Stepping Stone or Dead End? The Effect of the EITC on Earnings Growth

While many studies have found that the EITC increases the employment rates of single mothers, no study to date has examined whether the jobs taken by single mothers as a result of the EITC incentives are "dead-end" jobs or jobs that have the potential for earnings growth. Using a panel of administrative earnings data linked to nationally representative survey data, we find no evidence that the EITC expansions between 1994 and 1996 induced single mothers to take "dead-end" jobs. If anything, the increase in earnings growth during the mid-to-late 1990s for single mothers who were particularly affected by the EITC expansion was higher than it was for other similar women. The EITC encourages work among single mothers, and that work continues to pay off through future increases in earnings.earned income tax credit, earnings, single mothers

An Analysis of the Heavy Metal Content of the Scales of Several Fishes in Southwestern Kentucky

Scales of the stoneroller, Campostoma anomalum (Rafinesque), common shiner, Notropus cornutus (Mitchill), and the bluntnose minnow, Pimephales notatus (Rafinesque) were analyzed by means of atomic absorption spectrophotometry to determine levels of cadmium, calcium, copper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel and zinc. Metal concentrations were determined seasonally and relationship established between scale metal content and environmental water metal levels. Calcium, iron manganese and zinc were found in all samples analyzed. Cadmium, copper, lead and nickel were not observed in measurable quantities. Metal concentrations varied interspecifically, but most showed little fluctuation in response to increased metal content of the water. Elemental composition of the scales was found to have been selective in that zinc and manganese were more readily taken up, even when present in considerably lower concentrations in the water. The metal content of scales was found to be related to behavioral characteristics of the species and the size of the fish

Generosity's Double-Edged Sword: Unmasking the Impact of Raised Social Assistance Rates in Norway

As long as welfare arrangements have been in existence, there has been a strong belief that high-benefit generosity leads to welfare reliance. In this study, we investigate whether an increase in welfare generosity in Norway resulted in higher social assistance (SA) uptake and decreased engagement in paid work. By utilizing high-quality administrative data and employing a difference-in-difference design, we find no overall effects on SA or work activity. However, we do observe a significant reduction in work activity and an increase in SA for specific predefined high-risk groups, which are believed to be particularly responsive to financial incentives. Thus, we discover evidence of unfavorable effects for child families, non-Western immigrants, and the combined group of non-Western immigrant child families. These latter findings are interpreted in light of the particular socioeconomic circumstances of these groups.publishedVersio

An Investment and Equality-Led Sustainable Development Strategy for Europe

Austerity policies coupled with rising inequality in Europe have resulted in a prolonged stagnation and a vicious circle of chronically low demand, slow down in investment and productivity, and economic, social and political instability. In order to end this vicious cycle, Europe needs directed public investment policies accompanied by industrial policy, higher equality, stimulated demand, and regulation of finance and corporate governance. Our research presents strong empirical evidence that expansionary fiscal policy is sustainable when wage and public investment policies are combined with progressive tax policy; the impact is stronger when these policies are implemented in a coordinated fashion across Europe due to strong positive spill over effects on demand. A strong investment performance also requires a process of de-financialization of the economy and a new approach to corporate governance

How fast is a collective bacterial state established?

Bacteria in a biofilm colony have the capacity to monitor the size and growth conditions for the colony and modify their phenotypical behaviour to optimise attacks, defence, migration, etc. The quorum sensing systems controlling this involve production and sensing of diffusive signal molecules. Frequently, quorum sensing systems carry a positive feedback loop which produces a switch at a threshold size of the colony. This all-or-none switch can be beneficial to create a sudden attack, leaving a host little time to establish a defence. The reaction-diffusion system describing a basal quorum sensing loop involves production of signal molecules, diffusion of signal molecules, and detection of signal molecules. We study the ignition process in a numerical solution for a basal quorum sensor and demonstrate that even in a large colony the ignition travels through the whole colony in a less than a minute. The ignition of the positive feedback loop was examined in different approximations. As expected, in the exact calculation the ignition was found to be delayed compared to a calculation where the binding of signal molecules was quasistatic. The buffering of signal molecules is found to have little effect on the ignition process. Contrary to expectation, we find that the ignition does not start when the threshold is reached at the center-instead it allows for the threshold to be approached in the whole colony followed by an almost simultaneous ignition of the whole biofilm aggregate

