Wage rigidity, collective bargaining and the minimum wage: evidence from French agreement data.

We highlight different stylized facts concerning wage stickiness. First, in France, the typical duration of a wage agreement is one year. Consequently, a Taylor (1980) -type model appears to reproduce appropriately the distribution of agreement durations. Some 30 percent of settlements stipulate several predetermined wage changes during the year following the date of signature of the agreement. The frequency of wage agreements is highly seasonal, but the dates at which agreements take effect are more staggered. The date at which the national minimum wage level is revised each year has a significant impact on the timetable of wage agreements, both at the firm- and at the industry-levels. Wage increases negotiated at these two levels mainly depend on the inflation regime, the firm profitability and the proportion of minimum-wage workers in the same industry.Wage Stickiness, Wage Bargaining, Minimum Wage, Downward nominal Wage Rigidity.

Report of the sensor cooler technology panel

The Sensor Cooler Technology Panel identified three major areas in which technology development must be supported in order to meet the system performance requirements for the Astrotech 21 mission set science objectives. They are: long life vibration free refrigerators; mechanical refrigeration for 2 K to 5 K; and flight testing of emerging prototype refrigerators. A development strategy and schedule were recommended for each of the three areas

Effects of Helium Phase Separation on the Evolution of Extrasolar Giant Planets

We build on recent new evolutionary models of Jupiter and Saturn and here extend our calculations to investigate the evolution of extrasolar giant planets of mass 0.15 to 3.0 M_J. Our inhomogeneous thermal history models show that the possible phase separation of helium from liquid metallic hydrogen in the deep interiors of these planets can lead to luminosities ~2 times greater than have been predicted by homogeneous models. For our chosen phase diagram this phase separation will begin to affect the planets' evolution at ~700 Myr for a 0.15 M_J object and ~10 Gyr for a 3.0 M_J object. We show how phase separation affects the luminosity, effective temperature, radii, and atmospheric helium mass fraction as a function of age for planets of various masses, with and without heavy element cores, and with and without the effect of modest stellar irradiation. This phase separation process will likely not affect giant planets within a few AU of their parent star, as these planets will cool to their equilibrium temperatures, determined by stellar heating, before the onset of phase separation. We discuss the detectability of these objects and the likelihood that the energy provided by helium phase separation can change the timescales for formation and settling of ammonia clouds by several Gyr. We discuss how correctly incorporating stellar irradiation into giant planet atmosphere and albedo modeling may lead to a consistent evolutionary history for Jupiter and Saturn.Comment: 22 pages, including 14 figures. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journa