Locational Determinants of Rural Non-agricultural Employment: Evidence From Brazil

By paying particular attention to the local economic context, this paper analyzes the determinants of non-agricultural employment and earnings in non-agricultural jobs. The empirical analysis is based on the Brazilian Demographic Census, allowing for disaggregated controls for the local economy. Education stands out as one of the key determinants of employment outcome and earnings potential. Failure to control for locational effects, however, can lead to biased estimation of the importance of individual and household-specific characteristics. The empirical results show that local market size and distance to population centers have a significant impact on non-agricultural employment prospects and earnings.Rural non-agricultural employment, economic geography, Latin America, Brazil

STRATEGIES FOR SMALLHOLDERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: COMMERCIALISATION, DIVERSIFICATION AND EXIT

This paper proposes a strategic framework for policies to assist smallholders in developing countries. It describes the inevitable features of structural change in the agricultural and rural economy, the associated pressures that these changes place on smallholders, and the consequent need for policies to facilitate rather than impede adjustment. A key premise of the framework is that, for the majority of smallholders, the long term (i.e. inter-generational)future lies outside the sector. Hence, long-term policies need to make a distinction between those who potentially have a competitive future in the sector and those who do not. In either case, many of the necessary policies will not be agriculture-specific, so it is important that agricultural policies are framed in a broader economy-wide framework. In addition, a clear distinction needs to be made between short-term policies to reduce poverty and food insecurity and long-term policies to stimulate development. This is because there are intertemporal trade-offs (as well as complementarities) between policies that are likely to be effective in the short-run, and those promising most impact over the long-term. The paper discusses the role of different agricultural and non-agricultural policies in providing the appropriate policy mix in countries at different stages of development.smallholders, rural development, agricultural policy, structural change, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, International Development, O20, Q18, R23,

MODELLING THE DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACTS OF AGRICULTURAL POLICIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: THE DEVELOPMENT POLICY EVALUATION MODEL (DEVPEM)

The purpose of the Development Policy Evaluation Model (DEVPEM) is to provide an appropriate modelling structure for analysing the welfare and distributional implications of alternative agricultural policies in developing countries. The aim of the model is to provide illustrative results that show how structural diversity among developing countries, and systemic differences from developed OECD countries, can affect the outcomes of alternative policy interventions. The model is relatively stylised, seeking to capture, as simply as possible, four critical aspects of rural economies in developing countries that are important when evaluating the impacts of agricultural and trade policies. These are: (1). The role of the household as both a producer and a consumer of food crops. (2). High transaction costs of participating in markets, resulting in a subsistence sector that often is important in terms of the number of households and the amount of food production it encompasses. (3). Market linkages that can transmit impacts of policy and market shocks among heterogeneous rural producers and consumers, particularly via factor markets (for labour, land or capital, when those markets exist). (4). The imperfect convertibility of land from one use to another.International Relations/Trade,

Antitrust, the Gig Economy, and Labor Market Power

The purpose of the current study was to develop and validate an automatic algorithm for classification of cross-country (XC) ski-skating gears (G) using Smartphone accelerometer data. Eleven XC skiers (seven men, four women) with regional-to-international levels of performance carried out roller skiing trials on a treadmill using fixed gears (G2left, G2right, G3, G4left, G4right) and a 950-m trial using different speeds and inclines, applying gears and sides as they normally would. Gear classification by the Smartphone (on the chest) and based on video recordings were compared. Formachine-learning, a collective database was compared to individual data. The Smartphone application identified the trials with fixed gears correctly in all cases. In the 950-m trial, participants executed 140 ± 22 cycles as assessed by video analysis, with the automatic Smartphone application giving a similar value. Based on collective data, gears were identified correctly 86.0% ± 8.9% of the time, a value that rose to 90.3% ± 4.1% (P < 0.01) with machine learning from individual data. Classification was most often incorrect during transition between gears, especially to or from G3. Identification was most often correct for skiers who made relatively few transitions between gears. The accuracy of the automatic procedure for identifying G2left, G2right, G3, G4left and G4right was 96%, 90%, 81%, 88% and 94%, respectively. The algorithm identified gears correctly 100% of the time when a single gear was used and 90% of the time when different gears were employed during a variable protocol. This algorithm could be improved with respect to identification of transitions between gears or the side employed within a given gear

