Metallocene ethylene-1-octene copolymers:influence of comonomer content on thermo-mechanical, rheological, and thermo-oxidative behaviours before and after melt processing in an internal mixer

The influence of the comonomer content in a series of metallocene-based ethylene-1-octene copolymers (m-LLDPE) on thermo-mechanical, rheological, and thermo-oxidative behaviours during melt processing were examined using a range of characterisation techniques. The amount of branching was calculated from 13C NMR and studies using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were employed to determine the effect of short chain branching (SCB, comonomer content) on thermal and mechanical characteristics of the polymer. The effect of melt processing at different temperatures on the thermo-oxidative behaviour of the polymers was investigated by examining the changes in rheological properties, using both melt flow and capillary rheometry, and the evolution of oxidation products during processing using infrared spectroscopy. The results show that the comonomer content and catalyst type greatly affect thermal, mechanical and oxidative behaviour of the polymers. For the metallocene polymer series, it was shown from both DSC and DMA that (i) crystallinity and melting temperatures decreased linearly with comonomer content, (ii) the intensity of the ß-transition increased, and (iii) the position of the tan δmax peak corresponding to the a-transition shifted to lower temperatures, with higher comonomer content. In contrast, a corresponding Ziegler polymer containing the same level of SCB as in one of the m-LLDPE polymers, showed different characteristics due to its more heterogeneous nature: higher elongational viscosity, and a double melting peak with broader intensity that occurred at higher temperature (from DSC endotherm) indicating a much broader short chain branch distribution. The thermo-oxidative behaviour of the polymers after melt processing was similarly influenced by the comonomer content. Rheological characteristics and changes in concentrations of carbonyl and the different unsaturated groups, particularly vinyl, vinylidene and trans-vinylene, during processing of m-LLDPE polymers, showed that polymers with lower levels of SCB gave rise to predominantly crosslinking reactions at all processing temperatures. By contrast, chain scission reactions at higher processing temperatures became more favoured in the higher comonomer-containing polymers. Compared to its metallocene analogue, the Ziegler polymer showed a much higher degree of crosslinking at all temperatures because of the high levels of vinyl unsaturation initially present.

Responsive brushes and gels as components of soft nanotechnology

Progress in the development of generic molecular devices based on responsive polymers is discussed. Characterisation of specially synthesised polyelectrolyte gels, "grafted from" brushes and triblock copolymers is reported. A Landolt pH-oscillator, based on bromate/ sulfite/ferrocyanide, with a room temperature period of 20 min and a range of 3.1 and changes volume by a factor of at least 6. A continuously stirred, constant volume, tank reactor was set-up on an optical microscope and the reaction pH and gel size monitored. The cyclic force generation of this system has been measured directly in a modified JKR experiment. The responsive nature of polyelectrolyte brushes, grown by surface initiated ATRP, have been characterised by scanning force microscopy, neutron reflectometry and single molecule force measurements. Triblock copolymers, based on hydrophobic end-blocks and either polyacid or polybase mid-block, have been used to produce polymer gels where the deformation of the molecules can be followed directly by SAXS and a correlation between molecular shape change and macroscopic deformation has been established. The three systems studied allow both the macroscopic and a molecular response to be investigated independently for the crosslinked gels and the brushes. The triblock copolymers demonstrate that the individual response of the polyelectrolyte molecules scale-up to give the macroscopic response of the system in an oscillating chemical reaction.

Costs and benefits of orthographic inconsistency in reading:evidence from a cross-linguistic comparison

We compared reading acquisition in English and Italian children up to late primary school analyzing RTs and errors as a function of various psycholinguistic variables and changes due to experience. Our results show that reading becomes progressively more reliant on larger processing units with age, but that this is modulated by consistency of the language. In English, an inconsistent orthography, reliance on larger units occurs earlier on and it is demonstrated by faster RTs, a stronger effect of lexical variables and lack of length effect (by fifth grade). However, not all English children are able to master this mode of processing yielding larger inter-individual variability. In Italian, a consistent orthography, reliance on larger units occurs later and it is less pronounced. This is demonstrated by larger length effects which remain significant even in older children and by larger effects of a global factor (related to speed of orthographic decoding) explaining changes of performance across ages. Our results show the importance of considering not only overall performance, but inter-individual variability and variability between conditions when interpreting cross-linguistic differences.

