Unemployment Insurance, Recall Expectations, And Unemployment Outcomes

This paper shows the importance of explicitly accounting for the possibility of recalls when analyzing the determinants of unemployment spell durations and the effects of unemployment insurance (UI) on unemployment outcomes in the United States. These issues are examined using a unique sample of UI recipients from Missouri and Pennsylvania covering unemployment spells in the 1979- 1981 period. We find that those expecting recall who are not recalled tend to have quite long unemployment spells. Furthermore, ex-ante temporary layoff spells (the spells of individuals' who initially expect to be recalled) may account for over 60 percent of the unemployment of UI recipients and appear to account for much more unemployment than ex-post temporary layoff spells (spells actually ending in recall). We estimate a competing risks model in which the finding of a new job and recall are treated as alternate routes of leaving unemployment. Our results using this approach show that the recall and new job exit probabilities have quite different time patterns and are often affected in opposite ways by explanatory variables. We also find that the probability of leaving unemployment (both through recalls and new job finding) increases greatly around the time that UI benefits lapse.

The Impact of the Potential Duration of Unemployment Benefits on the Duration of Unemployment

This paper uses two data sets to examine the impact of the potential duration of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits on the duration of unemployment and the time pattern of the escape rate from unemployment in the United States. The first part of the empirical work uses a large sample of household heads to examine differences in the unemployment spell distributions of UI recipients and nonrecipients. Sharp increases in the rare of escape from unemployment both through recalls and new job acceptances are apparent for UI recipients around the time when benefits are likely to lapse. The absence of such spikes in the escape rate from unemployment for nonrecipients strongly suggests that the potential duration of UI benefits affects firm recall policies and workers' willingness to start new jobs. The second part of our empirical work uses administrative data to examine the effects of the level and length of UT benefits on the escape rate from unemployment of UI recipients. The results indicate that a one week increase in potential benefit duration increases the average duration of the unemployment spells of UI recipients by 0,16 to 0.20 weeks. The estimates also imply that policies that extend the potential duration of benefits increase the mean duration of unemployment by substantially more than policies with the same predicted impact on the total UI budget that raise the level of benefits while holding potential duration constant.

Engineering Coexistence

A response to the issues raised by the English GM coexistence consultation

International Englishes, Dialects and Glocalized Englishes: Translanguaging in South Korea

English has spread across the world as the language of business, education, science and travel. Americans, British and other native speakers living in Inner Circle countries speak English as a Native Language (ENL). Nigerians, Jamaicans, Singaporeans and others living in Outer Circle countries speak ‘World Englishes (WEs)’, but what do Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and others living in the Expanding Circle speak? Koreans learn English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) but they also speak Konglish, and they can see and hear English in Korean music, advertisements and products, indicating that English is not really a ‘foreign’ language. They often do better at communication with Chinese or Japanese business contacts than native speakers who do not know how to modify their English. In this dissertation I introduce the concepts of ‘Glocalized Englishes (GEs)’, ‘English as a Glocalized Language (EGL)’ and ‘International Englishes (IEs)’ to account for the relationships between different varieties of English. GEs cover Konglish, Chinglish, Janglish, and other hybrid languages which emerge through translanguaging in Expanding Circle countries. EGL expands the simple binary of ESL/EFL, and IEs describe the modified languages of native speakers and fluent English learners that are used for international communication. I propose a Pyramid Continuum model to represent these languages, with GEs on the bottom with the narrowest usability, ENL and WEs in the middle with moderate usability, and IEs on the top with the widest possible usability. I demonstrate how language ideologies coalesce together to form indexical configurations of EFL and EGL. The case study focusses on a South Korean university and includes taped interviews, written homework assignments, a survey on taking an English name, over 10 years of participant observation, and an analysis of the ‘linguascape’: the linguistic soundscape in videos of buildings and streets, and the linguistic landscape in photographs of buildings, streets, products, road signs, public literature and graffiti. Discussion of future implications include how to do further studies of other GEs, what linguistic features are indicative of IEs, and why language testing must include the recognition and production of IEs

The Wigner Transform and Some Exact Properties of Linear Operators

The Wigner transform of an integral kernel on the full line generalizes the Fourier transform of a translation kernel. The eigenvalue spectra of Hermitian kernels are related to the topographic features of their Wigner transforms. Two kernels whose Wigner transforms are equivalent under the unimodular affine group have the same spectrum of eigenvalues and have eigenfunctions related by an explicit linear transformation. Any kernel whose Wigner transform has concentric ellipses as contour lines, yields an eigenvalue problem which may be solved exactly

Kolmogorov Inertial Range for Inhomogeneous Turbulent Flows

The Kolmogorov argument for the existence of an inertial range is reexamined in situations for which neither Fourier modes nor homogeneity and local isotropy are natural assumptions. Scaling arguments are shown which are still valid, and generalizations to the -5/3 law are given for the eigenvalue spectrum of the two-point velocity-correlation matrix. Results from several different numerical simulations are presented. Data derived from simulations of channel and convection flows show that a sensible inertial range appears at very modest Reynolds numbers

Spiking Neurons and the First Passage Problem

We derive a model of a neuron\u27s interspike interval probability density through analysis of the first passage problem. The fit of our expression to retinal ganglion cell laboratory data extracts three physiologically relevant parameters, with which our model yields input-output features that conform to laboratory results. Preliminary analysis suggests that under common circumstances, local circuitry readjusts these parameters with changes in firing rate and so endeavors to faithfully replicate an input signal. Further results suggest that the so-called principle of sloppy workmanship also plays a role in evolution\u27s choice of these parameters