Search results for "Variable"
showing 10 items of 1674 documents
Quality of government and economic growth at the municipal level: Evidence from Spain
2021
This paper analyzes the relationship between quality of government and economic growth at the municipal level in 1,820 Spanish municipalities during the period 2008–2015. At this level of dis- aggregation, the literature is virtually non-existent due to severe data constraints. To address this limitation, we proxy institutional quality with a measure of local government efficiency, which provides an accurate indicator of how good local authorities are at managing their budgets. This variable is expected to be highly correlated with other more traditional quality of government indicators such as corruption. After computing our measure, we then use it in a growth regression framework. We find…
A Stochastic Model for Population and Well-Being Dynamics
2014
This article presents a stochastic dynamic model to study the demographic evolution per sexes and the corresponding well-being of a general human population. The main model variables are population per sexes and well-being. The considered well-being variable is the Gender-Related Development Index (GDI), a United Nations index. The model's objectives are to improve future well-being and to reach a stable population in a country. The application case consists of adapting, validating, and using the model for Spain in the 2000–2006 period. Some instance strategies have been tested in different scenarios for the 2006–2015 period to meet these objectives by calculating the reliability of the res…
Adiabatic invariants drive rhythmic human motion in variable gravity.
2019
Voluntary human movements are stereotyped. When modeled in the framework of classical mechanics they are expected to minimize cost functions that may include energy, a natural candidate from a physiological point of view also. In time-changing environments, however, energy is no longer conserved---regardless of frictional energy dissipation---and it is therefore not the preferred candidate for any cost function able to describe the subsequent changes in motor strategies. Adiabatic invariants are known to be relevant observables in such systems, although they still need to be investigated in human motor control. We fill this gap and show that the theory of adiabatic invariants provides an ac…
Eco-Efficiency of the English and Welsh Water Companies: A Cross Performance Assessment
2021
Analyzing costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be of great importance for the water utilities to supply water services in a healthy and sustainable manner. In this study, we measured the eco-efficiency of several water utilities in England and Wales by incorporating GHG as an undesirable output. For the first time, we evaluated the eco-efficiency of the water production process using robust cross-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA) techniques. The further use of clustering and regression techniques allowed us to better understand the drivers of eco-efficiency. The results showed that the mean eco-efficiency of the water sector was 0.748, which indicates that costs and GHG e…
No 'Honeymoon Phase' - Whose Health Benefits from Retirement and When
2017
I use a fixed effects instrumental variable approach to determine the effect retirement has on health. The exogenous variation in the probability to retire at the normal and early retirement age thresholds is exploited to instrument for the otherwise endogenous retirement decision. Six health aspects are considered: self-assessed health, depression, limitations in (instrumental) activities of daily living, mobility limitations, grip strength and number of words recalled. Using data for 10 countries from the Survey of Health, Retirement and Ageing in Europe (SHARE), I find that retiring both at the normal and early retirement eligibility ages significantly improves all health aspects, includ…
Quasihyperbolic boundary condition: Compactness of the inner boundary
2011
We prove that if a metric space satisfies a suitable growth condition in the quasihyperbolic metric and the Gehring–Hayman theorem in the original metric, then the inner boundary of the space is homeomorphic to the Gromov boundary. Thus, the inner boundary is compact. peerReviewed
Gromov hyperbolicity and quasihyperbolic geodesics
2014
We characterize Gromov hyperbolicity of the quasihyperbolic metric space (\Omega,k) by geometric properties of the Ahlfors regular length metric measure space (\Omega,d,\mu). The characterizing properties are called the Gehring--Hayman condition and the ball--separation condition. peerReviewed
Predictors of Job Satisfaction among Staff in Residential Settings for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities: A Comparison between Three Residential…
2010
Background This cross-sectional study aims to assess whether there are differences in staff job satisfaction, including organizational and individual characteristics, between three residential models for adults with intellectual disabilities (small residential home, group home and institution) and to investigate the organizational and individual variables associated with staff job satisfaction. Methods A standardized self-administered questionnaire (Job Satisfaction Survey) was distributed together with demographic questions between April 2007 and June 2007. In total, 1301 staff members completed the questionnaire. Results We found that staff working at small homes had a significantly hi…
Hardy spaces and quasiconformal maps in the Heisenberg group
2023
We define Hardy spaces $H^p$, $00$ such that every $K$-quasiconformal map $f:B \to f(B) \subset \mathbb{H}^1$ belongs to $H^p$ for all $0<p<p_0(K)$. Second, we give two equivalent conditions for the $H^p$ membership of a quasiconformal map $f$, one in terms of the radial limits of $f$, and one using a nontangential maximal function of $f$. As an application, we characterize Carleson measures on $B$ via integral inequalities for quasiconformal mappings on $B$ and their radial limits. Our paper thus extends results by Astala and Koskela, Jerison and Weitsman, Nolder, and Zinsmeister, from $\mathbb{R}^n$ to $\mathbb{H}^1$. A crucial difference between the proofs in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and $\mathbb{…
Socio-environmental variables and transmission risk of lymphatic filariasis in central and northern Mozambique
2013
Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is endemic in Mozambique, where it is caused by Wuchereria bancrofti with Culex quinquefasciatus as the main vector. It affects approximately 10% of the population (2 million) with about 16 million at risk. Prevalence rates in 40 out of 65 districts that together comprise the four endemic provinces Niassa, Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Zambezia were analysed with the aim of elucidating the socio-environmental variables influencing the transmission. The levels of prevalence were divided into six ranks and certain climatic, environmental and social factors were considered independent variables. A climadiagram was created and the LF risk and the water budget-based index w…