Gender-based undervaluation and the equal remuneration powers of Fair Work Australia

We investigate gender-based wage undervaluation in light of FairWork Australia’s major recent decision for social and community service workers. Using regression methods, we demonstrate that wages for employees in female-dominated occupations are significantly lower than for comparable employees in male-dominated and integrated occupations. This undervaluation is present for both male and female employees, and persists after controlling for industry of employment. We then estimate the undervaluation within industry and juxtapose the results with evidence on the industry distribution of award reliance, a proxy for Fair Work Australia’s equal remuneration powers. There is not a strong relationship within industries between the extent of gender-based undervaluation and award reliance. This suggests that ‘equal remuneration for work of equal or comparable value’ is unlikely to be achieved universally by Fair Work Australia without substantial spillovers between awards and non-award agreements.

Re-estimation of small-scale fishery catches for U.S. flag-associated island areas in the western Pacific: the last 50 years

Nearshore fisheries in the tropical Pacific play an important role, both culturally and as a reliable source of food security, but often remain under-reported in statistics, leading to undervaluation of their importance to communities. We re-estimated nonpelagic catches for Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and summarize previous work for American Samoa for 1950−2002. For all islands combined, catches declined by 77%, contrasting with increasing trends indicated by reported data. For individual island entities, re-estima-tion suggested declines of 86%, 54%, and 79% for Guam, CNMI, and American Samoa, respectively. Except for Guam, reported data primarily represented commercial catches, and hence under-represented contributions by subsistence and recreational fisheries. Guam’s consistent use of creel surveys for data collection resulted in the most reliable reported catches for any of the islands considered. Our re-estimation makes the scale of under-reporting of total catches evident, and provides valuable baselines of likely historic patterns in fisheries catches.

Empirical evidences on voluntary delisting phenomenon

The paper studies what drives firms to voluntary delist from capital markets and what differs in firms’ behavior and fundamentals between public-to-private transactions and M&A deals with listed corporations. Moreover, I study the relationship between ownership percentage in controlling shareholders’ hands and cumulative returns around the delisting public announcement. I perform my tests both for the Italian and the US markets and I compare the findings to better understand how the phenomenon works in these different institutional environments. Consistent with my expectations, I find that the likelihood of delisting is mainly related to size, underperformance and undervaluation, while shareholders are more rewarded when their companies are involved in PTP transactions than in M&As with public firms.

Level Of Women Participation In Rural Development - A Comparative Study Of Governmental And Non-Governmental Organisations In Kerala

The study is intended to estimate the existing rate of participation of women beneficiaries in the development programmes of different organisations in Kerala. It would enable one to understand whether participation is at the satisfactory level or not. Given the rate of participation, the major thrust of the analysis is on the impact of governmental and non-governmental organisations on the rate of participation. This is undertaken under the assumption that NGOs, due to their proximity to people and their needs, ensure better participation rates. Besides the organisational differences, the other major determinants of women participation such as their socio-economic characteristics, psychological make up, the nature of the programme etc. are also highlighted. 0 Since the ascribed status of women in society is inferior, the role of organisers, development personnel and local leaders is also pointed out. Thus the basic objective of the study is women participation and its determinants in the development programmes

Por una historia de la desigualdad en el largo plazo. Fuentes y métodos para medir la inequidad en épocas pre-estadísticas (Estudios)

Este texto se propone evaluar los alcances y limitaciones de algunas fuentes que se pueden utilizar para medir la desigualdad económica en períodos pre-estadísticos, en especial los inventarios post-mortem y algunos censos económicos efectuados por motivos fiscales de pretensión más universal. Ambos han sido usados por los historiadores desde hace tiempo y presentan diversos problemas. En el caso de los censos se ha señalado sobre todo la subvaluación de los capitales y en el de los inventarios el fuerte sesgo social y etario. Sin embargo, ambos tienen una potencialidad irreemplazable ante la falta de alternativas, pero requieren de recaudos y estrategias metodológicas para corregir dichos defectos.

Barriers and commitment of facilities management profession to the sustainability agenda

The practice of sustainable facilities management (FM) is rapidly evolving with the increasing interest in the discourse of sustainable development. This paper examines a recent survey of the experiences of facilities managers in the rapidly growing and evolving industry in regard to the barriers and their commitment to the sustainability agenda. The survey results show that time constraints, lack of knowledge and lack of senior management commitment are the main barriers for the implementation of consistent and comprehensive sustainable FM policy and practice. The paper concludes that the diversity of the FM role and the traditional undervaluation of the contribution it makes to the success of organisations are partially responsible for lack of success in achieving sustainable facilities. The overwhelming barrier for sustainable FM practice is the lack of understanding, focus and commitment of senior executives in appreciating the opportunities, threats and need for strategic leadership and direction in driving essential change, and hence further the sustainability agenda.

