THE DETERMINANTS OF WAGE INCREASES IN NEW MANUFACTURING PLANTS IN RURAL AREAS

Labor and Human Capital,

The determinants of wage increases in new manufacturing plants in rural areas

The research reported here was designed to explain variation in wage changes of new industrial plant employees. Following the theoretical perspectives of Gotsch, wage changes were hypothesized to result from a combination of employee household, community, and plant characteristics. The greatest difficulty in this study was choosing appropriate operational measures for independent variables that were highly correlated with these theoretical factors.Southern journal of agricultural economics, July 1981, p. 84-88Includes bibliographical reference

COMPARISON OF THE RELIABILITY OF PEAK FORCE MEASURED DURING AN ISOMETRIC MID-THIGH PULL AND ISOMETRIC SQUAT.

The purpose of this study was to compare peak force produced during the isometric midthigh pull (IMTP) and isometric squat (IsoSquat), performed at the same knee and hip angles (135 – 140°) and determine the reliability of both tests. Following a specific warmup, 22 international athletes from different sports performed 2 maximal effort tests of both the IMTP and IsoSquat. Peak force achieved during the IsoSquat was significantly greater (p = 0.01) than peak force achieved during the IMTP. Both tests were highly reliable for peak force (�������� ���� ���������� ������ ���� ��%). Therefore, strength and conditioning coaches can select either test when examining lower extremity maximum strength. However, the IsoSquat produces higher peak force values and this may be a more accurate reflection of the athlete’s maximum strength

Learning about compact binary merger: the interplay between numerical relativity and gravitational-wave astronomy

Activities in data analysis and numerical simulation of gravitational waves have to date largely proceeded independently. In this work we study how waveforms obtained from numerical simulations could be effectively used within the data analysis effort to search for gravitational waves from black hole binaries. We propose measures to quantify the accuracy of numerical waveforms for the purpose of data analysis and study how sensitive the analysis is to errors in the waveforms. We estimate that ~100 templates (and ~10 simulations with different mass ratios) are needed to detect waves from non-spinning binary black holes with total masses in the range 100 Msun < M < 400 Msun using initial LIGO. Of course, many more simulation runs will be needed to confirm that the correct physics is captured in the numerical evolutions. From this perspective, we also discuss sources of systematic errors in numerical waveform extraction and provide order of magnitude estimates for the computational cost of simulations that could be used to estimate the cost of parameter space surveys. Finally, we discuss what information from near-future numerical simulations of compact binary systems would be most useful for enhancing the detectability of such events with contemporary gravitational wave detectors and emphasize the role of numerical simulations for the interpretation of eventual gravitational-wave observations.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure

A food aid strategy for Haiti : maximizing developmental effectiveness

"The country of Haiti stands at a critical threshold for shaping its political and economic future. Concerted, visionary leadership must be put in place in order to guide the re-shaping of the Haitian economy. The purpose of this report is to provide a basis for USAID decisions about the role that its policies may play in a comprehensive agricultural development strategy for Haiti in order to insure that food needs of the country are met and that hunger and malnutrition are eliminated. Hence, both targeted projects and sectoral reforms must be addressed. Haiti presents a classic case of the political economy of hunger. Hunger and malnutrition plague the lives of a high proportion of the population, particularly the rural poor. Yet, the thrust of government policies, perhaps by necessity, has been directed toward meeting the food needs of a growing urban population. Inadequate attention has been given to developing the adaptive research and extension delivery system that will be required in order to generate major improvements in agricultural production and food distribution. The agricultural sector must play a vital role in the future in insuring that the balance-of-payments and economic growth targets of the country are achieved. Pricing policies, import regulations, and investment strategies should be designed to strengthen the developmental role of agriculture. Food aid has been used in the past to help meet the food needs of the country. Sudden periods of shortages that threaten to drive prices up too suddenly have been supplemented by food aid. Yet, the prices of domestically produced grains have risen more rapidly than the prices of imported food grains, principally wheat, minimizing the concern about price disincentives created by food aid imports. Future policy reform and sustained economic growth will require that food aid be used as a developmental resource and be fully integrated into the agricultural development strategy of the country. Its role in contributing to human resource enhancement and in capital formation that yields more secure, permanent income streams to rural residents through effectively implemented projects must be addressed."--Introduction.Dr. Brady J. Deaton (Professor of Agriculture Economics & Associate Director, Office of International Development, VPI & SU), Dr. Arthur T. Siaway (Assistant Professor, Department of Agriculture Economics Tuskegee University), Dr. Marilyn Prehm (Assistant Professor Human Nutrition & Foods, VPI & SU), Dr. Jenice Rankins (Assistant Professor, Food & Nutrition Tuskegee University), Mr. Thomas Whitney (Research Assistant, Department of Agriculture Economics, VPI & SU)Includes bibliographical references

Federalism and Beyond: The Uncertain Nature of Federal/State Relationships in a Restructuring World

Federalism in the restructuring context has certainly been controversial and filled with uncertainty -- some would say perilous. Some would say the shifts in jurisdiction between federal and state governments are so serious and of such concern that we should really pause before restructuring the electric industries. Some say we have not done the right thing in the telecommunications industry either. This area is certainly filled with potential for competitors and for lawyers. To help us sort it out, we have four distinguished panelists who are going to identify some of the key state/federal jurisdictional issues in the telecommunications and electric industries - how those issues are being resolved and how they are likely to be resolved in the future. And because the telecommunications industry is further along than electricity, we are going to start with those panelists first

Too poor or too far? Partitioning the variability of hospital-based childbirth by poverty and travel time in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania

Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, women are most likely to receive skilled and adequate childbirth care in hospital settings, yet the use of hospital for childbirth is low and inequitable. The poorest and those living furthest away from a hospital are most affected. But the relative contribution of poverty and travel time is convoluted, since hospitals are often located in wealthier urban places and are scarcer in poorer remote area. This study aims to partition the variability in hospital-based childbirth by poverty and travel time in four sub-Saharan African countries. Methods: We used data from the most recent Demographic and Health Survey in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania. For each country, geographic coordinates of survey clusters, the master list of hospital locations and a high-resolution map of land surface friction were used to estimate travel time from each DHS cluster to the nearest hospital with a shortest-path algorithm. We quantified and compared the predicted probabilities of hospital-based childbirth resulting from one standard deviation (SD) change around the mean for different model predictors. Results: The mean travel time to the nearest hospital, in minutes, was 27 (Kenya), 31 (Malawi), 25 (Nigeria) and 62 (Tanzania). In Kenya, a change of 1SD in wealth led to a 33.2 percentage points change in the probability of hospital birth, whereas a 1SD change in travel time led to a change of 16.6 percentage points. The marginal effect of 1SD change in wealth was weaker than that of travel time in Malawi (13.1 vs. 34.0 percentage points) and Tanzania (20.4 vs. 33.7 percentage points). In Nigeria, the two were similar (22.3 vs. 24.8 percentage points) but their additive effect was twice stronger (44.6 percentage points) than the separate effects. Random effects from survey clusters also explained substantial variability in hospital-based childbirth in all countries, indicating other unobserved local factors at play. Conclusions: Both poverty and long travel time are important determinants of hospital birth, although they vary in the extent to which they influence whether women give birth in a hospital within and across countries. This suggests that different strategies are needed to effectively enable poor women and women living in remote areas to gain access to skilled and adequate care for childbirth