The Opportunity Costs of STEM Degrees and the Unmet Needs of the Low-Skilled: Two labour market problems explained. CEPS Policy Brief No. 295, 26 June 2013

There is general consensus that to achieve employment growth, especially for vulnerable groups, it is not sufficient to simply kick-start economic growth: skills among both the high- and low-skilled population need to be improved. In particular, we argue that if the lack of graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a true problem, it needs to be tackled via incentives and not simply via public campaigns: students are not enrolling in ‘hard-science’ subjects because the opportunity cost is very high. As far as the low-skilled population is concerned, we encourage EU and national policy-makers to invest in a more comprehensive view of this phenomenon. The ‘low-skilled’ label can hide a number of different scenarios: labour market detachment, migration, and obsolete skills that are the result of macroeconomic structural changes. For this reason lifelong learning is necessary to keep up with new technology and to shield workers from the risk of skills obsolescence and detachment from the labour market.

Financial Engineering Instruments and their Assessment Under EU State Aid Rules. Bruges European Economic Policy (BEEP) Briefing 26/2013

Financial engineering instruments such as guarantees, loans and equity are increasingly used in public funding of enterprises. These instruments have three attractive features: they are repayable, they “leverage” private involvement, and they have a multiplier effect because they generate new income. At the same time, however, they are technically complex and they are subject to state aid rules. Their assessment under EU state aid rules creates two additional problems. First, under certain conditions financial instruments may not contain state aid. This is when public authorities act as “private investors”. This means that state aid cannot be presumed to exist in all financial instruments. It must first be established through market analysis. Second, when state aid is found to be present it is not always possible to quantify it. For this reason the state aid rules that apply to financial instruments differ significantly from other rules. This paper reviews how financial instruments have been assessed by the European Commission and under which conditions the state aid they may contain can be considered to be compatible with the internal market. The paper finds that by and large Member States have succeeded to design measures that have all been approved by the Commission.

Costs and problems of completing the interstate highway system; report to the Congress.

Mode of access: Internet.

An analysis of some traffic problems on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Mode of access: Internet.

Reviews of problems in tidal waterways considered by the Committee on Tidal Hydraulics /

Mode of access: Internet.

Investigation of some of the problems of vehicle rear lighting. Appendices A and B.

Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc., Van Nuys, Calif.

Identification of traffic management problems in work zones. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Research, Washington, D.C.

Contact-impact problems. Volume 2 - programmer's manual. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Problems of the carless. Final report.

Transportation Department, Office of University Research, Washington, D.C.

Landside transportation at ports : a preliminary assessment of transportation connectivity problems at U.S. ports /

"July 1980."

Reservoirs and waterways : identification and assessment of environmental quality problems and research program development /

"July 1978."

The structuring and analysis of complex system problems.

"A paper presented at the Operations Research Society of America, Nineteenth National Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, May 25-26, 1961."

The characteristics and pollutional problems associated with petrochemical wastes; summary report.

Cover title: Petrochemical effluents treatment practices.

Drawing problems for technical students,

"Designed primarily for use with Engineering drawing by D. E. Hobart."

An evaluation of the problems of sanitary sewer system design; final report of the Residential Sewerage Research Project to the Federal Housing Administration

Mode of access: Internet.