A large and increasing number of studies examine the influence of collective bargaining systems on wage dispersion, but very few analyse their influence on poverty levels. Yet it would be a mistake to assume that the relationship between wage dispersion and poverty rates is straightforward: the...

The STAIRRS project (2000-2002) is a follow-up of EURANO [1] and a Swiss study [2], in which the authors evaluated the efficiency of noise reduction measures in two European freight corridors. STAIRRS includes a cost-benefit analysis based on about 10,000 km of track modelled in seven countries....

In this paper, we propose a new model with random variance components for estimating small area characteristics. Under the proposed model, we derive the empirical best linear unbiased estimator, an approximation to terms of order o(1/ m) and an estimator whose bias is of order o(1/ m) for its...

A new institutional reform is one of the major stakes for the Belgian citizens and enterprises ahead of the regional election of June 2009. Since the general federal election of June 2007 Belgium has been facing new tensions between the two main Communities. On one side, the Flemish Community...