Enabled to work: the impact of government housing on slum dwellers in South Africa

This paper looks at the link between housing conditions and household income and labour market participation in South Africa. I use four waves of panel data from 2002-2009 on households that were originally living in informal dwellings. I find that those households that received free government housing later experienced large increases in their incomes. This effect is driven by increased employment rates among female members of these households, rather than other sources of income. I take advantage of a natural experiment created by a policy of allocating housing to households that lived in close proximity to new housing developments. Using rich spatial data on the roll out of government housing projects, I generate geographic instruments to predict selection into receiving housing. I then use housing projects that were planned and approved but never actually built to allay concerns about non-random placement of housing projects. The fixed effects results are robust to the use of these instruments and placebo tests. I present suggestive evidence that formal housing alleviates the demands of work at home for women, which leads to increases in labour supply to wage paying jobs

Information and Empire: Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600-1854

From the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century Russia was transformed from a moderate-sized, land-locked principality into the largest empire on earth. How did systems of information and communication shape and reflect this extraordinary change? Information and Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600-1850 brings together a range of contributions to shed some light on this complex question. Communication networks such as the postal service and the gathering and circulation of news are examined alongside the growth of a bureaucratic apparatus that informed the government about its country and its people. The inscription of space is considered from the point of view of mapping and the changing public ‘graphosphere’ of signs and monuments. More than a series of institutional histories, this book is concerned with the way Russia discovered itself, envisioned itself and represented itself to its people. Innovative and scholarly, this collection breaks new ground in its approach to communication and information as a field of study in Russia. More broadly, it is an accessible contribution to pre-modern information studies, taking as its basis a country whose history often serves to challenge habitual Western models of development. It is important reading not only for specialists in Russian Studies, but also for students and non-Russianists who are interested in the history of information and communications

Average properties of compressible laminar boundary layer on flat plate with unsteady flight velocity

The time-average characteristics of boundary layers over a flat plate in nearly quasi-steady flow are determined. The plate may be either insulated or isothermal. The time averages are found without specifying the plate velocity explicitly except that it is positive and has an average value

Anonymity of distance? Job search and labour market exclusion in a growing African city

Do obstacles to job search contribute to labour market exclusion in developing countries? To answer this question, we contrast two very different interventions, designed to alleviate spatial and informational constraints for unemployed youth in a congested African city: a transport subsidy and a job-application workshop. Both treatments have large positive effects on the probability of finding stable and formal jobs. Neither treatment has a significant average effect on the overall probability of employment, but we detect a sizeable increase in earnings and employment rates among the most disadvantaged job-seekers. Our results highlight the importance of job-search constraints as mechanisms for exclusion of the most disadvantaged. They also show that, if targeted well, low-cost interventions can have large impacts, improving equity in the labour marke

Risk assessment for river transport Kuching express boat passenger terminal (maintenance & utilization)

The development of water transport in Sarawak, Malaysia is considered to be in the early stages. There are possibilities that the water transport system in Sarawak can be improved and made a contributor to enhancing the public transportation system in the state. The Sarawak Rivers Board, Kuching Express Boat Passenger Terminal was the targeted area of study. This study focused on the conducting of qualitative and quantitative risk assessment on the maintenance and utilization of the passenger terminal. Such studies have yet to be performed in the state. Therefore, this study will benefit the development of the water transport industry in Sarawak. Distribution of survey questionnaires were carried out for the qualitative risk assessment while a method known as the Fuzzy Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) has been adopted for the quantitative risk assessment. Furthermore, scale ranking table of ratings for severity, occurrence and detect were used to carry out the fuzzy FMEA method. Results obtained from the fuzzy FMEA method were in the form of fuzzy RPN number, which are the products of severity, occurrence and detect. From the analysis, life rafts have the highest fuzzy RPN at 351 (323 if normalized) while the lowest fuzzy RPN was obtained from railings (83.9, 5 if normalized). Life rafts were rated highest while railings were rated lowest in the fuzzy RPN number rankings. However, values obtained from the method were not as projected theoretically due to its shortcomings, such as existence of loop holes in membership functions. Future improvements of the method may include the modification of the scale tables to suit better risk assessment for any river infrastructure. In conclusion, the fuzzy FMEA method was proven to be applicable in conducting risk assessment on a river infrastructure in terms of maintenance and utilization

Feet and footwear: friends or foes?

A third of over 65s have at least one fall per year whilst a quarter of over 45s endure foot pain. Footwear is associated with both fall risk and foot pain hence its investigation is of great importance. This thesis explores the potential benefits of minimalist footwear for the older adult population. Chapter 2 ascertained the kinematic and kinetic differences between walking barefoot versus in footwear whilst highlighting the limited research on minimalist footwear, older adults and muscle activity differences. Accordingly, Chapter 3 outlined that minimalist footwear is kinematically more similar to barefoot, irrespective of age, thus offering a viable alternative. Similarly, Chapter 4 showed walking in minimalist footwear and walking unshod exhibit similar lower leg muscle activation patterns whilst differences exist to conventional footwear. Chapter 6 demonstrated how increasing intrinsic foot strength improved functional and static balance whilst Chapter 7 showed promise for minimalist footwear improving foot strength, functional balance, balance confidence as well as reducing foot and joint pain in a sample of older adults. In conclusion, this thesis highlights the need for future work to continue to investigate minimalist footwear in both older adults and other age groups for benefits to stability, foot health and joint pain

Matching firms and workers in a field experiment in Ethiopia

Do matching frictions affect youth employment in developing countries? We organise job fairs in Addis Ababa, to match firms with a representative sample of young, educated job-seekers. We create very few jobs: one for approximately 10 firms that attended. We explore reasons for this, and find significant evidence for mismatched expectations: about wages, about firms requirements and about the average quality of job-seekers. We find evidence of learning and updating of beliefs in the aftermath of the fair. This changes behaviour: both workers and firms invest more in formal job search after the fair

Analytical studies of particle dynamics in bending waves in planetary rings

Particles inside a planetary ring are subject to forcing due to the central planet, moons in inclined orbits, self-gravity of the ring and other forces due to radiation drag, collisional effects and Lorentz force due to magnetic field of the planet. We write down the equations of motion of a single particle inside the ring and solve them analytically. We find that the importance of the shear caused by variation of the radial velocity component with local vertical direction cannot be ignored and it may be responsible for damping of the bending waves in planetary rings as observed by the Voyager data. We present the wave profile resulting from the dissipation. We estimate that the surface mass density of the C ring to be of the order of $\sigma \sim 1.2-1.6$gm cm$^{-2}$, and the height $h \sim 2.2-2.4$m. These theoretical results are in agreement with observations.Comment: 17 pages 3 figures MNRAS (In press