Wealth inequality and aggregate demand

The paper investigates how including the distribution of wealth changes the demand effects of redistributing functional income. It develops a model with an endogenous wealth distribution and shows that the endogenous rise in wealth inequality resulting from a redistribution towards profits weakens the growth effects of this redistribution. Consequently, a wage-led regime becomes more strongly wage-led. A profit-led regime on the other hand becomes less profit-led and there may even be a regime switch - in this case the short-run profit-led economy becomes wage-led in the long run due to the endogenous effects of wealth inequality. The paper thereby provides a possible explanation for the instability of demand regimes over time.Series: Ecological Economic Paper

Making sense of Piketty's "fundamental laws" in a Post-Keynesian framework

Piketty's main theoretical prediction is that a small elite will own all wealth if capitalism is left to its own devices. We formulate and calibrate a Post-Keynesian model with an endogenous distribution of wealth between workers and capitalists. The model permits Piketty's Corner solution of all wealth held by capitalists; however, it also shows that interior solutions with a stable, non-zero wealth share of workers, a stable wealth-to-income ratio, and a stable and positive gap between the profit and the growth rate determined by the Cambridge equation. Furthermore, simulations show that the model confirms to Piketty's empirical findings in a transitional phase, in which the wealth share of capitalists rises to over 60%, the wealth-toincome ratio increases, and income inequality rises. Finally, we show that the introduction of a wealth tax as suggested by Piketty could neutralize the rise in wealth concentration.Series: INEQ Working Paper Serie

Rich and Ever Richer: Differential Returns Across Socio-Economic Groups

This paper estimates rates of return across the gross wealth distribution in eight European countries. Like differential saving rates, differential rates of return matter for Post Keynesian theory, because they impact the income and wealth distribution and add an explosive element to growth models. We show that differential rates of return matter empirically by merging data on household balance sheets with long-run returns for individual asset categories. We find that (1) the composition of wealth differentiates between three socioeconomic groups: 30% are asset-poor, 65% are middle-class home owners, and the top 5% are business-owning capitalists; (2) rates of return rise across all groups; and (3) rates of return broadly follow a log-shaped function across the distribution, where inequality in the lower half of the distribution is higher than in the upper half. If socioeconomic groups are collapsed into the bottom 95% workers and top 5% capitalists, then rates of return are 5.6% for the former and 7.2% for the latter.Series: Ecological Economic Paper

Development of a monitoring system for heroin-assisted substitution treatment in Switzerland

Summary: Objectives: Switzerland introduced heroin-assisted treatment as a routine treatment for drug addicts. As a result the evaluation instruments were changed from a detailed scientific project to a routine monitoring system. The process for developing this monitoring system is described. Methods: The questionnaires and assessment instruments were restyled with staff of the treatment agencies. Indicators measuring quality of treatment and measures from the future national statistic on the addiction support system were integrated into admission, course and discharge questionnaires. Currently a system for feedback to treatment agencies is being developed. Results: All 21 treatment agencies are participating in the monitoring. Assessment quality is high. Conclusions: The described monitoring should provide continuous delivery of basic relevant data on patient

Specifying the light-absorbing properties of aerosol particles in fresh snow samples, collected at the Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus (UFS), Zugspitze

Atmospheric aerosol particles like mineral dust, volcanic ash and combustion particles can reduce Earth’s snow and ice albedo considerably even by very small amounts of deposited particle mass. In this study, a new laboratory method is applied to measure the spectral light absorption coefficient of airborne particles that are released from fresh snow samples by an efficient nebulizing system. Threewavelength photoacoustic absorption spectroscopy is combined with refractory black carbon (BC) mass analysis to determine the snow mass-specific and BC mass-specific absorption cross sections. Fullerene soot in water suspensions are used for the characterization of the method and for the determination of the mass-specific absorption cross section of this BC reference material. The analysis of 31 snow samples collected after fresh snowfall events at a high-altitude Alpine research station reveals a significant discrepancy between the measured snow mass-specific absorption cross section and the cross section that is expected from the BC mass data, indicating that non-BC light-absorbing particles are present in the snow. Mineral dust and brown carbon (BrC) are identified as possible candidates for the non-BC particle mass based on the wavelength dependence of the measured absorption. For one sample this result is confirmed by environmental scanning electron microscopy and by single-particle fluorescence measurements, which both indicate a high fraction of biogenic and organic particle mass in the sample

