Gender-Job Satisfaction Differences across Europe: An Indicator for Labor Market Modernization

In 14 member states of the European Union, women's relative to men's levels of job satisfaction are compared by using data of the European Household Community Panel. The countries under consideration can be assigned to three different groups. Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands do not show significant gender-job satisfaction differences. In contrast, in Portugal men are more satisfied with their jobs than women. However, in the vast majority of the investigated countries female workers show a significantly higher level of job satisfaction. As the majority of women are disadvantaged compared to men in the labor market, the findings clearly demonstrate a gender-job satisfaction paradox in these countries. From this point of view, only Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands display gender-job satisfaction equality. The results suggest that objective (socio-economic and institutional) determinants of labor market statuses and subjective (assessed and evaluated) perspectives are mutually complementary. The more restrictive the labor market access and process is for women, the more likely a gender-job satisfaction paradox is to emerge in any country. With regard to the process of labor market modernization, the results support the hypotheses that equal opportunities for women and men like in Scandinavian countries and also partially in the Netherlands implicate that the gender-job satisfaction paradox does not appear anymore due to a fading-out process over past decades.Cross-national comparison; Gender-job satisfaction paradox; Labor supply; Labor market modernization

Female Labor Market Transitions in Europe

Using micro panel data, labor market transitions are analyzed for the EU-member states by cumulative year-by-year transition probabilities. As female (non-)employment patterns changed more dramatically than male employment in past decades, the analyses mainly refer to female labor supply. In search for important determinants of these transitions, six EU-countries with different labor market-regimes are selected as examples (Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, UK). Within these countries, women's determinants of labor market transitions are compared by means of pooled multinominal logit-regressions. The outcomes hint at both, the importance of socio-economic determinants, like the life cycle or human capital, but also address gender related differences in the paths of labor market transitions. Clearly, the observed cross-national differences are driven by specific national institutional settings. Among others, one of the most crucial features is the day-care infrastructure concerning children, which either fosters or restricts a sustainable risk management between family and work in the respective countries.labor supply, labor market transitions, socio-economic determinants, institutional settings, risk management, cross-national comparison

Quark mass dependence of s-wave baryon resonances

We study the quark mass dependence of J(P) = 1/2(-) s-wave baryon resonances. Parameter free results are obtained in terms of the leading order chiral Lagrangian. In the 'heavy' SU(3) limit with m(pi) = M-K similar or equal to 500 MeV the resonances turn into bound states forming two octets plus a singlet representations of the SU(3) group. A contrasted result is obtained in the 'light' SU(3) limit with m(pi) = m(K) similar or equal to 140 MeV for which no resonances exist. Using physical quark masses our analysis suggests to assign to the S = -2 resonances Xi(1690) and Xi(1620) the quantum numbers J(P) = 1/2(-)

The IZA Evaluation Dataset: Towards Evidence-Based Labor Policy-Making

The evaluation of labor market policies has become an important issue in many European countries. In recent years, a number of them have opened their administrative databases for evaluation studies. The advantages of administrative data are straightforward: they are accurate, contain a large number of observations (in some cases the whole population) and usually cover a long period of time. However, the information contained in administrative data is normally limited to administrative purposes. Therefore, information that might be relevant for economic modeling is often absent. The IZA Evaluation Dataset aims to overcome such limitations for Germany by complementing administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency with innovative survey data. The administrative part of the dataset consists of a large random sample of inflows into unemployment in Germany from 2001 to 2008 and contains around 920,000 individuals. The complementary survey covers a panel of more than 17,000 individuals who entered unemployment between June 2007 and May 2008. They were initially interviewed shortly after becoming unemployed and then again one year later. In addition, a quarter of individuals were interviewed already after six months. The survey data also contain information on search behavior, ethnic and social networks, psychological factors, (non-)cognitive abilities, and attitudes. This paper describes the sampling and contents of the IZA Evaluation Dataset and outlines the future development.survey and administrative data, labor market policies, evaluation, attitudes, behavior, skills

Report No. 7: Evaluation der Maßnahmen zur Umsetzung der Vorschläge der Hartz-Kommission - Bericht 2005

Gutachten in Zusammenarbeit mit DIW Berlin und infas Bonn im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Arbeit, Bonn 2006 (610 Seiten)

Electromagnetic transitions in an effective chiral Lagrangian with the eta-prime and light vector mesons

We consider the chiral Lagrangian with a nonet of Goldstone bosons and a nonet of light vector mesons. The mixing between the pseudoscalar mesons eta and eta-prime is taken into account. A novel counting scheme is suggested that is based on hadrogenesis, which conjectures a mass gap in the meson spectrum of QCD in the limit of a large number of colors. Such a mass gap would justify to consider the vector mesons and the eta-prime meson as light degrees of freedom. The complete leading order Lagrangian is constructed and discussed. As a first application it is tested against electromagnetic transitions of light vector mesons to pseudoscalar mesons. Our parameters are determined by the experimental data on photon decays of the omega, phi and eta-prime meson. In terms of such parameters we predict the corresponding decays into virtual photons with either dielectrons or dimuons in the final state.Comment: 17 pages, extended discussion on mixin

Report No. 10: Evaluation der Maßnahmen zur Umsetzung der Vorschläge der Hartz-Kommission - Bericht 2006

Gutachten in Zusammenarbeit mit DIW Berlin und infas Bonn im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Soziales, Bonn 2007 (1280 Seiten)

D mesic nuclei

The energies and widths of several D^0 meson bound states for different nuclei are obtained using a D-meson selfenergy in the nuclear medium, which is evaluated in a selfconsistent manner using techniques of unitarized coupled-channel theory. The kernel of the meson-baryon interaction is based on a model that treats heavy pseudoscalar and heavy vector mesons on equal footing, as required by heavy quark symmetry. We find D^0 bound states in all studied nuclei, from 12C up to 208Pb. The inclusion of vector mesons is the keystone for obtaining an attractive D-nucleus interaction that leads to the existence of D^0-nucleus bound states, as compared to previous studies based on SU(4) flavor symmetry. In some cases, the half widths are smaller than the separation of the levels, what makes possible their experimental observation by means of a nuclear reaction. This can be of particular interest for the future PANDA@FAIR physics program. We also find a D^+ bound state in 12C, but it is too broad and will have a significant overlap with the energies of the continuum.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 2 table

Strangeness at SIS energies

In this contribution we discuss the physics of strange hadrons in low energy ($\simeq 1-2 \rm AGeV$) heavy ion collision. In this energy range the relevant strange particle are the kaons and anti-kaons. The most interesting aspect concerning these particles are so called in-medium modifications. We will attempt to review the current status of understanding of these in medium modifications. In addition we will briefly discuss other issues related with kaon production, such as the nuclear equation of state and chemical equilibrium.Comment: Proceedings Strange Quark Matter 2003, Atlantic Beach, NC, USA, March 200

Chiral dynamics of the S11(1535) and S11(1650) resonances revisited

We analyze s-wave pion-nucleon scattering in a unitarized chiral effective Lagrangian including all dimension two contact terms. We find that both the S11(1535) and the S11(1650) are dynamically generated, but the S31(1620) is not. We further discuss the structure of these dynamically generated resonances.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, version to be published in PL