firm size wage gaps job responsibility and hierarchical matching i present the fact that wage gaps due to firm size increase with job responsibility i use swedish data to determine whether wage gaps increase with a direct measure of job responsibility to compare the age patterns of the wage gaps for blue and white collar workers and to compare wages by job responsibility and spans of control with u s data i compare supervisory to nonsupervisory occupations and find that wage gaps increase with job responsibility for most occupational ladders this fact is consistent with hierarchical matching models in which the larger number of subordinates amplifies managerial talent

from the fringe to the fore labor unions and employee compensation conventional wisdom suggests that labor unions raise worker wages while the newer empirical literature finds only negligible earnings effects i reconcile this apparent contradiction by arguing th

the founding of specialist firms in a global fragmenting industry the study examines what drives the founding of specialist firms two theoretical explanations are tested for the founding of specialists density dependence and resource partitioning the study finds that specialists foundings are dependent on the population s density at the global level but not at the united states level the evidence from a fragmented industry does not support the resource partitioning hypothesis either at the global level or the united states national level the study shows how multi level analyses can suggest if an industry is multi domestic or globally integrated

a decision support system for financial and social investment this article proposes a decision making model that assesses the different aspects associated to social venture capital svc investment decisions svc companies buy shares of investee companies valued according to financial and social aspects the proposed model includes three main factors the previous experience with the company the past its financial information and intangible assets the present and the proposed project considering financial and social criteria the future the model has 26 criteria and 160 indicators prioritized by means of analytic hierarchy process ahp ahp simplifies a complex problem using a hierarchical analysis methodology which enables subjective judgements among different criteria the model has been tested in a given svc company its development is explained in this article

the ecology of organizational mortality american labor unions 1836 1985 this research analyzes the disbanding rates of the full population of american national labor unions for the period 1836 1985 it tests the hypothesis drawn from population ecology theory that di

simulating weights restrictions in data envelopment analysis by means of unobserved dmus data envelopment analysis dea is a method for assessing the comparative efficiencies of decision making units e g banks and schools by relating their output to their input levels restrictions are often imposed in these assessments to reflect prior judgments on the values of input and or output variables this paper introduces a new approach to capturing and using value judgments in dea based on unobserved decision making units in so doing it opens up a whole new approach for reflecting value judgments in dea assessments which can offer advantages in certain situations

employer size and compensation the role of worker characteristics the substantial effect of employer size on wages health insurance and pension coverage is examined much of the size related variation in compensation is shown to result from the types of jobs and workers hired by large employers while firm and establishment size have similar effects on wages firm size effects clearly dominate in the provision of fringe benefits particularly for pensions worker and job types explain a larger share of the size related variation for wages than for health insurance or pension coverage possible explanations for these patterns are provided

a time to grow and a time to die growth and mortality of credit unions in new york city 1914 1990 one vision of organizational evolution suggests that old and large organizations become increasingly dominant over their environment a second suggests that as organizations age they become less able to respond to new challenges in this article the authors investigate which of these visions best characterizes the evolution of state chartered credit unions in new york city from 1914 through 1990 by analyzing the effects of organizational age size and population density on rates of organizational failure and growth the authors find evidence that old and small institutions are more likely to fail while young and small organizations have the highest growth rates

deregulation and competition in the financial industry deregulation has stimulated much economic and political interest this paper develops a framework for understanding the effects of deregulation from an ecological perspective and reports empirical studies of financial institutions banks thrifts and mutual funds at two levels of analysis the system and the population these both show that deregulation bad a dramatic impact on the level of competitive intensity within the financial industry the main contributions of this paper are the application of a general sociological theory of organizational dynamics to understanding deregulation and the development of a general approach to modelling which could lead to new ways to evaluate the organizational consequences of major environmental changes

measuring efficiency with a linear economic model this paper modifies and interprets data envelopment analysis dea using a linear economic model this approach is similar to the cone input output and assurance region approaches to dea but it is implemented so that the multipliers are measured in the same units across all linear optimization problems this approach allows one to interpret alternatives as profit maximizing organizations and the dea multipliers as prices that are comparable across the alternatives this is a useful extension of the assurance region concept but more important is that our approach enhances communication with decision makers the improved communication is illustrated by applying the model to the siting of a long term health care facility this application is interesting because the multiplier bounds make practical sense and because the problem has dimensions that sometimes lead to interpretation problems with the traditional dea model for example the site characteristics do not result from coordinated decisions some s

using data envelopment analysis to assess macroeconomic policy performance it is common practice to summarize the macroeconomic performance of countries in terms of the four well known dimensions captured by the magic diamond of the oecd this study provides a comparison of several synthetic indicators that merge the four separate indicators into one single statistic these indicators are inspired by data envelopment analysis dea based models which allow for unequal weighting of the different economic objectives the calculated weights then act as proxies for the true policy priorities comparison of the models focuses on the underlying assumptions as well as on the empirical results they generate

density dependence versus population dynamics an ecological study of failings in the california wine industry in this ecological study we show that the particular curvilinear formulation of the relationship between density and the failing rate of organizations proposed by hannan and freeman does not hold for the california wine industry between 1940 and 1985 we demonstrate instead that an alternative model focusing on prior foundings and prior failings gives a superior account of the failing rate in this population we argue that hannan and freeman s density dependent model of organizational mortality systematically overstates the negative effects of illegitimacy on business organizations we argue further that their model underestimates business organizations ability to avoid elimination by migrating to neighboring niches and by enlarging their initial niche

