation of stochastic cost frontiers is performed where natural unemployment is identified as a lower limit and cyclical unemployment as the deviation of effective unemployment with regard to that limit. To achieve this purpose, information is used from the 17 autonomous communities in Spain over the period spanning 1982 to 2013. Results evidence a greater importance of the natural component as the principal determinant of effective unemployment at a regional scale. The latter part of the work compares stochastic frontier estimations to those obtained when applying univariate filters, which are in widespread use in economic literature. The main conclusion to emerge is that the proposed decomposition modifies the weight distribution amongst the various types of unemployment, increasing the importance of cyclical unemployment. This finding has significant implications for economic policy, such as the existence of a greater margin for aggregate demand policies in order to reduce cyclical unemployment, particularly during growth periods

A composed error model decomposition and spatial analysis of local unemployment

The differences in the regional unemployment rates, as well as their formation mechanism and persistence, have given rise to a great number of papers in the last decades. This work contributes to that strand of literature from two different perspectives. In the first part of our work, we follow the methodological proposal established by Hofler and Murphy (1989) and Aysun et al. (2014). We make use of an estimation of a stochastic cost frontier to breakdown the Spanish provincial effective unemployment (NUTS-3) in two different components: first one associated with aggregate supply side factors, and the other one more related to the aggregate demand side factors. The second part of our research analyzes the existence of spatial dependence patterns among the Spanish provinces in the effective unemployment and in both above mentioned components. The decomposition performed in the first part of our research will let us know the margin that the policymakers have when they deal with unemployment reductions by means of aggregate supply and aggregate demand policies. Finally, the spatial analysis of the unemployment rates amongst the Spanish provinces can potentially have also significant implications from an economic policy viewpoint since we find that there are common formation patterns or clusters of unemployment

Natural and cyclical unemployment: a stochastic frontier decomposition and economic policy implications

The main goal of the present work is to split effective unemployment into two components, one dealing with the natural rate of unemployment, and another with cyclical unemployment. With this purpose in mind, an estimation of stochastic cost frontiers is performed where natural unemployment is identified as a lower limit and cyclical unemployment as the deviation of effective unemployment with regard to that limit. To achieve this purpose, information is used from the 17 autonomous communities in Spain over the period spanning 1982 to 2013. Results evidence a greater importance of the natural component as the principal determinant of effective unemployment at a regional scale. The latter part of the work compares stochastic frontier estimations to those obtained when applying univariate filters, which are in widespread use in economic literature. The main conclusion to emerge is that the proposed decomposition modifies the weight distribution amongst the various types of unemployment, increasing the importance of cyclical unemployment. This finding has significant implications for economic policy, such as the existence of a greater margin for aggregate demand policies in order to reduce cyclical unemployment, particularly during growth periods

Language technologies applied to document simplification for helping autistic people

People affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have impairments in social interaction because they lack an adequate theory of mind. A significant percentile has inadequate reading comprehension skills. We present a multilingual tool called Open Book (OB) that applies Human Language Technologies (HLT) in order to identify reading comprehension obstacles in text documents and propose more simple alternatives with the aim of assisting the reading comprehension of users. OB involves several text transformations at lexical, syntactic and semantic level. In this paper we focus on three challenging components of the OB tool: the image retrieval component, the idiom detection component and the summarization module. There are very few studies that involve simplification by showing images associated to difficult concepts. In addition, the treatment of figurative language such as idioms or metaphors is one of the most challenging areas in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Finally, although text summarization is a more widely studied field in NLP, its application to text simplification remains as an open research issue. Thus, we focus on the integration of these three modules in our OB tool. We present the motivation for building these components and we describe how they are integrated in the whole system. Moreover, the usability and the usefulness of OB have been evaluated and analysed showing that the tool helps to produce texts easier to understand for autistic people

New Insights on Peniche Basin (West Iberian Margin) Crustal Structure Based on Gravity Data Interpretation

A gravimetric study has been carried out over a sector of the West Iberian Margin (WIM), constrained by well and seismic data. The analytic development was made through three main stages: the processing of different gravity datasets, the production of gravity anomaly maps and 2,5D models using the processed data, and the geophysical interpretation of maps and models. The final results of the interpretation achieved, allowed the determination of crustal structure and its variation/complexity along the WIM. The main obtained results concern the pre-saline infilling and the deep structure of the margin, which vary related to the location of first-order oblique fractures