Descriptive Essay - Original Song Of My Life - 1322 Words

Feet dragging through a magically soft and grainy mixture, ankles experiencing the rush of a gentle ebb and flow, fingers weaving through the delicate yet power-bearing wind, it was a beautiful sensation that fit the cleanliness of the crisp air. A gentle swish of the wind whispers across my skin, contrasting harshly with the grating sound of barking in the distance that ground beneath the edges of my jaw. Large, white, noisy birds made sounds that rather resembled cackling. Children’s laughter flooded the air along with those of their parents. The sun shone lightly down upon the earth, but the dark clouds on the horizon and the chill in the breeze told me it wouldn’t remain sunny. A crashing and a special roaring breathed life and is†¦show more content†¦The water became infused with my blood and my stomach sank: who knows what was out here. The lake was absolutely huge and terribly deep. The sunlight had completely vanished by leaving the sky full of dark c louds: at least that’s what it looked like, with me now drowning and all. I stretch my arms above, reaching for the fading light streaming through with a strong desire. Cool strength engulfing me completely. It withholds me from the strength of the wind and the sun. A persistent, but rather dull roaring pulsed in my ears. My hair glides, following my movements, but moreso those of the cool strength. The muscles in my thighs tense as I strain to reach the light. All around tiny slippery figures dart over and momentarily press against my body: as if they are inquiring my presence, as if they know I do not belong. My fingertips are so close, they strain to reach the top and feel the breeze. My feet push against the water strenuously in a desperate attempt to help me escape from this dark constrictive prison. Nothing worked though; my lungs burned with a fire and my head stung immensely, I couldn’t escape. Instantaneously and out of nowhere a mysterious projectile slammed into the water and shattered the deceptively calm surface as it hurtled past me. My upwards striving limbs immediately retracted and I curled in on myself. Then it hit me; the projectile had been a bullet. I was being shot at! I hadn’t thought that his loathing for me had turned thisShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of Desert Rose Essay examples1206 Words   |  5 PagesFor my analysis essay, I chose the song Desert Rose written and performed by Sting. Cheb Mami also wrote and performed the Arabic part of the song. The genre of the song is pop and â€Å"Desert Rose† was released in 1999 but it was well known around 2000 due to its music video which was used in a Jaguar auto mobile commercial. I chose this song because Sting and Cheb Mami speak of longing and desire which is what every human being feels at some point in their lives. In life people always want somethingRead MorePersonal Writing : My Personal Narrative1331 Words   |  6 PagesWhen I was a little girl I loved t o write, my father would give me silly little writing prompts and I would write short paragraphs of made up scenarios. My father really encouraged my writing at an early age, but as I grew a little bit older I realize that I struggled with it a lot. I can remember my very first personal journal. The stuff I would write was so underdeveloped, because I was so young but I didn’t care at the time. As I grew older, I became fond of roleplaying online on websites or inRead MoreNananna1497 Words   |  6 Pageslonger captures his complete attention and is not as relevant in his life as it once was. 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The first sentence in a paragraph is the topic sentence, which tells the reader aboutRead MoreThe Effects Of Violent Media On Individuals3350 Words   |  14 Pagesself-identified as Caucasian. Participants were exposed to either a song with violent lyrics or a song with non-violent lyrics. Participants were then asked to provide ratings of state hostility. The results indicated that participants who listened to songs with violent or non-violent lyrics reported similar ratings of hostility. This implies that further research should be done on the effects of violent media on individuals. Violent Song Lyrics Affect Aggressive Thoughts Feelings â€Å"Music expressesRead MoreGrammar: Figures of Speech5410 Words   |  22 PagesOrwell Alliteration - The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants in tow or more neighboring words (as in â€Å"she sells sea shells). Although the term is not used frequently in the multiple-choice section, you can look for alliteration in any essay passage. The repetition can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, supply a musical sound, and/or echo the sense of the passage. Allusion – A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, placeRead MoreCleanth Brookss Essay Irony as a Principle of Structure9125 Words   |  37 PagesHistory and Class Consciousness Preface THE collection and publication of these essays in book form is not intended to give them a greater importance as a whole than would be due to each individually. For the most part they are attempts, arising out of actual work for the party, to clarify the theoretical problems of the revolutionary movement in the mind ,of the author and his readers. The exceptions to this are the two essays Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat and Towards a Methodology

How I Should Spend Your Life - 981 Words

