Commentary

published or submitted for publicatio

Standards for Public Libraries

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Nickel base coating alloy

Zirconium is added to a Ni-30 Al (beta) intermetallic alloy in the range of 0.05 w/o to 0.25 w/o. This addition is made during melting or by using metal powders. The addition of zirconium improves the cyclic oxidation resistance of the alloys at temperatures above 1100 C

Low-powered incentives

We study low-powered incentives in a model that captures important features of workplaces in which incentive-pay approaches are minimally relevant. Our motivation is that incentive pay, while not rare, is clearly far less common than are agency problems: many firms with agency problems nonetheless pay fixed compensation and offer continued employment to all but those workers judged "unsatisfactory" according to largely subjective criteria. We find that low-powered incentives can achieve efficient outcomes in simple workplaces and function surprisingly well even when the environment is characterized by unobservable performance heterogeneity and a high degree of complementarity among workers.Wages

Nicral ternary alloy having improved cyclic oxidation resistance

NiCrAl alloys are improved by the addition of zirconium. These alloys are in the Beta or gamma/gamma' + Beta region of the ternary system. Zirconium is added in a very low amount between 0.06 and 0.20 weight percent. There is a narrow optimum zirconium level at the low value of 0.13 weight percent. Maximum resistance to cyclic oxidation is achieved when the zirconium addition is at the optimum value

The oxidation and corrosion of ODS alloys

The oxidation and hot corrosion of high temperature oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys are reviewed. The environmental resistance of such alloys are classified by oxide growth rate, oxide volatility, oxide spalling, and hot corrosion limitations. Also discussed are environmentally resistant coatings for ODS materials. It is concluded that ODS NiCrAl and FeCrAl alloys are highly oxidation and corrosion resistant and can probably be used uncoated

Valuable jobs and uncertainty

Little attention has been given to the link between variation in a firm's circumstances and the resolution of agency problems that pervade the relationship between a firm and its employees. We construct stochastic versions of standard efficiency-wage and performance-bonding models and find that this connection has important and apparently inescapable consequences. Compensation levels depend on characteristics of the firm. The possibility of the firm's exit drive an important counterfactual prediction in both classes of model: compensation rises in dying firms. This result illustrates the need for careful attention to the circumstances under which valuable jobs are liquidated.Job analysis ; Employment (Economic theory) ; Labor turnover

Economic models of employee motivation

Workers, being human beings, present employers with a range of tricky problems. Humans, unlike filing cabinets, can be crooked, subversive, surly, or indolent, even if they are paid on time. In this article we explore economists' main models of how compensation is used to address employee motivation and how these models help to explain puzzling features of the labor market.Wages ; Management ; Labor market