Gender Wage Inequality and Economic Growth: Is there Really a Puzzle?

Seguino (2000) shows that gender wage discrimination in export-oriented semi-industrialized countries might be fostering investment and growth in general. While the original analysis does not have internationally comparable wage discrimination data, we replicate the analysis using data from a meta-study on gender wage discrimination and do not find any evidence that more discrimination might further economic growth – on the contrary: if anything the impact of gender inequality is negative for growth. Standing up for more gender equality – also in terms of wages – is good for equity considerations and at least not negative for growth.

A level playing field for comparing air and rail travel times

The research project was funded by the International Union of Railways (UIC).Background: Shifting travellers from air to rail can reduce environmental impacts and is an important European Union goal. Online travel planning applications allow travellers to easily compare air and rail transport choices, however, they may not accurately consider time travellers spend at the airport or railway station since these depend on buffer times travellers use to protect against delays. Methods: This research investigated the actual time spent at airports and railway stations to analyse the accuracy of travel planning applications and help improve the quality of travel time estimates. The research used a travel time recording application to determine the time spent by passengers at airports and railway stations. Data was collected for 312 trips. The research was supplemented by an extensive literature review of dwell times and multimodal travel planning applications. Results: The research found that travellers spent an average of 157 minutes at airports and 32 minutes at railway stations. Comparing these results to travel planning application, the information shows that the applications significantly underestimate time spent at airports and slightly underestimate time spent at railway stations. The use of unrealistic airport waiting times in travel planning applications distorts traveller perception in favour of air travel. Conclusion: Therefore, railway operators should support the development of improved travel planning applications that better consider waiting times. Improving these applications would be much more cost effective than infrastructure improvements designed to save a few minutes of travel time

Разработка алгоритмов и программных модулей контроля состояния объекта и аналитической обработки данных в распределенной информационно-телекоммуникационной системе

The following article describes the principles and algorithm for data collection, analytical processing and for monitoring the state of different objects in the distributed information-telecommunication system. As a result it improves the efficiency of the system in general and increases the safety level of citizens during emergency situations

On the nature of amorphous polymorphism of water

We report elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments on different amorphous ice modifications. It is shown that an amorphous structure (HDA') indiscernible from the high-density phase (HDA), obtained by compression of crystalline ice, can be formed from the very high-density phase (vHDA) as an intermediate stage of the transition of vHDA into its low-density modification (LDA'). Both, HDA and HDA' exhibit comparable small angle scattering signals characterizing them as structures heterogeneous on a length scale of a few nano-meters. The homogeneous structures are the initial and final transition stages vHDA and LDA', respectively. Despite, their apparent structural identity on a local scale HDA and HDA' differ in their transition kinetics explored by in situ experiments. The activation energy of the vHDA-to-LDA' transition is at least 20 kJ/mol higher than the activation energy of the HDA-to-LDA transition

Regional and Social Differences in Body Mass Index, and the Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among 18 Year Old Men in Austria Between the Years 1985 and 2000

The BMI data of four birth cohorts of totally 180,716 male 18 year old Austrian conscripts were documented in 5 year intervals starting 1985 and ending 2000 in order to analyze regional and social variety and a time trend of stature, body weight and BMI as well as the prevalence rates of overweight (defined as a BMI > 25.00) and obesity (BMI > 30.00). At first a marked time trend in BMI and overweight /obesity prevalence rates was found. Over the 15 years of investigation BMI increased significantly and the variation of BMI distribution increased too. The impact of educational level on BMI and the prevalence of overweight and obesity was also statistically significant. With increasing educational level BMI and the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity decreased significantly. Furthermore a significant regional variety in BMI and the prevalence rates of overweight and obesity were found. BMI and the prevalence rates of obesity and overweight decreased significantly from the Eastern part of Austria to the Western part. Both observations, e.g. the social and regional variety of obesity and overweight prevalence, were true of all 4 birth cohorts. From these results we can conclude that obesity and overweight represent an increasing health problem among young Austrian males. This is especially true of young men of low social status living in the eastern part of Austria

