| Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides share economics Nobel prize for jobs study Nobel-winning analysis of benefits and labour markets chimes with governments preparing to slash spending and jobsThe Nobel prize for economics was handed today to three academics who argue that governments need to cut benefits and tackle restrictive practices and regulations in the labour market to boost employment levels.The British academic Christopher Pissarides of the London School of Economics took the 10m Swedish kronor (£950,000) prize along with his American colleagues Peter Diamond of MIT and Dale Mortensen of Northwestern University for their work on unemployment and the labour market.Their analysis of why unemployment remains high when jobs are available has found favour with governments attempting to create a more flexible environment for employers. One of their conclusions is that more generous unemployment benefits give rise to higher unemployment and longer search times.The citation said the laureates had developed a "theoretical framework for search markets that has gained widespread influence".The academy said: "Peter Diamond has analysed the foundations of search markets. Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides have expanded the theory and have applied it to the labour market. The laureates' models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy."Pissarides, 62, a British Cypriot, has spent several years analysing European labour markets during a period when continental governments have sought to replicate the flexible labour markets in the US and UK. He has advised the European Union on employment policy and has written extensively in professional journals. His book Equilibrium Unemployment Theory is a standard reference in the economics of unemployment.Diamond, 70, who was nominated in April by Barack Obama to fill a vacancy on the US Federal Reserve board, is known as the father of matching theory. His initial nomination was blocked by Republican senators who said that he did not have the necessary macroeconomic policy background.In recent years the theory has been applied to job searches and whether high benefit levels and unemployment insurance, along with restrictions on hiring and firing employees, have hampered flexible labour markets. The research is particularly relevant now when looming drastic government spending cuts in Britain will lead to thousands of job losses in the public sector."Yay Peter!" blogged Paul Krugman, the Princeton University professor and former winner of the economics prize, on the New York Times websitetoday. He said his former colleague's win was "richly deserved"."The prize is for work on frictions in markets, which is very important stuff; but Peter, an incredibly profound thinker, has done much, much more. And yes, this is the same Peter Diamond whose nomination to the Fed board has been held up because of Republican doubts about his qualifications."The Nobel prize committee said: "According to a classical view of the market, buyers and sellers find one another immediately, without cost, and have perfect information about the prices of all goods and services ... But this is not what happens in the real world." It said the trio's work enhanced understanding of "search markets" where frictions exist as the demands of some buyers are not met and some sellers cannot sell as much as they want.This could involve simple cases of a buyer and a seller of a product, as well as more complex relations between employers and job seekers, or between firms and suppliers.The economics prize is not among the original awards established by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in his 1895 will but was created in 1968 by the Swedish central bank in his memory.Since the economics prize was first awarded in 1969, more than 40 Americans have received it. Laureates include the former chief economist of the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz, and the Indian economist Amartya Sen, professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard.Last year, the economics prize went to the Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson for pioneering research into how individuals co-operate and share resources, marking the first time a woman had received the economics award.The American behavioural economists Richard Thaler, of the University of Chicago, and Robert Shiller, of Yale University, were the frontrunners for this year's economics prize, according to Ladbrokes.EconomicsGlobal economyEconomic policyJulia KollewePhillip Inmanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Three Chilean miners released from hospital All rescued miners expected to be home in next few days as national heroes given euphoric receptionThree of the 33 men rescued from the San José mine were released from hospital today as Chile continued its euphoric reception for its new national heroes. Families and friends were organising welcoming parties for the rest, who are expected to be allowed home over the next few days.The first trio left the medical facility in Copiapó after just a day of observation and checks as doctors remarked on the good physical and mental state of the miners after their 70-day ordeal underground. The men were beginning to come to terms with their celebrity status as the first evidence emerged of divisions between the trapped miners during the first 17 days, before they had any contact with the surface 700m above them.Edison Peña, 34, Samuel Avalos, 43, and Bolivian Carlos Mamani SolÃs, 23, were the first to be allowed to leave hospital, slipping out of a side exit into a white van.Peña, the 12th to be pulled from the mine and still wearing dark sunglasses to protect his eyes from the light, later told a reception outside his house: "I thought I would never return. That's why I'm crazy about this reception. Thank you very much. Thank you for believing that we were alive."Boisterous brass bands led hundreds of parishioners through the streets in Copiapó in an annual parade to celebrate the Virgin Mary and, this year, also the men's homecoming.Dancers whirled in shiny costumes, some wearing feathered headdresses and others carrying gold sequined flags, as marchers held flaming torches above their heads and carried a large image of the Virgin Mary.Celebrants included Michel Madrid Ticona, who was playing a flute belonging to his uncle Ariel Ticona, one of the rescued miners. "This is a party for the Virgin