Network mechanisms and social ties in markets for low- and unskilled jobs: (theory and) evidence from North-India

Abstract: Workplace referrals may resolve incentive problems that arise due to incomplete contracts. We use an in-depth primary data set covering low- and unskilled migrants from Western Uttar Pradesh (India), to examine this and alternative explanations for referral-based recruitment. We find little evidence of referral screening for unobservable worker traits, but some support for a hypothesis of referral as a mechanism to enforce workforce discipline. Two observations back this conjecture: the high prevalence of strong kinship ties between referees and new recruits and that those who recruit are in more ‘prestigious’ jobs and therefore have higher stakes vis-à-vis their employer. These main findings are exposed to robustness checks to rule out rival explanations: that entry through a workplace insider merely reflects privileged access to job vacancy information; that workplace clustering results from preferences for working together or that the higher prevalence of referral for very young migrants that we observe may reflect that referral has an insurance dimension.Work Migration; Social Networks; Screening; Moral Hazard

Auto-maticity: Ruscha and Performative Photography

This piece argues that Ed Ruscha's books, such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations, are not journalistic or amateurish in style, as Jeff Wall contends, but rather performative and instructional, that is, following in a tradition initiated by Marcel Duchamp's 3 Standard Stoppages

Lack of continuity between Cronobacter biotypes and species as determined using multilocus sequence typing

The accuracy of the Cronobacter biotyping scheme was compared with the 7-loci multilocus sequence typing scheme. Biotyping did not reliably assign species level identification, as only half (17/31) of the biotype variants were unique to any of the seven Cronobacter species and the remaining biotypes were shared across the genus

Recovering Individual Data In The Presence Of Group And Individual Effects

The ecological fallacy of relating variables on the group level, when the individual-level relationship is desired, can only be avoided by using individual-level data. This paper gives some conditions for occasions when individual-level data can successfully be recovered from grouped data. Such a recovery is illustrated using data on urban or rural residence and participation or not in the labor force as an example. The conditions are given in terms of the distinction between individual-and group-level effects of one variable on another. Recovering individual data, on the one hand, and the study of individual and group-level effects, on the other hand, epresent two separate areas of thought that have received considerable attention. Here a link is made between the two lines of development to facilitate the recovery of individual-level data. Some consequences of the models for research design and recovery of historical data are explored

The effect of patient shortage on general practitioners’ future income and list of patients

The literature on supplier inducement suffers from inability to distinguish the effect of better access from the effect of patient shortage. Data from the Norwegian capitation trial in general practice give us an opportunity to make this distinction and hence, study whether service provision by physicians is income motivated. In the capitation trial each general practitioner (GP) has a personal list of patients. The payment system is a mix of a capitation fee and a fee for service. The data set has information on patient shortage, i.e. a positive difference between a GP’s preferred and actual list size, at the individual practice level. From a model of a GP’s optimal choice we derive the optimal practice profile contingent on whether a GP experiences a shortage of patients or not. To what extent GPs, who experience a shortage, will undertake measures to attract patients or embark on a service intensive practice style, depends on the costs of the various measures relative to their expected benefit. The model classifies GPs into five types. In the empirical analysis a panel of GPs is followed for five years. Hence, short-term effects due to transition to a new system should have been overcome. We show that even in the longer run, GPs who experience a shortage of patients have a higher income per listed person than their unrationed colleagues. This result is robust with regard to correction for potential selection bias based on observable and unobservable characteristics. We do not find any significant difference in income per listed person dependent on whether a rationed GP obtains an increase in the number of patients or not. A policy implication is that patient shortage is costly to the insurer because of income motivated behavior of unknown benefit to the patient.Economic motives; Capitation; General practice; Patient shortage; Service provision

A study of income-motivated behavior among general practitioners in the Norwegian list patient system

