Assesing the political viability of labour market reform: The case of employment protection

We analyze the political support for employment protection legislation.Unlike my previous work on the same topic, this paper pays a lot ofattention to the role of obsolescence in the growth process.In voting in favour of employment protection, incumbent employeestrade off lower living standards (because employment protectionmaintains workers in less productive activities) against longer jobduration. The support for employment protection will then depend onthe value of the latter relative to the cost of the former. Wehighlight two key deeterminants of this trade-off: first, the workers'bargaining power, second, the economy's growth rate-more preciselyits rate of creative destruction.

Labour market in the Catalan cotton textile sector: Employment and fertility (1850-1913)

This paper deals whit the dynamics of the Catalan textile labour market (theSpanish region that concentrated most of the industrial and factory activity duringthe 19 Century) and offers hypotheses and results on the impact it had on livingstandards and fertility levels. We observe the formation of an uneven labourmarket in which male supply for labour (excluding women and children) grewmuch faster than the demand. We stress the fact that labour supply is verydependant on institutional factors liked to the transmition of household propertybetween generations. Instead the slow path of growth of adult males demand forlabour is witnessing the limits of this industry to expand and to compete ininternational markets. The strategy of working class families to adapt to scarceopportunities of employment we document here is the diminution of legitimatefertility levels. Fertility control is the direct instrument we think workers have tocontrol their number in a situation that was likely to create labour surpluses in theshort and mid run.

Product market deregulation and the U.S. employment miracle

We consider the dynamic relationship between product market entry regulation and equilibrium unemployment. The main theoretical contribution is combining a job matchingmodel with monopolistic competition in the goods market and individual wage bargaining.Product market competition affects unemployment by two channels: the output expansion effect and a countervailing effect due to a hiring externality. Competition is then linked to barriers to entry. We calibrate the model to US data and perform a policy experiment to assess whether the decrease in trend unemployment during the 1980 s and 1990 s could be attributed to product market deregulation. Our quantitative analysis suggests that under individual bargaining, a decrease of less than two tenths of a percentage point of unemployment rates can be attributed to product market deregulation, a surprisingly small amount.

Body size, activity, employment and wages in Europe: A first approach

This paper examines the associations between obesity, employment status and wages for several European countries. Our results provide weak evidence that obese workers are more likely to be unemployed or tend to be more segregated in self-employment jobs than their non-obese counterparts. We also find difficult to detect statistically significant relationships between obesity and wages. As previously reported in the literature, the association between obesity, unemployment and wages seems to be different for men and women. Moreover, heterogeneity is also found across countries. Such heterogeneity can be somewhat explained by some labor market institutions, such as the collective bargaining coverage and the employer-provided health insurance.

Report of recommendations of the Public Employment Relations Board for the year ended June 30, 2007

Report of recommendations of the Public Employment Relations Board for the year ended June 30, 2007

First record of Coenosia attenuata Stein (Diptera, Muscidae) from Chile, with biological notes

First record of Coenosia attenuata Stein (Diptera, Muscidae) from Chile, with biological notes. Coenosia Meigen (Muscidae, Coenosiinae) species are known as predators of other insects and play an important role as potential biocontrol agents. Six species of Coenosia have been recorded in Europe preying on insects pests, one of them is Coenosia attenuata Stein. This species was recently recorded from the Neotropical Region and is herein recorded for the first time to Chile. Biological notes were included.

Second record of bioluminescence in larvae of Xantholinus Dejean (Staphylinidae, Xantholinini) from Brazil

Second record of bioluminescence in larvae of Xantholinus Dejean, (Staphylinidae, Xantholinini) from Brazil. Bioluminescent Xantholinus larvae (Xantholinini, Staphylinidae) were collected in the Cerrado biome of Mato Grosso state, Brazil. These larvae are morphologically similar to the first bioluminescent larvae of this genus collected in the Atlantic Forest in São Paulo state; however they differ by their bioluminescent emission.

Record keeping by Swiss physiotherapists--a national survey of knowledge regarding legal requirements.

A national survey conducted in Switzerland aimed to evaluate the knowledge of physiotherapists regarding the legal requirements for record keeping and to collect their feedback about record keeping in general. Three physiotherapists from various professional practice groups and a lawyer specialised in health law developed a questionnaire that was sent to the 7,753 members of two existing national associations of physiotherapists. The questionnaire evaluated the participants' knowledge by calculating a score of legal knowledge, which had a maximum of 30 points. We included 825 questionnaires in the analysis. The large majority (83.4%) of participants confessed an ignorance of the legal requirements concerning record keeping prior to the survey. The average score of legal compatibility was 8 points. The younger age of the physiotherapists was a significant predictor of having knowledge of the legal requirements for record keeping (p <0.001). The participants had an appreciation of the value of records, but they did not have the relevant knowledge regarding the legal requirements for keeping records. The participants blamed a lack of time and remuneration for their failure to keep records according to known requirements. All practising allied health professionals should keep up-to-date and accurate records that conform to active legal requirements and existing international guidelines. In addition to the existing legal requirements, the emergence of e-health and the electronic era will trigger major changes in patient record management by physiotherapists.

