4,932 research outputs found
Social security and the search behaviour of workers approaching retirement
This paper explores the links between unemployment, retirement and their associated public insurance programs. It is a contribution to a growing body of literature focused on a better understanding of the labor behavior of advancedâage workers, which has gained importance as the pension crisis looms. The analysis combines the development of a new theoretical model and a detailed exploration of the empirical regularities using the Spanish Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL) dataset. The model is a extension of the standard search model, designed to reproduce the nonâstationary environment faced by workers approaching retirement and to explore the interaction of unemployment benefits and retirement pensions. Via calibrated simulations we show that the basic empirical reemployment and retirement patterns can be rationalized as the optimal responses to both the labor market conditions and the institutional incentives. Generous Unemployment Benefits (for durations of up to two years) together with very significant early retirement penalties, make optimal to stay unemployed without searching for large groups of unemployed workers. This moral hazard problem can he substantially alleviated through institutional reform. Setting the early retirement penalties according to the age when the individual withdraws from the labor force (rather than when he/she claims the pension for the first time) seems particularly beneficial. It increases the labor supply, reduces the financial cost for the social security system and generate enough extra resources to compensate for the welfare loss of those unemployed directly hit by the reform.Unemployment search, job benefit, retirement
Retirement incentives, individual heterogeneity and labour transitions of employed and unemployed workers
In this paper we analyze the sensitivity of the labour market decisions of workers close to retirement with respect to the incentives created by public regulations. We improve upon the extensive prior literature on the effect of pension incentives on retirement in two ways. First, by modeling the transitions between employment, unemployment and retirement in a simultaneous manner, paying special attention to the transition from unemployment to retirement (which is particularly important in Spain). Second, by considering the influence of unobserved heterogeneity in the estimation of the effect of our (carefully constructed) incentive variables. Using administrative data, we find that, when properly defined, economic incentives have a strong impact on labour market decisions in Spain. Unemployment regulations are shown to be particularly influential for retirement behaviour, along with the more traditional determinants linked to the pension system. Pension variables also have a major bearing on both workersâ reemployment decisions and on the strategic actions of employers. The quantitative impact of the incentives, however, is greatly affected by the existence of unobserved heterogeneity among workers. Its omission leads to sizable biases in the assessment of the sensitivity to economic incentives, a finding that has clear consequences for the credibility of any model-based policy analysis. We confirm the importance of this potential problem in one especially interesting instance: the reform of early retirement provisions undertaken in Spain in 2002. We use a difference-in-difference approach to measure the behavioural reaction to this change, finding a large overestimation when unobserved heterogeneity is not taken into account.Retirement, unemployment, incentives, Pension system, Unobserved, heterogeneity, Spain.
Social Security and the search behaviour of workers approaching retirement
This paper explores the links between unemployment, retirement and their associated public insurance programs. It is a contribution to a growing body of literature focused on a better understanding of the labor behavior of advanced-age workers, which has gained importance as the pension crisis looms. It also contributes to the literature of optimal unemployment insurance by exploring the interaction of unemployment benefits and retirement pensions. The analysis combines the development of a new theoretical model and a detailed exploration of the empirical regularities using the Spanish Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales (MCVL) dataset. The model is an extension of the standard search model, designed to reproduce the non-stationary environment faced by workers of advanced ages (in the age range 50/65). Via calibrated simulations we show that the basic empirical re-employment and retirement patterns can be considered as rational responses to both the labor market conditions and the institutional incentives. Generous Unemployment Benefits (for durations of up to two years) together with very significant early retirement penalties, make optimal to stay unemployed without searching for large groups of unemployed workers. This moral hazard problem can be substantially alleviated through institutional reform. We explore several potential reforms and find that changing the details of early retirement pensions seems more promising than changing the Unemployment Benefit system.Unemployment, Retirement, Search models
Spinor calculus on 5-dimensional spacetimes
Penrose's spinor calculus of 4-dimensional Lorentzian geometry is extended to
the case of 5-dimensional Lorentzian geometry. Such fruitful ideas in Penrose's
spinor calculus as the spin covariant derivative, the curvature spinors or the
