Cost-Based Models of Economic Growth

In this paper we highlight the importance of the operational costs in explaining economic growth and analyze how the industrial structure affects the growth rate of the economy. If there is monopolistic competition only in an intermediate goods sector, then production growth coincides with consumption growth. Moreover, the pattern of growth depends on the particular form of the operational cost. If the monopolistically competitive sector is the final goods sector, then per capita production is constant but per capita effective consumption or welfare grows. Finally, we modify again the industrial structure of the economy and show an economy with two different growth speeds, one for production and another for effective consumption. Thus, both the operational cost and the particular structure of the sector that produces the final goods determines ultimately the pattern of growth.operational cost, growth, monopolistic competition

Technical communication in place-making professions: Exploring the network pictures of urban designers

This dissertation addresses how professional writing as a field can pay attention to broader definitions of design in order to help further conversations of spatial justice (the act of helping to promote equity in matters of development in urban spaces). I begin by noting the conversations that have circulated regarding the relationship between urban design and rhetoric, noting that professional writing can help add a unique lens to the conversation. The second chapter provides an overview of how design is discussed in technical communication scholarship. Here, I showcase how most of these discussions regarding research in design have centered on textual documents and also provide a model that bridges the different roles that researchers in technical communication have taken on when studying such artifacts. In short, these roles have included acting as Observers, Testers, Critics, Creators, and Consultants. In chapter 3, I provide a brief overview of the field of urban design—the field interested in the design of cities. Having a better understanding of the history of and current controversies in urban design, I discuss the methods and results of my empirical study in which I track the influences that urban design paraprofessionals rely on as the design in hopes of gaining a better understanding of how they view public, private, and nonhuman actors within their particular contexts. I end this project with a pedagogical proposal in which students in technical writing courses can come to learn more about tackling wicked design problems. In this way, civil engineers and other students interested in city and spatial design can better see the ways in which their designs require the input of local stakeholders and the problems that can arise from taking on top-down design decisions

Creating Accessible Spaces for ESL Students Online

This essay responds to the 2012 CCCC featured session, “Access—A Happening,” in which Blackmon et al. focused on “removing barriers and confusing the discipline’s boundaries, with a focus on the bodies and minds that have been excluded.” As a presenter, Paul Kei Matsuda called on instructors and WPAs to create access for ESL students into such spaces. WPAs have long sought out opportunities to allow students to have more of a voice when it comes to policy; in this way, this study examines whether WPA documents—specifically information and support resources available on writing center websites—meet the needs of ESL students. I studied eight OWL websites in universities with large international student populations to gauge how well these sites took into account criteria pertinent to ESL students as evident in the available scholarship: intercultural needs, writing resource needs, plagiarism resource needs, and readability. The article ends with specific recommendations for WPAs to follow in creating documents—online or otherwise—that will incorporate ESL audiences. By following these recommendations, WPAs can be more attuned to the needs of more individuals and can better accommodate access to places which may ordinarily prohibit entrance to those without particular (or with divergent) physical and linguistic capabilities

The Unemployment Benefit System: a Redistributive or an Insurance Institution?

In this paper we analyze how the composition of labor taxation affects unemployment in a unionized economy with capital accumulation and an unemployment benefit system. We show that if the unemployment benefit system is gross Bismarckian then the unemployment rate is reduced if wage taxes are decreased (and thus payroll taxes are increased). However, if the unemployment benefit system is net Bismarckian then the unemployment rate does not depend on how the system is financed. Besides, in a Beveridgean system the labor tax composition does not affect the unemployment rate if and only if the unemployed do not pay taxes and the employed pay a constant marginal tax rate. We also analyze when an unemployment benefit budget-balanced rule makes the economy to have a hysteresis process.wage tax, unemployment benefit system, payroll tax

Union Power, Minimum Wage Legislation, Endogenous Labor Supplies and Production

The objective of this work is to study the impact of the unions bargaining power on production and wages. We present a model where a competitive final good is produced through two substitutable intermediate goods, one produced by unskilled labor and the other by skilled labor. Potential workers decide at their cost to become skilled or unskilled and, thus, labor supplies are determined endogenously. We find that the reallocation of the labor supplies due to changes in the unskilled (or skilled) unions bargaining power may have a positive impact on the final goods production. At the same time, total labor earnings increase with the unskilled unions bargaining power if the final goods production increases too. We also show that the minimum wage legislation has e.ects similar to an increase in the bargaining power of the unskilled unions.skills, labor supplies, minimum wage, union power

Draft genome sequence of three hydrocarbon-degrading Pseudomonadota strains isolated from an abandoned century-old oil exploration well

We present genome sequences of three Pseudomonadota strains isolated from an abandoned century-old oil exploration well. A Pseudomonas sp. genome showed a size of 5,378,420 bp, while Acinetobacter genomes sized 3,522,593 and 3,864,311 bp. Genomes included catabolic genes for benzoate, 4-hydroxybenzoate, salicylate, vanillate, indoleacetate, anthranilate, n-alkanes, 4-hydroxyphenylacetate, phenylacetate, among others