The most inevitable truth in this life is that time never stops and soon I will be just another box in the ground. This is in no way cynical or dark, it is simply the cold, hard truth about life, of which I have accepted with peace. Henceforth, as I am growing older, I am starting to make observations of time and how important it is in my everyday life. I have learned that time is going by faster and faster with every passing night. This has made me take in to consideration how I should be spending the time I have left. I have spent 2,688 hours trying to improve myself as a writer since the beginning of the semester. That is the amount of time that has gone by since I realized how much writing truly meant to me. I decided to start doing†¦show more content†¦In my entire life, I have never learned so many new things and opened up my perspective on the world as I know it. Being able to watch a story unravel within a culture unknown to me was inspiring and created an uprising o f ideas inside my head. Everything from the Lakota characteristics to the love shared between two cultures with very different views. It caused me to think about aspects of my life in a brand new way. This caused the writing experiences to be much simpler when putting them on a page. Thinking in new ways caused me to write in new ways, which helped my growth as a writer more than I thought it would. On the other hand, this semester had its fair share of bad experiences as well. My least successful experience of the semester was the eight page paper written on mental health in America. This paper was meant to exude understanding and compassion while still being informational. However, after reading it a few more times, it sounded quite boring and very emotionless. Despite the use of a personal interview, the paper was merely informational. I wanted my voice to stand up for those people who struggle with mental illness. I wanted it to be different from just a research paper. I wanted the reader to know me through my empathy. Nonetheless, it was none of those things and if I could go back and change the tone of the essay, I would Thinking and writing are directly correlated with one another. For me, the

In-Work Benefits and the Nordic Model Free Essays

Abstract Welfare bene†¦ts in the Nordic countries are often tied to employment. We argue that this is one of the factors behind the success of the Nordic model, where a comprehensive welfare state is associated with high employment. In a general equilibrium setting, the underlining mechanism works through wage moderation and job creation. We will write a custom essay sample on In-Work Benefits and the Nordic Model or any similar topic only for you Order Now The bene†¦ts make it more important to hold a job, thus lower wages will be accepted, and more jobs created. Moreover, we show that the incentive to acquire higher education improves, further boosting employment in the long run. These positive e ¤ects help counteracting the negative impact of taxation. JEL codes: H24, J21, J24 Keywords: Nordic model, in-work bene†¦ts, wage adjustment, unemployment, education, skill formation, earnings 1 Introduction A prominent feature of the so-called Nordic model is a comprehensive welfare state †¦nanced by taxes on labor. In fact, the public sector in many We want to thank Torben Andersen, Martin Floden, Richard Freeman, Mathias Herzing, Eddie Lazear, Ethienne Lehman, Bruno van Linden, and participants at the Conference on the Economics of the Nordic Model. y Department of Economics, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Ph. +46 8 163547. Fax +46 8 161425, E-mail address: ann-so†¦e. kolm@ne. su. se z Economics Division, University of Southampton, UK; Economics Department, UniCredit Universities Fellow, Central European University, Budapest; and IZA, Bonn. Email address: m. tonin@soton. ac. uk 1 of the Nordic countries is responsible for the distribution and allocation of resources amounting to more than half of their country’ GDP (Eurostat, s 2012). With an emphasis on redistributional transfers and service provision †¦nanced by taxes on labor, a concern with the model is, of course, that it induces weak incentives to work. In a more long term perspective, such a system may also reduce incentives to acquire skills, with a negative impact on future pproduactivity and labor market outcomes. However, external observers are often surprised that the Nordic countries manage to combine low unemployment and high labor force participation with high taxes and generous welfare arrangements. So, how is this possible? One answer to this question is that many of the welfare arrangements in the Nordic countries are closely tied to market work. The generosity of the bene†¦ts are, in general, related to earnings. In addition, eligibility to a number of bene†¦ts and social services is conditional on employment. Subsidized childcare, for example, is, in principle, only available to employed workers. Also, some generous elements of the paid paren’tal leave schemes are only accessible to employed workers. In addition, the more recently introduced earned income tax credit is by de†¦nition exclusively targeted to employed workers. The idea is that these bene†¦ts, by increasing the returns from working, increase the supply of labor. The observation that the Nordic countries have sustained high economic aactivity because bene†¦ts are closely tied to market work is not new. In fact this was noted as a contributing