Wage incentive profiles in dual labour markets

We propose a modified version of the Shapiro-Stiglitz’s (1984) efficiency wage model by introducing temporary contracts in the standard setup. New theoretical insights emerge on the incentive problem faced by workers and firms. We argue that the existence of temporary contracts broaden the incentive menu available to employers and that the optimal incentive structure can be sustained as an equi- librium outcome only if permanent contracts do not disappear. We also provide an alternative explanation of the wage penalty suffered by temporary workers even if standard models of efficiency wages would predict higher compensations for workers facing a higher job loss risk.Dual labour market, efficiency wages, wage differentials

How to measure Corporate Social Responsibility

Compliance with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) standards may require capacity that varies from one aspect to the other and companies in different industries may encounter different difficulties. Since CSR is a multidimensional concept, latent variable models may be usefully employed to provide a unidimensional measure of the ability of a firm to fulfil CSR standards. A methodology based on Item Response Theory has been implemented on the KLD sustainability dataset. Results show that companies in the industries Oil & Gas, Industrials, Basic Materials and Telecommunications have a higher difficulty to meet the CSR standards. Criteria based on Environment, Community relations and Product quality have a large capacity to select the firms with the best CSR performance, while Governance does not exhibit similar behavior. A stock selection based on the ranking of the firms according to our CSR measure outperforms, in terms of risk-adjusted returns, stock selection based on other criteria.Socially Responsible Investment, CSR ability, latent variable model, item response theory

Measurement of the Standard Model Higgs Boson Couplings by Means of an Exclusive Analysis of its Diphoton Decay Channel

Measurement of the Standard Model Higgs Boson Couplings by Means of an Exclusive Analysis of its Diphoton Decay Channe

Measurement of the Standard Model Higgs Boson Couplings by Means of an Exclusive Analysis of its Diphoton Decay Channel

Measurement of the Standard Model Higgs Boson Couplings by Means of an Exclusive Analysis of its Diphoton Decay Channe

Vetoing Cosmogenic Muons in A Large Liquid Scintillator

At upcoming medium baseline reactor neutrino experiments the spallation 9Li background will be somewhat larger than the inverse beta decay reactor neutrino signal. We use new FLUKA simulations of spallation backgrounds to optimize a class of veto strategies and find that surprisingly the optimal veto for the mass hierarchy determination has a rejection efficiency below 90%. The unrejected background has only a modest effect on the physics goals. For example $\Delta\chi^2$ for the hierarchy determination falls by 1.4 to 3 points depending on the muon tracking ability. The optimal veto strategy is essentially insensitive to the tracking ability, consisting of 2 meter radius, 1.1 second cylindrical vetoes of well tracked muons with showering energies above 3 to 4 GeV and 0.7 second full detector vetoes for poorly tracked muons above 15 to 18 GeV. On the other hand, as the uncertainty in theta12 will be dominated by the uncertainty in the reactor neutrino spectrum and not statistical fluctuations, the optimal rejection efficiency for the measurement of theta12 is 93% in the case of perfect tracking.Comment: 29 pages, 25 figure

Showering Cosmogenic Muons in A Large Liquid Scintillator

We present the results of FLUKA simulations of the propagation of cosmogenic muons in a 20 kton spherical liquid scintillator detector underneath 700 to 900 meters of rock. A showering muon is one which deposits at least 3 GeV in the detector in addition to ionization energy. We find that 20 percent of muons are showering and a further 10 percent of muon events are muon bundles of which more than one muon enters the detector. In this range the showering and bundle fractions are robust against changes in the depth and topography, thus the total shower and bundle rate for a given experiment can be obtained by combining our results with an estimate for the total muon flux. One consequence is that a straightforward adaptation of the full detector showering muon cuts used by KamLAND to JUNO or RENO 50 would yield a nearly vanishing detector efficiency.Comment: 24 pages, 18 figures, v4: Improved precision of bundle rate

Measuring theta12 Despite an Uncertain Reactor Neutrino Spectrum

The recently discovered 5 MeV bump highlights that the uncertainty in the reactor neutrino spectrum is far greater than some theoretical estimates. Medium baseline reactor neutrino experiments will deliver by far the most precise ever measurements of theta12. However, as a result of the bump, such a determination of theta12 using the theoretical spectrum would yield a value of sin^2(2theta12) which is more than 1% higher than the true value. We show that by using recent measurements of the reactor neutrino spectrum the precision of a measurement of theta12 at a medium baseline reactor neutrino experiment can be improved appreciably. We estimate this precision as a function of the 9Li spallation background veto efficiency and dead time.Comment: 8 pages, 2 eps figures, v3: Refs adde