Economic and legal analysis of mandatory non-recourse mortgages with applications to Spain

“The liquidity crisis of the Spanish banks is largely due to the lack of confidence of foreign investors and, therefore, the changes that occur in the legislation should not affect the credibility, stability, legal certainty, predictability that markets expect”.Sergio Nasarre (2011)In the current situation of economic crisis, many people have found they can no longer pay back the mortgage loans that were granted to them in order to purchase a dwelling. It is for this reason that, in light of the economic, political and social problems this poses, our paper studies the state of the Spanish real-estate system and of foreclosure, paying special attention to the solution that has been proposed recently as the best option for debtors that cannot make their mort-gage payments: non-recourse mortgaging. We analyze this proposal from legal and economic perspectives in order to fully understand the effects that this change could imply. At the same time, this paper will also examine several alternatives we believe would ameliorate the situation of mortgage-holders, among them legal reforms, mortgage insurance, and non-recourse mortgaging itself.

Does unemployment hurt less if there is more of it around? A panel analysis of life satisfaction in Germany and Switzerland

This paper examines the existence of a habituation effect to unemployment: Do theunemployed suffer less from job loss if unemployment is more widespread, if their ownunemployment lasts longer and if unemployment is a recurrent experience? Theunderlying idea is that unemployment hysteresis may operate through a sociologicalchannel: if many people in the community lose their job and remain unemployed over anextended period, the psychological cost of being unemployed diminishes and the pressureto accept a new job declines. We analyze this question with individual-level data from theGerman Socio-Economic Panel (1984-2009) and the Swiss Household Panel (2000-2009). We find no evidence for a mitigating effect of high surrounding unemployment onunemployed individuals' subjective well-being: Becoming unemployed hurts as muchwhen regional unemployment is high as when it is low. Likewise, the strongly harmfulimpact of being unemployed on well-being does not wear off over time, nor do repeatedepisodes of unemployment make it any better. It thus appears doubtful that anunemployment shock becomes persistent because the unemployed become used to, andhence reasonably content with, being without a job.

An evolutionary analysis of the relationship between spite and altruism.

We investigate the selective pressures on a social trait when evolution occurs in a population of constant size. We show that any social trait that is spiteful simultaneously qualifies as altruistic. In other words, any trait that reduces the fitness of less related individuals necessarily increases that of related ones. Our analysis demonstrates that the distinction between "Hamiltonian spite" and "Wilsonian spite" is not justified on the basis of fitness effects. We illustrate this general result with an explicit model for the evolution of a social act that reduces the recipient's survival ("harming trait"). This model shows that the evolution of harming is favoured if local demes are of small size and migration is low (philopatry). Further, deme size and migration rate determine whether harming evolves as a selfish strategy by increasing the fitness of the actor, or as a spiteful/altruistic strategy through its positive effect on the fitness of close kin.

An Analysis of Human Trafficking in Iowa, January 1, 2016

Human trafficking has become a topic receiving much interest both in Iowa and nationally. However, estimates of human trafficking incidents and victims are difficult to derive given the underground nature of the offense. The purpose of this analysis is to gather data on human trafficking incidents in the state of Iowa.

The CerdàPlan for the Extension of Barcelona: A Constructivist Analysis of a Town-planning Controversy

Peer-reviewed

RiskDiff: A web tool for the analysis of the difference due to risk and demographic factors for incidence or mortality data.

Background Analysing the observed differences for incidence or mortality of a particular disease between two different situations (such as time points, geographical areas, gender or other social characteristics) can be useful both for scientific or administrative purposes. From an epidemiological and public health point of view, it is of great interest to assess the effect of demographic factors in these observed differences in order to elucidate the effect of the risk of developing a disease or dying from it. The method proposed by Bashir and Estève, which splits the observed variation into three components: risk, population structure and population size is a common choice at practice. Results A web-based application, called RiskDiff has been implemented (available at http://rht.iconcologia.net/riskdiff.htm webcite), to perform this kind of statistical analyses, providing text and graphical summaries. Code from the implemented functions in R is also provided. An application to cancer mortality data from Catalonia is used for illustration. Conclusions Combining epidemiological with demographical factors is crucial for analysing incidence or mortality from a disease, especially if the population pyramids show substantial differences. The tool implemented may serve to promote and divulgate the use of this method to give advice for epidemiologic interpretation and decision making in public health.

