Suchergebnisse

Almost twenty years have passed since the approval of the first international treaty against human trafficking, the so-called Palermo Protocol. After that, given the centrality of Europe in the last migratory flows and its historical commitment to the respect and protection of human rights, the European Union has rationalized its efforts against this tremendous crime, creating special task forces and beginning an interesting and unique data collection process. Unfortunately, such a process has not been immune from methodological problems and delay that have hampered the research and knowledge of the phenomenon. As a matter of fact, too little is still known about the determinants of trafficking in human beings within Europe and the quality and availability of data is still an issue in the field. Nevertheless, this thesis, using a novel panel dataset constructed from Eurostat statistical working papers on human trafficking, aims precisely at given a deeper insights on the factors which might explain why this phenomenon is pervasive in the European Union and what are the factors that explain high number of victims in some european countries.

Now in its fifth year, the civil war in Syria has created one of the world's largest humanitarian and security crises. The crisis in itself contains the historical background to the situation of Syrian refugees. While the issue is subject to another discussion, it is important to refer to the Muslim refugee problem for a better understanding of today's situation. Approaches to the Muslim refugee crisis differ considerably throughout the world. Probably the most striking point is that while the West has sheltered Muslims, providing them with homes and jobs, the neighbouring countries sharing the same religion have ignored the Muslim population and done nothing. This is an important criticism directed at fellow Arabs who have always blamed the West for the refugee crisis and will be addressed in the article in detail. The number of Syrians seeking refuge in Turkey is currently close to 2 million. Turkey, implementing an "open door" policy to every Syrian crossing the border and issuing "temporary protection" status, has spent 5 billion dollars on the refugee crisis up to November 2014. For the Syrians in Turkey, the possibility of returning to their own country has been gradually decreasing due to the escalation of the civil war. The situation revealing the severity of the situation of Syrian asylum seekers points out that the issue has evolved into a complex problem that requires a multi-dimensional analysis in all its humanitarian, legal, political, social and financial aspects. This article is written mainly based on online research and a deep assessment of reports prepared by GOs, NGOs, the UN and other international agencies and various news pieces and articles. The policy of the Turkish Government has also been closely analysed by including the discourse of President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in relation to the civil war that has evolved into a global refugee and human security crisis demanding urgent and coordinated humanitarian actions, apart from the military and political response.This article tries to explain Syrian asylum seekers' position in Turkey and Turkey's position from the perspective of human security and the rest of the world's perception. ; Nel suo quinto anno, la guerra civile in Siria ha creato una delle crisi umanitarie e di sicurezza più grande nel mondo. La crisi in sé contiene uno storico background alla situazione dei rifugiati siriani. Mentre la questione è soggetta a un'altra discussione, è importante riferirsi al problema del rifugiato musulmano per meglio capire la situazione attuale. Gli approcci alla crisi del rifugiato musulmano differiscono considerevolmente per tutto il mondo. Probabilmente il punto che colpisce di più è che, mentre l'Occidente ha protetto i musulmani fornendo ad essi casa e lavoro, i paesi vicini che condividono la stessa religione hanno ignorato la popolazione musulmana e non hanno fatto niente. Questa è un'importante critica diretta ai compagni arabi che hanno sempre incolpato l'Occidente della crisi dei rifugiati, e ciò è approfondito in dettaglio nell'articolo. Il numero dei siriani che hanno cercato rifugio in Turchia è attualmente vicino ai 2 milioni. La Turchia, mettendo in pratica la politica della "porta aperta" a ogni siriano che attraversa il confine e al quale attribuisce lo status di "temporanea protezione", ha speso 5 miliardi di dollari per la crisi dei rifugiati fino al novembre 2014. Per i siriani in Turchia, la possibilità di ritornare nel proprio paese è stata progressivamente in diminuzione a causa dell'intensificazione della guerra civile. La situazione che rivela la gravità della situazione dei siriani che ricercano asilo indica che la questione è evoluta in un problema complesso che richiede un'analisi multidimensionale in tutti i suoi aspetti umanitari, legali, politici, sociali e finanziari. Questo articolo è scritto principalmente basandosi su una ricerca online e un'approfondita valutazione dei reports preparati dalle organizzazioni governative (GOs), dalle organizzazioni non governative (NGOs), dalle agenzie dell'ONU e di altre agenzie internazionali e varie notizie e articoli. La politica del governo turco è stata analizzata includendovi il discorso del presidente della Repubblica di Turchia, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, relativamente alla guerra civile che è sviluppata in una crisi globale del rifugiato e della sicurezza, richiedente azioni umanitarie urgenti e coordinate, oltreché risposte militari e politiche. L'articolo spiega la posizione dei siriani che cercano asilo in Turchia e la posizione della Turchia dalla prospettive della sicurezza umana e della percezione del mondo.

