The labor market in real business cycle theory

The standard real business cycle model fails to adequately account for two facts found in the U.S. data: the fact that hours worked fluctuate considerably more than productivity and the fact that the correlation between hours worked and productivity is close to zero. In this paper, in a unified framework, the authors describe and analyze four extensions of the standard model, by introducing nonseparable leisure, indivisible labor, government spending, and household production.Business cycles ; Labor market

Asylum Policy in the West: Past Trends, Future Possibilities

asylum, deterrence, welfare, Western states

An Australian points system for immigration would be entirely inappropriate for the UK’s economy

Immigration is one of the key issues in the context of the UK’s EU membership referendum, with several politicians advocating a shift away from free movement within the EU toward an Australian points-based system for managing immigration. But would such a system help or hinder the UK economy? Randall Hansen writes that while the system has a mixed record of success in Australia and Canada, it would be unlikely to meet the UK’s economic needs

A two-way street: how to make immigration work

Opponents of immigration have two main concerns: that immigrants are bad for our economy because they force wages down, and bad for our culture for they are at odds with our liberal views. Here, Randall Hansen writes that anti-liberal attitudes need to be challenged whatever their source – minorities who oppose liberal values or Europeans who scapegoat Muslims. He concludes that focus should also be on employment: immigration works only when immigrants work

The Student Experience In Speed Teaming: A New Approach To Team Formation

Building on previous research by the first author, this paper presents data from students who experienced an innovative method of team development based on a concept coined “Speed Teaming.&rdquo

Report on the Workshop on Refugee and Asylum Policy in Practice in Europe and North America

Western nations have struggled to accomplish the dual goals of refugee and asylum policies: (1) identifying and protecting Convention refugees as well as those fleeing civil conflict; and (2) controlling for abuse. The Workshop on Refugee and Asylum Policy in Practice in Europe and North America was organized to facilitate a transatlantic dialogue to explore just how well these asylum systems are balancing the dual goals. The workshop exa!llined key elements of the U.S. and European asylum systems: decision making on claims, deterrence of abuse, independent review, return of rejected asylum seekers, scope of the refugee concept, social rights and employment, international cooperation, and data and evaluation. The Workshop was convened by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) of Georgetown University and the Center for the Study of Immigration, Integration and Citizenship Policies (CEPIC) of the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, with the support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. It was held on July 1-3, 1999, at Oxford University. Workshop participants included government officials, scholars, and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) actively involved in analyzing and implementing refugee and asylum policies. This report outlines the major points of discussion and the areas of consensus at the Workshop, and emphasizes the issues in need of further analysis and agreement. Through this report, the Workshop seeks to encourage further discussion on refugee and asylum policies in practice in order to clarify, develop, and improve the existing mechanisms for protection

Perceptual encoding and the stimulus probability effect.

Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of stimulus probability on perceptual encoding. In Experiment 1, the role of an abstract code as a mediator of the effect was tested. Subjects viewed and responded to stimuli in conditions which either encouraged or discouraged the use of abstract codes. Contrary to prediction, the effect of probability tended to be greater at a low level of stimulus contrast when the use of abstract codes was discouraged, and unaffected by contrast when their use was encouraged. Subjects 1 responses to a questionnaire indicated that the use of abstract codes was determined to some extent by individual strategies. It was proposed that it is unnecessary to appeal to an abstract code that differs from a name code as a mediator of the probability effect at encoding. In Experiments 2 and 3, the degree to which the probability effect at encoding may be explained by sequential expectancy effects was examined. The probability effect was greater at low contrast in Experiment 2, and the results of Experiment 3 indicated a similar trend. The magnitude of the contrast effect did not vary as a function of the preceding stimulus sequence in either experiment. Previous results have shown that the size of the contrast effect does not depend on whether or not the ensuing stimulus is preceded by a valid cue. These findings were interpreted as suggesting that the probability effect at encoding is the result of a relatively static mechanism in which expectancies do not shift over trials

Integrating Career Development Techniques Into The Business School Curriculum: Tools For Better Preparing Our Graduates For Successful Careers

With shortening semesters, longer textbooks, and new information and business techniques being published, business school faculty face a constant pressure to find the time to teach all the “hard skills” our disciplines require. At the same time, our graduates need certain career development skills to succeed. This paper proposes an inventory of career development techniques, the Career Development Inventory (CDI), that business school faculty could incorporate into their classes to help students develop, evaluate, and achieve their career goals. These exercises have time requirements that range from 10 minutes of class time to projects completed by the students outside of class, thus offering business school faculty a wide range of options

A Theoretic Analysis of Corporate Auctioneers Liability Regimes

In Schneider v. Lazard Freres & Co. a New York appellate court greatly expanded the liability of investment advisers working as corporate auctioneers. Under this new legal regime, auctioneer/advisers accused of simple negligence are exposed to billions of dollars of potential legal liabilities. This article first reviews the existing law covering auctioneer/advisers and shows that the Schneider decision conflicts with the law governing general auctioneers and with the law governing the role of advisers and directors during the sale of the corporate control. Next, using an auction-theoretic framework, this Article shows that Schneider will likely result in: (1) increased indemnification of auctioneer/advisers by corporations; (2) reduced net proceeds to selling company shareholders when there is a sale of the corporation; (3) increased use of pure cash as means-of-payment in sales of corporations; and (4) fewer sales of corporations. Schneider\u27s net impact therefore is to place shareholders in a less advantageous position than under prior law. To demonstrate these economic effects, the authors employ a combination of principal/agent theory and auction theory. This is natural, for the advisers are hired by the directors to conduct an auction. A simple principle/agent model is the basis for the authors\u27 predictions of indemnification; if indemnification does indeed occur, the selling corporation retains the Schneider liability. Rational bidders for the corporation, knowing they will assume this liability, will lower their bids, and auction theory predicts that the expected high bid will fall by more than the expected Schneider liability.Thus, the net effect on the selling shareholder is negative: the lower price more than offsets expected proceeds from legal suits