Do We Know Why Earnings Fall with Job Displacement?

After being displaced from their jobs, workers experience reduced earnings for many years and are at greater risks of other problems as well. The ills suffered by displaced workers motivated several recent expansions of government programs, including the unemployment insurance system, and have spurred calls for wage insurance that would provide longer-run earnings replacement. However, while the average size and the individual characteristics associated with the losses are relatively clear, the theory of displacement-induced earnings loss is scattered. Much of the policy discussion appears to interpret displacement-induced losses through the lens of specific human capital theory, in which skills are specific to jobs, locations, industries, or occupations, and that model has considerable empirical support. Assistance for displaced workers may improve well-being in that model since it insures workers against the risk that their consumption of goods and services might fall for idiosyncratic reasons and, as a consequence, allows workers to make more productive but higher-risk career choices. But there are other credible theories of costly job displacement that have different causal mechanisms, different interpretations and different policy implications. This paper reviews theories of costly job displacement and discusses their consistency with the available empirical evidence. We find that while specific human capital is important, we cannot rule out important roles for other theories

Do We Know Why Earnings Fall with Job Displacement?

After being displaced from their jobs, workers experience reduced earnings for many years and are at greater risks of other problems as well. The ills suffered by displaced workers motivated several recent expansions of government programs, including the unemployment insurance system, and have spurred calls for wage insurance that would provide longer-run earnings replacement. However, while the average size and the individual characteristics associated with the losses are relatively clear, the theory of displacement-induced earnings loss is scattered. Much of the policy discussion appears to interpret displacement-induced losses through the lens of specific human capital theory, in which skills are specific to jobs, locations, industries, or occupations, and that model has considerable empirical support. Assistance for displaced workers may improve well-being in that model since it insures workers against the risk that their consumption of goods and services might fall for idiosyncratic reasons and, as a consequence, allows workers to make more productive but higher-risk career choices. But there are other credible theories of costly job displacement that have different causal mechanisms, different interpretations and different policy implications. This paper reviews theories of costly job displacement and discusses their consistency with the available empirical evidence. We find that while specific human capital is important, we cannot rule out important roles for other theories

Transient knockdown and overexpression reveal a developmental role for the zebrafish enosf1b gene

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite detailed <it>in vivo </it>knowledge of glycolytic enolases and many bacterial non-enolase members of the superfamily, little is known about the <it>in vivo </it>function of vertebrate non-enolase enolase superfamily members (ENOSF1s). Results of previous studies suggest involvement of the β splice form of ENOSF1 in breast and colon cancers. This study used the zebrafish (<it>Danio rerio</it>) as a vertebrate model of ENOSF1β function.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Whole mount in situ hybridization (WISH) showed that zebrafish ENOSF1β (<it>enosf1b</it>) is zygotic and expressed ubiquitously through the first 24 hours post fertilization (hpf). After 24 hpf, <it>enosf1b </it>expression is restricted to the notochord. Embryos injected with <it>enosf1b</it>-EGFP mRNA grew slower than EGFP mRNA-injected embryos but caught up to the EGFP-injected embryos by 48 hpf. Embryos injected with ATG or exon 10 <it>enosf1b </it>mRNA-targeting morpholinos had kinked notochords, shortened anterior-posterior axes, and circulatory edema. WISH for <it>ntl </it>or <it>pax2a </it>expression showed that embryos injected with either morpholino have deformed notochord and pronephros. TUNEL staining revealed increased apoptosis in the peri-notochord region.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study is the first report of ENOSF1 function in a vertebrate and shows that ENOSF1 is required for embryonic development. Increased apoptosis following <it>enosf1b </it>knockdown suggests a potential survival advantage for increased ENOSF1β expression in human cancers.</p

Magnetic Properties of Scalar Particles --The Scalar Aharonov-Casher Effect and Supersymmetry

The original topological Aharonov-Casher (AC) effect is due to the interaction of the anomalous magnetic dipole moment (MDM) with certain configurations of electric field. Naively one would not expect an AC effect for a scalar particle for which no anomalous MDM can be defined in the usual sense. In this letter we study the AC effect in supersymmetric systems. In this framework there is the possibility of deducing the AC effect of a scalar particle from the corresponding effect for a spinor particle. In 3+1 dimensions such a connection is not possible because the anomalous MDM is zero if supersymmetry is an exact symmetry. However, in 2+1 dimensions it is possible to have an anomalous MDM even with exact supersymmetry. Having demonstrated the relationship between the spinor and the scalar MDM, we proceed to show that the scalar AC effect is uniquely defined. We then compute the anomalous MDM at the one loop level, showing how the scalar form arises in 2+1 dimensions from the coupling of the scalar to spinors. This model shows how an AC effect for a scalar can be generated for non-supersymmetric theories, and we construct such a model to illustrate the mechanism.Comment: RevTex 13 pages including one Figure. New Discussions adde