Public Employment Relations Board Performance Plan, FY 2009

Agency Performance Plan, Public Employment Relations Board

Organizational capital and employment fluctuations

In this paper I present a model in which production requires two types of labor inputs: regular productive tasks and organizational capital, which is accumulated by workers performing organizational tasks. By allocating more workers from organizational to productive tasks, firms can temporarily increase production without hiring. The availability of this intensive margin of labor adjustment, in combination with adjustment costs along the extensive margin (search frictions, firing costs, training costs), makes it optimal to delay employment adjustments. Simulations indicate that this mechanism is quantitatively important even if only a small fraction of workers perform organizational tasks, and explains why the hiring rate is persistent and why employment is slow to recover after the end of a recession.

Survey of ear flies (Diptera, Ulidiidae) in maize (Zea mays L.) and a new record of Euxesta mazorca Steyskal in Brazil

Survey of ear flies (Diptera, Ulidiidae) in maize (Zea mays L.) and a new record of Euxesta mazorca Steyskalin Brazil. Species of Euxesta (Diptera, Ulidiidae), known as silk flies or ear flies, are becoming increasingly important as maize insect pests in South America, although very little is known about them in Brazil. The larvae of some species of this genus initially damage female reproductive tissues, and then the developing kernels on the ear. As a result of feeding, fermentation and associated odors cause complete loss of the grain because it is no longer fit for human or livestock consumption. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the incidence of Euxesta spp. in Brazilian maize fields and to determine the most prevalent species using two different hydrolyzed protein foods attractants, BioAnastrepha® (hydrolyzed maize protein) and Torula, placed inside McPhail traps. The two species identified were E. eluta Loew and E. mazorca Steyskal, the latter being a new record from Brazil. Between the two species, E. eluta was the more abundant in maize fields. Both attractants were efficient in capturing the two species. However, BioAnastrepha® captured significantly more insects than Torula.

Effects of employment protection and product market regulations on the Italian labor market

Labor market regulations have often being blamed for high and persistentunemployment in Europe, but evidence on their impact remains mixed. Morerecently, attention has turned to the impact of product market regulationson employment growth. This paper analyzes how labor and product marketregulations interact to affect turnover and employment. We present a matchingmodel which illustrates how barriers to entry in the product market mitigatethe impact of labor market deregulation. We, then, use the Italian SocialSecurity employer-employee panel to study the interaction between barriersto entry and dismissal costs. We exploit the fact that costs for unjustdismissals in Italy increased for firms below 15 employees relative to biggerfirms after 1990. We find that the increase in dismissal costs after 1990decreased accessions and separations in small relative to big firms,especially for women. Moreover, consistent with our model, we find evidencethat the increase in dismissal costs had smaller effects on turnover for womenin sectors faced with strict product market regulations.

The political economy of employment protection

This paper develops a model of job creation and job destruction in agrowing economy with embodied technical progress, that we use toanalyze the political support for employment protection legislationssuch as the ones that are observed in most European countries.We analyze the possibility of Condorcet cycles due to the fact thatworkers about to become unemployed prefer both an increase and areduction in firing costs over the status quo. Despite this problem, we show the existence of local, and sometimes global majority winners.In voting in favour of employment protection, incumbent employeestrade off lower living standards (because employment protectionmaintains workers in less productive activities) against longer job duration. We show that the gains from, and consequently the politicalsupport for employment protection (as defined by maximunjob tenure) are larger, the lower the rate of creative destruction and the largerthe worker's bargaining power. Numerical simulations suggest a hump-shaped response of firing costs to these variables, as well as negative impact of exogeneous turnover on employment protection.

A new species of Eccopsis Zeller (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae) from the coastal valleys of northern Chile, with the first continental record of E. galapagana Razowski & Landry

A new species of Eccopsis Zeller (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae) from the coastal valleys of northern Chile, with the first continental record of E. galapagana Razowski & Landry. Eccopsis Zeller, 1852 is reported for the first time from Chile. Eccopsis razowskii Vargas, n. sp. is described and illustrated based on specimens reared from larvae collected on native Acacia macracantha Willd. (Fabaceae) in the coastal valleys of the northern Chilean desert. Eccopsis galapagana Razowski & Landry, 2008, previously known only from the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, is recorded for the first time from continental South America. Larvae of the latter were collected in northern Chile feeding on Prosopis alba Griseb (Fabaceae).

First record of larvae of Allograpta exotica Wiedemann (Diptera, Syrphidae) preying on Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera, Aphididae) in watermelon in Brazil

First record of larvae of Allograpta exotica Wiedemann (Diptera, Syrphidae) preying on Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera, Aphididae) in watermelon in Brazil. Brazil is one of the largest world producers of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thumb. Mansf.) and Aphis gossypii Glover, 1877 (Hemiptera, Aphididae) is among the most important pest on this crop. Larvae of Allograpta exotica Wiedemann, 1830 (Diptera, Syrphidae) were found preying on A. gossypii in watermelon crop, in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul State, what represents the first report of this tritrophic association in Brazil.