8,627 research outputs found
The Working Poor and Social Security Privatization: Restoring the Opportunity to Save
Many defenders of Social Security assert that the program favors the poor and keeps low-wage earners out of poverty. Those claims are mistaken. Today, despite Social Security's progressive benefit structure, more than 1 in 10 seniors live in poverty. Social Security simply costs too much and pays too little. The rate of return on Social Security taxes paid during a working life is dismal, making the opportunity cost of participating in the program instead of a private retirement plan tremendous. Social Security's approaching fiscal crisis threatens to make this situation worse. The poor would accrue substantial savings and enjoy much larger retirement benefits if they were allowed to redirect payroll taxes to individually owned, privately invested accounts. Instead of relying on political promises for retirement security, low-wage workers would have tangible retirement savings built from their earnings. Such a system would provide greater financial security and would go a long way toward eliminating poverty among the elderly
Freeze-out Configuration in Multifragmentation
The excitation energy and the nuclear density at the time of breakup are
extracted for the reaction at beam energies of 1 and 3.6
GeV/nucleon. These quantities are calculated from the average relative velocity
of intermediate mass fragments (IMF) at large correlation angles as a function
of the multiplicity of IMFs using a statistical model coupled with many-body
Coulomb trajectory calculations. The Coulomb component and
thermal component are found to depend oppositely on the
excitation energy, IMFs multiplicity, and freeze-out density. These
dependencies allow the determination of both the volume and the mean excitation
energy at the time of breakup. It is found that the volume remained constant as
the beam energy was increased, with a breakup density of about ,
but that the excitation energy increased to about 5.5 MeV/nucleon.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures available upon resues
What are the preferences of Dairy Farmers regarding their Work? A Discrete Choice Experiment in the Eastern Part of Switzerland
The paper analyzes the preferences of dairy farmers with respect to their work by the means of a Discrete Choice experiment, which was carried out in the Eastern part of Switzerland. 304 dairy farmers, who intend to produce milk beyond the abolishment of the milk quota in 2009, were asked to choose between the status quo and alternatives consisting of several combinations with four attributes. The latter comprise work content, terms of employment, holiday per year and income per year. Using a probit model, the willingness to pay/accept is calculated. The results indicate that there is a strong preference to stay in dairy production. In order to achieve both, maintaining the level of utility and moving away from dairy production, an additional income (willingness to accept) per year of at least CHF 25â000.- would be necessary. The pre-ferences of dairy farmers show that differences between the alternative work contents like suckler cows husbandry, farming without livestock and work outside of agriculture are minor.discrete choice, preferences, work content, dairy farming, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use,
Endogenous adjusted Output Quotas - The Abolishment of the Raw Milk Quota in the European Union
This paper discusses an approach to implement output quotas in the GTAP model which permits an endogenous adjustment of both the supplied quantity and the quota rent. Since the quota rent is interpreted as additional earnings of the factors used no change of the worldwide GTAP data base is required. Several modifications of the GTAP model and two exogenous coefficients are necessary. Considering uncertain values of one of the coefficients, systematic sensitivity analysis is applied. The abolishment of the raw milk quota in the European Union would lead to a remarkable decrease in raw milk prices in most member countries. The raw milk production increases in Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands while it declines in Greece and Portugal. In the other member countries the raw milk production changes slightly.general equilibrium model, GTAP, output quota, raw milk production, sensitivity analysis, Agribusiness,
Approaches and possible improvements in the area of multibody dynamics modeling
A wide ranging look is taken at issues involved in the dynamic modeling of complex, multibodied orbiting space systems. Capabilities and limitations of two major codes (DISCOS, TREETOPS) are assessed and possible extensions to the CONTOPS software are outlined. In addition, recommendations are made concerning the direction future development should take in order to achieve higher fidelity, more computationally efficient multibody software solutions
On asymptotic behavior of work distributions for driven Brownian motion
We propose a simple conjecture for the functional form of the asymptotic
behavior of work distributions for driven overdamped Brownian motion of a
particle in confining potentials. This conjecture is motivated by the fact that
these functional forms are independent of the velocity of the driving for all
potentials and protocols, where explicit analytical solutions for the work
distributions have been derived in the literature. To test the conjecture, we
use Brownian dynamics simulations and a recent theory developed by Engel and
Nickelsen (EN theory), which is based on the contraction principle of large
deviation theory. Our tests suggest that the conjecture is valid for potentials
with a confinement equal to or weaker than the parabolic one, both for
equilibrium and for nonequilibrium distributions of the initial particle
position. In addition we obtain a new analytical solution for the asymptotic
behavior of the work distribution for the V-potential by application of the EN
theory, and we extend this theory to nonequilibrated initial particle
positions
High Resolution Microimaging with Pulsed Electrically-Detected Magnetic Resonance
The investigation of paramagnetic species (such as point defects, dopants,
and impurities) in solid-state electronic devices is significant because of
their effect on device performance. Conventionally, these species are detected
and imaged using the electron spin resonance (ESR) technique. In many
instances, ESR is not sensitive enough to deal with miniature devices having
small numbers of paramagnetic species and high spatial heterogeneity. This
limitation can in principle be overcome by employing a more sensitive method
called electrically-detected magnetic resonance, which is based on measuring
the effect of paramagnetic species on the electric current of the device while
inducing electron spin-flip transitions. However, up until now, measurement of
the current of the device could not reveal the spatial heterogeneity of its
paramagnetic species. We provide here, for the first time, high resolution
microimages of paramagnetic species in operating solar cells obtained through
electrically-detected magnetic resonance. The method is based on unique
microwave pulse sequences for excitation and detection of the electrical signal
under a static magnetic field and powerful pulsed magnetic field gradients that
spatially encode the electrical current of the sample. The approach developed
here can be widely used in the nondestructive three-dimensional inspection and
characterization of paramagnetic species in a variety of electronic devices.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures +S
Success factors for farming collectives
As the most intensive form of partnership in agriculture, farming collectives (FCs) place high demands on their participants. Based on a census of Swiss farming collectives, three success indicators are formed. The first and second describe interpersonal and economic success respectively, whilst the third encompasses overall success. Factors influencing success are determined by means of multiple regressions. Five predictor variables (compatibility with co-operation partner, trust, information quality, attitude of social environment, and relationship/kinship circle of the cooperation partner) accounted for 44 per cent of the variance in interpersonal success. Economic success was far more difficult to explain (R2 = 0.11). Even so, the influence of âsoftâ factors, even on the economic success of a farming collective, is striking. Above all, trust and the human and structural compatibility of the cooperation partners play an important role for all three types of success. The co-operation agreement, agricultural consultation, the number of participating people on the farm, and the investments made may be ranked as less important than previously assumed.farming collective, economic satisfaction, interpersonal conflicts, Agribusiness,
- âŠ