Microeconometric Studies on Unemployment and Business Cycles

Väitöskirja koostuu neljästä esseestä, joissa tutkitaan empiirisen työntaloustieteen kysymyksiä. Ensimmäinen essee tarkastelee työttömyysturvan tason vaikutusta työllistymiseen Suomessa. Vuonna 2003 ansiosidonnaista työttömyysturvaa korotettiin työntekijöille, joilla on pitkä työhistoria. Korotus oli keskimäärin 15 % ja se koski ensimmäistä 150 työttömyyspäivää. Tutkimuksessa arvioidaan korotuksen vaikutus vertailemalla työllistymisen todennäköisyyksiä korotuksen saaneen ryhmän ja vertailuryhmän välillä ennen uudistusta ja sen jälkeen. Tuloksien perusteella työttömyysturvan korotus laski työllistymisen todennäköisyyttä merkittävästi, keskimäärin noin 16 %. Korotuksen vaikutus on suurin työttömyyden alussa ja se katoaa kun oikeus korotettuun ansiosidonnaiseen päättyy. Toinen essee tutkii työttömyyden pitkän aikavälin kustannuksia Suomessa keskittyen vuosien 1991 – 1993 syvään lamaan. Laman aikana toimipaikkojen sulkeminen lisääntyi paljon ja työttömyysaste nousi yli 13 prosenttiyksikköä. Tutkimuksessa verrataan laman aikana toimipaikan sulkemisen vuoksi työttömäksi jääneitä parhaassa työiässä olevia miehiä työllisinä pysyneisiin. Työttömyyden vaikutusta tarkastellaan kuuden vuoden seurantajaksolla. Vuonna 1999 työttömyyttä laman aikana kokeneen ryhmän vuosiansiot olivat keskimäärin 25 % alemmat kuin vertailuryhmässä. Tulojen menetys johtui sekä alhaisemmasta työllisyydestä että palkkatasosta. Kolmannessa esseessä tarkastellaan Suomen 1990-luvun alun laman aiheuttamaa työttömyysongelmaa tutkimalla työttömyyden kestoon vaikuttavia tekijöitä yksilötasolla. Kiinnostuksen kohteena on työttömyyden rakenteen ja työn kysynnän muutoksien vaikutus keskimääräiseen kestoon. Usein oletetaan, että laman seurauksena työttömäksi jää keskimääräistä huonommin työllistyviä henkilöitä, jolloin se itsessään pidentäisi keskimääräistä työttömyyden kestoa. Tuloksien perusteella makrotason kysyntävaikutus oli keskeinen työttömyyden keston kannalta ja rakenteen muutoksilla oli vain pieni kestoa lisäävä vaikutus laman aikana. Viimeisessä esseessä tutkitaan suhdannevaihtelun vaikutusta työpaikkaonnettomuuksien esiintymiseen. Tutkimuksessa käytetään ruotsalaista yksilötason sairaalahoitoaineistoa, joka on yhdistetty populaatiotietokantaan. Aineiston avulla voidaan tutkia vaihtoehtoisia selityksiä onnettomuuksien lisääntymiselle noususuhdanteessa, minkä on esitetty johtuvan esim. stressin tai kiireen vaikutuksesta. Tuloksien perusteella työpaikkaonnettomuudet ovat syklisiä, mutta vain tiettyjen ryhmien kohdalla. Työvoiman rakenteen vaihtelu saattaa selittää osan naisten onnettomuuksien syklisyydestä. Miesten kohdalla vain vähemmän vakavat onnettomuudet ovat syklisiä, mikä saattaa johtua strategisesta käyttäytymisestä.

