The Impact of Wage Bargaining Regime on Firm-Level Competitiveness and Wage Inequality: The Case of Ireland. ESRI WP266. December 2008

This paper uses a linked employer-employee dataset to analyse the impact of institutional wage bargaining regimes on levels of average labour costs and within firm wage dispersion in private sector companies in Ireland. The results show that while centralised bargaining reduced labour costs within both the indigenous and foreign-owned sectors, the relative advantage was greater among foreign-owned firms. The analysis suggests that there are potentially large competitiveness gains to multinational companies that choose to locate in countries implementing a centralised bargaining system. Furthermore, the results provide additional support to the view that collective bargaining reduces within firm wage inequality

Characterisation of the Transcriptomes of Genetically Diverse <i>Listeria monocytogenes</i> Exposed to Hyperosmotic and Low Temperature Conditions Reveal Global Stress-Adaptation Mechanisms

<div><p>The ability of <i>Listeria monocytogenes</i> to adapt to various food and food- processing environments has been attributed to its robustness, persistence and prevalence in the food supply chain. To improve the present understanding of molecular mechanisms involved in hyperosmotic and low-temperature stress adaptation of <i>L. monocytogenes</i>, we undertook transcriptomics analysis on three strains adapted to sub-lethal levels of these stress stimuli and assessed functional gene response. Adaptation to hyperosmotic and cold-temperature stress has revealed many parallels in terms of gene expression profiles in strains possessing different levels of stress tolerance. Gene sets associated with ribosomes and translation, transcription, cell division as well as fatty acid biosynthesis and peptide transport showed activation in cells adapted to either cold or hyperosmotic stress. Repression of genes associated with carbohydrate metabolism and transport as well as flagella was evident in stressed cells, likely linked to activation of CodY regulon and consequential cellular energy conservation.</p> </div

Posterior statistics for selected parameters.

<p>Posterior means and 95% HPDI are shown for , , , , and . Bacterial strains are shown as circles, archaeal strains as squares, and eukaryote strains as diamonds. Posterior domain distributions are shown on the right margin. For both symbols and marginal distributions domains are colored green for Bacteria, blue for Archaea, and red for Eukarya. The strains are arranged so that those belonging to the same species are grouped contiguously. We show this by vertical gray and white shading that indicate when the strain species change; for example, strains 6—18 are all <i>E. coli</i>.</p

Observed and predicted growth rates by strain.

<p>Observed square root growth rate data are shown as circles and are standardized by dividing by the maximum for each strain. Fitted curves are shown as lines. Strain numbering is given in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0032003#pone.0032003.s007" target="_blank">Table S1</a>. Bacterial strains are shown as green circles, archaeal strains as blue squares, and eukaryote strains as red diamonds.</p

Posterior mean common parameter estimates.

<p>Posterior mean common parameter estimates.</p

Histogram showing distribution of a mean generation time within bootstrap replicates based on the origin of isolate of <i>Listeria monocytogenes</i> strains exposed to either a.) 12.5% NaCl or b.) cold 4°C temperature in BHIB.

<p>Histogram showing distribution of a mean generation time within bootstrap replicates based on the origin of isolate of <i>Listeria monocytogenes</i> strains exposed to either a.) 12.5% NaCl or b.) cold 4°C temperature in BHIB.</p

The probability of an enzyme being in its native state.

<p>Shown is the mean curve for each strain. The colored portions indicate the observed temperature ranges for each strain, and the dashed portions are extrapolations outside these ranges in order to show their shapes. The curves are labeled with strain codes and domain. The domains are colored green for Bacteria, blue for Archaea, red for Eukarya.</p

Heat map showing statistical trends for down-regulated functionally defined sets of genes in strains of <i>L. monocytogenes</i> exposed to either sub-lethal level of NaCl or cold stresses.

<p>T-test based procedure was used to score the changes in expression of each functional gene set, statistically significant T-values (as determined by a two-tailed P-value) are expressed from -5 (shown in green) to 5 (shown in red). Gene sets were considered significantly up-regulated with T-value ≥ 1 and significantly down-regulated with T-value ≤ -1.</p

Heat map showing statistical trends for up-regulated functionally defined sets of genes in strains of <i>L. monocytogenes</i> exposed to either sub-lethal level of NaCl or cold stresses.

<p>T-test based procedure was used to score the changes in expression of each functional gene set, statistically significant T-values (as determined by a two-tailed P-value) are expressed from -5 (shown in green) to 5 (shown in red). Gene sets were considered significantly up-regulated with T-value ≥ 1 and significantly down-regulated with T-value ≤ -1.</p

Fitted curves for growth rate by strain.

<p>Shown are the mean predicted growth curves plotted on a vertical log scale against the reciprocal of temperature. The colored portions indicate the observed temperature ranges for each strain, and the dashed portions are extrapolations outside these ranges. The curves are labeled with strain codes and domain. The domains are colored green for Bacteria, blue for Archaea, red for Eukarya.</p