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An Alternative Aggregation Function for the UNDP Human Development Index
No full textSeveral composite indices have been proposed in literature to measure multidimensional phenomena such as well-being, quality of life, development, societal progress and so on. A fundamental point in the construction of composite indices in general, and in the well-being context in particular, is the degree of compensability allowed between individual indicators or dimensions. When building measures of well-being, the deficiency on one aspect shall not be offset by the surplus on another. In this paper we take the Human Development Index (HDI) as a relevant example of composite index and propose an alternative aggregation function between its dimensions. Having received quite few criticisms about compensability, in 2010 the HDI developers switched from the linear, unweighted arithmetic mean to geometric one. In practice, however, both approaches, the geometric and arithmetic mean, lead to similar 2021 HDI scores for most countries. The “Generalized Mean-Min” method we propose introduces an additive penalisation to country’s unbalanced profiles, thus mitigating the compensability among the HDI dimensions. Furthermore, in this paper we provide guidelines for choosing the level of penalisation in an objective way. Thus, the new method allows for adjusting the penalisation of unbalanced country profiles across the HDI dimensions
The Unbalance Penalisation Method for Metrics of Social Progress
No full textThis study contributes to the debate on the development of aggregate metrics of societal progress. Summarising societal progress into a single number poses various methodological challenges, including the choice of indicators, normalisation, weighting and aggregation. This paper addresses the issue of aggregation in the case of metrics of well-being and uses as a case study the European Union regional Social Progress Index—EU-SPI—published by the European Commission. The index is an aggregate measure of 55 social and environmental indicators observed for all the European regions grouped into 12 components. In metrics of this type, while complete substitutability among components is rarely acceptable, controlling their level of substitutability is highly desirable. To this aim, we adopt a modified version of the unbalance penalisation approach originally proposed by Casadio Tarabusi and Guarini (Soc Indic Res 112:9–45, 2013). A penalisation is applied to the regions whose performance ac..
Development of two scales for measuring academic psychological capital and locus of control in fresh graduates
No full textThis work develops within PETERE, a project of the University of Padova that investigated how fresh graduates interact with the labour market in order to improve placement plans. A set of psychological characteristics have been identified as crucial resources for the occupational success: the positive psychological capital (PsyCap) dimensions (hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism) and locus of control (LoC) dimensions (internal and external). Two instruments have been developed for the evaluation of these individual dispositions among fresh graduates: the Academic PsyCap and the LoC scales. In the final form, the two tools consist of 26 and 7 items respectively, which have been selected, through factor analyses, from an initial pool of items specifically developed for fresh graduates. Results suggested adequate psychometric properties for both the Academic PsyCap and the LoC scales. The factor structure of the two instruments was confirmed, and reliability indices were satisfactory for all the subscales of the tools. The Academic PsyCap and the LoC scales, in addition, showed significant relationships with the occupational status of respondents, with their entrepreneurial disposition, and with the number of actions taken when they are looking for a job
Job requirements in the hospitality industry: Technical or general skills? the dilemma for academic education
Full text linkThis paper identifies the professional profiles of graduates for job positions in the accommodation sector, in particular, whether specific skills of the position or skills related to the tourism sector are preferred. A conjoint design is applied, which presents the more realistic context of asking respondents to evaluate potential “product” profiles. Managers of accommodation facilities expressed their preferences on four hypothetical profiles of candidates for five job positions: receptionist, administrative clerk, human resources professional, web marketing specialist, revenue manager. Six attributes (academic degree and level, among others) are used to describe the candidate profiles. The data were analysed through a multinomial logit model and an ordinary least squares regression model that highlighted the preferred characteristics of the candidates for the considered job positions. The main findings show that recruitment in accommodation facilities looks at specialized skills and academic programmes appropriate for the specific job positions. Knowledge of the desired characteristics of graduates, which could affect a possible recruitment, is important for designing effective academic curricula
Development of two scales for measuring academic psychological capital and locus of control in fresh graduates
No full textMeasuring content validity of academic psychological capital and locus of control in fresh graduates
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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
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