Downward Wage Rigidity: a Micro-Level Empirical Analysis for France in the 90s

We use microdata to examine the existence of downward wage rigidity in France, during the second half of the 90s. We use three annual datasets : a sample of the Déclarations Annuelles de Données Sociales, the Fiscal Income Survey and the Labour Force Survey. The first two sources, compiled on behalf of the fiscal administration, are reputed to be more accurate than the last one, subject to the traditional limitations of household surveys. Indeed, we show a tendency to underdeclaration as well as massive rounding to be present in the LFS wage measure. According to standard economic analysis, wages reflect individual productivity. All mechanisms reducing the transmission of productivity shocks to wages induce by definition wage rigidity. In practice, the presence and extent of wage rigidity must be deduced from the comparison between the actual wage evolution and some « reference evolution » observed in the absence of rigidity. A classical identifying assumption holds that downward wage rigidity transforms negative variations in the reference distribution into zero variations in the actual distribution, thus inducing a spike at zero in the latter. In French data, only the LFS exhibits such a spike, which seems to stem solely from reporting errors. We investigate the presence of more complex downward wage rigidity, by testing for the symmetry of the response of wages to positive and negative productivity shocks. For that purpose, we match the employee files with a firm level dataset (Bénéfices Réels Normaux). Results suggest that wages adjust less completely in the case of negative shocks. Although this asymmetry is shown to decrease with the initial wage level, wage rigidity cannot be reduced to the sole presence of a minimum wage. In particular, it is also shown to be higher for executives, and increasing in the local rate of unemployment.Wage rigidity, Measurement errors

Field Theory And Second Renormalization Group For Multifractals In Percolation

The field-theory for multifractals in percolation is reformulated in such a way that multifractal exponents clearly appear as eigenvalues of a second renormalization group. The first renormalization group describes geometrical properties of percolation clusters, while the second-one describes electrical properties, including noise cumulants. In this context, multifractal exponents are associated with symmetry-breaking fields in replica space. This provides an explanation for their observability. It is suggested that multifractal exponents are ''dominant'' instead of ''relevant'' since there exists an arbitrary scale factor which can change their sign from positive to negative without changing the Physics of the problem.Comment: RevTex, 10 page

Romeo Pepoli. Patrimonio e potere a Bologna fra Comune e Signoria

Karl Marx observed long ago that all economic struggles invite moral struggles, or masquerade as such. The reverse may be true as well: deep moral-political conflicts may be waged through the manipulation of economic resources. Using the recent financial and Eurozone crises as empirical backgrounds, the four papers gathered here propose four different perspectives on the play of moral judgments in the economy, and call for broader and more systematic scholarly engagement with this issue. Focusing on executive compensation, bank bailouts, and the sovereign debt crisis, the symposium builds on a roundtable discussion held at the opening of the Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo) in Paris on November 29, 2012.Introduction Marion Fourcade and Cornelia Woll High wages in the financial crisis Philippe Steiner The morality of rescuing banks Cornelia Woll The construction of a moral duty for the Greek people to repay their national debt Wolfgang Streeck The economy as morality play, and implications for the Eurozone crisis Marion Fourcad

Shortening of the Short Refractory Periods in Short QT Syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of short QT syndrome (SQTS) remains difficult in case of borderline QT values as often found in normal populations. Whether some shortening of refractory periods (RP) may help in differentiating SQTS from normal subjects is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: Atrial and right ventricular RP at the apex and right ventricular outflow tract as determined during standard electrophysiological study were compared between 16 SQTS patients (QTc 324±24 ms) and 15 controls with similar clinical characteristics (QTc 417±32 ms). Atrial RP were significantly shorter in SQTS compared with controls at 600- and 500-ms basic cycle lengths. Baseline ventricular RP were significantly shorter in SQTS patients than in controls, both at the apex and right ventricular outflow tract and for any cycle length. Differences remained significant for RP of any subsequent extrastimulus at any cycle length and any pacing site. A cut-off value of baseline RP <200 ms at the right ventricular outflow tract either at 600- or 500-ms cycle length had a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 100% for the diagnosis of SQTS. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with SQTS have shorter ventricular RP than controls, both at baseline during various cycle lengths and after premature extrastimuli. A cut-off value of 200 ms at the right ventricular outflow tract during 600- and 500-ms basic cycle length may help in detecting true SQTS from normal subjects with borderline QT values

