bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stakeholder Perspectives on the Attribution of Extreme Weather Events: An Explorative Enquiry
Authors: Sippel Sebastian , Walton Peter , Otto Friederike E. L.
Published: June 2015

Recent extreme weather events and their impacts on societies have highlighted the need for timely adaptation to the changing odds of their occurrence. Such measures require appropriate information about likely changes in event frequency and magnitude on relevant spatiotemporal scales. However, to support robust climate information for decision-making, an effective communication between scientists and stakeholders is crucial. In this context, weather event attribution studies are increasingly raising attention beyond academic circles, although the understanding of how to take it beyond academia is still evolving. This paper presents the results of a study that involved in-depth interviews with stakeholders from a range of sectors about potential applications and the general usefulness of event attribution studies. A case study of the hot and dry summer 2012 in southeast Europe is used as a concrete example, with a focus on the applicability of attribution results across sectors. An analysis of the interviews reveals an abundant interest among the interviewed stakeholders and highlights the need for information on the causes and odds of extreme events, in particular on regional scales. From this data key aspects of stakeholder engagement are emerging, which could productively feed back into how probabilistic event attribution studies are designed and communicated to ensure practical relevance and usefulness for the stakeholder community.
Increased Glycated Hemoglobin Level is Associated With SYNTAX Score II in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Authors: Karakoyun Süleyman , Gökdeniz Tayyar , Gürsoy Mustafa Ozan , Rencüzoğulları İbrahim , Karabağ Yavuz , Altıntaş Bernas , Topçu Selim , Lazoğlu Zakir , Tanboğa İbrahim Halil , Sevimli Serdar
Published: June 2015

SYNTAX score II (SS II) uses 2 anatomical and 6 clinical variables for the prediction of mortality after coronary artery bypass graft and percutaneous coronary intervention. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood glucose (FBG), postprandial glucose (PPG), and SYNTAX Score (SS) and SS II in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease (CAD). We enrolled 215 consecutive diabetic patients with stable angina pectoris who underwent coronary angiography. The SS II was calculated using a nomogram that was based on the findings of a previous study. There was a moderate correlation between HbA1c and SS ( r = .396, P < .001), but there was a good correlation between HbA1c and SS II ( r = .535, P < .001). There was also a weak correlation between FBG ( r = .270, P = .001), PPG ( r = .177, P = .027), and SS, but there was a weak–moderate correlation between FBG ( r = .341, P < .001), PPG ( r = .256, P = .001), and SS II. A better correlation has been detected between HbA1c and SS II compared to the correlation between HbA1c and SS.
The Impact of Co-Management on Quality Performance: The Case of the Saturn Corporation
Authors: Rubinstein Saul A.
Published: June 2015

Using data from surveys, interviews, direct observation, and records of quality performance, the author examines the system of co-management created through the General Motors-United Auto Workers partnership at the Saturn Corporation. Under this partnership, each department, or module, is jointly managed by union-represented and non-represented advisors. The author credits the union with building a dense communications network throughout Saturn's management system. Compared to non-represented advisors, union advisors showed greater levels of lateral communication and coordination, which had a significant positive impact on quality performance. Also positively associated with quality outcomes at the module level were balanced time use, with each advisor engaging in both production and people management, and alignment between union-represented and non-represented advisors regarding their priorities, responsibilities, practices, and job definition.
Work Transitions into and Out of Involuntary Temporary Employment in a Segmented Market: Evidence from Spain
Authors: Amuedo-Dorantes Catalina
Published: June 2015

The dual character of the Spanish labor market, with permanent workers on the one hand and less favored peripheral workers on the other, became more pronounced following the deregulation of temporary employment. This paper uses the Spanish Labor Force Survey to assess whether, as predicted by labor market segmentation theories, temporary employment is non-transitional (permanent) and involuntary. An analysis of the rates and dynamics of transitions into and out of temporary employment across different groups of working-age respondents shows that much of Spanish temporary employment is involuntary, with temporary workers having limited opportunities for advancement. The evidence points to the need for public policy to address problems posed by the trap that temporary employment has apparently become for growing numbers of workers.
When are Layoffs Acceptable? Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment
Authors: Charness Gary , Levine David I.
Published: June 2015

