Swedish youth labour market policies revisited

The paper studies the efficiency of Swedish labour market policies for young workers. Using age discontinuities which define which policy regime an individual is covered by we present quasi-experimental evidence on the relative efficiency of different policy regimes currently in use. Results suggest that youth policies are more effective than the policies covering adult unemployed. The effects mainly appear early in the unemployment spell; we find no evidence of positive long run effects. To uncover which part of the policies that accounts for the positive effect, we use matching techniques to study the relative efficiency of youth programmes and general adult programmes which are available also for the young. The results indicate that youth programmes are significantly less effective than adult oriented programmes. Overall, the evidence thus suggest that youth policies speed up the transition from unemployment to jobs either due to pre-programme deterrence effects or because of more intense job search support from the public employment services before the programmes.Youth unemployment; program evaluation; pre-program effects

Childhood and Family Experiences and the Social Integration of Young Migrants

We use sibling variation in age at migration to study how early life exposure to the host country affects social integration in adulthood. Building on a Swedish population-wide dataset, we show that early experiences affect the probability of living close to, working with, and marrying other immigrants. Segregation also decreases with parental time in the host country before the subject’s birth. The effects are permanent and do not arise through differences in education or economic outcomes. Several results instead suggest that social integration is heavily affected by preferences or cultural identities that are set during early, formative, years.Immigration, integration, childhood experiences, age at migration, siblings.

Age at Migration and Social Integration

The paper studies childhood migrants and examines how age at migration affects their ensuing integration at the residential market, the labor market, and the marriage market. We use population-wide Swedish data and compare outcomes as adults among siblings arriving at different ages in order to ensure that the results can be given a causal interpretation. The results show that the children who arrived at a higher age had substantially lower shares of natives among their neighbors, coworkers and spouses as adults. The effects are mostly driven by higher exposure to immigrants of similar ethnic origin, in particular at the marriage market. We also find some effects on educational attainment, employment rates and wages, although these effects are much more limited in magnitude. We also analyze children of migrants and show that parents' time in the host country before child birth matters, which implies that the outcomes of the social integration process are inherited. Inherited integration has a particularly strong impact on the marriage patterns of females.immigration, integration, segregation, age at migration, siblings

Age at migration and social integration

The paper studies childhood migrants and examines how age at migration affects their ensuing integration at the residential market, the labor market, and the marriage market. We use population-wide Swedish data and compare outcomes as adults among siblings arriving at different ages in order to ensure that the results can be given a causal inter-pretation. The results show that the children who arrived at a higher age had substan-tially lower shares of natives among their neighbors, coworkers and spouses as adults. The effects are mostly driven by higher exposure to immigrants of similar ethnic origin, in particular at the marriage market. There are also non-trivial effects on employment, but a more limited impact on education and wages. We also analyze children of migrants and show that parents’ time in the host country before child birth matters, which implies that the outcomes of the social integra¬tion process are inherited. Inherited integration has a particularly strong impact on the marriage patterns of females.Immigration; integration; segregation; age at migration; siblings

Wage dispersion between and within plants: Sweden 1985-2000

The paper describes the Swedish wage distribution and how it correlates with worker mobility and plant-specific factors. It is well known that wage inequality has increased in Sweden since the mid-1980s. However, little evidence has so far been available as to whether this development reflects increased dispersion between plants, between individuals in the same plant, or both. We use a new linked employer-employee data set and discover that a trend rise in between-plant wage inequality account for the entire increase in wage dispersion. This pattern, which remains when we control for observable individual human capital characteristics, may reflect increased sorting of workers by skill levels and/or increased scope for rent sharing in local wage negotiations. Our discussion suggests that both factors may have become more important.

Wage dispersion between and within plants: Sweden 1985-2000

The paper describes the Swedish wage distribution and how it correlates with worker mobility and plant-specific factors. It is well known that wage inequality has increased in Sweden since the mid-1980s. However, little evidence has so far been available as to whether this development reflects increased dispersion between plants, between individuals in the same plant, or both. We use a new linked employer-employee data set and discover that a trend rise in between-plant wage inequality account for the entire increase in wage dispersion. This pattern, which remains when we control for observable individual human capital characteristics, may reflect increased sorting of workers by skill levels and/or increased scope for rent sharing in local wage negotiations. Our discussion suggests that both factors may have become more important.Wage inequality; labour turnover