Postural adaptations to unilateral knee joint hypomobility induced by orthosis wear during gait initiation

Abstract Balance control and whole-body progression during gait initiation (GI) involve knee-joint mobility. Single knee-joint hypomobility often occurs with aging, orthopedics or neurological conditions. The goal of the present study was to investigate the capacity of the CNS to adapt GI organization to single knee-joint hypomobility induced by the wear of an orthosis. Twenty-seven healthy adults performed a GI series on a force-plate in the following conditions: without orthosis ("control"), with knee orthosis over the swing leg ("orth-swing") and with the orthosis over the contralateral stance leg ("orth-stance"). In orth-swing, amplitude of mediolateral anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) and step width were larger, execution phase duration longer, and anteroposterior APAs smaller than in control. In orth-stance, mediolateral APAs duration was longer, step width larger, and amplitude of anteroposterior APAs smaller than in control. Consequently, step length and progression velocity (which relate to the "motor performance") were reduced whereas stability was enhanced compared to control. Vertical force impact at foot-contact did not change across conditions, despite a smaller step length in orthosis conditions compared to control. These results show that the application of a local mechanical constraint induced profound changes in the global GI organization, altering motor performance but ensuring greater stability

Demographic changes and economic growth: a macroeconomic projection for 2020

Exploring the economic consequences of demographic changes is often carried out within simple accounting frameworks. Such approaches consist of projecting the impact of ageing on social security expenditures under exogenous assumptions about economic growth, productivity, wages and employment. Alternative attempts to consider richer interactions between economic and demographic variables are carried out with calibrated computable general equilibrium models with overlapping generations. These models are basically neoclassical. Up to now in France, this question seldom has been examined with macroeconometric models of keynesian inspiration. Studying the results provided by such models for France may therefore be of interest. This is the purpose of this work, which presents an economic outlook for 2020 carried out with MESANGE macroeconometric model. This model has short term keynesian and long term neo-classical properties. This exercise integrates the impact of demographic changes on savings, consumption, social expenditures and disequilibrium on the labour market. Labour force projections and the natural dynamics of the model lead to employment levels that remain insufficient to ensure balance in social accounts. Additional taxes would therefore be required. Two possibilities are explored: the CSG or Generalized Social Contribution (a constant tax rate on capital and labor income) or employers and employees social contributions (with or without an impact of employees contributions on the fiscal wedge). The model predicts that the level of employment is less penalised by the former modality. We also explore the consequences of tougher conditions to get full pensions which, at the 2020 horizon, would lead to a one-year increase of the age of new retirees. In this case, the increase of the CSG that would be required to meet Maastricht criteria amounts to 4.3 points. Choosing between CSG and social contributions might nevertheless depend on other considerations, such as their incidence on the relative standards of living of workers and pensioners, or the wish to keep a strong correspondence between pension benefits and contributions paid during working life.retirement, ageing, growth, sustainability of public spending

Impermeability effects in three-dimensional vesicles

We analyse the effects that the impermeability constraint induces on the equilibrium shapes of a three-dimensional vesicle hosting a rigid inclusion. A given alteration of the inclusion and/or vesicle parameters leads to shape modifications of different orders of magnitude, when applied to permeable or impermeable vesicles. Moreover, the enclosed-volume constraint wrecks the uniqueness of stationary equilibrium shapes, and gives rise to pear-shaped or stomatocyte-like vesicles.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Mechanism of CDW-SDW Transition in One Dimension

The phase transition between charge- and spin-density-wave (CDW, SDW) phases is studied in the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model at half-filling. We discuss whether the transition can be described by the Gaussian and the spin-gap transitions under charge-spin separation, or by a direct CDW-SDW transition. We determine these phase boundaries by level crossings of excitation spectra which are identified according to discrete symmetries of wave functions. We conclude that the Gaussian and the spin-gap transitions take place separately from weak- to intermediate-coupling region. This means that the third phase exists between the CDW and the SDW states. Our results are also consistent with those of the strong-coupling perturbative expansion and of the direct evaluation of order parameters.Comment: 5 pages(REVTeX), 5 figures(EPS), 1 table, also available from http://wwwsoc.nacsis.ac.jp/jps/jpsj/1999/p68a/p68a42/p68a42h/p68a42h.htm