Using narratives to study the impact of social networks on the educational paths of immigrant students

This paper presents the qualitative data collection process aimed at the study of the impactsocial relations and networks have on educational paths of immigrant students. In theframework of a R & D longitudinal study funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation(2012-2014), the research team tracked the path of 87 immigrant students, from whom only 17successfully achieved the transition through the first and second year of Post-16 Education.A vast range of literature notes that relationships are an important part of migration process andsocial integration analysis, as well as school history in terms of success or failure. Through thefieldwork researchers collect the personal networks of all immigrant students from 3 highschools who were at that time attending last course of compulsory school. The network structureinfluences their social capital and therefore determines the resources, goods and types of supportindividuals can access. All these aspects are influential elements in the configuration anddevelopment of academic trajectories of immigrant students.At the end of the second year of Post-16 Education (two years later), the study captures personalnetworks of these students again, analyses and discusses their evolution and influence on theirpaths through qualitative interviews. Such interviews facilitated the discussion of theirrelationships while providing interesting narratives that are presented in the text. In order to do so, the biographical interpretive narrative method of interviewing is implemented.

Using narratives to study the impact of social networks on the educational paths of immigrant students

This paper presents the qualitative data collection process aimed at the study of the impactsocial relations and networks have on educational paths of immigrant students. In theframework of a R & D longitudinal study funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation(2012-2014), the research team tracked the path of 87 immigrant students, from whom only 17successfully achieved the transition through the first and second year of Post-16 Education.A vast range of literature notes that relationships are an important part of migration process andsocial integration analysis, as well as school history in terms of success or failure. Through thefieldwork researchers collect the personal networks of all immigrant students from 3 highschools who were at that time attending last course of compulsory school. The network structureinfluences their social capital and therefore determines the resources, goods and types of supportindividuals can access. All these aspects are influential elements in the configuration anddevelopment of academic trajectories of immigrant students.At the end of the second year of Post-16 Education (two years later), the study captures personalnetworks of these students again, analyses and discusses their evolution and influence on theirpaths through qualitative interviews. Such interviews facilitated the discussion of theirrelationships while providing interesting narratives that are presented in the text. In order to do so, the biographical interpretive narrative method of interviewing is implemented.

The Feminization of Occupations and Change in Wages : a Panel Analysis of Britain, Germany, and Switzerland

In the past four decades, women have made major inroads into occupations previously dominated by men. This paper examines whether occupational feminization is accompanied by a decline in wages: Do workers suffer a wage penalty if they remain in, or move into, feminizing occupations? We analyze this question over the 1990s and 2000s in Britain, Germany, and Switzerland, using longitudinal panel data to estimate individual fixed effects for men and women. Moving from an entirely male to an entirely female occupation entails a loss in individual earnings of 13 percent in Britain, 7 percent in Switzerland, and 3 percent in Germany. The impact of occupational feminization on wages is not linear, but sets apart occupations holding more than 60 percent of women. Moving into such female occupations incurs a wage penalty. Contrary to the prevailing idea in economics, differences in productivity-human capital, job-specific skills, and time investment-do not fully explain the wage gap between male and female occupations. The wage penalty associated with working in a female occupation is also much larger where employer discretion is greater-in the private sector-than where wagesetting is guided by formal rules-the public sector. These findings suggest that wage disparities across male and female occupations are due to gender devaluation.

Quality of Qualitative Research in the Health Sciences : Analysis of the Common Criteria Present in 58 Assessment Guidelines by Expert Users

The number of qualitative research methods has grown substantially over the last twenty years, both in social sciences and, more recently, in the health sciences. This growth came with questions on the quality criteria needed to evaluate this work, and numerous guidelines were published. The latters include many discrepancies though, both in their vocabulary and construction. Many expert evaluators decry the absence of consensual and reliable evaluation tools. The authors present the results of an evaluation of 58 existing guidelines in 4 major health science fields (medicine and epidemiology; nursing and health education; social sciences and public health; psychology / psychiatry, research methods and organization) by expert users (article reviewers, experts allocating funds, editors, etc.). The results propose a toolbox containing 12 consensual criteria with the definitions given by expert users. They also indicate in which disciplinary field each type of criteria is known to be more or less essential. Nevertheless, the authors highlight the limitations of the criteria comparability, as soon as one focuses on their specific definitions. They conclude that each criterion in the toolbox must be explained to come to broader consensus and identify definitions that are consensual to all the fields examined and easily operational.

