The determinants of savings in the third pension pillar

The paper analyses participation in and contributions to the third pillar of the pension system by Belgian households. This pillar represents individual saving for retirement and has been growing rapidly. A detailed dataset of tax declarations over the period from 1993 until 2003 was used to analyse the possible determinants of saving in the third pillar. Firstly, this dataset makes an analysis from a macroeconomic point of view possible, showing an apparent increase in total contributions to the third pillar by 39 p.c. in real terms between 1993 and 2003. This increase is mainly due to a rise in the participation rate (29 p.c. in 1993 and 40 p.c. in 2003). A detailed analysis is provided across the age groups, which further shows the influence of the demographic evolution, the average income of the participants in the third pillar and the contribution rate. The dataset also helps point up a wide number of possible microeconomic determinants of saving for retirement, such as age, income, professional status, civil status, region of residence, property ownership, employment situation, participation in second pillar pension schemes, number of dependents, etc. Moreover, the database allows a distinction to be made between the two forms in the third pillar : pension saving and life insurance. From such a microeconomic point of view, the analysis sheds some light on the major determinants of participation to the third pillar. The main findings show that older households are more likely to opt for a third pillar pension scheme. Furthermore, it appears that households consider the two forms of the third pillar as being complementary rather than substitutes for each other : households that participate in pension saving schemes are also more likely to take out life insurance and vice versa. Besides age, the other determinants that have a positive impact on participation in the third pillar of the pension system are : having higher income, being self-employed, getting an early retirement pension, being a home owner, being married and living in Flanders rather than Brussels or Wallonia.personal finance, pension fund, life insurance, private pensions

Paradoxical autonomy in Japan’s platform economy

Crowdsourcing firms, their client firms and the government in Japan have advocated that crowd work provides opportunities for workers to enjoy autonomous working practices, enabling subpopulations such as women and the elderly who would otherwise be excluded from the labour market to find employment. This is far from the case. Instead, crowdsourcing is perhaps better considered a means, enabled by technological advances, by which to flexibilise the labour market. We have been witnessing a shift in the forms of domination and control imposed on labour from a direct, physical and onsite type of control to an indirect mechanism of domination that has rendered workers less visible while suppressing wages. This further implies that the paradoxical autonomy of crowd work is embedded in contemporary antagonism in Japanese employment relations

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Intensity measurements and shielding of a fast-neutron beam for biological and medical applications

The (d,n) reaction, on thick (/sup 9/Be, /sup 12/C, /sup nat/Cu, /sup nat/Mo, /sup 181/Ta, /sup 197/Au) and thin (/sup 9/Be) targets, have been performed at /b E//sub d /=16, 33, 50 MeV; neutron spectra, angular distributions, and doses are compared with estimations. The 50 MeV neutron beam from the /sup 9 /Be(d,n) reaction has been used to study the neutron transmission through some shielding materials, i.e. steel, lead, lucite, borated paraffin, and concrete.Anglai

Neutron polarization in (p, n), (d, n), and ( alpha , n) reactions on light nuclei

An experimental study of the neutron polarization vs. neutron energy has been made at 20 degrees lab for the (p, /b n/) reaction on /sup 2/H and /sup 7/Li at E/sub p/=50 MeV, for the ( alpha , /b n/) reaction on /sup 2/H and /sup 9/Be at E /sub alpha /=100 MeV and for the (d, /b n/) reaction on /sup 4 /He at E/sub d/=50 MeV. A liquid-helium polarimeter and 2 pi -spin precession magnets have been used. Neutron polarization has been measured for neutron energies from 15 to 70 MeV. The /sup 2/H( alpha , /b n/) reaction gives the largest figure-of-merit for high-energy neutrons. Neutron depolarization in the polarimeter walls has been checked.Anglai