Equality of Opportunity and Inheritance Taxation

In this chapter, the relationship between inheritance and equality of opportunity is examined within the context of the increasing socioeconomic inequality in recent years. While equality of opportunity is often cited as a justification for inheritance taxation, the relationship between inheritance and equality of opportunity is quite complex, depending both on how equality of opportunity is interpreted and how it is integrated with other normative ideals. The chapter begins by outlining the main versions of equality of opportunity and then turns its attention to John Rawls’ notion of fair equality of opportunity. This allows for a discussion of the tension between equality of opportunity and family autonomy, a central topic in debates on inheritance taxation. Next, the chapter examines Anne L. Alstott’s resource egalitarian treatment of inheritance taxation and her views on the implications for inheritance taxation of a single-minded focus on equality of opportunity. Finally, the chapter outlines Thomas Piketty’s recent proposal for a broader institutional scheme. Piketty’s work is here viewed as developing Rawlsian ideas, emphasizing how equality of opportunity must be integrated with other normative ideals and inheritance taxation with other forms of taxation.acceptedVersio

The Economics of Technology Stock Prices An empirical study of the relationship between macroeconomic variables and the Norwegian technology index

Many of today's largest and most influential companies are in the technology sector. In recent years, these firms have experienced enormous growth in their stock price. For investors, this has been an excellent opportunity to make abnormal returns by investing in technology stocks. In the same period as the technology stock prices increased, there also were major changes in the economic environment. This suggests that the macroeconomic development has an impact of the prices of technology stocks. The purpose of our thesis is therefore to examine the relationship between chosen economic variables and the performance of the Oslo Stock Exchange technology index by answering the following research question: How do macroeconomic determinants affect the development of the Norwegian technology index? To answer the research question, we use quarterly time series data over a period spanning from 2000-2021. Based on earlier research and economic theory, seven macroeconomic variables are included. These are the 3-month NIBOR rate, inflation, the oil price, NOK/USD exchange rate, gross domestic product per capita, gross fixed capital formation and credit to the private sector. Previous literature has to a large extent examined the relationship between macroeconomic factors and the market as a whole. Our research differs from previous literature by focusing on the development of one specific sector. This can contribute to explain how the economics of technology stock prices differ from the overall stock market and how investors can exploit these differences to decide how and when to invest in the technology sector. The results of our analysis confirm that there exists a relationship between the macroeconomic factors and the Norwegian technology index. Several different relationships are found in our models. However, both models suggested a significant relationship from the 3-month NIBOR rate, inflation, the oil price and exchange rate to the value of the technology index, making those relationships robust. Investors should therefore be aware of the development of these factors when investing in the Norwegian technology stock market. Further, our analysis found no relationships from the technology index to any of the macroeconomic variables, implying that the index is a bad indicator for predicting the development of the macroeconomic variables.nhhma

The Coastal Sámi of Norway and their rights to traditional marine livelihood

The coastal Sámi of Norway have, for thousands of years and long before the Norwegian state was established, relied on a wide range of marine and terrestrial resources. Due to increased public regulations over the past few decades, it has become difficult to continue their traditional livelihood, combining fishery in local seawaters with husbandry or other local industries on land. Fish quotas have been made tradable, and so to a large extent transferred outside the local communities. This article presents a short historical background, and discusses two legal documents from the 18th century, which are relevant for coastal fishery rights in northernmost Norway. The first is the Lapp Codicil of 1751, which may pertain to the coastal Sámi today when its founding principle – the preservation of the “Lappish Nation” (Sámi Nation) – is duly considered. The other document is the Land Acquisition Decree of 1775, which included a formalization of the sea-fishing rights of the inhabitants of Finnmark.Keywords: Coastal Sámi, Finnmark, ancient use, sea-fishing rights, Lapp Codicil (1751), Land Acquisition Decree (1775), UN Declaration on indigenous rights (2007).Citation: Arctic Review on Law and Politics, vol. 3, 1/2012 p. 51–80. ISSN 1891-625

Restructuring of a zooplankton community by perturbation from a wind-forced coastal jet

The impact of transient wind events on an established zooplankton community was observed during a field survey in a coastal region off northern Norway in May 2002. A transient wind event induced a coastal jet/filament intrusion of warm, saline water into our survey area where a semi-permanent eddy was present. There was an abrupt change in zooplankton community structure within 4–7 days of the wind event, with a change in the size structure, an increase in lower size classes less than 1 mm in equivalent spherical diameter (ESD) and a decrease in larger size classes greater than 1.5 mm in ESD. The slope of zooplankton biovolume spectra changed from −0.6 to −0.8, consistent with the size shifting towards smaller size classes. This study shows that even well established zooplankton communities are susceptible to restructuring during transient wind events, and in particular when wind forcing induces horizontal currents or filaments

Obesity-induced alterations in the gut microbiome in female mice fed a high-fat diet are antagonized by dietary supplementation with a novel, wax ester–rich, marine oil

Dietary supplementation with calanus oil, a novel wax ester–rich marine oil, has been shown to reduce adiposity in high-fat diet (HFD)–induced obese mice. Current evidence suggests that obesity and its comorbidities are intrinsically linked with unfavorable changes in the intestinal microbiome. Thus, in line with its antiobesity effect, we hypothesized that dietary supplementation with calanus oil should counteract the obesity-related deleterious changes in the gut microbiota. Seven-week-old female C57bl/6J mice received an HFD for 12 weeks to induce obesity followed by 8-week supplementation with 2% calanus oil. For comparative reasons, another group of mice was treated with exenatide, an antiobesogenic glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist. Mice fed normal chow diet or nonsupplemented HFD for 20 weeks served as lean and obese controls, respectively. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed on fecal samples from the colon. HFD increased the abundance of the Lactococcus and Leuconostoc genera relative to normal chow diet, whereas abundances of Allobaculum and Oscillospira were decreased. Supplementation with calanus oil led to an apparent overrepresentation of Lactobacillus and Streptococcus and underrepresentation of Bilophila. Exenatide prevented the HFD-induced increase in Lactococcus and caused a decrease in the abundance of Streptococcus compared to the HFD group. Thus, HFD altered the gut microbiota composition in an unhealthy direction by increasing the abundance of proinflammatory genera while reducing those considered health-promoting. These obesity-induced changes were antagonized by both calanus oil and exenatide

Exploring Co-Design with Breastfeeding Mothers

Designing mobile applications for breastfeeding mothers can be challenging; creating spaces to foster co-design -- when a mother's primary focus is on her child rather than on design activities - is even more so. In this paper we discuss the development of the Milk Matters mobile application, a tool developed to motivate women to donate their surplus breast milk to the local milk bank. We look at the importance of different approaches to understanding the mothers, comparing workshops, surveys, and cultural probes. Through our work we identify three factors to consider when co-designing with and for mothers: 1) interrupted interactions 2) elements that might distract a baby and 3) the importance of empowering mothers through positive reinforcement. Based on these factors we examine our methodological approaches, suggesting ways to make future research with breastfeeding mothers more productive

Version 2 of the EUMETSAT OSI SAF and ESA CCI sea-ice concentration climate data records

We introduce the OSI-450, the SICCI-25km and the SICCI-50km climate data records of gridded global sea-ice concentration. These three records are derived from passive microwave satellite data and offer three distinct advantages compared to existing records: first, all three records provide quantitative information on uncertainty and possibly applied filtering at every grid point and every time step. Second, they are based on dynamic tie points, which capture the time evolution of surface characteristics of the ice cover and accommodate potential calibration differences between satellite missions. Third, they are produced in the context of sustained services offering committed extension, documentation, traceability, and user support. The three records differ in the underlying satellite data (SMMR &amp; SSM/I &amp; SSMIS or AMSR-E &amp; AMSR2), in the imaging frequency channels (37&thinsp;GHz and either 6 or 19&thinsp;GHz), in their horizontal resolution (25 or 50&thinsp;km), and in the time period they cover. We introduce the underlying algorithms and provide an evaluation. We find that all three records compare well with independent estimates of sea-ice concentration both in regions with very high sea-ice concentration and in regions with very low sea-ice concentration. We hence trust that these records will prove helpful for a better understanding of the evolution of the Earth's sea-ice cover.</p

Prediction of function in daily life following multidisciplinary rehabilitation for individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain; a prospective study

Background: The prevalence of chronic musculoskeletal pain is high, with widespread negative economic, psychological, and social consequences for the individual. It is therefore important to find ways to predict the outcome of rehabilitation programmes in terms of function in daily life. The aims of this study were to investigate the improvements over time from multidisciplinary rehabilitation in terms of pain and function, and analyse the relative impact of individual and psychosocial factors as predictors of function in daily life in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Methods: A prospective study was conducted among one hundred and forty three (N = 143) musculoskeletal pain patients. Measures of pain, function, and functional health status were obtained at baseline, after 5 weeks of intensive training, at the end of the 57-week rehabilitation programme, and at a 1 year follow-up, using validated self-administrated measures. Linear regression analysis was applied to investigate the relative impact of musculoskeletal pain, individual- , and psychosocial factors in function. Results: The participants studied showed a significant increase in function during the 57 weeks rehabilitation period. There was also a significant increase in function from the end of the rehabilitation period (57th week) to the one year follow-up measures. Pain intensity associated significantly with pain experience over all measurement periods. High levels of pain intensity (β = .42**) and pain experience (β = .37*), and poor psychological capacity (β = -.68*) at baseline, as well as poor physiological capacity (β = -.44**) and high levels of anxiety (β = .48**) and depression (β = .58***) at the end of the rehabilitation program were the most important prognostic factors of variance in functioning over the 4 measurement periods. Conclusion: The data suggest that physical capacity, emotional distress and coping skills should be priority areas in rehabilitation programmes to improve functioning in daily life

Search for heavy lepton resonances decaying to a ZZ boson and a lepton in pppp collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy leptons decaying to a $Z$ boson and an electron or a muon is presented. The search is based on $pp$ collision data taken at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$, Three high-transverse-momentum electrons or muons are selected, with two of them required to be consistent with originating from a $Z$ boson decay. No significant excess above Standard Model background predictions is observed, and 95% confidence level limits on the production cross section of high-mass trilepton resonances are derived. The results are interpreted in the context of vector-like lepton and type-III seesaw models. For the vector-like lepton model, most heavy lepton mass values in the range 114-176 GeV are excluded. For the type-III seesaw model, most mass values in the range 100-468 GeV are excluded