Government Transfer Payments and Strike Activity: Reforming Public Policy

[Excerpt] One of the most controversial labor policy issues is whether strikers should be eligible for government transfer payments, such as unemployment compensation, public assistance, and food stamps. The controversy often focuses on whether payment of such benefits to strikers increases the magnitude of strike activity. In this article, we argue that that is the wrong focus. The key issue is not whether strikers receive benefits, but who finances them. We contend that to the extent that the benefits are financed by the parties to the conflict (the employer and union), the transfers will not affect strike activity. This article extends our recent book on this topic, by briefly describing current and past policies, summarizing our argument for why financing is key, and presenting a proposal for reforming strike-related government transfers

Influential publications in ecological economics revisited

We revisit the analysis of Costanza et al. (2004, Ecological Economics) of influential publications in ecological economics to discover what has changed a decade on. We examine which sources have been influential on the field of ecological economics in the past decade, which articles in the journal Ecological Economics have had the most influence on the field and on the rest of science, and on which areas of science the journal is having the most in- fluence.We find that the field has matured over this period, with articles published in the journal having a greater influence than before, an increase in citation links to environmental studies journals, a reduction in citation links to mainstream economics journals, and possibly a shift in themes to a more applied and empirical direction.Copyright Information: © 2016 Elsevier B.V. http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0921-8009/..."Authors pre-print on any website, including arXiv and RePEC" from SHERPA/RoMEO site (as at 3/02/16)

A spontaneous tRNA suppressor of a mutation in the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii nuclear MCD1 gene required for stability of the chloroplast petD mRNA

Numerous nuclear gene products are required for the correct expression of organellar genes. One such gene in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is MCD1, whose product is required for stability of the chloroplast-encoded petD mRNA. In mcd1 mutants, which are non-photosynthetic, petD mRNA is degraded by a 5′–3′ exonuclease activity, resulting in a failure to synthesize its product, subunit IV of the cytochrome b (6)/f complex. Here, we report the sequence of the wild-type MCD1 gene, which encodes a large and novel putative protein. Analysis of three mutant alleles showed that two harbored large deletions, but that one allele, mcd1-2, had a single base change resulting in a nonsense codon near the N-terminus. This same mutant allele can be suppressed by a second-site mutation in the nuclear MCD2 gene, whereas mcd2-1 cannot suppress the deletion in mcd1-1 (Esposito,D. Higgs,D.C. Drager,R.G. Stern, D.B. and Girard-Bascou,J. (2001) Curr. Genet., 39, 40–48). We report the cloning of mcd2-1, and show that the mutation lies in a tRNA(Ser)(CGA), which has been modified to translate the nonsense codon in mcd1-2. We discuss how the existence of a large tRNA(Ser) gene family may permit this suppression without pleiotropic consequences

Unemployment Insurance and Strikes

In several states workers who are unemployed because of a labor dispute can collect unemployment benefits. Due to imperfect experience rating, such policies can create a public subsidy to strikes. This study examines whether these policies affect strike activity. In particular, both cross-sectional and fixed effects models are employed to test whether an increase in the public subsidy inherent in unemployment insurance leads to an increase in strike frequency

Overexpression of a natural chloroplast-encoded antisense RNA in tobacco destabilizes 5S rRNA and retards plant growth

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The roles of non-coding RNAs in regulating gene expression have been extensively studied in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, however few reports exist as to their roles in organellar gene regulation. Evidence for accumulation of natural antisense RNAs (asRNAs) in chloroplasts comes from the expressed sequence tag database and cDNA libraries, while functional data have been largely obtained from artificial asRNAs. In this study, we used <it>Nicotiana tabacum </it>to investigate the effect on sense strand transcripts of overexpressing a natural chloroplast asRNA, AS5, which is complementary to the region which encodes the 5S rRNA and tRNA^Arg.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>AS5-overexpressing (AS5^ox) plants obtained by chloroplast transformation exhibited slower growth and slightly pale green leaves. Analysis of AS5 transcripts revealed four distinct species in wild-type (WT) and AS5^oxplants, and additional AS5^ox-specific products. Of the corresponding sense strand transcripts, tRNA^Argoveraccumulated several-fold in transgenic plants whereas 5S rRNA was unaffected. However, run-on transcription showed that the 5S-<it>trnR </it>region was transcribed four-fold more in the AS5^oxplants compared to WT, indicating that overexpression of AS5 was associated with decreased stability of 5S rRNA. In addition, polysome analysis of the transformants showed less 5S rRNA and <it>rbcL </it>mRNA associated with ribosomes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results suggest that AS5 can modulate 5S rRNA levels, giving it the potential to affect Chloroplast translation and plant growth. More globally, overexpression of asRNAs via chloroplast transformation may be a useful strategy for defining their functions.</p

