The impact of minimum wages on wages and employment: evidence from Greece

This paper investigates the impact of minimum wages on wages and employment in Greece between 2009 and 2017. Our main contribution is the examination of the effects of minimum wages under a dramatically changing context, as during this period Greece has experienced the deepest recession in its recent history, extensive labour market reforms, and several changes in the minimum wage, including a large decrease. Employing a unique administrative panel matched employer-employee data set and a range of estimators, such as difference-in-differences, fixed effects, and Instrumental Variables, we find that minimum wages have a positive and significant effect on individual and firm-level wages with significant positive wage spill-overs extending, sometimes, above the median wage, but no systematic employment effects

Minimum Wages and Firm Employment: Evidence from a Minimum Wage Reduction in Greece

© 2020 The Authors. We investigate firm heterogeneity in responses to minimum wage changes leveraging on a policy reform in 2012 in Greece that introduced a youth sub-minimum through a sharp reduction in the minimum wage that was larger for youth. Using administrative linked employer–employee panel data and a difference-in-differences estimator, we find that, although wages decreased across all firms following the policy reform, adult wages decreased by more, whereas youth wages decreased by less in firms with a higher share of youth in employment. We also find that, in these firms, adult employment increased by more, while youth employment increased by less or even decreased and that these changes reflected mainly new hires rather than job separations. These heterogeneous responses to the change in the minimum wage across firms are not entirely consistent with the competitive model of the labour market

The effect of mergers on US bank risk in the short run and in the long run

We examine changes in risk following US bank mergers in the period 1981-2014. Short-run (two-year) increases in acquirer risk following mergers occur only in the first few mergers undertaken by the same acquirer, not in the later ones. They occur only in the stocks’ sensitivity to banking industry risk and not in bank-specific risk. The equity volatility of acquirers does not increase, but diversification benefits are entirely dissipated. Using a new approach to measure the long-run effect we find that these results persist, consistent with banks maintaining a constant level of total equity risk in the long run. We measure the loss of diversification of the US bank industry associated with mergers and find it to be 40% of the risk level in 1981. Almost all of this occurred prior to 2004. In addition, there has been a large increase in correlations between the largest banks, much of which has come from sources other than mergers

Inclusive growth? The relationship between economic growth and poverty in British cities

There is growing concern in many developed economies that the benefits of economic growth are not shared equitably. This is particularly the case in the UK, where economic growth has been geographically uneven and often biased towards already affluent cities. Yet there is relatively little evidence on the relationship between growth and poverty in the UK. This paper addresses this gap with an analysis of the links between economic growth and poverty in British cities between 2000 – 2008. We find little evidence that output growth reduced poverty. While growth was associated with wage increases at the top of the distribution, it was not associated with wage growth below the median. And there was no relationship between economic growth and the low skilled employment rate. These results suggest that growth in this period was far from inclusive

Evaluating the effects of planning policies on the retail sector: or do town centre first policies deliver the goods

Acknowledgements This paper represents work in progress and is still a preliminary draft. We would like to acknowledge the funding provided to SERC by ESRC, DCLG, BIS and the Welsh Assembly. We have benefited greatly from discussions with many colleagues and professional contacts: we would particularly like to mentio

Cutaneous skull metastasis from uterine leiomyosarcoma: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cutaneous metastases in the facial region occur in less than 0.5% of patients with metastatic cancer.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 52-year-old woman who admitted with a lung and a skull skin nodule is presented. She had a known diagnosis of uterine leiomyosarcoma following an extended total hysterectomy two years ago. Excision biopsy of both nodules revealed metastatic disease.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The appearance of a cutaneous nodule in a patient with a history of uterine leiomyosarcoma might indicate a metastatic tumor lesion. Biopsy and immunohistochemistry are essential for correct diagnosis.</p

Perceptions of employability among London's low-paid: 'self-determination' or ethnicity?

We investigate how ethnicity, gender and other characteristics affect low-paid workers’ perceptions of their employability in London’s labour market, examining ‘self-determination’, ethnic and dual labour market theories. We find that perceptions vary considerably, both between genders and ethnicities and in the extent to which they are ‘justified’ by human capital attributes. Optimism varies between genders and ethnic groups but individuals’ perceptions vary to an even greater extent within genders and ethnic groups. Hence, individual-level ‘self-determination’ explanations of these perceptions appear to have greatest explanatory power though ethnic theories also have utility

Connection between Telomerase Activity in PBMC and Markers of Inflammation and Endothelial Dysfunction in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a constellation of metabolic derangements associated with vascular endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress and is widely regarded as an inflammatory condition, accompanied by an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. The present study tried to investigate the implications of telomerase activity with inflammation and impaired endothelial function in patients with metabolic syndrome. Telomerase activity in circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), TNF-α, IL-6 and ADMA were monitored in 39 patients with MS and 20 age and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Telomerase activity in PBMC, TNF-α, IL-6 and ADMA were all significantly elevated in patients with MS compared to healthy volunteers. PBMC telomerase was negatively correlated with HDL and positively correlated with ADMA, while no association between TNF-α and IL-6 was observed. IL-6 was increasing with increasing systolic pressure both in the patients with MS and in the healthy volunteers, while smoking and diabetes were positively correlated with IL-6 only in the patients' group. In conclusion, in patients with MS characterised by a strong dyslipidemic profile and low diabetes prevalence, significant telomerase activity was detected in circulating PBMC, along with elevated markers of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. These findings suggest a prolonged activity of inflammatory cells in the studied state of this metabolic disorder that could represent a contributory pathway in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis

Evidence for 28 genetic disorders discovered by combining healthcare and research data

De novo mutations in protein-coding genes are a well-established cause of developmental disorders. However, genes known to be associated with developmental disorders account for only a minority of the observed excess of such de novo mutations. Here, to identify previously undescribed genes associated with developmental disorders, we integrate healthcare and research exome-sequence data from 31,058 parent–offspring trios of individuals with developmental disorders, and develop a simulation-based statistical test to identify gene-specific enrichment of de novo mutations. We identified 285 genes that were significantly associated with developmental disorders, including 28 that had not previously been robustly associated with developmental disorders. Although we detected more genes associated with developmental disorders, much of the excess of de novo mutations in protein-coding genes remains unaccounted for. Modelling suggests that more than 1,000 genes associated with developmental disorders have not yet been described, many of which are likely to be less penetrant than the currently known genes. Research access to clinical diagnostic datasets will be critical for completing the map of genes associated with developmental disorders