Properties of the Histogram Location Approach and the Extent and Change of Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity in the EU
The histogram location approach has been proposed by Kahn (1997) to estimate the fraction of wage cuts prevented by downward nominal wage rigidity. In this paper, we analyze the validity of the approach by means of a simulation study which yielded evidence of unbiasedness but also of potential underestimation of rigidity parameter uncertainty and therefore of potential anticonservative inference. We apply the histogram location approach to estimate the extent of downward nominal wage rigidity across the EU for 1995-2001. Our data base is the User Data Base (UDB) of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The results show wide variation in the fraction of wage cuts prevented by nominal wage rigidity across the EU. The lowest rigidity parameters are found for the UK, Spain and Ireland, the largest for Portugal and Italy. Analyzing the change of rigidity between sub periods 1995-1997 and 1999-2001 even shows an widening of the differences in nominal wage rigidity. Due to the finding of large differences across the EU, the results imply that the costs of low inflation policies across the EU differ substantially.
Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity and Gender
We test whether there are gender differences in downward rigidity, using Kahn's histogram‐location method and longitudinal registry data on all formally employed persons from the Estonian Tax and Customs Board. The results show that women resist pay cuts less than men. Also, in circumstances of increasing unemployment women's opposition to pay cuts decreases substantially, whereas men's attitudes towards pay cuts are not significantly affected by labour market conditions.
Co-operative categorization in civil engineering
In the paper we indicate the way to allow the coexistence of multiple structures that are mutually supportive, but not mutually exclusive. It allows less organized users to classify entities according to their suitable structure, whilst leaving the possibility for specialised users to classify these entities into related field classification systems or domain ontologies, in mutually beneficial cooperation. Replacing the reductionist enumerative structure with multiplicative categorization should bring organizational and terminological flexibility that will allow future updates without disrupting the existing categorization. It allows one to use parallel hierarchical branches of categories according to aspects and classify the entity into several branches at the same time. It should allow users the freedom to create their own structures without disrupting the structures of other user groups. Such structures could coexist happily side by side. The aim is to indicate the model of an independent data organization system in building design in a multilingual environment, connected through diverse CAD, GIS, BIM, CAFM applications, ECM, CDE, emails, databases and file systems.