This PhD thesis attempts to investigate the role of economic uncertainty in driving the behaviour of household savings for six European countries. Focusing on three main sources of economic uncertainty Unemployment Risk, Fiscal Policy Uncertainty and Financial Crisis-Investment risk, I construct a Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) model comprising of the Household Saving Rate, main variable of interest; the unemployment rate, to proxy labour income uncertainty and the risk of an income loss; the volatility of financial stock prices per each country, to detect for the presence of financial uncertainty/crisis; a policy uncertainty indicator, using alternatively the Policy Uncertainty Index devised by Baker, Bloom, and Davis (2012), the Debt to GDP ratio or the Government Surplus/Deficit to GDP ratio. A comparison among country-specific cumulative impulse response functions suggests that: 1. Household saving rate's response to a change in investment risk is ambiguous, due to two counterbalancing effects: higher risk increases the volatility of future consumption and thus stimulates the accumulation of savings, while a more uncertain rate of return reduces the attractiveness of saving since it increases the risk of capital losses. 2. A labour uncertainty shock is detrimental or a booster for saving depending on whether the downward pressures on saving rate due to lower saving from unemployed people, prevails or not over the higher households propensity to save for precautionary reasons. 3. Fiscal policy instruments and related uncertainty influence the savings pattern of the private sector: private saving falls when governments reduce deficits (or the debt level) or run large budget surpluses and vice versa, as suggested by the Ricardian paradigm. I then propose another possible approach to the analysis, a Bayesian estimation of the reduced form VARs for the panel of European countries, as a Hierarchical Linear Model, with the future aim of improving estimation results.

With the introduction of the European Stability and Growth Pact most European members introduced domestic fiscal rules to make all different levels of govern- ment responsible for the control of central public accounts. There is a broad debate on the suitability of the fiscal rules set in the Treaty of Maastricht and in the Stability and Growth Pact. The present PhD's thesis review the evolution of Domestic Stability Pact in Italy (Chapter 1) and empirically investigate two research questions. In Chapter 2 we explore the impact of capital expenditure constraints on investments in public works. After 2008, the Italian central gov- ernment strongly changed financial rules aimed at imposing fiscal discipline on local governments. Municipalities subject to the Domestic Stability Pact (DSP) collided with new stronger expenditure restrictions and tougher punishments for non-compliers. This institutional change allows us to identify a causal relationship between the DSP and investment in public works implementing a "Difference-in- Differences" (D-i-D) design. Being exposed to the Pact reduces investment in public works by 47% and number of auctions by 44%, while increases winning re- bate by 5.5% and number of bidders by 16%. In Chapter 3 we evaluate the effect of a reduction in investment for public works on new firm formation. The results show that the amount invested in public works by local governments is a very important determinant of new firm formation. A one standard deviation decrease in total starting value decreases the entry rate for all firms by 21% and the entry rate for construction firms only by 29%.