If, as has been widely suggested, internal labor markets are declining and a new employment contract with reduced employer-employee commitment is emerging, the criteria by which employees judge layoffs as fair or unfair may be changing. This paper presents findings relevant to that question, based on quasi-experimental surveys in Canada and the United States. Respondents rated layoffs stemming from reduced product demand as more fair than those resulting from employee suggestions. Behind this judgment, apparently, was the normative premise that companies should not punish employees for their efforts; rent-sharing norms appear to have played little or no role, as respondents deemed new technology an acceptable reason for layoffs. Consistent with theories of distributive and procedural equity, layoffs were perceived as more fair if the CEO voluntarily “shared the pain.” Respondents in Silicon Valley were not more accepting of layoffs than were those in Canada, on average.
Correlates of Training: An Analysis Using Both Employer and Employee Characteristics
Authors: Frazis Harley , Gittleman Maury , Joyce Mary
Published: June 2015

Although a number of surveys now measure employee training, serious gaps remain in our knowledge of such fundamental matters as how much training takes place, who provides it, and who gets it. The authors explore these questions using the 1995 Survey of Employer-Provided Training, which, because it collected data from employers as well as employees, enables a more complete analysis of the correlates of training than has been possible before. While there are some differences across the measures of training incidence and intensity, the authors find that establishments that provided generous benefits to their employees and used innovative workplace practices also provided more training.
Women in Transition: Changes in Gender Wage Differentials in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union
Authors: Brainerd Elizabeth
Published: June 2015

Under state socialism, women fared relatively well in the labor market: female-male wage differentials were similar to those in the West, and female labor force participation rates were among the highest in the world. Have these women maintained their relative positions since the introduction of market reforms? The author investigates this question using household surveys from seven formerly socialist countries. The results indicate a consistent increase in female relative wages across Eastern Europe, and a substantial decline in female relative wages in Russia and Ukraine. Women in the latter countries have been penalized by the tremendous widening of the wage distribution in those countries. Increased wage inequality in Eastern Europe has also depressed female relative wages, but these losses have been more than offset by gains in rewards to observed skills and by an apparent decline in discrimination against women.
The Development of the Neoclassical Tradition in Labor Economics
Authors: Boyer George R. , Smith Robert S.
Published: June 2015

This essay on labor economics examines neoclassical theory's rise to ascendancy following the second World War, with a secondary focus on the relative decline but continued influence of institutionalist economic theory. The authors describe the evolution of institutional and neoclassical theory from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, examine some early intellectual debates between the two camps, briefly describe the work of neoclassical labor economics pioneers, and look at major developments over the past 30 years. They argue that neoclassical economists' increasing intellectual breadth and influence in public policy have led them to pay closer attention to issues that have long been of concern to institutionalists and “neoinstitutionalists.”
It's Not Just the ATMs: Technology, Firm Strategies, Jobs, and Earnings in Retail Banking
Authors: Hunter Larry W. , Bernhardt Annette , Hughes Katherine L. , Skuratowicz Eva
Published: June 2015

Using data from extensive on-site interviews conducted in 1997, 1998, and 1999, the authors examine trends in job content and earnings in selected jobs in two American banks. Firm restructuring and technological changes resulted in higher earnings for college-educated workers. The banks followed different strategies in implementing these changes for lower-skill jobs, with different effects on bank tellers in particular. The authors conclude that technological change can provide opportunities for workplace reform but does not determine its effects on jobs and earnings; these effects are contingent on managerial strategies. This focus on organizational processes and managerial strategy provides a complement to accounts of growing inequality that center solely on the role of individual skills and technological change.
Technical Change, Wages, and Employment in Semiconductor Manufacturing
Authors: Brown Clair , Campbell Ben
Published: June 2015

Using case study data gathered between 1993 and 1996, the authors investigate how automation of information handling and materials handling affected employment distribution, skill acquisition, work activities, and compensation in 23 semiconductor plants in four countries. Information handling automation is skill-biased technical change, which leads to use of relatively more technicians and engineers. In the sample studied, it widened the skill gap across occupations, and coincided with higher initial wages for all employees and shorter career ladders for engineers. Materials handling automation also widened the skill gap, but coincided with employment of relatively more operators and with lower pay across all occupations. Although technological change widened the skill gap between occupations and was biased toward employment of high-skill workers in the sample, the authors do not find that it led to increased wage inequality in the semiconductor plants they examine.
Industrial Change and Wage Inequality: Evidence from the Steel Industry
Authors: Beeson Patricia , Shore-Sheppard Lara , Shaw Kathryn
Published: June 2015

The empirical analysis in this paper, which draws on Current Population Survey data, indicates that structural decline in the steel industry during the 1980s markedly affected the distribution of wages both in the industry and in steel-producing communities. The steelworker wage distribution experienced both a drop in the mean and an increase in the variance, becoming very similar to the distribution of wages in other durable goods manufacturing industries. Declines in steel employment substantially increased wage inequality in steel-producing communities, even among workers not employed in steel.
The Effect of High-Performance Work Practices on Employee Earnings in the Steel, Apparel, and Medical Electronics and Imaging Industries
Authors: Bailey Thomas , Berg Peter , Sandy Carola
Published: June 2015

