1,720,982 research outputs found
A Social Performance Analysis of European Microfinance
No full textWe analyse European MFIs social performance according to the core set of common indicators and framework developed by the Social Performance Task Force using data collected in 2009 for the European Microfinance Network (EMN) “Overview of the Microcredit Sector in EU 2008-2009” on a sample of 170 microfinance actors operating in 21 countries from the European Union (EU) 27, current EU candidate country Croatia and countries belonging to the European Free Trade Area (EFTA). The reference framework and methodology followed in the social performance analysis, as specified in the Social Performance Standard Reports (SPSR), examines the whole process of translating MFIs mission into social impact and includes the analysis of several connected dimensions of the social performance pathway corresponding to areas covered by different set of indicators: the intent of the MFI, the effectiveness of the internal system and activities in achieving its targets, MFI outputs and eventually its capacity to positively affect clients life and achieve social goals. In what follows we present a revised set of standards, in order to fit the EMN indicators into the SPTF framework, tacking into account the specificities of European MFIs
La sfida della performance sociale per il microcredito italiano
No full textL’industria mondiale del microcredito si è sviluppata attorno alla promessa implicita di fornire prestiti ed altri servizi finanziari a soggetti esclusi dal sistema bancario tradizionale attraverso forme di intermediazione finanziaria autonome da ogni forma di sussidio, la cosiddetta “doppia bottom line” che riconosce alle Istituzioni di Microfinanza (IMF) il perseguimento congiunto di obiettivi di sviluppo sociale e finanziari.
La prima fase di consolidamento del microcredito, che ha coinvolto in maggior misura i Paesi in Via di Sviluppo (PVS), è stata segnata da una prevalente enfasi sulla performance finanziaria delle IMF rispetto ad altrettanto opportune valutazioni del loro impatto sociale, coerentemente con la visione dominante negli attori chiave della comunità internazionale dei donatori e in alcuni influenti circoli accademici secondo la quale il raggiungimento dell’obiettivo della sostenibilità finanziaria avrebbe consentito alle IMF di servire le categorie di potenziali beneficiari più svantaggiate e/o a basso reddito.
Negli ultimi anni sono emerse numerose iniziative autonome di ricerca applicata e sperimentazione nel campo della performance sociale delle IMF che hanno trovato una sintesi nel 2005 nella creazione della Social Performance Task Force (SPTF), che riunisce i principali gruppi di attori globali (operatori, donatori, accademici e agenzie di rating) con lo scopo di definire un piano di azione comune che definisca indicatori di valutazione e pratiche di gestione delle IMF condivise.
La SPTF ha identificato una serie di indicatori di performance sociale che costituiscono attualmente lo standard di riferimento mondiale per le valutazioni degli aspetti sociali dell’operatività delle IMF. La recente nascita di un settore italiano del microcredito, per sua natura esplicitamente orientato al perseguimento degli obiettivi di sviluppo umano e sociale, deve quindi da un lato misurarsi con gli standard globali e dall’altro promuovere proposte di adeguamento degli indicatori di riferimento alle specificità del contesto storico di provenienza delle istituzioni operanti ed alla realtà socio-economica dei beneficiari coinvolti.
Nel presente contributo sarà innanzitutto tracciato un profilo delle istituzioni operative a livello nazionale e dei loro beneficiari, oltre ai caratteri distintivi delle loro modalità di intervento nel contesto della legislazione nazionale. Tale profilo sarà quindi analizzato rispetto ai diversi ambiti di valutazione della performance sociale previsti dalla metodologia internazionale della SPTF applicata al contesto europeo, al fine di contribuire alla proposta di aggiustamenti idonei a cogliere gli attuali limiti e valorizzare l’eterogeneità di intervento in ambito sociale della realtà italiana
Lo Stato come ‘fornitore’ d’investimenti sociali (State as Social Investments Provider)
No full textWe analyze the role of the State in social investment (education, health services, etc.), different from those in infrastructures. We do so because, in the current economic and social situation, this type of investment, in addition to strengthening the European social model, could be particularly effective in creating new jobs. To test the link between social investment and employment we modify the Paolo Sylos Labini’s employment equation model (MOSYL), inserting in the model social investment instead of those in infrastructures. The quantitative implementation is based on Eurostat data for the 28 EU countries, and the results are encouraging: the employment rate is strongly influenced by factors outside the labor market, which affect not only the general economic environment (represented by GDP), but also by elements linked to the social context, concerning the new forms of welfare. Text of the speech given at the conference "Paolo Sylos Labini e la politica delle riforme", held at Sapienza University of Rome on 04 December 2015, organized by the Accademia dei Lincei with Economia Civile
Don't ask don't tell (that you're poor). Sexual orientation and social exclusion in Italy
No full textThe role and extent of sexual orientation discrimination is the focus of a growing body of literature in economics and in other social sciences, across a wide range of social domains. This work aims at providing a holistic approach to the assessment of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people's life experience by developing a synthetic index of social inclusion. This is obtained by aggregating several variables pertaining to the following domains: monetary poverty, labour market attachment, housing conditions, subjective well-being, and education. We focus on the case of Italy due to the availability of a peculiar dataset that allows us to distinguish LGB people who are open about their sexuality and those who choose not to declare it. The empirical analysis highlights a lower level of inclusion of individuals in same-sex couples that cannot be explained by other observable characteristics. Thus, it may denote a lack of equal opportunities and a need for adequate inclusion policies. Being publicly open about one's sexuality is found as a crucial correlate of the welfare of LGB people, to an extent so far neglected by the literature. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Inc
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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