Institutional reforms have long been a central focus of the European economic policy debate, and the labor market in particular has been subject to never definitive reforms in the past 20 years, mainly aimed at fostering wage moderation and flexible labor contracts. The employment effects of labor market institutions have been widely analyzed, but the focus on this aspect has overshadowed an equally important but scantily investigated element: their possible dynamic impact on innovation and productivity growth. This paper is a critical survey of the literature which may help shed light on this issue. Growth theory as well as the results of the empirical growth literature teach us that the main drivers of long run productivity growth in advanced countries are innovation, research and development, human capital accumulation. Reforms which enhance labor market flexibility can in principle affect these growth drivers through different channels, but the sign of the effects on productivity growth is ambiguous. Existing empirical evidence shows that wage and numerical flexibility have negative effects on research and development, innovation and firm sponsored training, suggesting that the dynamic effects of labor flexibility are negative. This suggests that the tradeoff between labor market flexibility and productivity growth which has been detected both within many European countries and across European countries is not just a temporary, static, short run effect linked to the employment effect of flexibility enhancing reforms, but may also reflect a more worrying permanent, dynamic, long run phenomenon. ; Quello delle riforme istituzionali è un tema da lungo tempo centrale nel dibattito Europeo di politica economica, e il mercato del lavoro in particolare è stato soggetto, negli ultimi 20 anni, a riforme mai definitive, principalmente rivolte a promuovere la moderazione salariale e la flessibilità dei contratti di lavoro. Gli effetti occupazionali delle istituzioni del mercato del lavoro sono stati ampiamente analizzati, ma la focalizzazione su questo punto ha messo in secondo piano un aspetto ugualmente importante ma scarsamente indagato: i loro possibili effetti dinamici sull'innovazione e sulla crescita della produttività. Il presente lavoro è una rassegna critica della letteratura che può aiutare a far luce su questo aspetto. La teoria della crescita, e i risultati della relativa letteratura empirica ci insegnano che i principali motori della crescita della produttività nel lungo periodo per le economie avanzate sono l'innovazione, la ricerca e sviluppo, l'accumulazione di capitale umano. Le riforme che aumentano la flessibilità del mercato del lavoro possono in linea di principio influenzare questi motori di crescita attraverso diversi canali, ma la direzione degli effetti sulla crescita della produttività è ambigua. L'evidenza empiria esistente mostra che la flessibilità salariale e numerica tendono ad avere effetti negativi sulla ricerca e sviluppo, sull'innovazione e sull'investimento in formazione da parte delle imprese, e dunque che gli effetti dinamici della flessibilità del lavoro sulla crescita tendono ad essere negativi. Questo suggerisce il trade off tra flessibilità del mercato del lavoro e crescita della produttività che è stata riscontrata sia all'interno di vari Paesi Europei che su dati longitudinali per vari paesi Europei non è solo un effetto statico di breve periodo legato all'impatto occupazionale delle riforme pro-flessibilità, ma potrebbe riflettere un più preoccupante fenomeno dinamico, permanente, di lungo periodo.

It has been estimated that at least 99 % of the world's microbial biomass exists in form of biofilm, a complex differentiated surface-associated community embedded in a self-produced polymeric matrix enabling microorganisms to develop coordinated and efficient survival strategies. Biofilm formation is a dynamic and cyclical process involving attachment, maturation and a final dispersal phase, and these steps are initiated by a variety of signals. Despite their positive effects in some cases, biofilms can be detrimental in different environmental domains since microorganisms are able to colonize almost all types of surfaces both abiotic and biotic, leading to consequences in terms of social and economic impact. These include human tissues, implantable medical devices, natural aquatic systems, plants, food and industrial lines. Once biofilm is formed, its eradication becomes difficult because its resilience to environmental stresses, disinfectants, and antimicrobial treatments. Plants support a diverse array of microorganisms that exist in form of biofilms. Even if in some cases the association with plants leads to beneficial interactions promoting plant growth, inducing plant defense mechanisms and preventing the deleterious effects of pathogenic microorganisms, in other cases they have a significant negative impact. For instance, in agriculture, plant colonization of fungi and bacteria in form of biofilm is a cause of plant diseases, affecting crop quality and productivity. Indeed, despite the planktonic growth, biofilm lifestyle improves microbial resistance to antimicrobials up to several orders of magnitude, often reducing the possibility of treating biofilm effectively. In addition, due to the worrisome consequences related to the use of these substances on human health and on their persistence in the environment, increasingly