Using an evolutionary perspective to understand the relationship between physical aggression and academic performance in late adolescents

In this study, we applied an evolutionary perspective to analyze the relationship between aggressiveness, academic performance, and sociality in a population of 528 adolescents of both sexes. In men, we expect physical aggression (PA) and sociality to be negative predictors of academic performance. However, in women, PA would be a negative predictor of academic performance, and sociality a positive one. Our results report a negative association between academic performance and PA in both sexes. As we expected, social effect derived from the use of PA seems to be different for each sex, where men could display a rebellious attitude to increase chances of finding a mate. In contrast, results for women are not conclusive, because no relationship between academic performance and any aggressive mechanism, were predicted by sociality. We conclude that an evolutionary framework, which includes sex-specific hypotheses, is appropriate to obtain a holistic perspective of this phenomenon.     

Child-related leave and women’s labour market outcomes: towards a new paradigm in the European Union?

The current European Union (EU) legislative framework on child-related leave is facilitating an imbalance in the take-up of leave by women over men. There is a consolidated EU right to maternity leave for mothers but there is no parallel EU right to paternity leave for fathers. The EU right to parental leave is for both working mothers and fathers, but its design does not encourage an equal take-up by women and men. The aim of this article is to gain insight into the effects of child-related leave on women’s labour market outcomes. On the one hand, it reviews and analyses economic literature which points to the adverse consequences of leave on women’s earnings, and even on women’s labour market participation when the absences from work are very prolonged. On the other hand, it underlines the new direction followed by the European Commission towards greater equality between men and women at home and at work.     

Genetic profiling of a central Venezuelan population using 15 STR markers that may be of forensic importance

The AmpFlSTR Identifiler kit has recently been accepted for use in DNA databasing of forensic samples in the FBI's National DNA Index System. In the present study, we used this kit to analyze the allele distribution of 15 short tandem repeat markers (STR) in individuals living in Caracas city, Venezuela. The allele frequencies of two of these STR, D2S1338 and D19S433, have not previously been reported for this or any other Latin American population. The results indicate that for the population here studied, the 15 STR tested are useful markers for paternity testing and forensic casework.     

European Labour Law and Severance Pay Determination in Collective Redundancies

In this article, we analyse the effects of institutional procedures for redundancies on the earning losses of redundant workers in Europe. Our approach consists of modelling an ideal case embedding the main characteristics of European Labour Law, in particular, the bargaining between firms and workers on the severance pay after a negative shock. The most striking result is that an exact compensation of the earning losses is only obtained by chance. In particular, we show (including a numerical example) that overcompensation of dismissed workers is a real possibility. On the contrary, the ex-ante bargaining models of severance pay predict a full-insurance result. Therefore, we propose a policy recommendation which consists of changing the ex-post bargaining of severance pay in collective dismissals for an ex-ante bargaining.     

The Heteronyms of European Law

Book reviewed in this essay:
Phelan, D. Rossa, Revolt or Revolution: The Constitutional Boundaries of the European Community     

Equity in the Police Districting Problem: Balancing Territorial and Racial Fairness in Patrolling Operations

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - The Police Districting Problem concerns the definition of patrol districts that distribute police resources in a territory in such a way that high-risk areas...     

Strategic voting in local elections: evidence from Portugal (1979–2013)

Do voters behave strategically in local elections? Does democratic experience influence voters’ capacity to behave strategically? Is there a relation between education and voters’ capacity to anticipate the mechanical effects of electoral statutes and adapt their behaviour accordingly? Using an original data set covering the complete democratic period, this paper studies strategic voting at the local level in Portugal. Using an ecological inference approach, we contribute to a vast body of literature on strategic voting by testing whether theories developed for national contexts travel to local contexts. Our findings suggest that (1) voters consistently defect to non-viable lists to support viable lists; (2) democratic experience helps voters to learn how to maximize their utility; and (3) education is important for voters’ ability to identify a strategic setting.     

Assessing the pros and cons of the EU-China comprehensive agreement on investment: an introduction to the special issue

Asia Europe Journal - The announcement of the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) at the end of December 2020 triggered an intense debate. The deal has found many supporters inside...