What happened to the knowledge economy? ICT, intangible investment and Britain's productivity record revisited

A major puzzle is that despite the apparent importance of innovation around the "knowledge economy", UK macro performance appears unaffected: investment rates are flat, and productivity has slowed down. We investigate whether measurement issues might account for the puzzle. The standard National Accounts treatment of most spending on "knowledge" or "intangible" assets is as intermediate consumption. Thus they do not count as either GDP or investment. We ask how treating such spending as investment affects some key macro variables, namely, market sector gross value added (MGVA), business investment, capital and labour shares, growth in labour and total factor productivity, and capital deepening. We find (a) MGVA was understated by about 6% in 1970 and 13% in 2004 (b) instead of the nominal business investment/MGVA ratio falling since 1970 it is has been rising (c) instead of the labour compensation/MGVA ratio being flat since 1970 it has been falling (d) growth in labour productivity and capital deepening has been understated and growth in total factor productivity overstated (e) total factor productivity growth has not slowed since 1990 but has been accelerating

The effect of skill shortages on unemployment and real wage growth: a simultaneous equation approach

This paper attempts to quantify the effect of skill shortages on the UK labour market by developing a simultaneous equation model of unemployment and real wage growth. The model is developed following a structural approach based on a priori economic information and is initially estimated using a two-stage least squares procedure. The model is also estimated using Zellner's seemingly unrelated regressions estimation technique, with similar results. It is shown that skill shortages have a positive effect on real wage growth and a negative effect on unemployment, with both these effects economically and statistically significant

Sparse image reconstruction on the sphere: analysis and synthesis

We develop techniques to solve ill-posed inverse problems on the sphere by sparse regularisation, exploiting sparsity in both axisymmetric and directional scale-discretised wavelet space. Denoising, inpainting, and deconvolution problems, and combinations thereof, are considered as examples. Inverse problems are solved in both the analysis and synthesis settings, with a number of different sampling schemes. The most effective approach is that with the most restricted solution-space, which depends on the interplay between the adopted sampling scheme, the selection of the analysis/synthesis problem, and any weighting of the l1 norm appearing in the regularisation problem. More efficient sampling schemes on the sphere improve reconstruction fidelity by restricting the solution-space and also by improving sparsity in wavelet space. We apply the technique to denoise Planck 353 GHz observations, improving the ability to extract the structure of Galactic dust emission, which is important for studying Galactic magnetism.Comment: 11 pages, 6 Figure

The determinants of demand for private medical insurance: evidence from the British household panel survey

This paper examines the determinants of demand for private medical insurance in Great Britain using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). The main focus is the impact of quality and supply of public health care and the availability of private alternatives on demand. The personal characteristics that determine the demand for private medical insurance are also investigated. The empirical analysis uses a random effects probit model to investigate the individual purchase decision using a six-year panel from the BHPS. The results here suggest that income, age, sex, political party support and employment status are key determinants of the demand for private medical insurance as are being a smoker and living in an owner occupied house. The key findings are that regional waiting lists and public expenditure on health are significant determinants of the demand for private medical insurance indicating that recent increases in health expenditure and reductions in waiting lists may have crowded out some private insurance

Good question: exploring the experiences of generating questions in coaching

Coaches use questions, with other techniques, to facilitate progress for clients. The coaching practitioner literature provides advice on how to employ questions in coaching sessions, but there is little empirical evidence examining how coaches generate or ask questions. Investigating my own experiences and that of other coaches, in relation to questions, has been a long-standing professional interest. Thus, this research provides insight into exploring the experiences of generating questions in coaching. The approach to the research was relativist and employed heuristic inquiry as the research methodology. Eight experienced coaches were recruited as co-researchers, to share their experiences of generating coaching questions. Capturing experiences was achieved through post-coaching reflections and conversational interviews. Thematic analysis of the data identified categories and patterns that led to the creation of individual depictions of the experience for each co-researcher. In line with the research methodology, individual experiences were brought together to produce a final creative synthesis. A departure from heuristic inquiry was the omission of a group depiction. The selection of exemplary portraits was replaced with presenting the portraits of all coresearchers. Both of these amendments were felt appropriate in order to align the methodology more faithfully with a relativist approach. Coaches noticed a wide range of information when forming questions, originating from sources both inside and outside the coaching session itself. The background of the coach played a part in shaping the experience of generating questions, as did the transitory ‘state’ of both coach and client. Coaches asked questions when in an altered state that some described as a ‘flow’ or ‘zone’. Questions ‘pop’ into the heads of coaches in a non-conscious way at times, often accompanied for the coach by a somatic sensation, while some were generated more consciously. At the point of asking questions, coaches often used a prefacing statement for their own or their client’s benefit. Coaches frequently engaged in inner dialogue when asking questions that were usually focused on the coach or the question. The inner dialogue varied in nature, but often presented in the form of a question. The conclusions indicate that the experience of generating questions in coaching was deeply impacted by the coach themselves. This research highlighted three paradoxes that coaches tried to balance while enquiring of their clients. Suggestions for future research are also proposed

Vitamins D and A in Alfalfa Hay

Every farmer knows that adequate amount of vitamin D and A are needed in order to maintain vigorous health, good growth, and efficient production in his livestock. This need has been well established by carefully controlled experimental work and by farm observations. It brings into sharp focus problem of finding the most economical means of providing these important nutrients