Umsetzungskonzept der Universitäten des Landes Baden-Württemberg für das High Performance Computing (HPC), Data Intensive Computing (DIC) und Large Scale Scientific Data Management (LS² DM)

Computational Sciences1 und damit die HPC-Systeme als ihr technisches Fundament gewinnen unablässig an Bedeutung, wie auch der Wissenschaftsrat in seinen jüngsten Empfehlungen zur „Finanzierung des Nationalen Hoch- und Höchstleistungsrechnens in Deutschland“2 betont. Die fortschreitende Digitalisierung der Wissenschaft generiert auf Basis verschiedener Forschungs- infrastrukturen Forschungsdaten und damit Anforderungen, die von der schnellen Speicherung bei der Datenerhebung, über die Verarbeitung in HPC- und Cloudsystemen bis hin zur notwen- digen Aufarbeitung der Daten im Sinne „guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis“ reichen. Die Analyse dieser großen Datenmengen zur Gewinnung von neuen Erkenntnissen wird Data Intensive Computing (DIC) genannt – sie wird heute neben Theorie, Experiment und Simulation als vierte Säule der Wissenschaft3 bezeichnet. Hinzu kommen die notwendigen technischen und organi- satorischen Maßnahmen für eine nachhaltige Nutzung der Daten, die eine langfristige Speiche- rung und eine nach Möglichkeit öffentliche Zugänglichkeit garantieren. Der Erkenntnis folgend, dass diese neuen Anforderungen nicht mehr sinnvoll von einzelnen Universitäten oder Forschungsinstitutionen bedient werden können, koordinieren die wissen- schaftlichen Rechenzentren des Landes Baden-Württemberg ihre Aktivitäten diesbezüglich. Gleichzeitig wollen die Landesuniversitäten den Empfehlungen des Rats für Informationsinfra- strukturen (RfII) folgen und ihre Infrastrukturentwicklungen mit dem Aufbau einer Infrastruk- tur für Forschungsdatenmanagement auf Basis ihrer HPC- und DATA-Konzepte verschränken. Kooperative Lösungen helfen die beschriebenen Herausforderungen zu bewältigen und verspre- chen einen institutionen- und disziplinübergreifenden Mehrwert. Für die Periode von 2018 bis 2024 ist es das Ziel aller beteiligten Akteure, den beschrittenen Weg der Kooperation gemäß der HPC Landesstrategie4 weiter zu verfolgen. Damit baut das Land Ba- den-Württemberg ein wesentliches Alleinstellungsmerkmal bei der Unterstützung der Wissen- schaften aus und bekundet ausdrücklich das Interesse und die Bereitschaft, in einer frühen Phase beim Aufbau und der Entwicklung der Nationalen Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI)5 mitzuwirken. Im Sinne eines integrierten Ansatzes werden die bestehenden Konzepte für HPC, DIC und LS2DM weiterentwickelt und in einer gemeinsamen Strategie zusammengeführt. Gleichzeitig werden die Grundlagen für eine frühe Beteiligung am Aufbau einer NFDI geschaffen und erforderliche Infrastrukturen bereitgestellt

High-Throughput NMR Assessment of the Tertiary Structure of Food Allergens

In vitro component-resolved diagnosis of food allergy requires purified allergens that have to meet high standards of quality. These include the authentication of their conformation, which is relevant for the recognition by specific IgE antibodies from allergic patients. Therefore, highly sensitive and reliable screening methods for the analysis of proteins/allergens are required to assess their structural integrity. In the present study one-dimensional 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1D 1H-NMR) analysis was adopted for the assessment of overall structural and dynamic properties and authentication of a set of relevant food allergens, including non-specific lipid transfer proteins from apple, peach and hazelnut, 7/8S seed storage globulins from hazelnut and peanut, 11S seed storage globulins from hazelnut and peanut, caseins from cows' and goats' milk and tropomyosin from shrimp.Two sets of 1D 1H-NMR experiments, using 700 MHz and 600 MHz instruments at 298 K were carried out to determine the presence and the extent of tertiary structure. Structural similarity among members of the individual allergen families was also assessed and changes under thermal stress investigated. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) results were compared with structural information available either from the literature, Protein Data Bank entries, or derived from molecular models.1D (1)H-NMR analysis of food allergens allowed their classification into molecules with rigid, extended and ordered tertiary structures, molecules without a rigid tertiary structure and molecules which displayed both features. Differences in thermal stability were also detected. In summary, 1D (1)H-NMR gives insights into molecular fold of proteins and offers an independent method for assessing structural properties of proteins