Maternal Employment and Happiness: The Effect of Non-Participation and Part-Time Employment on Mothers' Life Satisfaction

In contrast to unemployment, the effect of non-participation and parttime employment on subjective well-being has much less frequently been the subject of economists' investigations. In Germany, many women with dependent children are involuntarily out of the labor force or in part-time employment because of family constraints (e.g., due to lack of available and appropriate childcare). Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Study, this paper analyzes the impact of involuntary familyrelated non-participation and part-time employment on mothers' life satisfaction. Controlling for unobserved individual fixed effects, I find that both the pecuniary effects (foregone earnings) and the non-pecuniary effects (psychological costs) are significantly negative. Compensating income variations reveal that the residual household income would have to be raised by 182 percent (157 percent/77 percent) in order to just offset the negative effect of not being able to work because of family constraints (of being in short/long part-time employment). Moreover, in terms of overall happiness among mothers, non-participation is revealed to be a more serious problem than unemployment.Subjective well-being, life satisfaction, labor force participation

Technical Note: The Use of RNA-interference as a Tool to Find Proteins Involved in Melanosome Formation or Transport

Melanosomes are lysosome-related organelles that produce and transport the pigment melanin within melanocytes. Mutations in proteins required for melanosome transport and formation lead to a range of pigmentation defects, manifested at the cellular level as perinuclear clustering of melanosomes, or reduced sorting of melanosomal cargo such as tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1). A pilot screen was carried out to investigate whether a combination of cellular imaging and RNA interference could be used to identify new proteins involved in pigmentation pathways. In this study, eleven genes known to play a role in melanosome transport/formation or other pigmentation properties were knocked down in mouse melanocytes with shRNAmir constructs. The investigated genes were TYRP1, pallidin, cappuccino, dysbindin, HPS5, LYST, Myosin Va, melanophilin, RhoA, UBPY and mahogunin. In a blinded confocal imaging experiment, the only reproducible change observed in cells in which these targets were knocked down was a decrease in TYRP1 levels upon transfection with knockdown constructs against TYRP1 itself, or one of three constructs targeting HPS5 (Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome 5). Upon analysis with high-content imaging software, only the knockdown construct against TYRP1 itself was detected. RT-PCR analysis showed that many of the shRNAmir constructs did not reduce mRNA and proteins levels enough to detect effects on melanosome properties. This was further examined for melanophilin, a protein necessary for melanosome transport. Altogether, the data show that this system is currently not sensitive enough for use in a screen for unknown regulators of melanosome transport and formation. The main obstacle appears to be incomplete reduction of target protein levels. Our observation that a ~50% reduction in mRNA level is not sufficient to elicit an effect is supported by the fact that heterozygous carriers of melanosomal transport disorders (Griscelli Syndrome, Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome) do not display diseases phenotypes. A further reduction in protein levels, for example by viral infection of shRNA, may be required

A Note on the High Stability of Happiness: The Minimal Effects of a Nuclear Catastrophe on Life Satisfaction

Using life satisfaction as a direct measure of individual utility has become popular in the empirical economic literature. In this context, it is crucial to know what circumstances or changes the measure is sensitive to. Is life satisfaction a volatile concept that is affected by minor changes in life circumstances? Or is it a reliable measure of personal happiness? This paper will analyze the impact of a catastrophe, namely the nuclear catastrophe of Chernobyl, on life satisfaction. I use longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study and especially information collected on a monthly basis which allows the researcher to study calendar effects. The following clear-cut results are found. While concern about the environment rose immediately after the nuclear incident, life satisfaction changed little. This suggests that although people were aware of the severity of the catastrophe, they did not feel that their individual well-being had been affected. This finding is highly relevant to the life satisfaction literature as it shows that the life satisfaction measure is very stable and robust against societal and global events. It is shown to predominantly reflect personal life circumstances like health, employment, income, and the family situation and this relationship is apparently not disturbed by global events. Thus, my results reinforce previous findings on the relationship between life satisfaction and individual life characteristics as the stability of their outcome measure is approved.Subjective Well-Being, Happiness, Environmental Protection, Household Panel, SOEP

The Power of Monthly Data in the GSOEP: How the Chernobyl Catastrophe Affected People's Life Satisfaction and Environmental Concerns

Subjective well-being, happiness, Environmental protection, household panel, SOEP

