La partecipazione in calo (ma non troppo)

Il calo della partecipazione elettorale, per quanto drastico possa essere, \ue8 ormai talmente atteso da non destare pi\uf9 scalpore. Tale fenomeno richiede tuttavia un\u2019analisi e, se possibile, una spiegazione. Ed \ue8 quello che si cercher\ue0 di offrire in questo capitolo dedicato all\u2019affluenza elettorale, illustrando l\u2019andamento della partecipazione elettorale nelle regioni a statuto ordinario dal 1970 sino a oggi ed offrendo alcune ipotesi relative alle motivazioni strutturali del calo dell\u2019affluenza alle urne in occasione delle elezioni regionali del 2015

Design of doubly-complementary IIR digital filters using a single complex allpass filter, with multirate applications

It is shown that a large class of real-coefficient doubly-complementary IIR transfer function pairs can be implemented by means of a single complex allpass filter. For a real input sequence, the real part of the output sequence corresponds to the output of one of the transfer functions G(z) (for example, lowpass), whereas the imaginary part of the output sequence corresponds to its "complementary" filter H(z)(for example, highpass). The resulting implementation is structurally lossless, and hence the implementations of G(z) and H(z) have very low passband sensitivity. Numerical design examples are included, and a typical numerical example shows that the new implementation with 4 bits per multiplier is considerably better than a direct form implementation with 9 bits per multiplier. Multirate filter bank applications (quadrature mirror filtering) are outlined

Le elezioni regionali in Piemonte

In concomitanza con le elezioni del Parlamento europeo, domenica 25 maggio 2014 si \ue8 svolta anche una importante tornata di elezioni amministrative. Lo stesso giorno si \ue8 infatti votato per l\u2019elezione dei sindaci in 4087 comuni e per l\u2019elezione dei presidenti della regione e dei consigli regionali in Piemonte e in Abruzzo. Il presente capitolo ha per oggetto le elezioni regionali in Piemonte, le quali hanno visto affermarsi il candidato del centrosinistra, Sergio Chiamparino, con oltre il 47% dei consensi e l\u2019altrettanto netta vittoria del Partito democratico come primo partito regionale. Il capitolo introdurr\ue0, nel paragrafo 2, le elezioni regionali del Piemonte e ne commenter\ue0 i risultati; nel paragrafo 3 verranno messi a confronto l\u2019esito del voto delle regionali piemontesi del 2014 con i risultati delle precedenti elezioni regionali tenutesi nel 2010, esaminando le differenze nel voto per le varie liste a livello provinciale. Nel paragrafo 4, infine, verranno analizzati i flussi di voti in Piemonte tra le politiche del 2013 e le regionali 2014

The Labor Market Impacts of Youth Training in the Dominican Republic: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation

This paper summarizes the findings from the first randomized evaluation of a job training program in Latin America. Between 2001 and 2005 the government of the Dominican Republic operated a subsidized training program for low-income youth in urban areas. The program featured several weeks of classroom instruction followed by an internship at a private sector firm. A random sample of eligible applicants was selected to undergo training, and information was gathered 10-14 months after graduation on both trainees and control group members. Although previous non-experimental evaluations of similar programs in Latin America have suggested a positive impact on employment, we find no evidence of such an effect. There is a marginally significant impact on hourly wages, and on the probability of health insurance coverage, conditional on employment. Finally, we develop an operational definition of the impact of training on "employability" in the context of a dynamic model with state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity. Consistent with our main results, we find no significant impact of the training program on the subsequent employability of trainees.

Does Supply Matter? Initial Supply Conditions and the Effectiveness of Conditional Cash Transfers for Grade Progression in Nicaragua

We combine administrative and survey data to examine the effect of a conditional cash transfer program on grade progression in Nicaragua from 1999–2003, putting the spotlight on initial supply side conditions and the extent to which they conditioned program effectiveness. Our principal findings are that the program had a substantial effect on grade progression and that these increased over time, even after the original intervention group stopped receiving demand-side transfers. Half of the estimated program effect on progression is accounted for by a reduction in the dropout and repetition rates of beneficiary children who were already in school when the program began. Supply side conditions were important and several of them led to heterogeneous program impacts. The program was more effective in areas with autonomous schools, suggesting flexibility at the school level better enabled schools to respond to changing demand conditions. At the same time, it was also more effective in intervention areas with poor initial supply conditions as measured by indicators of grade availability and distance to school. These were the areas with lower enrollments and grade progression before the program, and thus more room for improvement. With the analysis of child schooling in hand, we then turn to assess the “effect” of the program on school supply conditions. It is precisely in the intervention areas with poor initial school supply conditions, that the program was relatively more effective in improving school supply as measured by grade availability, number of sessions per day and number of teachers. The results suggest that initial school supply conditions do not represent insurmountable obstacles for the implementation of a conditional cash transfer program, as long as these constraints are identified at the planning stage and mechanisms put in place to deal with them during the execution stage. Our results also underscore the importance of carefully considering the integrated (demand and supply) nature of conditional-cash-transfer programs, something often overlooked in the design of these interventions and, particularly, in the impact evaluation literature.impact evaluation, conditional cash transfer, schooling, supply side

Tree-structured complementary filter banks using all-pass sections

Tree-structured complementary filter banks are developed with transfer functions that are simultaneously all-pass complementary and power complementary. Using a formulation based on unitary transforms and all-pass functions, we obtain analysis and synthesis filter banks which are related through a transposition operation, such that the cascade of analysis and synthesis filter banks achieves an all-pass function. The simplest structure is obtained using a Hadamard transform, which is shown to correspond to a binary tree structure. Tree structures can be generated for a variety of other unitary transforms as well. In addition, given a tree-structured filter bank where the number of bands is a power of two, simple methods are developed to generate complementary filter banks with an arbitrary number of channels, which retain the transpose relationship between analysis and synthesis banks, and allow for any combination of bandwidths. The structural properties of the filter banks are illustrated with design examples, and multirate applications are outlined

Euroscettica sarà lei! Il volto della nuova Europa

2noopenopenPinto, Luca; Regalia, MartaPinto, Luca; Regalia, Mart