Labour demand adjustment : Does foreign ownership matter ?

This paper examines whether multinational companies differ in their employment adjustment from domestic firms, on the basis of a panel of Belgian firms for the period 1997-2007. We focus on incumbent firms as, in general, they account for the largest fraction of net employment creation, especially among multinational firms (MNFs). We obtain structural estimates of adjustment cost parameters for blue-collar workers and white-collar workers, domestic firms, and MNFs. We find evidence of convex, asymmetric (in the sense that it is more expensive to downsize than to upsize) and cross adjustment costs (indicating costly substitution between workers). To adjust white-collar employment seems to be around half as costly for MNFs as for domestic firms. There is no difference between Belgian MNFs and foreign MNFs. A small fraction of the gap between the adjustment costs of MNFs and domestic firms may be explained by the use of fixed-term contracts and early retirement. Controlling for firm size does not yield robust conclusions; the cost advantage of MNFs may diminish, vanish or turn into a disadvantage.

Lumpy Price Adjustments: A Microeconometric Analysis

This paper presents a simple model of state-dependent pricing that allows identification of the relative importance of the degree of price rigidity that is inherent to the price setting mechanism (intrinsic) and that which is due to the price’s driving variables (extrinsic). Using two data sets consisting of a large fraction of the price quotes used to compute the Belgian and French CPI, we are able to assess the role of intrinsic and extrinsic price stickiness in explaining the occurrence and magnitude of price changes at the outlet level. We find that infrequent price changes are not necessarily associated with large adjustment costs. Indeed, extrinsic rigidity appears to be significant in many cases. We also find that asymmetry in the price adjustment could be due to trends in marginal costs and/or desired mark-ups rather than asymmetric cost of adjustment bands

Lumpy price adjustments : a microeconometric analysis

This paper presents a simple model of state-dependent pricing that allows identifying the relative importance of both nominal and real factors in price rigidity. Using two rich datasets consisting of a large fraction of the price quotes used to compute the Belgian and French Consumer Price Indices, we are able to evaluate, the importance of the menu costs and to discriminate between idiosyncratic and common shocks that affect the marginal cost and/or the desired mark-up at the outlet level. We find that infrequent price changes are not necessarily associated with large menu costs. Indeed, real rigidities appear to play a significant role. We also find that asymmetry in the price adjustment may result from a trend in marginal costs and/or desired mark-ups rather than from asymmetric menu costsSticky prices, menu costs, nominal and real rigidities, micro panels

Lumpy Price Adjustments: A Microeconometric Analysis

This paper presents a simple model of state-dependent pricing that allows identification of the relative importance of the degree of price rigidity that is inherent to the price setting mechanism (intrinsic) and that which is due to the price’s driving variables (extrinsic). Using two data sets consisting of a large fraction of the price quotes used to compute the Belgian and French CPI, we are able to assess the role of intrinsic and extrinsic price stickiness in explaining the occurrence and magnitude of price changes at the outlet level. We find that infrequent price changes are not necessarily associated with large adjustment costs. Indeed, extrinsic rigidity appears to be significant in many cases. We also find that asymmetry in the price adjustment could be due to trends in marginal costs and/or desired mark-ups rather than asymmetric cost of adjustment bands.sticky prices, nominal intrinsic and extrinsic rigidities, micro non-linear panels

In silico and biological survey of transcription-associated proteins implicated in the transcriptional machinery during the erythrocytic development of Plasmodium falciparum

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria is the most important parasitic disease in the world with approximately two million people dying every year, mostly due to <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>infection. During its complex life cycle in the Anopheles vector and human host, the parasite requires the coordinated and modulated expression of diverse sets of genes involved in epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. However, despite the availability of the complete sequence of the <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>genome, we are still quite ignorant about <it>Plasmodium </it>mechanisms of transcriptional gene regulation. This is due to the poor prediction of nuclear proteins, cognate DNA motifs and structures involved in transcription.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A comprehensive directory of proteins reported to be potentially involved in <it>Plasmodium </it>transcriptional machinery was built from all <it>in silico </it>reports and databanks. The transcription-associated proteins were clustered in three main sets of factors: general transcription factors, chromatin-related proteins (structuring, remodelling and histone modifying enzymes), and specific transcription factors. Only a few of these factors have been molecularly analysed. Furthermore, from transcriptome and proteome data we modelled expression patterns of transcripts and corresponding proteins during the intra-erythrocytic cycle. Finally, an interactome of these proteins based either on <it>in silico </it>or on 2-yeast-hybrid experimental approaches is discussed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first attempt to build a comprehensive directory of potential transcription-associated proteins in <it>Plasmodium</it>. In addition, all complete transcriptome, proteome and interactome raw data were re-analysed, compared and discussed for a better comprehension of the complex biological processes of <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>transcriptional regulation during the erythrocytic development.</p

Neural Substrate of Concurrent Sound Perception: Direct Electrophysiological Recordings from Human Auditory Cortex

In everyday life, consciously or not, we are constantly disentangling the multiple auditory sources contributing to our acoustical environment. To better understand the neural mechanisms involved in concurrent sound processing, we manipulated sound onset asynchrony to induce the segregation or grouping of two concurrent sounds. Each sound consisted of amplitude-modulated tones at different carrier and modulation frequencies, allowing a cortical tagging of each sound. Electrophysiological recordings were carried out in epileptic patients with pharmacologically resistant partial epilepsy, implanted with depth electrodes in the temporal cortex. Patients were presented with the stimuli while they performed an auditory distracting task. We found that transient and steady-state evoked responses, and induced gamma oscillatory activities were enhanced in the case of onset synchrony. These effects were mainly located in the Heschl's gyrus for steady-state responses whereas they were found in the lateral superior temporal gyrus for evoked transient responses and induced gamma oscillations. They can be related to distinct neural mechanisms such as frequency selectivity and habituation. These results in the auditory cortex provide an anatomically refined description of the neurophysiological components which might be involved in the perception of concurrent sounds