definition of the spin coefficients on a spin frame can be carried over to the
spinor calculus in 5-dimensional Lorentzian geometry. The algebraic and
differential properties of the curvature spinors are studied in detail and as
an application we extend the well-known 4-dimensional Newman-Penrose formalism
to a 5-dimensional spacetime.Comment: Convention mismatch and minor typos fixed. To appear in Journal of
Mathematical Physic
Terahertz surface plasmon polariton propagation and focusing on periodically corrugated metal wires
In this letter we show how the dispersion relation of surface plasmon
polaritons (SPPs) propagating along a perfectly conducting wire can be tailored
by corrugating its surface with a periodic array of radial grooves. In this
way, highly localized SPPs can be sustained in the terahertz region of the
electromagnetic spectrum. Importantly, the propagation characteristics of these
spoof SPPs can be controlled by the surface geometry, opening the way to
important applications such as energy concentration on cylindrical wires and
superfocusing using conical structures.Comment: accepted at PRL, submitted 29th May 200
Anisotropic thermal magnetoresistance for an active control of radiative heat transfer
We predict a huge anisotropic thermal magnetoresistance (ATMR) in the
near-field radiative heat transfer between magneto-optical particles when the
direction of an external magnetic field is changed with respect to the heat
current direction. We illustrate this effect with the case of two InSb
spherical particles where we find that the ATMR amplitude can reach values of
up to 800% for a magnetic field of 5 T, which is many orders of magnitude
larger than its spintronic analogue in electronic devices. This thermomagnetic
effect could find broad applications in the fields of ultrafast thermal
management as well as magnetic and thermal remote sensing.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Precise dispersive data analysis of the f0(600) pole
We review how the use of recent precise data on kaon decays together with
forward dispersion relations (FDR) and Roy's equations allow us to determine
the sigma resonance pole position very precisely, by using only experimental
input. In addition, we present preliminary results for a modified set of
Roy-like equations with only one subtraction, that show a remarkable
improvement in the precision around the sigma region. We also improve the
matching between the parametrizations at low and intermediate energy of the S0
wave, and show that the effect of this on the sigma pole position is
negligible.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the proceedings of the Meson 2008
conference, June 6-10, Cracow, Polan
Hierarchy and Competition in CSCW applications: Model and case study
CSCW applications need to adapt themselves to the functional and organizational structures of people that use them. However they do not usually support division in groups with a certain hierarchical structure among them. In this paper, we propose and study a theoretical model of groupware appliations that reflects those hierarchical interactions. The proposed model is also intended to evaluate the effects in performance derived from competitive and collaborative relationships among the components of a hierarchy of groups. In order to demonstrate the above ideas, a groupware game, called Alymod, was designed and implemented using a modified version of a well-known CSCW Toolkit, namely Groupkit. Groupkit was modified in order to support group interactions in the same CSCW application. In Alymod, participants compete or collaborate within a hierarchical structure to achieve a common goal (completing gaps in a text, finishing numerical series, resolving University course examinations, etc.).Publicad
High-order gauge-invariant perturbations of a spherical spacetime
We complete the formulation of a general framework for the analysis of
high-order nonspherical perturbations of a four-dimensional spherical spacetime
by including a gauge-invariant description of the perturbations. We present a
general algorithm to construct these invariants and provide explicit formulas
for the case of second-order metric perturbations. We show that the well-known
problem of lack of invariance for the first-order perturbations with l=0,1
propagates to increasing values of l for perturbations of higher order, owing
to mode coupling. We also discuss in which circumstances it is possible to
construct the invariants
New simulations to qualify eutectic lithium-lead as breeder material
Pb17Li is today a reference breeder material in diverse fusion R&D programs worldwide. One of the main issues is the problem of liquid metals breeder blanket behavior. The knowledge of eutectic properties like optimal composition, physical and thermodynamic behavior or diffusion coefficients of Tritium are extremely necessary for current designs. In particular, the knowledge of the function linking the tritium concentration dissolved in liquid materials with the tritium partial pressure at a liquid/gas interface in equilibrium, CT =f(PT ), is of basic importance because it directly impacts all functional properties of a blanket determining: tritium inventory, tritium permeation rate and tritium extraction efficiency. Nowadays, understanding the structure and behavior of this compound is a real goal in fusion engineering and materials science. Atomistic simulations of liquids can provide much information; not only supplementing experimental data, but providing new tests of theories and ideas, making specific predictions that require experimental tests, and ultimately helping to a deeper understandin
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