2,549 research outputs found
Do Employment Protections Reduce Productivity? Evidence from U.S. States
Theory predicts that mandated employment protections may reduce productivity by distorting production choices. Firms facing (non-Coasean) worker dismissal costs will curtail hiring below efficient levels and retain unproductive workers, both of which should affect productivity. These theoretical predictions have rarely been tested. We use the adoption of wrongful-discharge protections by U.S. state courts over the last three decades to evaluate the link between dismissal costs and productivity. Drawing on establishment-level data from the Annual Survey of Manufacturers and the Longitudinal Business Database, our estimates suggest that wrongful-discharge protections reduce employment flows and firm entry rates. Moreover, analysis of plant-level data provides evidence of capital deepening and a decline in total factor productivity following the introduction of wrongful-discharge protections. This last result is potentially quite important, suggesting that mandated employment protections reduce productive efficiency as theory would suggest. However, our analysis also presents some puzzles including, most significantly, evidence of strong employment growth following adoption of dismissal protections. In light of these puzzles, we read our findings as suggestive but tentative.
Do Employment Protections Reduce Productivity? Evidence from U.S. States
Theory predicts that mandated employment protections may reduce productivity by distorting production choices. Firms facing (non-Coasean) worker dismissal costs will curtail hiring below efficient levels and retain unproductive workers, both of which should affect productivity. These theoretical predictions have rarely been tested. We use the adoption of wrongful-discharge protections by U.S. state courts over the last three decades to evaluate the link between dismissal costs and productivity. Drawing on establishment-level data from the Annual Survey of Manufacturers and the Longitudinal Business Database, our estimates suggest that wrongful-discharge protections reduce employment flows and firm entry rates. Moreover, analysis of plant-level data provides evidence of capital deepening and a decline in total factor productivity following the introduction of wrongful-discharge protections. This last result is potentially quite important, suggesting that mandated employment protections reduce productive efficiency as theory would suggest. However, our analysis also presents some puzzles including, most significantly, evidence of strong employment growth following adoption of dismissal protections. In light of these puzzles, we read our findings as suggestive but tentative.Dismissal Costs, Employment Fluctuations, Entry and Exit, Labor Productivity, TFP, Entrepreneurship.
Structure and photo-induced volume changes of obliquely deposited amorphous selenium
Atomic scale computer simulations on structures and photo induced volume
changes of flatly and obliquely deposited amorphous selenium films have been
carried out in order to understand how the properties of chalcogenide glasses
are influenced by their preparation method. Obliquely deposited a-Se thin films
contain more coordination defects, larger voids than the flatly deposited ones.
To model the photo induced volume changes the electron excitation and hole
creation were treated independently within the framework of tight-binding
formalism. Covalent and interchain bond breakings and formations were found.
The obliquely deposited samples containing voids showed a wide spectrum of
photo induced structural changes in microscopic and volume changes in
macroscopic levels.Comment: 14 page
GDP Data Revisions and Forward-Looking Monetary Policy in Switzerland
This paper analyzes forward-looking rules for Swiss monetary policy in a small structural VAR model consisting of four variables taking into account data revisions for GDP. First, the paper develops an analytical method to analyze the effect of data revision errors in GDP on the ex ante or conditional inflation-output-growth volatility trade-off and applies it to Swiss data. Second, the effects of different targets in a forward-looking monetary policy on ex post or unconditional volatility of inflation and output growth is explored by a simulation exercise. In general, the results obtained suggest that focusing monetary policy on GDP growth instead on inflation may lead to an inefficient policy with both increased medium term inflation and GDP growth volatility in the presence of GDP data revisions.Structural VAR, forward-looking monetary policy, efficiency frontier, GDP data revisions
The Analysis of Forward-Looking Monetary Policy in a SVAR Framework
This paper analyzes forward-looking monetary policy rules in structural VARâs. First, an approach for modeling a monetary policy which aims at a strict medium term inflation or output growth target is developed. Second, the ex ante inflation-output-growth volatility trade-off for a forward-looking policy aiming at a convex combination these strategies is derived. Finally, an illustration of our approach using Swiss data is given.Structural VAR, forward-looking monetary policy, efficiency frontier
Measurement errors in GDP and forward-looking monetary policy: The Swiss case
This paper analyzes forward-looking rules for Swiss monetary policy in a small structural VAR consisting of four variables. First, the paper looks at the ex ante inflation-output-growth volatility trade-off for a forward-looking policy aiming at a convex combination of a strict inflation and output growth targeting rule implied by this SVAR model. Thereby the paper introduces a new analytical method. Second, the paper considers the effect of measurement errors in GDP on this inflation-output-growth volatility trade-off. Third, the paper works at the impact of changing beliefs about the potential growth rate on the variability of output growth and inflation. Finally the effects of different targets in a forward-looking monetary policy on ex post or unconditional volatility of inflation and output growth is explored by a simulation exercise. --Structural VAR,forward-looking monetary policy,efficiency frontier,GDP measurement errors
Negative frequency tuning of a carbon nanotube nano-electromechanical resonator
A suspended, doubly clamped single wall carbon nanotube is characterized as
driven nano-electromechanical resonator at cryogenic temperatures.
