Employment regulation, game theory, and the lacuna in employee participation in liberal economies

Employee participation is a vital ingredient of what the International Labour Organization (ILO) calls ‘representation security’. This article provides theoretical and empirical insights relating to social policy impact of worker participation, specifically the European Information and Consultation Directive (ICD) for employee voice rights. While existing research on the ICD offers important empirical insights, there is a need for further theoretical analysis to examine the potential effectiveness of the regulations in liberal market economies (LMEs). Drawing on data from 16 case studies, the article uses game theory and the prisoner's dilemma framework to explain why national implementing legislation is largely ineffective in diffusing mutual gains cooperation in two LMEs: UK and the Republic of Ireland. Three theoretical (metaphorical) propositions advance understanding of the policy impact of national information & consultation regulations in LMEs.

Similarity or Variation? Employee Representation and Consultation Approaches Amongst Liberal Market Economy Multinationals

This paper engages with the varieties of capitalism literature to investigate the employee representation and consultation approaches of liberal market economy multinational companies (MNCs), specifically Australian, British and US MNCs operating in Australia. While the literature would suggest commonality amongst these MNCs, the paper considers whether the evidence points to similarity or variation amongst liberal market headquartered MNCs. The findings contribute to filling a recognized empirical gap on MNC employment relations practice in Australia and to a better understanding of within category varieties of capitalism similarity and variation. Drawing on survey data from MNCs operating in Australia, the results demonstrated that UK-owned MNCs were the least likely to report collective structures of employee representation. Moreover, it was found that Australian MNCs were the most likely to engage in collective forms of employee representation and made less use of direct consultative mechanisms relative to their British and US counterparts. In spite of the concerted individualization of the employment relations domain over previous decades, Australian MNCs appear to have upheld more long-standing national institutional arrangements with respect to engaging with employees on a collective basis. This varies from British and US MNC approaches which denotes that our results display within category deviation in the variety of capitalism liberal market economy typology. Just as Hall and Soskice described their seminal work on liberal market economy (LME) and coordinated market economy (CME) categories as a “work-in-progress” (2001: 2), we too suggest that Australia’s evolution in the LME category, and more specifically its industrial relations system development, and the consequences for employment relations practices of its domestic MNCs, may be a work-in-progress.

Microneedle-mediated delivery of donepezil: Potential for improved treatment options in Alzheimer's disease

Transdermal drug delivery is an attractive route of drug administration, however there are relatively few marketed transdermal products. To increase delivery across the skin, strategies to enhance skin permeability are widely investigated, with microneedles demonstrating particular promise. Hydrogel-forming microneedles are inserted into the skin, and following dissolution of a drug loaded reservoir and movement of the drug through the created channels, the microneedle array is removed intact, and can then be readily and safely discarded. This study presents the formulation and evaluation of an integrated microneedle patch containing the Alzheimer's drug, donepezil hydrochloride. The integrated patch consisted of hydrogel-forming microneedles in combination with a donepezil hydrochloride containing film. Formulation and characterisation of plasticised films, prepared from poly(vinylpyrrolidone) or poly (methyl vinyl ether co-maleic anhydride/acid) (Gantrez(®)) polymers, is presented. Furthermore, in vitro permeation of donepezil hydrochloride across neonatal porcine skin from the patches was investigated, with 854.71 μg ± 122.71 μg donepezil hydrochloride delivered after 24 h, using the optimum patch formulation. Following administration of the patch to an animal model, plasma concentrations of 51.8 ± 17.6 ng/mL were obtained, demonstrating the success of this delivery platform for donepezil hydrochloride.

The Adaptiveness in Stock Markets: Testing the Stylized Facts in the DAX 30

By testing a simple asset pricing model of heterogeneous agents to characterize the power-law behavior of the DAX 30 from 1975 to 2007, we provide supporting evidence on empirical findings that investors and fund managers use combinations of fixed and switching strategies based on fundamental and technical analysis when making investment decisions. By conducting econometric analysis via Monte Carlo simulations, we show that the autocorrelation patterns, the estimates of the power-law decay indices, (FI)GARCH parameters, and tail index of the model match closely the corresponding estimates for the DAX 30. A mechanism analysis based on the calibrated model provides further insights into the explanatory power of heterogeneous agent models.