Using interview and survey data they gathered in 1995–97 from managers and employees in 45 establishments, the authors investigate how high-performance work practices, such as self-directed teams and offline teams, affected workers' earnings in the apparel, steel, and medical electronics industries. An analysis with extensive controls for personal characteristics and other variables shows a positive relationship between high-performance practices and earnings in the apparel and steel industries. In medical electronics and imaging, the same statistically significant association disappears when a control variable for education is added, suggesting that there is a strong relationship between formal education and high-performance systems in that industry.
Risk of Labor Displacement and Cross-Industry Labor Mobility
Authors: Magnani Elisabetta
Published: June 2015

A well-supported conclusion of previous research is that displacement entails large and persistent costs for workers. It therefore seems reasonable to expect workers to try to anticipate and respond to the risk of displacement. Using 1983–93 data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics and the Displaced Workers Supplement to the Current Population Survey, the author investigates whether industry-specific measures of job loss risk are correlated with workers' propensity to cross industry lines for new jobs. She finds that a one standard deviation increase in the risk of job loss (an 86% increase from the mean level) increased the probability of inter-sectoral mobility by 10.5% in a sample of white men. Three factors that appreciably increased the likelihood of inter-sectoral mobility in response to job insecurity were voluntary separation from the previous job, high educational attainment, and being currently employed (as opposed to temporarily laid off).
Profit-Sharing, Employment Stability, and Wage Growth
Authors: Azfar Omar , Danninger Stephan
Published: June 2015

The authors conjecture that profit-sharing reduces turnover and thus increases expected returns to firm-specific human capital investments, so that the optimal levels of skill acquisition and investment in firm-specific skills rise and ultimately increase productivity. Empirical evidence from NLSY data on white men in nonunion jobs between 1988 and 1994 supports this hypothesis. Employees participating in profit-sharing plans were less likely than non-participants to separate from their jobs. They also received training more frequently and for longer durations. Finally, the authors show that profit-sharing was related to higher wage growth, indicating a faster rate of skill accumulation.
An Empirical Analysis of Homosexual/Heterosexual Male Earnings Differentials: Unmarried and Unequal?
Authors: Allegretto Sylvia A. , Arthur Michelle M.
Published: June 2015

Using data from the 1990 U.S. Census (PUMS 5%), the authors present the first large-scale study of wage differentials between heterosexual and homosexual men. The homosexual sample, consisting of gay men in unmarried partnered relationships, are estimated to have earned 15.6% less than similarly qualified married heterosexual men, and 2.4% less than similarly qualified unmarried partnered heterosexual men. The authors interpret these two figures as upper- and lower-bound estimates of the differential between homosexual and heterosexual men. The dual comparison enables the authors to disentangle the penalty to being unmarried from other determinants of the wage differential; estimated at 14.1%, this variable appears to be the main source of the wage gap.
High Performance and the Transformation of Work? The Implications of Alternative Work Practices for the Experience and Outcomes of Work
Authors: Godard John
Published: June 2015

Using data from a 1997 telephone survey of 508 employed Canadians, the author explores the implications for workers of alternative work practices (AWPs) associated with the high-performance model. There are three main findings. First, moderate levels of AWP adoption were associated with increased “belongingness,” empowerment, task involvement, and ultimately job satisfaction, esteem, commitment, and citizenship behavior. At higher levels of adoption, however, these associations declined in magnitude and even became negative. AWP adoption was also associated with more stressful work. Second, whereas traditional (that is, supervised) group or team systems represented a substantial improvement over individualized work arrangements, “lean” and “team” forms of work organization associated with the high-performance model did not. Third, although team-based work and information sharing had positive effects, team autonomy and responsibility for a good or service—both associated with the high-performance model—had negative effects, as did “Just-in-Time” (JIT) systems and re-engineering programs.
Gender Effects in British Unfair Dismissal Tribunal Hearings
Authors: Knight K. G. , Latreille Paul L.
Published: June 2015

Using data on unfair dismissals from the 1992 Survey of Industrial Tribunal Applications, the authors investigate appellant success at British industrial tribunal hearings. They find evidence that, as in North American grievance arbitration, predominantly male tribunal panels were more likely to sustain cases brought by female applicants than those brought by male applicants. No role for other gross observable characteristics such as age or ethnicity is found; tribunals instead appear to have placed strong emphasis on issues of procedure, as required by law. No “gender effect” is apparent in the determination of compensation in sustained cases.
Wage Curve Analyses of Establishment Data from Western Germany
Authors: Bellmann Lutz , Blien Uwe
Published: June 2015