factor to the high participation rate observed in Sweden when a group of NBER economists studied the Swedish welfare state in the mid 1990s (see Freeman et al. , 1997). This was also an important message in the discussion on the prospects and challenges of the Scandinavian model in Andersen (2008). The starting point for this paper is that entitlement to many of the bene†¦ts available in the Nordic countries is conditional on employment. As discussed above, this tends to increase the gains from working, which encourages labor supply. However, we argue that this is not the end of the story. To investigate the full impact of welfare state arrangements of this type, one needs to account for the general equilibrium e ¤ects. This is particularly relevant because many bene†¦ts have been available to the whole population for a long period of time. Clearly, to investigate the e ¤ects of these bene†¦ts on employment, which is an equilibrium outcome, both supply-side and demand-side factors must be iincluded in the analysis. Moreover, beside considering the equilibrium outcome for the existing workforce, it is important to account 2 or the impact of these bene†¦ts on incentives to acquire skills. The equilibrium composition of the workforce in terms of educational attainment is a crucial variable for the sustainability of the Nordic model, both in terms of its growth potential and international competitiveness (Andersen, 2008) and in terms of the political support for the welfare state (Hassler et al. , 2003). To carry out such an analysis, we develop a simple model of a non-clearing labor market featuring involuntary unemployment as an equilibrium outcome. Labor force participation is also endogenously determined. Moreover, individuals di ¤er in their ability to acquire education and choose educational attainments based on a cost-bene†¦t analysis. In particular, we focus on the choice between proceeding to higher, i. e. tertiary, education or not. The aim is to investigate the implications of bene†¦ts that are conditional on work on unemployment and labor force participation, accounting for their long term impact on educational attainments. We show that bene†¦ts available only to employed workers moderate wages, reduce unemployment rates, and increase labor force participation and employment. Moreover, one could expect that welfare bene†¦ts, even if conditional on work, could induce an outright reduction in education as they represent an important subsidy for low skilled workers. What we †¦nd instead is that the incentives to proceed to higher education are actually strengthened. This is a consequence of the relatively sthronger increase in labor market opportunities for highly educated workers that follow when wages are moderated. Wages, in turn, fall because workers are more willing to accept lower wages when bene†¦ts are conditional on work and thus the value of having a job is higher. Lower wages increase job creation and lower the unemployment rate. Thus, total employment increases for three sets of reasons. First, the bene†¦ts reduce the unemployment rate for workers at all educational levels. Second, more workers choose to proceed to higher education where expected unemployment spells are shorter. Third, as labor force participation increases with the bene†¦ts, a larger share of the population will be employed. We also look at the impact of bene†¦ts when they are †¦nanced through a proportional tax on wages. Taxation actually reinforces wage moderation and, as such, does not overrule that bene†¦ts reduce wages, increase job creation, and reduce unemployment rates. However, it weakens the incentives to acquire higher education and participate in the labor force, thus inducing a counteracting e ¤ect on educational attainment and labor force participation. The element of the Nordic model that this paper underlines is the wage moderation stemming from bene†¦ts conditional on work. Also, we †¦nd this 3 mechanism to be very robust to the choice of model. Moreover, looking at bene†¦ts through this channel highlights how they have a positive impact on educational attainment and participation, thus counteracting, at least partly, the negative e ¤ect that taxation has on skill acquisition and labor force participation. The analytical results are followed up with a numerical example illustrating the e ¤ects of the bene†¦ts on labor market performance and educational attainment. The simulations indicate that bene†¦ts can have an important impact on unemployment for both low- and high- skilled. Without distortinary taxation, bene†¦ts also have a positive impact on skill acquisition, thus further reducing overall unemployment in the long run. When †¦nancing through proportional taxation on wages is iincluded in the model, the negative e ¤ect of taxation on educational attainment dominates the positive e ¤ect of bene†¦ts, thus resulting in a decrease in the share of the workforce acquiring tertiary education. Nonetheless, bene†¦ts still have a positive overall impact on unemployment. Considering the previous literature, there are a number of studies that have tried to explain why the Nordic countries have performed so well despite high taxes and generous welfare arrangements. As mentioned, some of these studies have emphasized the importance of that bene†¦ts are tied to market work for the successful outcome in terms of employment and participation (see Aronsson and Walker, 1997). A related view is provided by Rogerson (2007). He