Labor Market Institutions and Restructuring: Evidence from Regulated and Unregulated Labor Markets in Brazil

This paper compares patterns of hiring and separations in regulated and unregulated labor markets over the last two decades in Brazil, with an eye toward gauging the effects of employment protection on employment adjustment over the business cycle. Since the difference between the sectors is stark and well-defined, the consequences of employment protection on flows through the labor market are relatively easy to discern. Employment protection causes adjustment to demand fluctuations to come at the expense of the unemployed. A reduction in employment in the regulated labor market is achieved by lowering the rate at which the unemployed get jobs. In the unregulated market, the same reduction is achieved by raising the separation rate. In principle, the restructuring mechanisms of both sectors could be compatible with similar contributions to unemployment. In practice, contributions from the regulated sector are more persistent and erratic. The contribution of the unregulated sector is stable and countercyclical.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39869/3/wp484.pd

Labor Market Institutions and Restructuring: Evidence from Regulated and Unregulated Labor Markets in Brazil

This paper compares patterns of hiring and separations in regulated and unregulated labor markets over the last two decades in Brazil, with an eye toward gauging the effects of employment protection on employment adjustment over the business cycle. Since the difference between the sectors is stark and well-defined, the consequences of employment protection on flows through the labor market are relatively easy to discern. Employment protection causes adjustment to demand fluctuations to come at the expense of the unemployed. A reduction in employment in the regulated labor market is achieved by lowering the rate at which the unemployed get jobs. In the unregulated market, the same reduction is achieved by raising the separation rate. In principle, the restructuring mechanisms of both sectors could be compatible with similar contributions to unemployment. In practice, contributions from the regulated sector are more persistent and erratic. The contribution of the unregulated sector is stable and countercyclical.Labor market institutions, incomplete contracts, informal sector, severance pay, business cycle fluctutations

Dynamics of child labor : labor force entry and exit in urban Brazil

The authors discover from an analysis of monthly employment surveys in Brazil's six largest cities over the last twenty years that employed children frequently stop work then start working again, a phenomenon dubbed"intermittent employment."This is not surprising, because the previous chapter on parental shocks indicated that children often enter the labor market to meet short-term income needs for the household, then exit when the need subsides. The implication for measures of child labor force participation rates are striking. Measurements of child labor that are based on point-in-time surveys can be one-half or one-third the number of children who are actually working at least part of the year. Furthermore, there is little difference between households whose children are working and households with children who are in school; children observed in school one period could easily be in the labor market the next. These patterns of children's work and schooling have important implications for understanding child labor in the first instance, and also for the design of programs intended to encourage families to keep children in school and out of the labor force. Income transfer policies should target households broadly rather than on current child labor market status. It may be as important to shore up income in poor households whose children are currently enrolled as to direct income transfers to households in which children currently are out of school. The high levels of intermittency also suggest that the cash transfers intended to replace the income earned in the labor market may be set too high, since many children do not receive a consistent stream of income. This would imply that the extra cost associated with the underestimate of child workers might be offset by a lower subsidy per child.

Current Use and Complementary Value of Combining in Vivo Imaging Modalities to Understand the Renoprotective Effects of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors at a Tissue Level

Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) were initially developed to treat diabetes and have been shown to improve renal and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with- but also without diabetes. The mechanisms underlying these beneficial effects are incompletely understood, as is the response variability between- and within patients. Imaging modalities allow in vivo quantitative assessment of physiological, pathophysiological, and pharmacological processes at kidney tissue level and are therefore increasingly being used in nephrology. They provide unique insights into the renoprotective effects of SGLT2i and the variability in response and may thus contribute to improved treatment of the individual patient. In this mini-review, we highlight current work and opportunities of renal imaging modalities to assess renal oxygenation and hypoxia, fibrosis as well as interaction between SGLT2i and their transporters. Although every modality allows quantitative assessment of particular parameters of interest, we conclude that especially the complementary value of combining imaging modalities in a single clinical trial aids in an integrated understanding of the pharmacology of SGLT2i and their response variability

Maatschappelijke spin-off van side-events WK CP Voetbal 2011

Onderzoek naar de effectiviteit van het side-event programma bij het wereldkampioenschoep CP Voetbal in Drenthe in 2011. Onderzocht is in welke mate de verschillende side-events een bijdrage leverden aan de doelstellingen van het hoofdevenement. Het onderzoek vond plaats binnen het kader van de pilot van het Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport (VWS) om kennis te ontwikkelen over sportevenementen

Wereldkampioenschap CP Voetbal 2011:maatschappelijke spin-off van side events

Poster van ons onderzoek naar de sociaal-maatschappelijke impact van het Wereldkampioenschap CP voetbal in Drenthe 2011. Gepresenteerd tijdens een symposium van het lectoraat Praktijkgerichte Sportwetenschap

Effect of switching from acenocoumarol to phenprocoumon on time in therapeutic range and INR variability:A cohort study

BACKGROUND: Treatment with vitamin K antagonists (VKA) requires a high proportion of time in the therapeutic range (TTR) and a low international normalised ratio (INR) variability to be maximally safe and effective. Switching from short-acting acenocoumarol to long-acting phenprocoumon could improve VKA control. AIMS: We assessed whether switching from acenocoumarol to phenprocoumon improves the time in the therapeutic range (TTR) and INR variability. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a retrospective cohort with data on 236,957 patients-years of VKA management from two first-line anticoagulation clinics in the Netherlands, we identified 124 patients in target range 2-3, 269 patients in target range 2-3.5 and 98 patients in target range 2.5-3.5 who switched from acenocoumarol to phenprocoumon. They were matched in a 1:2 ratio to non-switching controls using propensity score matching. Over the first 180 days after a switch, switchers' TTR declined 5 (95% CI 1 to 10), 10 (95% CI 7 to 13) and 5 (95% CI 0 to 11) percentage points relative to non-switchers, in target ranges 2-3, 2-3.5 and 2.5-3.5. Anticoagulation was more often supra-therapeutic in switchers, and switchers had a higher INR variability. In the following 180 days, TTR in switchers became 1 (95% CI -4 to 6), 4 (95% CI 0 to 7) and 6 (95% CI 1 to 12) percentage points better than in non-switchers. Switchers' INRs were much more stable than non-switchers'. CONCLUSION: Eventually, a switch from acenocoumarol to phenprocoumon leads to a higher TTR and a lower INR variability. However, this is preceded by a transition period with opposite effects. An improved conversion algorithm could possibly shorten the transition period. Until then, physicians and patients should decide whether switching is worth the increased risk during the transition phase

An integrated network model of psychotic symptoms

AbstractThe full body of research on the nature of psychosis and its determinants indicates that a considerable number of factors are relevant to the development of hallucinations, delusions, and other positive symptoms, ranging from neurodevelopmental parameters and altered connectivity of brain regions to impaired cognitive functioning and social factors. We aimed to integrate these factors in a single mathematical model based on network theory. At the microscopic level this model explains positive symptoms of psychosis in terms of experiential equivalents of robust, high-frequency attractor states of neural networks. At the mesoscopic level it explains them in relation to global brain states, and at the macroscopic level in relation to social-network structures and dynamics. Due to the scale-free nature of biological networks, all three levels are governed by the same general laws, thereby allowing for an integrated model of biological, psychological, and social phenomena involved in the mediation of positive symptoms of psychosis. This integrated network model of psychotic symptoms (INMOPS) is described together with various possibilities for application in clinical practice