scholarly journals The Impacts of Area-Based Policies on Essential Retail in Vulnerable Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 8023
Author(s):  
Cristina Mateos-Mora ◽  
María Rosa Herrera-Gutiérrez ◽  
Cristina González-Benítez

Since the 1990s, urban regeneration has emerged as the main initiative of the European Territorial Development Strategy. A series of integrated urban regeneration policies have subsequently been implemented to redress the socio-territorial imbalance in urban areas by improving the structure of opportunities available to inhabitants. The aim of the current paper is to evaluate the effect of such policies of proximity on the “essential retail trade” in neighborhoods in Andalusia. A quasi-experimental methodology was applied using the Difference in Differences (DiD) technique in order to ascertain the changes attributed to the intervention of the projects. In addition, change trends were analyzed using repeat measurements models for each calculated indicator and in the different considered contexts. The findings show an increase in the density and diversity of essential retail businesses in experimental and control areas. We found that in general, intervention had no significant effect on essential retail trade. However, the results do indicate that the impact of these plans is conditioned by the possible effect of different contexts and their specific dynamics (historical districts of large cities or towns on the one hand or peripheral suburbs on the other). The study may contribute to improving the design of integrated policies by controlling for the specificities of urban areas targeted by intervention.

Author(s):  
Jaime Lester

Sparked by a series of national campaigns to increase interest in computer science, computer science departments are inundated with students who are interested in learning how to program. Despite the interest, introductory computer science course have relatively low completion rates (approximately 55% at Mason) and high rates of academic integrity violations. In response to this environment, the Computer Science department at Mason received an external grant to redesign their introductory programming courses to a self-paced, flipped format. Implementation began in Fall 2015 with a quasi-experimental methodology that tracks students from an experimental course and a control group (those who took more traditional introductory CS courses) over the course of the semester. Data collected includes grades on assignments, self-report surveys, and classroom observations.  The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a self-paced, flipped curricular design in an introductory experiential computer science course on the immediate (in course) completion.   In this short lightning talk, we will present data from student surveys and classroom observations identifying any difference across the control and experimental groups. Preliminary results identify a significant increase in student completion upwards of a 20% difference across the groups. In addition to increasing knowledge of the impact of self-paced courses on student retention and success in computer science, we offer an alternative method to collect data on classroom observations via the Real-time Observation Classroom Application (ROCA). ROCA allows for efficient data collection and comparison of specific pedagogies to student engagement measures.  


Author(s):  
Michael Getzner

-National parks and other categories of protected areas are often assumed to enhance regional economic development due to park tourism. The current study attempts to estimate the impact of the Hohe Tauern national park (Austria) on tourism by exploring whether and to what extent the national park may have had an influence on tourism development. For most national park communities, the results suggest that the establishment of the national park had some impact by enforcing an already positive trend or by weakening or reversing a negative trend of tourism. However, breakpoint tests exhibit turning points up to several years after the establishment of the park, indicating that taking a national park as the basis for tourism development is a medium to long term development strategy. In the short term, the impact of a national park on tourism is not measurable. Tourism increased by 1 to 3% annually after the breakpoint, indicating that the establishment of a national park has to be incorporated into the tourism and development strategy of a region right from the start. The causal relationship between the establishment of the national park and tourism development may be weak, in particular in communities where the difference between the actual and the forecast numbers of overnight stays is small. Marketing national park tourism and building up a brand or distinctive label may therefore contribute to regional development particularly in the long term.Key words: Tourism, national park, protected area, time series, stationarity, breakpoint test, ARIMA.JEL classifications: R110, L830, C220.Parole chiave: Turismo, parco nazionale, area protetta, serie temporale, stazionarietŕ, test di breakpoint, ARIMA.


Author(s):  
Yin Yin Khoo ◽  
Robert Fitzgerald

This study examines the impact of using cartoons shared through mobile devices to promote awareness and to aid in the development of financial literacy among Economics students in Malaysia. The study also investigates the use of these ‘mobile cartoons' to develop students' communication skills. The study involved a quasi-experimental methodology investigating the learning outcomes of 91 undergraduate students. Data was acquired through surveys and interviews. The results showed a higher mean for the experimental group (Mobile Learning Collaborative) than the control group (Conventional Collaborative). Future research may focus on the improvement in the design of the intervention with a particular focus on expanding the range of cartoon characters.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (139) ◽  
pp. 20170946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan R. Frank ◽  
Lijun Sun ◽  
Manuel Cebrian ◽  
Hyejin Youn ◽  
Iyad Rahwan

The city has proved to be the most successful form of human agglomeration and provides wide employment opportunities for its dwellers. As advances in robotics and artificial intelligence revive concerns about the impact of automation on jobs, a question looms: how will automation affect employment in cities? Here, we provide a comparative picture of the impact of automation across US urban areas. Small cities will undertake greater adjustments, such as worker displacement and job content substitutions. We demonstrate that large cities exhibit increased occupational and skill specialization due to increased abundance of managerial and technical professions. These occupations are not easily automatable, and, thus, reduce the potential impact of automation in large cities. Our results pass several robustness checks including potential errors in the estimation of occupational automation and subsampling of occupations. Our study provides the first empirical law connecting two societal forces: urban agglomeration and automation's impact on employment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 97 (5) ◽  
pp. 609-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ráchael A. Powers ◽  
Catherine Kaukinen ◽  
Michelle Jeanis

