Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S ABSTRACT Enforcement of Labor Regulation and Informality *Enforcement of labor regulations in the formal sector may drive workers to informality because they increase the costs of formal labor. But better compliance with mandated benefits makes it attractive to be a formal employee. We show that, in locations with frequent inspections workers pay for mandated benefits by receiving lower wages. Wage rigidity prevents downward adjustment at the bottom of the wage distribution. As a result, lower paid formal sector jobs become attractive to some informal workers, inducing them to want to move to the formal sector.

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit company supported by Deutsche Post World Net. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its research networks, research support, and visitors and doctoral programs. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in Openness and Technological Innovations in Developing Countries: Evidence from Firm-Level Surveys Rita Almeida Ana Margarida Fernandes D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. ABSTRACT Openness and Technological Innovations in Developing Countries: Evidence from Firm-Level SurveysThis paper examines international technology transfers using firm-level data across 43 developing countries. Our findings show that exporting and importing activities are important channels for the transfer of technology. Majority foreign-owned firms are less likely to engage in technological innovations than minority foreign-owned firms or domestic firms. We interpret this finding as evidence that the technology transferred from multinational parents to majorityowned subsidiaries is more mature than that transferred to minority-owned subsidiaries. Our findings also suggest that foreign-owned subsidiaries rely mostly on the direct transfer of technology from their parents and that firms that import intermediate inputs are more likely to acquire new technology from their machinery suppliers. JEL Classification:F1, F2, O3

This paper investigates how enforcement of labor regulation affects firm size and other firm characteristics in Brazil. We explore firm level data on employment, capital, and output, city level data for economic city characteristics and new administrative data measuring enforcement of regulation at the city level. Since enforcement may be endogenous, we instrument this variable with the distance between the city where the firm is located and surrounding enforcement offices, while controlling for a very rich set of city characteristics (such as past levels of informality in the city). We present suggestive evidence of the validity of this instrument. We find that stricter enforcement of labor regulation constrains firm size, and leads to higher unemployment.

Human working memory capacity develops during childhood and is a strong predictor of future academic performance, in particular, achievements in mathematics and reading. Predicting working memory development is important for the early identification of children at risk for poor cognitive and academic development. Here we show that structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging data explain variance in children's working memory capacity 2 years later, which was unique variance in addition to that predicted using cognitive tests. While current working memory capacity correlated with frontoparietal cortical activity, the future capacity could be inferred from structure and activity in basal ganglia and thalamus. This gives a novel insight into the neural mechanisms of childhood development and supports the idea that neuroimaging can have a unique role in predicting children's cognitive development.

Almeida R, Barbosa J, Compte A. Neural circuit basis of visuospatial working memory precision: a computational and behavioral study. J Neurophysiol 114: 1806 -1818, 2015. First published July 15, 2015 doi:10.1152/jn.00362.2015.-The amount of information that can be retained in working memory (WM) is limited. Limitations of WM capacity have been the subject of intense research, especially in trying to specify algorithmic models for WM. Comparatively, neural circuit perspectives have barely been used to test WM limitations in behavioral experiments. Here we used a neuronal microcircuit model for visuospatial WM (vsWM) to investigate memory of several items. The model assumes that there is a topographic organization of the circuit responsible for spatial memory retention. This assumption leads to specific predictions, which we tested in behavioral experiments. According to the model, nearby locations should be recalled with a bias, as if the two memory traces showed attraction or repulsion during the delay period depending on distance. Another prediction is that the previously reported loss of memory precision for an increasing number of memory items (memory load) should vanish when the distances between items are controlled for. Both predictions were confirmed experimentally. Taken together, our findings provide support for a topographic neural circuit organization of vsWM, they suggest that interference between similar memories underlies some WM limitations, and they put forward a circuit-based explanation that reconciles previous conflicting results on the dependence of WM precision with load.short-term memory; working memory; precision; capacity; attractor model WORKING MEMORY (WM) refers to the ability to actively retain stimulus information over a short period of time, and it is thought to be a core component of cognitive functions (Baddeley 1986;Conway et al. 2003). A hallmark of WM is that the information retained is limited. Currently, a significant effort is being devoted to characterizing the nature of WM capacity limitations, but their bases remain controversial (Luck and Vogel 2013;Ma et al. 2014). Important points of discordance have been whether or not the number of items in WM can be increased at a cost in precision ( Recently, a neuronal circuit perspective is entering these debates: Electrophysiological experiments have started to investigate the neural basis of multiple-item WM (Buschman et al. 2011;Lara and Wallis 2014;Warden and Miller 2007), and neural circuit modeling has been used to link cellular and network mechanisms with behavior to understand WM capacity limitations (Bays 2014;Edin et al. 2009;Macoveanu et al. 2006Macoveanu et al. , 2007Papadimitriou et al. 2015;Wei et al. 2012;Wimmer et al. 2014). Most of these models are variations of a model (Compte et al. 2000) developed to be consistent with neurophysiological data from behaving monkeys (Funahashi et al. 1989). They rely on the assumption that there is a topographic structure in the circuits supporting visuo-spatial WM (vsWM), whi...

In this paper we estimate the rate of return to firm investments in human capital in the form of formal job training. We use a panel of large firms with detailed information on the duration of training, the direct costs of training, and several firm characteristics. Our estimates of the return to training are substantial (8.6%) for those providing training. Results suggest that formal job training is a good investment for these firms possibly yielding comparable returns to either investments in physical capital or investments in schooling.