Biodiversity and resilience of ecosystem functions

Accelerating rates of environmental change and the continued loss of global biodiversity threaten functions and services delivered by ecosystems. Much ecosystem monitoring and management is focused on the provision of ecosystem functions and services under current environmental conditions, yet this could lead to inappropriate management guidance and undervaluation of the importance of biodiversity. The maintenance of ecosystem functions and services under substantial predicted future environmental change (i.e., their ‘resilience’) is crucial. Here we identify a range of mechanisms underpinning the resilience of ecosystem functions across three ecological scales. Although potentially less important in the short term, biodiversity, encompassing variation from within species to across landscapes, may be crucial for the longer-term resilience of ecosystem functions and the services that they underpin.

Discriminação salarial por cor e gênero revisitada: uma abordagem de decomposição contrafactual utilizando regressões quantílicas

A desigualdade salarial, especialmente a resultante da discriminação contra negros e mulheres no mercado de trabalho, é um componente importante da elevada concentração de renda da economia brasileira. Ao contrário da grande maioria dos trabalhos já desenvolvidos nesta área, este trabalho não adota a hipótese de que os efeitos de atributos determinantes do salário são constantes e idênticos para os indivíduos ao longo da distribuição de renda. São estimadas as estruturas salariais para cada percentil da distribuição salarial para homens brancos, homens negros, mulheres brancas e mulheres negras utilizando a técnica de decomposição contrafactual por regressões quantílicas, proposta por Koenker e Bassett (1978) e desenvolvida por Machado e Mata (2004). Isto proporciona uma compreensão mais detalhada e abrangente dos fatores que determinam a remuneração do trabalho para diferentes níveis de renda e fornece uma medida mais completa do grau de discriminação contra os negros e mulheres no mercado de trabalho ao longo da distribuição salarial. Para os três grupos, a discriminação é crescente em relação à posição na distribuição salarial, indicando a dificuldade de se atingir posições melhor remuneradas no mercado de trabalho por parte de mulheres e negros. A discriminação afeta principalmente as mulheres negras, seguidas das mulheres brancas e dos homens negros. Para os homens negros, a discriminação é baixa entre os mais pobres e cresce nos níveis mais altos da distribuição. As mulheres brancas sofrem ao longo de toda a distribuição com maior efeito entre os 15% mais ricos. As mulheres negras sofrem com a discriminação por cor e gênero, estando assim na pior situação entre os grupos. A remuneração da educação estimada para os quatro grupos indica ganhos crescentes conforme a posição na distribuição salarial ampliando a desigualdade salarial intra-grupo, adicionalmente, observa-se uma desvalorização da educação dos negros de ambos os sexos na determinação salarial e que as mulheres sofrem algum tipo de discriminação no que diz respeito à educação apenas nos níveis salariais mais elevados. Os ganhos salariais obtidos com a equalização da escolaridade e formalização entre os grupos discriminados e os homens brancos indicam que, no caso da educação, homens e mulheres negros teriam ganhos ao longo de toda a distribuição, com ênfase entre os mais ricos. Para a formalização, a população nos decis inferiores da distribuição salarial seria a principal beneficiada.

Does monetary policy stabilize the exchange rate following a currency crisis?

This paper provides evidence on the relationship between rnonetary policy and the exchange rate in the aftermath of currency crises. It ana1yzes a large data set of currency crises in 80 countries in the period 1980 to 1998. The rnain question addressed is: can rnonetary policy significantly alter the probability of reversing the post-crisis undervaluation through nominal appreciation rather than higher int1ation? We find that tight rnonetary policy facilitates the reversal of currency undervaluation through nominal appreciation rather than inflation. When the econorny is also facing a banking crisis, depending on the specification, tight rnonetary policy rnay not have the same effect.

