Occupation Specific or Generic Skills? Conflicting Interests of Firms and Apprentices

Firms and apprentices have conflicting interests with respect to the content of training programmes. On the basis of a model for the investment decision in occupation-specific and generic training, I will show that, in the case of imperfect competition, firms are not only unwilling to pay for generic training, they also want this component to be as low as possible because it decreases their expected returns to occupation-specific training. Therefore the generic component of the training will be below the social optimum. This underinvestment problem cannot always be solved by having the generic component fixed at the social optimum by an external training body. Fixing the generic component may negatively affect the level of occupation-specific training and decrease social welfare.education, training and the labour market;

Diversity of Contract Law and the European Internal Market

This contribution discusses the question whether diversity of contract law among the European member states is a barrier to cross-border trade. This question is important in view of the ongoing debate about the need for a unified European private law. It has tried to answer the question by building upon insights from psychology, economics and law. It turns out that no definitive answer can be given to the question whether the savings in transaction costs through the removal of legal diversity are greater than the losses caused by the termination of competition of legal systems.Unification; Contract Law

Moving close to parents and adult children in the Netherlands: the influence of support needs

In this paper, the extent to which support needs lead to moves of adult children (aged 30 and above) to within one kilometer of their parents and vice versa is examined. Using Netherlands population data from 2004 and 2005, it is found that the divorce of the adult child increases the likelihood of moving close to parents, especially in the event of recent divorce. A recent first birth in the adult child’s household also leads to moving close to parents, whereas having children aged one and above makes moves of the parents close to the adult child more likely.intergenerational support, migration, Netherlands, support needs

Turbulence modeling in shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interactions

The research performed was an experimental program to help develop turbulence models for shock wave boundary layer interactions. The measurements were taken in a Mach 3, 16 deg compression corner interaction, at a unit Reynolds number of 63 x 10(exp 6)/m. The data consisted of heat transfer data taken upstream and downstream of the interaction, hot wire measurements of the instantaneous temperature and velocity fluctuations to verify the Strong Reynolds Analogy, and single- and double-pulsed Rayleigh scattering images to study the development of the instantaneous shock/turbulence interaction

The dynamics and control of fluctuating pressure loads in the reattachment region of a supersonic free shear layer

The primary aim is to investigate the mechanisms which cause the unsteady wall-pressure fluctuations in shock wave turbulent shear layer interactions. The secondary aim is to find means to reduce the magnitude of the fluctuating pressure loads by controlling the unsteady shock motion. The particular flow proposed for study is the unsteady shock wave interaction formed in the reattachment zone of a separated supersonic flow. Similar flows are encountered in many practical situations, and they are associated with high levels of fluctuating wall pressure. Wall pressure fluctuations were measured in the reattachment region of the supersonic free shear layer. The free shear layer was formed by the separation of a Mach 2.9 turbulent boundary layer from a backward facing step. Reattachment occurred on a 20 deg ramp. By adjusting the position of the ramp, the base pressure was set equal to the freestream pressure, and the free shear layer formed in the absence of a separation shock. An array of flush-mounted, miniature, high-frequency pressure transducers was used to make multichannel measurements of the fluctuating wall pressure in the vicinity of the reattachment region. Contrary to previous observations of this flow, the reattachment region was found to be highly unsteady, and the pressure fluctuations were found to be significant. The overall behavior of the wall pressure loading is similar in scale and magnitude to the unsteadiness of the wall pressure field in compression ramp flows at the same Mach number. Rayleigh scattering was used to visualize the instantaneous shock structure in the streamwise and spanwise direction. Spanwise wrinkles on the order of half the boundary layer thickness were observed