The allocation of talent over the business cycle and its effect on sectoral productivity

It is well documented that graduates enter different occupations in recessions than in booms. In this article, we examine the impact of this reallocation for long-term productivity and output across sectors. We develop a model in which talent flows to stable sectors in recessions and to cyclical sectors in booms. We find evidence for the predicted change in productivity caused by the business cycle in a setting where output can be readily measured: economists starting or graduating from their PhD in a recession are significantly more productive over the long term than economists starting or graduating in a boom

Stable sectors may benefit from recessions by recruiting more talented workers

Between the end of 2007 and the middle of 2009, Britain and the United States experienced the worst recession for more than half a century. During that time entry into high-paying and high-risk private sector jobs declined substantially while many graduates tried to secure employment in less volatile sectors, such as academia. But how may this affect the economy in the long run? Michael Boehm and Martin Watzinger measure significantly higher research productivity for academics that started their career in recession compared to academics that started out in a boom. This suggests that less volatile sectors benefit from recessions in terms of the talent they can attract

Recruiting talented researchers is easier in recessions and universities benefit from increased productivity.

Between the end of 2007 and the middle of 2009, Britain and the United States experienced the worst recession for more than half a century. Evidence suggests that during that time entry into high-paying and high-risk private sector jobs declined substantially while many talented graduates tried to stay on at university. Using data of economics PhD graduates, Michael Boehm and Martin Watzinger find that universities benefit from recessions because in downturns they can recruit more productive researchers than in booms

The Selection of Skills into Sectors: Evidence from the Market for Economists

We study the selection of skills into sectors in an environment with (1) exogenous variation in the attractiveness of sectors and (2) good measurability of skills. More concretely, we examine how the selection into leading economics PhD programs varies with the business cycle and we measure PhD’s skills by their publication success. Our results strongly support a selection story: cohorts applying fora PhD- and graduating from a PhD during recession achieve a substantially better publication record if they stay in academia after graduating

The Selection of Skills into Sectors: Evidence from the Market for Economists

We study the selection of skills into sectors in an environment with (1) exogenous variation in the attractiveness of sectors and (2) good measurability of skills. More concretely, we examine how the selection into leading economics PhD programs varies with the business cycle and we measure PhD’s skills by their publication success. Our results strongly support a selection story: cohorts applying fora PhD- and graduating from a PhD during recession achieve a substantially better publication record if they stay in academia after graduating

The Allocation of Talent: Evidence from the Market of Economists

Recent research in labor economics has highlighted the substantial and long-lasting adverse effect of recessions on employment prospects and earnings. In this paper, we study whether individuals react to these shocks by changing career paths, thereby affecting the distribution of talent between sectors. More concretely, we examine how publications and career choices of graduates from the leading US economics PhD programs vary with the state of the business cycle at time of application and at time of graduation. Our results strongly support the predictions of a Roy-style model of self-selection into sectors: we find that adverse macroeconomic conditions at time of application lead to a substantially more productive selection of individuals into academia and at time of graduation they lead to more PhDs deciding to stay in academia

Rettungsdienststrukturen neu denken – Ergebnisse der Expertenworkshops „Logistik in der präklinischen Notfallversorgung“ [Rethinking emergency medical services (EMS)—results of an interdisciplinary expert panel on logistics in EMS]

Die rettungsdienstliche Struktur in Deutschland stellt eine Versorgung auf sehr hohem Niveau sicher. Dennoch ist es notwendig, die vorhandenen Strukturen zu überdenken und für die Zukunft zu härten. Nicht nur vor dem Hintergrund stetig steigender Einsatzzahlen, sondern auch wegen der Herausforderungen der Personalgewinnung und der Alterung der Bevölkerung sollten Reformen im Rettungsdienst dringend angegangen werden. Hier kann der Rettungsdienst viel von der Mathematik und gerade vom Bereich „operations research“ lernen. Dieser Fachbereich beschäftigt sich explizit mit der Verbesserung von logistischen Herausforderungen, die der Rettungsdienst ohne Frage ist. In der vorliegenden Arbeit berichten die Autorinnen und Autoren über die ersten Ergebnisse zweier Workshops zum Thema „Logistik in der präklinischen Versorgung“ und möchten damit die Diskussion im Rettungsdienst auf breiter Basis anregen sowie Verbesserungspotenziale und Herausforderungen für die verschiedenen Akteure in der präklinischen Behandlung herausarbeiten, aber auch erste Ideen zu Lösungsansätzen liefern

Self-controlled growth of highly uniform Ge/Si hut wires for scalable qubit devices

Semiconductor nanowires have been playing a crucial role in the development of nanoscale devices for the realization of spin qubits, Majorana fermions, single photon emitters, nanoprocessors, etc. The monolithic growth of site-controlled nanowires is a prerequisite towards the next generation of devices that will require addressability and scalability. Here, combining top-down nanofabrication and bottom-up self-assembly, we report on the growth of Ge wires on pre-patterned Si (001) substrates with controllable position, distance, length and structure. This is achieved by a novel growth process which uses a SiGe strain-relaxation template and can be generalized to other material combinations. Transport measurements show an electrically tunable spin-orbit coupling, with a spin-orbit length similar to that of III-V materials. Also, capacitive coupling between closely spaced wires is observed, which underlines their potential as a host for implementing two qubit gates. The reported results open a path towards scalable qubit devices with Si compatibility

Swabbing for respiratory viral infections in older patients: a comparison of rayon and nylon flocked swabs

The purpose of this study was to compare the sampling efficacy of rayon swabs and nylon flocked swabs, and of oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal specimens for the detection of respiratory viruses in elderly patients. Samples were obtained from patients 60 years of age or above who were newly admitted to Sorlandet Hospital Arendal, Norway. The patients were interviewed for current symptoms of a respiratory tract infection. Using rayon swabs and nylon flocked swabs, comparable sets of mucosal samples were harvested from the nasopharynx and the oropharynx. The samples were analysed using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. A total of 223 patients (mean age 74.9 years, standard deviation [SD] 9.0 years) were swabbed and a virus was recovered from 11% of the symptomatic patients. Regardless of the sampling site, a calculated 4.8 times higher viral load (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3–17, p = 0.017) was obtained using the nylon flocked swabs as compared to the rayon swabs. Also, regardless of the type of swab, a calculated 19 times higher viral load was found in the samples from the nasopharynx as compared to the oropharynx (95% CI 5.4–67.4, p < 0.001). When swabbing for respiratory viruses in elderly patients, nasopharyngeal rather than oropharyngeal samples should be obtained. Nylon flocked swabs appear to be more efficient than rayon swabs