Labour Law and Social Insurance in the New Economy: A Debate on the Supiot Report

The debate on this Discussion Paper took place at the London School of Economics on July 8 2000. It was made possible by a grant from DGV of the European Commission. It took place as a special mini-conference during the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, SASE, hosted by LSE. Translation services were provided by Multilingual Services, and the transcripts have been edited by Hugh Stephenson. All of the participants spoke in a personal capacity and what they said is not necessarily the policy of the organisations from which they come. This Discussion Paper is produced under the 'Future of Trade Unions in Modern Britain' Programme supported by the Leverhulme Trust. The Centre for Economic Performance acknowledges with thanks, the generosity of the Trust. SPEAKERS: Peter Auer Dominique de Calan David Coats Simon Deakin Richard B. Freeman Reiner Hoffmann Renate Hornung-Draus Jane Lewis David Marsden Pamela Meadows Hedva Sarfati Alain Supiot

Palaeoecological and possible evolutionary effects of early Namurian (Serpukhovian, Carboniferous) glacioeustatic cyclicity

Early Namurian (Serpukhovian, Carboniferous), sedimentary cycles in the Throckley and Rowlands Gill boreholes, near Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, consist of fossiliferous limestones overlain by (usually unfossiliferous) black mudstone, followed by sandstones and often by thin coal seams. Sedimentological and regional geological evidence suggests that the largest are high-amplitude cycles, probably of glacioeustatic origin. 13C (bulk organic matter) delineates marine and non-marine conditions because of the large difference between terrestrial and marine 13C, and indicates that full marine salinity was only intermittent and resulted from glacioeustatic marine transgression superimposed on a background of inundation by freshwater from large rivers, which killed off the marine biota. Palynology suggests that plant groups, including ferns and putative pteridosperms, were affected by changing sea level, and that there is a theoretical possibility of connection between cyclicity and the first appearance of walchiacean conifer-like monosaccate pollen such as Potonieisporites. Long-term terrestrial and marine increasing 13C (organic) may reflect the onset of major glaciation in Gondwana, as there is evidence to suggest that the two are coeval, but no specific mechanism can be suggested to link the trends

Impact of estimation techniques on regression analysis: an application to survey data on child nutritional status in five African countries

This paper illustrates the impact of ignoring survey design and hierarchical structure of survey data when fitting regression models. Data on child nutritional status from Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are analysed using four techniques: ordinary least squares; weighted regression using standard statistical software; regression using specialist software that accounts for the survey design; and multilevel modelling. The impact of ignoring survey design on logistic and linear regression models is examined. The results show bias in estimates averaging between five and 17 per cent in linear models and between five and 22 per cent in logistic regression models. The standard errors are also under-estimated by up to 49 per cent in some countries. Socio-economic variables and service utilisation variables are poorly estimated when the survey design is ignored

Modeling variation in the refractive index of optical glasses

Experimental measurements that describe the dispersive behavior of production samples of optical glasses are fit with models of minimum complexity for the purpose of in terpolation and extrapolation. Software to perform this procedure on a regular basis is presented, and shown to dis tinguish between models of inappropriate complexity. Two degrees of freedom usually provide a statistically optimum fit to the data contrary to the widespread practice of fit ting a general, six term model to such measurements. Using specially developed analysis tools, it is concluded that annealing does not significantly change the partial dispersion of the sample. Partial dispersion is established at the time the ingredients are combined in a melt and is in variant from one annealing to another. This is an important result to consider when planning the fabrication of optical systems whose prescription changes with changes in material characteristics

An Investigation of Selected Collegiate Voice Teachers\u27 Descriptions of Repertoire Selection Practices.

Repertoire is a critical component of the instructional process at all levels of music education, and more insight into music educators\u27 repertoire selection practices is a need, especially in the case of the collegiate voice studio. A particular void in this topic is the lack of pre-service instructional training including repertoire assignment strategies for prospective and novice voice teachers. The investigator studied these topics using two data collection phases: 1) collecting descriptive data from vocal recital programs in three universities from the southern United States; and, 2) conducting interviews with five experienced voice teachers recruited from the aforementioned institutions. The investigator conducted a pilot interview with a comparable voice teacher, and the investigator determined that the interview produced an adequate amount of data. The investigator calculated descriptive statistics for data collected in research phase 1, and results indicated the experienced voice teachers assign a core body of titles, composers, and languages. For research phase 2, the investigator coded interviews, directly from the raw data as much as possible, using open coding measures. The investigator analyzed the codes for themes. Several themes emerged amongst participants\u27 descriptions that will be applicable for prospective and novice voice teachers\u27 repertoire assignment practices

Spatio-temporal modelling of extreme storms

A flexible spatio-temporal model is implemented to analyse extreme extra-tropical cyclones objectively identified over the Atlantic and Europe in 6-hourly re-analyses from 1979-2009. Spatial variation in the extremal properties of the cyclones is captured using a 150 cell spatial regularisation, latitude as a covariate, and spatial random effects. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is also used as a covariate and is found to have a significant effect on intensifying extremal storm behaviour, especially over Northern Europe and the Iberian peninsula. Estimates of lower bounds on minimum sea-level pressure are typically 10-50 hPa below the minimum values observed for historical storms with largest differences occurring when the NAO index is positive.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOAS766 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org