Using the IAB Establishment Panel, which is representative for western Germany, the authors find that establishment-level wages reacted to variations in the regional unemployment rate. The elasticity of wages with respect to unemployment, they estimate, was about −0.1. This responsiveness of the wage to regional variation is close to estimates found by other researchers (using individual rather than establishment data) for other countries, and contradicts the view that Germany's labor market, largely due to the nature of collective bargaining in that country, is relatively inflexible. Possible explanations for this finding are that the negotiated wage is treated like a minimum wage, with firms deviating from it in order to increase work effort; bargaining between firms and individual workers or between firms and works councils produces wage differences; or collective agreements do not restrict firms to the extent that is often assumed.
Work Safety in the Context of Temporary Employment: The Spanish Experience
Authors: Amuedo-Dorantes Catalina
Published: June 2015

A rise in work injuries in Spain that has coincided with increased employment flexibility has fired debate among unions, employers, and policy-makers. This paper examines the relationships among temporary work, working conditions, and the likelihood of work accidents and illnesses. An analysis of employee-level and establishment-level data from a 1997 survey conducted by the Spanish Department of Labor suggests that, consistent with a claim made by unions, the single most important determinant of the likelihood of work-related injury and illness is working conditions, not education or tenure. As a result, although temporary workers exhibit higher work injury and illness rates than permanent workers, they exhibit a lower likelihood of work injury and illness than permanent workers once the analysis controls for a given set of working conditions.
12 Million Salaried Workers are Missing
Authors: Hamermesh Daniel S.
Published: June 2015

Evidence from Current Population Surveys, various cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys, and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics suggests that the fraction of American employees who were paid salaries held constant from the late 1960s through the late 1970s, and continued to hold constant or perhaps fell slightly thereafter through the late 1990s. An analysis that accounts for the changing industrial, occupational, demographic, and economic structure of the work force shows that this fraction was 9 percentage points below what would have been expected in the late 1970s. This shortfall is not explained by growth in the temporary help industry, declining unionization, institutional changes in overtime or wage payment regulation, the increasing openness of American labor and product markets, or convergence of nonwage aspects of hourly and salaried employment. The author suggests several alternative explanations.
Effects of Unemployment Insurance Work-Search Requirements: The Maryland Experiment
Authors: Klepinger Daniel H. , Johnson Terry R. , Joesch Jutta M.
Published: June 2015

This paper describes findings from a 1994 experimental evaluation of alternative work-search requirements in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. Requiring additional employer contacts or verification of contacts reduced UI receipt by one week and $115 per claimant. Because these additional requirements did not entail additional re-employment services, the UI spell reduction can be attributed to increased non-monetary costs for remaining on UI. A job-search workshop requirement reduced UI receipt by half a week and $75 per claimant, and additional results indicate that the effects were due to increased costs of continued UI receipt rather than to enhanced job-search productivity. These treatments did not affect employment or earnings, implying that reduced UI duration led to more intensive job search, rather than a reduction in the reservation wage. In contrast, elimination of the employer contact requirement increased UI receipt and post-UI earnings, suggesting that delayed exit from UI improved job matches.
Negative Returns to Seniority: New Evidence in Academic Markets
Authors: Bratsberg Bernt , Ragan James F. , Warren John T.
Published: June 2015

Recent research has suggested that the long-observed negative association between seniority and pay among college faculty largely reflects below-average research productivity of senior faculty—a possibility that most earlier studies did not examine. Overlooked in both waves of studies, however, is match quality. Because the higher quality of the faculty/institutional match implied by higher seniority should, all else equal, result in higher salaries, failure to account for match quality inflates the estimated returns to seniority. Indeed, that positive bias, the authors find, is roughly equal in magnitude to the negative bias caused by failure to account for research quantity and quality. When they account for both match quality and faculty research productivity in an analysis of data on economics faculty at five research universities over a 21-year period, the authors estimate that, holding experience and other factors constant, the penalty for twenty years of seniority is 16% of salary.
Union Membership and Coverage Database from the Current Population Survey: Note
Authors: Hirsch Barry T. , MacPherson David A.
Published: June 2015

This note describes the construction and provision of an Internet database providing private and public sector union membership, coverage, and density estimates compiled from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Economy-wide estimates are provided beginning in 1973, estimates by state, detailed industry, and detailed occupation begin in 1983, and estimates by metropolitan area begin in 1986. The database will be updated annually and can be accessed at http://www.unionstats.com/ .
Institutional Pressures, Human Resource Strategies, and the Rise of Nonunion Dispute Resolution Procedures
Authors: Colvin Alexander J.S.
Published: June 2015

