Gender analysis of the changes in indirect taxes introduced by the coalition government, 2010-2011

On behalf of the WBG, Jerome De Henau and Cristina Santos have produced an examination of the UK government's main changes in indirect taxes from a gender perspective. This considers changes in excise duties on alcohol, tobacco, fuel and in VAT, and analyses the combined effect of these changes, together with changes in insurance premium tax, air passenger duty and gambling duty

Examining public policy from a gendered intra-household perspective: changes in family-related policies in the UK, Australia and Germany since the mid-nineties

Public policy can affect many different gender inequalities. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of policy on gender inequalities within households. This paper analyses a range of family-related policy changes over the last fifteen years in Australia, Germany and the UK to compare their potential effects on intra-household gender inequalities. These include changes in parental leave policies, working time regulation, childcare support and financial support to families. Many of these changes are found to have contradictory effects on within household inequalities, mainly because those that improve women’s incomes in their current gender roles may also undermine incentives to challenge traditional gender roles. All three countries have implemented substantial reforms over the period considered. However, with labour market activation policies tending to favour an inherently unequal one-and-a-half earner household, the effects on inequalities within households did not meet increasingly egalitarian gender role attitudes

Investing in the Care Economy. A gender analysis of employment stimulus in seven OECD countries

Our findings show that governments seeking to expand employment would do well to increase public investment in the economy and that there are strong arguments for more of this investment being in the caring infrastructure than is currently the case. Investment in the care industry, in addition to creating a higher number of jobs, would also address the care deficit and reduce gender inequality. Such a policy would contribute towards creating a more inclusive model of development as well as lifting economies out of recession

Recovery for whom? The Juncker's plan must not be a missed opportunity for gender equality in Europe

The 315 billion Investment Plan for Europe proposed by European Commission President Juncker represents a good point of departure from the usual and exclusive focus on fiscal containment and public debt reduction. However, its almost exclusive focus on physical infrastructure spending and investment in male-dominated industries will further undermine progress towards gender equality, in terms of pay and conditions as well as employment opportunities for women

Globin-based redox signaling

In recent years, moderate levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) have become recognized as signaling cues that participate at all levels of cellular organization. Globins, with their redox-active heme iron and ubiquitous presence, seem ideally suited to participate in ROS metabolism. Here we comment on our recent findings that show the participation of a globin, GLB-12, in a redox signaling pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans. We found that GLB-12 produces superoxide, a type of ROS, after which this is converted to what appears to be a hydrogen peroxide gradient over the plasma membrane by the activity of intracellular and extracellular superoxide dismutases. In the first part, we discuss in more detail the different regulatory mechanisms that increase the effectiveness of this redox signal. In the second part, we comment on how specific structural and biochemical properties allow this globin to perform redox reactions. Interestingly, these properties are also observed in 2 other C. elegans globins that appear to be involved in redox biology. We therefore hypothesize that globins involved in redox signaling display similar structural and biochemical characteristics and propose that a subgroup of globins can be added to the group of proteins that play a vital role in redox signaling

Towards an Aesthetics of the (in)formel: Time, Space and the Dialectical Image in the Music of Varèse, Feldman and Xenakis

This thesis addresses the issue of the modernist musical artwork, specifically in terms of the spatialization of musical time, in aesthetic and music-analytic terms. Firstly, it focuses on the notion of musique informelle as it was expounded in Adorno’s essay ‘Vers une musique informelle,’ (1961) and its place in Gianmario Borio’s elaboration of this in terms of an aesthetics of the informel. Secondly, it proposes a further expansion of these aesthetics via a double strategy: a comparative reading of Walter Benjamin’s critique of philosophies of time (including the work of Henri Bergson), language and objects, and furthermore a reconceptualization of both Adorno’s and Borio’s aesthetics in terms of a new theory of the object (as sound-object) in light of a new reading strategy. This reading is based on Walter Benjamin’s notion of the dialectical image, which proposes a new form of philosophical interpretation. The theorizations of the sound-object and the dialectical image furnish a basis for a re-conceptalization of the (in)formel, allowing for the interpretative reading of the music of three composers in particular: Edgard Varèse, Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis. Particularly, the study of a number of their works, including Intégrales (Varèse), On Time and the Instrumental Factor and Words and Music (Feldman), and Duel (Xenakis), reveals what Adorno terms their (truth) content, in their mediation of rationalization and intuition. Finally, it is argued that these modernist works can in turn bring new insights into Adorno’s aesthetics of the modernist work of art

