The Youth Labor Market in the 80s: Determinants of Re-Employment Probabilities for Young Men and Women

This paper presents an analysis of the determinants of re-employment probabilities for young workers in the U.S. Using data from the new National Longitudinal Survey youth cohort a model is developed to analyze the transition probabilities from nonemployment to employment. The key factors examined include personal characteristics, unemployment income, local demand conditions, and duration dependence. There are significant differences between the labor market experiences of whites and nonwhites, and males and females. High school dropouts have many more difficulties in the labor market than those who remain in school longer and/or receive other types of training. Local demand conditions are a strong determinant of the duration of spells of nonemployment and there appears to be strong evidence of negative duration dependence in re-employment probabilities for both young males and young females.

Comments on spinning the top: considering the impact of women's paid and unpaid work

We should acknowledge that discrimination still exists and that women’s work lives have been considerably improved by their ability to legally challenge discriminatory practices.Sex discrimination against women ; Women - Employment ; Discrimination in employment

The Adoption and Diffusion of Organizational Innovation: Evidence for the U.S. Economy

Using a unique longitudinal representative survey of both manufacturing and non-manufacturing businesses in the United States during the 1990's, I examine the incidence and intensity of organizational innovation and the factors associated with investments in organizational innovation. Past profits tend to be positively associated with organizational innovation. Employers with a more external focus and broader networks to learn about best practices (as proxied by exports, benchmarking, and being part of a multi-establishment firm) are more likely to invest in organizational innovation. Investments in human capital, information technology, R&D, and physical capital appear to be complementary with investments in organizational innovation. In addition, non-unionized manufacturing plants are more likely to have invested more broadly and intensely in organizational innovation.

The growing wage gap: is training the answer?

Training programs targeted toward lower skilled workers to a much greater extent than is currently the case could play an important role in narrowing the wage gap. Specific strategies would include assisting firms to develop their own programs, improving the school-to-work transition for non-college-bound high school graduates, and providing displaced workers with the skills needed to take new jobs in growing sectors of the economy.Education ; Employees, Training of ; Wages

Causation in Occupational Disease: Balancing Epidemiology, Law and Manufacturer Conduct

Drs. Lynch & Henefin examine evolution of disease causation theory and its impact on public health, as well as how these relate to the courtroom admissibility of expert opinion evidence

Bibliography of Sequential Sampling Plans in Insect Pest Management Based on Wald\u27s Sequential Probability Ratio Test

This paper contains 65 references dealing with the development of sequential sampling plans in insect pest management based on Wald\u27s Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT), 25 in forest entomology and 40 in agriculture entomology. The insect(s) sampled, whether the decision procedure was based on one or two SPRTs, and the mathematical distribution and probabilities of Type I and Type II errors used to develop the SPRTs are also given for each sequential sampling plan

Gauging Support for Innovative Farmland Preservation Techniques

This paper describes four innovative farmland preservation techniques and gauges support through interviews of key stakeholders: program administrators, lawmakers, and landowners. Four techniques were selected for assessment from approximately 30 novel techniques: rights of first refusal; term conservation easements; land preservation tontines; and agricultural conservation pension. Rights of first refusal was the most favored, although respondents thought effective implementation would need targeting of land and a dedicated funding source. Agricultural conservation pension was also viewed favorably, although considered administratively difficult to implement. Tontines were perceived to be an interesting concept, but confusing, difficult to implement, and ill-defined. Term easements were viewed unfavorably because they did not preserve land permanently.Land Economics/Use,

Fast Lean Erasure-Coded Atomic Memory Object

In this work, we propose FLECKS, an algorithm which implements atomic memory objects in a multi-writer multi-reader (MWMR) setting in asynchronous networks and server failures. FLECKS substantially reduces storage and communication costs over its replication-based counterparts by employing erasure-codes. FLECKS outperforms the previously proposed algorithms in terms of the metrics that to deliver good performance such as storage cost per object, communication cost a high fault-tolerance of clients and servers, guaranteed liveness of operation, and a given number of communication rounds per operation, etc. We provide proofs for liveness and atomicity properties of FLECKS and derive worst-case latency bounds for the operations. We implemented and deployed FLECKS in cloud-based clusters and demonstrate that FLECKS has substantially lower storage and bandwidth costs, and significantly lower latency of operations than the replication-based mechanisms

A note on the chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of contrasting stover components of maize grown in climatically marginal conditions and harvested at differing maturities.

peer-reviewedThis study evaluated the nutritive value of three contrasting components of maize stover (leaf, upper stem, lower stem) at three harvest dates. The leaf component had a greater in vitro dry matter digestibility (DMD) and a lower NDF concentration, compared to the stem components. Delaying harvest reduced the in vitro DMD of the stem components to a greater extent than leaf, reflecting lower increases in the NDF and lignin concentrations in leaf tissue. The stem components of maize stover had a lower nutritive value than the leaf component, and had a larger decrease in digestibility with delayed harvest.Funding for this study was provided under the National Development Plan through the Research Stimulus fund administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (RSF 07 501