Anatomy of policy complementarities.

The analysis provides a new explanation for two widespread problems concerning European unemployment policy: the disappointingly small effect of many past reform measures on unemployment, and the political difficulties in implementing more extensive reform programs. We argue that the heart of these problems may be the failure of many European governments to implement broad-based reform strategies. Our analysis suggests that major unemployment policies are characterised by economic complementarities (in the sense that the effectiveness of one policy depends on the implementation of other policies) and political complementarities (in that the ability to gain political consent for one policy depends on the acceptance of other policies). Under these circumstances, incremental, small-scale adjustments of existing policy packages are doomed to failure. Our analysis suggests instead that the European unemployment problem should be tackled through ?broad? reforms that exploit the salient economic and political complementarities among individual policy measures.Arbeitsmarktpolitik; Beschäftigungspolitik; Theorie;

The effectiveness of employment vouchers : a simple approach.

This paper explores the optimal design of subsidies for hiring unemployed workers (?employment vouchers? for short) in the context of a dynamic model of the labor market. Focusing on the short-term and long-term effects of the vouchers on employment and unemployment, the analysis shows how the optimal policy depends on the rates of hiring and firing, and on the problems of displacement and deadweight. It also examines the roles of the government budget constraint and of the level of unemployment benefits in optimal policy design. We calibrate the model and evaluate the effectiveness of employment vouchers in reducing unemployment for a wide range of feasible parameters.Arbeitsmarkttheorie; Subvention; Personalbeschaffung; Haushaltsdefizit; Theorie;Employment policy , unemployment benefits , government budget constraint;

Stability analysis for laminar flow control, part 1

The basic equations for the stability analysis of flow over three dimensional swept wings are developed and numerical methods for their solution are surveyed. The equations for nonlinear stability analysis of three dimensional disturbances in compressible, three dimensional, nonparallel flows are given. Efficient and accurate numerical methods for the solution of the equations of stability theory were surveyed and analyzed

Expanding the welfare system : a proposal for reform.

The proposal involves the establishment of ?welfare accounts? for every person in a country. There are to be four accounts: a retirement account (covering pensions), an unemployment account (covering unemployment support), a human capital account (covering education and training), and a health account (covering insurance against sickness and disability). Instead of the current welfare state systems - where welfare services are financed predominantly out of general taxes - people would make ongoing, mandatory contributions to each of these welfare accounts. The balances in these accounts would cover people?s major welfare needs. The government is to set mandatory minimum contribution rates and maximum withdrawal rates from the accounts. The government is to have two budgetary systems: one in which non-welfare expenditures are financed through the existing array of taxes, and another system in which the public-sector expenditures on welfare services are financed through payments from people?s welfare accounts. The government would be able to redistribute income across people?s welfare accounts, but these redistributions would be constrained to be of the balanced-budget variety: total (economy-wide) taxes on each of the welfare accounts would be equal to total transfers into each of accounts. The public and private sectors would provide welfare services on an equal footing, setting prices for these services and competing with one another for the custom of the welfare account holders. We argue that moving from the current welfare state systems to a welfare account system may be expected to play a substantial role in reducing unemployment, encouraging labour force participation, promoting skills, reducing governments? budgetary pressures, cushioning people against economic risks, ensuring efficient provision of health and education services, providing social safety nets and redistributing incomes more efficiently.Sozialstaat; Reform; Einkommensumverteilung; Theorie;Welfare state , redistribution , social insurance , unemployment , health , education and training , pensions , sickness and disability ,;

Total Quantum Zeno Effect beyond Zeno Time

In this work we show that is possible to obtain Total Quantum Zeno Effect in an unstable systems for times larger than the correlation time of the bath. The effect is observed for some particular systems in which one can chose appropriate observables which frequent measurements freeze the system into the initial state. For a two level system in a squeezed bath one can show that there are two bath dependent observables displaying Total Zeno Effect when the system is initialized in some particular states. We show also that these states are intelligent states of two conjugate observables associated to the electromagnetic fluctuations of the bath.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Contributed to Quantum Optics III, Pucon, Chile, November 200

Health Accounts and Other Welfare Accounts

Gesundheitskosten, Gesundheitsfinanzierung, Health care costs, Health care financing

Anatomy of policy complementarities

The analysis provides a new explanation for two widespread problems concerning European unemployment policy: the disappointingly small effect of many past reform measures on unemployment, and the political difficulties in implementing more extensive reform programs. We argue that the heart of these problems may be the failure of many European governments to implement broad-based reform strategies. Our analysis suggests that major unemployment policies are characterised by economic complementarities (in the sense that the effectiveness of one policy depends on the implementation of other policies) and political complementarities (in that the ability to gain political consent for one policy depends on the acceptance of other policies). Under these circumstances, incremental, small-scale adjustments of existing policy packages are doomed to failure. Our analysis suggests instead that the European unemployment problem should be tackled through ?broad? reforms that exploit the salient economic and political complementarities among individual policy measures

The Simple Economics of Funded and Unfunded Pension Systems

Most state pension schemes are financed on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis, which means that taxes on the young are used to pay for the pensions of the retired generation. With private pensions, however, a fund of assets is built up and invested. Some countries such as Chile and Australia have moved to a mandatory funded pension system and the Conservatives in the U.K. have proposed to do the same with their Basic Pension Plus proposal. Other countries such as the U.S. and Sweden have built up a funded reserve to help ease the payment of pensions when the ‘baby boom’ generation retires. This article reviews the economic theories of funded and unfunded pension systems and examines the advantages and disadvantages of each type of system; these theories help to explain the current interest in funded systems as well as the difficulties associated with the transition towards them

Total Quantum Zeno effect and Intelligent States for a two level system in a squeezed bath

In this work we show that by frequent measurements of adequately chosen observables, a complete suppression of the decay in an exponentially decaying two level system interacting with a squeezed bath is obtained. The observables for which the effect is observed depend on the the squeezing parameters of the bath. The initial states which display Total Zeno Effect are intelligent states of two conjugate observables associated to the electromagnetic fluctuations of the bath.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Decoherence Free Subspace and entanglement by interaction with a common squeezed bath

In this work we find explicitly the decoherence free subspace (DFS) for a two two-level system in a common squeezed vacuum bath. We also find an orthogonal basis for the DFS composed of a symmetrical and an antisymmetrical (under particle permutation) entangled state. For any initial symmetrical state, the master equation has one stationary state which is the symmetrical entangled decoherence free state. In this way, one can generate entanglement via common squeezed bath of the two systems. If the initial state does not have a definite parity, the stationary state depends strongly on the initial conditions of the system and it has a statistical mixture of states which belong to the DFS. We also study the effect of the coupling between the two-level systems on the DFS.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur