The Welfare State in France

This study is concerned with the extent to which modern France has become a welfare state. The term welfare state is not subject to precise definition, for practically all modern governments are concerned in greater or lesser degree with the well-being of their citizens. But since the publication of the Beveridge Report in 1942, the phrase has become roughly descriptive of government activities which are redistributive in character. The welfare state, in other words, has to do with the use of government power as an instrument for the redistribution of income in society, generally with the dual objectives of greater equality in the distribution of money income, and a guarantee of some minimum standard of well-being for all citizens. These objectives may be brought about directly through a redistribution of money income, or indirectly through the provision of services to some segments of the population on some basis other than the costs of those services. However it may be managed, the existence of a welfare state means an alteration in the pattern of income distribution. Since the end of World War II France has created machinery for the redistribution of income as comprehensive as any now existing among western nations. In some respects, in fact, France has become more of a welfare state than the United Kingdom, although the latter is perhaps more generally looked upon as the classic example of this phenomenon. In the analysis which follows, this study will be concerned primarily with two aspects of the welfare state as it functions in contemporary France. First, the study will show the extent to which the nation\u27s social security system has become an instrument for the redistribution of income in the economy; and, second, it will analyze the manner in which the pattern of income distribution is altered as a result of welfare expenditures by the government. The study also stresses a number of important structural characteristics of the economy, and shows how these have influenced the functioning of the welfare state in France. The study is organized as follows: Chapter I is in the nature of an essay on the theoretical aspects of income redistribution, and its purpose is to provide a general framework for the empirical analysis that follows. Chapter 2 describes in detail the organization and workings of the French social security system. Chapter 3 analyzes income redistribution via transfer expenditures in the French economy on an aggregate basis, and makes a comparison with similar practices in the United Kingdom and the United States. Chapter 4 is concerned with the actual distribution of money income in France, and the way in which this distribution is altered by the apparatus of the welfare state. Chapter 5, the final chapter, is in the nature of a commentary on the phenomenon of the welfare state. There is attached an appendix containing a brief comment upon sources and additional statistical data

A Post-Keynesian Analysis of Financial Markets

Paper prepared for Missouri Valley Economic Assoc. Meeting, Memphis, Tn, March 8, 1985. Minsky\u27s handwritten notes are on the paper

Business in Nebraska #245- February 1965

Sources of County Income in Nebraska: 1950 and 1962 (Wallace C. Peterson) This is the fourth report of a preliminary character on the findings of a comprehensive research study of personal income in Nebraska\u27s 93 counties. Earlier reports in this series appeared in Business in Nebraska in June, October, and November, 1964. A Bureau Bulletin, which will contain the complete data developed in this study, as well as an explanation of the methodology used, is being prepared for publication in the Spring of 1965. Business Summary (Kim McNealy) The dollar volume of business in Nebraska for November, 1964, rose 2.0% over November, 1963, and dropped 2.9% from October, 1963. The same index for the United States rose 5.6% from November of 1963, and a small .1% from October. compared to the same month a year ago, the physical volume of business activity in Nebraska for November rose very slightly, but dropped slightly from the preceding month. Business activity in the U.S. increased 5.1% from November, 1963, and only .6% from October. The individual indicators are mixed, with life insurance sales in Nebraska registering the largest gain from a year ago. Manufacturing and other employment rose slightly from November, 1963, and October, 1964, both in Nebraska and the nation. Contemporary Business Thinking (Palmer Hoyt) It seems to me that sound business thinking in these times starts with this proposition: The greatest sin for a businessman is to fail to be contemporary. What I mean by that is that the greatest shortcoming is to fail to look realistically at the world we live in, and at its economic facts of life. Retail Trading Area Analysis (J. Timothy Wilson) The businessman in Nebraska communities faces the ever difficult problem of answering the questions: Who are my customers ? ... From where do they come? ... What are they like? and . .. What makes them my customers? With the development of the interstate highway system and the improvement of many other Nebraska highways, the small business community is increasingly faced with the prospect of losing its customers to larger centers. Never before has the customer been so mobile

The Wisconsin Plasma Astrophysics Laboratory

The Wisconsin Plasma Astrophysics Laboratory (WiPAL) is a flexible user facility designed to study a range of astrophysically relevant plasma processes as well as novel geometries that mimic astrophysical systems. A multi-cusp magnetic bucket constructed from strong samarium cobalt permanent magnets now confines a 10 m$^3$, fully ionized, magnetic-field free plasma in a spherical geometry. Plasma parameters of $T_{e}\approx5$ to $20$ eV and $n_{e}\approx10^{11}$ to $5\times10^{12}$ cm$^{-3}$ provide an ideal testbed for a range of astrophysical experiments including self-exciting dynamos, collisionless magnetic reconnection, jet stability, stellar winds, and more. This article describes the capabilities of WiPAL along with several experiments, in both operating and planning stages, that illustrate the range of possibilities for future users.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, 2 table

