Work and Demand Making: Productionist and Consumptionist Politics in Latin America

How does the world of work in Latin America affect the way workers act to defend their interests? To what extent have “productionist” demands, those concerning jobs, work conditions, and wages, which are highly salient across the region, been “displaced” by consumptionist or political demands? While the literature has distinguished formal and informal work grosso modo, we explore individual traits of work, which cross-cut the formal-informal distinction. Analyzing survey data from four Latin American capital cities, we find, not surprisingly, that both work-based atomization and insecurity depress demand making in the work arena. But these traits of work also affect demand making on the state, albeit in somewhat different ways. Insecurity is associated with a shift from productionist to consumptionist and political demands, while atomization is associated with a more generalized demobilization across issues. These findings have implications for the representation of worker interests in light of current labor market restructuring and raise the question if labor can reclaim an important voice in that restructuring process.

COVID-19 impact on cultural and natural Pan-European thematic routes

Although the definitive effect is not measurable yet, it is evident that the hospitality and tourism sectors have endured the greatest pressure in the coronavirus pandemic crisis. This paper presents the analysis of the impact of the crisis on the thematic tourism routes. The emphasis is placed on investigating the impacts on market structure and seasonality, being the external dimensions, and on employment and cost-controlled measures as instruments of the internal management dimension. The case study analysis employed is based on the empirical examples of Pan-European thematic routes titled "Roman Emperors & Danube Wine Route" (RER & DWR) and "Via Dinarica Route" (VDR). The paper also discusses models of various scenarios for business recovery and further development. The findings show that COVID-19 has had a minimal impact of -2% on employment in the thematic routes and that massive cost control measures have been predominantly aimed at fixed operational costs. Thematic routes have experienced a decrease in operating time of up to 50%, and at the same time are undergoing market restructuring, with domestic and regional guests being the leading segments. Research further shows that the most needed form of government support through crisis mitigation measures is destination promotion support, followed by wage support and utility cost reduction.

Financial Well-Being of Nigerian Family in Ikeja Lagos State Nigeria

With the recent advancement in the financial economy, it has become pertinent to families to be knowledgeable and adept in handling their finances. Financial markets terrain has increased so much, resulting in the availability of a more extensive choice of financial products and services, thus making financial decisions more complex and demanding. The ease of accessibility to inventive loans and credit services, financial market restructuring and technological advancements in the mode of offering and distributing financial services have indisputably left several individuals with a puzzling assortment of savings opportunities and decisions that need to be made. Therefore, this study was conceptualized to examine the factors that determine the financial well-being of Nigerian families in Ikeja local government, Nigeria. The researcher employed a stratified random sampling in selecting the number of employees, and 400 questionnaires were distributed to achieve a reasonable responses rate. As such, eighty (80) questionnaires were distributed to each of the five departments selected. From the study, it was shown research showed that majority of the respondents were female between the age ranges 20 to over 60 years. Results of the study showed that there was a significant relationship between financial well-being and financial management and financial strain expect for financial literacy. The regression analysis showed that the factors (financial literacy, financial stress, and business management) jointly for 45.7% of the variance in financial well-being. It was suggested that to improve economic prosperity among the employees in the local government, in Ikeja Lagos, Nigeria, an active factor is needed for family financial well-being.

Modeling market power on a constrained electricity network

A closed electricity network with three markets is modeled to illustrate the impacts of transmission constraints and market power on prices and economic welfare. Four scenarios are presented, the first two assume perfect competition with and without transmission constraints, while the second two model market power with and without transmission constraints. The results show that transmission constraints reduce total surplus relative to the unconstrained case. When firms exercise market power their profits increase, while consumer surplus and total surplus decrease. Some results are counter intuitive, such as price exceeding the marginal cost of the most inefficient generator in a market with perfect competition, caused by transmission constraints and Kirchoff’s voltage law governing power flows. The GAMS code used to solve the models is included in the appendix. Next steps for research involve building the model to replicate a real-world market, to simulate impacts of proposed market restructuring or to identify areas of deregulated markets at high-risk of market power abuse.