Idiosyncratic risk and aggregate employment dynamics

This paper studies how producers’ idiosyncratic risks affect an industry’s aggregate dynamics in an environment where certainty equivalence fails. In the model, producers can place workers in two types of jobs, organized and temporary. Workers are less productive in temporary jobs, but creating an organized job requires an irreversible investment of managerial resources. Increasing productivity risk raises the value of an unexercised option to create an organized job. Losing this option is one cost of immediate organized job creation, so an increase in its value induces substitution towards cheaper temporary jobs. Because they are costless to create and destroy, a producer using temporary jobs can be more flexible, responding more to both idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks. If all of an industry’s producers adapt to heightened idiosyncratic risk in this way, the industry as a whole can respond more to a given aggregate shock. This insight is used to better understand the observation from the U.S. manufacturing sector that groups of plants displaying high idiosyncratic variability also have large aggregate fluctuations.Employment (Economic theory) ; Temporary employees

Understanding aggregate job flows

The authors describe how evidence on aggregate job flows challenges standard business cycle theory and discuss recent developments in business cycle theory aimed at accounting for the evidence.Business cycles ; Employment (Economic theory) ; Labor market

Aggregate Employment Fluctuations with Microeconomic Asymmetries

We provide a simple explanation for the observation that the variance of job destruction is greater than the variance of job creation: job creation is costlier at the margin than job destruction. As Caballero [2] has argued, asymmetric employment adjustment costs at the establishment level need not imply asymmetric volatility of aggregate job flows. We construct an equilibrium model in which (S,s)-type employment policies respond endogenously to aggregate shocks. The microeconomic asymmetries in the model can dampen the response of total job creation to an aggregate shock and cause it to be less volatile than total job destruction. This is so even though aggregate shocks are symmetrically distributed.

A Bioeconomic Model for Management of Orange Roughy Stocks

The paper reports the results of a bioeconomic analysis of the exploitation of a recently discovered orange roughy stock located off Tasmania. The parameters of the model are based on the experience derived from the orange roughy fisheries in New Zealand where stocks have been heavily exploited. The model is used to predict the open-access equilibrium stock, and to calculate the stock which maximizes the net present value and the stock level consistent with the F,,, Rule. Assuming a linear approach path, the net present value of the fishery at each of these stocks is calculated. The results are used to estimate the benefit of management and the cost of a conservative stock policy. It is suggested that the results will contribute to the development of a management policy for the Tasmanian stock, and for stocks which are likely to be discovered elsewhereFishery management, bioeconomic model, orange roughy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics,

CCL19-sorted mature dendritic cells have enhanced lymph node migratory capacity and function

No abstract available

Economic evaluation of a community based exercise programme to prevent falls

OBJECTIVE: To assess the incremental costs and cost effectiveness of implementing a home based muscle strengthening and balance retraining programme that reduced falls and injuries in older women. DESIGN: An economic evaluation carried out within a randomised controlled trial with two years of follow up. Participants were individually prescribed an exercise programme (exercise group, n=116) or received usual care and social visits (control group, n=117). SETTING: 17 general practices in Dunedin, New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS: Women aged 80 years and older living in the community and invited by their general practitioner to take part. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of falls and injuries related to falls, costs of implementing the intervention, healthcare service costs resulting from falls and total healthcare service costs during the trial. Cost effectiveness was measured as the incremental cost of implementing the exercise programme per fall event prevented. MAIN RESULTS: 27% of total hospital costs during the trial were related to falls. However, there were no significant differences in health service costs between the two groups. Implementing the exercise programme for one and two years respectively cost $314 and$265 (1995 New Zealand dollars) per fall prevented, and $457 and$426 per fall resulting in a moderate or serious injury prevented. CONCLUSIONS: The costs resulting from falls make up a substantial proportion of the hospital costs for older people. Despite a reduction in falls as a result of this home exercise programme there was no significant reduction in healthcare costs. However, the results reported will provide information on the cost effectiveness of the programme for those making decisions on falls prevention strategies

Organizational flexibility and employment dynamics at young and old plants

There are significant differences in the dynamics of employment over the business cycle between young and old manufacturing plants. Young plants are more sensitive to aggregate disturbances, and they respond to them along different margins. We interpret these differences as reflecting greater organizational flexibility at young plants due to the changing nature of a plant's environment as it ages. In the presence of aggregate uncertainty, differences between young and old plants' organizational flexibility allows the model to reproduce their distinct cyclical characteristics. Previous empirical studies show that small firms generally respond by more to aggregate shocks than do large firms. To the extent that small firms tend to operate young plants, our analysis suggests an alternative to conventional explanations of this evidence which appeal to imperfections in credit markets.Employment (Economic theory) ; Industries ; Business cycles

Aggregate employment fluctuations with microeconomic asymmetries

We provide a simple explanation for the observation that the variance of job destruction is greater than the variance of job creation. In our model profit maximization in the presence of proportional plant-level costs of job creation and destruction implies that shrinking plants are more sensitive than growing plants to aggregate shocks. We describe circumstances in which this microeconomic asymmetry is preserved in the aggregate and show that it can account for asymmetries in the variability of job creation and destruction of the kind observed in the U.S. manufacturing sector. This is so even though we abstract from job search and matching frictions, incomplete contracts, and aggregate congestion effects, all of which have been put forward as important for understanding the job creation and destruction evidence.Downsizing of organizations ; Employment (Economic theory)

Impact of dedicated women’s outreach workers (WOWs) on recruitment of women in ACTG clinical studies

Background: Despite efforts by the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) to enroll representative numbers of diverse women, participation in ACTG studies in the United States remains largely white and male. To address this gap in women’s participation in ACTG research, a one-year pilot study of dedicated women’s outreach workers (WOWs) was proposed. Objectives: included demonstrating that targeted recruitment efforts can expand community awareness of ACTG research and ensuring successful enrollment of women at the respective clinical research sites. Methods: The pilot study was conducted at two U.S. sites (Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Emory Ponce de Leon Center in Atlanta, Georgia). The WOWs worked with site personnel to identify and reach out to women living with HIV and/or Hepatitis B or C at their respective sites and encourage them to join a clinical trial registry for those interested in participating in future clinical trials. Results: The Rutgers WOW approached 127 potential participants (of whom 100 joined the WOW registry) and screened 35 participants for open ACTG studies. The Emory WOW approached 120 participants, enrolling 86 into the WOW registry, and screened 51 potential participants for open ACTG studies during the WOW’s tenure. The majority of women screened at both sites were women of color. Conclusions: The WOW study team identified several lessons learned that can inform future efforts to engage women living with HIV in clinical research. First, success in engaging women is proportional to level of funding and institutional support. Second, there is a need for a more gender-inclusive scientific agenda as women are more likely to participate if studies address topics of interest to them. Third, meaningful engagement is a two-way street