Overlap in serum metabolic profiles between non-related diseases: Implications for LC-MS metabolomics biomarker discovery

AbstractUntargeted metabolic profiling has generated large activity in the field of clinical biomarker discovery. Yet, no clinically approved metabolite biomarkers have emerged with failure in validation phases often being a reason. To investigate why, we have applied untargeted metabolic profiling in a retrospective cohort of serum samples representing non-related diseases. Age and gender matched samples from patients diagnosed with pneumonia, congestive heart failure, lymphoma and healthy controls were subject to comprehensive metabolic profiling using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). The metabolic profile of each diagnosis was compared to the healthy control group and significant metabolites were filtered out using t-test with FDR correction. Metabolites found to be significant between each disease and healthy controls were compared and analyzed for overlap. Results show that despite differences in etiology and clinical disease presentation, the fraction of metabolites with an overlap between two or more diseases was 61%. A majority of these metabolites can be associated with immune responses thus representing non-disease specific events. We show that metabolic serum profiles from patients representing non-related diseases display very similar metabolic differences when compared to healthy controls. Many of the metabolites discovered as disease specific in this study have further been associated with other diseases in the literature. Based on our findings we suggest non-related disease controls in metabolomics biomarker discovery studies to increase the chances of a successful validation and future clinical applications

Phenomenology for the Large Hadron Collider

The search for physics Beyond the Standard Model is the underlying motivation for the physics programme of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. In this thesis we will present studies into the Large Hadron Collider phenomenology of dark matter inspired extensions to the Standard Model, di-Higgs + 2 jet (hhjj) production, CP violating effects in the Higgs sector, and the use of shape information from top polarisation measurements in searches for new physics. Full scans of the parameter space of Simplified Dark Matter models are demonstrated to be viable and allow for intriguing comparisons to relic density constraints. Strongly self-interacting dark sectors are shown to leave a potentially measurable imprint on the energy scaling of mediator production. The weak boson fusion induced production of hhjj turns out to be sensitive to a number of new physics effects, including CP violation in the Higgs sector. The use of top polarisation measurements to discover new physics which predicts polarised resonances is shown to be an effective way to ameliorate the loss of shape information for kinematically challenging regions of parameter space

Combining metabolic phenotype determination with metabolomics and transcriptional analyses to reveal pathways regulated by hydroxycarboxylic acid receptor 2

Background The adaptation of cellular metabolism is considered a hallmark of cancer. Oncogenic signaling pathways support tumorigenesis and cancer progression through the induction of certain metabolic phenotypes associated with altered regulation of key metabolic enzymes. Hydroxycarboxylic acid receptor 2 (HCA(2)) is a G protein-coupled receptor previously shown to act as a tumor suppressor. Here, we aimed to unveil the connection between cellular metabolism and HCA(2) in BT-474 cells. Moreover, we intend to clarify how well this metabolic phenotype is reflected in transcriptional changes and metabolite levels as determined by global metabolomics analyses. Methods We performed both, siRNA mediated knockdown of HCA(2) and stimulation with the HCA(2)-specific agonist monomethyl fumarate. Seahorse technology was used to determine the role of HCA(2) in BT-474 breast cancer cell metabolism and its potential to induce a switch in the metabolic phenotype in the presence of different energy substrates. Changes in the mRNA expression of metabolic enzymes were detected with real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolic profiling was used to determine changes in metabolite levels. Results Knockdown or stimulation of HCA(2) induced changes in the metabolic phenotype of BT474 cells dependent on the availability of energy substrates. The presence of HCA(2) was associated with increased glycolytic flux with no fatty acids available. This was reflected in the increased mRNA expression of the glycolytic enzymes PFKFB4 and PKM2, which are known to promote the Warburg effect and have been described as prognostic markers in different types of cancer. With exogenous palmitate present, HCA(2) caused elevated fatty acid oxidation and likely lipolysis. The increase in lipolysis was also detectable at the transcriptional level of ATGL and the metabolite levels of palmitic and stearic acid. Conclusions We combined metabolic phenotype determination with metabolomics and transcriptional analyses and identified HCA(2) as a regulator of glycolytic flux and fatty acid metabolism in BT-474 breast cancer cells. Thus, HCA(2), for which agonists are already widely used to treat diseases such as psoriasis or hyperlipidemia, may prove useful as a target in combination cancer therapy