印尼J区块层序地层与沉积相特征研究

利用层序地层学理论,对印尼J区块古近系—新近系的层序地层和沉积相特征进行了研究。古近系—新近系可以分为7个中期基准面旋回（SQ1SQ7）和17个短期基准面旋回。SQ1SQ7沉积时期,沉积环境从陆相河流环境逐渐过渡到三角洲环境和浅海环境,再到河流环境,为一完整的水进-水退旋回。中下部层序上升旋回占主体,属海进式沉积组合序列;上部层序下降旋回占主体,多为海退式沉积组合序列。结合层序特征,指出区块西部凸起带SQ5旋回的浊积砂体、基底风化壳、碳酸盐岩台地和东部斜坡带的下切谷为区块的有利勘探区带。研究结果对该盆地的石油勘探具有指导意义。     

Mastering authority: J.M. Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year

J.M. Coetzee’s fiction has, from its inception, parodied language which claims to speak as the public use of reason. Diary of a Bad Year departs from this position to some degree by offering a series of public reflections on the times; however, these reflections are embedded within a narrative structure which disallows us from taking them at face value. Such narrative framing raises the question of authority: not only the authority of the reflections themselves, but the authority of the voice and the voice in the text. The relationship between fiction and the public sphere is such that fiction foregrounds the problem of authority in public discourse and seeks to capture the position of authority through heightened forms of mimesis and self‐consciousness.     

Does bullying reduce educational achievement? An evaluation using matching estimators

Using data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (2006-PIRLS) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (2007-TIMSS), we investigate the determinants and the effect of being a victim of school bullying on educational achievement for Italian students enrolled at the fourth and eighth grade levels. Firstly, we apply an OLS estimator controlling for a number of individual characteristics and school fixed effects. Secondly, in order to attenuate the impact of confounding factors, we use propensity score matching techniques. Our empirical findings based on average treatment effects suggest that being a victim of school bullying has a considerable negative effect on student performance at both the fourth and the eighth grade level. Importantly, the adverse effect of bullying on educational achievement is larger at age 13 than at age 9. Hence, school violence seems to constitute a relevant factor in explaining student performance. Our findings suggest some possible interventions that Italian policy makers should adopt to prevent or reduce bullying behaviors.     

And yet they Co-move! Public capital and productivity in OECD

In this paper, we add to the debate on the public capital–productivity link by applying very recent developments in the panel time series literature that take into account cross sectional correlation in non-stationary panels. In particular, we evaluate the productive effect of public capital by estimating various production functions on a panel of 21 OECD countries over the period 1975–2002. Our results suggest that public capital has a positive long run impact on output, with elasticities that range between 0.05 and 0.15, depending on model specification. These findings are robust to the existence of spillover effects from public capital investments in other countries and to the inclusion of other productivity determinants, like human capital, the stock of patents and R&D capital. Finally, we do not find any important effect of public capital on GDP in the short run: this suggests that public infrastructure investments might not be a powerful countercyclical policy instrument.     

Gender-specific differences in labor market adjustment patterns: Evidence from the United States

Do men and women behave differently while adjusting labor supply over the business cycle? Using data from the United States, we show that women are significantly more likely to adjust along the intensive margin (number of hours), while men adjust more along the extensive margin (employment). Older, single, and divorced/widowed adjust predominantly along the extensive margin.     

An empirical study of the relationship between a self-service technology investment and firm financial performance

More and more enterprises are taking advantage of self-service technologies (SSTs) in their customer-related operating activities, especially service firms. Although research on SSTs is prevalent, few studies have examined the impact of SSTs on firm financial performance. Given the growing importance of SSTs in the service industries in general and in the banking industry in particular, we therefore empirically examined the impacts of ATMs, one of the most widely accepted SSTs, on bank financial performance. Contrary to the existing literature, our results show ATMs have a positive relationship with profitability. However, we find no association between ATMs and growth performance.     

Wage and Productivity Differentials in Japan: The Role of Labor Market Mechanisms

This paper aims at explaining two stylized facts of the Lost Decade in Japan: rising wage inequalities and increasing firm‐level productivity differentials. We build a model where firms can choose between efficiency wages with endogenous effort and competitive wages, and show that it can replicate those facts. Using Japanese microeconomic data, we find support for the existence of efficiency wages in one group of firms and competitive wages in the other group. Based on those results, a simulation shows that the share of firms using efficiency wages has declined, within sectors, during the Lost Decade, as predicted by the model.     

Non‐linear Effects of Comparison Income in Quit Decisions: Status versus Signal!

This research note utilizes German matched employer–employee data to investigate the relationship between mobility and relative wage positions within establishments for workers without university degrees. The main innovation involves the examination of non‐linear effects, because previous literature mainly analyses mean linear effects. Our random‐effects probit estimates of mobility suggest a non‐linear U‐shaped effect with respect to relative standing. This is plausible because workers in low relative wage positions might quit because of their low status and those in high relative wage positions because of their low career advancement opportunities. Consideration of non‐linearities, thus, is a major improvement for the analysis of the effects of relative wage positions.     

Kind of Black: The Musicians' Labour Market in Italy

It is estimated that only 5 per cent of musicians in Italy are regularly employed. In an attempt at understanding such a peculiar situation, we build a theoretical model of the musicians' labour market in which we embed the main institutional features of the Italian system. The presence of taxation encourages the formation of a black labour market for musicians and discourages talented agents from becoming full‐time musicians in all second‐best economies. In Italy both tendencies are particularly strong, and exacerbated by the peculiarities of the pension system for musicians. These inefficiencies might be corrected by a twofold policy: the reform of the pension system, highly desirable but unlikely to be politically feasible in the current Italian institutional setting, and the introduction of a sufficiently large unemployment benefit for musicians, step that has a general interest for any second‐best economy and not only for the case of the musicians' labour market, and that might instead be viable under certain circumstances.     

The Access of the Young Graduates in Sciences into R&D Profession: A Switching Model Treatment for the French Case

We address the question concerning the choice of graduates in sciences and engineering to look for employment in research and development. We use an endogenous switching regression to avoid the existence of self‐selection biases. The study shows that human capital is decisive where both employment opportunities and remuneration are concerned within, but not without, this sector. The results also suggest that in the early stages of a career, the R&D sector is less rewarding than other types of employment only for doctors and not for graduates from engineering schools.