Implicit contracts, on-the-job search and involuntary unemployment

This paper extends the implicit contracts framework to allow for on-the-job search. It is shown that involuntary unemployment can arise in such a framework without placing any a priori restrictions on either wages or severance payments. The model also implies that firms will practice a two-tier system of adjusting their labor force. In the first stage, workers who receive outside job offers leave the firm. The second stage consists of firms hiring additional workers during good states of nature, and laying off workers during bad states of nature. Furthermore, during "bad enough" states of nature, firms will offer a severance payment or bonus for those who want to voluntarily leave, and then lay off workers without offering a large enough severance payment to compensate them for being unemployed.Labor supply ; Unemployment ; Wages

Enterprise liability: a prescription for health care reform?

A look at how the cost and quality of medical services in the United States would be affected by enterprise liability, a malpractice reform proposal that would 1) transfer liability in malpractice cases from the doctor to the patient's health care plan and 2) institute no-fault malpractice insurance.Medical care

Turnover, wages, and adverse selection

An argument that adverse selection in the labor market can explain why frequent job-changers have lower average wages and flatter age-earnings profiles than workers who change jobs infrequently. Adverse selection also provides a basis for examining the welfare implications of low-productivity workers in the labor market.Wages ; Labor mobility

Monetary policy in an economy with nominal wage contracts

A demonstration that optimal monetary policy can be either procyclical or countercyclical in a model where wages are "sticky" because of a nominal contracting constraint.Monetary policy ; Wages

Academic Librarianship and Career Adaptability

The inspiration for this essay is Barbara Fister’s assertion that librarians must embrace functions that have not traditionally been part of the academic librarian’s portfolio. We shall examine the need for career adaptability in librarianship and use a case study to illustrate the four attributes librarians need to develop to ensure career adaptability. The case study involved collaboration between Kansas State University (KSU) Libraries, an agronomy professor, and the Global Research Alliance to develop an open access croplands research database. We will draw upon the field of vocational psychology to discuss career adaptability and ways librarians can develop the traits needed for good career adaptability: career concern, career control, career curiosity and career confidence (4 Cs) (Savickas, 2005)

A two-sector implicit contracting model with procyclical quits and involuntary layoffs

An explanation of involuntary unemployment and procyclical quits based on models of implicit contracts and on-the-job search.Unemployment

The government's role in the health care industry: past, present, and future

A look at some of the reasons behind the ascent in health care costs over the last few decades and an analysis of how government policy has both contributed to and tried to rein in these costs.Insurance, Health ; Medical care, Cost of

Optimal Monetary Policy in a Small Open Economy: A General Equilibrium Analysis

This paper uses a small open economy model to address two outstanding issues in monetary policy: (1) what restrictions on the policy rule ensure that the central bank does not introduce real indeterminacy into the economy, and (2) what is the optimal long run rate of inflation. The small open economy model provides unique insights on both fronts. In the case of determinacy issues, the model’s simplicity makes the analysis remarkably transparent. As for long run inflation rates, a small open economy takes as given the foreign nominal interest rate. To the extent that this rate distorts domestic behavior, there is a role for positive domestic nominal rates (in contrast to Friedman’s celebrated optimum quantity of money). This motivation arises naturally in the setting of a small open economy.

Marginal tax rates and income inequality in a life-cycle model

A presentation of computational counterfactual experiments that examine the quantitative impact of marginal tax rates on the distribution of income.Income tax ; Income distribution

Type-1.5 superconductivity in multiband systems: the effects of interband couplings

In contrast to single-component superconductors, which are described at the level of Ginzburg-Landau theory by a single parameter \kappa and are divided in type-I \kappa1/\sqrt{2} classes, two-component systems in general possess three fundamental length scales and have been shown to possess a separate "type-1.5" superconducting state. In that state, as a consequence of the extra fundamental length scale, vortices attract one another at long range but repel at shorter ranges, and therefore should form clusters in low magnetic fields. In this work we investigate the appearance of type-1.5 superconductivity and the interpretation of the fundamental length scales in the case of two bands with substantial interband couplings such as intrinsic Josephson coupling, mixed gradient coupling and density-density interactions. We show that in the presence of substantial intercomponent interactions of the above types the system supports type-1.5 superconductivity with fundamental length scales being associated with the mass of the gauge field and two masses of normal modes represented by mixed combinations of the density fields.Comment: 19 pages, v.2: various additions, v.3: journal version (minor improvements in presentation