Firing costs and the business cycle: Policy implications in light of the financial crisis.

This lecture is a tour dhorizon of the financial crisis aimed at extracting lessons for future financial regulation. It combines normative recommendations based on conventional welfare economics with positive assessments of the kind of measures likely to be adopted based on political economy considerations.Konjunktur; Kündigung; Arbeitsmobilität; Kosten; Währungsunion; Arbeitnehmerschutz;

An Incentive Theory of Matching

This paper presents a theory explaining the labor market matching process through microeconomic incentives. There are heterogeneous variations in the characteristics of workers and jobs, and firms face adjustment costs in responding to these variations. Matches and separations are described through firms' job offer and firing decisions and workers' job acceptance and quit decisions. This approach obviates the need for a matching function. On this theoretical basis, we argue that the matching function is vulnerable to the Lucas critique. Our calibrated model for the U.S. economy can account for important empirical regularities that the conventional matching model cannot.matching, incentives, adjustment costs, unemployment, employment, quits, firing, job offers, job acceptance

Rediscovery of Parazuphium chevrolatii praepannonicum in Hungary (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

Parazuphium (Parazuphium) chevrolatii praepannonicum (Endrődy-Younga, 1958) was found in 2014, 61 years aft er its discovery (1953) in Hungary. Three specimens were collected in the Pilis Mts under a large boulder embedded in loessy soil above andesite bedrock. Zuphium hungaricum J. Frivaldszky, 1877 is deleted from the list of Carabidae of present-day Hungary. With 2 figures

Atomic Zitterbewegung

Ultra-cold atoms which are subject to ultra-relativistic dynamics are investigated. By using optically induced gauge potentials we show that the dynamics of the atoms is governed by a Dirac type equation. To illustrate this we study the trembling motion of the centre of mass for an effective two level system, historically called Zitterbewegung. Its origin is described in detail, where in particular the role of the finite width of the atomic wave packets is seen to induce a damping of both the centre of mass dynamics and the dynamics of the populations of the two levels.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Einstellungsgutscheine effektiver als Kombilöhne : Reformkonzepte zur Erhöhung der Beschäftigung im Niedriglohnbereich ; Niedriglohnsektor.

In jüngster Zeit wurde eine Vielzahl von Kombilohnvorschlägen zur Bekämpfung der Arbeitslosigkeit gemacht (vgl. z.B. Sinn et al. 2006; Sachverständigenrat 2006). Diese sollen Abhilfe bei der persistenten Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit und den hohen Arbeitslosenraten bei Niedrigqualifizierten schaffen. In einer Studie analysieren wir die Auswirkungen verschiedener Kombilohnmaßnahmen auf die Beschäftigung, die Einkommensverteilung und den Staatshaushalt in Deutschland (vgl. Brown, Merkl und Snower 2006). Die Studie kommt zum Ergebnis, dass die üblicherweise diskutierten Kombilohnmodelle (dauerhafte Lohnsubventionen für Niedrigverdiener) weder ein effektives Instrument zur Schaffung von Beschäftigung in Deutschland noch das beste Instrument zur Bekämpfung der Einkommensungleichheit sind. Einstellungsgutscheine (befristete Lohnsubventionen für Neueinstellungen) für Langzeitarbeitslose oder niedrig qualifizierte Arbeitnehmer sind weitaus wirkungsvoller. Das schlechtere Abschneiden von Kombilöhnen ist auf wesentlich höhere Mitnahmeeffekte und höhere Lohnforderungen (Lohneffekte) zurückzuführen. Die gegen Einstellungsgutscheine häufig vorgebrachten Drehtüreffekte stellen hingegen kein großes makroökonomisches Problem dar, denn hier überwiegen die positiven Klebeeffekte.Niedriglohn; Lohnsubvention; Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit; Wirtschaftspolitische Wirkungsanalyse; Beschäftigungseffekt; Beschäftigungspolitik; Deutschland;

Einstellungsgutscheine: Effektivität und Umsetzung (Hiring vouchers: practical implementation for Germany)

"This paper describes the practical implementation of hiring vouchers in Germany. According to our proposal, employers receive vouchers for hiring long-term unemployed, low-ability workers. Thereby labor costs are reduced for a limited period of time. The size of the vouchers increases with the duration of unemployment as well as with the qualification and it decreases with the subsequent employment duration. We specify a time profile for self-financing hiring vouchers for a broad range of unemployment durations and skills. We develop a simple formula to calculate the size of the voucher depending on the wage, the duration of unemployment and the subsequent employment duration." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Beschäftigungsgutschein - Effizienz, Lohnkostenzuschuss, Langzeitarbeitslose, Niedrigqualifizierte, Beschäftigungseffekte, Mitnahmeeffekte, Substitutionseffekte, Einkommenseffekte

An investigation of the impact of data breach severity on the readability of mandatory data breach notification letters: evidence from U.S. firms

