Search results for "25"
showing 10 items of 3263 documents
Sensitivity analysis and process optimization of a natural gas dehydration unit using triethylene glycol
2019
Abstract Dehydration of natural gas by absorption using triethylene glycol (TEG) is a common industrial offshore procedure to ensure the compliance with the required water dew point specifications for midstream transportation. Two thermodynamic models, the UMR-PRU and the TST/NRTL, are applied for the process simulation while a preliminary economic evaluation has been conducted revealing that both yield overall similar results as for the fixed capital cost which is found to be in good agreement with reported literature values. Moreover, sensitivity analysis of several operational parameters of the process has been performed and optimized values are suggested aiming to reduce its energy requ…
After the Millennium Development Goals. Remarks on the ethical assessment of global poverty reduction success
2018
The Millennium Development Goals were effective from 2000 to 2015. Statistics show that most of the goals were met, and particularly success in the goal of reducing extreme poverty (MDG1) gained wide recognition. Despite the strong ethical language related to poverty reduction, there has been little analysis of the ethical significance of the MDG achievements. Since statistical and ethical definitions and representations of poverty never completely overlap, conclusions concerning ethical progress are not directly available from the statistics. This article shows how this ethical significance can be analysed and what kinds of controversies and uncertainties relate to the issue. As part of th…
Knowing is half the battle: Seasonal forecasts, adaptive cropping systems, and the mediating role of private markets in Zambia
2019
Abstract This paper examines how smallholders living in regions where a drought is forecasted adapt their farm practices in response to receiving seasonal forecast information. The article draws on a unique longitudinal dataset in Zambia, which collected information from farm households before and after a significant drought caused by the 2015/2016 El-Nino Southern Oscillation. It finds that farmers residing in areas forecasted to be drought-affected and receiving seasonal forecast information are significantly more likely to integrate drought tolerant crops into their cropping systems compared to similar households not receiving this information. Moreover, the probability that a farmer imp…
How alternative food networks work in a metropolitan area? An analysis of Solidarity Purchase Groups in Northern Italy
2019
AbstractOur paper focuses on Solidarity Purchase Group (SPG) participants located in a highly urbanized area, with the aim to investigate the main motivations underlining their participation in a SPG and provide a characterization of them. To this end, we carried out a survey of 795 participants involved in 125 SPGs in the metropolitan area of Milan (Italy). Taking advantage of a questionnaire with 39 questions, we run a factor analysis and a two-step cluster analysis to identify different profiles of SPG participants. Our results show that the system of values animating metropolitan SPG practitioners does not fully conform to that traditionally attributed to an alternative food network (AF…
Higher education in the fight against poverty from the capabilities approach: The case of Spain
2017
Abstract This article describes relative poverty in Spain in relation to the other States in the European Union, following the European indicator AROPE. The official data provided by the National Statistical Institute of Spain and by Eurostat, refer to the year 2014 (the last one for which definitive data are available is 2015). Given the relative poverty of Spanish population, the failure of conventional economic theories, which conceive social development as GDP growth, is clear, and it is argued in favour of the human capabilities approach as a more adequate option for development, from a theoretical-practical point of view, for the reduction and/or eradication of poverty, as well as the…
Urban segregation and unemployment: A case study of the urban area of Marseille – Aix-en-Provence (France)
2018
International audience; In this paper, we study the effects of the spatial organization of the urban area of Marseille – Aix-en-Provence on unemployment there. More specifically, differences in the characteristics of the residential population induce urban stratification with the result that urban structure may affect the probability of employment. In order to evaluate the effects of spatial structure on unemployment, we implement a spatial probit model to reveal the employment probabilities of young adults still living with their parents. Our results support the hypothesis that living in or near a deprived neighborhood decreases the probability of employment.
An international cohort comparison of size effects on job growth
2015
The contribution of different-sized businesses to job creation continues to attract policymakers’ attention, however, it has recently been recognized that conclusions about size were confounded with the effect of age. We probe the role of size, controlling for age, by comparing the cohorts of firms born in 1998 over their first decade of life, using variation across half a dozen northern European countries Austria, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the UK to pin down size effects. We find that a very small proportion of the smallest firms play a crucial role in accounting for cross-country differences in job growth. A closer analysis reveals that the initial size distribution and surviv…
How do Banking Crises Impact on Income Inequality?
2012
We show that banking crises have an important effect on income distribution: inequality increases before banking crisis episodes and sharply declines afterwards. We also find that, while a large government size does not per se seem to reduce inequality, a rise in financial depth (i.e. better access to credit provided by the banking sector) contributes to a more equal distribution of income.
Does one size fit all? The impact of cognitive skills on economic growth
2016
Les Documents de Travail de l'IREDU, n°2016-1; This paper tests for heterogeneous effects of cognitive skills on economic growth across countries. Using a new extended dataset on cognitive skills and controlling for potential endogeneity, we find that the magnitude of the effect is about 60 per cent higher for low-income countries compared to high-income countries, and it more than doubles when low TFP countries are compared to high TFP countries. There are also marked differences across geographic regions. Using data on the share of the population with advanced and minimum skill levels, our results also indicate that high-income countries should focus on increasing the number of high skill…
One swallow does not make a summer: episodes and persistence in high growth
2021
This paper analyzes firms’ episodes (spells) of high growth (HG) using a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms observed over two decades. The use of duration models allows us to investigate the following: (i) the probability of experiencing HG episodes, (ii) persistence in HG, and (iii) the determinants of the transitions in and out of the HG state and whether their impact varies over the business cycle. We find that about half of the firms experience at least one HG episode, but they seldom experience more than one. Moreover, high-growth status is rarely repeated due to high first-year selection. Yet, in subsequent years beyond the first one, the hazard rate from HG status falls substantia…