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An analytical model, based on Fourier expansion of the eddy current components on a cylindrical shell, which was already developed and tested on a fusion device, has been further improved. It now allows for the analysis of the effects of azimuthal gaps when the shell reacts to a forcing field with any azimuthal and axial harmonic content, provided that the field is antimetric with respect to the equatorial plane. The model results have been validated with experimental tests on the RFX shell.

The paper deals with the design of azimuthal cuts on a conducting cylinder. It analyses the effect of various cut shapes in minimising the stray magnetic field in the cut region, when an orthogonal magnetic field is penetrating through the cylinder. Both an analytical model and a finite element code are used for the analyses in the time and frequency domain. Results from both methods are compared and a fairly good agreement is found. The non‐linearly tapered cut results as the best solution for minimising the stray field.

This paper deals with the problem of internal overvoltages within large coils due to fast‐rising surges. Numerical simulations are performed on a lumped‐parameter equivalent circuit, representing a coil of the magnetic system of a thermo‐nuclear fusion experiment. Inductances and capacitances are computed through numerical methods which ensure a good precision even with complex geometries. The effect of the conductive painting on the outer surface of the coil is also taken into account. The simulation results are compared with a number of measurements on a full‐size prototype coil. Turn‐to‐earth, as well as inter‐turn overvoltages, are both computed and measured in many grounding conditions. The experimental results fit well with computation and theoretical prediction.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the optimization of a permanent magnet linear actuator with soft magnetic mover for electromagnetic valve. The optimization is carried out with respect to the minimal magnetomotive force ensuring required minimum electromagnetic force on the mover.

Three optimization factors are employed. The value of the electromagnetic force and the objective function – the magnetomotive force – are obtained by caring out a full factorial design of experiment. For obtaining the objective function for each parameter combination, nonlinear equation is solved in order to minimize the flux that creates force in backward direction. Thus, several finite element analyses are carried out for each parameter combination. Then, response surface model is created and optimized. The obtained optimal solution is verified again by finite element analysis.

The paper finds that optimal actuator has been obtained and its force‐stroke characteristics and temperature distribution at steady‐state mode are given.

The valve is optimized by defining optimization function to be the solution of an equation canceling the flux in the nonactive part of the valve.

This paper aims to present the dynamics of housing prices in Italian cities based on unpublished data with regional details from the late 1960s, half-yearly base, for all main Italian cities measuring the average prices for three city dimensions: city centre, sub-centres and outskirts or suburbs. It estimates the Italian long-term house price index, city based in real terms, and shows a combination of methods to deal with large time-series data.

This paper builds long-term cycles based on the city (real) data by estimating the common components of cointegrated time series and extracting the unobservable signals to build real house price index for sub-regions in Italy. Three different econometric methodologies are used: Johansen cointegration test and VAR models to identify the long-term pattern of prices at the estimated aggregate level; principal components to obtain the common (permanent and transitory) components; and signal extraction in ARIMA time series–model-based approach method to extract the unobserved time signals.

Results show three long-term cycle-trends during the period and identify several one-direction causal non-permanent relationships among house prices from different Italian areas. There is no evidence of convergence among regional’s house prices suggesting that the Italian housing prices converge inside the local market with only short diffusion effects at larger regional level.

Data are measured as the average price in squared meters, and the resulting index is not quality controlled.

The long-term trends on housing prices serve to implement further research and know deeply the evolution of Italian housing prices.

This paper contains new and unknown information about the evolution of housing prices in Italian regions and cities.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a causal relationship between mortgage credit and house prices in Turkey.

Granger causality test, Toda–Yamamoto causality test, Fourier Granger causality test and Fourier Toda–Yamamoto causality tests are applied.

The findings show that there is a strong one-way causality between mortgage credit and house prices and that the developments in credit markets are more decisive in the relationship between mortgage credit and house prices than the developments in the housing markets.

Considering a causal relationship between mortgage credit and house prices may contribute to more efficient use of the tools of both macroeconomic and microeconomic policies for the mortgage credit and housing markets in Turkey. Furthermore, by understanding the importance of the direction of causality between both dynamics, it may be possible to prevent and/or mitigate the negative effects of large house price movements on both Turkish housing and mortgage markets as well as on Turkish economy.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the contribution of this study is to examine for the first time whether the causal relationship between mortgage credit and house prices in Turkey is mutual as well as to apply four different causality tests and to compare their results for the first time.

