Search results for "Macroeconomic"
showing 10 items of 503 documents
Towards an Agent-Based Model for the Analysis of Macroeconomic Signals
2020
This work introduces an agent-based model for the analysis of macroeconomic signals. The Bottom-up Adaptive Model (BAM) deploys a closed Walrasian economy where three types of agents (households, firms and banks) interact in three markets (goods, labor and credit) producing some signals of interest, e.g., unemployment rate, GDP, inflation, wealth distribution, etc. Agents are bounded rational, i.e., their behavior is defined in terms of simple rules finitely searching for the best salary, the best price, and the lowest interest rate in the corresponding markets, under incomplete information. The markets define fixed protocols of interaction adopted by the agents. The observed signals are em…
STRATEGY TO INCREASE THE FARM COMPETITIVENESS
2014
Italy’s wine-growing production structure is highly pulverized. So, for many wine-growing farms loweri ng the production cost represents the only way of gain ing a competitive advantage. Production at average unit costs lower than competitors allows to improve prof itability. Among farming operations, winter pruning and tying of productive vine-branches require a high hu man labor. For this reason the paper presents the r esults of research conducted on a sample of Sicilian wine- producing farms in order to study the cost-effectiv eness to make the pruning and the subsequent ligation of productive branches with tools that facilitate the work. The economic analysis, after the determination o…
Water Consumption and Management in Schools in the City of Alicante (Southern Spain) (2000–2017): Free Water Helps Promote Saving Water?
2020
Studies on water in cities usually focus on household consumption. However, little attention has been given to non-household consumption and schools from a geographic perspective. The objectives of this research are to examine water consumption trends in schools in the city of Alicante (Southern Spain) between 2000&ndash
On the impact of safety requirements, energy prices and investment costs in street lighting refurbishment design
2018
Abstract Street lighting is an indispensable feature for the night landscape of cities. It is important for road safety, users visual comfort, crime prevention and to augment the perceived personal safety. Realize and maintain an adequate street lighting service is very expensive for municipalities with significant impact on their budgets. For this reason, special attention should be paid to the design of new street lighting systems and to the refurbishment of existing ones, since many of them are inadequate. In light of this it is very important to implement street lighting designs that fulfil lighting requirements avoiding energy waste and light pollution and, at the same time, result eco…
Observed heterospecific clutch size can affect offspring investment decisions.
2011
Optimal investment in offspring is important in maximizing lifetime reproductive success. Yet, very little is known how animals gather and integrate information about environmental factors to fine tune investment. Observing the decisions and success of other individuals, particularly when those individuals initiate breeding earlier, may provide a way for animals to quickly arrive at better breeding investment decisions. Here we show, with a field experiment using artificial nests appearing similar to resident tit nests with completed clutches, that a migratory bird can use the observed high and low clutch size of a resident competing bird species to increase and decrease clutch size and egg…
Micro-investment perspective and the potential of the universal basic income
2018
In this article, we explore the prospects of Basic Income (BI) as a development policy tool. Our approach is to analyse the BI as a tool for promoting micro-investments and as a general development policy instrument, thus deliberately departing from the perception of cash transfers as targeted poverty reduction tools. As experiences in testing BI systems in developing country contexts are limited to local and regional experiments in Namibia and India (Haarmann et al., 2009; Haarmann & Haarmann, 2012; Davala et al., 2015), conclusive assessments about the impacts of the BI cannot be drawn. Therefore, we aim to estimate potential impacts of the BI by synthesising existing knowledge. This esti…
Different scenarios of electric mobility: Current situation and possible future developments of fuel cell vehicles in Italy
2020
The diffusion of electric vehicles in Italy has started but some complications weight its spread. At present, hybrid technology is the most followed by users, due particularly to socioeconomic factors such as cost of investment and range anxiety. After a deep discussion of the Italian scenario, the aim of the paper is to recognize whether fuel cell technology may be an enabling solution to overcome pollution problems and respect for the environment. The opportunity to use fuel cells to store electric energy is quite fascinating&mdash
Uses of places and setting preferences in a French Antarctic station
2007
The various uses of space as well as the environmental preferences of wintering people were investigated during 1 year in a French Antarctic station using daily participant observation (for uses of places) and a repeated measure of the perception and evaluation of the settings. The uses of places varied according to occupational and age subgroups: The young scientists expressed a higher need for privacy and a strong investment in their working areas, whereas the technicians preferred the social leisure area (main hall). These places were used as different behavior settings and thus corresponded to flexible environments. Flexibility was a characteristic of all the preferred places. A change…
OFN Capital Budgeting Under Uncertainty and Risk
2017
The aim of this chapter is to propose a new approach to incorporating uncertainty into capital budgeting. The chapter presents methods that can be used by an investor when the decision maker wants to be able to make an investment decision where there are alternative investment projects. This kind of problem is undertaken under the conditions of uncertainty and risk using Ordered Fuzzy Numbers (OFN). The starting point is the concept of Ordered Fuzzy Numbers. The chapter illustrates the implementation of the proposed approach with an example where two alternative investment projects are analyzed. The authors present the capital budgeting problem using a numerical example. The described metho…
Child protection in Europe: development of an international cross-comparison model to inform national policies and practices
2015
We report a five-nations project in comparative child protection to provide recommendations on policy and practice to inform the redevelopment of the Swiss child protection system. The Swiss Federal Government and the Optimus and Oak Foundations commissioned the project—collective title: Association Programme National pour la Protection de l'Enfant. We identify the historical developmental trajectories of child protection systems together with common drivers: the evidential basis for the prevalence and effects of child abuse, the co-joining of social and economic policies and practices to promote early investment in children, the influence of children's rights and comparative international …