Measuring Temporary Labor Outsourcing in U.S. Manufacturing

Several analysts claim that firms have been using more flexible work arrangements in order to contain the costly adjustment of labor to changes in economic conditions. In particular, temporary help supply (THS) employment has increased dramatically in the last ten years. However, there is only scant evidence on the industries that are hiring this type of worker. In particular, some anecdotal evidence points to the fact that manufacturing industries have substantially stepped up their demand for THS workers since the mid-1980s. If this is true, not accounting for this flow of workers from the service sector to manufacturing may lead to misleading conclusions about the cyclical and long-term path of manufacturing employment and hours of work. We close this gap by providing several estimates of the number of individuals employed by temporary help supply (THS) firms who worked in the manufacturing sector from 1972 to 1997. One estimate, in particular, is based on a new methodology that uses minimal assumptions to put bounds on the probability that a manufacturing worker is employed by a THS firm. The bounds rely on readily available data on workers' individual characteristics observable in the CPS. We show that manufacturers have been using THS workers more intensively in the 1990s. In addition, the apparent flatness of manufacturing employment in the 1990s can be explained in part by this type of outsourcing from the service sector. Finally, not accounting for THS hours overstated the increase in average annual manufacturing labor productivity by « percentage point during the 1991-1997 period.

The Evolution of the Demand for Temporary Help Supply Employment in the United States

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported an extraordinary increase in temporary help supply (THS) employment during the late 1980s and the 1990s. However, little is known about the venues where these THS employees actually work. Our estimates indicate that the proportion of THS employees in each major American industry, except the public sector, increased during 1977-97. By 1997, close to 4 percent of the employees in manufacturing and services were THS workers. In the service sector, the increase was accompanied by a large increase in direct hires. In manufacturing, however, it was accompanied by a decline in direct hiring from its peak in 1989 even though output increased substantially in the 1990s. Practically, all of the growth in THS employment is attributed to a change in the hiring behavior of firms, rather than to a disproportional increase in the size of more THS-intensive industries.

“There is No Difference:” Neoliberalism and Latin American (Police) State Legitimacy

This paper examines the relationship between neoliberalism and patterns of violence in Latin American cities. I argue that those neoliberal policies which have so impacted key agricultural and manufacturing sectors in Latin America also disrupt economically-driven social relations, making that the region’s transition to democracy a violent one. Although transitions from authoritarianism to democracy as a whole remove old relations between the government and the public, the criminalization of poverty as created and perpetuated by neoliberal ideology leads to higher rates of incarceration while colluding with criminal organizations in order to avoid lengthy and expensive urban renewal programs. When forced to confront any such collusion, states often turn to extrajudicial killings and widespread punitive measures. However, this is perhaps beginning to change. In selected case studies, the author analyzes the benefits and potential future of community-based policing in response to the challenges faced by Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil in tackling these issues

Causalidade e transmissão entre os preços de mandioca, trigo, milho e seus derivados no Paraná

This study aims to analyze the relations of causality and price transmission of the cassava root, the cassava starch, the cassava flour, the wheat, the wheat flour and the corn, in the State of Parana. The used data goes from January 1995 to December 2005, with monthly regularity. It was applied the methodology of Granger causality to test the relations between the variables. The results showed long term relations between corn and cassava root prices, cassava starch and cassava flour prices, wheat and corn prices and wheat and wheat flour prices. It was emphasized the dependence of the cassava root prices in relation to corn, wheat, cassava starch and cassava flour prices and its little influence on these variables. It was also noted that cassava flour prices influenced the cassava starch prices, and the strong relation between the wheat prices and the wheat flour prices. The cassava flour and the wheat prices presented lesser dependence of the others variables. The paper concluded that there are important interrelations between the studied variables. The cassava root prices were the ones that depended most on the other variables in this study.Granger causality, Price transmission, Starch, Demand and Price Analysis,

