Cross-national differences in the labour force attachment of mothers in Western and Eastern Europe

This paper examines cross-national differences in the labour force attachment of two specific subgroups of mothers: the stay-at-home mothers (homemakers) and those on maternity or parental leave. The justification for focusing on homemakers is that these women constitute an untapped source of labour and are among those who would need to join the labour market in order to reach the EU employment target. As to those on leave, their temporary absence from work means that they will soon be facing a time when they have to decide whether or not to return to the labour market. They are therefore also a key group to consider. In this paper, the characteristics and labour market intentions of these two subgroups of women are analysed using data from the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) for ten countries: five Western European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy), and five Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Georgia, Lithuania, Romania and the Russian Federation). This paper is structured as follows. It first reviews the literature on women’s employment by focusing on both individual and macro-level factors, including values, education and family circumstances. It then moves on to a presentation of the data and methods, followed by the results of the data analysis. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and their policy implications.

Préface

Le Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) est une infrastructure de recherche dédiée à l’étude des parcours de vie incluant les dynamiques familiales, les relations de genre,et les échanges entre générations. Il s’agit d’une infrastructure unique en sciences sociales, tant par sa composante longitudinale et internationale que par sa couverture, sur toute la période de l’âge adulte. Fondée il y a plus de 15 ans, elle compte à ce jour des données de plus de vingt pays en Europe et outre-mer1 . Sa banque de données inclut les histoires de vie de plus de 200000 individus et s’est taillée une place importante au sein du paysage européen des grandes infrastructures de recherche

Préface

Le Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) est une infrastructure de recherche dédiée à l’étude des parcours de vie incluant les dynamiques familiales, les relations de genre,et les échanges entre générations. Il s’agit d’une infrastructure unique en sciences sociales, tant par sa composante longitudinale et internationale que par sa couverture, sur toute la période de l’âge adulte. Fondée il y a plus de 15 ans, elle compte à ce jour des données de plus de vingt pays en Europe et outre-mer1 . Sa banque de données inclut les histoires de vie de plus de 200000 individus et s’est taillée une place importante au sein du paysage européen des grandes infrastructures de recherche

Préface

Le Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) est une infrastructure de recherche dédiée à l’étude des parcours de vie incluant les dynamiques familiales, les relations de genre,et les échanges entre générations. Il s’agit d’une infrastructure unique en sciences sociales, tant par sa composante longitudinale et internationale que par sa couverture, sur toute la période de l’âge adulte. Fondée il y a plus de 15 ans, elle compte à ce jour des données de plus de vingt pays en Europe et outre-mer1 . Sa banque de données inclut les histoires de vie de plus de 200000 individus et s’est taillée une place importante au sein du paysage européen des grandes infrastructures de recherche

Silicon Drift Detector Readout Electronics for a Compton Camera

A prototype detector for Compton camera imaging is under development. A monolithic array of 19 channel Silicon drift detector with on-chip electronics is going to be used as a scatter detector for the prototype system. Custom designed analog and digital readout electronics for this detector was first tested by using a single cell Silicon drift detector. This paper describes the readout architecture and presents the results of the measurement.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. Meth.

Distributional impacts of cash allowances for children: A microsimulation analysis for Russia and Europe

This article analyses programmes of cash allowances for children and compares their effectiveness in combating child poverty in Russia and four European Union (EU) countries representing alternative family policy models – Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Using microsimulation models, this article estimates the potential gains if the Russian system were re-designed along the policy parameters of these countries and vice versa. The results confirm that the poverty impact of the programme design is smaller than that of the level of spending. Other conditions being equal, the best distributional outcomes for children are achieved by applying the mix of universal and means-tested child benefits, such as those employed by the United Kingdom and Belgium. At the same time, the Russian design of child allowances does not appear to be less effective in terms of its impact on child poverty when transferred to European countries in place of their current arrangements

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO