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Review of Adaptation and Mitigation Practices in Rice Farming under a Climate-Smart Agriculture Framework
No full textThis article synthesizes key adaptation and mitigation practices in rice farming through a Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) lens, with particular emphasis on water management, crop and soil management, nutrient and residue management, and integrated pest management
Minimum Wage and Parental Childcare Time in the USA, 2019-2023
No full textRecent economic literature suggests that increases in the minimum wage can lead to parents spending more time in childcare through easing financial constraints such as the income effect. However, most evidence from past research does not analyse the disruptions of the COVID 19 pandemic. This research examines the impact of state-level minimum wage increases on parental childcare time in the United States during the mentioned period of 2019 to 2023. Through the use of microdata from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), we analyse a sample of 4043 working age parents and find that, contrary to findings from the 2003 to 2019 period, there is no statistical-ly significant effect on childcare time across aggregate or subgroup specifications, including mothers, fathers and low education parents among others. This null result diverges from pre-2019 literature. We attribute this lack of significance to the unique structural rigidities of the post-pandemic labor market (2019–2023) and the erosion of real wages due to high inflation, which likely neutralized the behavioral incentives typically associated with wage floors
Teletrabajo y bienestar tras la pandemia: evidencia para la República Checa
No full textThe rapid expansion of teleworking in the Czech Republic following the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the debate regarding its impact on employee wellbeing. This study aims to analyze the relationship between teleworking and various dimensions of personal health, specifically focusing on general wellbeing, mental health (depression), and work-life balance. Using microdata from the 2021 European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS), the research employs linear and non-linear (logit) econometric models to test whether telework acts as a significant determinant of these dimensions.
The empirical results show that teleworking does not have a direct or robust effect on general wellbeing or the probability of depression once sociodemographic and labour characteristics are controlled. Furthermore, while partial telework initially appears to improve work-life balance in basic models, this effect loses statistical significance when introducing additional controls such as working hours and the nature of the job. The findings suggest that the potential benefits of remote work are highly dependent on job quality, workload, and organizational context rather than the work modality itself
Automation and Growth in the Solow Model: Threshold Dynamics, Transitions, and Long-Run Outcomes
No full textThis paper introduces automation into an otherwise standard Solow
growth model and shows that doing so can generate qualitatively different global dynamics. By modeling automation as a distinct form of capital and defining aggregate assets as the sum of physical and automation capital, the law of motion for aggregate assets per capita becomes piecewise defined, with a threshold separating a regime without automation from one in which physical and automation capital are jointly accumulated. Depending on the saving rate and structural parameters, the economy may converge to a Solow-type steady state without automation, a mixed-capital steady state with automation, or exhibit unbounded AK-type growth. We identify simple parameter restrictions that govern the feasibility of sustained growth and the long-run adoption of automation. Furthermore, we complement the qualitative analysis with closed-form solutions that provide a tractable and transparent characterization of the model’s full dynamic path
Impacto de la modalidad laboral sobre la depresión y el bienestar en Portugal
No full textThis study analyzes the impact of teleworking on subjective well-being, mental health, and work-life balance in Portugal. Using Linear Probability and Logit models, the research demonstrates that full-time teleworking significantly improves work-life reconciliation.
However, the results reveal a gender gap: while the benefits are robust for men, they are statistically insignificant for women. Furthermore, the study identifies a correlation between depression among Portuguese workers and their total workload (number of hours worked).
