Labour Market Institutions and Unemployment: Does Finance Matter?

We explore whether finance influences the impact of labour market institutions on unemployment. Using a data set of 18 OECD countries over 1980-2004, we estimate a panel VectorAutoRegressive model. We check whether causalities from labour market variables to unemployment are affected by financial factors. In Belgium, Italy, Australia, Japan and Spain, accounting for financial indicators mitigates the benefits of labour market flexibilization or makes it harmful to employment. In Austria, Canada, Finland and Portugal, it reduces its detrimental impact or makes it beneficial. In Ireland and Netherlands, both effects prevail, depending on the labour market indicator used.unemployment, labour market, financial factors, institutional interactions, panel VAR

Perceptual adjustment to time-compressed Speech: a cross-linguistic study

revious research has shown that, when hearers listen to artificially speeded speech, their performance improves over the course of 10-15 sentences, as if their perceptual system was "adapting" to these fast rates of speech. In this paper, we further investigate the mechanisms that are responsible for such effects. In Experiment 1, we report that, for bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish, exposure to compressed sentences in either language improves performance on sentences in the other language. Experiment 2 reports that Catalan/Spanish transfer of performance occurs even in monolingual speakers of Spanish who do not understand Catalan. In Experiment 3, we study another pair of languages--namely, English and French--and report no transfer of adaptation between these two languages for English-French bilinguals. Experiment 4, with monolingual English speakers, assesses transfer of adaptation from French, Dutch, and English toward English. Here we find that there is no adaptation from French and intermediate adaptation from Dutch. We discuss the locus of the adaptation to compressed speech and relate our findings to other cross-linguistic studies in speech perception

Unemployment and finance: how do financial and labour market factors interact?

sing annual data for 18 OECD countries over the period 1980-2004, we investigate how labour and financial factors interact to determine unemployment by estimating a dynamic panel model using the system generalized method of moments (GMM). We show that the impact of financial variables depends strongly on the labour market context. Increased market capitalization as well as decreased banking concentration reduce unemployment if the level of labour market regulation, union density and coordination in wage bargaining is low. The above financial variables have no effect otherwise. Increasing intermediated credit and banking concentration is beneficial for employment when the degree of labour market regulation, union density and coordination in wage bargaining is high. These results suggest that the respective virtues of ed and market-based finance are crucially tied to the labour market context.Unemployment, institutional complementarities and substituabilities, labour market, financial system.

Well-posedness of the Stokes-Coriolis system in the half-space over a rough surface

This paper is devoted to the well-posedness of the stationary $3$d Stokes-Coriolis system set in a half-space with rough bottom and Dirichlet data which does not decrease at space infinity. Our system is a linearized version of the Ekman boundary layer system. We look for a solution of infinite energy in a space of Sobolev regularity. Following an idea of G\'erard-Varet and Masmoudi, the general strategy is to reduce the problem to a bumpy channel bounded in the vertical direction thanks a transparent boundary condition involving a Dirichlet to Neumann operator. Our analysis emphasizes some strong singularities of the Stokes-Coriolis operator at low tangential frequencies. One of the main features of our work lies in the definition of a Dirichlet to Neumann operator for the Stokes-Coriolis system with data in the Kato space $H^{1/2}_{uloc}$.Comment: 64 page

In situ CCVD synthesis of carbon nanotubes within a commercial ceramic foam

Consolidated nanocomposite foams containing a large quantity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within millimetre-sized pores are prepared for the first time. A commercial ceramic foam is impregnated by a 60 g L21 slurry of a (Mg(12x)(Co0.75Mo0.25)xO solid solution (x = 0.01, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2) powder in ethanol. Three successive impregnations led to deposits several tens of mm thick, with a good coverage of the commercial-ceramic pore walls but without closing the pores. The materials were submitted to a CCVD treatment in H2–CH4 atmosphere in order to synthesise the CNTs. When using attrition-milled powders, the carbon is mostly in the form of nanofibres or disordered carbon rather than CNTs. Using non-milled powders produces a less-compact deposit of catalytic material with a higher adherence to the walls of the ceramic foam. After CCVD, the carbon is mostly in the form of high-quality CNTs, as when using powder beds, their quantity being 2.5 times higher. The so-obtained consolidated nanocomposite materials show a multi-scale pore structuration

Preparation-microstructure-property relationships in double-walled carbon nanotubes/alumina composites

Double-walled carbon nanotube/alumina composite powders with low carbon contents (2– 3 wt.%) are prepared using three different methods and densified by spark plasma sintering. The mechanical properties and electrical conductivity are investigated and correlated with the microstructure of the dense materials. Samples prepared by in situ synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in impregnated submicronic alumina are highly homogeneous and present the higher electrical conductivity (2.2–3.5 Scm-1) but carbon films at grain boundaries induce a poor cohesion of the materials. Composites prepared by mixing using moderate sonication of as-prepared double-walled CNTs and lyophilisation, with little damage to the CNTs, have a fracture strength higher (+30%) and a fracture toughness similar (5.6 vs 5.4 MPa m1/2) to alumina with a similar submicronic grain size. This is correlated with crack-bridging by CNTs on a large scale, despite a lack of homogeneity of the CNT distribution

Effect of partial wetting on liquid/solid mass transfer in trickle bed reactors

The wetting efficiency of liquid trickle flow over a fixed bed reactor has been measured for a wide range of parameters including operating conditions, bed structure and physico-chemistry of liquid/solid phases. This data bank has been used to develop a new correlation for averaged wetting efficiency based on five different non-dimensional numbers. Finally liquid/solid mass transfer has been determined in partial wetting conditions to analyse what are the respective effects of wetting and liquid/gas flow turbulence. These effects appear to be separated: wetting being acting on liquid/solid interfacial area while the liquid/solid mass transfer coefficient is mainly connected to flow turbulence through the interstitial liquid velocity. A correlation has been proposed for liquid/solid mass transfer coefficient at very low liquid flow rate

Piv study of mixing characteristics in a stirred vessel with a non-Newtonian fluid

PIV is used to analyze the flow induced by a Rushton turbine in a shear-thinning fluid, at constant input power, constant impeller velocity but different concentrations. The rheology of each shear-thinning fluid is first addressed. The mean velocity fields are compared. POD methodology is applied to estimate coherent structures and turbulence levels. Finally, the heterogeneity of shear rate is estimated and the spatial distribution of dissipation rate of total kinetic energy is addressed