The author investigates factors influencing the adoption of dispute resolution procedures in the nonunion workplace. Various explanations are tested using data from a 1998 survey of dispute resolution procedures in the telecommunications industry. The results suggest that both institutional pressures and human resource strategies are factors driving the adoption of nonunion procedures. Among institutional factors, rising individual employment rights litigation and expanded court deferral to nonunion arbitration have led to increased adoption of mandatory arbitration procedures in the nonunion workplace. At the same time, an older institutional factor—union substitution by nonunion employers aimed at avoiding union organizing—continues to inspire the adoption of nonunion dispute resolution procedures, especially peer review. Finally, the results provide some support for a link between the use of high performance work systems and the adoption of nonunion dispute resolution procedures.
Changes in Male Labor Supply and Wages
Authors: Devereux Paul J.
Published: June 2015

In the 1980s, both wages and labor supply of poorly educated men fell substantially relative to those of educated men. Some observers have interpreted this positive association between changes in wages and labor supply as reflecting movement along stable labor supply curves. The author casts doubt on this interpretation by showing that the wage elasticity necessary to account, by itself, for the observed labor supply decline would greatly exceed elasticity levels typically found in prior studies. Analysis of Census data shows little relationship between changes in relative wages at the state level and changes in male labor supply. Also, panel data analysis shows no strong correlation between long-run changes in individual hours and wages. The small implied labor supply elasticities suggest that very little of the labor supply changes of men during the 1980s can be related to changes in relative wages.
Wages, Hours, and Overtime Premia: Evidence from the British Labor Market
Authors: Bell David N. F. , Hart Robert A.
Published: June 2015

Unlike the United States, Britain has no national laws regulating overtime hour assignment or compensation. Using individual-level data on male non-managerial workers from the 1998 British New Earnings Survey, the authors investigate relationships among the standard hourly wage rate, hourly earnings (including overtime), the overtime premium, and the length of overtime hours. They find that when overtime is accounted for, average hourly wage earnings are fairly uniform across firms in a given industry, because firms paying below-market-level straight-time wages tend to award above-market-level overtime premiums, and, conversely, firms paying above-market-level straight-time wages provide below-market-level overtime premiums.
Unions and Wage Inequality in Mexico
Authors: Fairris David
Published: June 2015

This paper offers empirical evidence on the impact of trade unions on wage inequality in Mexico. The results indicate that unions were a strongly equalizing force affecting the dispersion of wages in 1984, but were only half as effective at reducing wage inequality in 1996. Not only did the unionized percentage of the labor force fall considerably over the period, unions also lost some of their ability to reduce wage dispersion among the workers they continued to represent. Had unions maintained in 1996 the same structural power they possessed in 1984, the rise in wage inequality in the formal sector of the labor market between those years would have been reduced by roughly 11%.
Does the Statutory Overtime Premium Discourage Long Workweeks?
Authors: Trejo Stephen J.
Published: June 2015

Using a pooled data set consisting of 20 annual observations on each of 11 major industry groups, the author estimates the effects of overtime pay regulation on weekly work schedules. In an analysis that controls for workweek trends within industries, the sharp expansions in overtime pay coverage resulting from legislative amendments and Supreme Court decisions are found to have had no discernible impact on overtime hours. This finding is consistent with a model of labor market equilibrium in which straight-time hourly wages adjust to neutralize the statutory overtime premium.
John R. Commons and the Wisconsin School on Industrial Relations Strategy and Policy
Authors: Kaufman Bruce E.
Published: June 2015

The field of industrial relations in the United States is largely rooted in the early twentieth-century writings of John R. Commons and the Wisconsin School. The author documents and describes their strategy and recommended policy approach for improved industrial relations. The three core components of their strategy were stabilization of markets, equalization of bargaining power, and constitutional government in industrial enterprise. The author also shows that the thinking of Commons and his associates on the best way to achieve these three goals—and, in particular, their view of the appropriate mix of trade unionism, labor law, personnel management, and macroeconomic monetary/fiscal policy—evolved through four distinct phases, starting about 1900 and ending in the late 1930s.
Collective Bargaining and Staff Salaries in American Colleges and Universities
Authors: Klaff Daniel B. , Ehrenberg Ronald G.
Published: June 2015