A gazdasági teljesítmények vállalkozási mérettől függő jellemzői Magyarországon = Changing ownership and business structures in the Hungarian economy

A mögöttünk hagyott két évtizedben – tetszik, vagy sem – a magyar gazdaság 1992. évi mélypontról történő kilábalásában, majd új növekedési pályára állásában meghatározó szerepe volt a hazai forrásokat kiegészítő külföldi befektetéseknek. Ennek természetesen ára volt: a tevékenységi struktúra (termékszerkezet) módosulása, a tulajdonosi összetétel radikális átalakulása, a külgazdasági kapcsolatok irányultságának változása, a lakosság önfoglalkoztatási célú vállalkozásainak szaporodása, a gazdaságfejlesztés irányának és ütemének cikk-cakkos mozgása, az állami szerepkör fokozatos leépülése. Írásunk célja annak áttekintése, hogy a nemzetközi tőkeáramlás tendenciáinak módosulását követően – a Magyarországra érkező külföldi tőkebefektetések jelentős csökkenéséből fakadóan – a kizárólagos és többségi hazai tulajdonú szereplők (kiemelten a hazai közép- és kisvállalkozások) milyen mértékben lehetnek alkalmasak a kieső teljesítmények pótlására, illetve a gazdasági válság lecsengését követően milyen ütemű növekedést képesek biztosítani a magyar gazdaság számára. A válaszok nagy valószínűséggel az Új Széchenyi Terv szempontjából sem közömbösek. Az írást a szerkesztőség vitairatnak szánja és szívesen ad teret a témával kapcsolatos vélemények kifejtésének. / === / The economic performance during the transition period was characterized by the alternations of fulfilled hopes and unrealized expectations. The economic restructuring and changes in market relations took place during the first decade, while new – mostly foreign – investment groups entered the new market. As a result the economy was stabilized and was put on a new growth path. But after the millennium the foreign investment based economy development strategy was no more adequate. The new engine for the growth should have been the domestic small and medium enterprise sector (SME), but despite the subsidies this sector was not strengthened enough to take this role.

Regional growth, structural change, and natural disaster

Hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and other serious natural hazards have been attributed with causing changes in regional economic growth, income, employment, and wealth. Natural disasters are said to cause; (1) an acceleration of existing economic trends; (2) an expansion of employment and income, due to recovery operations (the so-called silver lining); and (3) an alteration in the structure of regional economic activity due to changes in "intra" and "inter" regional trading patterns, and technological change.^ Theoretical and stylized disaster simulations (Cochrane 1975; Haas, Cochrane, and Kates 1977; Petak et al. 1982; Ellson et al. 1983, 1984; Boisvert 1992; Brookshire and McKee 1992) point towards a wide scope of possible negative and long lasting impacts upon economic activity and structure. This work examines the consequences of Hurricane Andrew on Dade County's economy. Following the work of Ellson et al. (1984), Guimaraes et al. (1993), and West and Lenze (1993; 1994), a regional econometric forecasting model (DCEFM) using a framework of "with" and "without" the hurricane is constructed and utilized to assess Hurricane Andrew's impact on the structure and level of economic activity in Dade County, Florida.^ The results of the simulation exercises show that the direct economic impact associated with Hurricane Andrew on Dade County is of short duration, and of isolated sectoral impact, with impact generally limited to construction, TCP (transportation, communications, and public utilities), and agricultural sectors. Regional growth, and changes in income and employment reacted directly to, and within the range and direction set by national economic activity. The simulations also lead to the conclusion that areal extent, infrastructure, and sector specific damages or impacts, as opposed to monetary losses, are the primary determinants of a disaster's effects upon employment, income, growth, and economic structure. ^

An evaluation of exchange rate policy and economic adjustment in Nicaragua, 1993--1995