EJA: saberes na articulação curricular da Escola Municipal Professor Amadeu Araújo

The target of this paper is to investigate the possibilities of inscribing into the EJA curriculum the knowledge detected in the neighborhood of a school if the point of view of the student body regarding the basic schooling deserves its due consideration. The empirical field of our research focuses on the elementary school of professor Amadeu Araújo Municipal School in Natal. Our investigative course tried to understand the way pupils think the curriculum contents of knowledge spread around the school from the vision furnished by their elementary school. With this, we hoped to develop a creative understanding concerning that question. Then we reviewed, along the debate, questions related to Nova Natal Housing Estate and its historic, social and cultural beginnings taking in account the participants memories of this research and their suggestions concerning the utility of the community knowledge to the curriculum practices. This project is supplied by the qualitative research and reinforced by the Focal Group s methodological procedures and semi-structured interviews. This procedure allowed us to discern different points of viewing, feeling and understanding in the complexity of the daily life around school and its environment. With these elements, we could note that some students perceptions pointed to a basic schooling fomented by traditionalized pedagogical practices in which teacher and pupil seldom dialogue with each other, what corroborates the impression of undervaluation of the pupil s role. Consequently, the nets of knowledge waved around the school in Nova Natal Housing Estate become useless, when they could be of great utility if inserted in the curriculum contents

A territorial perspective: towards the consolidation of human settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean

Includes bibliography

Neoliberalism, Gender Inequality and the Australian Labour Market

Over the past 25 years neoliberal philosophies have increasingly informed labour market policies in Australia that have led to increasing levels of wage decentralization. The most recent industrial relations changes aim to decentralize wage setting significantly further than has previously been the case. We argue that this is problematic for gender equity as wage decentralization will entrench rather than challenge the undervaluation of feminized work. In this article we provide an overview of key neoliberal industrial relations policy changes pertinent to gender equity and examine the current state of gender equity in the labour market. Results show that women's labour force participation has steadily increased over time but that a number of negative trends exclude women with substantial caring responsibilities from pursuing a career track. The implications of increasing levels of wage deregulation are that gender wage inequality and the potential for discrimination will grow.

Ocorrência de leite instável na região semiárida do Rio Grande do Norte e sua correlação com a qualidade do leite

The unstable non acid milk (UNAM) is characterized by coagulation in the alcohol test and wanted acidity (14-18°D). Among Brazilian regions, the South and Southeast have the highest occurrence of LINA, which has been causing problems for both producers and for industries, due to the disposal or undervaluation of milk. In the Northeast there are few studies that indicate their occurrence and quality. The objective of this study was to identify the occurrence of unstable non-acid milk in the west and central mesoregions of Rio Grande do Norte, determine their physicochemical characteristics, test alcoholic graduations and evaluate their correlation with the quality of milk. 176 raw milk samples were analyzed in the period from September to December /2014 from 23 APASA’s cooling tanks, located in 7 cities of west and central mesoregions RN. The samples were collected in duplicate, one sample used for alcohol testing at 68, 72 and 76%, measurement of pH, acidity, electrical conductivity and boiling proof, made in LABOLEITE / UFRN; and the other sample containing Bronopol® preservative, was sent to the APCBRH (Cattle Breeders Association Paranaense Holstein) laboratory in Curitiba-PR, which were analyzed fat, protein, total solids, lactose, casein, urea nitrogen and somatic cell count. The test alcohol samples disapproved 31.82%, of which 30% proved to be non-acid, and 30% had high acidity. The samples were divided into three classes: Stable Milk, UNAM and acid milk. 3% Tukey test was used for comparison of stable milk components and UNAM and there was no significant difference between them. Both classes obtained averages within the standard required by IN 62. The average value of electric conductivity was 4.84 mS/cm for stable milk, 4.55 mS/cm for unstable and acid milk and 4.53 mS/cm for non-acid unstable milk. The electrical conductivity was positively correlated with alcohol stability of milk and negative correlation with acidity and pH. Could not observe direct relationship between the electrical conductivity and the somatic cell count.The boiling test was negative for all samples UNAM. It can be concluded that the incidence of UNAM in the studied region is low, although the predisposing factors such as heat stress, drought and nutritional deficiency. In conclusion, the UNAM has quality similar to stable milk, conform the norms required by Agriculture Ministry, and with adequate thermal stability, which proves that there is no reason to reject this milk by industry.

