Can a reduction in credit card processing fees offset the effect of a hike in the minimum wage?

The objective of this study is to assess whether a reduction in credit card processing fees can offset the effect of a hike in the minimum wage by examining the unique case of South Korea. To do so, this study introduces a theoretical model with money and credit as the explicit means of payment. In particular, it develops a general equilibrium model with micro-foundations for dealing with the relationship between minimum wage increases and job automation, and takes a long-run approach in the quantitative analysis. Contrary to the existing literature, the study shows that a minimum wage hike negatively and significantly affects overall employment. The calibrated results show that a 13.6% hike in the minimum wage causes a 16.46% reduction in the demand for simple labor earning the minimum wage, and also decreases the demand for non-simple labor by 0.157%. In contrast, if a policy of reducing credit card processing fees is adopted to ease the negative effect of a hike in minimum wage on employment, a 0.65% reduction in these fees (derived by shifting the burden of interest on credit card debt from seller to buyer) results in a 0.09% decrease in the labor demand

Can a reduction in credit card processing fees offset the effect of a hike in the minimum wage?

The objective of this study is to assess whether a reduction in credit card processing fees can offset the effect of a hike in the minimum wage by examining the unique case of South Korea. To do so, this study introduces a theoretical model with money and credit as the explicit means of payment. In particular, it develops a general equilibrium model with micro-foundations for dealing with the relationship between minimum wage increases and job automation, and takes a long-run approach in the quantitative analysis. Contrary to the existing literature, the study shows that a minimum wage hike negatively and significantly affects overall employment. The calibrated results show that a 13.6% hike in the minimum wage causes a 16.46% reduction in the demand for simple labor earning the minimum wage, and also decreases the demand for non-simple labor by 0.157%. In contrast, if a policy of reducing credit card processing fees is adopted to ease the negative effect of a hike in minimum wage on employment, a 0.65% reduction in these fees (derived by shifting the burden of interest on credit card debt from seller to buyer) results in a 0.09% decrease in the labor demand

Households WTP for the Reliability of Gas Supply

The security of natural gas supply is an important issue for all EU countries due to the region’s heavy dependence on imported supply sources and in light of energy demand for gas that is continuously increasing. Discussions have emphasised strategies for securing the supply at the macro level, e.g. diversification in supply sources, increase in storage capacity, etc. By contrast, consumers’ demand for the reliability of gas supply is rarely investigated. Hence this study was conducted to examine the economic implications associated with the security of gas supply directly to domestic consumers. Based on the choice experiment approach, household surveys were conducted in France, Italy and the UK. The results confirmed that the degree of the economic impact of a disruption of gas supply to domestic consumers was a function of the duration of a supply disruption and the season in which a supply cut would take place, as well as other preferences of consumers. The willingness to pay to secure per unit of gas consumption, or alternatively the costs of gas unsupplied, was estimated at between €2.65/cubic metre and €41.48/cubic metre across three different European countries.Energy security; gas supply; households; willingness to pay; choice experiment; EU

Stochastic resonance and noise delayed extinction in a model of two competing species

We study the role of the noise in the dynamics of two competing species. We consider generalized Lotka-Volterra equations in the presence of a multiplicative noise, which models the interaction between the species and the environment. The interaction parameter between the species is a random process which obeys a stochastic differential equation with a generalized bistable potential in the presence of a periodic driving term, which accounts for the environment temperature variation. We find noise-induced periodic oscillations of the species concentrations and stochastic resonance phenomenon. We find also a nonmonotonic behavior of the mean extinction time of one of the two competing species as a function of the additive noise intensity.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 17 panels. To appear in Physica

Macroeconomic effects of basic income funded by land holding tax

This study examines the macroeconomic effects of the introduction of a scheme to pay a basic income of approximately $900 per year to each citizen through land holding tax. In contrast to the existing literature, this study deals with the issue of whether household members decide to sell land due to a sharp increase in the land holding tax rate to raise funds for the payment of basic income. Furthermore, this study uses the relationship between holding assets and reservation wages to solve the problem of determining whether household members supply labor in accordance with the payment of basic income. Simulation results obtained using data for Korea show that the introduction of the scheme to pay the basic income decreases the real GDP, total labor demand, and social welfare by 1.3%, 0.3%, and 0.4%, respectively

Exploring demand and supply sides of sharing economy of skills

Thesis(Master) --KDI School:Master of Public Policy,2018Sharing Economy is a recently emerged economic system with a wide scope of industries. Existing literature provide insights to consumer behaviors in finance, automobile, and commodities sector but lack findings in the aspect of skills. This study attempts to explore the effects different variables exert on consumer and producer behaviors in skills sharing practices. The variables this study examines are transaction utility, social utility, sustainability utility, emotional utility, economic utility, trust utility, all of which affect the attitudes of consumers and producers. Then, this study divides consumers and producers into two different categories: potential and actual. As potential consumers and producers have no relevant experience in skills sharing practices, this study explores the effect of their attitudes on their intention, which then affects their satisfaction when an actual consumption or supply of a service takes place. For actual consumers and producers, this study explores the effect of attitude on satisfaction, a variable that affects loyalty towards, or a constant use of, a particular service. A survey is conducted on a randomly selected sample in Republic of Korea. The data analysis methods conducted in this study are factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, logit regression analysis and MANOVA. The difference in statistical significance of results for different groups of consumers and suppliers provides important insights for policy implications and managerial implications.I. Introduction II. Literature Review III. Theoretical Background IV. Hypotheses Development V. Methodology VI. Data Analysis VII. Results VIII. ConclusionmasterpublishedSoo Jung LA

Cell sorting in a Petri dish controlled by computer vision.

Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) applying flow cytometry to separate cells on a molecular basis is a widespread method. We demonstrate that both fluorescent and unlabeled live cells in a Petri dish observed with a microscope can be automatically recognized by computer vision and picked up by a computer-controlled micropipette. This method can be routinely applied as a FACS down to the single cell level with a very high selectivity. Sorting resolution, i.e., the minimum distance between two cells from which one could be selectively removed was 50-70 micrometers. Survival rate with a low number of 3T3 mouse fibroblasts and NE-4C neuroectodermal mouse stem cells was 66 +/- 12% and 88 +/- 16%, respectively. Purity of sorted cultures and rate of survival using NE-4C/NE-GFP-4C co-cultures were 95 +/- 2% and 62 +/- 7%, respectively. Hydrodynamic simulations confirmed the experimental sorting efficiency and a cell damage risk similar to that of normal FACS

System size resonance in coupled noisy systems and in the Ising model

We consider an ensemble of coupled nonlinear noisy oscillators demonstrating in the thermodynamic limit an Ising-type transition. In the ordered phase and for finite ensembles stochastic flips of the mean field are observed with the rate depending on the ensemble size. When a small periodic force acts on the ensemble, the linear response of the system has a maximum at a certain system size, similar to the stochastic resonance phenomenon. We demonstrate this effect of system size resonance for different types of noisy oscillators and for different ensembles -- lattices with nearest neighbors coupling and globally coupled populations. The Ising model is also shown to demonstrate the system size resonance.Comment: 4 page

Multivalued Fixed Point Results for Two Families of Mappings in Modular-Like Metric Spaces with Applications

The aim of this research work is to find out some results in fixed point theory for a pair of families of multivalued mappings fulfilling a new type of U-contractions in modular-like metric spaces. Some new results in graph theory for multigraph-dominated contractions in modular-like metric spaces are developed. An application has been presented to ensure the uniqueness and existence of a solution of families of nonlinear integral equationsThe authors thank the Basque Government for supporting this work through Grant IT1207-19