Suchergebnisse

Three methods were used to assess the influence of a number of realistic sound stimuli on esthetic evaluations of outdoor settings. We reproduced 18 sounds-including those of children, songbirds, construction equipment, automobiles, aircraft, and wind-for college students serving as evaluators at field sites ranging from a forest to a downtown street. In two other procedures, settings and sounds were described in a questionnaire, or were presented using photographs and tape recordings. All.three procedures produced similar results; natural and animal sounds had enhancing effects on evaluations of the heavily wooded natural and residential sites, and other sounds had detracting effects on the same sites. The sounds were relatively neutral in effect at two downtown streets, where traffic sounds were found to be most enhancing. The results show that the interaction of a setting's visual and acoustic characteristics significantly influences evaluations of that setting, and that appropriateness of sounds only partly accounts for their influence on setting quality.

As has been said on several opportunities and by many authors (Ferrero 1956, Baran 1961 and Silvestre 1998 cited by Rodríguez 2002 and others), the economic growth measured throughout the GDP is not enough to explain the development and has been unable to reflect by itself the population well-being (social, familiar, individual and psychological). The GDP has also been helpful for economists and leaders in the measure of economic trends' ups and downs and justifying politic decisions. Undoubtedly economic growth means a starting point in the production of goods and services, but quality of life and well-being are also related with other aspects like subjectivity, gender, region, planning, state, etc. Because of the GDP measure's limitations, international organizations has been brought to expose other ways of reflection about development and well-being, like the CEPAL, ONU and PNUD's approaches started in the sixties and seventies and whose latest contribution is the Human Development Index (HDI). The proposal of this contribution is to display some advances about the project named ?Crecimiento económico y desarrollo local en la región centro bajío de México? (Economic growth and development in the México?s central region), made by the academic team ?Transformaciones sociales y dinámicas territoriales? (composed by professors from Division de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Campus León, Universidad de Guanajuato and funded by FORDECYT). This composition shows especially regional data about well-being and living conditions.

The purpose of this research article is to investigate the correlation among organizational socialization, job stress, and psychological contract based on employees' viewpoint. Convenience sampling is used in this study. The questionnaires were distributed to employees in different organizations. Total number of questionnaires distributed was 380; 285 returned and 25 invalid. Total number of valid questionnaires is 260, total 68% valid returned rate. Questionnaire survey and multi regression were used for analysis. The findings include: Job stress is negatively influenced by organizational socialization. Psychological contract is negatively influenced by job stress; psychological contract is positively influenced by organization socialization; job stress plays a role of mediating effects between organizational socialization and psychological contract. In sum, employees' psychological contract is indeed influenced by organizational socialization and job stress. Based on the result, employees' future expectation has significant influence on job stress and psychological contract, indicating if a company can provide a clear view of their future, reasonable promotion and reward mechanism, complete and clear rules or norms, employees' insecurity and uncertainty about their future will be lowered, their negative feelings caused by job stress will be reduced, and they will have higher organizational commitment. In the long term, the interaction between employees and the organization will be more positive, consistent, and harmonic.