Labor Markets in Transformation: Case Studies of Latin America

This dissertation contains three independent studies that analyze labor markets in transformation. They focus on two central elements of labor markets in developing countries: non-agricultural employment in the rural economy and informal employment in the urban economy. Rural non-agricultural employment (RNAE) is being increasingly emphasized as a potential pathway out of rural poverty for people who are unable to secure their income in agriculture. By paying particular attention to the local economic context, Chapter 2 analyzes the factors that influence rural non-agricultural employment and earnings. The empirical analysis is based on the Brazilian Demographic Census, allowing for disaggregated controls for the local economy. Education stands out as one of the key factors that shape employment outcome and earnings potential. However, failure to control for locational effects may lead to biased estimation of the importance of individual and household characteristics. The empirical results show that local market size, distance to population centers, and other proxies for transaction costs play an important role in shaping non-agricultural employment prospects and earnings. Although average earnings in the rural non-agricultural sector are higher than in agriculture, it is unclear whether income prospects are systematically better in non-agricultural activities than in agriculture. Chapter 3 tests for the existence of earnings differentials between agricultural and rural non-agricultural employment, while controlling for worker and household characteristics. A proposed theoretical farm household model predicts that there will be no sectoral earnings differential for unskilled labor, whereas skilled labor will be better off in the non-agricultural sector. Based on Peruvian household data, the empirical findings support the notion that unskilled workers would not earn a higher income by switching from agriculture to RNAE. Instead it tends to be the relatively well educated who might benefit from higher returns to education in RNAE than in agriculture, which is consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model. Informal economic activity across countries has been studied thoroughly in the empirical literature, but little is documented about sources of variation in informality on the sub-national level. Chapter 4 analyzes reasons for regional variation in informal employment. It develops a theoretical model, which predicts that worker skill endowment, quality of local governance, and social norms are important determinants of the degree of informal employment in a city. The empirical application draws on data from Brazil, where 45 percent of the urban labor force are employed informally, in the sense that they lack a valid work permit. The degree of such employment, however, varies substantially across regions, with some cities having 20 percent or less of informal employment, while others have 80 percent or more. The empirical evaluation supports the predictions of the model and shows that informal employment is lower in regions with better governance and with a stronger social norm for tax compliance and obedience to regulation. The analysis also supports the notion of a "skill threshold" for successful entry to the formal sector. Endogeneity concerns are raised and assessed along with other robustness checks of the empirical results

Mjukfogars inverkan på fast förankrade keramikgolv : en experimentell och numrerisk studie.

This Master’s Thesis investigates whether expansion joints should be placed between fields of ceramic tiles, which are recommended by distributors today. This thesis concludes that expansion joints do not relieve in-plane stresses in ceramic tile coverings attached with the thin-set method. As shear stresses in the adhesive layer in the vicinity of expansion joints can reach critical levels, using expansion joints can on the contrary be a disadvantage. If excessive shrinkage of the concrete floors can not be avoided, floating floors should be considered instead of floors attached with the thin-set method

Determinants of Changing Informal Employment in Brazil, 2000–2010

This paper explores possible causal determinants of changing wage and salary informality over the period 2000–2010 in Brazil. We utilize demographic census and other institutional data sources from the opening and closing years of the decade, informality regressions in both years that exploit variation across workers and municipalities in informality rates and their causal determinants, and a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition of changing mean informality rates over the decade. Among the determinants considered are: changes in labor law enforcement, a near doubling of the real value of the minimum wage, the emergence and growth of conditional cash transfer programs, and changing industry composition and labor force demographics. We find that two of the most important policy changes over this period – the increase in the real value of the minimum wage and the dramatic expansion of conditional cash transfer programs – contribute positively, not negatively to informality. Among the factors accounting for the decline in mean informality rates over this time are rising rates of labor law enforcement, rising education levels, increased numbers of workers with spouses in the formal sector, and changes in industry composition, which explain between 16% and 57% of the mean decline in informality over the period. However, most of the decline is accounted for by the changing estimated coefficients on the industry categorical variables – that is, by the changing way in which industrial composition translates into informality

Determinants of Changing Informal Employment in Brazil, 2000–2010

This paper explores possible causal determinants of changing wage and salary informality over the period 2000–2010 in Brazil. We utilize demographic census and other institutional data sources from the opening and closing years of the decade, informality regressions in both years that exploit variation across workers and municipalities in informality rates and their causal determinants, and a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition of changing mean informality rates over the decade. Among the determinants considered are: changes in labor law enforcement, a near doubling of the real value of the minimum wage, the emergence and growth of conditional cash transfer programs, and changing industry composition and labor force demographics. We find that two of the most important policy changes over this period – the increase in the real value of the minimum wage and the dramatic expansion of conditional cash transfer programs – contribute positively, not negatively to informality. Among the factors accounting for the decline in mean informality rates over this time are rising rates of labor law enforcement, rising education levels, increased numbers of workers with spouses in the formal sector, and changes in industry composition, which explain between 16% and 57% of the mean decline in informality over the period. However, most of the decline is accounted for by the changing estimated coefficients on the industry categorical variables – that is, by the changing way in which industrial composition translates into informality

A selfsufficient outdoor swimming pool

The municipal outdoor swimming pools of Bälingebadet, situated in Bälinge north of Uppsala, is today mostly heated by electric heating, and an insufficient solar heating system. Bälingebadet is managed by Sportfastigheter AB, which in turn is owned by Uppsala municipality. Today the facility is plagued by expensive energy costs related to heating of tap-water, pool water and off-season facility heating. Through accumulation of data, simulations and scoping the available market, the paper investigates the needs and alternatives for Bälingebadet. The report provides suggestions in three stages which all correlate to different degrees of lowered energy costs. As a result two solutions are presented. One solution which focuses on the first two stages, combining expanded use of solar heating, the introduction of a heat pump as well as various measures to improve the energy efficiency of the facility. The second solution and third stage expands on the previous stages and introduces photo voltaic-cells that match the new, lowered, electrical power need. Both solutions bring economical and environmental benefits with relatively short payback periods and a reduced electricity consumption of up to 70 %