Dynamic Skills Acquisition Choice - Jacks of All Trades vs. Dab Hands

This paper proposes a dynamic theory of adjustment of labor force to a shock that makes existing human capital stock obsolete. Workers will not invest in the new, superior skills because their current value depends on the existing complementary stock of human capital, and the obsolete specialized skills are largely incompatible with the new specialized skills. Labor market imperfections make the current distribution of skills a factor in the decision to invest in new skills. This creates room for generalists, workers with an intermediate set of skills who are able to work with both old and new types. Along the equilibrium path the economy accumulates a buffer stock of generalists that eventually makes it profitable to invest in superior specialization. Instead of focusing on steady states, the paper proposes new methods of studying the short-run adjustment in search models with forward-looking investment. It characterizes the dynamics of transition and analyzes how equilibrium paths differ across countries with diverse labor market and educational institutions. The efficiency analysis allows drawing policy implications. Econometric evidence on labor markets in transition economies is shown to be broadly consistent with predictions of the model. East Germany presents a stark example of rapid transition that is difficult to explain by traditional theories but is consistent with the predictions of my model.

Разработка инструментария исследования группового и микрогруппового конфликта в производственных группах

This study was supported by the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation grant “Contradictions, conflicts and effectiveness of small groups in organizations and enterprises” (research project no. 16-36-00006) The paper analyses the existing methods and techniques (questionnaires, basically) for the study of conflict in small groups of employees. The authors provide the data on methods of studying conflicts and features of their application. A conceptual platform,containing understanding of the nature of conflict and model of its manifestation in small groups, formed the basis for the development of an inventory. The paper describes the developed inventory for the study of types of group and microgroup conflicts. The inventory consisted of two parts for studying the levels of group and microgroup conflicts, and also had two subscales for measuring two types of conflict (activity-oriented and subject-oriented) on each of these levels. The inventory contained eight items (four in each subscale). The members of the group evaluated items on a seven-point Likert-type scale. The study involved 18 small groups of employees (N = 200 employees) that represented the primary structural units in organizations. The examination involved three psychologists and 25 persons from groups of employees selected at random. The authors evaluated (a) construct, convergent, and discriminant validity, (b) reliability-consistency of the subscales of the inventory, and (c) the empirical distribution. The study proved the appropriatenessof distinguishing two subscales in the presented inventory. The inventory was valid and reliable for all the analyzed characteristics. The developed inventory can be readily used in practice, as well as in research work. The paper presents the main findings and suggests possible applications of the inventory for the study of typesof group and microgroup conflicts.В статье рассмотрены существующие методы и методики, прежде всего опросного типа, для изучения конфликтов в малых производственных группах. Приведены данные о методиках изучения конфликта и особенности их применения. Представлена концептуальная платформа, содержащая понимание природы конфликта и модель его проявления в малой группе, которая легла в основу создания опросника. Описан разработанный опросник типов группового и микрогруппового конфликта. Он состоит из двух частей для изучений уровней группового и микрогруппового конфликта и имеет две субшкалы для измерения двух типов конфликта (деятельностно-ориентированного и субъектно-ориентированного) на каждом из этих уровней. Опросник содержит восемь айтемов, по четыре в каждой субшкале. Оценка по айтемам осуществляется членами группы по семибалльной шкале типа шкалы Лайкерта. На выборке 18 малых производственных групп (N = 200 работников), представляющих собой первичные структурные подразделения в организациях, было проведено исследование. Была сделана экспертиза с привлечением трех специалистов-психологов и 25 работников из производственных групп, отобранных случайным образом. Проведена процедура оценки содержательной, очевидной и дискриминантной валидности, надежности-согласованности субшкал опросника, а также эмпирического распределения. Доказана правомерность выделения в представленном опроснике двух субшкал. Показано, что он обладает валидностью и надежностью по всем проанализированным показателям. Опросник может применяться как для решения научно-исследовательских, так и практических задач. В статье сделаны основные выводы, освещены возможности использования опросника типов группового и микрогруппового конфликта

Imperfect Credit Markets and the Transmission of Marcroeconomic Shocks

Abstract This paper outlines a monetary model of a production economy with an explicit role for credit in allocating investment funds to the agents with the most productive projects. Due to limited commitment, credit markets are imperfect and collateral is required. This provides a role for asset prices and borrower net worth in investment decisions. In particular, the wealth distribution directly affects the productive capacity of the economy, by influencing the respective holdings of capital by agents with high and low productivity. Small, temporary shocks that affect output or asset prices can have large and persistent effects on current and future output. The interaction between the wealth distribution and the productive capacity of the economy has important implications for the role of monetary policy. Since some of the output variability is the result of credit frictions, it is not efficient. In contrast to standard sticky-price models, it may not be not optimal for monetary policy to try and achieve the flexible-price level of output

Homotopically invisible singular curves

Given a smooth manifold M and a totally nonholonomic distribution \u394 82TM\u394 82TM of rank d 653d 653 , we study the effect of singular curves on the topology of the space of horizontal paths joining two points on M. Singular curves are critical points of the endpoint map F:\u3b3\u21a6\u3b3(1)F:\u3b3\u21a6\u3b3(1) defined on the space \u3a9\u3a9 of horizontal paths starting at a fixed point x. We consider a sub-Riemannian energy J:\u3a9(y)\u2192RJ:\u3a9(y)\u2192R , where \u3a9(y)=F 121(y)\u3a9(y)=F 121(y) is the space of horizontal paths connecting x with y, and study those singular paths that do not influence the homotopy type of the Lebesgue sets {\u3b3 08\u3a9(y)|J(\u3b3) 64E}{\u3b3 08\u3a9(y)|J(\u3b3) 64E} . We call them homotopically invisible. It turns out that for d 653d 653 generic sub-Riemannian structures in the sense of Chitour et al. (J Differ Geom 73(1):45\u201373, 2006) have only homotopically invisible singular curves. Our results can be seen as a first step for developing the calculus of variations on the singular space of horizontal curves (in this direction we prove a sub-Riemannian minimax principle and discuss some applications)