regulations are arising to limit antimicrobial application. Furthermore, in addition to the principles of integrated pest management (IPM) embraced by the worldwide legislation aims to recommend alternative approaches to the application of pesticides, an innovative approach could be the use of biocide-free bioactive compounds characterized by novel targets, unique modes of action and properties that are separate from those currently highlighted in the use of antimicrobials. Indeed, the application of non-lethal doses of bio-inspired molecules able to interfere with specific key-steps involved in the biofilm formation process has been suggested as a complementary/alternative strategy to hinder biofilm formation. In addition, this approach also lead to deprive microorganisms of their virulence factors without affecting their viability and decreasing the selection pressure for biocides resistance. In this PhD thesis, the in vitro effects of non-lethal concentrations of several bioactive compounds were evaluated on the biofilm formation of different plant-associated microorganisms. Specifically, the aim of this work was to provide new effective preventive or integrated solutions against bacterial and fungal biofilm formation. In chapter III, the methanol extracts obtained by different plant portions of three seagrass species collected in Vietnam and in India (Enhalus acoroides, Halophila ovalis and Halodule pinifolia) were investigated for their effects in mediating non-lethal interactions on sessile Escherichia coli and Candida albicans cultures taken as models of bacterial and fungal biofilms respectively. The study was focused on anti-biofilm activities of seagrass extracts, without killing cells. Seagrass extracts appeared to be more effective in deterring microbial adhesion on hydrophobic surfaces than on hydrophilic. Results revealed that E. acoroides leaf extract proved to be the most promising extract among those tested. Indeed, the selected non-lethal concentrations of E. acoroides leaf extract were found to exert an anti-biofilm effect on C. albicans and E. coli biofilm in the first phase of biofilm genesis, opening up the possibility of developing preventive strategies to hinder the adhesion of microbial cells to surfaces. The leaf extract also affected the dispersion and maturation steps in C. albicans and E. coli respectively, suggesting an important role in cell signaling processes. Methanolic extracts were characterized and major phenolic compounds were identified by MS/MS analysis, showing the unique profile of the E. acoroides leaf extract. In chapter IV, two essential oils (PK and PK-IK) derived from two cultivars of Perilla frutescens, an annual short day plant widely used in therapeutics in the traditional medicine as well as in food preparations in Asian countries. Essential oils were extracted from the leaves and were characterized. Subsequeltly, their ability to affect biofilm formation of the phytopathogenic model fungi Colletotrichum musae, Fusarium dimerum and F. oxysporum have been studied. PK and PK-IK neither inhibited fungal growth nor were they utilized as a carbon energy source. In addition, PK and PK-IK essential oils showed excellent anti-biofilm performances inhibiting conidia germination and reducing conidia adhesion. Furthermore, they revealed a magnificent anti-biofilm effect even during biofilm maturation, affecting biofilm structural development, with a reduction of dried weight, extracellular polysaccharides and proteins. In all cases PK-IK displayed better activity than PK. Thus, the anti-biofilm effects were exploited with a non-lethal mechanism. This research supported the spreading of PK and PK-IK essential oils as biocide-free agents suitable for a preventive or integrative approach for sustainable crop protection. Lastly, in chapter V, a non-lethal concentration of N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) was evaluated on the biofilm formation of Xylella fastidiosa, a phytopathogen bacterium that causes a range of economically important plant diseases worldwide and that has been recently found in Italy in olive plants, where it causes the olive quick decline syndrome (OQSD). NAC is a naturally occurring compound found in several vegetables (including garlic, onion, peppers and asparagus) and it is mostly known in clinical area, in which it is employed at lethal concentrations in the treatment of human diseases due to its ability to reduce bacterial adhesion, inhibit the production of extracellular polysaccharides and promote the dispersion of pre-formed mature biofilms. In this study, N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) was tested for its ability to affect biofilm response of X. fastidiosa CoDiRO strain, mimicking a preventive, a curative and a combination of both approaches. The not-lethal dose 0.08 mg/ml was chosen as representative of plant concentration after its application. NAC did not alter planktonic bacterial growth but promoted biofilm formation in terms of biofilm biomass (above 62 %) and matrix polysaccharides (above 53%) through a ROS-mediated mechanism. Additionally, NAC was not able to destroy X. fastidiosa biofilm when already established on the surface but rather, it was suitable to contain the biofilm infection limiting biofilm dispersal. On the contrary, a combination of both preventive and curative approach has been found promising in biofilm dissolving making it more vulnerable.