Unemployment and the Productivity Slowdown: A Labour Supply Perspective

Many OECD economies suffered a productivity slowdown beginning in the early 1970s. However, the increase in unemployment that followed this slowdown was more pronounced in European economies relative to the US. In this paper we present an efficiency wage model, which enables us to identify five channels through which the productivity slowdown can affect workers’ effort incentives. We argue that this model can explain the different trends in unemployment across countries over this period in the face of a similar slowdown in productivity. We also demonstrate how the link between growth and unemployment depends upon labour market institutions in such a way that we can reconcile the mixed empirical results observed in the literature.technical progress; endogenous growth; unemployment; efficiency wages

Highly frustrated spin-lattice models of magnetism and their quantum phase transitions: A microscopic treatment via the coupled cluster method

We outline how the coupled cluster method of microscopic quantum many-body theory can be utilized in practice to give highly accurate results for the ground-state properties of a wide variety of highly frustrated and strongly correlated spin-lattice models of interest in quantum magnetism, including their quantum phase transitions. The method itself is described, and it is shown how it may be implemented in practice to high orders in a systematically improvable hierarchy of (so-called LSUB$m$) approximations, by the use of computer-algebraic techniques. The method works from the outset in the thermodynamic limit of an infinite lattice at all levels of approximation, and it is shown both how the "raw" LSUB$m$ results are themselves generally excellent in the sense that they converge rapidly, and how they may accurately be extrapolated to the exact limit, $m \rightarrow \infty$, of the truncation index $m$, which denotes the {\it only} approximation made. All of this is illustrated via a specific application to a two-dimensional, frustrated, spin-half $J^{XXZ}_{1}$--$J^{XXZ}_{2}$ model on a honeycomb lattice with nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor interactions with exchange couplings $J_{1}>0$ and $J_{2} \equiv \kappa J_{1} > 0$, respectively, where both interactions are of the same anisotropic $XXZ$ type. We show how the method can be used to determine the entire zero-temperature ground-state phase diagram of the model in the range $0 \leq \kappa \leq 1$ of the frustration parameter and $0 \leq \Delta \leq 1$ of the spin-space anisotropy parameter. In particular, we identify a candidate quantum spin-liquid region in the phase space

An efficient non-linear Feshbach engine

We investigate a thermodynamic cycle using a Bose-Einstein condensate with nonlinear interactions as the working medium. Exploiting Feshbach resonances to change the interaction strength of the BEC allows us to produce work by expanding and compressing the gas. To ensure a large power output from this engine these strokes must be performed on a short timescale, however such non-adiabatic strokes can create irreversible work which degrades the engine's efficiency. To combat this, we design a shortcut to adiabaticity which can achieve an adiabatic-like evolution within a finite time, therefore significantly reducing the out-of-equilibrium excitations in the BEC. We investigate the effect of the shortcut to adiabaticity on the efficiency and power output of the engine and show that the tunable nonlinearity strength, modulated by Feshbach resonances, serves as a useful tool to enhance the system's performance.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. To Appear New J. Phys. Focus on Shortcuts to Adiabaticit

Spin-1/2 J1J_{1}-J2J_{2} Heisenberg model on a cross-striped square lattice

Using the coupled cluster method (CCM) we study the full (zero-temperature) ground-state (GS) phase diagram of a spin-half ($s=1/2$) $J_{1}$-$J_{2}$ Heisenberg model on a cross-striped square lattice. Each site of the square lattice has 4 nearest-neighbour exchange bonds of strength $J_{1}$ and 2 next-nearest-neighbour (diagonal) bonds of strength $J_{2}$. The $J_{2}$ bonds are arranged so that the basic square plaquettes in alternating columns have either both or no $J_{2}$ bonds included. The classical ($s \rightarrow \infty$) version of the model has 4 collinear phases when $J_{1}$ and $J_{2}$ can take either sign. Three phases are antiferromagnetic (AFM), showing so-called N\'{e}el, double N\'{e}el and double columnar striped order respectively, while the fourth is ferromagnetic. For the quantum $s=1/2$ model we use the 3 classical AFM phases as CCM reference states, on top of which the multispin-flip configurations arising from quantum fluctuations are incorporated in a systematic truncation hierarchy. Calculations of the corresponding GS energy, magnetic order parameter and the susceptibilities of the states to various forms of valence-bond crystalline (VBC) order are thus carried out numerically to high orders of approximation and then extrapolated to the (exact) physical limit. We find that the $s=1/2$ model has 5 phases, which correspond to the four classical phases plus a new quantum phase with plaquette VBC order. The positions of the 5 quantum critical points are determined with high accuracy. While all 4 phase transitions in the classical model are first order, we find strong evidence that 3 of the 5 quantum phase transitions in the $s=1/2$ model are of continuous deconfined type