This thesis studies the effect of expropriation risk on private investment. The first chapter uses a Real Options model to assess the importance of private provision and the impact of expropriation risk on investment timing, project value, governmental costs and social welfare. The model is built considering two types of businesses (essential and non-essential) and two stages (operating and investment opportunities) and answers questions regarding three main topics: the firm's reaction to expropriation risk, the government drivers to expropriate, and the costs expropriation generates in terms of welfare. The results show that the firm makes suboptimal investment decisions in the presence of expropriation risk. Once reputational costs of expropriation are endogenized, the government's decision regarding the level of political risk will largely depend on the type of business. However, in terms of welfare, it is never optimal to expropriate. The second chapter addresses the question of how different fiscal incentives affect private investment in a context of expropriation risk. This is done by extending the analysis of the first chapter: a real options model where the firm's decisions and the government's decision to expropriate can interact. We find that incentives implying a higher level of expropriation risk are associated with a lower value of the investment opportunity of the firm, even though there is an improvement in the operating firm's results. Therefore, although the optimal decision for the economy as a whole is to offer a safe political environment for investors, if expropriation risk cannot be taken out of the picture, fiscal incentives that do not exacerbate political risk will be the best option to attract investment. Finally, the third chapter measures the impact ofwarnings of expropriation and of forced divestments of private property on the stock prices of the parent company. It uses a unique database of 116 events in 12 countries from 2005 to 2013. Results show significant negative effects on the stock prices of different kinds of warnings; the largest effect is when the warning takes the form of a transitory permit revocation. In the case of forced divestments, there is signifficant negative impact when a permit is permanently revoked. However, nationalizations seem to generate a positive market reaction. ; Esta tesis estudia el efecto del riesgo de expropiación en la inversión privada. El primer capítulo utiliza un modelo de Opciones Reales para determinar la importancia de la provisión privada y el impacto del riesgo de expropiación en la elección del momento oportuno para invertir, el valor del proyecto, los costos gubernamentales y el bienestar social. El modelo se construye considerando dos tipos de negocios (esencial y no-esencial) y dos etapas (operativa e inversión) y responde preguntas relacionadas con tres temas principales: la reacción de la firma al riesgo de expropiación, los motivos del gobierno para expropiar, y los costos que genera la expropiación en términos de bienestar. Los resultados muestran que las decisiones de inversión de la firma son subóptimas en presencia de riesgo de expropiación. Una vez se han endogenizado los costos de reputación, la decisión del gobierno con respecto al nivel de riesgo político dependerá en gran medida del tipo de negocio. Sin embargo, en términos de bienestar, nunca es óptimo expropiar. El segundo capítulo se enfoca en la pregunta de cómo diferentes incentivos fiscales afectan la inversión privada en un contexto de riesgo de expropiación. Esto se realiza extendiendo el análisis del primer capítulo: un modelo de opciones reales donde las decisiones de la firma interactúan con la decisión de expropiar del gobierno. El modelo muestra que los incentivos fiscales que implican un nivel mayor de riesgo de expropiación están asociados con un menor valor de la oportunidad de inversión de la firma, aunque hay una mejoría en los resultados operativos. Por lo tanto, aunque la decisión óptima para la economía en general es ofrecer un ambiente político libre de riesgo, si la expropiación no se puede eliminar completamente, los incentivos fiscales que no incrementen el riesgo político serán la mejor opción para atraer a la inversión privada. Finalmente, el tercer capítulo mide el impacto de las advertencias de expropiación y de las desinversiones forzosas de propiedad privada sobre los precios de la acción de la casa matriz. Para ello se utiliza una base de datos única de 116 eventos en 12 países, entre 2005 y 2013. Los resultados muestran efectos significativos adversos en los precios de las acciones para diferentes tipos de advertencias, siendo las revocaciones transitorias de permisos de operación las que generan la mayor reacción del mercado. En el caso de las desinversiones forzosas, existe un impacto negativo significativo cuando un permiso de operación es revocado permanentemente. Sin embargo, las nacionalizaciones parecen generar una reacción positiva del mercado. ; Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Economía de la Empresa y Métodos Cuantitativos ; Presidente: Pablo de Andrés Alonso; Secretario: Pedro José Serrano Jiménez; Vocal: Manuel Ricardo Fontes da Cunha

This paper examines the impact of economic conditions on participatory democracy. It analyses whether economic crises affect the types of proposals that emerge from local participatory processes and the fate of these proposals. Focusing on more than 500 proposals that emerged from 34 participatory processes in Spain between 2007 and 2011, our study covers a period which straddles the emergence of severe economic problems resulting from the global financial crisis. Applying four different but complementary analytical strategies, we find two types of effects. First, proposals made during the crisis period were less costly though more challenging. Second, local governments implemented a smaller proportion of the proposals that were put forward by the public. These findings suggest that external economic shocks reduce the ability of governments to respond to the demands of citizens, but that citizens also recalibrate their expectations in response to austerity.

