Regional productivity differences in the UK and France: from the micro to the macro

We propose a new data resource that attempts to overcome limitations of standard firm-level datasets for the UK (like the ARD/ABS) by building on administrative data covering the population of UK firms with at least one employee. We also construct a similar dataset for France and use both datasets to: 1) Provide some highlights of the data and an overall picture of the evolution of aggregate UK and French productivity and markups: 2) Analyse the spatial distribution of productivity in both countries at a fine level of detail - 228 Travel to Work Areas (TTWAs) for the UK and 297 Zones da'emploi (ZEs) for France - while focusing on the role of economic density. Our findings suggest that differences in firm productivity across regions are magnified in the aggregate by an increasing productivity return of density along the productivity distribution

Maitosiedätys kouluikäisillä lapsilla

Asiasanat:maitoallergia, maidolle spesifinen IgE, siedätyshoit

Three essays on productivity, regional wage disparities, and the public sector pay gap in Great Britain in a period of economic shocks

The thesis re-visits three themes relating in turn to the UK productivity puzzle, regional wage disparities, and the public sector wage premium. The second chapter employs a decomposition analysis linking micro- to macro-level outcomes to examine whether the 2008 financial crisis exerted an effect on UK productivity. The research utilizes the HMRC VAT returns panel and reveals that the financial crisis had a disproportionate effect on both labour and total factor productivity. A key finding is that the within-firm allocation of resources is pro-cyclical and a significant driver of productivity dynamics at the macro level over this period. The third chapter provides a detailed econometric-based descriptive analysis of local wage disparities for men in Great Britain. The analysis employs the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) dataset to examine how regional disparities at the Travel to Work Area (TTWA) level are evolving and whether the financial crisis is implicated in this evolution. The key conclusion drawn from the analysis is that the disparity in wage differentials across TTWAs narrowed over the period of analysis, with the downward trend evident before, and not given any impetus by, the financial crisis. However, despite the contraction in regional wage disparity, there remains strong persistence in the rank ordering of regional wages. In addition, the analysis reveals that even with falling wage inequality across TTWAs, the inequality within TTWAs has increased over time with some indication of wage polarization emerging within local labour markets. Using the ASHE dataset over the period 2002 to 2019, the fourth chapter investigates if either the financial crisis or the subsequent austerity programme introduced by the coalition and subsequent Conservative governments impacted the public sector wage premium for men in Great Britain across the unconditional pay distribution. The empirical analysis suggests some degree of stability in the public sector pay premium over time and across the distribution, with neither the financial crisis nor the austerity programme found to impact the magnitude of the public sector wage premium for men

The Phenotype of Celiac Disease Has Low Concordance between Siblings, Despite a Similar Distribution of HLA Haplotypes

The factors determining the presentation of celiac disease are unclear. We investigated the phenotypic concordance and the distribution of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) risk haplotypes in affected siblings. One hundred sibling pairs were included. Clinical and histological parameters and HLA haplotypes were compared between the first diagnosed indexes and their siblings. The phenotype was categorized into gastrointestinal, extra-intestinal, malabsorption/anemia, and asymptomatic. The phenotype was fully concordant in 21 pairs. The most common concordant phenotype was gastrointestinal (14 pairs). Indexes had more anemia/malabsorption and extra-intestinal symptoms than siblings (45% vs. 20%, p < 0.001 and 33% vs. 12%, p < 0.001, respectively). Twenty siblings and none of the indexes were asymptomatic. The indexes were more often women (81% vs. 63%, p = 0.008). They were also more often seronegative (11% vs. 0%, p = 0.03) and younger (37 vs. 43 year, p < 0.001), and had more severe histopathology (total/subtotal atrophy 79% vs. 58%, p = 0.047) at diagnosis. The indexes and siblings were comparable in other disease features. Pairs with discordant presentation had similar HLA haplotypes more often than the concordant pairs. The phenotype was observed to vary markedly between siblings, with the indexes generally having a more severe presentation. HLA did not explain the differences, suggesting that non-HLA genes and environmental factors play significant roles

Nukleiinihaponosoitustestillä nopeaa ja luotettavaa malariadiagnostiikkaa

Vertaisarvioitu. Näin tutkin.Kun potilas on palannut tropiikista ja malariaepäily herää, diagnostiikan kultastandardina on veren sivelyvalmisteiden mikroskopointi. Laadukasta ja luotettavaa mikroskopointidiagnostiikkaa on taudin harvinaisuuden vuoksi kuitenkin vaikeaa tarjota päivystyksellisesti osassa suomalaisista sairaaloista. Laajalti käytössä olevan immunokromatografisen pikatestin herkkyys ei riitä luotettavasti sulkemaan pois malariaa. Siksi NordLab Oulussa otettiin käyttöön kaupallinen nukleiinihaponosoitustesti päivystykselliseen malariadiagnostiikkaan. Uuden testin käyttöönoton myötä pikatestin käytöstä ja NordLab Oulussa suoritetusta mikroskopoinnista luovuttiin. Esittelemme NordLab Oulun muuttunutta malariadiagnostiikkaa ja kaksi ensimmäistä nukleiinihaponosoitustestillä todettua malariapotilasta. Kahden vuoden käyttökokemuksen perusteella nukleiinihaponosoitustesti on osoittautunut herkäksi ja toimivaksi menetelmäksi malarian päivystysdiagnostiikassa

Elevated Cerebrospinal Fluid Neopterin Concentration Is Associated with Disease Severity in Acute Puumala Hantavirus Infection

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