Housing prices and multiple employment nodes: is the relationship nonmonotonic?

Standard urban economic theory predicts that house prices will decline with distance from the central business district. Empirical results have been equivocal, however. Disjoints between theory and empirics may be due to a nonmonotonic relationship between house prices and access to employment arising from the negative externalities associated with proximity to multiple centres of employment. Based on data from Glasgow (Scotland), we use gravity-based measures of accessibility estimated using a flexible functional form that allows for nonmonotonicity. The results are thoroughly tested using recent advances in spatial econometrics. We find compelling evidence of a nonmonotonic effect in the accessibility measure and discuss the implications for planning and housing policy

Measuring the effect of cash incentives on migrant integration in Norway: early results from a quasi-experiment

The Norwegian Introduction Programme (NIP) is a flagship social policy for integrating migrants into Norwegian society. NIP is a two-year programme of full-time education and training. As part of NIP, a special benefit (Introduksjonsstønad) is paid to attendees to incentive participation. The Introduksjonsstønad is substantial, and it increases by 50% when participants reach age 25 (from approx. €12,860 to €19,290). Accounting for age, we find that increasing the Introduksjonsstønad results in increased NIP participation. Despite increasing cost and participation, we do not find any evidence of increased labour market outcomes. Norway’s approach to integration is both ambitious and expensive however our early findings show that NIP may not be effective. Given the importance of integration in Norway and the role of NIP, we suggest that further research needs to be done into credible alternatives or improvements to NIP and the Introduksjonsstønad

Identification of extra neutral gauge bosons at the International Linear Collider

Heavy neutral gauge bosons, Z's, are predicted by many theoretical schemes of physics beyond the Standard Model, and intensive searches for their signatures will be performed at present and future high energy colliders. It is quite possible that Z's are heavy enough to lie beyond the discovery reach expected at the CERN Large Hadron Collider LHC, in which case only indirect signatures of Z' exchanges may occur at future colliders, through deviations of the measured cross sections from the Standard Model predictions. We here discuss in this context the foreseeable sensitivity to Z's of fermion-pair production cross sections at an e^+e^- linear collider, especially as regards the potential of distinguishing different Z' models once such deviations are observed. Specifically, we assess the discovery and identification reaches on Z' gauge bosons pertinent to the E_6, LR, ALR and SSM classes of models, that should be attained at the planned International Linear Collider (ILC). With the high experimental accuracies expected at the ILC, the discovery and the identification reaches on the Z' models under consideration could be increased substantially. In particular, the identification among the different models could be achieved for values of Z' masses in the discovery (but beyond the identification) reach of the LHC. An important role in enhancing such reaches is played by the electron (and possibly the positron) longitudinally polarized beams. Also, although the purely leptonic processes are experimentally cleaner, the measurements of c- and b-quark pair production cross sections are found to carry important, and complementary, information on these searches.Comment: 21 page

Evaluating megaprojects: from the “iron triangle” to network mapping

Evaluation literature has paid relatively little attention to the specific needs of evaluating large, complex industrial and infrastructure projects, often called ‘megaprojects’. The abundant megaproject governance literature, in turn, has largely focused on the so-called ‘megaproject pathologies’, i.e. the chronic budget overruns, and failure of such projects to keep to timetables and deliver the expected social and economic benefits. This article draws on these two strands of literature, identifies shortcomings, and suggests potential pathways towards an improved evaluation of megaprojects. To counterbalance the current overemphasis on relatively narrowly defined accountability as the main function of megaproject evaluation, and the narrow definition of project success in megaproject evaluation, the article argues that conceptualizing megaprojects as dynamic and evolving networks would provide a useful basis for the design of an evaluation approach better able to promote learning and to address the socio economic aspects of megaprojects. A modified version of ‘network mapping’ is suggested as a possible framework for megaproject evaluation, with the exploration of the multiple accountability relationships as a central evaluation task, designed to reconcile learning and accountability as the central evaluation functions. The article highlights the role of evaluation as an ‘emergent’ property of spontaneous megaproject ‘governing’, and explores the challenges that this poses to the role of the evaluator

Describing Inequalities in Access to Employment and the Associated Geography of Wellbeing

This paper addresses three questions. How unequal is access to urban employment and the wellbeing associated with it? What is the monetary value consumers place on access? How does the inequality of access correspond to the geographical pattern of unemployment? A novel approach is developed using the Osland and Pryce house price model to estimate the monetary value of access welfare (MVAW)—the wellbeing associated with living a given distance from employment, taking into account the negative externalities associated with centres of employment and the complexities that arise from the existence of multiple employment centres of varying size. It is found that: MVAW is considerably more unequal than house prices or income; MVAW contributes around 13 per cent of the average value of a house; and the spatial pattern of unemployment rates is highly inelastic with respect to both MVAW and employment, suggesting no evidence of a spatial mismatch

Spin Discrimination in Three-Body Decays

The identification of the correct model for physics beyond the Standard Model requires the determination of the spin of new particles. We investigate to which extent the spin of a new particle $X$ can be identified in scenarios where it decays dominantly in three-body decays $X\to f\bar{f} Y$. Here we assume that $Y$ is a candidate for dark matter and escapes direct detection at a high energy collider such as the LHC. We show that in the case that all intermediate particles are heavy, one can get information on the spins of $X$ and $Y$ at the LHC by exploiting the invariant mass distribution of the two standard model fermions. We develop a model-independent strategy to determine the spins without prior knowledge of the unknown couplings and test it in a series of Monte Carlo studies.Comment: 31+1 pages, 4 figures, 8 tables, JHEP.cls include

CP violation in unpolarized e^+ e^- to charginos at one loop level

We study CP violation in e^+ e^- to \tilde\chi_i^+\tilde\chi_j^- in the framework of the MSSM. Though the cross section of this process is CP-even at the tree level even for polarized electron-positron beams, we show that it contains a CP-odd part at the one loop order and there are CP-odd observables that can in principle be measured even using unpolarized electron-positron beams. The relevant diagram calculations are briefly discussed and the results of selected (box) diagram computations are shown.Comment: similar to Phys. Rev. D version, but corrected figs. 4, 5, 6 (factor four