Technological Change and the Roaring Twenties: A Neoclassical Perspective

In this paper, we address the causes of the Roaring Twenties in the United States. In particular, we use a version of the real business cycle model to test the hypothesis that an extraordinary pace of productivity growth was the driving factor. Our motivation comes from the abundance of evidence of significant technological progress during this period, fed by innovations in manufacturing and the widespread introduction of electricity. Our estimated total factor productivity series generate artificial model output that shows high conformity with the data: the model economy successfully replicates the boom years from 1922-1929.real business cycles, Roaring Twenties

Technological Change and the Roaring Twenties: A Neoclassical Perspective

In this paper, we address the causes of the Roaring Twenties in the United States. In particular, we use a version of the real business cycle model to test the hypothesis that an extraordinary pace of productivity growth was the driving factor. Our motivation comes from the abundance of evidence of signi?cant technological progress during this period, fed by innovations in manufacturing and the widespread introduction of electricity. Our estimated total factor productivity series generate arti?cial model output that shows high conformity with the data: the model economy sucessfully replicates the boom years from 1922-1929.Real Business Cycles, Roaring Twenties.

Sunspots and Credit Frictions

We examine a general equilibrium model with collateral constraints and increasing returns to scale in production. The utility function is nonseparable, with no income effect on the consumer's choice of leisure. Unlike this model without a collateral constraint, we find that indeterminacy of equilibria is possible. Hence, business cycles can be driven by self-fulfilling expectations. This is the case for more realistic parametrizations than in previous, similar models without these features.business cycles, credit markets, collateral constraint, sunspots

Indeterminacy with No-Income-Effect Preferences and Sector-Specific Externalities

We examine a two-sector real business cycle model with sector-specific externalities in the production of distinct consumption and investment goods. In addition, the household utility is postulated to exhibit no income effect on the demand for leisure. Unlike in the one-sector counterpart, we show that equilibrium indeterminacy can result with sufficiently high returns-to-scale in the production of investment goods. We also find that the smaller the labor supply elasticity, the lower the threshold level of returns-to-scale needed for generating indeterminacy and sunspots. This finding turns out to be exactly the opposite of that in all existing RBC-based indeterminacy studies.Indeterminacy, Income Effect, Sector-Specific Externalities

Chaos, Sunspots, and Automatic Stabilizers

We study a one-sector growth model which is standard except for the presence of an externality in the production function. The set of competitive equilibria is large. It includes constant equilibria, sunspot equilibria, cyclical and chaotic equilibria, and equilibria with deterministic or stochastic regime switching. The efficient allocation is characterized by constant employment and a constant growth rate. We identify an income tax-subsidy schedule that supports the efficient allocation as the unique equilibrium outcome. That schedule has two properties: (i) it specifies the tax rate to be an increasing function of aggregate employment, and (ii) earnings are subsidized when aggregate employment is at its efficient level. The first feature eliminates inefficient, fluctuating equilibria, while the second induces agents to internalize the externality.

Perspectives on skill: a study with a group of state training providers, manufacturing managers, and production workers in Oklahoma

