The continuing failure of many countries to adequately mitigate the adverse labor market impacts of economic downturns is of concern, since labor market volatility can exacerbate poverty and stunt ...growth. This article aims to identify potentially effective policies responses to crises by navigating the potential tradeoffs between offsetting adverse short-term impacts of economic downturns on the quantity and quality of jobs, and preserving incentives for economic recovery. The authors propose a taxonomy that categorizes interventions depending on whether they mitigate the negative short-term impact of crises or whether they stimulate recovery. The taxonomy helps policymakers to identify “win–win” policies that avoid potential tradeoffs between these objectives by simultaneously serving both. Common elements of effective interventions are feasibility, flexibility (for example the capacity for scaling up and down), and incentive compatibility—and there is no substitute for being prepared. Having sound safety nets in place before a crisis is superior to haphazardly implementing responses after a crisis hits.
This paper offers a critical appraisal of the various methods employed to date to measure inequalities in health. It suggests that only two of these--the slope index of inequality and the ...concentration index--are likely to present an accurate picture of socioeconomic inequalities in health. The paper also presents several empirical examples to illustrate of the dangers of using other measures such as the range, the Lorenz curve and the index of dissimilarity.
Data from two British cohort studies show that women with children have lower wages than childless women. We develop an innovative decomposition of this 'family gap'. The crude pay gap between ...mothers and childless women in their thirties was similar in 1978 and 1991, but low pay in part-time work became more important in explaining this gap, and human capital less so. We find that, among full-time employees, women who broke their employment at childbirth were subsequently paid less than childless women. In contrast, mothers who maintained employment continuity were as well paid as childless women, but neither were as well remunerated as men.
Vaccine research is a combinatorial science requiring computational analysis of vaccine components, formulations and optimization. We have developed a framework that combines computational tools for ...the study of immune function and vaccine development. This framework, named ImmunoGrid combines conceptual models of the immune system, models of antigen processing and presentation, system-level models of the immune system, Grid computing, and database technology to facilitate discovery, formulation and optimization of vaccines. ImmunoGrid modules share common conceptual models and ontologies. The ImmunoGrid portal offers access to educational simulators where previously defined cases can be displayed, and to research simulators that allow the development of new, or tuning of existing, computational models. The portal is accessible at <igrid-ext.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/immunogrid>.
This paper exploits the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey from 1990 (WIRS3) to examine the determinants of workplace injuries for a sample of manufacturing establishments in the UK. A key focus ...of this paper is an assessment of the role played by union‐appointed safety representatives and joint health and safety consultative committees in reducing the frequency of workplace accidents. We find that joint consultative committees, with all employee representatives appointed by unions, significantly reduce workplace injuries relative to those establishments where the management alone determine health and safety arrangements. However, an important role is also found for those joint consultative commitees where no employee representatives are appointed by unions.
This paper compares the gender gap in the pay of British, full-time workers from two cohorts, born in 1946 and 1958 and observed in their early thirties in 1978 and 1991 respectively. These dates are ...separated by 13 years of Equal Pay Legislation coupled with active labor market deregulation. Although women's human capital endowments had improved on average more than men's, there may have been little improvement in the differential treatment of the average woman in full-time employment. When the whole distribution of female earnings was considered, a general improvement in the treatment of women became apparent.
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