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In this paper, we introduce some recent non-aggregative algorithms, for the construction of synthetic indicators on multi-indicators systems, and exemplify them on data pertaining to the sustainability of main Italian cities. The procedure employs tools from Partial Order Theory and computes the final synthetic scores, without the compensation effects of classical composite indicators, so better preserving the nuances of city sustainability. Since turning multi-indicator systems into single synthetic indicators is unavoidably forcing, the procedure provides also ways to assess the degrees of “rankability” of statistical units, so to help researchers evaluating the soundness of the synthesis process. The algorithms introduced in the paper can be easily implemented, using the package Parsec, freely available in the R ecosystem.

We calibrate an endogenous overlapping generations model of a small open economy to study the effects of population aging and population decline. In an invariant scenario public and foreign debt explode and GDP growth decreases markedly. Among the tested policies to control public finances, the best for the individuals is an increase in the retirement age, which needs to increase 6 years, a similar magnitude as the increase in life expectancy at birth. However, this increase has to happen before the increase in life expectancy materializes itself. Aging has a stronger negative impact on public debt than population decline. We find a positive, but quantitatively modest, behavioral effect in reaction to a higher life expectancy with an impact on the GDP growth rate of only 2 basis points. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Using transaction data from a US consumer payments diary, we revisit the credit card debt puzzle-a scenario in which consumers revolve credit card debt while also keeping liquid assets as bank account deposits. This scenario is very common: 42 percent of consumers in our sample were borrower-savers in 2019 (those who carry $100 or more in credit card debt and $100 or more in liquid assets). We explain the puzzle by showing that consumers need their liquid assets to pay monthly bills and other necessary expenses, including mortgage or rent. More than 80 percent of bills by value were paid out of bank accounts and could not be charged to credit cards, so bank account balances were needed to cover those basic expenses. On average, borrower-savers' credit card debt exceeded their liquid assets. The average borrower-saver carried almost $6,400 in unpaid credit card debt and had $5,400 in liquid assets, including checking and savings accounts, cash, and general-purpose prepaid cards. Only 40 percent of borrower-savers had liquid assets greater than their unpaid credit card balance. In addition, borrower-savers' monthly expenses (bills and purchases) averaged 77 percent of their liquid assets, not leaving enough to repay their credit card debt. On average, the value of their liquid assets could cover only about 60 percent of their unpaid debt plus monthly bills. In almost every category of assets or debts, both housing- and nonhousing-related, borrower-savers were significantly worse off financially than savers. Thus, the differences between borrower-savers and savers are much broader than just their credit card debt and bank account balances; the differences extend to mortgage debt and home equity. Even when we control for income and demographics in a regression, we find that carrying a mortgage or other debt (such as auto or educational loans) is associated with a higher probability of revolving on a credit card, suggesting that various types of household debt are complements rather than substitutes. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, consumers' unpaid credit card debt decreased, and their liquid assets increased, so the fraction of borrower-savers dropped to 35 percent of the sample.

We use the Overlapping Generations Model with intergenerational heterogeneity to analyze the preferred form of taxation to achieve the fiscal reform necessary to maintain fiscal sustainability in Japan. We assumed two forms of taxation, i.e. the consumption tax increase or the progressive labor income tax increase, and used utility criteria and the existing voting system for our analysis. The results showed that support for a consumption tax increase is limited to the upper income bracket in generations younger than middle-age, rendering implementation of the fiscal reform policy impossible. Thus, we assumed a utilitarian government and confirmed that the consumption tax increase option would be favored in a case in which the sum of utility changes in all the people alive in the year fiscal reform is launched. However, a utilitarian government is equivalent to forcing other income groups to make sacrifices solely for the benefit of the high-income group and calls into doubt whether such a choice is fair.

The world of digital data is full of unknown data, with are not FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). This modern species of dragons on a (digital) map of the internet as sign for unknown and dangerous areas, the unknown digital data dragons, have to be resolved by digital techniques. We could use the Semantic Web and all of its ideas for this challenge. This paper focuses on data dragons in the humanities domain, especially in archaeology and proposes ideas to overcome the data dragons to achieve FAIR LOUD in archaeology!