Previous studies of union wage effects in higher education have examined faculty salaries, but not staff salaries. This study, using data from a 1997–98 survey conducted by the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers and other sources, investigates how union coverage affected staff salaries at 163 U.S. colleges and universities. The authors estimate a union salary premium of 9–11%, with variation from near zero for some of the 47 occupations in their sample to 13–16% for others, such as the skilled building trades. The union/nonunion differential appears to be larger in 2-year than in 4-year institutions, but does not vary between the public and private sectors. Where faculty members are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, unionized staff members appear to enjoy an additional salary gain of 2–3%.
Mutual Gains or Zero Sum? Labor Relations and Firm Performance in the Airline Industry
Authors: Gittell Jody Hoffer , Von Nordenflycht Andrew , Kochan Thomas A.
Published: June 2015

The authors examine competing theoretical arguments regarding whether union representation, shared governance, wage levels, and two features of the quality of labor relations—workplace culture and conflict in negotiations—lead to better or worse outcomes for airlines, and they test these interpretations using a mix of historical and quantitative data from major U.S. airlines. Both the qualitative and quantitative results suggest that relational factors—conflict and workplace culture—are more important determinants of performance than the structural factors of unionization, shared governance, and wages. The authors conclude that efforts to recover from the current crisis in the airline industry that depend primarily on reductions in wages or union power will at best bring only short-term relief from immediate financial pressures. Sustained improvement in service quality and financial performance will require more fundamental improvements in the quality of labor relations.
Trade Unions and Family-Friendly Policies in Britain
Authors: Budd John W. , Mumford Karen
Published: June 2015

This paper uses linked data on over 1,500 workplaces and 20,000 individuals from the 1998 British Workplace Employee Relations Survey to analyze the relationship between labor unions and the availability of six employer-provided family-friendly policies. Although unions were negatively associated with the availability of work-at-home arrangements and flexible working hours options, they appear to have increased the availability of three other policies designed to help workers balance the demands of work and family: parental leave, special paid leave, and job-sharing options. They did so both by negotiating for additional benefits (monopoly and collective voice effects) and by providing workers with information about existing policies and assisting them in using those policies (facilitation effects).
Contesting Time: International Comparisons of Employee Control of Working Time
Authors: Berg Peter , Appelbaum Eileen , Bailey Tom , Kalleberg Arne L.
Published: June 2015

The authors hypothesize that three broad factors affect the degree of workers' control over the timing and the total hours of their work: the institutional and regulatory environment within the country, labor market conditions, and management and labor union strategies. Drawing from their interviews in 2000 with managers, public sector policy-makers and administrators, and union leaders, as well as from previous literature, they illustrate how these factors actually affected working time and employee control over working time in the United States, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Their comparative analysis shows that in some countries, employers and labor unions negotiated contracts that increased employee control over working time and provided employers with greater flexibility; in others, employee control over working time remained unevenly distributed across the occupational spectrum.
The Role of Performance-Related Pay in Renegotiating the “Effort Bargain”: The Case of the British Public Service
Authors: Marsden David
Published: June 2015

Much of the academic and policy literature on performance-related pay (PRP) focuses on its role as an incentive system. Its role as a means for renegotiating performance norms has been largely neglected. This study examines the introduction of performance-related pay, based mostly on appraisals by line managers, in Britain's public services during the 1990s. Previous research indicates that PRP failed to motivate many of the staff and that its operation was divisive. Nevertheless, other information suggests that productivity rose. This article seeks to resolve the paradox using contract theory to show that performance pay was the instrument of a major renegotiation of performance norms, and that this rather than motivation was the principal dynamic. Goal-setting and appraisal by line managers played a key role in this process.
The Power of Labor to Grieve: The Impact of the Workplace, Labor Market, and Power-Dependence on Employee Grievance Filing
Authors: Bacharach Samuel , Bamberger Peter
Published: June 2015

The authors examine a model of employee grievance activity that encompasses both workplace and labor market determinants and attempts to reconcile inconsistent findings in the literature by taking into account the possible moderating effects of labor power. A multi-level analysis of data from 1996–97 on 1,383 blue-collar workers suggests that labor market factors influenced grievance activity much less directly than workplace characteristics did, and that the nature of these influences was more complex than has previously been hypothesized. Specifically, consistent with power-dependence theory, the authors find that the direct effects of at least one labor market factor, the wage premium, were likely to be contingent on labor power, and that the labor market itself may have moderated the effects of certain workplace factors on employee grievance filing in a manner consistent with efficiency wage theory.
Do Minimum Wages Affect Non-Wage Job Attributes? Evidence on Fringe Benefits
Authors: Simon Kosali Ilayperuma , Kaestner Robert
Published: June 2015

