The existing literature concerning the impact of cross-border merger activity on domestic wages can be split into two camps: 1) those focusing on positive 'spillover' effects; 2) those focusing on negative 'bargaining' effects. Motivated in part by the lack of scholarship spanning these two literatures, we provide a theoretical model that nests these two mechanisms in one conceptual framework. From our theoretical model we are able to predict that 'spillover' effects tend to be more dominant under low unionization rates, while 'bargaining' effects tend to be more dominant under high unionization rates; furthermore, 'spillover' effects tend to be more dominant with inward cross-border mergers, while 'bargaining' effects tend to be more dominant with outward cross-border mergers. We employ comprehensive panel data on wages, unionization and merger activity for US industry sectors over the 1986-2001 period in order to test the impact of cross-border merger activity on domestic wages. We find support for our propositions in that higher unionization rates make it more likely that cross-border mergers generate wage decreases, while outward cross-border mergers more likely involve wage decreases than do inward cross-border mergers. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Using income and other individual data from EU-SILC for Germany and Austria, we analyze wage discrimination for three break-ups: gender, sector of employment, and country of origin. Using the method of Machado and Mata [2005] the discrimination over the whole range of the wage distribution is estimated. Significance of results is checked via confidence interval estimates along the lines of Melly [2006]. To narrow down the extent of discrimination both basic decomposition possibilities are compared. The economies of Germany and Austria appear structurally very similar. Especially the institutional setting of the labor markets seem to be closely comparable. One would, therefore, expect to find similar levels and structures of wage discrimination. Our findings deviate from this conjecture significantly. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Using one subsidiary of one international consumer goods company as an example, the author shows the main challenges of HR Management and their consequences for business activities in Russia. This empirical study details HR practices at the Russian subsidiary of one international consumer goods manufacturer with headquarters in Western Europe (hereafter referred to as ABC Russia for confidentiality). The author spent a few weeks in Moscow with the task of 1) reviewing the recruitment market and establishing trends with regard to the availability of candidates, salary movements and turnover of employees; and 2) making recommendations on how ABC Russia should proceed based on the findings. It was a great opportunity to observe ABC Russia employees and partly participate in their daily business; have access to some internal information, especially to HR procedures and rules; talk to some employees and get their impressions on what it means for a well-known international company doing business in Russia. (author´s abstract) / Series: WU Online Papers in International Business Communication / Series One: Intercultural Communication and Language Learning

This paper estimates the effects of imports on employment, wages, and the wage share in Austria for the period of 1990-2005 using panel data of manufacturing industry. Imports are disaggregated according to their origin and as final vs. intermediate imports. There is evidence of significant negative effects of imports on employment, wages and the wage share. Particularly workers in high skilled sectors experience negative effects. Offshoring to both Eastern Europe and the developed countries have a negative impact on employment, whereas offshoring to the East has a positive effect on wages, indicating the dominance of scope effects. (author´s abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

