Multi-sector Labour Market Search: Interactions Between Unemployment Duration And Sectoral Shocks

This thesis comprises five chapters which are all concerned with the general theme of sectoral shocks and unemployment duration. The first chapter motivates the issues addressed in the thesis by establishing their relevance and originality. The chapter begins by showing that the interaction between sectoral shocks and unemployment duration has largely been ignored in the sectoral shocks debate. The importance of unemployment duration at the theoretical level is demonstrated and data are presented to establish the empirical relevance of the theory.;The second chapter constructs and analyses a two-sector model of labour market search in which unemployment duration is an endogenous variable. Structure is imposed on the search process by adopting the matching function framework. Probabilities of exiting unemployment are related to variation in the arrival rate of job offers rather than just the offer rejection rate. The third chapter tests this relationship between labour market tightness and the transition probability into employment using monthly data for three Canadian provinces. Testing methods use flexible spline regression and isotonic regression methods to avoid the imposition of extraneous restrictions. General concordance between theoretical assumptions and empirical facts is found, and non-linearity in the estimated relationship is evidence against a simple queuing model.;In the fourth chapter, a stochastic version of the model of chapter two is developed and applied to divergent patterns of unemployment durations in Alberta and Ontario. An objective test of the pertinence of the model is conducted using a Markov switching-regression estimation method. The estimation method recovers parameters of a recruitment intensity function, Markov transition probabilities, and probabilities over states. The results support the hypothesis that sectoral shocks have affected unemployment durations.;The subject of the final chapter is the behaviour of the unemployment rate following the 1982 recession. Two stylized facts are examined: the greater persistence in Canada relative to the United States and in Alberta relative to Ontario. The contributions of unemployment insurance policy and sectoral shocks to these patterns is evaluated and some support for the sectoral shocks explanation is obtained

The Impacts of 9/11 on Canada - U.S. Trade

The 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington have had profound global economic and political effects. One consequence of the tragedy is heightened security concerns surrounding the movement of goods and people across international borders that, in turn, have raised the prospects of substantial disruptions of international trade. Within the Canada-U.S. context, numerous observers have identified increased regulations and intensified inspection procedures at the Canada-U.S. border as contributing to significantly higher shipping costs and shipment delays. The higher costs and associated disruptions to commercial shipments might be inferred to discourage growth of trade between the two countries. It is now widely accepted that economic integration between the Canadian and U.S. economies is, on balance, an important contributor to the economic health of both economies, especially Canada’s. Developments that might attenuate the growth and “deepening” of North American economic integration therefore threaten the economic welfare of Canadians and Americans, and their nature and magnitude are worthy of careful analysis

Streamlining of NAFTA Tariffs: Benefits for Washington State

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) is an initiative launched in 2005 by the leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States to promote security and prosperity through cooperation and sharing of information. One component of the prosperity agenda is a Working Group on the movement of goods which was created to pursue the following objectives: … lower the transaction costs of trade in goods by liberalizing the requirements for obtaining duty-free treatment under NAFTA, including through the reduction of “rules of origin” costs on goods traded between our countries. Each country should have in place procedures to allow speedy implementation of rules of origin modifications. Increase competitiveness by exploring additional supply chain options, such as by rationalizing minor difference in external tariffs, consistent with multilateral negotiation strategies

An Assessment of Future Bilateral Trade Flows and their Implications for U.S. Border Infrastructure Investment

There are frequent calls for investment in border infrastructure given security-related delays and transportation bottlenecks associated with physical infrastructure described as outdated and inadequate. Given the potentially large investment expenditures needed to expand inspection and transportation infrastructure at border crossing sites, as well as the irreversibility of many of the investments that might need to be made, it is important that government decision-makers base spending choices on highly-informed forward-looking projections of capacity demands on traffic corridors through which bilateral commercial shipments are likely to travel

Cerebral arteriovenous malformations : molecular biology and enhancement of radiosurgical treatment

