The relative importance of some causes of unemployment: The case of West Germany

Zusammenfassung Die relative Bedeutung einiger Ursachen der Arbeitslosigkeit. Der Fall Bundesrepublik Deutschland. - Der Aufsatz untersucht verschiedene Ursachen der Arbeitslosigkeit (aggregierte Nachfrage, Faktorkosten, strukturelle Ver?nderungen und institutionelle Faktoren) in Westdeutschland zwischen 1973 und 1983. Es werden Gleichungen für die Zug?nge und Abg?nge in der Arbeitslosenstatistik nach M?nnern und Frauen getrennt gesch?tzt. Dann werden die Ergebnisse für Simulationen der aktuellen und station?ren Arbeitslosenrate benutzt. Es zeigt sich, da\ Angebotsschocks verbunden mit Lohnrigidit?t und Mangel an ausl?ndischer Nachfrage die Ursachen eines gro\en Teils der Arbeitslosigkeit sind. Der Strukturwandel ist ein weniger bedeutender Faktor, und die ⋯natürliche” Arbeitslosenrate ist für beide Gruppen im letzten Jahrzehnt angestiegen.

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Résumé L’importance relative de quelques causes du ch?mage: le cas de l’Allemagne de l’Ouest. - Dans ce papier l’auteur analyse quelques types de causes du ch?mage (demande totale, co?ts des facteurs, changements structurels, facteurs institutionnels) pour la RFA entre 1973 et 1983. Elle estime des équations pour les flux dans et hors du ch?mage pour des hommes et femmes séparément. Puis elle applique les résultats pour simuler le niveau actuel et le taux stationnaire du ch?mage. Elle démontre que les chocs d’offre accompagnés par la rigidité salariale et la déficience de la demande étrangère sont à la source d’une grande proportion du ch?mage. Des changements structurels sont un facteur mineur, et le taux naturel a accr? pour les deux groupes pendant la décade dernière.

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Resumen La importancia relativa de algunas causas de desempleo: el caso de Alemania Occidental. - En este trabajo se analizan varias causas de desempleo (demanda agregada, costo de factores, cambios estructurales y factores institucionales) en Alemania Occidental entre 1973 y 1983. Se estiman ecuaciones para la entrada y la salida de la situación de desempleo por separado para hombres y mujeres. Los resultados son utilizados para simular el nivel actual de desempleo y la tasa estacionaria de desempleo. Se demuestra que shocks de oferta junto con rigidez salarial y una deficiente demanda agregada extranjera son responsables de una gran parte del desempleo. Cambios estructurales son sóolo un factor menor; la tasa natural de desempleo ha aumentado para ambos sexos en la úultima década.

     

The gender earnings gap: effects of institutions and firms--a comparative study of French and Australian private firms

This paper uses two employer-employee linked data sets to investigatethe interactive role of labour market institutions and firmwage policies on the gender earnings gap. Extending the Juhnet al. (1991) decomposition methodology, a new decompositionmethodology is proposed to investigate the role of firm wagepolicies on the gender earnings gap. Two countries with differentwage bargaining systems, Australia and France, are used to conducta comparative study. It is found that firm wage policies inAustralia play a much larger role in narrowing the gender earningsgaps than in France. This is mainly due to the fact that Australiahas a more decentralised wage bargaining system and that suchsystem is operated under an environment where there is a strongunion presence.     

THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONAL WEALTH IN FRANCE (1977): A FIRST ATTEMPT AT THE ESTATE DUTY METHOD

This paper reports upon the first official application of the estate multiplier method of estimating the wealth distribution to French data. It is based upon a sample of estate duty returns filed during the period September-December 1977. The sampling rate was 5 percent for estates under one million francs, and 100 percent for estates over this level, giving a total of 5031 records. The data available did not permit a breakdown by type of asset. It did, however, permit classification of estates by age, sex, and occupation of decedent. Experiments were conducted using five different sets of mortality multipliers. The set of mortality multipliers judged most appropriate leads to an estimate of aggregate net wealth that is 77 percent of that given in the national balance sheet of the national accounts. Comparison of the distributions of wealth derived in these estimates suggest that the figures are consistent with those found in other countries.     