The Role of the Ocean Economy in the National Income Accounts of Indonesia

This paper presents the role of the Ocean Economy in the National Income Accounts of Indonesia including the concept and methodology used to estimate the contribution of this ecosystem to Indonesian value added. Currently, the national income account of Indonesia only recognizes the fishery sector. Fishery activities have been considered as one of the sub-sectors of agricultural sector together with sub-sectors of farm food crops, plantation or non-food crops, forestry, and livestock. There are some drawbacks in the concept of national income accounts, since it follows the UN system of national accounts (SNA) that recognize only economic sectors or activities which produce the value added, while it does not recognize the ecosystems such as lakes and river ecosystems, forests as well as terrestrial and ocean ecosystems as production sectors. The present concept of the SNA produces an undervaluation of forest and ocean sectors, which in turn may direct the policy makers to have a tendency to deplete the forestry and fishery resources in order to increase the contribution of those two sectors to the national income accounts. Otherwise, the two sectors will be allocated small national budget for their operations. Therefore the paper concludes that a new concept of national income accounts based on ecosystem products and services to be developed, as a satellite account to the national income account is needed. Furthermore the new concept of national income account for the ocean economy should adopt the UN System of Environmental and Economic Accounts, which takes into account the extractive and non-extractive products as environmental and biological services in to the ocean income account. The new concept of ocean accounting based on both extractive and non-extractive products instead of only based on the extractive one which have market values may guarantee the sustainability of the ocean in particular and will be good for the whole economy of the country in generally. Hence the national income accounts of the ocean economy will show how the blue economy or the ocean economy really function as one of the important sectors for the whole economy of the country.

Empirical studies on share issuance and repurchase decisions

Financial constraints influence corporate policies of firms, including both investment decisions and external financing policies. The relevance of this phenomenon has become more pronounced during and after the recent financial crisis in 2007/2008. In addition to raising costs of external financing, the effects of financial crisis limited the availability of external financing which had implications for employment, investment, sale of assets, and tech spending. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the effects of financial constraints on share issuance and repurchases decisions. Financial constraints comprise both internal constraints reflecting the demand for external financing and external financial constraints that relate to the supply of external financing. The study also examines both operating performance and stock market reactions associated with equity issuance methods. The first empirical chapter explores the simultaneous effects of financial constraints and market timing on share issuance decisions. Internal financing constraints limit firms’ ability to issue overvalued equity. On the other hand, financial crisis and low market liquidity (external financial constraints) restrict availability of equity financing and consequently increase the costs of external financing. Therefore, the study explores the extent to which internal and external financing constraints limit market timing of equity issues. This study finds that financial constraints play a significant role in whether firms time their equity issues when the shares are overvalued. The conclusion is that financially constrained firms issue overvalued equity when the external equity market or the general economic conditions are favourable. During recessionary periods, costs of external finance increase such that financially constrained firms are less likely to issue overvalued equity. Only unconstrained firms are more likely to issue overvalued equity even during crisis. Similarly, small firms that need cash flows to finance growth projects are less likely to access external equity financing during period of significant economic recessions. Moreover, constrained firms have low average stock returns compared to unconstrained firms, especially when they issue overvalued equity. The second chapter examines the operating performance and stock returns associated with equity issuance methods. Firms in the UK can issue equity through rights issues, open offers, and private placement. This study argues that alternative equity issuance methods are associated with a different level of operating performance and long-term stock returns. Firms using private placement are associated with poor operating performance. However, rights issues are found empirically to be associated with higher operating performance and less negative long-term stock returns after issuance in comparison to counterpart firms that issue private placements and open offers. Thus, rights issuing firms perform better than open offers and private placement because the favourable operating performance at the time of issuance generates subsequent positive long-run stock price response. Right issuing firms are of better quality and outperform firms that adopt open offers and private placement. In the third empirical chapter, the study explores the levered share repurchase of internally financially unconstrained firms. Unconstrained firms are expected to repurchase their shares using internal funds rather than through external borrowings. However, evidence shows that levered share repurchases are common among unconstrained firms. These firms display this repurchase behaviour when they have bond ratings or investment grade ratings that allow them to obtain cheap external debt financing. It is found that internally financially unconstrained firms borrow to finance their share repurchase when they invest more. Levered repurchase firms are associated with less positive abnormal returns than unlevered repurchase firms. For the levered repurchase sample, high investing firms are associated with more positive long-run abnormal stock returns than low investing firms. It appears the market underreact to the levered repurchase in the short-run regardless of the level of investments. These findings indicate that market reactions reflect both undervaluation and signaling hypotheses of positive information associated with share repurchase. As the firms undertake capital investments, they generate future cash flows, limit the effects of leverage on financial distress and ultimately reduce the risk of the equity capital.