argues that the governments’spending pattern in the Scandinavian countries, compared to other high tax countries, can potentially explain the large number of aggregate work hours observed in these countries. He shows, holding tax rates constant, that it matters if the revenue is spent on disability payments which may only be received when an individual does not work or subsidies for day care for working mothers. The reason is that childcare subsidies create jobs. Our study also †¦nds that how the government choose to spend tax revenues matters for labor market performance, although for a di ¤erent reason. In contrast to Rogerson (2007), our results materialize through general equilibrium e ¤ects working through wage moderation. There is also a large number of studies focusing on particular features of the welfare state in the Nordic countries, looking for instance at the impact of childcare subsidies and paid paren’tal leave schemes on labor supply and a number of other outcome variables. 1 In contrast to our study, this literature How to cite In-Work Benefits and the Nordic Model, Papers

In-Work Benefits and the Nordic Model Free Essays

Abstract Welfare bene†¦ts in the Nordic countries are often tied to employment. We argue that this is one of the factors behind the success of the Nordic model, where a comprehensive welfare state is associated with high employment. In a general equilibrium setting, the underlining mechanism works through wage moderation and job creation. We will write a custom essay sample on In-Work Benefits and the Nordic Model or any similar topic only for you Order Now The bene†¦ts make it more important to hold a job, thus lower wages will be accepted, and more jobs created. Moreover, we show that the incentive to acquire higher education improves, further boosting employment in the long run. These positive e ¤ects help counteracting the negative impact of taxation. JEL codes: H24, J21, J24 Keywords: Nordic model, in-work bene†¦ts, wage adjustment, unemployment, education, skill formation, earnings 1 Introduction A prominent feature of the so-called Nordic model is a comprehensive welfare state †¦nanced by taxes on labor. In fact, the public sector in many We want to thank Torben Andersen, Martin Floden, Richard Freeman, Mathias Herzing, Eddie Lazear, Ethienne Lehman, Bruno van Linden, and participants at the Conference on the Economics of the Nordic Model. y Department of Economics, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Ph. +46 8 163547. Fax +46 8 161425, E-mail address: ann-so†¦e. kolm@ne. su. se z Economics Division, University of Southampton, UK; Economics Department, UniCredit Universities Fellow, Central European University, Budapest; and IZA, Bonn. Email address: m. tonin@soton. ac. uk 1 of the Nordic countries is responsible for the distribution and allocation of resources amounting to more than half of their country’ GDP (Eurostat, s 2012). With an emphasis on redistributional transfers and service provision †¦nanced by taxes on labor, a concern with the model is, of course, that it induces weak incentives to work. In a more long term perspective, such a system may also reduce incentives to acquire skills, with a negative impact on future pproduactivity and labor market outcomes. However, external observers are often surprised that the Nordic countries manage to combine low unemployment and high labor force participation with high taxes and generous welfare arrangements. So, how is this possible? One answer to this question is that many of the welfare arrangements in the Nordic countries are closely tied to market work. The generosity of the bene†¦ts are, in general, related to earnings. In addition, eligibility to a number of bene†¦ts and social services is conditional on employment. Subsidized childcare, for example, is, in principle, only available to employed workers. Also, some generous elements of the paid paren’tal leave schemes are only accessible to employed workers. In addition, the more recently introduced earned income tax credit is by de†¦nition exclusively targeted to employed workers. The idea is that these bene†¦ts, by increasing the returns from working, increase the supply of labor. The observation that the Nordic countries have sustained high economic aactivity because bene†¦ts are closely tied to market work is not new. In fact this was noted as a contributing factor to the high participation rate observed in Sweden when a group of NBER economists studied the Swedish welfare state in the mid 1990s (see Freeman et al. , 1997). This was also an important message in the discussion on the prospects and challenges of the Scandinavian model in Andersen (2008). The starting point for this paper is that entitlement to many of the bene†¦ts available in the Nordic countries is conditional on employment. As discussed above, this tends to increase the gains from working, which encourages labor supply. However, we argue that this is not the end of the story. To investigate the full impact of welfare state arrangements of this type, one needs to account for the general equilibrium e ¤ects. This is particularly relevant because many bene†¦ts have been available to the whole population for a long period of time. Clearly, to investigate the e ¤ects of these bene†¦ts on employment, which is an equilibrium outcome, both supply-side and demand-side factors must be iincluded in the analysis. Moreover, beside considering the equilibrium outcome for the existing