Nitrous oxide emissions from selected natural and managed northern ecosystems

Microbial activity in soils is the main source of nitrous oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is a strong greenhouse gas in the troposphere and participates in ozone destructive reactions in the stratosphere. The constant increase in the atmospheric concentration, as well as uncertainties in the known sources and sinks of N2O underline the need to better understand the processes and pathways of N2O in terrestrial ecosystems. This study aimed at quantifying N2O emissions from soils in northern Europe and at investigating the processes and pathways of N2O from agricultural and forest ecosystems. Emissions were measured in forest ecosystems, agricultural soils and a landfill, using the soil gradient, chamber and eddy covariance methods. Processes responsible for N2O production, and the pathways of N2O from the soil to the atmosphere, were studied in the laboratory and in the field. These ecosystems were chosen for their potential importance to the national and global budget of N2O. Laboratory experiments with boreal agricultural soils revealed that N2O production increases drastically with soil moisture content, and that the contribution of the nitrification and denitrification processes to N2O emissions depends on soil type. Laboratory study with beech (Fagus sylvatica) seedlings demonstrated that trees can serve as conduits for N2O from the soil to the atmosphere. If this mechanism is important in forest ecosystems, the current emission estimates from forest soils may underestimate the total N2O emissions from forest ecosystems. Further field and laboratory studies are needed to evaluate the importance of this mechanism in forest ecosystems. The emissions of N2O from northern forest ecosystems and a municipal landfill were highly variable in time and space. The emissions of N2O from boreal upland forest soil were among the smallest reported in the world. Despite the low emission rates, the soil gradient method revealed a clear seasonal variation in N2O production. The organic topsoil was responsible for most of the N2O production and consumption in this forest soil. Emissions from the municipal landfill were one to two orders of magnitude higher than those from agricultural soils, which are the most important source of N2O to the atmosphere. Due to their small areal coverage, landfills only contribute minimally to national N2O emissions in Finland. The eddy covariance technique was demonstrated to be useful for measuring ecosystem-scale emissions of N2O in forest and landfill ecosystems. Overall, more measurements and integration between different measurement techniques are needed to capture the large variability in N2O emissions from natural and managed northern ecosystems.

Sulkeuman ja neuvottelun ehdoilla : asiantuntija-aseman rakentuminen työelämässä

Closure and negotiation constructing professional position in working life The aim of the thesis is to analyse how professional positions are constructed in working life. A professional position refers to a formal professional membership, but also to a position at a work site. Formal jurisdiction provides resources for supporting a position, but the relations, practices and processes at the work site strongly shape it as well. Professional membership includes two gates: obtaining a professional diploma and access to a professional post. The concept of a professional position is based on two sub-concepts: legitimation and authority. Legitimation is society-level jurisdiction over professioning. Legitimation can be claimed in legislation, in the public space and the media, and at the work site. Authority requires constructing professional work territories and practicing authority in work-related decision making processes. The thesis is based on five articles which deal with the following topics: gendered professional careers; organising professional work; the impact of the social and cultural backgrounds when striving for professional positions; and models of research work. The articles represent two types of sociological research: the structural approach with quantitative methodology and the approach of micro-social analysis with qualitative methodology. The first approach was suitable for analyzing professional career formation and its social and ethnic conditions. The second approach has been applied in the articles dealing with the organization of professional work and models of research work. I have combined and analysed the results of these studies under the theoretical frame of the professional position in working life. Legislation is the most powerful form of legitimation. Professional membership is strongly regulated in disciplines where a degree requirement is defined by law. In addition, closures related to social conditions still affect professional positions, but their character is loose and changing. The closures related to social conditions are based on many mutually overlapping principles: social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds and gender. Despite the closures, professional experts have to negotiate their positions, particularly when the situation in the work sites and society changes. Professional authority is reinforced at the organizational level by legislation; when the institutional status of a public sector professional organization is defined by law, it reinforces the professional position of the employees. In the business line of new media, the employees need to negotiate with the management, other professional groups and clients when striving for reinforce their professional position.

Struggles over legitimacy in global organizational restructuring: A rhetorical perspective on legitimation strategies and dynamics in a shutdown case

Critical organization scholars have focused increasing attention on industrial and organizational restructurings such as shutdown decisions. However, we know little about the rhetorical strategies used to legitimate or resist plant closures in organizational negotiations. In this paper, we draw from New Rhetoric to analyze rhetorical struggles, strategies and dynamics in unfolding organizational negotiations. We focus on the shutdown of the bus body unit of the Swedish company Volvo in Finland. We distinguish five types of rhetorical legitimation strategies and dynamics. These include the three classical dynamics of logos (rational arguments), pathos (emotional moral arguments), and ethos (authority-based arguments), but also autopoiesis (autopoietic narratives), and cosmos (cosmological constructions). Our analysis adds to the previous studies explaining how organizational restructuring as a phenomenon is legitimated, how this legitimation has changed over time, and how contemporary industrial closures are legitimated in the media. This study also increases our theoretical understanding of the role of rhetoric in legitimation more generally.