The role of yoga in inflammatory markers

Yoga is an ancient system for integrating the mind, body, and spirit. In the hatha yoga ashtanga tradition (the eight limb Patanjali Yoga), three of the limbs are meditation, breathwork (pranayama) and physical postures (asana), which are widely practised in yoga classes. The benefits of yoga for mental and physical health are rooted in the practice's origins: in yoga, stress is said to be the root of all diseases.The established fields of psychoneuroimmunology and immunopsychiatry study the interplay between the immune system and mood or mental states. This mini-review has shifted the emphasis from research that focuses on yoga's benefits for stress, the most commonly studied outcome of yoga research, to a summary of the research on the effects of yoga practices on the immune system. The current literature bears strong evidence for the benefits of yoga on the levels of circulating cortisol and classical inflammatory markers, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and cytokines such as interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interferon-gamma (INF-γ). The evidence for other less studied markers, telomerase activity, β-endorphins, Immunoglobulin A (IgA) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is also growing. This mini-review centres around the interplay between yoga and these markers in stress management and depression, vascular and immune function in the older population, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, auto-immune diseases, breast cancer and pregnancy.Overall, the literature examined reveals the novelty of this field of research and sheds light on methodological challenges; however, it uncovers the potential for yoga to be used as adjuvant therapy in conditions with an inflammatory component

Treatment methods for water pollution from coal mining in Moatize (Mozambique)

Moatize district located in Tete province in the center of Mozambique has one of the largest unexploited coal deposits of the world with a capacity of 2.5 billions of tones. Recently many multinational coal mine companies started exploitation of coal in Moatize. Coal exploitation has economical, social and environmental impacts. The main environmental impact is generation of acid mine drainage (AMD) which can pollute surface and groundwater. The aim of this work was to describe and assess the main impact of mining activities on water resource in Moatize and to describe treatment methods for polluted water. The methodology used was literature review and visits realized in different institutions of Mozambique. Different active and passive methods for AMD were described throughout the report. It can be conclude that the impact of AMD in Moatize will not significantly affect the Zambezi river due to its big flow but it can be severe in small tributaries because some of them pass through the mining section. Water pollution can affect the population of Moatize negatively because they depend in agriculture and fishing to survive. There were not enough data to decide which treatment method can be applied for Moatize, but based on data from an old mine from Moatize it was possible to conclude that aerobic wetland and lime-limestone neutralization could be used. It is recommended to collect extensive data from mining companies in Moatize to make more detailed investigation about different treatment methods

Environmental aspects of coal mine drainage: a regional study of Moatize in Mozambique

Mozambique is one of the largest coal producers in Africa. Extraction of the coal is carried out in the Moatize district of the Tete province in the center of the country. A surface mining technique is used to extract the coal below ground level. During mining activities, sulfide minerals, which are commonly associated with coal, are exposed to oxygen and water, leading to the generation of acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD is high in acidity and has a high content of metals, metalloids and sulfate that can cause severe damage to the environment. Moatize is inside the lower Zambezi River basin, the pollution that occurs there due to mining activities constituting a risk both for public health and for the water resources. The standard guidelines in Mozambique for wastewater from coal mining are very weak, allowing the coal mining companies to pollute considerably. The prevention, containment and remediation of polluted mine water are measures that should be carried out to avoid the spread of pollution. Prevention is the least expensive strategy, but it cannot always prevent the generation of polluted mine water. Thus containment and treatment need to be put into practice. Both active and passive treatment are used to treat polluted mine water. Since Moatize is a largely unstudied area, both static and leaching tests were carried out to investigate the possibility of AMD being generated. The geochemical processes that could impact on the quality of mine drainage stemming from the waste rock there were assessed. Use of cost-effective methods for the treatment of mine water by use of bioremediation coupled with adsorption, using cassava peels that are readily available in the country as a carbon source and as an adsorbent is proposed. Since climate changes and climate variability can exacerbate the negative impact of surface mining, the possibility of this was assessed. It was found that the production of AMD was likely in at least one of the coal mines in Moatize. The mine water from coal mines in Moatize was found to have a high content of sulfate, calcium, magnesium and manganese. A set of guidelines for coal mine effluents that was developed, based on different guidelines obtained from around the world, was proposed for Mozambique. Sulfate reducing bacteria coupled with adsorption appeared to be appropriate for removing these pollutants. Cassava peels used as adsorbents appeared to be effective in removing calcium, magnesium and manganese. Based on climate data, the period from November on through February was found to be the period in which the pollution load in Moatize was greatest. Since the flow rate in the Revúbué River, which is close to the coal mines, is highly dependent upon the precipitation that occurs during the rainy season, the discharge of polluted mine water should be avoided. To achieve sustainable mining in Moatize, the coal mining companies, the regulators and the stakeholders from water sector there need to work together. A framework for integrating efforts to satisfy the needs of the different stakeholders involved in the water sector in Moatize was proposed