The aim of this article is to investigate the impact of data breach severity on the readability of mandatory data breach notification letters. Using a content analysis approach to determine data breach severity attributes (measured by the total number of breached records, type of data accessed, the source of the data breach, and how the data were used), in conjunction with readability measures (reading complexity, numerical intensity, length of letter, word size, and unique words), 512 data breach incidents from 281 U.S. firms across the 2012–2015 period were examined. The results indicate that data breach severity has a positive impact on reading complexity, length of letter, word size, and unique words, and a negative impact on numerical terms. Interpreting the results collectively through the lens of impression management, it can be inferred that business managers may be attempting to obfuscate bad news associated with high data breach severity incidents by manipulating syntactical features of the data breach notification letters in a way that makes the message difficult for individuals to comprehend. The study contributes to the information studies and impression management behavior literatures by analyzing linguistic cues in notifications following a data breach incident

AGeNNT: annotation of enzyme families by means of refined neighborhood networks

Background: Large enzyme families may contain functionally diverse members that give rise to clusters in a sequence similarity network (SSN). In prokaryotes, the genome neighborhood of a gene-product is indicative of its function and thus, a genome neighborhood network (GNN) deduced for an SSN provides strong clues to the specific function of enzymes constituting the different clusters. The Enzyme Function Initiative (http://enzymefunction.org/) offers services that compute SSNs and GNNs. Results: We have implemented AGeNNT that utilizes these services, albeit with datasets purged with respect to unspecific protein functions and overrepresented species. AGeNNT generates refined GNNs (rGNNs) that consist of cluster-nodes representing the sequences under study and Pfam-nodes representing enzyme functions encoded in the respective neighborhoods. For cluster-nodes, AGeNNT summarizes the phylogenetic relationships of the contributing species and a statistic indicates how unique nodes and GNs are within this rGNN. Pfam-nodes are annotated with additional features like GO terms describing protein function. For edges, the coverage is given, which is the relative number of neighborhoods containing the considered enzyme function (Pfam-node). AGeNNT is available at https://github.com/kandlinf/agennt. Conclusions: An rGNN is easier to interpret than a conventional GNN, which commonly contains proteins without enzymatic function and overly specific neighborhoods due to phylogenetic bias. The implemented filter routines and the statistic allow the user to identify those neighborhoods that are most indicative of a specific metabolic capacity. Thus, AGeNNT facilitates to distinguish and annotate functionally different members of enzyme families

Spatially resolved spectroscopy of Coma cluster early-type galaxies - II:the minor axis dataset

We present minor axis, off set major axis and one diagonal long slit spectra for 10 E and S0 galaxies of the Coma cluster drawn from a magnitude-limited sample studied before. We derive rotation curves, velocity dispersion profiles and the H-3 and H-4 coefficients of the Hermite decomposition of the line of sight velocity distribution. Moreover, we derive the line index profiles of Mg, Fe and Hbeta line indices and assess their errors. The data will be used to construct dynamical models of the galaxies and study their stellar populations

Assessing in silico the recruitment and functional spectrum of bacterial enzymes from secondary metabolism

Background: Microbes, plants, and fungi synthesize an enormous number of metabolites exhibiting rich chemical diversity. For a high-level classification, metabolism is subdivided into primary (PM) and secondary (SM) metabolism. SM products are often not essential for survival of the organism and it is generally assumed that SM enzymes stem from PM homologs. Results: We wanted to assess evolutionary relationships and function of bona fide bacterial PM and SM enzymes. Thus, we analyzed the content of 1010 biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from the MIBiG dataset; the encoded bacterial enzymes served as representatives of SM. The content of 15 bacterial genomes known not to harbor BGCs served as a representation of PM. Enzymes were categorized on their EC number and for these enzyme functions, frequencies were determined. The comparison of PM/SM frequencies indicates a certain preference for hydrolases (EC class 3) and ligases (EC class 6) in PM and of oxidoreductases (EC class 1) and lyases (EC class 4) in SM. Based on BLAST searches, we determined pairs of PM/SM homologs and their functional diversity. Oxidoreductases, transferases (EC class 2), lyases and isomerases (EC class 5) form a tightly interlinked network indicating that many protein folds can accommodate different functions in PM and SM. In contrast, the functional diversity of hydrolases and especially ligases is significantly limited in PM and SM. For the most direct comparison of PM/SM homologs, we restricted for each BGC the search to the content of the genome it comes from. For each homologous hit, the contribution of the genomic neighborhood to metabolic pathways was summarized in BGC-specific html-pages that are interlinked with KEGG; this dataset can be downloaded from https://www.bioinf.ur.de. Conclusions: Only few reaction chemistries are overrepresented in bacterial SM and at least 55% of the enzymatic functions present in BGCs possess PM homologs. Many SM enzymes arose in PM and Nature utilized the evolvability of enzymes similarly to establish novel functions both in PM and SM. Future work aimed at the elucidation of evolutionary routes that have interconverted a PM enzyme into an SM homolog can profit from our BGC-specific annotations