workforce, it is important to account 2 or the impact of these bene†¦ts on incentives to acquire skills. The equilibrium composition of the workforce in terms of educational attainment is a crucial variable for the sustainability of the Nordic model, both in terms of its growth potential and international competitiveness (Andersen, 2008) and in terms of the political support for the welfare state (Hassler et al. , 2003). To carry out such an analysis, we develop a simple model of a non-clearing labor market featuring involuntary unemployment as an equilibrium outcome. Labor force participation is also endogenously determined. Moreover, individuals di ¤er in their ability to acquire education and choose educational attainments based on a cost-bene†¦t analysis. In particular, we focus on the choice between proceeding to higher, i. e. tertiary, education or not. The aim is to investigate the implications of bene†¦ts that are conditional on work on unemployment and labor force participation, accounting for their long term impact on educational attainments. We show that bene†¦ts available only to employed workers moderate wages, reduce unemployment rates, and increase labor force participation and employment. Moreover, one could expect that welfare bene†¦ts, even if conditional on work, could induce an outright reduction in education as they represent an important subsidy for low skilled workers. What we †¦nd instead is that the incentives to proceed to higher education are actually strengthened. This is a consequence of the relatively sthronger increase in labor market opportunities for highly educated workers that follow when wages are moderated. Wages, in turn, fall because workers are more willing to accept lower wages when bene†¦ts are conditional on work and thus the value of having a job is higher. Lower wages increase job creation and lower the unemployment rate. Thus, total employment increases for three sets of reasons. First, the bene†¦ts reduce the unemployment rate for workers at all educational levels. Second, more workers choose to proceed to higher education where expected unemployment spells are shorter. Third, as labor force participation increases with the bene†¦ts, a larger share of the population will be employed. We also look at the impact of bene†¦ts when they are †¦nanced through a proportional tax on wages. Taxation actually reinforces wage moderation and, as such, does not overrule that bene†¦ts reduce wages, increase job creation, and reduce unemployment rates. However, it weakens the incentives to acquire higher education and participate in the labor force, thus inducing a counteracting e ¤ect on educational attainment and labor force participation. The element of the Nordic model that this paper underlines is the wage moderation stemming from bene†¦ts conditional on work. Also, we †¦nd this 3 mechanism to be very robust to the choice of model. Moreover, looking at bene†¦ts through this channel highlights how they have a positive impact on educational attainment and participation, thus counteracting, at least partly, the negative e ¤ect that taxation has on skill acquisition and labor force participation. The analytical results are followed up with a numerical example illustrating the e ¤ects of the bene†¦ts on labor market performance and educational attainment. The simulations indicate that bene†¦ts can have an important impact on unemployment for both low- and high- skilled. Without distortinary taxation, bene†¦ts also have a positive impact on skill acquisition, thus further reducing overall unemployment in the long run. When †¦nancing through proportional taxation on wages is iincluded in the model, the negative e ¤ect of taxation on educational attainment dominates the positive e ¤ect of bene†¦ts, thus resulting in a decrease in the share of the workforce acquiring tertiary education. Nonetheless, bene†¦ts still have a positive overall impact on unemployment. Considering the previous literature, there are a number of studies that have tried to explain why the Nordic countries have performed so well despite high taxes and generous welfare arrangements. As mentioned, some of these studies have emphasized the importance of that bene†¦ts are tied to market work for the successful outcome in terms of employment and participation (see Aronsson and Walker, 1997). A related view is provided by Rogerson (2007). He argues that the governments’spending pattern in the Scandinavian countries, compared to other high tax countries, can potentially explain the large number of aggregate work hours observed in these countries. He shows, holding tax rates constant, that it matters if the revenue is spent on disability payments which may only be received when an individual does not work or subsidies for day care for working mothers. The reason is that childcare subsidies create jobs. Our study also †¦nds that how the government choose to spend tax revenues matters for labor market performance, although for a di ¤erent reason. In contrast to Rogerson (2007), our results materialize through general equilibrium e ¤ects working through wage moderation. There is also a large number of studies focusing on particular features of the welfare state in the Nordic countries, looking for instance at the impact of childcare subsidies and paid paren’tal leave schemes on labor supply and a number of other outcome variables. 1 In contrast to our study, this literature How to cite In-Work Benefits and the Nordic Model, Papers