The labor market effects of technology shocks

We analyze the effects of neutral and investment-specific technology shocks on hours worked and unemployment. We characterize the response of unemployment in terms of job separation and job finding rates. We find that job separation rates mainly account for the impact response of unemployment while job finding rates for movements along its adjustment path. Neutral shocks increase unemployment and explain a substantial portion of unemployment and output volatilityinvestment-specific shocks expand employment and hours worked and mostly contribute to hours worked volatility. We show that this evidence is consistent with the view that neutral technological progress prompts Schumpeterian creative destruction, while investment specific technological progress has standard neoclassical feature

Wage inequality, segregation by skill and the price of capital in an assignment model

Some pieces of empirical evidence suggest that in the U.S., over the last few decades, (i) wage inequality between-plants has risen much more than wage inequality within-plants and (ii) there has been an increase in the segregation of workers by skill into separate plants. This paper presents a frictionless assignment model in which these two features can be explained simultaneously as the result of the decline in the relative price of capital. Additional implications of the model regarding the skill premium and the dispersion in labor productivity across plants are also consistent with the empirical evidence. [resumen de autor

Multinational Investment under Uncertainty in the Chemical Processing Industries

This study uses a sample of chemical processing industries to evaluate the effect of two types of uncertainty on the decision to invest in an industry. It analyzes the effects of relative price uncertainty, through exchange rates and input prices, and demand uncertainty on the probability of expansion in a particular country. The study then focuses on the behavior of individual companies, and distinguishes companies by whether or not they are multinationals in the production of the product. The results confirm previous evidence that exchange rate uncertainty has a negative effect on capacity expansions by domestic corporations and no effect on investment by multinational corporations. Finally, the study also shows that expansions of production capacity in this industry are more likely to occur in those countries where capacity utilization is higher.© 1994 JIBS. Journal of International Business Studies (1994) 25, 557–578

Isolation and characterization of potential probiotic bacteria from pustulose ark (Anadara tuberculosa) suitable for shrimp farming

In aquaculture, probiotics have been tested for enhancing the immune system and promoting growth and survival rate of many marine species like shrimp and mollusks. In order to isolate bacteria with a high probiotic potential for marine shellfish aquaculture, homogenates of the gastrointestinal tract from adult mangrove cockle, Anadara tuberculosa, were obtained to perform in vitro and in vivo assays. Isolates were tested in vitro for hemolytic activity, hydrophobicity, tolerance to ammonia nitrogen, salinity and pH as well as for growth kinetics, extracellular enzymatic activity, autoaggregation, coaggregation and molecular identification. Three bacteria with high degree of hydrophobicity (&gt;60% adherence to p-xylene) and four bacteria with medium hydrophobicity, which showed different patterns of attachment to monopolar solvents (chloroform and ethyl acetate) and a high tolerance to ammonia nitrogen (200 mg L-1), were selected. Six different treatments: T1 (without addition of cultured bacteria); T2 (MAt29, Enterococcus casseliflavus); T3 (MAt35, Citrobacter koseri); T4 (GAtBl, Bacillus subtilis subtilis); T5 (GAt7, Staphylococcus sp.); and T6 (1:1:1:1 mix of strains T2, T3, T4 and T5), were used to evaluate the specific growth rate, and cellular immune response of the shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei. The best specific growth rate was observed for T6 and T4 treatments related to Bacillus subtilis subtilis. A significant difference in total hemocytes count (P < 0.05) was found for T4 treatment with respect to control group. Strains isolated from A. tuberculosa had a beneficial effect on the growth and immune response of L. vannamei, so they have potential use as probiotics in aquaculture of marine shellfish