There is a recognised and recurring projected skill shortage in Oklahoma’s manufacturing industries. This research investigated how skill is perceived by a sample of people from three key groups in the manufacturing industry: state training providers, manufacturing managers, and production workers. The study adopted a qualitative approach, utilising focus groups and interviews with members of the key groups to explore their understandings of skill and how they assign responsibility for skill development in the current and future contexts of the manufacturing industry in Oklahoma. The study also explored how human capital theory, the concept of lifelong learning and a skill ecosystem approach provide different frameworks for understanding skill in manufacturing, with particular reference to Oklahoma. The findings suggest that opportunities for learning and understanding skill and skill development are crucial for individuals and industry, from the perspectives of the participants. Managers can have a key role in nurturing workers to develop a desire for the development of skills. In addition, employability skills, focused on showing initiative to learn and grounded in the application of theoretical knowledge in manufacturing contexts, are imperative for students who want to enter manufacturing. The findings indicate that the best avenue that was perceived by these participants for developing employability skills is work-based learning that allows for the application of theory to develop skill. In terms of who has ‘responsibility for skill’, the notion of ‘opportunity’ emerged as key for skill development. The participants thought that manufacturers have opportunities to initiate skill development in partnerships with educational institutions and state workforce agencies but that management needed also to communicate how workers can acquire skill development and ‘seize’ those opportunities to learn the skills that are necessary. Analysis of the participants’ understandings of how Industry 4.0 (including automation and smart technology) will impact manufacturing’s future skills revealed that the managers recognised that they had to think strategically about skill. Despite this, they and some production line workers focused on it being the individual worker’s responsibility for ‘seizing’ opportunities to learn a new skill although this approach had enjoyed limited success. There were, however, participants in each of the study’s three groups who indicated interest in pursuing a dialogue between higher educational institutions and industry, and expressed support for better strategic thinking and funding options. The findings from the study suggest that for industry in Oklahoma to better understand how to create opportunities for skill development and to better make opportunity for skill development a reality, it needs to form a strategic partnership with career and technology education and higher education. In addition, to increase successful adoption of skill development, managers need to dialogue with educators in order to have input into skill development, both in the design and the delivery process. This changed focus, the study concludes, requires a move away from human capital and individualised lifelong learning approaches to a skills ecosystem approach if industry in Oklahoma is to provide better access to skill development. Additionally, managers in partnership with state training providers need to provide clear skill and career progression for students and the current workforce that will align with the skills needed to adapt to Industry 4.0 and its associated technologies. It was concluded that managers, in partnership with state training providers, need to provide clear skill and career progression for students and the current workforce that will align with the skills needed to adapt to Industry 4.0 and its associated technologies

Early learning programs that promote children’s developmental and educational outcomes

This resource sheet reviews international and Australian research evidence for the characteristics of early learning programs that are effective in promoting developmental and learning outcomes. The early years of life are the best opportunity to lay the foundations for a child’s future. By getting it right in early childhood, we plant the seeds for tomorrow’s engaged and active student, productive and skilled worker, and confident and loving parent. Investments of time and money in the early years have been shown to be far more cost-effective than investments made at any other time. The skills children develop as infants, toddlers and preschoolers are cumulative and form the basis for later skill development. Early learning contributes to a chain of effects that either reinforces initial achievements or exacerbates initial difficulties. As a result, children enter school with marked differences in the cognitive, emotional, attention-related, self-regulatory, learning and social skills needed for success in the school environment, and these differences are predictive of later academic success. Progress during the school years depends partly on early levels of functioning and partly on family socioeconomic status. Throughout the early years, socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with poorer outcomes in language and literacy, communication, socioemotional functioning and early learning skills. Attending an early learning program in the years before school has been shown to have significant benefits for children’s development, particularly for children growing up in situations of socioeconomic disadvantage or special need. However, many of these children miss out due to problems of access and uptake or cost and quality. This resource sheet reviews international and Australian research evidence for the characteristics of early learning programs that are effective in promoting developmental and learning outcomes. The bulk of this research is not Indigenous-specific. The review focuses on centre-based or school-based education and care settings; universal and targeted approaches to program delivery; and Australian studies that address the needs of Indigenous children. &nbsp

Deficiency of G1 regulators P53, P21Cip1 and/or pRb decreases hepatocyte sensitivity to TGFbeta cell cycle arrest

TGFbeta is critical to control hepatocyte proliferation by inducing G1-growth arrest through multiple pathways leading to inhibition of E2F transcription activity. The retinoblastoma protein pRb is a key controller of E2F activity and G1/S transition which can be inhibited in viral hepatitis. It is not known whether the impairment of pRb would alter the growth inhibitory potential of TGFbeta in disease. We asked how Rb-deficiency would affect responses to TGFbeta-induced cell cycle arrest.Peer reviewe

Does the CAPON Gene Confer Susceptibility to Schizophrenia?

Eastwood discusses a new study in PLoS Medicine that suggests that overexpression of the CAPON gene, leading to disruption of NMDA receptor function, may be important in the etiology of severe mental illnesses