Equivariant Nielsen invariants for discrete groups

For discrete groups G, we introduce equivariant Nielsen invariants. They are equivariant analogs of the Nielsen number and give lower bounds for the number of fixed point orbits in the G-homotopy class of an equivariant endomorphism f:X->X. Under mild hypotheses, these lower bounds are sharp. We use the equivariant Nielsen invariants to show that a G-equivariant endomorphism f is G-homotopic to a fixed point free G-map if the generalized equivariant Lefschetz invariant of f is zero. Finally, we prove a converse of the equivariant Lefschetz fixed point theorem.Comment: 17 pages, submitted to Pacific Journal of Mathematic

New Jersey Charter Schools: A Data-Driven View, Part I

Policy makers cannot make informed decisions about the regulation of charter schools without first considering the characteristics of the students who are enrolled in these schools. This report -- the first in a three-part series on New Jersey charter schools -- uses publicly available data to explore the differences found between the student populations of charter schools and those of their host districts

Discrimination against Women in the Field of Engineering

This article focuses on the position of women in the field of engineering, specifically why the field is male-dominated and why this condition should change. When I state the field is male-dominated, I am addressing both the proportion of men in the field in comparison to women and discrimination towards women in the workplace. Throughout this article, I will be focusing on women in the field of engineering. I will look into why the field is so male-dominated (Chu, 2005; Hunt, 2016; Ramirez & Wotipka, 2001) and how this has begun to change over time (Hill, Corbett, & St Rose, 2010; Morgan, 1992; Ramirez & Wotipka, 2001; Scandura & Ragins, 1993; Torre, 2014). Additionally, I will look into whether or not women within the field ever feel as though they are discriminated against for their gender, or if they feel they are treated equitably in comparison with their male counterparts. I will be looking at this topic through a feminist framework. Relevant themes of feminism in the underrepresentation of women in engineering include “who benefits and who is harmed, critically examining assumptions and presumptions that create injustice, and creatively and energetically working for our dreams of what could be” (p. 34) in the field of engineering (Riley, Pawley, Tucker, & Catalano, 2009). Research in feminism, as far as sex discrimination in the workplace, indicates that sex discrimination is immune to challenge (Thornton, 2006). Looking at this topic through a feminist lens will highlight the gender inequality in the workplace of engineers

How did EU Eastern enlargement affect migrant labor supply in Austria?

In this paper, we study the employment of workers from Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) EU Member States in Austria after the Eastern enlargement of the European Union. To prevent a sudden rush of immigrants into the labor market, Austria opted for a Transition period during which immigration remained restricted. We will show that these restrictions had the anticipated effect; while the stock of workers from the new CESEE Member States increased slowly in Austria during the transition period, the trend became markedly steeper after the introduction of free labor market access. Between 2003 and 2016, the stock of workers from CESEE EU Member States in Austria increased fourfold by about 185,000 individuals. The largest immigrant groups are from Hungary, Romania and Poland. A large share of migrant workers are employed in seasonal industries and in border regions closest to their home countries

Agriculture and science link through the Living Soil

This project tested a curriculum and team-teaching model to enhance secondary student awareness of how soil health, as enhanced by earthworm activity, plays an important role in sustainable agriculture. Evaluation revealed that team teaching was effective in conveying this material to students. A follow-up project will adapt the curriculum for science classes (grades 3 to 12) throughout Iowa

Job Displacement, Family Dynamics, and Spousal Labor Supply, CEPR Discussion Papers, No. 13247

We study the effectiveness of intra-household insurance among married couples when the husband loses his job due to a mass layoff or plant closure. Empirical results based on Austrian administrative data show that husbands suffer persistent employment and earnings losses, while wives' labor supply increases moderately due to extensive margin responses. Wives' earnings gains recover only a tiny fraction of the household income loss and, in the short-term, public transfers and taxes are a more important form of insurance. We show that the presence of children in the household is a crucial determinant of the wives' labor supply response

Job Displacement, Family Dynamics and Spousal Labor Supply, Discussion Paper Series

We study interdependencies in spousal labor supply and the effectiveness of intrahousehold insurance in a sample of married couples, where the husband loses his job due to a mass layoff or plant closure using data from the Austrian Social Security Database. We show that in our sample of relatively young couples the shock hits households at crucial stages of family formation, which requires careful modeling of the wives' counterfactual lifecycle labor market patterns. In our empirical analysis, we propose three independent control groups of unaffected households to identify the causal effects of husbands' displacement on wives' labor supply. Our empirical results show that husbands suffer large and persistent employment and earnings losses over the first 5 years after displacement. But wives' labor supply increases only moderately and they respond predominantly at the extensive margin. The implied participation elasticity with respect to the husband's earnings shock is very small, about -0:04. While the wives' earnings gains recover only a tiny fraction of the household income loss, public transfers and taxes are a more important insurance at least in the short run. In terms of non-labor market related outcomes, we find a small positive effect on the probability of divorce, but no effect of the husband's job displacement on fertility. The presence and ages of children in the household are crucial determinants of the wife's labor supply response. The most responsive group are mothers, who are planning to return to the labor market after a maternity break, while mothers of very young children or wives without children remain unresponsive. We thus conclude that Austria's strong gender identity norms are an explanation for the limited scope of intra-household insurance

The universal functorial equivariant Lefschetz invariant

We introduce the universal functorial equivariant Lefschetz invariant for endomorphisms of finite proper G-CW-complexes, where G is a discrete group. We use K_0 of the category of "phi-endomorphisms of finitely generated free RPi(G,X)-modules". We derive results about fixed points of equivariant endomorphisms of cocompact proper smooth G-manifolds.Comment: 33 pages; shortened version of the author's PhD thesis, supervised by Wolfgang Lueck, Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster, 200