Employee Heterogeneity and Within-Firm Experience-Earnings Profiles: A Nonparametric Analysis

Abstract Motivated by a priori uncertainty with respect to the parametric specification of the earnings function, I model the earnings function as semiparametric partially linear model and follow the estimation approach described in Robinson (1988). Using data from the personnel records of a large major UK based financial sector employer, I let years of within-firm and pre-firm experience form the nonparametrically modelled component of the earnings function. It is shown that the estimated within-firm experience earnings profiles, which are conditional upon a given number years of pre-firm experience accumulated before entry, converge and even overtake as years of pre-firm experience increases. This result can be explained with the recognition of unobservable explanatory variables, such as the match and individual quality of the employees, both of which are a function of years of within- and pre-firm experience and wages

German consensus politics must adapt to the adversarial approach of the AfD

Consensus building is often cited as one of the core features of German political culture, but do the results of the 2017 federal elections suggest a different approach is required by the country's mainstream parties? Ross Campbell highlights that with the growth of the AfD, the political system must now adapt to a new political actor from the right, with an adversarial style and a foothold in an increasingly crowded electoral landscape

Against the odds: the improbable journey of Die Linke through unified Germany

Opinion polls suggest that as many as six independent parties could cross the electoral threshold and enter the Bundestag in Germany’s federal elections in September. In advance of the elections, we will be running a series profiling each of these parties. In the first article of the series, Ross Campbell writes on the German Left Party (Die Linke), which has confounded initial expectations after the unification of Germany to become a stable feature of the German party system. However, with the rise of new challengers, the 2017 elections could pose formidable challenges for the party as it seeks to build on the third place it achieved in the last federal elections in 2013

The Bajagua Project: Finding a Solution to the San Diego-Tijuana Sewage Crisis

This Comment discusses the problem of raw and partially treated sewage flowing from the Tijuana River into the San Diego region. The author begins by explaining how the problem was created by a population growth in Tijuana and a lack of an adequate sewage system. The author then goes on to discuss historical developments and lessons learned from past attempts to alleviate this problem. Next, the author examines the Bajagua project, an effort to solve the problem by constructing a large secondary treatment in Mexico. The author argues that this is the most comprehensive solution because of the added benefit of water reclamation. Then, the author discusses many of the legal obstacles of the IBWC to this solution, including a lack of congressional funding and the lack of Mexican support. The author concludes that the problem will only be fixed through judicial or congressional action and that the IBWC should be held in contempt of Congress for its intentional circumvention of the Tijuana River Act

Phi-four solitary waves in a parabolic potentia: existence, stability, and collisional dynamics

We explore a φ4 model with an added external parabolic potential term. This term dramatically alters the spectral properties of the system. We identify single and multiple kink solutions and examine their stability features; importantly, all of the stationary structures turn out to be unstable. We complement these with a dynamical study of the evolution of a single kink in the trap, as well as of the scattering of kink and anti-kink solutions of the model. We observe that some of the key characteristics of kink-antikink collisions, such as the critical velocity and the multi-bounce windows, are sensitively dependent on the trap strength parameter, as well as the initial displacement of the kink and antikink.Accepted manuscrip

Progress in Involuntary Commitment

Against this background of increased judicial scrutiny, the Washington State Legislature overhauled Washington\u27s involuntary commitment procedures early in 1973. The new Act, which is clearly the most progressive state enactment to date, could serve as a paradigm for future state legislation. Its passage provides a timely opportunity for a detailed analysis of the recent judicial trends in the involuntary commitment area and an evaluation of the Washington Legislature\u27s treatment of the various constitutional problems inherent in such commitment. After briefly outlining the provisions of the new Washington Act, this comment discusses the general limitations, both substantive and procedural, which due process imposes on a commitment proceeding. Finally, there is an examination of the rights and duties which attach during the post-commitment period of detention