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Transport workers were among the most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. In several countries, public transport and delivery drivers were considered essential workers during the pandemic, while the demand changed dramatically. In this context, little is known about the actual effects of the pandemic on the lives of drivers, and whether those effects depend on the type and formality of the corresponding job. In this paper, we analyse the impact of the pandemic on the daily jobs of public transport, ride-hailing, and delivery app drivers: we study changes on working time and income, pandemic-related concerns, and deterioration of job satisfaction, through a survey applied to drivers during the first peak of the pandemic in Santiago, Chile. Probit regressions on job satisfaction identify the main COVID-related experiences that explain variations in subjective perceptions. We then discuss the implications for post-pandemic job relationships, drivers’ working conditions and urban mobility. We show that the unstable characteristics of app-based jobs sharpened during the pandemic: Public transport drivers have kept their jobs, with a similar income as in the pre-pandemic situation and keep their social security, whereas ride-hailing and delivery app drivers do not have social security. Several ride-hailing drivers lost their jobs without any compensation, while delivery drivers earn less money per hour, are more exhausted, and express the greatest concerns and largest decrease in their job satisfaction. The COVID-19 crisis has emphasized that the sustainability of post-pandemic passenger and delivery on-demand services needs to rely on formal job regulation and worker protection., Learning & Autonomous Control

In this paper, we propose an index to measure the quality of the most important European cities. Using collected data from 66 cities belonging to the 28 countries within the European Union and applying the principal components analysis method, we construct the European Cities Quality Index (ECQI) as a combination of eight dimensions: (1) Public health, (2) Education, (3) Employment and incomes, (4) Environment, (5) Gender equality, (6) Leisure and entertainment, (7) Housing and safety and (8) Transport and mobility, that are in turn made up of 40 distinct variables. We find that London, Aarhus, and Berlin are the cities with the highest scores in the index, with northern European cities performing the best. At the other end of the spectrum, Sofia, Plovdiv, and Bucharest, with severe deficiencies in every dimension, scored worst on the study. The comparisons with the Sustainable Cities Index (Arcadis), the Global Power City Index (Institute for Urban Strategies), Cities in Motion (IESE), the Cities Prosperity Index (UN), and Dynamic Cities (Savills) help us understand the potential use of this new index and its purpose as a tool for assessing public policy. The ECQI could be used to assist public policies designed to improve perception in regions where it is needed.

Nowadays it is very common to make decisions about our actions and behaviors based on a series of perceptions, which have been created according to a series of variables, and in many cases their deep knowledge is unnecessary. The purpose of this paper is to create an index to measure the reputation of a country based on a fnancial markets perspective to see how attractive a country is for foreign investors by neutral, constant, and ofcials measurement criteria. Data for 28 countries have been taken from several ofcials databases and the method used is principal component analysis. The index is a combination of four diferent dimensions: (1) markets and trade, (2) national accounts, (3) labor market, (4) living conditions and security, along with 23 distinct factors. The top scores in this index are the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden, compared to Bulgaria, Croatia, and Greece, which are at the bottom of the table. In general, the best ranked countries receive high scores in all four dimensions, while the worst ranked countries tend to receive low scores in all four dimensions analyzed. Country’s international reputation index could be used to assist public policies designed to improve reputation in countries where it is needed. The study and analysis of this index will make it possible to measure the evolution of the factors that afect the country, both positively and negatively, in order to identify both strengths and weaknesses in order to improve the latter. This paper is the frst to explore the dimensions comprising the international reputation construct at a multinational scope in Europe from an empirical analysis using ofcials datasets. Although other indexes have been widely used for many countrybranding projects, they only show what is being measured by interviews or panel of experts but not by neutral, constant and ofcials measurement criteria, and therefore this paper flls the gap that exists in the current state-of-the-art.

In this article, we propose an index to measure the performance of the Spanish Football league most important teams during the 2016/2017 season. Using data from 10 Spanish first division football clubs, and principal components analysis, we construct a performance index as a combination of five dimensions: economic, fans-related, historical, team quality and the season’s data, along with 22 variables. Results show that Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Athletic de Madrid are the highest-ranked teams, matching their season’s top positions. Additionally, while Sevilla, Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Espanyol exceeded expectations, Athletic de Bilbao, Valencia and Real Betis did not meet their own, compared with their season’s position. This Performance Index of Football Teams could assist club’s decisions designed to improve their performance in different dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to create an index to measure the reputation of countries that belong to the European Union. Data for 28 countries has been taken from the Eurostat database and the method used is principal component analysis. The index is a combination of five different dimensions: (1) Economy, (2) Social Welfare, (3) Environment, (4) Digitalization and (5) Sports and Health, along with thirty-two distinct factors. The top scores in this index are Germany, United Kingdom or Sweden with high values in Economy or Environment. On the other side, we find Greece, Croatia or Cyprus, with a low process of digitalization. The International Reputation Index could be used to assist public policies designed to improve reputation in countries where it is needed.