This article seeks to explain why the public provision of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Reggio di Calabria – the largest city of the Calabria region in Southern Italy – has remained among the lowest in the country, failing to respond to the growing local demand for such services. Most of the limited formal supply of ECEC services currently available in the city is almost exclusively provided, for a fee, by private – until recently unregulated – day care centres, whereas households who cannot afford them must still rely on family care.

Based on original research findings, the article explains how such a supply configuration is the result of several concurrent factors – structural, institutional and cultural, on both the demand and the supply side of the service relation – and has been conditioned by both national and local specificities.

The complex interplay of these factors accounts not only for the enduring absence of an adequate public provision of ECEC services in the city and its region but also for the reproduction of an “unsupported” familistic model of care, while a loosely regulated private supply answers the growing demand coming from the working women who can afford it.

The lack of public ECEC, which was significantly aggravated by the 2008 financial crisis, represents a major constraint for women's emancipation and social justice in an already difficult socio-economic context.

The article provides in-depth knowledge on the enduring deficit of public ECEC services in a region and city that are little studied, together with a contextualized interpretation of its causes and implications.

This paper aims to develop a house price forecasting model to investigate the impact of neighbourhood effect on property value.

Multi-level modelling (MLM) method is used to develop the house price forecasting models. The neighbourhood effects, that is, socio-economic conditions that exist in various locations, are included in this study. Data from the local government area in Greater Sydney, Australia, has been collected to test the developed model.

Results show that the multi-level models can account for the neighbourhood effects and provide accurate forecasting results.

It is believed that the impacts on specific households may be different because of the price differences in various geographic areas. The “neighbourhood” is an important consideration in housing purchase decisions.

While increasing housing supply provisions to match the housing demand, governments may consider improving the quality of neighbourhood conditions such as transportation, surrounding environment and public space security.

The demand and supply of housing in different locations have not behaved uniformly over time, that is, they demonstrate spatial heterogeneity. The use of MLM extends the standard hedonic model to incorporate physical characteristics and socio-economic variables to estimate dwelling prices.

While the economic literature mostly tackled discrimination looking at labour costs, this work focuses on its relation to labour productivity, arguing that discrimination may worsen the performance of female employees. In this view, it represents a source of allocative inefficiency, which contributes to reducing output.

Female discrimination is both a social and an economic problem. In social terms, consolidated gender stereotypes impose constraints on women’s behaviour, worsening their overall well-being. In economic terms, women face generally worse labour market conditions. Using long-run Italian data spanning from 1861 to 2009, the authors propose a novel measure of female discrimination based on the observed frequency of discriminating epithets. Following social capital theory, the authors distinguish between structural and voluntary discrimination, and use Data Envelopment Analysis for time series data to assess the extent of inefficiency that each component of discrimination induces in the production process.

The results draw the trajectory of female discrimination in Italy and provide evidence in favour of the idea that female discrimination reduces productive efficiency. In particular, the structural component of female discrimination, although less sizeable than the voluntary component, plays a major role, especially in recent years, where more stringent beauty standards fuel looks-based discrimination.

The contribution of this work is twofold. First, based on contributions from social sciences different from economics, it proposes a novel theoretical framework that explores the effect of discriminatory language on labour productivity. Second, it introduces a novel and direct measure of female discrimination at the country level, based on the bidirectional link between language and culture. The indicator is easily understood by policymakers and may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-discrimination policies.

This paper aims to assess the effects of housing market shocks on real output in South Africa, by focusing on the real private consumption channel.

It measures housing market shocks as non-monetary housing shocks, uses a data set covering the period 1969Q4-2014Q4 and uses the agnostic identification procedure.

The paper finds that 20 per cent of the variation in house prices is explained by these shocks. The paper also finds that the effects of housing demand shocks on real private consumption are short-lived and generate a transitory real output response. Overall, housing demand shocks have managed to explain nearly 13 per cent and 14 per cent of the variation in real private consumption and real output respectively, over 20-quarters ahead forecast revision.

This finding suggests that shocks emanating from the housing market in the country are essential and should be considered when making macroeconomic policy decisions.

None of the existing studies, to our knowledge, have empirically assessed the effects of housing market shocks on real output directly. This paper attempts to contribute to the literature by assessing the direct impact of housing market shocks on the real output, using South Africa as a case study.