Strikers and Subsidies: The Influence of Government Transfer Programs on Strike Activity

The authors assess laws governing striker eligibility for government transfers, finding evidence linking UI payments to strike activity.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1106/thumbnail.jp

Setting the Stage

The authors assess laws governing striker eligibility for government transfers, finding evidence linking UI payments to strike activity.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1106/thumbnail.jp

Arabidopsis chloroplast quantitative editotype

AbstractChloroplast C-to-U RNA editing is an essential post-transcriptional process. Here we analyzed RNA editing in Arabidopsis thaliana using strand-specific deep sequencing datasets from the wild-type and a mutant defective in RNA 3′ end maturation. We demonstrate that editing at all sites is partial, with an average of 5–6% of RNAs remaining unedited. Furthermore, we identified nine novel sites with a low extent of editing. Of these, three sites are absent from the WT transcriptome because they are removed by 3′ end RNA processing, but these regions accumulate, and are edited, in a mutant lacking polynucleotide phosphorylase

Lag length selection and p-hacking in Granger causality testing: prevalence and performance of meta-regression models

The academic system incentivizes p-hacking, where researchers select estimates and statistics with statistically significant p-values for publication. We analyze the complete process of Granger causality testing including p-hacking using Monte Carlo simulations. If the degrees of freedom of the underlying vector autoregressive model are small to moderate, information criteria tend to overfit the lag length and overfitted vector autoregressive models tend to result in false-positive findings of Granger causality. Researchers may p-hack Granger causality tests by estimating multiple vector autoregressive models with different lag lengths and then selecting only those models that reject the null of Granger non-causality for presentation in the final publication. We show that overfitted lag lengths and the corresponding false-positive findings of Granger causality can frequently occur in research designs that are prevalent in empirical macroeconomics. We demonstrate that meta-regression models can control for spuriously significant Granger causality tests due to overfitted lag lengths. Finally, we find evidence that false-positive findings of Granger causality may be prevalent in the large literature that tests for Granger causality between energy use and economic output, while we do not find evidence for a genuine relation between these variables as tested in the literature

A Wide-Field CCD Survey for Centaurs and Kuiper Belt Objects

A modified Baker-Nunn camera was used to conduct a wide-field survey of 1428 square degrees of sky near the ecliptic in search of bright Kuiper Belt objects and Centaurs. This area is an order of magnitude larger than any previously published CCD survey for Centaurs and Kuiper Belt Objects. No new objects brighter than red magnitude m=18.8 and moving at a rate 1"/hr to 20"/hr were discovered, although one previously discovered Centaur 1997 CU26 Chariklo was serendipitously detected. The parameters of the survey were characterized using both visual and automated techniques. From this survey the empirical projected surface density of Centaurs was found to be SigmaCentaur(m<18.8)=7.8(+16.0 -6.6)x10^-4 per square degree and we found a projected surface density 3sigma upper confidence limit for Kuiper Belt objects of SigmaKBO(m< 18.8)<4.1x10^-3 per square degree. We discuss the current state of the cumulative luminosity functions of both Centaurs and Kuiper Belt objects. Through a Monte Carlo simulation we show that the size distribution of Centaurs is consistent with a q=4 differential power law, similar to the size distribution of the parent Kuiper Belt Objects. The Centaur population is of order 10^7 (radius > 1 km) assuming a geometric albedo of 0.04. About 100 Centaurs are larger than 50 km in radius, of which only 4 are presently known. The current total mass of the Centaurs is 10^-4 Earth Masses. No dust clouds were detected resulting from Kuiper Belt object collisions, placing a 3sigma upper limit <600 collisionally produced clouds of m<18.8 per year.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for Publication in A