Micro and Macro Elasticities in a Life Cycle Model With Taxes

We build a life cycle model of labor supply that incorporates changes along both the intensive and extensive margin and use it to assess the consequences of changes in tax and transfer policies on equilibrium hours of work. We find that changes in taxes have large aggregate effects on hours of work. Moreover, we find that there is no inconsistency between this result and the empirical finding of small labor elasticities for prime age workers. In our model, micro and macro elasticities are effectively unrelated. Our model is also consistent with other cross-country patterns.

Retirement in a Life Cycle Model of Labor Supply with Home Production

We analyze the forces that can generate retirement in different versions of standard life cycle models of labor supply. While nonconvexities in production can generate retirement, we show that the size of nonconvexities needed increases sharply as the intertemporal elasticity of substitution for labor decreases. In a model with home production, we show that these models imply a large increase in time devoted to home production at retirement. This is contrary to what is found in the ATUS data. We suggest that nonconvexities in the enjoyment of leisure time may be a promising alternative feature to generate retirement.

Multiple Issue Action and Market Algorithms for the World Wide Web

The Internet is quickly changing the way business-to-consumer and business-to-business commerce is conducted in the world. The Electronic Revolution has also spawned a trend of price wars and, in some instances, chaos because of the zero-sum nature of the electronic channel. The technology has created an opportunity to get beyond the lose-lose nature of single issue price wars by determining sellers' and buyers' preferences across multiple issues and encouraging negotiations, thereby creating possible joint gains for all parties. We develop simple multiple issue algorithms and heuristics that could be used in electronic auctions and electronic markets, to match business to business and consumers based on dovetailing underlying interests and preferences. We provide arguments that such dovetailed matches should help stabilize markets and make them more efficient

World Wide Web Technology in Support of Negotiation and Communication

With the advent of the mass use of the Internet involving the classic use of e-mail, file transfer and now the more recent use of www applications, such as home pages, chat, Internet phone, audio and video and web broadcast systems, business transactions over the net are increasing dramatically. An important, yet relatively undeveloped component for electronic commerce is the negotiation of contracts and the resolution of disputes. We discuss Web-based technology and practice in supporting business negotiations and communication. The focus of the paper is on the present and the future promises of such technology

Aggregate labor supply

There have been tremendous advances in macroeconomics, following the introduction of labor supply into the field. Today it is widely acknowledged that labor supply matters for many key economic issues, particularly for business cycles and tax policy analysis. However, the extent to which labor supply matters for such questions depends on the aggregate labor supply elasticity—that is, the sensitivity of the time allocation between market and non-market activities to changes in the effective wage. The magnitude of the aggregate labor supply elasticity has been the subject of much debate for several decades. In this paper we review this debate and conclude that the elasticity of labor supply of the aggregate household is much higher than the elasticity of the identical households being aggregated. The aggregate household utility function differs from individuals’ utility functions for the same reason the aggregate production function differs from individual firms’ production functions being aggregated. The differences in individual and aggregate supply elasticities are what aggregation theory predicts.

Gamma-spectrometric uranium age-dating using intrinsic efficiency calibration

A non-destructive, gamma-spectrometric method for uranium age-dating is presented which is applicable to material of any physical form and geometrical shape. It relies on measuring the daughter/parent activity ratio 214Bi/234U by low-background, high-resolution gamma-spectrometry using intrinsic efficiency calibration. The method does not require the use of any reference materials nor the use of an efficiency calibrated geometry.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B. Revised verison contains minor changes in order to match the published versio

State-of-the-art and User Requirements of Blood Glucose Measurement: Devices, Software and Services.

Diabetes on jatkuvasti yleistyvä sairaus, joka vaatii yleisesti säännölliset verensokerin omamittaukset. Tämä Diplomityö tutkii verensokerimittauksen nykytilaa ja käyttäjätarpeita.. Erityisesti työ keskittyy verensokerimittareihin, verensokerimittauksen apuohjelmiin, sekä diabeteksen hoitosuosituksiin ja -käytäntöihin. Diplomityössä käsittellään lisäksi laadukkaan verensokerimittauksen määrittelyä Nykytilan analyysi perustuu valtaosin kirjallisuustutkimuksiin. Käyttäjätarpeiden kartoitus perustuu puolistrukturoituihin haastatteluihin. Haastatteluaineisto pohjautuu 8:aan haastatteluun, jossa haastateltiin kolmen eri käyttäjäryhmä edustajia: lääkäreitä, hoitajia ja diabeetikoita. Näiden käyttäjäryhmien käyttäjätarpeet ovat hyvin yhteneviä. Nykyiset verensokerimittauksen laitteet ja palvelut vastaavat hyvälaatuisen verensokerihallinnan vähimmäisvaatimuksiin. Nykyiset laitteet ja palvelut eivät vastaa Diplomityön esittelemiä vaativampia käyttäjätarpeita. Laitteiden ja palveluiden tulisi ola nykyistä kokonaisvaltaisempia ja integroituneita. Yksi verensokerimittauksen suurimmista haasteista on potilaan motivaatio mittausten laadukkaaseen läpivientiin. Potilaan motivaatioon vaikuttavien tekijöiden selvittäminen on yksi mielenkiintoinen jatkotutkimuksen aihe.Diabetes is an increasingly common illness that often requires regular measurement of Blood Glucose (BG). This Thesis discusses the state-of-the-art and user requirements of BG measurement, focusing on: BG meters, diabetes management software, and diabetes treatment guidelines and practices. Additionally, BG measurement quality definitions are discussed. The discussion on the state-of-the-art presented is primarily based on literature research. The requirements study is based on the results of a semi-structured interview of 8 subjects. The requirements of three user groups are discussed, i.e. doctors, nurses and diabetics. The requirements of the user groups are significantly similar. The current supply of BG measuring devices and services provides the bare minimum required for good quality BG measurement. The more advanced requirements elicited in this Thesis are mostly not met. The BG measuring devices and services are thus required to be more comprehensive and integrated. One of the key issues with BG measurement is motivating the diabetics to perform good quality measurements. Interesting topics for further research include the factors affecting patients’ motivation