Do We Know Why Earnings Fall with Job Displacement?

After being displaced from their jobs, workers experience reduced earnings for many years and are at greater risks of other problems as well. The ills suffered by displaced workers motivated several recent expansions of government programs, including the unemployment insurance system, and have spurred calls for wage insurance that would provide longer-run earnings replacement. However, while the average size and the individual characteristics associated with the losses are relatively clear, the theory of displacement-induced earnings loss is scattered. Much of the policy discussion appears to interpret displacement-induced losses through the lens of specific human capital theory, in which skills are specific to jobs, locations, industries, or occupations, and that model has considerable empirical support. Assistance for displaced workers may improve well-being in that model since it insures workers against the risk that their consumption of goods and services might fall for idiosyncratic reasons and, as a consequence, allows workers to make more productive but higher-risk career choices. But there are other credible theories of costly job displacement that have different causal mechanisms, different interpretations and different policy implications. This paper reviews theories of costly job displacement and discusses their consistency with the available empirical evidence. We find that while specific human capital is important, we cannot rule out important roles for other theories

The Application of the Montage Image Mosaic Engine To The Visualization Of Astronomical Images

The Montage Image Mosaic Engine was designed as a scalable toolkit, written in C for performance and portability across *nix platforms, that assembles FITS images into mosaics. The code is freely available and has been widely used in the astronomy and IT communities for research, product generation and for developing next-generation cyber-infrastructure. Recently, it has begun to finding applicability in the field of visualization. This has come about because the toolkit design allows easy integration into scalable systems that process data for subsequent visualization in a browser or client. And it includes a visualization tool suitable for automation and for integration into Python: mViewer creates, with a single command, complex multi-color images overlaid with coordinate displays, labels, and observation footprints, and includes an adaptive image histogram equalization method that preserves the structure of a stretched image over its dynamic range. The Montage toolkit contains functionality originally developed to support the creation and management of mosaics but which also offers value to visualization: a background rectification algorithm that reveals the faint structure in an image; and tools for creating cutout and down-sampled versions of large images. Version 5 of Montage offers support for visualizing data written in HEALPix sky-tessellation scheme, and functionality for processing and organizing images to comply with the TOAST sky-tessellation scheme required for consumption by the World Wide Telescope (WWT). Four online tutorials enable readers to reproduce and extend all the visualizations presented in this paper.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in the PASP Special Focus Issue: Techniques and Methods for Astrophysical Data Visualizatio

Insect contamination protection for laminar flow surfaces

The ability of modern aircraft surfaces to achieve laminar flow was well-accepted in recent years. Obtaining the maximum benefit of laminar flow for aircraft drag reduction requires maintaining minimum leading-edge contamination. Previously proposed insect contamination prevention methods have proved impractical due to cost, weight, or inconvenience. Past work has shown that insects will not adhere to water-wetted surfaces, but the large volumes of water required for protection rendered such a system impractical. The results of a flight experiment conducted by NASA to evaluate the performance of a porous leading-edge fluid discharge ice protection system operated as an insect contamination protections system are presented. In addition, these flights explored the environmental and atmospheric conditions most suitable for insect accumulation

Approaching Evaluation in Youth Community Informatics

In the Youth Community Informatics project, young people from disadvantaged communities use audio and video recording and editing tools, GPS/GIS, presentation software, graphics, and other digital technologies as the means for addressing community needs. They build community asset maps, document community history, develop exhibits in collaboration with libraries and museums, present cultural heritage, organize political action, operate community radio, create and maintain community technology centers, and express themselves through multiple media. These activities typically involve multiple partners and develop in unpredictable ways in response to community life. In order to understand what they mean in the lives of the youth and the community we need richer evaluation approaches.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Comparative Financial Characteristics of U.S. Farms by Type, 2005

This study presents and analyzes the mean financial characteristics of different types of crop and livestock farms in the U.S. in 2005. The eighteen farm types are: poultry, beef cattle, hogs, dairy, general livestock, general cash grain, wheat, corn, soybean, grain sorghum, rice, tobacco, cotton, peanut, general crop, fruits and tree nuts, vegetables, and nursery and greenhouse. Significant, two-way statistical differences in mean farm income statement and farm balance sheet variables are highlighted. Results provide a general indication of the comparative profitability, liquidity, solvency, and financial efficiency of different types of U. S. crop and livestock farms.Farm type, ARMS data, financial characteristics, financial ratios, 2005, Agricultural Finance, Production Economics, Q12, Q14, D21,

DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACTS OF CAPPING ELIGIBILITY FOR COMMODITY PROGRAM PAYMENTS

Adjusted Gross Income, Commodity Payments, Eligibility, Means Test, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q12, Q18,

What is the Value of Public Goods Generated by a National Football League Team: A CVM Approach

Using the Contingent Valuation Method, this paper estimates the value of public goods the National Football League’s Jaguars produce for Jacksonville, Florida, including the value of elevating Jacksonville to major league status. It also estimates the incremental value of public goods potentially produced by a National Basketball Association team in Jacksonville. The present value of public goods created by the Jaguars is $25 million or less, far below subsidies provided to attract the Jaguars. For a basketball team, the figure is less than$12.7 million. Sports public goods probably cannot justify the large public expenditures on stadiums and arenas.

A Group of Red, Ly-alpha Emitting, High Redshift Galaxies

We have discovered two new high redshift (z=2.38) galaxies, near the previously known z=2.38 galaxy 2139-4434 B1 (Francis et al. 1996). All three galaxies are strong Ly-alpha emitters, and have much redder continuum colors (I-K about 5) than other optically-selected high redshift galaxies. We hypothesize that these three galaxies are QSO IIs; radio-quiet counterparts of high redshift radio galaxies, containing concealed QSO nuclei. The red colors are most easily modelled by an old (> 0.5 Gyr), massive (> 10E11 solar masses) stellar population. If true, this implies that at least one galaxy cluster of mass much greater than 3E11 solar masses had collapsed before redshift five.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, uses aaspp4 style file. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter