Probabilistic modelling of the joint labour decisions of husband and wife in farm households

When working with micro data one sometimes encounters situations involving qualitative choices in addition to the continuous choices that are the traditional focus of empirical analysis. One such situation arises when we study the increase in multiple job-holdings among farm operators in western economies. In these analyses we are both interested in the qualitative choice of entering the off-farm labour market and the continuous choice of determining labour supply in all occupations. This paper presents a unified framework for formulating such a discrete/continuous choices that include randomness within the decision-making process. We consider the joint labour decisions of operator and spouse through an agricultural household model that combines the agricultural production, consumption, and labour supply decisions in a single framework. We develop a probabilistic decision rule for participating in off-farm work and derive the demand functions in farm production and labour supply functions in off-farm sector.

Researching the construction of a formbild

This paper is a presentation and a discussion of the research methods used in the author’s research project at Oslo School of Architecture and Design (Gulliksen, 2006). The aim of the research was to describe how a group of people, in this case: students and teaches, come to agree upon what a good quality form is. The chosen way of explaining the notion of form quality in design engaged a socio-constructivistic approach, based in the theories of Bourdieu and Foucault and others. It rendered form quality as something constructed by the individual in interaction with artefacts and other individuals. The object of the study was to explore the mechanisms of this construction, separated into dynamical aspects (the actual construction) and the hierarchical aspects (the restrictions) of the constructive mechanisms. Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis of communication (verbal, visual and more) about form was the methodology chosen. This paper discusses certain fundamental methodological questions concerning the use of this perspective and this methodology in a design process. It asks in what way it is convenient to study something as material as an artefact’s form as something as immaterial as construction, communication and text. The paper is based on specific examples from the thesis presenting the research, ending with a short conclusive discussion concerning the opportunity this perspective gave to avoid a dichotomist basis (in the artefact it self or in the eyes of the beholder) for theories concerning form quality, and to sustain a focus on the communicational and relational aspects of the designing process. Keywords: Form Quality, Formbild, Socio-Constructivism, Discourse Analysis, Methodological Considerations</p

Living conditions and subjective well-being of farmers - An ordered response analysis of regional differences and changes over time

The liberalisation of trade with building down of tariffs and quotas, and with subsequently lower output prices, has enforced considerable structural changes in the agricultural sector. In Norway, both naturally given factors such as climate and topography, and social conditions such as a tradition for small family farms and strong governmental regulations, contribute in making this process even harder on the individual farmer. So how do the farmers respond? National farm statistics show that the amount of cultivated land stays approximately the same even though the number of farm units and agricultural employment falls annually. This implies that both farm size and productivity have increased. In this paper we utilise sample survey data on living conditions in agricultural households to examine whether we can observe changes in farmers ’experienced utility. Have contentment dropped and are there any obvious regional differences in contentment? The data consists of non-overlapping cross-sections for the years 1995 and 2002 and we make use of a standard ordered probability model in the estimations.

Probabilistic Modelling of the Joint Labour Decisions of Husband and Wife in Farm Households

When working with micro data one sometimes encounters situations involving qualitative choices in addition to the continuous choices that are the traditional focus of empirical analysis. One such situation arises when we study the increase in multiple job-holdings among farm operators in western economies. In these analyses we are both interested in the qualitative choice of entering the off-farm labour market and the continuous choice of determining labour supply in all occupations. This paper presents a unified framework for formulating such a discrete/continuous choices that include randomness within the decision-making process. We consider the joint labour decisions of operator and spouse through an agricultural household model that combines the agricultural production, consumption, and labour supply decisions in a single framework. We develop a probabilistic decision rule for participating in off farm work and derive the demand functions in farm production and labour supply functions in off-farm sector.Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital,

Viscous damping of roll during entry of a Mars entry and landing capsule

Viscous damping in roll of blunt body and hemisphere-cone forebody during planetary entr

The Influence of Student Achievement on Teacher Turnover

Evidence on teacher behavior is essential for the understanding of the performance of school systems. In this paper we utilize rich data to study the teachers’ quit decision in Norway. We distinguish between decisions to move between public schools within school districts, to another school district in the same labor market region, across labor market regions, and whether to leave public schools. The results indicate that the quit propensity to all four destinations is negatively related to student performance. The result is qualitatively independent of whether student performance is measured by exam results or teacher graduation.teacher turnover, student achievement, family status, non-pecuniary factors

Electric vehicle chassis dynamometer test methods at JPL and their correlation to track tests

Early in its electric vehicle (EV) test program, JPL recognized that EV test procedures were too vague and too loosely defined to permit much meaningful data to be obtained from the testing. Therefore, JPL adopted more stringent test procedures and chose the chassis dynamometer rather than the track as its principal test technique. Through the years, test procedures continued to evolve towards a methodology based on chassis dynamometers which would exhibit good correlation with track testing. Based on comparative dynamometer and track test results on the ETV-1 vehicle, the test methods discussed in this report demonstrate a means by which excellent track-to-dynamometer correlation can be obtained

Homework assignment and student achievement in OECD countries

By using data from 16 OECD countries who participated in TIMSS 2007, this paper analyzes the effect of assigning homework on student achievement. The identification rests on within-student variation in homework across subjects in a sample of students who have the same teacher in both mathematics and science. Unobserved teacher and student characteristics are conditioned out of the model by applying a difference-in-difference approach. We find a modest, but statistically significant effect of homework.

Property Taxation as a Determinant of School District Efficiency

Recent theoretical contributions have emphasized the favorable incentive effects of property taxation. The object of this paper is to confront these theories with Norwegian data on student performance. The institutional setting in Norway is well suited to analyzing the effects of property taxation because we can compare school districts with and without property taxation. In addition, we focus on an alternative incentive mechanism - competition between school districts. The empirical results indicate that students in school districts that levy residential property taxes perform better at the national examination than students in comparable school districts. Strategic interaction in school quality is present, but the magnitude of the interaction effect is modest.Student achievement;efficiency;property taxation;competition;spatial auto-regressive model

Attractive Optical Forces from Blackbody Radiation

Blackbody radiation around hot objects induces ac Stark shifts of the energy levels of nearby atoms and molecules. These shifts are roughly proportional to the fourth power of the temperature and induce a force decaying with the third power of the distance from the object. We explicitly calculate the resulting attractive blackbody optical dipole force for ground state hydrogen atoms. Surprisingly, this force can surpass the repulsive radiation pressure and actually pull the atoms against the radiation energy flow towards the surface with a force stronger than gravity. We exemplify the dominance of the "blackbody force" over gravity for hydrogen in a cloud of hot dust particles. This overlooked force appears relevant in various astrophysical scenarios, in particular, since analogous results hold for a wide class of other broadband radiation sources