In the Norwegian capitation system each general practitioner (GP) has a personal list of patients. The payment system is a mix of a capitation fee and fee-for-service. From a model of a GP’s decisions we derive the optimal practice profile contingent on whether a GP experiences a shortage of patients or not. We also find the conditions for whether a GP, who experiences a shortage of patients, is likely to increase the number of services he provides to his patients. Data give us the opportunity to reveal patient shortage, i.e. a positive difference between a GP’s preferred and actual list size, at the individual practice level. From the analysis of 2587 Norwegian GPs (out of a total 3650) the main result is that patient shortage has a positive effect on a GP’s intensity of service provision and hence, on the income per listed person. We also find that a GP’s income per listed person is influenced by the composition of the list according to indicators of need for services, and of accessibility according to the GP density in the municipality. These results are also valid when possible selection bias is accounted for, although the magnitude of the effects is then smaller.economic motives; capitation; general practice; patient shortage; service provision

Introduction : photography between art history and philosophy

The essays collected in this special issue of Critical Inquiry are devoted to reflection on the shifts in photographically based art practice, exhibition, and reception in recent years and to the changes brought about by these shifts in our understanding of photographic art. Although initiated in the 1960s, photography as a mainstream artistic practice has accelerated over the last two decades. No longer confined to specialist galleries, books, journals, and other distribution networks, contemporary art photographers are now regularly the subject of major retrospectives in mainstream fine-art museums on the same terms as any other artist. One could cite, for example, Thomas Struth at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (2003), Thomas Demand at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) (2005), or Jeff Wall at Tate Modern and MoMA (2006–7). Indeed, Wall’s most recent museum show, at the time of writing, The Crooked Path at Bozar, Brussels (2011), situated his photography in relation to the work of a range of contemporary photographers, painters, sculptors, performance artists, and filmmakers with whose work Wall considers his own to be in dialogue, irrespective of differences of media. All this goes to show that photographic art is no longer regarded as a subgenre apart. The situation in the United Kingdom is perhaps emblematic of both photography’s increasing prominence and its increased centrality in the contemporary art world over recent years. Tate hosted its first ever photography survey, Cruel and Tender, as recently as 2003, and since then photography surveys have become a regular biannual staple of its exhibition programming, culminating in the appointment of Tate’s first dedicated curator of photography in 2010. A major shift in the perception of photography as art is clearly well under way

An exploratory study of associations between social capital and selfassessed health in Norway

The objective of this study is to estimate associations between social capital and health when other factors are controlled for. Data from the survey of level-of-living conditions by Statistics Norway are merged with data from several other sources. The merged files combine data at the individual level with data that describe indicators of community-level social capital related to each person’s county of residence. Both cross-sectional and panel data are used. We find that one indicator of community-level social capital — voting participation in local elections — was positively associated with self-assessed health in the cross-sectional study and in the panel data study. While we find that religious activity at the community-level has a positive effect in the cross-sectional survey and a non-significant effect in the panel survey, we find that sports organizations have a negative effect on health in the cross-sectional survey and a non-significant effect in the panel study. This result indicates that sports organizations represent bonding social capital.social capital; health; Norway

Should we expect financial globalization to have significant effects on business cycles?

Empirical research suggests that financial globalization has insignificant effects on business cycles. Based on standard theoretical models it might be conjectured that the effects should be significant. I show that this conjecture is wrong. Theoretical effects of financial globalization can be determined to any level of precision by expanding the underlying artificial samples. In contrast, in the data the effects are imprecisely estimated because of short samples. I show that if the conclusion is based on empirically relevant sample sizes, a benchmark international real business cycle model predicts insignificant effects of financial integration for all business cycle statistics except the correlation of consumption. A sensitivity analysis shows that under alternative model structures even the effect on the consumption correlation is insignificant. My results suggest that we should not expect financial globalization to have significant effects on business cycles.Financial Globalization; Business Cycles; Monte Carlo Methods

Electric field measurements with stratospheric balloons

Electric fields and currents in the middle atmosphere are important elements of the modern picture of this region. Balloon instruments, reaching the level of the stratosphere, were used extensively for the experimental work. The research has shown good progress, both in the MAP period and in the years before and after. The knowledge was increased about, e.g., the upper atmosphere potential, the electric properties of the medium itself and about the coupling with magnetospheric (ionospheric) fields and currents. Also various measurements have brought about a discussion of the possible existence of hitherto unknown sources. Throughout the MAP period the work on a possible definition of an electric index has continued