Although many studies have tested neoclassical labor market theory's prediction that employers will react to binding minimum wages by reducing employment levels, much less empirical research has explored the possibility that employers also respond to minimum wages by adjusting non-wage components of the job, such as fringe benefits, job safety, and access to training. Using Current Population Survey data for 1979–2000, this study investigates the effect of minimum wage legislation on the provision of employer health insurance and employer pension coverage. The authors examine effects of state and federal variation in minimum wages on groups likely to be affected by the minimum wage, and compare these effects to estimates found for groups unlikely to be affected. Whether the analysis uses only state-level variation or federal and state variation in minimum wages, the results indicate no discernible effect of the minimum wage on fringe benefit generosity for low-skill workers.
Do Formal Salary Systems Really Matter?
Authors: Gibbs Michael , Hendricks Wallace
Published: June 2015

Drawing on a single large U.S. corporation's personnel records for the years 1989–93, the authors analyze an example of the kind of formal salary system used by most large firms. They find that this firm's practices were consistent with most of the important conclusions of prior empirical research on internal labor markets. The system was highly centralized, covering salary levels, salary ranges, raises, and bonuses. Supervisors had little discretion over pay other than through subjective performance ratings. The firm held fairly strictly to the salary rules, leading to observable constraints on pay for employees near the top of the salary range. These constraints, however, apparently did not impose important costs on the firm in the form of increased turnover. Although the system operated without any apparent connection to external factors, the authors conclude that it transmitted external labor market forces with little distortion.
Education and Changes in Brazilian Wage Inequality, 1976–2001
Authors: Sotomayor Orlando J.
Published: June 2015

In countries with high levels of inequality, progress in education has often been placed high in the list of policy proposals designed to change the unequal state of affairs. This study uses Brazilian annual data to chart the trends in wage inequality and a decomposition procedure to ascertain how wage distribution was affected by advances in education that doubled the median schooling level of prime-age men during the sample period. The results show that while falling returns to education were an equalizing factor across the wage distribution, changes in the educational composition of the work force exerted a disequalizing influence that was strongest at the top of the distribution. The net result was a fall in wage dispersion that was not as dramatic as might have been hoped.
Phasing into Retirement
Authors: Allen Steven G. , Clark Robert L. , Ghent Linda S.
Published: June 2015

To help workers navigate the transition from work to retirement more effectively, employers have been launching phased retirement programs, which allow older employees to work part-time and receive full retirement benefits. This paper examines the experience of the phased retirement system for tenured faculty in the University of North Carolina system over the years 1996–98. After phased retirement was introduced, there was a sizable increase in the overall separation rate in the system. The key finding from an empirical analysis of the retirement decision as a function of pension incentives, employee performance, demographics, and campus characteristics is that the odds of entering phased retirement were strongly and inversely related to employee performance, as measured by recent pay increases.
Intrafirm Mobility and Sex Differences in Pay
Authors: Ransom Michael , Oaxaca Ronald L.
Published: June 2015

The authors analyze eleven years of employment data for a regional grocery store chain in the United States that faced a class-action lawsuit over gender discrimination. The data include all employees' job titles, wage rates, and earnings, allowing an examination of initial job assignments, mobility between departments, and mobility into supervisory and management positions. An analysis that models the flows of individuals between different departments and jobs within the firm as a Markov process shows a pattern of intrafirm mobility and initial job assignment that generally penalized women, even when the analysis accounts for individuals' characteristics. Although the court-mandated affirmative action remedies were not formally implemented until after the period of the study, there were clear signs of relative improvement in the economic status of the firm's female employees as a result of the filing of the lawsuit and subsequent trial.
Can Organizing Work? An Inductive Analysis of Individual Attitudes toward Union Membership
Authors: Cregan Christina
Published: June 2015

This inductive examination of responses to open-ended questions in a 1997 survey categorizes and assesses workers' attitudes toward unions. The author's content analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, and textual analysis of the survey responses yield several results with implications for the prospects of a union organizing strategy. Although only a minority of workers in the sample were union members, most members were committed to the union, whereas most non-members held uncommitted attitudes about joining. Some union members appeared likely to be willing and able to help with union recruitment. Respondents were more likely to be union members the greater their awareness of workplace injustice, but most of them expected unions to “deliver,” and resented failed strike activity and leaders who were out of touch. The author identifies unexploited opportunities for union organizing, and believes that unions can weather their current difficulties.
The Impact of Community College Retraining on Older Displaced Workers: Should We Teach Old Dogs New Tricks?
Authors: Jacobson Louis , Lalonde Robert J. , Sullivan Daniel
Published: June 2015