Confirmatory factor analysis of an inventory of perception of insecurity and fear of crime

This paper focuses on the study of the factorial structure of an inventory to estimate the subjective perception of insecurity and fear of crime. Made from the review of the literature on the subject and the results obtained in previous works, this factor structure shows that this attitude towards insecurity and fear of crime is identified through a number of latent factors which are schematically summarized in (a) personal safety, (b) the perception of personal and social control, (c) the presence of threatening people or situations, (d) the processes of identity and space appropriation, (e) satisfaction with the environment, and (f) the environmental and the use of space. Such factors are relevant dimensions to analyze the phenomenon. Method: A sample of 571 participants in a neighborhood of Barcelona was evaluated with the proposed inventory, which yielded data from the distributions of all the items provided. The administration was conducted by researchers specially trained for it and the results were analyzed by using standard procedures in the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) from the hypothesized theoretical structure. The analysis was performed by decatypes according to the different response scales prepared in the inventory and their ordinal nature, and by estimating the polychoric correlation coefficients. The results show an acceptable fit of the proposed model, an appropriate behavior of the residuals and statistically significant estimates of the factor loadings. This would indicate the goodness of the proposed factor structure.

Braving the Storm: How Are Global Biofuel Policies Sustained Despite Being Contested? An Analysis of the Biofuel Discourses of the EU, Brazil and Mozambique

Considered as a remedy to multiple problems that our world is facing, biofuels are nowadays promoted on a global scale. Despite this globalised approach, however, biofuels are heavily contested. Not only the social implications of biofuels are disputed and uncertain, particularly in countries of the global South, but also their environmental and economic rationales. Given these huge controversies, policies promoting biofuels would seem difficult to maintain. Yet, support for them has been surprisingly well established on the political agendas. With the aim of understanding this puzzle, this study asks how the dominant approach to biofuels has been sustained on a global level. In order to answer this question, the meanings and assumptions in biofuel discourses are explored through the lens of Maarten Hajer’s “argumentative” discourse analysis. Based on the existence of a “partnership for sustainable bioenergy” between the EU, Brazil and Mozambique, the study takes these three locations as case studies. The analysis reveals that various discursive strategies, including a particular problem construction and the use of two main story-lines, have played an important role in ensuring the permanence of the global approach to biofuels. Moreover, while the discourse of critics against biofuels demonstrates that there is room for contestation, the analysis finds that the opponents’ discourse largely fails to target the most salient justification for biofuels. A more effective strategy for critics would therefore be to also question the problem constructions underpinning this main justification in the global discourse.

The biological embedding of social differences in ageing trajectories.

The occurrence of adult disease is related to lifetime experiences and, at least in part, to early life events. It is now well established that socioeconomic circumstances across the lifetime are major determinants of adult health and disease, and the current economic crisis is amplifying susceptibility to disease and unhealthy ageing in disadvantaged subgroups of the population. In adulthood, the gap between social groups is extensive in terms of mortality, functional performances and cognitive capacity. Since the occurrence of adult disease is related to lifetime experiences, including early life exposures, late-life preventive efforts may be of limited efficacy, particularly in disadvantaged subgroups. We now have the analytical tools to understand mechanisms that underlie life-long susceptibility to unhealthy ageing, and new knowledge can lead to better and more effective mechanisms to prevent diseases and reduce health inequalities. In this perspective, we first discuss the impact of recent changes in the understanding of chronic disease aetiology on our interpretation of the influence of life-course socioeconomic status (SES) on health and ageing. We then propose a model for integrating the exposome concept (the myriad of exposures derived from exogenous and endogenous sources) into the analysis of life-course socioeconomic differentials in ageing.

Analyzing OpenCourseWare usage by means of social tagging

Anàlisi de l'ús de OpenCourseWare per mitjà de marcadors socials

Compositional data analysis of vote shares in the 2001 Australian Federal election

First application of compositional data analysis techniques to Australian election data