(kein Abstract vorhanden) / Series: Working Papers / Institut für Sozialpolitik

The paper investigates the formation of wages in the New Member States in Central and Eastern Europe, in particular the question what the relative role of national and sectoral factors is. While the labor relations in these countries are still in the process of change, some pattern and national differences have emerged. The question is thus to what extent these differences in labor relations are reflected in wage formation. The literature on Western OECD economies is unanimous that coordination of wage bargaining does reduce the wage spread, but disagrees on its effects on unemployment and inflation. The paper analyses wage formation in Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania by means of a panel analysis for manufacturing sectors. The average wage (in the total economy) serves as a national factor and sectoral productivity serves as a sectoral factor. In variations of the basic estimation equation the role of FDI and openness and of capital intensity and skill are also discussed. The results between countries are compared with the recent index of the coordination of collective bargaining by Visser (2005) and with cross country data on union density. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This paper estimates the effects of outward Foreign Direct Investment (employment in the affiliates abroad) on employment, wages, and the wage share in Austria using panel data for the period of 1996-2005. There is evidence of significant negative effects of FDI on both employment and wages, and consequently on the wage share. The results are not limited to workers in low skilled sectors or blue collar workers. The negative employment effect is primarily due to the rise in the employment in the foreign affiliates in Eastern Euope. The negative wage effects are originating from affiliate employment in both the East and the developed countries in industry, but no effect is found in the total economy. (author´s abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Die Dissertation setzt sich mit dem Thema der Vergütung aus einer Perspektive des sozialen Austauschs auseinander. Vergütung wird als das Bereitstellen von monetären und non-monetären Ressourcen durch einen Arbeitgeber definiert. Es werden vier Ressourcenklassen identifiziert, durch welche eine Organisation ihre Mitarbeiter entlohnen kann: Monetäre Vergütung und Nebenleistungen, Arbeitsbedingungen, Karrieremöglichkeiten und Wertschätzung durch das organisationale Umfeld. Die verschiedenen Vergütungsfaktoren und ihre Facetten werden aus wirtschaftspsychologischer, wirtschaftssoziologischer und arbeitsökonomischer Perspektive diskutiert und in Beziehung zu individuellen Merkmalen gesetzt. Im empirischen Teil der Studie wird quantitativ untersucht, ob Arbeitnehmer im tertiären Sektor monetäre vor nonmonetären Vergütungsfaktoren und -facetten präferieren und wie diese Präferenzen mit den demographischen Merkmalen und Einstellungen der Arbeitnehmer zusammenhängen. Es zeigt sich, dass die Vergütungsressource Wertschätzung vor monetärer Vergütung bevorzugt wird. Mehrere Zusammenhänge der Entscheidungen der Arbeitnehmer mit ihren demographischen Merkmalen sowie einzelne Zusammenhänge mit spezifischen Einstellungen werden durch die Untersuchung belegt. Auf Basis der Korrelationsanalysen werden Vergütungsmuster für Total Rewards abgeleitet und deren Implikationen für die Praxis des Personalmanagements diskutiert. (Autorenref.)

L’augmentation de l’espérance de vie entraîne l’accroissement d’une population vieillissante et augmente ainsi le nombre de personnes souffrant de maladies neurodégénératives. Le développement de nouveaux médicaments pour le traitement de ces maladies est grandement limité par la présence d’une barrière physiologique, appelée barrière hémato-encéphalique (BHE), qui protège l’homéostasie du cerveau. Cependant, un grand nombre de transporteurs spécifiques sont situé sur les cellules endothéliales formant la BHE et pourrait être l’objet de ciblage thérapeutique afin d’augmenter la disponibilité cérébrale de plusieurs médicaments. Afin d’évaluer le potentiel d’anticorps monoclonaux (AcM) ciblant le récepteur de la transferrine (RTf) dans le cadre d’une approche non invasive de thérapie génique, nous avons tout d’abord étudié la distribution cérébrale de l’AcM Ri7. Nous avons, en premier lieu, observé une rétention au cerveau des AcM ciblant le RTf. Cependant, des analyses de microscopie ont démontré que la distribution était confinée à la cérébrovasculature. Par la suite, en conjuguant le Ri7 à des points quantiques, nous avons caractérisé la distribution subcellulaire du vecteur. Nos analyses de microscopie électronique ont confirmé que les complexes Ri7-points quantiques étaient massivement internalisés dans les cellules endothéliales du cerveau (CECCs) et que ces complexes étaient observés dans les petites vésicules, les structures tubulaires et dans les corps multivésiculaires. Nous avons ainsi identifié les CECCs comme cible potentielle pour le traitement de la pathologie endothéliale de maladies neurodégénératives. Par la suite, nous avons évalué le potentiel de deux formulations de nanoparticules pour acheminer du matériel génétique dans les CECCs. Nos résultats ont démontré que l’utilisation de micelles polyionques et d’immunoliposomes permettait une accumulation importante d’acides nucléiques dans les CECCs. Notre étude ouvre donc la porte à de nouvelles approches thérapeutiques basées sur le ciblage thérapeutique des cellules endothéliales du cerveau. / The increase in life expectancy leads to a direct expansion of the aging population. This expansion further increases the burden of neurodegenerative diseases. The development of new drugs to treat brain pathologies is greatly hindered by the presence of a physiological barrier, the blood-brain barrier (BBB), protecting the brain homoeostasis. However, a high number of specific transporters are located on endothelial cells forming the BBB and could be the target of brain-drug delivery allowing significant cerebral accumulation of many therapeutic compounds. To study the potential of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) targeting the transferrin receptor (TfR) in the context of a non-invasive gene therapy strategy, we foremost studied the cerebral distribution of the mAb Ri7. We first observed retention in the brain of the mAb. However, fluorescence microscopy analysis revealed that the distribution of Ri7 was confined to cerebral vasculature. Thereafter, by conjugating Ri7 to quantum dots (Qdot), we performed experiments to characterize the subcellular distribution of the mAb. Our transmission electron microscopy analyses showed that Ri7-Qdots were massively internalized within brain capillary endothelial cells (BCECs) and that the TfR-targeted Qdots were in small vesicles, tubular structures and multivesicular bodies. We thus identified BCECs as a potential target for the treatment of endothelial pathology of neurodegenerative diseases. Finally, we investigated the potential of two nanoformulations to delivery nucleic acids to BCECs. Our data demonstrated the capacity of polyionic complex micelles and immunliposomes to deliver a large number of nucleic acids to BCECs. Overall, our study opens the door for a novel therapeutic approach based on brain endothelial cells drug delivery.