Corporate Social Responsibility at Gap: An Interview with Eva Sage-Gavin

Gap Inc. is one of the world\u27s largest specialty retailers, with more than 3,000 stores and fiscal 2005 revenues of $16 billion. They operate four of the most recognized apparel brands in the world — Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Forth & Towne. According to the company website “At Gap Inc., social responsibility isn\u27t just a catchphrase or a feel good initiative. It\u27s a reflection of who we are and how we operate as a company. To us, being socially responsible means striving to embed our values and ethics into everything we do — from how we run our business, to how we treat our employees, to how we impact the communities where we do business. In 2003 Gap Inc. was the first retailer to release a social responsibility report, offering a comprehensive overview of their approach to social responsibility. The report was broadly lauded for its willingness to be open and honest about both the successes and failures in this arena. In fact, this report won Business Ethics magazine\u27s Social Reporting Award for unprecedented honesty in reporting on factory conditions. Their 2004 Social Responsibility Report continued that discussion and provided new information on their progress, challenges, and new initiatives. Eva Sage-Gavin is Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Communications, of Gap Inc. In her role as Chief People Officer, she sets the strategy for the company\u27s communications and human resources operations worldwide, including staffing, diversity, rewards, recognition, employee benefits, learning and development, strategic change, and internal and external communications. She set aside time to provide more specifics to how and why Gap Inc. places so much emphasis on corporate social responsibility

Exploring the links between tourism and quality of institutions

This paper introduces a new perspective on the impacts of tourism on host communi-ties by analyzing the links between tourism specialization and quality of institutions. Our research has two principal aims: firstly, to test the significance and sign of this relationship; and secondly, to explore the channels through which tourism could affect institutional qual-ity. To this end, an econometric analysis is conducted using a sample of 92 countries over the period 1995-2014. The results indicate that there is a significant and positive associa-tion between tourism specialization and institutional quality. Moreover, this relation can be explained through three main channels: level of income, income inequality, and economic freedom.Este trabajo aporta una nueva perspectiva sobre los impactos del turismo analizando las relaciones entre la especialización turística de un país y la calidad de sus instituciones. La investigación plantea dos objetivos: (1) testar empíricamente la significatividad y signo de dichas relaciones y (2) explorar los canales a través de los que se producen. Realizamos un análisis econométrico para 92 países y 20 años. Los principales resultados indican la existencia de una asociación significativa y positiva entre turismo y calidad institucional que se produce principalmente a través de tres canales: nivel de renta, distribución de la renta y libertad económica

A real variable characterization of Gromov hyperbolicity of flute surfaces

23 pages, 1 figure.-- MSC2000 codes: 41A10, 46E35, 46G10.-- ArXiv pre-print available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.0093Previously presented as Communication at International Congress of Mathematicians 2006 (ICM2006, Madrid, Spain, Aug 22-30, 2006).Preaccepted for publication at: Osaka Journal of MathematicsIn this paper we give a characterization of the Gromov hyperbolicity of trains (a large class of Denjoy domains which contains the flute surfaces) in terms of the behavior of a real function. This function describes somehow the distances between some remarkable geodesics in the train. This theorem has several consequences; in particular, it allows to deduce a result about stability of hyperbolicity, even though the original surface and the modified one are not quasi-isometric.Research partially supported by three grants from M.E.C. (MTM 2006-11976, MTM 2006-13000-C03-02 and MTM 2007-30904-E), Spain.No publicad

Mortgage Market Maturity and Homeownership Inequality among Young Households: A Five-Country Perspective

This paper uses the newly constructed Luxembourg Wealth Study data to document cross-country variation in homeownership rates and the homeownership-income inequality among young households in Finland, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, and relate it to cross-country differences in mortgage market maturity. We find that aside from Italy, homeownership rates and inequality in the four countries correspond to their mortgage take up rates and its distribution across income, reflecting the different degree of development of their respective mortgage markets. In Italy, alternative ways of financing, such as family transfers, substitute the limited mortgage availability and explains the second highest homeownership rate in our sample, despite the lowest mortgage take up. The mortgage market in the UK is the most open and the most equal, which leads to the highest and most equally distributed homeownership in this country as well. The mortgage market in Germany is on the other side of the spectrum with very low mortgage take-up rates and strong dependence of homeownership and mortgage take up on household income. Finland and the US are in-between. Counterfactual predictions suggest that although household characteristics play some role in explaining the variation in home ownership rates across the five countries, it is mostly the country specific effects of these characteristics determined by the institutional environment as well as the functioning of the housing and mortgage markets that drive the main result.Homeownership, credit constraints, mortgage market