Tackling unemployment: Europe's successes and failures.

Why has unemployment fallen in some European countries but not in others? To answer this question, Richard Layard, Stephen Nickell and Richard Jackman revisit their landmark analysis of macroeconomic performance and the labour market.

The Effectiveness of Top Management Groups in Manufacturing Organisations

We test whether demographic characteristics and team processes in top management teams predict the subsequent productivity and profitability of their companies in 42 UK manufacturing organisation. The results that there are independent effects of both demographic characteristics and team processes. Team member mean educational level and team tenure both predict the subsequent productivity and profitability of the companies positively, while age diversity in the team is a negative predictor of company performance. Team processes (clarity of and commitment to objectives, participation, task orientation, and support for innovation) predict (positively) company performance. Only mean educational level, of the demographic variables, also predicts team processes, suggesting that the effects of demographic variables on company performance are not strongly mediated by team processes. The implications of these findings for the composition and development of top management teams are discussed.

Research Notes : United States : Response of soybean strains to DPX-F6025 in hydroponics

Introduction: Previous work with DPX-F6025 (2-(([(4-chloro-6-methoxy-pyrimidine-2-yl) amino carbonyl] amino sulfonyl)) benzoic acid, ethyl ester) found differential strain response to increasing rates in hydroponics (Lloyd, 1985). Hanson (1984) reported differential strain response to a single rate of metribuzin in soybeans when evaluated in a hydroponic system similar to one developed by Barrentine et al. (1976). With known agronomic changes in soybeans associated with herbicide treatments, this study was undertaken to study the agronomic effects of DPX-F6025 on a randomly selected group of soybean strains when evaluated in a hydroponic system

The early churches of Fife : a gazetteer of sites

During the middle centuries of the first millennium AD, Christianity began to penetrate the north of Britain, and the establishment of the church within the community eventually brought a level of organization which would be vital to the development of subsequent society during the Middle Ages. In line with the fragmentary and culturally diverse nature of north Britain at this time, the experience of conversion and the arrival of Christianity differed from area to area, as well as reflecting some common trends. For the purposes of this dissertation, I have looked at the cultural trends which lay behind the form and distribution of Early Christian sites within Fife during the Pictish period, and the locations of the sites themselves. In the introduction, I shall address the geography of Fife; the political and cultural background of the region; the form of the church and the significant events which occurred in it during this period; the factors, identified in other areas, that are most likely to have affected church settlement; and the features which may indicate the presence of an early church. In the body of the dissertation, I shall address each parish individually, providing an introductory discussion of the area and a gazetteer entry for each possible site identified, followed by an analysis of the findings. The conclusion will focus on an analysis of how the previously discussed factors relate to Fife

Privately optimal severance pay

This paper constructs an equilibrium matching model with risk-averse workers and incomplete contracts to study both the optimal private provision of severance pay and the consequences of government mandates in excess of the private optimum. The privately-optimal severance payment is bounded below by the fall in lifetime wealth resulting from job loss. Despite market incompleteness, mandated minimum payments significantly exceeding the private optimum are effectively undone by adjustment of the contractual wage, and have only small allocational and welfare effects

Genomics of Mature and Immature Olfactory Sensory Neurons

The continuous replacement of neurons in the olfactory epithelium provides an advantageous model for investigating neuronal differentiation and maturation. By calculating the relative enrichment of every mRNA detected in samples of mature mouse olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), immature OSNs, and the residual population of neighboring cell types, and then comparing these ratios against the known expression patterns of \u3e300 genes, enrichment criteria that accurately predicted the OSN expression patterns of nearly all genes were determined. We identified 847 immature OSN-specific and 691 mature OSN-specific genes. The control of gene expression by chromatin modification and transcription factors, and neurite growth, protein transport, RNA processing, cholesterol biosynthesis, and apoptosis via death domain receptors, were overrepresented biological processes in immature OSNs. Ion transport (ion channels), presynaptic functions, and cilia-specific processes were overrepresented in mature OSNs. Processes overrepresented among the genes expressed by all OSNs were protein and ion transport, ER overload response, protein catabolism, and the electron transport chain. To more accurately represent gradations in mRNA abundance and identify all genes expressed in each cell type, classification methods were used to produce probabilities of expression in each cell type for every gene. These probabilities, which identified 9,300 genes expressed in OSNs, were 96% accurate at identifying genes expressed in OSNs and 86% accurate at discriminating genes specific to mature and immature OSNs. This OSN gene database not only predicts the genes responsible for the major biological processes active in OSNs, but also identifies thousands of never before studied genes that support OSN phenotypes

Chemoanatomical organization of the noradrenergic input from locus coeruleus to the olfactory bulb of the adult rat.

The locus coeruleus contains noradrenergic neurons which project widely throughout the CNS. A major target of locus coeruleus projections in the rat is the olfactory bulb (Shipley et al.: Brain Res. 329:294–299, '85) but the organization of the projections within the bulb has not been systematically examined. In this study, the laminar distribution and densities of locus coeruleus-noradrenergic fibers in the main and accessory olfactory bulbs were determined with anterograde tracing and immunocytochemical techniques. Following iontophoretic injections of 1% wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase into the locus coeruleus, the densest anterograde label in the accessory olfactory bulb was observed in the external plexiform layer, granule cell layer, and especially in the internal part of the mitral cell layer. Virtually no label was observed in the glomerular layer. In the main olfactory bulb, labelled axons were observed in the granule cell layer, in the internal and external plexiform layers, occasionally in the mitral cell layer, and least often in the glomerular layer. Noradrenergic fibers in the olfactory bulb were identified by using immunocytochemistry with an antibody to dopamine-β-hydroxylase. Laminar patterns and densities of noradrenergic innervation were determined with quantitative image analysis. In the accessory olfactory bulb, the densest innervation was in the innermost portion of the mitral cell layer followed by the granule cell layer, the superficial part of the mitral cell layer, and the external plexiform layer. The density of fibers in the glomerular layer was least. The laminar pattern of noradrenergic fiber distribution in the main olfactory bulb was similar to that in accessory olfactory bulb. The present studies demonstrate that locus coeruleus-noradrenergic fibers terminate preferentially in the internal plexiform, granule cell, and external plexiform layers. This suggests that the major influence of the locus coeruleus input to both the main and accessory the olfactory bulbs is on the predominant neuronal element in those layers, the granule cells. Additional studies are needed to resolve how this input influences specific olfactory bulb circuits

Effective labor regulation and microeconomic flexibility

Microeconomic flexibility is at the core of economic growth in modern market economies because it facilitates the process of creative-destruction. The main reason why this process is not infinitely fast, is the presence of adjustment costs, some of them technological, others institutional. Chief among the latter is labor market regulation. While few economists object to the hypothesis that labor market regulation hinders the process of creative-destruction, its empirical support is limited. In this paper we revisit this hypothesis, using a new sectoral panel for 60 countries and a methodology suitable for such a panel. We find that job security regulation clearly hampers the creative-destruction process, especially in countries where regulations are likely to be enforced. Moving from the 20th to the 80th percentile in job security, in countries with strong rule of law, cuts the annual speed of adjustment to shocks by a third while shaving off about 1% from annual productivity growth. The same movement has negligible effects in countries with weak rule of law.National Science Foundation (U.S.