La capacité cardiorespiratoire est la composante primaire de la condition physique, elle englobe les systèmes: cardiovasculaire, pulmonaire, musculaire et mécanique, tous affectés en présence d’obésité sévère. L’interprétation de la capacité cardiorespiratoire chez l’obèse sévère est encore mal comprise du domaine scientifique. Jusqu’à maintenant, le seul traitement jugé efficace pour contrer l’obésité sévère est la chirurgie bariatrique. À la suite d’une chirurgie bariatrique, plusieurs paramètres influençant la capacité cardiorespiratoire sont modifiés. L’hétérogénéité des méthodes d’évaluation de cette dernière dans la littérature ne nous permet pas de statuer sur son effet. De plus, rien ne nous informe sur la prise en charge en activité physique suite à une chirurgie bariatrique. L’objectif général de ce mémoire était d’évaluer l’impact d’un programme d’entraînement structuré et supervisé sur la capacité cardiorespiratoire des patients ayant subi une chirurgie bariatrique, à partir de la mesure directe de la consommation d’oxygène au pic d’effort (VO2pic). Selon les évaluations effectuées, nous avons démontré que chez les obèses sévères le déterminant majeur de la VO2pic est la ventilation minute au maximum de l’effort. Suite à l’intervention, nous avons été en mesure de démontrer l’impact positif d’une intervention en activité physique sur la VO2pic des patients. Cet effet semblerait être causé par une meilleure gestion de la ventilation minute, possiblement en lien avec le maintien de la masse musculaire, dans le groupe intervention. Les résultats obtenus dans le cadre de cette maîtrise démontrent l’importance de la prise en charge en activité physique des individus ayant subi une chirurgie bariatrique. L’analyse approfondie de la littérature actuelle sur le sujet, combinée à nos résultats permet d’émettre des hypothèses fondées quant à la prescription idéale d’entraînement suivant une chirurgie bariatrique. D’autres recherches seront nécessaires afin de mieux comprendre les paramètres physiologiques impliqués, comme l’évaluation des propriétés physico-histochimiques de la masse musculaire. / Cardiorespiratory fitness is the primary element of a good physical condition. It regroups several systems: cardiovascular, pulmonary, muscular and mechanical, all of which are affected in the presence of severe obesity. The interpretation of the cardiorespiratory fitness among severe obese is still misunderstood. Up to now, the only effective treatment to counter severe obesity is bariatric surgery. Following a bariatric surgery, several parameters influencing cardiorespiratory fitness are affected. In the scientific literature, the heterogeneity of the evaluation methods to characterize cardiorespiratory fitness does not allow us to take position on its effect. In addition, there is no available information regarding the physical activity intervention following bariatric surgery. The general objective of this dissertation was to evaluate the impact of a structured and supervised training program on the cardiorespiratory fitness inpatients having been subject to bariatric surgery from the direct measure of their consumption of oxygen at the peak of effort (VO2peak). We have demonstrated that with severely obese individuals the major determinant of VO2peak was the pulmonary ventilation at maximum effort. Following the bariatric surgery, we were able to demonstrate the positive impact of a physical activity intervention on patients’ VO2peak. This effect seems to be caused by a better management of pulmonary ventilation, possibly linked to the maintained muscle mass in the intervention group. The results obtain in the context of this dissertation demonstrate the importance of the taking in charge in physical activity for individuals having been subject to bariatric surgery. A thorough analysis of the current literature, combined to our results, allows us to produce verified hypotheses regarding the ideal prescription of training following bariatric surgery. More research will be required in order to better understand the physiological parameters involved, such as the evaluation of physic-histochemical properties of muscle mass.