The authors estimate the returns to retraining for older displaced workers—those 35 or older—by estimating the impact of community college schooling on earnings. The analysis relies on longitudinal administrative records covering workers displaced from jobs in Washington State during the early 1990s. The authors find that older displaced workers participated in community college schooling at lower rates than younger workers. Among those who participated, however, the impact on quarterly earnings was similar across the two age groups. One academic year of community college schooling is estimated to have increased long-term earnings by about 7% for older men and by about 10% for older women. Although these percentages are consistent with those reported in the schooling literature, estimates of the social internal rates of return from this retraining may differ substantially among older and younger workers because of differences in their work lives and their opportunity costs of retraining.
Would the Elimination of Affirmative Action Affect Highly Qualified Minority Applicants? Evidence from California and Texas
Authors: Card David , Krueger Alan B.
Published: June 2015

Between 1996 and 1998 California and Texas eliminated the use of affirmative action in college and university admissions. At the states' elite public universities admission rates of black and Hispanic students subsequently fell by 30–50% and minority representation in the entering freshman classes declined. This study investigates whether the elimination of affirmative action changed minority students' college application behavior. A particular concern is that highly qualified minorities—who were not directly affected by the policy change—would be dissuaded from applying to elite public schools, either because of reduced campus diversity or because of uncertainty about their admission prospects. The authors use information from SAT takers in the two states to compare the fractions of minority students who sent their test scores to selective state institutions before and after the elimination of affirmative action. They find no change in the SAT-sending behavior of highly qualified black or Hispanic students.
Cut to the Bone? Hospital Takeovers and Nurse Employment Contracts
Authors: Currie Janet , Farsi Mehdi , Macleod W. Bentley
Published: June 2015

The authors examine changes in the wages, employment, and effort of nurses in California hospitals following takeovers by large chains in the 1990s. The market for nurses has been described as a classic monopsony, so that one might expect increases in firm market power to be associated with declines in wages. However, a basic contracting model predicts effects on effort rather than on wages, which is what this analysis finds: nurses experienced few declines in wages following takeovers, but did see increases in the number of patients per nurse, the measure of effort used here. The authors show that their results are also consistent with an extended version of the monopsony model that considers effort and allows for revenue shifts following a takeover. Finally, they find that these changes were similar in the largest for-profit and non-profit chains, suggesting that market forces are more important than institutional form.
Labor-Management Cooperation: Antecedents and Impact on Organizational Performance
Authors: Deery Stephen J. , Iverson Roderick D.
Published: June 2015

This study examines the antecedents and outcomes of labor-management cooperation. Data were drawn from 305 branches of a large unionized Australian-based multinational banking organization. The authors find that perceptions of a cooperative labor relations climate were positively influenced by procedural justice, the union's willingness to adopt an integrative approach to bargaining, and management's willingness to share information freely with the union. The findings also indicate that a cooperative labor-management relationship contributed to higher productivity and improved customer service. In addition, organizational commitment was found to have a positive effect on branch-level productivity and customer service, and union loyalty was associated with lower absenteeism.
Pay Incentives and Truck Driver Safety: A Case Study
Authors: Rodríguez Daniel A. , Targa Felipe , Belzer Michael H.
Published: June 2015

This paper explores the safety consequences of increasing truck driver pay. The test case the authors examine involves a large over-the-road truckload firm that on February 25, 1997, raised wages an average of 39.1%. An analysis that controls for demographic and operational factors, including prior driving experience and experience acquired on the job, suggests that for drivers employed during the lower pay regime and retained in the higher pay regime, crash incidence fell. A higher pay rate also led to lower separation probability, but this indirect effect only translated into fewer crashes by increasing the retention of older, more experienced drivers. These findings suggest that human capital characteristics are important predictors of driver safety, but that motivational and incentive factors also are influential.
Swimming Upstream, Floating Downstream: Comparing Women's Relative Wage Progress in the United States and Denmark
Authors: Gupta Nabanita Datta , Oaxaca Ronald L. , Smith Nina
Published: June 2015

Applying a new decomposition method to U.S. PSID and Danish Longitudinal Sample data, the authors compare how U.S. and Danish gender wage gaps developed between 1983 and 1995. In Denmark, they find, the wage gap widened, because the worsening in women's relative returns to observable human capital attributes, as well as in their ranking relative to men in unobservable productive attributes, more than offset their wage gains from improved observable qualifications relative to men's. In the United States, in contrast, the gender convergence in qualifications offset adverse influences, including increasing wage dispersion throughout the labor market, to result in a narrowing of the gap. The largest increase in the gap in Denmark was experienced by women in the top earnings decile, and the largest decline in the gap in the United States affected those at the top and in the middle of the distribution.