Evidence for Higgs boson decay to a pair of muons is presented. This result combines searches in four exclusive categories targeting the production of the Higgs boson via gluon fusion, via vector boson fusion, in association with a vector boson, and in association with a top quark-antiquark pair. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at s√ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. An excess of events over the back- ground expectation is observed in data with a significance of 3.0 standard deviations, where the expectation for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson with mass of 125.38 GeV is 2.5. The combination of this result with that from data recorded at s√ = 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5.1 and 19.7 fb−1, respectively, increases both the expected and observed significances by 1%. The measured signal strength, relative to the SM prediction, is 1.19+0.40−0.39(stat)+0.15−0.14(syst). This result constitutes the first evidence for the decay of the Higgs boson to second generation fermions and is the most precise measurement of the Higgs boson coupling to muons reported to date. Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie programme and the European Research Council and Horizon 2020 Grant, contract Nos. 675440, 752730, and 765710 (European Union); the Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia María de Maeztu, grant MDM-2015-0509 and the Programa Severo Ochoa del Principado de Asturias. CMS collaboration: et al. Peer reviewed

Fermented foods that we eat contain a vast variety of ingredients, which are produced through complex fermentation processes. Among them, the production of sake uses an advanced fermentation method that is unparalleled in the world, where two chemical reactions are carried out simultaneously by using two types of microorganisms. Therefore, the crucial importance of quality control during fermentation requires the use of highly versatile sensory evaluation and measurement devices tailored to the ingredients to be measured (Li et al., 2009). In this context, we propose a method of quality control by quantitative measurement of fermented foods using a one‐shot infrared Fourier spectrometer (Sato et al., 2016). Because this spectroscopic method uses Fourier spectroscopy it can measure multiple components simultaneously, while its small size allows it to be installed at the production site so that quality information can be confirmed in real time. This instrumentation makes it possible to measure and quantify important information in the fermentation process, such as microorganisms that act in the fermentation, compounds like glutamic acid that affect the taste of fermented foods, and volatile components that produce aroma. In this paper, we describe the feasibility of quality control in fermented food production by using a one‐shot infrared Fourier spectrometer.

We examine the so-called "Neo-Fisherian" claim that, at the zero lower bound (ZLB) of the monetary policy interest rate, and the economy in a depression equilibrium, in order to restore the desired inflation rate the policy rate should be raised consistently with the Fisher equation. This claim has been questioned on the ground that the Fisher equation cannot be used mechanically to peg the long-run inflation expectations. It is necessary to examine how inflation expectations are formed in response to, and interact with, policy actions and the evolution of the economy. Hence we study a New Keynesian economy where agents' inflation expectations are based on their correct understanding of the data generations process, and on their probabilistic confidence in the central bank's ability to keep inflation on target, driven by the observed state of the economy. We find that the Neo-Fisherian claim is a theoretical possibility depending on the interplay of a set of parameters and very low levels of agents' confidence. Yet, on the basis of simulations of the model, we may say that this possibility is remote for most commonly found empirical values of the relevant parameters. Moreover, the Neo-Fisherian policy-rate peg is not sustained by the expectations formation process.

Recent surveys of the literature on climate change and migration emphasize the important diversity of outcomes and approaches of the empirical studies. In this paper, we conduct a meta-analysis in order to investigate the role of the methodological choices of these empirical studies in finding some particular results concerning the role of climatic factors as drivers of human mobility. We code 51 papers representative of the literature in terms of methodological approaches. This results in the coding of more than 85 variables capturing the methodology of the main dimensions of the analysis at the regression level. These dimensions include authors' reputation, type of mobility, measures of mobility, type of data, context of the study, econometric methods and last but not least measures of the climatic factors. We look at the influence of these characteristics on the probability of finding any effect of climate change, of finding a displacement effect, of finding an increase in immobility and of finding evidence in favour of a direct versus an indirect effect. Our results highlight the role of some important methodological choices, such as the frequency of the data on mobility, the level of development, the measures of human mobility and of the climatic factors as well as the econometric methodology.