Since the late 1970's, but particularly since the mid-1980s, the economy of Nicaragua has had persistent and large macroeconomic imbalances, while GDP per-capita has declined to 1950s' levels. By the second half of the 1990s, huge fiscal deficits and a reduction of foreign financing resulted in record hyperinflation. The Sandinista government's (1979–1990) harsh stabilization program in 1988–89 had only modest and short-lived success. It was doomed by their inability to lower the public sector deficit due to the war, plus diminishing financial support from abroad. Hyperinflation stopped only after their 1990 electoral defeat ended the war and massive aid began to flow in. Five years later, macroeconomic stability is still very fragile. A sluggish recovery of export agriculture plus import liberalization, have impeded a reduction of huge trade and current account deficits. Facing the prospects of diminished aid flows, the government's strategy has hinged on the achievement of a real devaluation through a crawling-peg adjustment of the nominal rate. However, at the end of 1995 the situation of the external accounts was still critical, and the modest progress achieved was attributable to cyclical terms-of-trade improvement and changes in the political outlook of agricultural producers. Using a Computable General Equilibrium Model and a Social Accounting Matrix constructed for this dissertation, the importance of structural rigidities in production and demand in explaining such outcome is shown. It is shown that under the plausible structural assumptions incorporated in the model, the role of devaluation in the adjustment process is restricted by structural rigidities. Moreover, contrary to the premise of the orthodox economic thinking behind the economic program, it is the contractionary effect of devaluation more than its expenditure-switching effects that provide the basis for is use in solving the external sector's problems. A fixed nominal exchange rate is found to lead to adverse results. The broader conclusion that emerges from the study is that a new social compact and a rapid increase in infrastructure spending plus fiscal support for the traditional agro-export activities is at the center of a successful adjustment towards external viability in Nicaragua. ^

The correlation of structure and electronic properties near the surface of transition metal oxides

The strong couplings between different degrees of freedom are believed to be responsible for novel and complex phenomena discovered in transition metal oxides (TMOs). The physical complexity is directly responsible for their tunability. Creating surfaces/interfaces add an additional ' man-made' twist, approaching the quantum phenomena of correlated materials. ^ The dissertation focused on the structural and electronic properties in proximity of surface of three prototype TMO compounds by using three complementary techniques: scanning tunneling microscopy, angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and low energy electron diffraction, particularly emphasized the effects of broken symmetry and imperfections like defects on the coupling between charge and lattice degrees of freedom. ^ Ca1.5Sr0.5RuO4 is a layered ruthenate with square lattice and at the boundary of magnetic/orbital instability in Ca2-xSrxRuO4. That the substitution of Sr 2+ with Ca2+ causing RuO6 rotation narrows the dxy band width and changes the Fermi surface topology. Particularly, the γ(dxy) Fermi surface sheet exhibited hole-like in Ca1.5Sr0.5RuO4 in contrast to electron-like in Sr2RuO4, showing a strong charge-lattice coupling. ^ Na0.75CoO2 is a layered cobaltite with triangular lattice exhibiting extraordinary thermoelectric properties. The well-ordered CoO2-terminated surface with random Na distribution was observed. However, lattice constants of the surface are smaller than that in bulk. The surface density of states (DOS) showed strong temperature dependence. Especially, an unusual shift of the minimum DOS occurs below 230 K, clearly indicating a local charging effect on the surface. ^ Cd2Re2O7 is the first known pyrochlore oxide superconductor (Tc ∼ 1K). It exhibited an unusual second-order phase transition occurring at TS1 = 200 K and a controversial first-order transition at TS2 = 120 K. While bulk properties display large anomalies at TS1 but rather subtle and sample-dependent changes at TS2, the surface DOS near the EF show no change at T s1 but a substantial increase below TS2---a complete reversal as the signature for the transitions. We argued that crystal imperfections, mainly defects, which were considerably enhanced at the surface, resulted in the transition at TS2. ^

Associations between SOX 404 opinions and auditors, audit committees, and executives

This dissertation examined three issues associated with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) that are of current interest to regulators and the accounting profession. For the first essay, I examined auditor changes from 2003 to 2005 for 2,454 non-financial firms that filed their initial SOX 404 opinions prior to July 1, 2005. My results showed that there is a significant association between the receipt of an adverse SOX 404 opinion and auditor resignations - both before and after the issuance of the SOX 404 opinion. The data related to auditor dismissals show that clients are not successful in opinion shopping, since clients dismissing the auditor before the SOX 404 report also are more likely to receive an adverse SOX 404 opinion than clients not changing auditors. My second essay examined the relation between audit committee characteristics and changes in material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting under the new SOX regime. My results showed that improvements in internal control in the second year of SOX are associated with: (1) the number of audit committee members and (2) financial expertise of audit committee members. My third essay examined the relation between the appointment of the new executives and the subsequent receipt of initial section 404 of SOX opinions. My results showed that adverse SOX 404 reports will be more likely at firms that recently hired a new chief financial officer (CFO).

In God we trust: Faith-based development, spiritual transformation, and economic change in southern Andean indigenous communities

In communities throughout the developing world, faith-based organizations (FBOs) focus on goals such as eradicating poverty, bolstering local economies, and fostering community development, while premising their activities and interaction with local communities on theological and religious understandings. Due to their pervasive interaction with participants, the religious ideologies of these FBOs impact the religious, economic, and social realities of communities. This study investigates the relationship between the international FBO, World Vision International (WVI), and changes to religious, economic, and social ideologies and practices in Andean indigenous communities in southern Peruvian. This study aims to contribute to the greater knowledge and understanding of (1) institutionalized development strategies, (2) faith-based development, and (3) how institutionalized development interacts with processes of socio-cultural change. Based on fifteen months of field research, this study involved qualitative and quantitative methods of participant-observation, interviews, surveys, and document analysis. Data were primarily collected from households from a sample of eight communities in the Pitumarca and Combapata districts, department of Canchis, province of Cusco, Peru where two WVI Area Development Programs were operating. Research findings reveal that there is a relationship between WVI’s intervention and some changes to religious, economic, and social structure (values, ideologies, and norms) and practices, demonstrating that structure and practices change when social systems are altered by new social actors. Findings also revealed that the impacts of WVI’s intervention greatly increased over the course of several years, demonstrating that changes in structure and practice occur gradually and need a period of time to take root. Finally, results showed that the impacts of WVI’s intervention were primarily limited to those most closely involved with the organization, revealing that the ability of one social actor to incite changes in the structure and practice of another actor is associated with the intensity of the relationship between the social actors. The findings of this study should be useful in ascertaining deductions and strengthening understandings of how faith-based development organizations impact aspects of religious, economic, and social life in the areas where they work.

Understanding China's climate change mitigation policy development: Structures, processes and outcomes

Climate change is one of the most important and urgent issues of our time. Since 2006, China has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter. China’s role in an international climate change solution has gained increased attention. Although much literature has addressed the functioning, performance, and implications of existing climate change mitigation policies and actions in China, there is insufficient literature that illuminates how the national climate change mitigation policies have been formulated and shaped. This research utilizes the policy network approach to explore China’s climate change mitigation policy making by examining how a variety of government, business, and civil society actors have formed networks to address environmental contexts and influence the policy outcomes and changes. The study is qualitative in nature. Three cases are selected to illustrate structural and interactive features of the specific policy network settings in shaping different policy arrangements and influencing the outcomes in the Chinese context. The three cases include the regulatory evolution of China’s climate change policy making; the country’s involvement in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) activity, and China’s exploration of voluntary agreement through adopting the Top-1000 Industrial Energy Conservation Program. The historical analysis of the policy process uses both primary data from interviews and fieldwork, and secondary data from relevant literature. The study finds that the Chinese central government dominates domestic climate change policy making; however, expanded action networks that involve actors at all levels have emerged in correspondence to diverse climate mitigation policy arrangements. The improved openness and accessibility of climate change policy network have contributed to its proactive engagement in promoting mitigation outcomes. In conclusion, the research suggests that the policy network approach provides a useful tool for studying China’s climate change policy making process. The involvement of various types of state and non-state actors has shaped new relations and affected the policy outcomes and changes. In addition, through the cross-case analysis, the study challenges the “fragmented authoritarianism” model and argues that this once-influential model is not appropriate in explaining new development and changes of policy making processes in contemporary China.