Banking on Snow: Bank Capital, Risk, and Employment

How does small-firm employment respond to exogenous labor productivity risk? We find that this depends on the capitalization of firms' local banks. The evidence comes from firms offering (quasi-) fixed employment to workers whose productivity depends on the weather. Weather risk reduces this employment, and the effect is stronger in regions where the regional banks have less equity capital. Bank capitalization also proxies for the extent to which the regional banks’ borrowers can obtain liquidity when the regions are hit by weather shocks. We argue that, as liquidity providers, well-capitalized banks support economic adaptation to climate change

From microtiter plates to droplets - there and back again

Droplet-based microfluidic screening techniques can benefit from interfacing established microtiter plate-based screening and sample management workflows. Interfacing tools are required both for loading preconfigured microtiter-plate (MTP)-based sample collections into droplets and for dispensing the used droplets samples back into MTPs for subsequent storage or further processing. Here, we present a collection of Digital Microfluidic Pipetting Tips (DMPTs) with integrated facilities for droplet generation and manipulation together with a robotic system for its operation. This combination serves as a bidirectional sampling interface for sample transfer from wells into droplets (w2d) and vice versa droplets into wells (d2w). The DMPT were designed to fit into 96-deep-well MTPs and prepared from glass by means of microsystems technology. The aspirated samples are converted into the channel-confined droplets’ sequences separated by an immiscible carrier medium. To comply with the demands of dose-response assays, up to three additional assay compound solutions can be added to the sample droplets. To enable different procedural assay protocols, four different DMPT variants were made. In this way, droplet series with gradually changing composition can be generated for, e.g., 2D screening purposes. The developed DMPT and their common fluidic connector are described here. To handle the opposite transfer d2w, a robotic transfer system was set up and is described briefly

A Repository of Political Party and Interest Group Texts

Work Package 4 of OPTED has created a repository of links to data collections of political text produced by political parties and interest groups (IG), using the definitions and criteria outlined in the first deliverable (D4.1). The repository can be accessed here: https://perma.wzb.eu/opted_wp4_inventory. The inventory consists of two spreadsheets (datasets). One spreadsheet each for political parties and IGs. It contains information about the corpora we identified including temporal, country, and party coverage, accessibility, and usability. The variable text.category informs the user about the text type that can be accessed via the specific corpus, e.g. press releases, manifestos, websites. We regard the repository as a living document that will continue to grow and be updated over the full course of the design phase. The codebook to this repository can be found here: https://perma.wzb.eu/opted_wp4_codebook_inventory. In this report, we provide an overview of our approach to identifying data repositories and the available data we have identified in key areas to date. In the process of creating this repository, we have also identified areas where data has yet to be compiled or is not readily available from online sources

Plundering the liberal philosophical tradition? The use or abuse of Adam Smith in Parliament, 1919-2023

The contemporary relevance of Adam Smith is evidenced by continued reference to his name, and his two major works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. This paper employs computational analysis to identify over 700 mentions of Adam Smith and his works in postWorld War 1 House of Commons debates. We highlight mentions in speeches over the decades and how the tone and substances of them changes. We find some evidence of appreciation among parliamentarians of all political persuasions for Smith’s complex ideas, but the majority of mentions to be “ornamental,” mentioned in passing to support pre-existing political and policy arguments rather than an “argumentative” discussion of his complex ideas. This trend increases in the 1970s as he is “adopted” by key personnel in Thatcher’s Government and with the rise of the Adam Smith Institute. This paper constitutes a first attempt to chart Smith’s use in parliaments of the 20th and 21st centuries and builds on Willis’ (1979: 506) idea that studying parliamentary debates are an ideal way to understand how, at best, policy ideas, germinate and disseminate over time, or, at worst, how “complex ideas became slogans.