Struggles Over Legitimacy in Global Organizational Restructuring: A Rhetorical Perspective on Legitimation Strategies and Dynamics in a Shutdown Case

Critical organization scholars have focused increasing attention on industrial and organizational restructurings such as shutdown decisions. However, little is known about the rhetorical strategies used to legitimate or resist plant closures in organizational negotiations. In this article, we draw from New Rhetoric to analyze rhetorical struggles, strategies and dynamics in unfolding organizational negotiations. We focus on the shutdown of the bus body unit of the Sweden-based Volvo Bus Corporation in Finland. We distinguish five types of rhetorical legitimation strategies and dynamics. These include the three classical dynamics of logos (rational arguments), pathos (emotional moral arguments), and ethos (authority-based arguments), but also autopoiesis (autopoietic narratives), and cosmos (cosmological constructions). Our analysis contributes to previous studies on organizational restructuring by providing a more nuanced understanding of how contemporary industrial closures are legitimated and resisted in organizational negotiations. This study also increases theoretical understanding of the role of rhetoric in legitimation more generally.

Contamination routes and control of Listeria monocytogenes in Food Production

Listeria monocytogenes is the causative agent of the severe foodborne infection listeriosis. The number of listeriosis cases in recent years has increased in many European countries, including Finland. Contamination of the pathogen needs to be minimized and growth to high numbers in foods prevented in order to reduce the incidence of human cases. The aim of this study was to evaluate contamination routes of L. monocytogenes in the food chain and to investigate methods for control of the pathogen in food processing. L. monocytogenes was commonly found in wild birds, the pig production chain and in pork production plants. It was found most frequently in birds feeding at landfill site, organic farms, tonsil samples, and sites associated with brining. L. monococytogenes in birds, farms, food processing plant or foods did not form distinct genetic groups, but populations overlapped. The majority of genotypes recovered from birds were also detected in foods, food processing environments and other animal species and birds may disseminate L. monocytogenes into food chain. Similar genotypes were found in different pigs on the same farm, as well as in pigs on farms and later in the slaughterhouse. L. monocytogenes contamination spreads at farm level and may be a contamination source into slaughterhouses and further into meat. Incoming raw pork in the processing plant was frequently contaminated with L. monocytogenes and genotypes in raw meat were also found in processing environment and in RTE products. Thus, raw material seems to be a considerable source of contamination into processing facilities. In the pork processing plant, the prevalence of L. monocytogenes increased in the brining area, showing that the brining was an important contamination site. Recovery of the inoculated L. monocytogenes strains showed that there were strain-specific differences in the ability to survive in lettuce and dry sausage. The ability of some L. monocytogenes strains to survive well in food production raises a challenge for industry, because these strains can be especially difficult to remove from the products and raises a need to use an appropriate hurdle concept to control most resistant strains. Control of L. monocytogenes can be implemented throughout the food chain. Farm-specific factors affected the prevalence of L. monocytogenes and good farm-level practices can therefore be utilized to reduce the prevalence of this pathogen on the farm and possibly further in the food chain. Well separated areas in a pork production plant had low prevalences of L. monocytogenes, thus showing that compartmentalization controls the pathogen in the processing line. The food processing plant, especially the brining area, should be subjected to disassembling, extensive cleaning and disinfection to eliminate persistent contamination by L. monocytogenes, and replacing brining with dry-salting should be considered. All of the evaluated washing solutions decreased the populations of L. monocytogenes on precut lettuce, but did not eliminate the pathogen. Thus, the safety of fresh-cut produce cannot rely on washing with disinfectants, and high-quality raw material and good manufacturing practices remain important. L. monocytogenes was detected in higher levels in sausages without the protective culture than in sausages with this protective strain, although numbers of L. monocytogenes by the end of the ripening decreased to the level of < 100 MPN/g in all sausages. Protective starter cultures provide an appealing hurdle in dry sausage processing and assist in the control of L. monocytogenes.