64 research outputs found
Breadwinner or caregiver? - how household role affectslabor choices in Mexico
No full textRecent volatility in the Mexican economy, has required households to alter patterns of participation in the labor force, voluntarily or not. The author uses panel data to examine patterns of labor force entry among adult men, and women with different household responsibilities, asking whether gender is a primary determinant, shaping these patterns. She finds that labor supply patterns are driven more by household role, than by gender. Heads of households, regardless of sex, behave similarly. Women who have neither spouses, nor children behave more like men, than like married women. They are also more likely than any other group to have inflexible, higher-paying jobs in the formal sector - which raises the question: Do employers discriminate, based on gender, or on household structure? She also detects a strong added-worker effect among secondary workers, a result not detected in the labor markets of developed countries that have social insurance programs. Finally she finds that wives'choice of sector during downturns, is subject to the households'earning needs, that husbands use informal wage, or contract employment as an employer of last resort, only in response to negative income shocks to the household, and that single mothers do not select the informal sector over the formal sector in response to either expected, or realized negative income shocks. The policy implications? Interventions that target women aren't necessarily appropriate, because women are heterogeneous. And programs that aid household heads - male or female - should be directed toward employment that will last beyond the economic shock.Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Markets,Educational Policy and Planning,Labor Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Labor Markets,Educational Policy and Planning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation
Applications of weak attraction theory in Out(Fn)
No full textGiven a finite rank free group FN of rank ≥ 3 and two exponentially growing outer automorphisms ψ and φ with dual lamination pairs Λ± ψ and Λ± φ associated to them, which satisfy a notion of independence described in this paper, we will use the pingpong techniques developed by Handel and Mosher [14] to show that there exists an integer M > 0, such that for every m, n ≥ M, the group GM = hψ m, φn i will be a free group of rank two and every element of this free group which is not conjugate to a power of the generators will be fully irreducible and hyperbolic. We will also look at a different proof of the theorem of Kapovich and Lustig in [18] which shows that the Cannon-Thurston map for a fully-irreducible hyperbolic automorphism exists and is finiteto-one.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Pritam Ghos
NAFTA, capital mobility, and Mexico's financial system
No full textTypically the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is analyzed from a macroeconomic perspective, to examine the implications for capital market flows or for the aggregate degree of financial integration. This analysis often involves examining whether certain conditions of arbitrage or efficiency tend to hold, given greater integration of financial markets. Alternatively, other work examines only the effects of greater financial integration for the efficiency with which financial services are provided microeconomically. The two approaches are rarely combined, nor are the effects of integration considered within such a combined framework. The authors combine the two approaches to examine how NAFTA will affect capital flows and the efficiency with which financial services are provided in Mexico. They also call attention to domestic financial systems and monetary and exchange rate policy issues that Mexico must address if greater financial integration is not to result in increased risk for the domestic financial system or greater macroeconomic instability.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Macroeconomic Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies
After socialism and dirigisme : which way?
No full textThe author identifies fundamental economic changes in the last 20 years that have influenced the emergence of a new paradigm on economic reform. The new orthodoxy on economic reform emphasizes smaller government, trade liberalization, business deregulation and privatization, macroeconomic austerity, and the role of free markets for resource allocation and growth. After describing diverse country experiences in economic reform, the author summarizes his findings on key aspects of the design of economic reform programs. Shock treatment (as opposed to the gradual approach) requires a strong government with broad social support, as the costs of the policies are paid upfront and the benefits may take time to accrue. If the program involves protracted social hardship, political support will begin to evaporate and pressure will build for a reversal of reform. Important choices must be made about the sequence of macroeconomic adjustment and consolidation and structural reform. Implementing tax reform and converting quotas to tariffs improve the fiscal budget, so they contribute to macroeconomic stabilization. But premature financial liberalization, before the budget is balanced and real interest rates are at a reasonable level, may lead to financial crisis, as happened in Chile in 1982-83. Massive privatization of large-scale firms can have both stabilizing and destabilizing macroeconomic effects, for example. If it means getting rid of loss-making public enterprises, it could save scarce government resources. But if the resulting output and unemployment costs are socially unsustainable, pressure may mount for the government to come