From the bird's eye to the microscope: A survey of new stylized facts of the intra-daily foreign exchange markets

This paper presents stylized facts concerning the spot intra-daily foreign exchange markets. It first describes intra-daily data and proposes a set of definitions for the variables of interest. Empirical regularities of the foreign exchange intra-daily data are then grouped under three major topics: the distribution of price changes, the process of price formation and the heterogeneous structure of the market. The stylized facts surveyed in this paper shed new light on the market structure that appears composed of heterogeneous agents. It also poses several challenges such as the definition of price and of the time-scale, the concepts of risk and efficiency, the modeling of the markets and the learning process.     

The probability of conflicts in a U.S. presidential type election

Summary. In a two candidate election, it might be that a candidate wins in a majority of districts while he gets less vote than his opponent in the whole country. In Social Choice Theory, this situation is known as the compound majority paradox, or the referendum paradox. Although occurrences of such paradoxical results have been observed worldwide in political elections (e.g. United States, United Kingdom, France), no study evaluates theoretically the likelihood of such situations. In this paper, we propose four probability models in order to tackle this issue, for the case where each district has the same population. For a divided electorate, our results prove that the likelihood of this paradox rapidly tends to 20% when the number of districts increases. This probability decreases with the number of states when a candidate receives significatively more vote than his opponent over the whole country.Received: 12 August 2002, Revised: 7 March 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: D71. Correspondence to: Vincent R. MerlinSpecial thanks are due to Franck Bisson, a Caen PhD student, who helped collect the data. The authors also gratefully acknowledge Ashley Piggins and an anonymous referee for their comments.     

On the Kim and Roush Voting Procedure

We study in this paper some features of a new voting rule recently proposed by K.H. Kim and F.W. Roush. The (conjectural) optimality of this voting rule with respect to statistical manipulability by coalitions is discussed under two alternative probabilistic assumptions, namely the impartial culture condition (IC) and the impartial anonymous culture condition (IAC). We also analyze the ability of Kim and Roush procedure to fulfil the Condorcet conditions. Some representations of its Condorcet efficiency in three-alternative elections are obtained.     

Cost-effectiveness of asenapine in the treatment of schizophrenia in Canada

Objective:

Asenapine is the first tetracyclic antipsychotic approved in Canada for the treatment of schizophrenia (SCZ). Asenapine has shown a comparable efficacy profile to other atypical antipsychotics and it is associated with a favourable metabolic profile and less weight gain. This study aimed to assess the economic impact of asenapine compared to other atypical antipsychotics in the treatment of SCZ in Canada.

Methods:

A decision tree combined with a Markov model was constructed to assess the cost-utility of asenapine compared with other atypical antipsychotics. The decision tree takes into account the occurrence of extrapyramidal symptoms, the probability of switching to a different antipsychotic, and the probability of gaining weight. The Markov model takes into account long-term metabolic complications including diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart diseases, and stroke. In the base-case analysis, asenapine was compared to olanzapine. Asenapine was also compared with other atypical antipsychotics commonly used in Canada in alternative scenarios. Analyses were conducted from both Canadian Ministry of Health (MoH) and societal perspectives over a 5-year time horizon.

Results:

In the treatment of SCZ, asenapine is a dominant strategy over olanzapine from both MoH and societal perspectives. Compared to quetiapine, asenapine is also a dominant strategy. Furthermore, asenapine has a favorable economic impact compared to ziprasidone and aripiprazole, as these antipsychotics are not cost-effective compared to asenapine from both MoH and societal perspectives.

Conclusion:

Despite the short time horizon, the lack of compliance data and the assumptions made, this economic evaluation demonstrates that asenapine is a cost-effective strategy compared to olanzapine and to most of the atypical antipsychotics frequently used in Canada.