Efficient Risk Sharing in the Presence of a Public Good

This paper studies the provision of a public good between two agents under lack of commitment and applies it to the problem of children's consumption in separated couples, where children are considered to be public goods. The custodial mother controls the child's consumption, whereas the father can contribute indirectly by making monetary transfers to the mother, but has no control over how the mother spends them. Using minmax punishments, I look for the Pareto frontier of the Subgame Perfect Equilibrium payoffs, and characterize the equilibrium and long term implications of the model. As in the previous literature, agents' consumptions and continuation values covary positively with their income levels. In the case where the constraint for the public good provision binds, both agents' private consumptions increase relative to the public good provision. In the long run, if some first best allocation is sustainable, the long-term equilibrium will converge to a first best allocation. Otherwise, agents' utilities oscillate over a finite set of values. I then study the theoretical implications of one-sided enforcement when the public good provider has the authority to enforce transfers from the second agent. This is motivated by the wave of US policy reforms to enforce child support payments from fathers. The model predicts an increase in the ratio of the mother's consumption to the child's.insurance, lack of commitment, optimal dynamic contract, public good

Child Support Enforcement and Children's Consumption

This paper examines the consequences of child support enforcement on custodial mothers' consumption decisions. We model the interaction in separated couples as a repeated game between the noncustodial father and the custodial mother who share a common good: the child. The mother exclusively controls the child's consumption, whereas the father can only influence the child's consumption indirectly through transfers to the mother. Initially, it is a double sided lack of commitment problem, where parents voluntarily agree on transfer payments and child expenditure, but can renege on their part of the contract at any time. Using the non-cooperative Nash-Stackelberg equilibrium as a threat point, we look for the Pareto frontier of Subgame Perfect Equilibrium payoffs and characterize the equilibrium of the model. We then incorporate the legal background by allowing for strict child support enforcement. The enforcement equilibrium serves as the new threat point which supports the new Pareto frontier of payoffs. Relative to the old, no-enforcement threat point, enforcement delivers a higher utility to the mother, making it harder to satisfy her incentive for spending large amounts on the child. As a result, mothers will spend a larger fraction of their income on themselves and a lower fraction on the child. We test that hypothesis using CEX data from years before and after the enforcement policies were implemented. The results indicate a significant increase in this ratio for mothers receiving child support, supporting the model prediction. On the other hand, there is no observable change in that ratio for mothers not receiving child support suggesting that their behavior was, as expected, unaffected by the new laws.

Développement des compétences interprofessionnelles de la nouvelle infirmière diplômée: revue de littérature

La pénurie infirmière qui touche actuellement la Suisse sera comblée en grande partie par les nouvelles diplômées infirmières1, d’ici quelques années. Cependant, un taux important de turnover dans les équipes peut mettre en péril leur encadrement. Leur processus d’insertion étant particulièrement éprouvant dans les premiers mois de pratique, il en résulte que nombre d’entre elles quittent précocement la profession. Comme stratégie pour pallier ce problème, la littérature montre les effets positifs de la collaboration interprofessionnelle sur le maintien des nouvelles infirmières diplômées, mais leur engagement dans cette pratique reste complexe et demande de nombreuses compétences

Nano-imprinted rear-side diffraction gratings for absorption enhancement in solar cells

As wafer-based solar cells become thinner, light-trapping textures for absorption enhancement will gain in importance. In this work, crystalline silicon wafers were textured with wavelength-scale diffraction grating surface textures by nanoimprint lithography using interference lithography as a mastering technology. This technique allows fine-tailored nanostructures to be realized on large areas with high throughput. Solar cell precursors were fabricated, with the surface textures on the rear side, for optical absorption measurements. Large absorption enhancements are observed in the wavelength range in which the silicon wafer absorbs weakly. It is shown experimentally that bi-periodic crossed gratings perform better than uni-periodic linear gratings. Optical simulations have been made of the fabricated structures, allowing the total absorption to be decomposed into useful absorption in the silicon and parasitic absorption in the rear reflector. Using the calculated silicon absorption, promising absorbed photocurrent density enhancements have been calculated for solar cells employing the nano-textures. Finally, first results are presented of a passivation layer deposition technique that planarizes the rear reflector for the purpose of reducing the parasitic absorption

Nanoimprinted diffraction gratings for crystalline silicon solar cells: implementation, characterization and simulation

Light trapping is becoming of increasing importance in crystalline silicon solar cells as thinner wafers are used to reduce costs. In this work, we report on light trapping by rear-side diffraction gratings produced by nano-imprint lithography using interference lithography as the mastering technology. Gratings fabricated on crystalline silicon wafers are shown to provide significant absorption enhancements. Through a combination of optical measurement and simulation, it is shown that the crossed grating provides better absorption enhancement than the linear grating, and that the parasitic reflector absorption is reduced by planarizing the rear reflector, leading to an increase in the useful absorption in the silicon. Finally, electro-optical simulations are performed of solar cells employing the fabricated grating structures to estimate efficiency enhancement potential