The study concludes that teleworking is not a neutral tool and requires specific policies and shared responsibility to ensure an equitable impact
Income Distribution, Consumption Dynamics, and Financial Fragility: A Kaleckian Perspective
No full textThis paper develops and empirically evaluates a Kaleckian model of distributive conflict in which mark-up pricing generates a divergence between wages and prices, eroding workers’ real purchasing power and inducing debt-financed consumption. In contrast to neoclassical frameworks, prices are administratively set by firms under imperfect competition, while workers adjust to distributive losses through borrowing and the accumulation of bank deposits. The model for- malizes workers’ consumption behavior as a real, dynamic process, highlighting a martingale-like condition in which households smooth real consumption over time despite inflationary pressures arising from rising mark-ups. Using household-level panel data, the paper tests this martingale property by estimating a fixed-effects regression of real consumption on its lagged value and lagged financial resources. The results provide evidence that real consumption exhibits strong persistence, consistent with consumption smoothing, while debt plays a compensatory role in sustaining demand under declining wage shares, the analysis also shows that this mechanism is inherently unstable, as rising indebtedness eventu- ally leads to deleveraging, contraction in effective demand, and downward pressure on prices. The findings contribute to the Post-Keynesian literature by linking distributive conflict, household debt, offering new empirical insights into the dynamics of consumption and macroeconomic instability
Queueing and Scheduling Problems with Multiple Servers
No full textWe examine the implications of extending the queueing and scheduling problems from the single-server to the multiple-server cases. In particular, we discuss three assumptions on job divisibility: jobs can be assumed to be indivisible (must be processed continuously on a single server), discretely divisible (a job can be
divided in a series of unit-length tasks that can be processed simultaneously on multiple servers) or continuously divisible (a job can be divided in intervals as small as desired). We examine if the corresponding optimistic and pessimistic cost functions (in which we assume that a group is served first and last, respectively)
satisfy the properties of convexity/concavity and 2-additivity. Our results show that with multiple servers, while all properties hold under continuous divisibility, they largely fail otherwise. In particular, 2-additivity does not carry over, and pessimistic functions are no longer concave. Optimistic functions retain the convexity property in most cases. These negative results indicate that multi-server
problems require fundamentally new analytical approaches, as single-server techniques do not generalize. We also establish that the anticore of the optimistic function is always a non-empty subset of the core of the pessimistic function, providing bounds even when classical properties fail
Behavioral engagement and fiscal incentive design: time series evidence from southern Brazil
No full textThe state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, implemented four behavioral experiments aimed at improving tax compliance. This study contributes to the literature by examining multiple behavioral tax programs over an extended period, providing a longitudinal assessment of citizen engagement. It highlights changes in citizen engagement in the Tax Education Program and their possible causes, focusing on the evolution of new subscribers over time and their relationship with the implementation of innovative projects. We estimate time-series regression models for new subscribers between November 2012 and May 2023, including specifications with and without structural breaks. The results show three moments of high impact on subscriber numbers. The key moment corresponds to the launch of Devolve-ICMS and Receita Certa, with a 635% increase in new subscribers. Inflation showed a small negative impact. Reductions in prize amounts and low-value incentives negatively affected engagement. Programs that provided direct and visible financial returns to citizens—reinforcing perceptions of fairness and reciprocity in the tax system—showed particularly strong effects on engagement. The findings suggest that tax innovations were successful in increasing citizen engagement and, consequently, reducing tax evasion
Collision, Plasticity, and the Creation of Possibilities
No full textThis paper discusses a model where mutation occurs in the population due to "collision", such as immigration, the introduction of new technology, and environmental changes. The proportion of mutations in the population is determined by a parameter called "plasticity", and the population goes to a long-run equilibrium through Darwinian adjustment after the collision. This paper shows that having plasticity can be better than maintaining the existing convention in the long-run equilibrium even when the existing convention is more successful than the average mutation
Income Distribution and Household Debt Dynamics under Kaleckian Pricing
No full textThis paper develops and empirically evaluates a Kaleckian framework linking income distribution, mark-up pricing, and household consumption dynamics in selected Eurozone economies. Within the Kaleckian tradition, real wages are structurally determined by distributive conflict through the mark-up, implying that shifts toward profits may compress purchasing power and alter aggregate demand. The analysis addresses two central questions: whether variations in the mark-up are reflected in real wage dynamics consistent with Kaleckian pricing, and whether households smooth consumption through borrowing in response to distributive pressures. Using annual data for Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands over the period 1980–2025, the results reveal substantial cross-country heterogeneity in real wage developments, providing only partial support for a uniform mark-up compression mechanism. Real consumption exhibits significant persistence in Germany and the Netherlands, with the estimated parameter approaching unity, consistent with martingale-like smoothing and strong path dependence. However, the borrowing channel does not emerge as statistically robust across countries, suggesting that debt does not systematically function as a long-run stabilizing device for demand. The findings therefore support the relevance of Kaleckian distributional dynamics and consumption inertia while offering limited empirical confirmation for sustained debt-led stabilization in the selected Eurozone economies