Convergence of Agriculture and Energy: II. Producing Cellulosic Biomass for Biofuels

Global energy demand is increasing as known global petroleum supplies are decreas¬ing. Calls to supplement or replace the current fossil-based energy system with new, envi¬ronmentally and economically sustainable strategies continue to increase, especially in light of more expensive traditional energy sources. Various governmental agencies and working groups have set aggressive targets and timelines for decreasing fossil fuel consumption by substituting bio-based energy (Bush 2007; Foust et al. 2007; Perlack et al. 2005; Smith et al. 2004). The alignment and continuity of these goals is illustrated in Figure 1. Current biofuel production in the United States relies primarily on corn grain conver¬sion to ethanol, but future systems are expected to depend more intensively on plant biomass than on grain as a feedstock for production of ethanol and other biofuels. In addition, current cropping systems generally are designed to optimize grain production and are not designed to harvest all the aboveground portion of the plant for cellulose-containing biomass. Significant, immediate national investments are needed, along with changes in policy, to address chal¬lenges limiting the sustainable production and efficient use of cellulosic biomass as a fuel feedstock to meet anticipated U.S. demand. The Bush Administration outlined a portfolio of recommended technologies, pro¬cesses, and practices for bio-based energy production that targets improved rates of feedstock conversion and greater efficiency in energy use. The plan also states that a significant portion of the nation’s 2017 energy supply, especially transportation fuel, will come from conversion of biomass feedstock to liquid fuels. Considering just the biomass-derived fuels contribution, roughly 250 million tons or more of grain and cellulosic biomass per year will be needed to reach the 10-year goal, and 650 to 700 million tons per year of biomass to reach the 2025 goal (Figure 1)

Runaway Events Dominate the Heavy Tail of Citation Distributions

Statistical distributions with heavy tails are ubiquitous in natural and social phenomena. Since the entries in heavy tail have disproportional significance, the knowledge of its exact shape is very important. Citations of scientific papers form one of the best-known heavy tail distributions. Even in this case there is a considerable debate whether citation distribution follows the log-normal or power-law fit. The goal of our study is to solve this debate by measuring citation distribution for a very large and homogeneous data. We measured citation distribution for 418,438 Physics papers published in 1980-1989 and cited by 2008. While the log-normal fit deviates too strong from the data, the discrete power-law function with the exponent $\gamma=3.15$ does better and fits 99.955% of the data. However, the extreme tail of the distribution deviates upward even from the power-law fit and exhibits a dramatic "runaway" behavior. The onset of the runaway regime is revealed macroscopically as the paper garners 1000-1500 citations, however the microscopic measurements of autocorrelation in citation rates are able to predict this behavior in advance.Comment: 6 pages, 5 Figure

Instances and connectors : issues for a second generation process language

This work is supported by UK EPSRC grants GR/L34433 and GR/L32699Over the past decade a variety of process languages have been defined, used and evaluated. It is now possible to consider second generation languages based on this experience. Rather than develop a second generation wish list this position paper explores two issues: instances and connectors. Instances relate to the relationship between a process model as a description and the, possibly multiple, enacting instances which are created from it. Connectors refers to the issue of concurrency control and achieving a higher level of abstraction in how parts of a model interact. We believe that these issues are key to developing systems which can effectively support business processes, and that they have not received sufficient attention within the process modelling community. Through exploring these issues we also illustrate our approach to designing a second generation process language.Postprin

Sex-specific differences in the synaptonemal complex in the genus Oreochromis (Cichlidae)

Total synaptonemal complex (SC) lengths were estimated from Oreochromis aureus Steindachner (which has a WZ/ZZ sex determination system), O. mossambicus Peters and O. niloticus L. (both of which have XX/XY sex determination systems). The total SC length in oocytes was greater than that in spermatocytes in all three species (194±30 μm and 134±13 μm, 187±22 μm and 127±17 μm, 193±37 μm and 144±19 μm, respectively). These sex-specific differences did not appear to be influenced by the type of sex determination system (the female/male total SC length ratio was 1.45 in O. aureus, 1.47 in O. mossambicus and 1.34 in O. niloticus) and do not correlate with the lack of any overall sex-specific length differences in the current Oreochromis linkage map. Although based on data from relatively few species, there appears to be no consistent relationship between sex-specific SC lengths and linkage map lengths in fish. Neomale (hormonally masculinized genetic female) O. aureus and O. mossambicus had total SC lengths of 138±13 μm and 146±13 μm respectively, more similar to normal males than to normal females. These findings agree with data from other vertebrate species that suggest that phenotypic sex, rather than genotype, determines traits such as total SC length, chiasmata position and recombination pattern, at least for the autosomes