to the enterprises'rescue. The shift from an economy with controlled prices to one in which most prices are market-determined generally involves a big hike in price levels. Chile and Mexico illustrate the stubbornness of the inflation that may follow. China, Korea, and Chile represent countries that carried out economic reform under authoritarian governments that postponed political reform to gain political legitimacy from the fruits of consolidated economic reform. In countries where economic and political reform are pursued simultaneously (as in Eastern Europe and Russia), fragile democracies with a fragmented party system and weak social institutions and governments do not provide the most favorable political environment for implementing and consolidating complex and painful economic reforms. Under these conditions, governments are bound to face the dilemma of either postponing economic reform to avert a political crisis or to backslide in democratization to apply painful economic policies - both unsavory choices.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Inequality,Achieving Shared Growth
Cannon-Thurston fibers for iwip automorphisms of
No full text22 pagesInternational audienceFor any atoroidal iwip the mapping torus group is hyperbolic, and the embedding induces a continuous, -equivariant and surjective {\em Cannon-Thurston map} . We prove that for any as above, the map is finite-to-one and that the preimage of every point of has cardinality . We also prove that every point with preimages in has the form where , and that there are at most distinct -orbits of such {\em singular} points in (for the translation action of on ). By contrast, we show that for there are uncountably many points (and thus uncountably many -orbits of such ) with exactly preimages in
Invariant laminations for irreducible automorphisms of free groups
No full textRevised version as goes to the journal (Quat.Oxford) for printing. An alternative version with a slightly different proof technique will be replacing this version in a few daysInternational audienceFor every atoroidal iwip automorphism of (i.e. the analogue of a pseudo-Anosov mapping class) it is shown that the algebraic lamination dual to the forward limit tree is obtained as "diagonal closure" of the support of the backward limit current . This diagonal closure is obtained through a finite procedure in analogy to adding diagonal leaves from the complementary components to the stable lamination of a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism. We also give several new characterizations as well as a structure theorem for the dual lamination of , in terms of Bestvina-Feighn-Handel's "stable lamination" associated to
NAFTA and U.S. jobs
No full textNorth American Free Trade Agreement ; Employment (Economic theory) ; Mexico
Vascular endothelial growth factor restores delayed tumor progression in tumors depleted of macrophages
No full textGenetic depletion of macrophages in Polyoma Middle T oncoprotein (PyMT)-induced mammary tumors in mice delayed the angiogenic switch and the progression to malignancy. To determine whether vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) produced by tumor-associated macrophages regulated the onset of the angiogenic switch, a genetic approach was used to restore expression of VEGF-A into tumors at the benign stages. This stimulated formation of a high-density vessel network and in macrophage-depleted mice, was followed by accelerated tumor progression. The expression of VEGF-A led to a massive infiltration into the tumor of leukocytes that were mostly macrophages. This study suggests that macrophage-produced VEGF regulates malignant progression through stimulating tumor angiogenesis, leukocytic infiltration and tumor cell invasion
Trade Liberalization, Employment Flows and Wage Inequality in Brazil
No full textUsing nationally representative, economy-wide data, this paper investigates the relative importance of trade-mandated effects on industry wage premiums; industry and economy-wide skill premiums; and employment flows in accounting for changes in the wage distribution in Brazil during the 1988-95 trade liberalization. Unlike in other Latin American countries, trade liberalization appears to have made a significant contribution towards a reduction in wage inequality. These effects have not occurred through changes in industry-specific (wage or skill) premiums. Instead, they appear to have been channelled through substantial employment flows across sectors and formality categories. Changes in the economy-wide skill premium are also important.trade liberalization, inequality, employment flows, Brazil
Maximum power point tracking under realistic operating conditions
No full textThe process of tracking the Maximum Power Point (MPP), known as MPPT, becomes problematic under realistic operating conditions due to the potential for there to be more than one local maxima. A very detailed physics based model has been developed for a PV module (in this application a PV roof tile) using the Orcad platform for PSpice. This model is unusual in that it properly represents partial module shading and cell temperature variation. The PV roof tile, based on polycrystalline silicon cells, comprises 18 series-connected cells. In the model, each cell is represented by a standard two-diode sub-model, for which different levels of radiation and cell temperature can be simulated to obtain a realistic overall I-V characteristic for the module. The model can be extended to model any reasonable number of PV roof tiles wired in series and parallel to form a roof array. The IV characteristics calculated in this way using PSpice will be validated using an outdoor PV roof test system located at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
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