Framing infectious diseases and U.S. public opinion

The United States has been increasingly concerned with the transnational threat posed by infectious diseases. Effective policy implementation to contain the spread of these diseases requires active engagement and support of the American public. To influence American public opinion and enlist support for related domestic and foreign policies, both domestic agencies and international organizations have framed infectious diseases as security threats, human rights disasters, economic risks, and as medical dangers. This study investigates whether American attitudes and opinions about infectious diseases are influenced by how the issue is framed. It also asks which issue frame has been most influential in shaping public opinion about global infectious diseases when people are exposed to multiple frames. The impact of media frames on public perception of infectious diseases is examined through content analysis of newspaper reports. Stories on SARS, avian flu, and HIV/AIDS were sampled from coverage in The New York Times and The Washington Post between 1999 and 2007. Surveys of public opinion on infectious diseases in the same time period were also drawn from databases like Health Poll Search and iPoll. Statistical analysis tests the relationship between media framing of diseases and changes in public opinion. Results indicate that no one frame was persuasive across all diseases. The economic frame had a significant effect on public opinion about SARS, as did the biomedical frame in the case of avian flu. Both the security and human rights frames affected opinion and increased public support for policies intended to prevent or treat HIV/AIDS. The findings also address the debate on the role and importance of domestic public opinion as a factor in domestic and foreign policy decisions of governments in an increasingly interconnected world. The public is able to make reasonable evaluations of the frames and the domestic and foreign policy issues emphasized in the frames.

Time trends and predictors of initiation for cigarette and waterpipe smoking among Jordanian school children: Irbid, 2008-2011

Smoking prevalence among adolescents in the Middle East remains high while rates of smoking have been declining among adolescents elsewhere. The aims of this research were to (1) describe patterns of cigarette and waterpipe (WP) smoking, (2) identify determinants of WP smoking initiation, and (3) identify determinants of cigarette smoking initiation in a cohort of Jordanian school children. ^ Among this cohort of school children in Irbid, Jordan, (age ≈ 12.6 at baseline) the first aim (N=1,781) described time trends in smoking behavior, age at initiation, and changes in frequency of smoking from 2008–2011 (grades 7–10). The second aim (N=1,243) identified determinants of WP initiation among WP-naïve students; and the third aim (N=1,454) identified determinants of cigarette smoking initiation among cigarette naïve participants. Determinants of initiation were assessed with generalized mixed models. All analyses were stratified by gender. ^ Baseline prevalence of current smoking (cigarettes or WP) for boys and girls was 22.9% and 8.7% respectively. Prevalence of ever- and current- any smoking, cigarette smoking, WP smoking, and dual cigarette/WP smoking was higher in boys than girls each year (p<0.001). At all time points, prevalence of WP smoking was higher than that of cigarette smoking (p<0.001) for both boys and girls. WP initiation was documented in 39% of boys and 28% of girls. Cigarette initiation was documented in 37% of boys and 24% of girls. Determinants of WP initiation included ever-cigarette smoking, low WP refusal self-efficacy, intention to smoke, and having teachers and friends who smoke WP. Determinants of cigarette smoking initiation included ever-WP smoking, low cigarette refusal self-efficacy, intention to start smoking cigarettes, and having friends and family who smoke.^ These studies reveal intensive smoking patterns at early ages among Jordanian youth in Irbid, characterized by a predominance of WP smoking. WP may be a vehicle for tobacco dependence and subsequent cigarette uptake. The sizeable incidence of WP and cigarette initiation among students of both sexes points to a need for culturally relevant smoking prevention interventions. Gender-specific factors, refusal skills, and smoking cessation of both WP and cigarettes for youth and their parents/teachers would be important components of such initiatives. ^

Dimethylsulphide (DMS), dimethylsulphonioproionate (DMSP) and halocarbon concentrations taken from 25m integrated samples during the 2011 SOPRAN Bergen Raunefjord Mesocosm experiment, Norway

The human-induced rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the industrial revolution has led to increasing oceanic carbon uptake and changes in seawater carbonate chemistry, resulting in lowering of surface water pH. In this study we investigated the effect of increasing CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) on concentrations of volatile biogenic dimethylsulfide (DMS) and its precursor dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), through monoculture studies and community pCO2 perturbation. DMS is a climatically important gas produced by many marine algae: it transfers sulfur into the atmosphere and is a major influence on biogeochemical climate regulation through breakdown to sulfate and formation of subsequent cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Overall, production of DMS and DMSP by the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi strain RCC1229 was unaffected by growth at 900 µatm pCO2, but DMSP production normalised to cell volume was 12 % lower at the higher pCO2 treatment. These cultures were compared with community DMS and DMSP production during an elevated pCO2 mesocosm experiment with the aim of studying E. huxleyi in the natural environment. Results contrasted with the culture experiments and showed reductions in community DMS and DMSP concentrations of up to 60 and 32 % respectively at pCO2 up to 3000 µatm, with changes attributed to poorer growth of DMSP-producing nanophytoplankton species, including E. huxleyi, and potentially increased microbial consumption of DMS and dissolved DMSP at higher pCO2. DMS and DMSP production differences between culture and community likely arise from pH affecting the inter-species responses between microbial producers and consumers.

