The Firm Size Distribution and Inter-Industry Diversification

We show that the stylized facts of the Firm Size Distribution (FSD) by age cohorts, as shown in Cabral and Mata (2003), bind within 4-digit manufacturing industries in the UK and Belgium. As in Klepper and Thompson (2006) and Sutton (1998), we explore whether time to build a portfolio of products is a mechanism that relates age to firm size. While inter industry diversification, to some extent, accounts for the role of age, we find that the presence of economies of scope has a separate impact on firm size when controlling for age, amongst other factors. Using the techniques in Cabral and Mata's we show that the FSD by degrees of product diversification shifts to the right, but more so in older age groups. This shows a role for inter-industry diversification over and above an age effect.

Migration and Refuge

Haitian writers have made profound contributions to debates about the converging paths of political and natural histories, yet their reflections on the legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and neoliberalism are often neglected in heated disputes about the future of human life on the planet. The 2010 earthquake only exacerbated this contradiction. Despite the fact that Haitian authors have long treated the connections between political violence, precariousness, and ecological degradation, in media coverage around the world, the earthquake would have suddenly exposed scandalous conditions on the ground in Haiti. This book argues that contemporary Haitian literature historicizes the political and environmental problems brought to the surface by the earthquake by building on texts of earlier generations, especially at the end of the Duvalier era and its aftermath. Informed by Haitian studies and models of postcolonial ecocriticism, the book conceives of literature as an “eco-archive,” or a body of texts that depicts ecological change over time and its impact on social and environmental justice. Focusing equally on established and less well-known authors, the book contends that the eco-archive challenges future-oriented, universalizing narratives of the Anthropocene and the global refugee crisis with portrayals of different forms and paths of migration and refuge within Haiti and around the Americas

The firm size distribution and inter-industry diversification

We show that the stylized facts of the Firm Size Distribution (FSD) by age cohorts, as shown in Cabral and Mata (2003), bind within 4-digit manufacturing industries in the UK and Belgium. As in Klepper and Thompson (2006) and Sutton (1998), we explore whether time to build a portfolio of products is a mechanism that relates age to firm size. While inter industry diversification, to some extent, accounts for the role of age, we find that the presence of economies of scope has a separate impact on firm size when controlling for age, amongst other factors. Using the techniques in Cabral and Mata’s we show that the FSD by degrees of product diversification shifts to the right, but more so in older age groups. This shows a role for inter-industry diversification over and above an age effect

Structural Adjustment and Regional Long Term Unemployment in Poland

On aspect of transition economics is the fact that large scale inter and intra sector adjustments in employment will have to take place in the transition period to a market economy. The required decline of agriculture and manufacturing and the rise in services induce large inter-sectoral employment adjustment. The restructuring of state and previously state owned firms will induce large intra-sectoral employment adjustment. This process has to be facilitated by a large re-allocation of workers from their initial state. Restructuring of this kind can be expected to create a lot of frictional unemployment, due to congestion in the labour market, and structural unemployment, due to individuals with redundant human capital been separated from pre-transidonal job security. In this paper we write down a structural and frictional model of unemployment resulting from structural adjustment in employment in the spirit of Aghion and Howitt (1998). The relationship between regional development and unemployment rates is not monotonic in Poland. Using Polish county level unemployment register data this papers shows that the dynamics of regional labour demand in Poland have determined unemployment in a systematic way by changing the magnitude and composition of the inflows and the regional probabilities of exit conditional on duration, gender, age, education and previous tenure. Restructuring in employment can be facilitated by the social security system by allowing workers to use unemployment as a temporary pit stop in periods of congestion created by the transition process. Restructuring can also act as a cleansing process that sheds inefficient and redundant human capital from employment with compounds in unemployment creating a long term structural component of unemployment. We show the stage of regional restructuring and development determines the levels and composition of individuals in short term and long term spells. Restructuring induces both larger throughputs and deeper structural. problems in unemployment. In the most advanced regions where congestion is lower unemployment is mainly structural in nature resulting from individuals having undertaken long spells in employment in the planned system .http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39546/3/wp158.pd

Internationalization of U.S. Doctorate Education

The representation of a large number of students born outside the United States among the ranks of doctorate recipients from U.S. universities is one of the most significant transformations in U.S. graduate education and the international market for highly-trained workers in science and engineering in the last quarter century. Students from outside the U.S. accounted for 51% of PhD recipients in science and engineering fields in 2003, up from 27% in 1973. In the physical sciences, engineering and economics the representation of foreign students among PhD recipients is yet more striking; among doctorate recipients in 2003, those from outside the U.S. accounted for 50% of degrees in the physical sciences, 67% in engineering and 68% in economics. Our analysis highlights the important role of changes in demand among foreign born in explaining the growth and distribution of doctorates awarded in science and engineering. Expansion in undergraduate degree receipt in many countries has a direct effect on the demand for advanced training in the U.S. Changes in the supply side of the U.S. graduate education market may also differentially affect the representation of foreign students in U.S. universities. Supply shocks such as increases in federal support for the sciences will have relatively large effects on the representation in the U.S. of doctorate students from countries where demand is relatively elastic. Understanding the determinants -- and consequences -- of changes over time in the representation of foreign born students among doctorate recipients from U.S. universities informs the design of policies affecting the science and engineering workforce.

Structural Adjustment and Regional Long Term Unemployment in Poland

On aspect of transition economics is the fact that large scale inter and intra sector adjustments in employment will have to take place in the transition period to a market economy. The required decline of agriculture and manufacturing and the rise in services induce large inter-sectoral employment adjustment. The restructuring of state and previously state owned firms will induce large intra-sectoral employment adjustment. This process has to be facilitated by a large re-allocation of workers from their initial state. Restructuring of this kind can be expected to create a lot of frictional unemployment, due to congestion in the labour market, and structural unemployment, due to individuals with redundant human capital been separated from pre-transidonal job security. In this paper we write down a structural and frictional model of unemployment resulting from structural adjustment in employment in the spirit of Aghion and Howitt (1998). The relationship between regional development and unemployment rates is not monotonic in Poland. Using Polish county level unemployment register data this papers shows that the dynamics of regional labour demand in Poland have determined unemployment in a systematic way by changing the magnitude and composition of the inflows and the regional probabilities of exit conditional on duration, gender, age, education and previous tenure. Restructuring in employment can be facilitated by the social security system by allowing workers to use unemployment as a temporary pit stop in periods of congestion created by the transition process. Restructuring can also act as a cleansing process that sheds inefficient and redundant human capital from employment with compounds in unemployment creating a long term structural component of unemployment. We show the stage of regional restructuring and development determines the levels and composition of individuals in short term and long term spells. Restructuring induces both larger throughputs and deeper structural. problems in unemployment. In the most advanced regions where congestion is lower unemployment is mainly structural in nature resulting from individuals having undertaken long spells in employment in the planned system .

Shifting Patterns of Nitrogen Excretion and Amino Acid Catabolism Capacity during the Life Cycle of the Sea Lamprey (\u3cem\u3ePetromyzon mariunus\u3c/em\u3e)

The jawless fish, the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), spends part of its life as a burrow-dwelling, suspension-feeding larva (ammocoete) before undergoing a metamorphosis into a free swimming, parasitic juvenile that feeds on the blood of fishes. We predicted that animals in this juvenile, parasitic stage have a great capacity for catabolizing amino acids when large quantities of protein-rich blood are ingested. The sixfold to 20-fold greater ammonia excretion rates (JAmm) in postmetamorphic (nonfeeding) and parasitic lampreys compared with ammocoetes suggested that basal rates of amino acid catabolism increased following metamorphosis. This was likely due to a greater basal amino acid catabolizing capacity in which there was a sixfold higher hepatic glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity in parasitic lampreys compared with ammocoetes. Immunoblotting also revealed that GDH quantity was 10-fold and threefold greater in parasitic lampreys than in ammocoetes and upstream migrant lampreys, respectively. Higher hepatic alanine and aspartate aminotransferase activities in the parasitic lampreys also suggested an enhanced amino acid catabolizing capacity in this life stage. In contrast to parasitic lampreys, the twofold larger free amino acid pool in the muscle of upstream migrant lampreys confirmed that this period of natural starvation is accompanied by a prominent proteolysis. Carbamoyl phosphate synthetase III was detected at low levels in the liver of parasitic and upstream migrant lampreys, but there was no evidence of extrahepatic (muscle, intestine) urea production via the ornithine urea cycle. However, detection of arginase activity and high concentrations of arginine in the liver at all life stages examined infers that arginine hydrolysis is an important source of urea. We conclude that metamorphosis is accompanied by a metabolic reorganization that increases the capacity of parasitic sea lampreys to catabolize intermittently large amino acid loads arising from the ingestion of protein rich blood from their prey/hosts. The subsequent generation of energy-rich carbon skeletons can then be oxidized or retained for glycogen and fatty acid synthesis, which are essential fuels for the upstream migratory and spawning phases of the sea lamprey’s life cycle

Implementing Restorative Justice under the Retributive Paradigm: A Pilot Program Case Study

This article explores the implementation of a pilot program in restorative justice in a medium-sized Midwestern city. Through an examination of meeting minutes, interviews, and the personal reflections of the authors, this article examines the implementation of a victim–offender mediation program, referred to throughout the article as the Fast Track Accountability Program (FTAP). Presented as a case study, the authors describe the key stakeholders, the process, the obstacles, as well as lessons learned along the way. Particular attention is given to the essential role of strong leadership and to the challenges faced when implementing such a program within the bureaucracy of the current, retributive, criminal justice system