In this study, we examine comparative rates of recidivism for Colorado inmates released from a private reentry center and public facilities. Using a sample of 6,102 inmates released from 2008 to 2012, we measure overall recidivism and recidivism for a new crime. Applying a quasi-experimental methodology, we find that overall rates of recidivism are comparable. Prior to matching, 46.8% of the treatment and 61.3% of the comparison group recidivated, and the difference is statistically significant. However, after matching on relevant covariates, the difference was reduced to nonsignificance. In contrast, those released from the private facility are more likely to return to prison for a new offense. Approximately 14% of those in the private facility committed a new crime compared with 9% prematching and 8% postmatching. Despite these modest differences in the rate of recidivism, the overall time to return to prison is comparable between the groups.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Anita Karunia ◽  
Yusri Anis Faidah

This research aims to find regional potential in the area of Pekalongan Eks Residency through comparative advantage, competitive advantage, and specialized analysis therefore can be arranged the regional development strategy. This research is analyzed using quantitative descriptive method with the analysis of Static Location Quotient (SLQ) and Shift Share (SS) with the modification of Estaban Marquiles. The result of this research shows that the result of SLQ analysis shows sector with comparative advantage in all regency/city of Pekalongan Eks Residency is the sector of Accommodation, Food and Beverage Provision. Sectors that can be comparative advantage potential in all regency/city in Pekalongan residency are the Sectors of retail trade, car and motor bike repairs; Education service sector; and Other services sectors. The result analysis of Esteban Marquiles Shift Share shows that several sectors have competitive advantage in each regency/city in Pekalongan residency although not as whole such as Mining and Digging Sector except  Pekalongan City and Tegal City; Processing industry sector except Batang Regency; and also Company services sector except Tegal Regency and Pekalongan City. The difference of result of sectoral potential analysis of Regency/city in Pekalongan residency becomes the foundation in arranging regional development strategy surgically that is by looking into what sector/commodity that can be developed rapidly, either because of the nature potential or because that sector has competitive and comparative advantage to be developed.


Author(s):  
Ranganath T. Sobagaiah ◽  
Karuna Siddappa Patange ◽  
Vishwanatha .

Background: Biomedical waste is any waste generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals. The quantity of solid waste generated in Bangalore hospitals is from ½ to 4 kg per bed per day. But segregation is done in only 30%. Health care workers have an important responsibility to segregate the biomedical waste and dispose them. Hence this study was undertaken with the objective of assessing the impact of intervention on Biomedical waste segregation knowledge among junior doctors.  Methods: The study design employed is a quasi experimental study with control and intervention design. The junior doctors were selected randomly. After written informed consent the participants were divided as two group of intervention and control group with 74 in each group. Data of pre-test was collected using self-administered and validated questionnaire. After a week of pre-test, training using WHO modules 3 on training of biomedical waste segregation based on IHWM was done only for the intervention group. After a period of 3 months post test was conducted for both the intervention and the control group using a pre tested self-administered questionnaire with questions very similar to the pre-test.Results: The difference is found to be with t-test value of 1.434 and df of 37 with significant value 0.160 (>0.05) for the control group. The difference is found to be with t-test value of 3.241 and df of 35 with significant value 0.003 (<0.05) for the intervention group.Conclusions: The knowledge of biomedical waste management was found to increase after an intervention.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Yin Yin Khoo ◽  
Robert Fitzgerald

This study examines the impact of using cartoons shared through mobile devices to promote awareness and to aid in the development of financial literacy among Economics students in Malaysia. The study also investigates the use of these ‘mobile cartoons' to develop students' communication skills. The study involved a quasi-experimental methodology investigating the learning outcomes of 91 undergraduate students. Data was acquired through surveys and interviews. The results showed a higher mean for the experimental group (Mobile Learning Collaborative) than the control group (Conventional Collaborative). Future research may focus on the improvement in the design of the intervention with a particular focus on expanding the range of cartoon characters.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 00096
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Wesołowska ◽  
Marta Laska

People living in urban areas are exposed to a number of threats related with dense urban tissue and high number of vehicles. These include air pollutions, traffic noise and high temperatures. In addition, large cities are struggling with high energy consumption for heating and cooling purposes. One of the possibilities to reduce the mentioned undesirable effects is the use of vegetation on the walls. Plants absorbs the pollutants of air, produced the oxygen, mounted on external walls create thermal insulation and positively affect the psychological aspect. Green walls can be used both indoors and outdoors. The article presents literature review on green walls, describes their benefits and presents the calculations SPBT and possible energy savings taking into account the transmission losses for small residential building.


SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402097823
Author(s):  
Michal Plaček ◽  
Milan Křápek ◽  
Jan Čadil ◽  
Bojka Hamerníková

This article examines the impact of excellence-promoting policies on the actual performance of municipalities in the Czech Republic. In this analysis, the performance of municipalities that have received awards for the use of quality management tools is compared with a selected group of municipalities that did not receive awards. Data envelopment analysis (DEA; with constant and variable returns on the scale), free disposal hull (FDH), and Order-M methods were utilized to represent performance. For the actual performance comparison, a quasi-experimental design was used. The analysis of outputs using the difference impact method found that this specific public policy did not have a positive impact on the efficiency of municipalities. If the difference-in-differences method is used, the opposite is achieved. However, the technical efficiency gains are very small. The use of the quasi-experimental design along with the determination of inputs and outputs which are characteristic of the Czech Republic also offers a contribution when this method is being applied to the assessment of institutions in the form of local governments.


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