2,025 research outputs found
What Does Affirmative Action Do?
We use data from a survey of employers to investigate how Affirmative Action in recruiting and hiring influences hiring practices, personnel policies, and ultimately employment out- comes. Our results show that Affirmative Action increases the number of recruitment and screening practices used by employers, raises their willingness to hire stigmatized applicants, increases the number of minority and female applicants as well as employees, and increases employers’ tendencies to provide training and to formally evaluate employees. When Affirmative Action is used in recruiting, it does not lead to lower credentials or performance of women and minorities hired. When it is also used in hiring, it yields female and minority employees whose credentials are somewhat weaker, though performance generally is not. Overall, then, the more intensive search, evaluation, and training that accompany Affirmative Action appear to offset any tendencies of the policy to lead to hiring of less-qualified or less-productive women and minorities.
Breast Cancer Survival, Work, and Earnings
Relying on data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examine differences between breast cancer survivors and a non-cancer control group in employment, hours worked, wages, and earnings. Overall, breast cancer has a negative impact on the decision to work. However, among survivors who work, hours of work and, correspondingly, annual earnings are higher compared to women in the non-cancer control group. These findings suggest that while breast cancer has a negative effect on women's employment, breast cancer may not be debilitating for those who remain in the work force. We explore numerous possible biases underlying our estimates especially selection based on information in the Health and Retirement Study, and examine related evidence from supplemental data sources.
The Effects of Health Shocks on Employment and Health Insurance: The Role of Employer-Provided Health Insurance
We study how men’s dependence on their own employer for health insurance affects labor supply responses and loss of health insurance coverage when faced with a serious health shock. Men with employment-contingent health insurance (ECHI) are more likely to remain working following some kinds of adverse health shocks, and are more likely to lose insurance. With the passage of health care reform, the tendency of men with ECHI as opposed to other sources of insurance to remain employed following a health shock may be diminished, along with the likelihood of losing health insurance.
Employment-Contingent Health Insurance, Illness, and Labor Supply of Women: Evidence from Married Women with Breast Cancer
We examine the effects of employment-contingent health insurance on married women's labor supply following a health shock. First, we develop a theoretical model that examines the effects of employment-contingent health insurance on the labor supply response to a health shock, to clarify under what conditions employment-contingent health insurance is likely to dampen the labor supply response. Second, we empirically evaluate this relationship using primary data. The results from our analysis find that -- as the model suggests is likely -- health shocks decrease labor supply to a greater extent among women insured by their spouse's policy than among women with health insurance through their own employer. Employment-contingent health insurance appears to create incentives to remain working and to work at a greater intensity when faced with a serious illness.
Optimum unambiguous discrimination of two mixed quantum states
We investigate generalized measurements, based on positive-operator-valued
measures, and von Neumann measurements for the unambiguous discrimination of
two mixed quantum states that occur with given prior probabilities. In
particular, we derive the conditions under which the failure probability of the
measurement can reach its absolute lower bound, proportional to the fidelity of
the states. The optimum measurement strategy yielding the fidelity bound of the
failure probability is explicitly determined for a number of cases. One example
involves two density operators of rank d that jointly span a 2d-dimensional
Hilbert space and are related in a special way. We also present an application
of the results to the problem of unambiguous quantum state comparison,
generalizing the optimum strategy for arbitrary prior probabilities of the
states.Comment: final versio
Optimum measurement for unambiguously discriminating two mixed states: General considerations and special cases
Based on our previous publication [U. Herzog and J. A. Bergou, Phys.Rev. A
71, 050301(R) (2005)] we investigate the optimum measurement for the
unambiguous discrimination of two mixed quantum states that occur with given
prior probabilities. Unambiguous discrimination of nonorthogonal states is
possible in a probabilistic way, at the expense of a nonzero probability of
inconclusive results, where the measurement fails. Along with a discussion of
the general problem, we give an example illustrating our method of solution. We
also provide general inequalities for the minimum achievable failure
probability and discuss in more detail the necessary conditions that must be
fulfilled when its absolute lower bound, proportional to the fidelity of the
states, can be reached.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Physics:Conference Series (Proceedings of the
12th Central European Workshop on Quantum Optics, Ankara, June 2005
Longer-Run Effects of Antipoverty Policies on Disadvantaged Neighborhoods
We estimate the longer-run effects of minimum wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and welfare on key economic indicators of economic self-sufficiency in disadvantaged neighborhoods. We find that the longer-run effects of the EITC are to increase employment and to reduce poverty and public assistance. We also find some evidence that higher welfare benefits had longer-run adverse effects, and quite robust evidence that tighter welfare time limits reduce poverty and public assistance in the longer run. The evidence on the long-run effects of the minimum wage on poverty and public assistance is not robust, with some evidence pointing to reductions and some to increases
Optimal unambiguous filtering of a quantum state: An instance in mixed state discrimination
Deterministic discrimination of nonorthogonal states is forbidden by quantum
measurement theory. However, if we do not want to succeed all the time, i.e.
allow for inconclusive outcomes to occur, then unambiguous discrimination
becomes possible with a certain probability of success. A variant of the
problem is set discrimination: the states are grouped in sets and we want to
determine to which particular set a given pure input state belongs. We consider
here the simplest case, termed quantum state filtering, when the given
non-orthogonal states, , are divided into
two sets and the first set consists of one state only while the second consists
of all of the remaining states. We present the derivation of the optimal
measurement strategy, in terms of a generalized measurement (POVM), to
distinguish from the set and the
corresponding optimal success and failure probabilities. The results, but not
the complete derivation, were presented previously [\prl {\bf 90}, 257901
(2003)] as the emphasis there was on appplication of the results to novel
probabilistic quantum algorithms. We also show that the problem is equivalent
to the discrimination of a pure state and an arbitrary mixed state.Comment: 8 page
Do labor market networks have an important spatial dimension?
We test for evidence of spatial, residence-based labor market networks. Turnover is lower for workers more connected to their neighbors generally and more connected to neighbors of the same race or ethnic group. Both results are consistent with networks producing better job matches, while the latter could also reflect preferences for working with neighbors of the same race or ethnicity. For earnings, we find a robust positive effect of the overall residence-based network measure, whereas we usually find a negative effect of the same-group measure, suggesting that the overall network measure reflects productivity-enhancing positive network effects, while the same-group measure may capture a non-wage amenity
A two-qubit Bell inequality for which POVM measurements are relevant
A bipartite Bell inequality is derived which is maximally violated on the
two-qubit state space if measurements describable by positive operator valued
measure (POVM) elements are allowed rather than restricting the possible
measurements to projective ones. In particular, the presented Bell inequality
requires POVMs in order to be maximally violated by a maximally entangled
two-qubit state. This answers a question raised by N. Gisin.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
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