Unemployment of Non-western Immigrants in the Great Recession

Abstract: This paper examines whether unemployment of non-western immigrant workers in the Netherlands was disproportionally affected by the Great Recession. We analyze unemployment data covering the period November 2007 to February 2013 finding that the Great Recession affected unemployment rates of non-western immigrant workers in absolute terms more than unemployment rates of native workers. However, in relative terms there is not much of a difference. We also find that the sensitivity of individual job finding rates to the aggregate state of the labor market does not differ between natives and non-western immigrants. In combination our findings suggest that the Great Recession did not have a different impact on the unemployment of non-westerns immigrants and native Dutch.

Stress Response Monitoring of Photoautotrophic Higher Plant Suspension Cultures by Fluorescence Imaging for High-Throughput Toxic Compound Screening

Photoautotrophic suspension cultures have been established from various model and crop plants and proved to be valuable and robust experimental system to assess coordinated responses of primary and secondary metabolism to metabolic and stress related signals. The use of suspension cultures combines the ease of handling microalgae in microtiter plates with the advantage of testing physiological responses of higher plants, notably in combination with the assessment of the response of photosynthetic activity by PAM chlorophyll fluorescence imaging as well as monitoring changes in secondary metabolite production and ROS formation by steady state fluorescence of plant fluorophores or introduced fluorescent probes. Photoautotrophic cultures provide various advantages as fast, highly sensitive, robust and high-through-put experimental system for screening and characterization of the impact of toxic compounds on higher plants. This opinion article discusses and critically evaluates the potential of photoautotrophic cultures of higher plants in combination with fluorescence imaging assays in microtiter plates as a complement to existing guidelines for testing the toxicity of chemicals in plants

Unemployment of Non-western Immigrants in the Great Recession

Abstract: This paper examines whether unemployment of non-western immigrant workers in the Netherlands was disproportionally affected by the Great Recession. We analyze unemployment data covering the period November 2007 to February 2013 finding that the Great Recession affected unemployment rates of non-western immigrant workers in absolute terms more than unemployment rates of native workers. However, in relative terms there is not much of a difference. We also find that the sensitivity of individual job finding rates to the aggregate state of the labor market does not differ between natives and non-western immigrants. In combination our findings suggest that the Great Recession did not have a different impact on the unemployment of non-westerns immigrants and native Dutch

Cannabis Decriminalization and the Age of Onset of Cannabis Use

This paper examines the effect of a change in drugs policy on the age of onset of cannabis use. We use 2012 survey data from the Czech Republic where in 2010 a law was introduced decriminalizing personal possession of small quantities of several illicit drugs, including cannabis. We estimate the effect of the policy change using a mixed proportional hazards framework that models the starting rate of cannabis use, i.e. the transition to first cannabis use. We find that the decriminalization of cannabis did not affect the age of onset of cannabis use