Employment and fiscal effects of investing in universal childcare: a macro-micro simulation analysis for the UK

This paper analyses the macro-micro linkages between paid and unpaid work, and their fiscal implications, following investment in a public system of universal childcare for all preschool children. Taking the UK as an example of expensive and inadequate childcare provision of uneven quality, the objective of the paper is to show the extent to which large-scale investment in childcare as a form of social infrastructure, often overlooked by policy-makers and economists in their conceptualisation of ‘investment’, is beneficial to society. It benefits children by improving their access to high quality early education, especially those living in lower income families, and thus improving their life chances and social inclusion. It has larger short-term employment effects than corresponding investment in less labour-intensive industries such as construction; and it fosters gender equality in employment by not only providing many high-quality jobs for women but also allowing many mothers to realise their full potential by freeing up their childcare constraints (and improve their lifetime earnings prospects). The paper estimates the gross cost for central government of investing in universal full-time full-year childcare with highly qualified and well paid staff using different benchmark scenarios for current pay and qualification levels. It then examines labour demand and supply effects from a gender perspective. Not only childcare investment increases demand for direct and indirect jobs which can be estimated, it also changes the labour supply characteristics of potential candidates as it reduces the budget constraints of carers. Estimations of increased employment and corresponding household income are performed so that tax liabilities and benefit entitlements can be calculated on aggregate to analyse fiscal sustainability considerations. Results show that the net annual funding requirement would only amount to 25% of the gross investment, given behavioural effects on employment and consumption, and thus tax revenue. Moreover, we estimate a fiscal break-even point of the minimum number of years required of increased maternal employment and earnings to yield sufficient tax revenue that recoups the total childcare cost. Results show that if mothers of young children can regain their prior level of earnings (ie are not subjected to a child penalty) then the number of years of gainful employment needed before the policy breaks even fiscally ranges between 7 and 13 years for a typical mother of two children in childcare, which is well within a typical working life-course

Simulating employment and fiscal effects of public investment in high-quality universal childcare in the UK

This paper simulates the likely fiscal and employment effects of a vast public annual investment programme of free universal high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in the UK. It examines the extent to which it would pay for itself fiscally for different scenarios of pay increases. Investing in high-quality universal ECEC benefits all children by improving their life chances, especially for those living in lower income families. It also generates larger employment effects than other more typical investment policies such as construction projects and fosters gender equality in employment: not only it provides many high-quality jobs for women, it also allows many mothers to improve their lifetime earnings prospects by freeing up their childcare constraints. This in turn has beneficial fiscal revenue effects for the government. Estimations of annual public expenditure for a system of highly qualified and well-paid childcare staff with low child-to-staff ratios are performed, with universal coverage for all pre-school children aged 6 months to 4.5 years. Labour demand and matching supply effects are also simulated using input–output methods, for different take-up rates of the programme. A microsimulation tool is used to calculate increases in household income and tax liabilities and decreases in social security benefits spending. This results in a net annual funding requirement of between 28 and 39% of the gross investment. Two funding methods are then explored: raising taxation in a progressive way and recouping the cost over time from persistent mothers’ increased earnings. The former would entail a net additional contribution by the richest 20% of households of at most 0.4% of their income; the latter would require 21 to 31 years to offset the programme on average, which is within a typical working life-course following a first child’s birth, of 35 years