Electronically, the carbon nanotube displays small bandgap behaviour with
Coulomb blockade oscillations in electron conduction and transparent contacts
in hole conduction. We observe the driven mechanical resonance in dc-transport,
including multiple higher harmonic responses. The data shows a distinct
negative frequency tuning at finite applied gate voltage, enabling us to
electrostatically decrease the resonance frequency to 75% of its maximum value.
This is consistently explained via electrostatic softening of the mechanical
mode.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; submitted for the IWEPNM 2013 conference
proceeding
Baryons and baryonic matter in the large Nc and heavy quark limits
This paper explores properties of baryons and finite density baryonic matter
in an artificial world in which Nc, the number of colors, is large and the
quarks of all species are degenerate and much larger than {\Lambda}_QCD. It has
long been known that in large Nc QCD, baryons composed entirely of heavy quarks
are accurately described in the mean-field approximation. However, the detailed
properties of baryons in the combined large Nc and heavy quark limits have not
been fully explored. Here some basic properties of baryons are computed using a
variational approach. At leading order in both the large Nc and heavy quark
expansions the baryon mass is computed explicitly as is the baryon form factor.
Baryonic matter, the analog of nuclear matter in this artificial world, should
also be well described in the mean-field approximation. In the special case
where all baryons have an identical spin flavor structure, it is shown that in
the formal heavy quark and large Nc limit interactions between baryons are
strictly repulsive at low densities. The energy per baryon is computed in this
limit and found to be exponentially small. It is shown that when the
restriction to baryons with an identical spin-flavor structure is dropped, a
phase of baryonic matter exists with a density of 2Nf times that for the
restricted case but with the same energy (where Nf is the number of degenerate
flavors). It is shown that this phase is at least metastable.Comment: 19 page
The Unbearable Lightness of Debating: Performance Ambiguity and Social Influence
This chapter considers three sets of studies on how social influence affects perceptions of candidates\u27 performances in presidential debates. The first set shows that perceptions are influenced markedly by the reactions of peers watching the debate at the same time or by televised audiences shown on broadcast debates. The second set shows that expectations created by news accounts prior to debates also have significant impact and that different kinds of news accounts affect different viewers in distinct ways. Individuals with a high need for cognition respond well to more complicated messages that advance some reason as to why an apparently negative candidate characteristic may actually work in his or her favor. Those individuals do not respond well to simple assertions that a particular candidate will perform well. On the other hand, individuals with a low need for cognition show the opposite pattern. They respond to the simple but not the more complex messages. The third set of studies considers postdebate spin as well as predebate predictions. Although campaigns often use the strategy of lowering expectations before a debate by arguing that their candidate is disadvantaged and will not perform well, and then after the debate declare a surprising victory, our research suggests that this strategy is unlikely to work. It appears too manipulative. Generally, when campaign set expectations low, viewers perceive their candidate\u27s performance as weak
Evaluation of the antioxidant capacity of betalainic fruits and vegetables
The present investigation determined total phenolics, ascorbic acid, betalain contents and the corresponding antioxidant capacities of betalain-bearing fruits and vegetables. In addition to differently coloured Swiss chard petioles (Beta vulgaris L. ssp. cicla [L.] Alef. cv. âBright Lightsâ) and hypocotyls of white, yellow, and red beetroot varieties (Beta vulgaris L. ssp. vulgaris, cv. âAlbina Veredunaâ, cv. âBurpeeâs Goldenâ, and cv. âRote Kugel 2â), juices from cactus pears (Opuntia ficus-indica [L.] Mill. cv. âGiallaâ and cv. âRossaâ) and pitaya fruits (Hylocereus polyrhizus [Weber] Britton & Rose, H. undatus [Haworth] Britton & Rose, Selenicereus megalanthus [K. Schumann ex Vaupel] Moran) were included in this study. Antioxidant capacities were determined by application of the TEAC and FRAP assays, respectively, resulting in differing rankings of the commodities investigated. In both test systems, highest antioxidant capacity was shown for red beetroot extract while for the remaining samples no straightforward order could be established
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