(Table 1) Planktonic foraminifera counts and stable oxygen isotope ratios of Pacific Ocean surface sediments

Core-top samples from the eastern tropical Pacific (10°N to 20°S) were used to test whether the ratio between Globorotalia menardii cultrata and Neogloboquadrina dutertrei abundance (Rc/d) and the oxygen isotope composition (?18O) of planktonic foraminifera can be used as proxies for the latitudinal position of the Equatorial Front. Specifically, this study compares the ?18O values of eight species of planktonic foraminifera (Globigerinoides ruber sensu stricto (ss) and sensu lato (sl), Globigerinoides sacculifer, Globigerinoides triloba, Pulleniatina obliquiloculata, Neogloboquadrina dutertrei, Globorotalia menardii menardii, Globorotalia menardii cultrata and Globorotalia tumida) with the seasonal hydrography of the region, and evaluates the application of each species or combination of species for paleoceanographic reconstructions. The results are consistent with sea surface temperature and water column stratification patterns. We found that in samples north of 1°N, the Rc/d values tend to be higher and d18O values of G. ruber, G. sacculifer, G. triloba, P. obliquiloculata, N. dutertrei, and G. menardii cultrata tend to be lower than those from samples located south of 1°N. We suggest that the combined use of Rc/d and the d18O difference between G. ruber and G. tumida or between P. obliquiloculata and G. tumida are the most suitable tools for reconstructing changes in the latitudinal position of the Equatorial Front and changes in the thermal stratification of the upper water column in the eastern tropical Pacific.

Essays on Job Search and Labor Market Dynamics

This dissertation consists of three separate essays on job search and labor market dynamics. In the first essay, “The Impact of Labor Market Conditions on Job Creation: Evidence from Firm Level Data”, I study how much changes in labor market conditions reduce employment fluctuations over the business cycle. Changes in labor market conditions make hiring more expensive during expansions and cheaper during recessions, creating counter-cyclical incentives for job creation. I estimate firm level elasticities of labor demand with respect to changes in labor market conditions, considering two margins: changes in labor market tightness and changes in wages. Using employer-employee matched data from Brazil, I find that all firms are more sensitive to changes in wages rather than labor market tightness, and there is substantial heterogeneity in labor demand elasticity across regions. Based on these results, I demonstrate that changes in labor market conditions reduce the variance of employment growth over the business cycle by 20% in a median region, and this effect is equally driven by changes along each margin. Moreover, I show that the magnitude of the effect of labor market conditions on employment growth can be significantly affected by economic policy. In particular, I document that the rapid growth of the national minimum wages in Brazil in 1997-2010 amplified the impact of the change in labor market conditions during local expansions and diminished this impact during local recessions.

In the second essay, “A Framework for Estimating Persistence of Local Labor

Demand Shocks”, I propose a decomposition which allows me to study the persistence of local labor demand shocks. Persistence of labor demand shocks varies across industries, and the incidence of shocks in a region depends on the regional industrial composition. As a result, less diverse regions are more likely to experience deeper shocks, but not necessarily more long lasting shocks. Building on this idea, I propose a decomposition of local labor demand shocks into idiosyncratic location shocks and nationwide industry shocks and estimate the variance and the persistence of these shocks using the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) in 1990-2013.

In the third essay, “Conditional Choice Probability Estimation of Continuous- Time Job Search Models”, co-authored with Peter Arcidiacono and Arnaud Maurel, we propose a novel, computationally feasible method of estimating non-stationary job search models. Non-stationary job search models arise in many applications, where policy change can be anticipated by the workers. The most prominent example of such policy is the expiration of unemployment benefits. However, estimating these models still poses a considerable computational challenge, because of the need to solve a differential equation numerically at each step of the optimization routine. We overcome this challenge by adopting conditional choice probability methods, widely used in dynamic discrete choice literature, to job search models and show how the hazard rate out of unemployment and the distribution of the accepted wages, which can be estimated in many datasets, can be used to infer the value of unemployment. We demonstrate how to apply our method by analyzing the effect of the unemployment benefit expiration on duration of unemployment using the data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) in 1996-2007.