The outcome of individual wage bargaining and the influence of managers' bargaining power: evidence from union data

We analyze unique data that identify whether individuals have participated in decentralized wage setting and whether they have negotiated their own wages. Wages are significantly higher for those who have been part of a formalized wage-setting process compared with non-participants, but only in the public sector. Employees who negotiate their own wages have higher wages than non-negotiators. Wages are also significantly higher for those who negotiate with a manager who has the power to set wages, compared with those who negotiate with a manager who has no power over wages. This concerns employees in the public and the private sectors. Quantile regression results reveal that the outcome of individual bargaining increases over the wage distribution. Percentile wage differences are significant only among workers who negotiate with a manager who has the power to set wages. Estimated wage differences between negotiators and non-negotiators are 4.6% on average, 5.6% in the 90th percentile, and 2.3% at the 10th percentile.wage bargaining; earnings equations; decentralized wage setting; quantile regression

A Note on the Concept of Excess Burden

It is argued that there has been a shift in the meaning of "excess burden" from Pigou to modern economics, related to what is used as a reference point when the effect of a tax is discussed. Is it the situation before the tax was introduced or what would have happened if a lump sum tax had been used instead? This distinction is important for tax policy, since the latter reference point leads to a larger, sometimes much larger, numerical value for the excess burden. However, the distinction is not often clearly made and this has led to risks for misguided political decisions on taxes. It is further argued that when excess burden and efficiency losses are discussed, economists have neglected to discuss the meaning of “can”, or “possible”, when the Pareto principle is formulated. Is it reasonable to say that welfare "can" be improved by a lump sum tax instead of a "distortionary" tax if, as most economists seem to believe, such a tax is not a realistic alternative? Since conceptual clearness about the excess burden of taxes is important, some suggestions for improving the situation are also presented.Excess burden; Pigou, distortion; lump-sum tax

Mandatory Earnings-Related Insurance Rights, Human Capital and the Gender Earnings Gap in Sweden

Most labour market analyses take money wages as the sole measure of compensation for labour, thus excluding fringe benefits. We examine an extended compensation measure by incorporating mandatory collective earnings-related insurance rights: the rights of individual old age pension, sickness benefit insurance and survivors’ pension. We estimate the return on investment in human capital and the gender earnings gap in a traditional earnings equation. The money wage and the extended wage are used as dependent variables in joint regressions, where a SUR framework enables proper joint cross-equation tests. The main finding is that the inclusion of earnings-related insurance rights does affect the return on education. When these non-wage benefits are included, the gender wage gap decreases by 21 per cent. However, the gender differences in returns to education are severely underestimated when money wage is used as a compensation measure.Non-wage benefits; Gender gap; Human capital; Occupational welfare

Piercing the Veil: William J. Brennan\u27s Account of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

Porous nickel oxide films were deposited onto unheated indium tin oxide coated glass substrates by reactive dc magnetron sputtering. These films had a cubic NiO structure. Electrochromic properties were evaluated in 1 M potassium hydroxide (KOH) and in 1 M lithium perchlorate in propylene carbonate (Li-PC). Large optical modulation was obtained for similar to 500-nm-thick films both in KOH and in Li-PC (similar to 70% and similar to 50% at 550 nm, respectively). In KOH, tensile and compressive stresses, due to the expansion and contraction of the lattice, were found for films in their bleached and colored state, respectively. In Li-PC, compressive stress was seen both in colored and bleached films. Durability tests with voltage sweeps between -0.5 and 0.65 V vs Ag/AgCl in KOH showed good durability for 10,000 cycles, whereas voltage sweeps between 2.0 and 4.7 V vs Li/Li+ in Li-PC yielded significant degradation after 1000 cycles.EU GRINDOO

Samspelet mellan barn och pedagoger i tvåspråkiga grupper : en kvalitativ studie kring den tvåspråkiga verksamheten och samspelet mellan barn och pedagoger inom dagvården

Syftet med detta lärdomsprov är att se på samspelet mellan barn och pedagoger i tvåspråkiga grupper. Jag vill se på samspelet mellan barn och personalen ser ut, samt se på vilken betydelse leken har för just språkutvecklingen. I den första delen av mitt examensarbete ges en allmän beskrivning av vad tvåspråkighet betyder, vilken betydelse den tvåspråkiga miljön har för barnens språkutveckling, samt pedagogernas roll inom dagvården. Jag har använt mig av en kvalitativ metod i mitt arbete, och genom observationer har jag studerat samspelet mellan barn och vuxna i de tvåspråkiga grupperna. Undersökningen visar att barn som varit länge i de tvåspråkiga grupperna uppvisar kunskaper i det andra språket, och att förståelsen för det främmande språket ökar. Undersökningen visar också att barn med tvåspråkig bakgrund har fördelar att kunna behärska både svenska och finska.The purpose of this thesis is to look at the interaction between children and educators in bilingual groups. I want to see what the interaction between the children and the staff looks like, and looks at the significance of playing for language development. The first part of my thesis provides a general description of what bilingualism means, the importance of the bilingual environment on children's language development, and the teachers' role in day care. I have used a qualitative approach in my work and through observations studied the interaction between children and adults in the bilingual groups. The study shows that children who have been in the bilingual groups for a long time have some knowledge of the other language, and that understanding of the foreign language increases with time. The survey also shows that children with bilingual backgrounds have an advantage in being able to master both Swedish and Finnish

Novel 19F NMR sensors for the characterization of higher-order secondary structures of DNA and RNA

Both DNA and RNA can fold into a variety of non-canonical structures. Non-canonical structures, such as triplexes and G-quadruplexes, are an active research area due to their biological significance and therapeutic potential. As structural complexity and conformational transitions are essential for the diverse biological roles of nucleic acids, characterization of the dynamic nature of nucleic acid is vital to understand their functional properties. This thesis focuses on 19F NMR spectroscopy as a tool that can be used to investigate the conformational polymorphism of nucleic acids and the dynamic nature of nucleic acid-ligand interactions. The utility of 19F NMR is based on covalently incorporated fluorine labels that act sensitive reporters upon conformational transition. In this study, six novel fluorine-labelled building blocks were synthesized and incorporated into oligonucleotides applying standard solid-phase oligonucleotide synthesis. The building blocks were successfully used to investigate DNA and RNA triplexes, RNA invasion and bistable hairpin-G-quadruplex RNA structures. Melting of triplexes could be followed from well-distinguish 19F signals of the triplex, duplex and single strand species, and melting temperatures of the structures were obtained. The temperature dependent 19F NMR data of the bistable RNAs enabled to characterize melting processes, melting temperatures and thermodynamic parameters. In addition, ion induced changes at the hairpin-G-quadruplex equilibrium positions were successfully monitored. In general, the 19F NMR experiments provided new information on investigated structures and demonstrated that five of the building blocks can be considered suitable for further 19F NMR applications