Nonflammable, antistatic, and heat-sealable film

Antistatic, heat-sealable, nonflammable films prepared from polyvinylidene fluoride and polyvinylidene chloride resin

Trajectories among recipients of social assistance in Norway: A local approach

publishedVersio

Gir pålitelige tegn gyldige diagnoser? Den psykiatriske revolusjonen og bruk av diagnoseverktøyet SCID på en massemorder

Både reformen av den amerikanske diagnosemanualen Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) i 1980 og utviklingen av diagnoseverktøy basert på denne reformen, som Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Axis I Disorders (SCID I), har blitt kalt en revolusjon innenfor psykiatrien. Det viktigste med denne revolusjonen var at den la til grunn observerbare tegn og symptomer for diagnostiseringen. Den skulle, som de viktigste pådriverne for endringen framhevet, ”focus on observable behavior only”, og ikke gjøre slik psykatrien hadde gjort tidligere, å fokusere på ”unconscious processes.” Med fokus på det observerbare skulle psykiatriens diagnoser og verktøy bli mer pålitelige. Revolusjonen var en epistemologisk transformasjon. Denne artikkelen viser at den også var en ontologisk transformasjon. Grunnlaget for å fokusere på ”observable behavior only” var en tillit til statistiske analyser og at sykdommen ville vise seg gjennom et bestemt antall forekomster av tegn og symptomer. Fra et statistisk grunnlag som i høyden kunne brukes til å si noe om sannsynlighet for en sykdom, ble bestemte fordelinger av tegn brukt som grunnlag for å konkludere om bestemte sykdommers 156 Tidsskrift for Forskning i Sygdom og Samfund, nr. 25, 157-171 eksistens. Gyldigheten til sykdommer ble basert på statistiske beregninger av forekomster av observerbare tegn. Artikkelen problematiserer både det epistemologiske og ontologiske grunnlaget for denne revolusjonen gjennom en studie av de vitenskapelige arbeider og begrunnelser som ledet fram til transformasjonen, samt ved studie av diagnoseverktøyet SCID i bruk. SCID blir studert gjennom bruken av verktøyet på massemorderen Anders Behring Breivik. Dette caset er et unikt materiale siden SCID ble brukt to ganger av to forskjellige team av psykiatere, og med diametralt forskjellig utfall. Caset brukes dermed til å tydeliggjøre svakhetene med grunnlagstenkningen. Do reliable signs give valid diagnoses? The psychiatric revolution and the use of its diagnostic instrument on a mass murdererThe reform of the American diagnostic manual for mental illnesses, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1980 and the development of psychometric instruments based on this reform, like the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Axis I Disorders (SCID I), has been called a revolution in psychiatry. The most important element in this revolution was that the diagnostic criteria was based on a knowledge production that “focus on observable behavior only”, and not, as psychiatry had done earlier, with “reference to unconscious processes.” By focusing on the observable, the diagnostic criteria and instruments in psychiatry should become more reliable. The revolution represented an epistemological transformation. This article shows that it was also an ontological transformation. The grounding for focusing on “observable behavior only” was a trust in statistical analyses and a belief that a specific illness could be found from specific number of appearances of signs and symptoms. From a statistical grounding, which could be used for saying something about the probability of an illness, specific distributions of signs were used for claiming the existence of illness. The validity of illnesses was based on statistical distributions of observable signs. This article problematizes the epistemological and ontological grounding of this revolution through a study of the scientific publications leading to the revolution and also by studying the use of the diagnostic instrument SCID. The latter is studied through the case of the mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. This case gives a unique material, as Breivik was tested twice by two different psychiatric expert teams, but with diametrically opposed outcomes. The case is used to make evident some of the inherent weaknesses of the grounding