Statistical Resolution of Ambiguous HLA Typing Data

High-resolution HLA typing plays a central role in many areas of immunology, such as in identifying immunogenetic risk factors for disease, in studying how the genomes of pathogens evolve in response to immune selection pressures, and also in vaccine design, where identification of HLA-restricted epitopes may be used to guide the selection of vaccine immunogens. Perhaps one of the most immediate applications is in direct medical decisions concerning the matching of stem cell transplant donors to unrelated recipients. However, high-resolution HLA typing is frequently unavailable due to its high cost or the inability to re-type historical data. In this paper, we introduce and evaluate a method for statistical, in silico refinement of ambiguous and/or low-resolution HLA data. Our method, which requires an independent, high-resolution training data set drawn from the same population as the data to be refined, uses linkage disequilibrium in HLA haplotypes as well as four-digit allele frequency data to probabilistically refine HLA typings. Central to our approach is the use of haplotype inference. We introduce new methodology to this area, improving upon the Expectation-Maximization (EM)-based approaches currently used within the HLA community. Our improvements are achieved by using a parsimonious parameterization for haplotype distributions and by smoothing the maximum likelihood (ML) solution. These improvements make it possible to scale the refinement to a larger number of alleles and loci in a more computationally efficient and stable manner. We also show how to augment our method in order to incorporate ethnicity information (as HLA allele distributions vary widely according to race/ethnicity as well as geographic area), and demonstrate the potential utility of this experimentally. A tool based on our approach is freely available for research purposes at http://microsoft.com/science

Ethnicity and the professional socialisation of teachers: final report to the Teacher Training Agency

This report draws together the outcomes of a programme of research that has extended over two years. The project, which was financed by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), aimed to fill some important gaps in our understanding of issues surrounding the recruitment of people from ethnic minorities into the teaching profession, and their subsequent experiences during training and in their first appointments. The project was organised under five interlocking strands. The first consisted of a postal questionnaire to all 1998 Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) entrants who had identified themselves in the Graduate Teacher Training Registry’s (GTTR) returns as being from an ethnic minority, or who had ticked the category of ‘Other’. The questionnaire invited the respondents to comment on a range of issues concerning their motivations for entering teaching and for choosing the particular institution in which they were to train. Two hundred and eighty-nine of the 776 questionnaires sent out were returned, giving a satisfactory response rate for this kind of survey. The second strand examined a similar set of issues from the perspectives of PGCE staff in sixteen initial teacher training institutions, with above average ethnic minority intakes. This strand, which was based on interviews with course directors, admissions tutors and other key personnel, was conducted in seven pre-1992 universities, eight post-1992 universities and one SCITT (i.e. an institution providing school-centred initial teacher training). In the third strand of the study, we returned to many of the same institutions and, with their help, set up interviews with a cross-section of respondents to the trainee questionnaire. In all, forty-nine trainees participated. The fourth strand involved another questionnaire, this time going to newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who had just completed a PGCE course (i.e. the same cohort as had been targeted in the first strand). The main NQT sample comprised 149 respondents. Finally, in the fifth strand, we followed up forty-four of the respondents from the main NQT sample to obtain their personal reflections after nearly one year of teaching. As well as giving a detailed account of each strand of the research, the report also provides a critical bibliography of related work from recent years, an account of the methodologies used, and a set of conclusions and recommendations. The methodology section highlights the limitations of a study such as this, and should be read carefully before any claims are made on the basis of our work. This executive summary draws attention to the main points in each part of the report. 5 On 1 September 2005 the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) became the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and took on an expanded remit. Visit www.tda.gov.uk for further information. We are re-branding our literature only when necessary

The recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic groups

This article reports on part of a larger, ongoing two-year investigation supported by the Teacher Training Agency into the recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds via Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in England. The authors focus here on interviews with admissions tutors, course directors and other senior staff at teacher training institutions. The interviews revealed differences between institutions in the measures taken to attract minority ethnic students. The research indicates a need for much clearer guidelines for admissions tutors on the issues surrounding the question of ‘positive action’ on the recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic groups

IFNL3 (IL28B) favorable genotype escapes hepatitis C virus-induced microRNAs and mRNA decay

The IFNL3 (IL28B) gene has received immense attention in the hepatitis C virus (HCV) field as multiple independent genome-wide association studies identified a strong association between polymorphisms near the IFNL3 gene and HCV clearance. However, the mechanism underlying this association has remained elusive. In this study, we report the identification of a functional polymorphism (rs4803217) located in the 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR) of the IFNL3 mRNA that dictates transcript stability. This polymorphism influences AU-rich element-mediated decay as well as the binding of HCV-induced microRNAs during infection. Together, these pathways mediate robust repression of the unfavorable IFNL3 genotype. These data reveal a novel mechanism by which HCV attenuates the antiviral response and uncover new potential therapeutic targets for HCV treatment