Mary and the miracle she performed for the 33 miners," he said. A priest read the name of each of the 33 miners to cheering crowds as people in the hospital looked out from windows and waved.The miners posed in hospital bathrobes for a group photo with President Sebastián Piñera.As the first men left the shelter of the carefully co-ordinated government mission to ensure their health and safety, the hospital chaplain Luis Lopez said: "Now they're going to have to find their equilibrium and take care of themselves."The deputy director of the hospital, Dr Jorge Montes, said: "We don't see any problems of a psychological or a medical nature.""We were completely surprised," added the health minister, Jaime Manalich. "Any effort we could have made doesn't explain the health condition these people have today."The government has promised the men six months of psychological treatment, ensured each has a bank account only he can operate and coached them on dealing with questions from the media, publicity agents and others eager to cash in on their extraordinary stories of patience, fortitude and, perhaps, mutual animosity during their enforced captivity.A Greek mining company wants to send them to the Aegean islands, while Chile's tourism bureau wants them to stay for a week in the country's southern archipelago.Football teams in Madrid, Manchester and Buenos Aires want the miners in their stadiums. Bolivia's president wants them at his palace. Peña, who jogged regularly in the tunnels below the collapsed rock, has been invited to participate in next month's New York City marathon. An Elvis Presley fan, he has also been invited to visit his hero's former home at Graceland, Memphis.ChileMiningJames Meikleguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Tom Bosley obituary Actor best known as Mr C in the American sitcom Happy DaysThe actor Tom Bosley, who has died of lung cancer aged 83, played Howard Cunningham, the tolerant, unflappable paterfamilias, in all 255 episodes of the nostalgic American sitcom Happy Days, from 1974 to 1984.Set in Milwaukee during the 1950s, Happy Days, as the title suggests, was a rosy view of an earlier era. Mr C, as Bosley's character was called by "the Fonz" (Henry Winkler) – the cool, leather-jacketed ladies' man – was the ideal middle-class TV father, a hardware store owner, lodge member and member of a bowling team. The stocky Bosley, often seen behind his newspaper, imbued the character with a certain amount of humorous cynicism towards his homemaker wife (Marion Ross), who sometimes called him "Fatso", and his teenage children, naive Richie (Ron Howard) and pesky Joanie (Erin Moran).This was in contrast to the weak or tyrannical fathers seen in the rebel teen movies of the 1950s, and to the grumpy, conservative father in That '70s Show (1998-2006) – of which Happy Days was the model – who keeps calling his son a "dumb ass". Any sign of rebellion in Happy Days was either satirised or sanitised.Bosley will also be remembered for playing another sympathetic father – the Catholic priest and amateur sleuth in the series The Father Dowling Mysteries (1987-91). Actually, the Chicago-born Bosley was Jewish, the son of Benjamin and Dora Bosley. His father worked in real estate; his mother was a concert pianist before bringing up her two sons. After high school, as the second world war neared its end, Bosley joined the navy. He went on to study law at DePaul University in Chicago, but decided, halfway through his studies, to pursue an acting career, despite having "looked in the mirror and realised that I was short and kind of heavy".In fact, it was his build that helped him land the lead role of the New York City mayor Fiorello H La Guardia in the Broadway musical Fiorello! (1959), for which Bosley won a Tony. Though not a singer, he stopped the show each night with the energetic number The Name's La Guardia. After a few years of bit parts on stage and on television, and odd jobs, Fiorello! made sure Bosley would never have to struggle again.His first film role was in Robert Mulligan's Love With the Proper Stranger (1963), as a shy, clumsy Italian-American courting Natalie Wood, who doesn't hear the "bells and banjos" she associates with romantic love. In The World of Henry Orient (1964), Bosley offered a foretaste of Howard Cunningham as the understanding father of a teenage girl who has a crush on a concert pianist (Peter Sellers). When reminded of his wife's infidelity, he remarks: "The less said about that the better."But it was television that took up most of Bosley's time and charm. He made significant appearances in a multitude of shows before Happy Days claimed him. He was offered the role of Mr C only when Harold Gould had to turn it down because of another commitment. Bosley initially rejected it himself, but, "after rereading the pilot script, I changed my mind, because of a scene between Howard Cunningham and Richie. The father/son situation was written so movingly, I fell in love with the project," he recalled.It was Bosley who had the last word at the end of the final series: "Marion and I have not climbed Mount Everest or written a great American novel. But we've had the joy of raising two wonderful kids, and watching them and their friends grow up into loving adults. And I guess no man or woman could ask for anything more. So thank you all for being part of our family."Bosley's major post-Happy Days role, apart from Father Dowling, was as Sheriff Amos Tupper in 19 episodes of Murder, She Wrote (1984-88). Tupper tries to help the crime novelist Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) solve real murder mysteries, but is mistaken most of the time, often arresting the wrong suspect.In 1994 Bosley returned to Broadway after a 25-year absence to appear in the long-running musical Beauty and the Beast, in which as Maurice, Belle's loving, eccentric inventor father, he sang No Matter What. In 2002 he took over the role of Herr Schultz, the Jewish fruit-shop owner, in Cabaret.Bosley is survived by his second wife, Patricia, and a daughter, Amy, from his first marriage.• Thomas Edward Bosley, actor, born 1 October 1927; died 19 October 2010TelevisionUnited StatesRonald Berganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Karzai confirms money from Iran Afghanistan's President Karzai confirms his office received hundreds of thousands of euros from Iran, but insists it is a "transparent" process. bbc.co.uk |
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