Object Rupture of intracranial arteriovenous malformations is a leading cause of stroke in children and young adults. Treatment options include surgery and highly focused radiation (stereotactic radiosurgery). For large and deep seated lesions, the risks of surgery may be prohibitively high, while radiosurgery has a disappointingly low efficacy and long latency. Radiosurgery carries the most promise for significant advances, however the process by which radiosurgery achieves obliteration is incompletely understood. Inflammation and thrombosis are likely to be important in the radiation response and may be amenable to pharmacological manipulation to improve radiosurgical efficacy. Materials and methods Immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy were used to study normal cerebral vessels, cavernous malformations and AVMs, some of which had previously been irradiated. An attempt was made to culture AVM endothelial cells to study the immediate response of AVM endothelium to radiosurgery. The effects of radiosurgery in a rat model of AVM were studied using immunohistochemistry and the results used to determine the choice of a pharmacological strategy to enhance the thrombotic effects of radiosurgery. Results Vascular malformations have a different endothelial inflammatory phenotype than normal cerebral vessels. Radiosurgery may cause long term changes in inflammatory molecule expression and leads to endothelial loss with exposure of pro-thrombotic molecules. Ultrastructural effects of irradiation include widespread cell loss, smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation and thrombosis. Endothelial culture from AVMs proved difficult due to SMC predominance in initial cultures. Radiosurgery upregulated several endothelial inflammatory molecules in the animal model and may induce pro-thrombotic cell membrane alterations. The administration of lipopolysaccharide and soluble tissue factor to rats following radiosurgery led to selective thrombosis of irradiated vessels. Conclusions Inflammation and thrombosis are important in the radiosurgical response of AVMs. Lumen obliteration appears to be mediated by proliferation of cells within the vessel wall and thrombosis. Upregulation of inflammatory molecules and perhaps disruption of the normal phospholipid asymmetry of the endothelial and SMC membranes are some of the earliest responses to radiosurgery. The alterations induced by radiation may be harnessed to selectively initiate thrombus formation. Stimulation of thrombosis may improve the efficacy of radiosurgery, increasing treatable lesion size and reducing latency

Benzoylamidoacetonitrile is bound as a thioimidate in the active site of papain.

13C NMR spectroscopy has been used to demonstrate that 13CN-labeled benzoylamidoacetonitrile forms a covalent adduct with the thiol group of cysteine 25 in the active site of papain. Spectral comparison with model compounds indicates that the adduct is a thioimidate. On the basis of a proposed mechanism for the formation of the thioimidate, it is concluded that the -CH2C(= NH)S--imino nitrogen does not sit in the active site in the same manner as the thiol ester carbonyl oxygen of the thiol acyl enzyme (or the oxyanion of the tetrahedral intermediate). Thus, in this sense the stabilization of the thioimidate does not reflect a similarity in structure between the bound thioimidate and the transition state

Geographic and Temporal Variations in Freight Costs for U.S. Imports from Canada: Measurement and Analysis

In recent years, private sector managers in both Canada and the United States have expressed concerns about a “thickening” of the Canada-U.S. border with resulting adverse consequences for continued integration of the North American economy and, more specifically, for Canada-U.S. trade. Several factors have been identified as particularly relevant contributors to higher costs associated with bilateral trade. They include more frequent and closer inspection of goods crossing the border owing to stricter health and safety regulations and heightened security against acts of terrorism. The added delays and uncertainties imposed upon commercial shipments, particularly from Canada to the U.S., arguably add to the costs of shipping goods across the border, thereby discouraging trade at the margin

The Nature of Aggregate and Regional Canada-US Trade (1990-2011)

The impact of post-9/11 border security developments on Canada-U.S. trade has been the focus of much attention in recent years. The available evidence suggests that both U.S. exports and imports with Canada grew more slowly after 9/11 than would otherwise have been the case