Tämä väitöskirja koostuu johdantoluvusta ja neljästä julkis- ja hyvinvoinnin taloustieteenalaan kuuluvasta tutkimuksesta. Kaksi ensimmäistä esseetä ovat teoreettisia ja kaksi viimeistä esseetä empiirisiä. Väitöskirjan teoreettisessa osiossa tarkastellaan optimaalista verorakennetta, kun julkisella vallalla on erilaisia tulonjakotavoitteita ja yksilöt eroavat useamman taustamuuttujan suhteen. Väitöskirjan empiirisessä osiossa tarkastellaan tulojakaumaa ja julkisen vallan politiikan seurauksia. Ensimmäinen empiirinen essee tarkastelee huipputulojen jakautumista ajan mittaan ja toinen essee arvioi ikääntyneiden työntekijöiden työn vähentämistä osa-aikaeläkeohjelman kautta ja sitä miten tämä vaikuttaa sairastavuuteen ja lääkeostoihin. Julkisen sektorin tavoitteena on maksimoida yhteiskunnan hyvinvointia huomiomalla politiikan tehokkuus- ja oikeudenmukaisuusnäkökulmat. Yksi merkittävimmistä keinoista tämän tavoitteen saavuttamiseksi on tulojen uudelleenjako. Väitöskirjan ensimmmäinen essee tarkastelee vero- ja tulonsiirtojärjestelmän optimaalista rakennetta Mirrleesin (1971) optimituloverokehikossa. Esseessä tarkastellaan taloutta, jossa yksilöillä on erilaiset tulonansaintakyvyt sekä säästämispreferenssit. Julkinen valta haluaa uudelleenjakaa tuloa tulonansaintakyvyn perusteella, mutta havaitsemattomat säästämispreferenssit hankaloittavat optimointiongelmaa. Esseessä havaitaan, että tällaisessa taloudessa pääomatulon verotus kuuluu optimaalisten veroinstrumenttien valikoimaan. Toisessa esseessä verotuksen rakennetta tarkastellaan Mirrleesin (1971) optimituloverokehikossa niin, että yksilöt eroavat tulonansaintakyvyn sekä alkuvarannon tai perinnön suhteen. Julkinen valta ei voi havaita kumpaakaan tekijää. Tavoitteena on uudelleenjakaa tuloa niiltä, joiden tulonansaintakyky on parempi ja joilla perintö on suurempi. Useat maat ovat poistaneet perintöverotuksen keinovalikoimasta ja tästä syystä esseen lähtökohta on, että julkinen valta voi hyödyntää vain epälineaarista työtulon veroa sekä mahdollisesti pääomatuloveroa. Esseessä näytetään, että pääomatulovero kuuluu optimaalisten veroinstrumenttien valikoimaan. Esseessä keskustellaan myös tulonmuunto-ongelmasta tällaisessa taloudessa. Julkisen vallan uudelleenjakopolitiikan ja muun lainsäädännön vaikutukset näkyvät muutoksina tulojakaumassa. Väitöskirjan kolmas essee kuvailee Suomen tulojakaumaa ja siinä tapahtuneita muutoksia vuosien 1995-2012 välillä. Esseessä tarkastellaan tulojakauman huippua etenkin sukupuolten näkökulmasta. 1990-luvun lopun suurituloisten tulo-osuuksien kasvu kohdistui suurelta osin miehille. Naisten osuus tulohuipulla ei merkittävästi kasvanut ennen finanssikriisiä lukuunottamatta ylintä yhtä prosenttia, jossa naisten osuus kasvoi läpi periodin. Esseessä tarkastellaan myös suurituloisten tuloliikkuvuutta ja tulonmuodostusta. Miesten tuloasema huipputuloissa on pysyvämpi kuin naisilla. Naisten huipputulot koostuvat enemmän pääomatuloista mutta periodin loppua kohden palkkatulojen osuus kokonaistulosta kasvaa. Vero- ja tulonsiirtopolitiikan rinnalla julkinen valta voi vaikuttaa kansalaisten hyvinvointiin erilaisten ohjelmien avulla. Esimerkiksi työ- ja eläkelainsäädännöllä voidaan tavoitella työntekijöiden parempaa hyvinvointia. Neljännessä esseessä tarkastellaan osa-aikaeläkejärjestelmän vaikutuksia lääkeostoihin ja sairaspoissaoloihin. Osa-aikaeläke vähensi työn määrää mutta käytettävissä olevat tulot pienenivät vain vähän. Vuonna 1998 osa-aikaeläkejärjestelmässä muutettiin alinta ikärajaa, joka mahdollistaa muuten samankaltaisten ryhmien vertailun, joista toisessa työn määrää voitiin vähentää nuorempana. Tällainen tutkimusasetelma mahdollistaa ikärajareformin vaikutusten kausaaliarvionnin. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan myös instrumenttimuuttujamenetelmän avulla osa-aikaeläkkeelle siirtymisen vaikutuksia yksilöiden lääkeostoihin, sairaspoissaoloihin ja työmarkkinoilta poistumiseen. Tutkimuksessa havaitaan, että ikärajan alentaminen kasvatti lääkkeiden ostoja mutta sairaimmalle osajoukolle työmäärän vähentäminen vähensi sairaspoissaoloja ja lääkekäyttöä. ; This thesis includes an introduction chapter and four essays on the field of public and welfare economics. The first two essays are theoretical and the last two essays are empirical. The theoretical part of this thesis studies the optimal taxation in a setting where the social planner has different kinds of redistributive preferences and individuals differ in more than one background characteristic. The empirical part of the thesis examines income distribution and the consequences of public policies. The first empirical essay studies top income distribution over time and the second empirical essay evaluates the possibilities for elderly workers to reduce work hours through a part-time retirement scheme and how this possibility affects sickness and drug purchases. The objective of the public sector is to maximize social welfare by taking into account the efficiency of its policies and the equity perspectives. The main tool used is redistributing income through taxes and income transfers. The first essay of the thesis studies the optimal structure of income taxation in the Mirrleesian optimal taxation framework. The economy under study consists of individuals with different abilities to acquire income but they also have different preferences towards saving income for the future periods. The tax planner wants to redistribute income based on the ability to pay but the unobserved differences in saving preferences complicate the optimization problem. It is observed that in this kind of economy capital income taxation belongs to the optimal tax mix. In the second essay optimal tax mix is studied in an economy where individuals differ with respect to their abilities and initial endowment or inheritance received. The tax planner cannot observe either of the factors. The goal is to redistribute income from those who have better ability and higher initial wealth towards the less skilled and less endowed. Several countries have abolished inheritance taxation and for this reason the starting point in this essay is that the tax planner can only use the non-linear labour income tax and, if necessary, capital income tax. It is shown that non-linear capital income tax belongs to the optimal tax mix. The essay also discusses the role of income shifting in this type of economy. The effects of redistribution and other policies are seen as changes in the income distribution. The third essay in this thesis describes the Finnish income distribution and the evolution of incomes during the period of 1995- 2012. The essay especially examines the top of the income distribution from a gender perspective. While the income shares of the high-income individuals grew rapidly at the end of the 1990s, this mostly benefited men. The share of women in the top incomes did not improve before the financial crisis apart from the top 1 percent, where the share improved throughout the period. Income mobility and income composition are also studied. Men's income ranks are more persistent than women's. Women had a bigger share of capital and business income but towards the end of the period the share of wages grew for women. Beside the tax and transfer policy, the public sector can affect the well-being of citizens through different kinds of labour market and pension policies and programs. The fourth essay studies the part-time pension program and how it affected drug purchases and sickness. The part-time pension program reduced the hours worked but the combination of wages and pension reduced disposable income only by a little. The eligibility age for part-time pension programs was reduced in the year 1998, which enables the comparison of similar groups, where in one the reduction in work hours happened at a younger age than in the other. This research design makes it possible to evaluate the causal effect of the reform. In the study an instrumental variable method is also used to evaluate how moving to part-time pension affected drug purchases, sickness absences and labour market exits. The study finds that on average the age eligibility reform increased the purchases of drugs but for the sickest subset the reduction of work hours decreased sickness absences and drug utilization.