a study of optimal weights restriction in data envelopment analysis data envelopment analysis dea is a mathematical programming approach to assessing relative efficiencies within a group of decision making units dmus an important outcome of such an analysis is a set of virtual multipliers or weights accorded to each input or output factor taken into account due to the factor weight flexibility of the dea model a dmu may assign very low factor weight scores to some of its unfavourable inputs or outputs and appear as efficient thus producing nonsensical results in some cases this study focuses on this shortcoming to integrate an optimal weights restriction model and absolute restriction method to restricting weight flexibility in dea so that the evaluation result can be more realistic and finally takes the garbage clearance of each district in kaohsiung city in taiwan as an example for the illustration

improving envelopment in data envelopment analysis data envelopment analysis defines the relative efficiency of a decision making unit dmu as the ratio of the sum of its weighted outputs to the sum of its weighted inputs allowing the dmus to freely allocate weights to their inputs outputs however this measure may not reflect a dmu s true efficiency as some inputs outputs may not contribute reasonably to the efficiency measure traditionally to overcome this problem weights restrictions have been imposed this paper offers a new approach to this problem where dmus operate a constant returns to scale technology in a single input multi output context the approach is based on introducing unobserved dmus created by adjusting the output levels of certain observed relatively efficient dmus reflecting a combination of technical information of feasible production levels and the dm s value judgments its main advantage is that the information conveyed by the dm is local with reference to a specific observed dmu the approach is illustrated on a real life application 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

the trade off between supervision and wages evidence of efficiency wages from the nlsy standard efficiency wage models suggest that workers employed in places with lower probabilities of identifying shirking will earn more as will workers who have better alternative opportunities this paper provides new empirical evidence in support of efficiency wage theory using the national longitudinal surveys of youth data the empirical results support the prediction of the model that workers employed in larger work groups are paid more a finding consistent with a supervision wage trade off additional evidence supports the prediction that workers with better alternative opportunities earn more the classical competitive theories of wage determination predict that workers will be paid the value of their marginal product these theories suggest that after accounting for differences in working conditions there should be no variation in wages among homogeneous workers recent findings that industry affiliation and firm size affect wages suggest that part of the explanation of wage structure is missing these results call into question the view that industry wage differentials can plausibly be rationalized with textbook competitive models krueger and summers 1988 p 280 this paper follows the efficiency wage literature by assuming that one important determinant of wage differences is variation in employers ability to monitor workers efforts 2 this paper provides new empirical evidence in support of efficiency wage theory using data from the national longitudinal surveys of youth nlsy a data set that is noticeably absent from the efficiency wage literature efficiency wage models attempt to complete the explanation of wage structure by focusing

new size measurements in population ecology in organizational ecology the analysis of the impact of competition between populations on vital ratios is relatively underdeveloped this paper addresses this issue by developing new competition measurements that focus on the importance of organizational size the application of these measurements in the case of competition between organizational subforms in a population and their impact on mortality rates demonstrate their usefulness for modelling competition specifically the results show how levels of competition between firms in a population can be more clearly analysed when the rival population mass or concentration indices are used

an assessment of the efficiency of spanish courts using dea the objective is to provide a measure of technical efficiency of the administrative litigation division of the spanish high courts the concept of efficiency to be measured and the most adequate technique for carrying out the efficiency analysis are selected by considering the specific characteristics of public production the analysis is undertaken by using data envelopment analysis dea and various homogeneity tests returns to scale and restrictions on weights are applied in order to ensure a correct comparison between courts some additional extensions to the analysis such as the calculus of efficient delays and an approximation to the calculus of global efficiency are carried out

profitability transactional alignment and organizational mortality in the u s trucking industry the winds of creative destruction rarely blow more fiercely than in a newly deregulated environment managers simultaneously face a novel focus on operating efficiency and an onslaught of new competitors what must managers do to enable their firms to survive in such an environment what factors bear on firms survival this paper presents an analysis of mortality of large motor carriers in the u s interstate for hire trucking industry after deregulation it examines this phenomenon through a multidisciplinary lens that encompasses organizational ecology neoclassical economics and transaction cost economics the paper posits that carrier mortality is a function of both firm level and industry level attributes which are drawn from both ecological and economic theories while each of these theories separately informs motor carrier mortality the inclusion of predictions derived from both disciplines in one model significantly increases explanatory power over either theory evaluated alone the empirical analysis is among the first to show increased mortality when firms do not adhere to operating policies consistent with transaction cost minimization principles in sum managers are well advised to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to strategy to ensure their firms survival 1997 by john wiley sons ltd

creative self destruction among organizations an empirical study of technical innovation and organizational failure in the american automobile industry 1885 1981 a hotly debated question of organizational theory especially evolutionary theories of organization asks how inert are organizational structures answering the question requires analysis of not only organizational change but also of the consequences of change for organizational survival this study examines one such organizational change technical innovation and its effects on the failure rates of american automobile producers from 1885 to 1981 technical innovations are shown to generate primarily beneficial effects for the firms spawning them and primarily detrimental effects for competitor firms however analysis of certain organizational contexts large organizations in particular suggests that the risks of innovation may on occasion outweigh benefits the findings imply that some theories of strategic management need rethinking copyright 1996 by oxford university press

heterogeneous firms and the organization of production firms in the same industry exhibit systematic differences in the organization of production and the structure of employment entrepreneurial ability is the specific scarce input that limits the size of a firm this input must be allocated to two activities coordinating production and monitoring workers able entrepreneurs can convert calendar time into larger supplies of coordinating effort that enable them to assemble large firms greater ability implies a higher shadow price of time which increases the implicit costs of monitoring a dispersion of entrepreneurial abilities generates an equilibrium size distribution of firms differences in monitoring costs affect the choice of worker productivities the design of products and the organization of production the monitoring cost hypothesis advanced in this paper goes a long way in explaining the equilibrium of an industry containing heterogeneous firms that differ in size and behavior