Cycles of Wage Discrimination

Using CPS data from 1979-2009 we examine how cyclical downturns and industry-specific demand shocks affect wage differentials between white non-Hispanic males and women, Hispanics and African-Americans. Women's and Hispanics' relative earnings are harmed by negative shocks, while the earnings disadvantage of African-Americans may drop with negative shocks. Negative shocks also appear to increase the earnings disadvantage of bad-looking workers. A theory of job search suggests two opposite-signed mechanisms that affect these wage differentials. It suggests greater absolute effects among job-movers, which is verified using the longitudinal component of the CPS.women, minorities, beauty, search models

Beauty, Productivity and Discrimination: Lawyers' Looks and Lucre

We propose several models in which an ascriptive characteristic generates earnings differentials and is sorted across sectors. The general approach shows how to distinguish the ultimate sources of labor-market returns to such characteristics; the specific example uses longitudinal data on a large sample of attorneys who graduated from one law school. Beauty is measured by ratings of their matriculation photographs. 1) Better-looking attorneys who graduated in the 1970s earned more after 5 years of practice than their worse- looking classmates, other things equal, an effect that grew even larger by the fifteenth year of practice. There is no impact of beauty on earnings among 1980s graduates. 2) Attorneys in the private sector are better-looking than those in the public sector, with the differences rising as workers sort across sector based on their beauty. 3) Male attorneys' probability of attaining an early partnership rises with beauty. The results support a theory of dynamic sorting and the role of customer behavior. We cannot determine whether this is because clients discriminate or because better-looking lawyers are able to obtain greater pecuniary gains for their clients.

Localization in one-dimensional incommensurate lattices beyond the Aubry-Andr\'e model

Localization properties of particles in one-dimensional incommensurate lattices without interaction are investigated with models beyond the tight-binding Aubry-Andr\'e (AA) model. Based on a tight-binding t_1 - t_2 model with finite next-nearest-neighbor hopping t_2, we find the localization properties qualitatively different from those of the AA model, signaled by the appearance of mobility edges. We then further go beyond the tight-binding assumption and directly study the system based on the more fundamental single-particle Schr\"odinger equation. With this approach, we also observe the presence of mobility edges and localization properties dependent on incommensuration.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Editorial for special issue: Advances in sedentary behavior research and translation

Sedentary behaviour—essentially low energy sitting time in waking hours—has emerged as an important topic in public health over the past decade or so. Although Morris and colleagues [1] analysed health outcomes of active versus seated occupations over 60 years ago, it was not until studies of TV viewing in children in the 1980s [2] that researchers started to recognise “too much sitting” as a potentially important health behaviour. Even then the rapid rise in the study of sedentary behaviour was not so evident until the early 2000s [3]–[5]. Studies on screen viewing (TV and computers), sitting at work and school, and sitting in cars have all emerged over this period, as well as a general recognition that high levels of sitting may have detrimental effects on health, and possibly be independent of levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). In the past 10–15 years there has been an exponential increase in papers addressing sedentary behaviour from the perspective of sitting, noting that many exercise physiologists still use the word 'sedentary' incorrectly by referring to those not meeting a criterion level of “sufficient” physical activity

Variational Monte Carlo study of spin polarization stability of fractional quantum Hall states against realistic effects in half-filled Landau levels

We compare ground state energies by variational Monte Carlo of the spin unpolarized Halperin 331 and the spin polarized Moore-Read (MR) Pfaffian fractional quantum Hall states at half-filling of the lowest Landau level (LLL) and the second Landau level (SLL) as a function of small deviations around the Coulomb point via the finite thickness effect and direct alterations to the the first two Haldane pseudopotentials. In the comparison we find that in the LLL, either the 331 state or the MR Pfaffian may be lower in energy depending on the deviations. In the SLL, however, the MR Pfaffian is consistently lower in energy except for large deviations. These results suggest that even under moderate deviations in the interaction potential (through various physical processes such as finite thickness, Landau level mixing, etc.), the MR Pfaffian description is more energetically favorable than the Halperin 331 state in the half-filled SLL (i.e. $\nu = 5/2$), consistent with recent experimental investigations.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Entanglement Measures for Quasi-Two-Dimensional Fractional Quantum Hall States

We theoretically examine entanglement in fractional quantum hall states, explicitly taking into account and emphasizing the quasi-two-dimensional nature of experimental quantum Hall systems. In particular, we study the entanglement entropy and the entanglement spectrum as a function of the finite layer thickness $d$ of the quasi-two-dimensional system for a number of filling fractions $\nu$ in the lowest and the second Landau levels: $\nu$ = 1/3, 7/3, 1/2, and 5/2. We observe that the entanglement measures are dependent on which Landau level the electrons fractionally occupy, and find that filling factions 1/3 and 7/3, which are considered to be Laughlin states, weaken with $d$ in the lowest Landau level ($\nu$=1/3) and strengthen with $d$ in the second Landau level ($\nu$=7/3). For the enigmatic even-denominator $\nu=5/2$ state, we find that entanglement in the ground state is consistent with that of the non-Abelian Moore-Read Pfaffian state at an optimal thickness $d$. We also find that the single-layer $\nu = 1/2$ system is not a fractional quantum Hall state consistent with the experimental observation. In general, our theoretical findings based on entanglement considerations are completely consistent with the results based on wavefunction overlap calculations.Comment: 24 pages, 26 figure

Business Success and Businesses' Beauty Capital

We examine whether a difference in pay for beauty is supported by different productivity of people according to looks. Using a sample of advertising firms, we find that those firms with better-looking executives have higher revenues and faster growth than do otherwise identical firms whose executives are not so good-looking. The impact on revenue far exceeds the likely effect of beauty on the executives' wages. This suggests that their beauty creates firm-specific investments, in the form of improved relationships within work groups, the returns to which are shared by the firm and the executive.

Beauty and the Labor Market

We develop a theory of sorting across occupations based on looks and derive its implications for testing for the source of earnings differentials related to looks. These differentials are examined using the 1977 Quality of Employment, the 1971 Quality of American Life, and the 1981 Canadian Quality of Life surveys, all of which contain interviewers' ratings of the respondents' physical appearance. Holding constant demographic and labor-market characteristics, plain people earn less than people of average looks, who earn less than the good-looking. The penalty for plainness is 5 to 10 percent, slightly larger than the premium for beauty. The effects are slightly larger for men than women; but unattractive women are less likely than others to participate in the labor force and are more likely to be married to men with unexpectedly low human capital. Better-looking people sort into occupations where beauty is likely to be more productive; but the impact of individuals' looks on their earnings is mostly independent of occupation.

Sedentary behaviour interventions in young people: A meta-analysis

Background: There is increasing concern about the time young people spend in sedentary behaviour ('sitting time'), especially with the development of attractive home-based electronic entertainment. This may have deleterious health effects. Purpose: To ascertain, through a meta-analytic review, whether interventions targeted at reducing sedentary behaviours in young people are successful. Method: ERIC, MedLine, PsychInfo, SportDiscus and the Cochrane Library databases were searched up to 2010. Titles and abstracts of identifi ed papers were examined against inclusion criteria. Included papers were coded by three researchers. Results: 17 papers, including 17 independent samples (N=4976), met the inclusion criteria and were analysed. There was a small but signifi cant effect in favour of sedentary behaviour reduction for intervention groups (Hedges' g = ? 0.192; SE = 0.056; 95% CI = ?0.303 to ?0.082; p = 0.001). Moderator analyses produced no signifi cant between-moderator results for any of the intervention or study characteristics, although trends were evident. Conclusion: Behaviour change interventions targeting reductions in sedentary behaviour have been shown to be successful, although effects are small. More needs to be known about how best to optimise intervention effects