bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Social Security Eligibility and the Labor Supply of Older Immigrants
Authors: Borjas George J.
Published: June 2015

The employment rate of native-born men falls at a much faster rate than that of immigrants as the two groups approach the age of retirement. The author draws on U.S. Census data from 1960–2000 to examine how the eligibility requirements for Social Security benefits affect immigrants' decisions to leave the labor market as they near retirement age. Because a person needs to have worked in the United States for at least ten years to qualify for benefits, newly arrived immigrants may not yet have accumulated the requisite employment credits to do this and thus have greater employment rates than other comparably aged persons. The probability that an older immigrant is employed falls once the ten-year work rule is satisfied. The implication of this finding is that immigration may affect the increase in retirement benefits that will inevitably occur as the baby boom generation retires.
The “Negative” Assimilation of Immigrants: A Special Case
Authors: Chiswick Barry R. , Miller W.
Published: June 2015

The authors address whether “negative” assimilation among immigrants living in the United States occurs if skills are highly transferable internationally. They outline the conditions for negative assimilation in the context of the traditional immigration assimilation model, in which negative assimilation arises not from a deterioration of skills but from a decline in the wages afforded by skills coincident with the duration of residence. The authors use U.S. Census data from 1980, 1990, and 2000 to test the hypothesis on immigrants to the United States from English-speaking developed countries. They present comparisons with native-born workers to determine whether the findings are sensitive to immigrant cohort quality effects and find that even after controlling for these effects, negative assimilation still occurs for immigrants in the sample. They also find that negative assimilation occurs for immigrants from English-speaking developed countries living in Australia and for immigrants from Nordic countries living in Sweden.
Dismissal Disputes and the Incentives to Bargain: Estimates of the Contract Zone
Authors: Freyens Benoit P.
Published: June 2015

In many countries the arbitration of dismissal disputes by public tribunals and state agencies is regarded as slow and expensive. Some common law countries, including the United States and Australia, are privatizing dispute resolution on the premise that this is more efficient than using statutory channels, and it is thus perceived as a better method of settling disputes. Previous advances in statutory law regarding the arbitration of dismissal disputes have been either rescinded or circumvented, sometimes with dramatic political consequences. Little is known, however, about the extent to which statutory law induces inefficiency and redistribution. The author uses settlement and arbitration cost information derived from both Australian courts and survey research for the period 2001–2008 to estimate the contract zone of average settlements, that is, the legal, stigmatic and uncertainty costs saved by averting arbitration. He finds that dispute resolution under statutory law is not as wasteful as it initially seems, nor are substantial resources redistributed from business owners to labor suppliers.
Institutional Labor Economics, the New Personnel Economics, and Internal Labor Markets: A Reconsideration
Authors: Osterman Paul
Published: June 2015

The author illustrates the utility of institutional labor economics and makes a case for a reconsideration of it. Two recent developments motivate this effort: the rise of New Personnel Economics (NPE) as a significant subfield of labor economics and the substantial shifts in work organization that have taken place since the 1990s. Understanding how and why firms have reorganized work opens the door for a renewed interest in institutional approaches. The author explains that the rules of institutional labor markets (ILMs) emerge from the competition between organizational interest groups—unions, personnel professionals, and the government—and competing views of firms' objectives, resulting in the rise of ILMs, the slow diffusion of High Performance Work Systems, strategies used to obtain a high level of commitment from workers, the use of contingent employees, and the spread of new promotion rules in response to equal employment opportunity pressures. As such, the role of power and influence in establishing work rules is of central concern, though more conventional NPE considerations also remain important.
Globalization and Investment in Human Capital
Authors: Hickman Daniel C. , Olney William W.
Published: June 2015

The authors examine the impact of globalization on the domestic labor market for low-skilled workers. Whereas existing research typically focuses on the effects on labor market outcomes such as wages and employment, the authors of this paper examine whether American workers respond to globalization by increasing their investment in human capital. Using both Census data and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) for the period 2000–2007, they measure the extent to which offshoring and immigration affect enrollment at institutions of higher education. Results indicate that both offshoring and immigration increase enrollment at community colleges but not other types of institutions, particularly among older, non-traditional age students. The authors conclude that U.S. workers are indeed responding to globalization by acquiring the skills necessary to compete in a global economy.
Are Judges Sensitive to Economic Conditions? Evidence from Uk Employment Tribunals
Authors: Marinescu Ioana
Published: June 2015

The author investigates whether judges deciding on unfair dismissal cases are sensitive to economic conditions faced by workers and firms. Using the 1992 survey of Employment Tribunal Applications in Great Britain and controlling for case selection, she finds that both the unemployment and the bankruptcy rates significantly decrease the probability of judges deciding in favor of dismissed employees. A one-point increase in the unemployment rate leads to a seven-point decrease in this probability; this effect, however, is not significant for unemployed workers. These findings are consistent with the idea that judges, while tailoring firing costs to economic circumstances, are somewhat more sensitive to firms' interests.
Labor Unions and Charity
Authors: Zullo Roland
Published: June 2015

Drawing on two independent datasets, the author examines organized labor's role as a benefactor for community-based charity. A population-level analysis of Michigan data indicates that union member density and union local density are positively associated with per capita donations to regional United Ways. An individual-level analysis of CPS data corroborates the Michigan findings, and in addition reveals that unionists are more likely than non-unionists to be engaged in community affairs and volunteer for charitable organizations. Unionists disproportionately volunteer to provide medical care, fire/EMS, or protective services; collect and distribute clothing, crafts, or nonfood goods; coach or referee sports; volunteer in music or other arts; tutor or teach; and mentor youth. The findings suggest that unions function in part as vehicles for collectivizing asset and volunteer resources among their members for redistribution to community-based charitable causes, thereby reducing social inequity.
Does a Higher Minimum Wage Enhance the Effectiveness of the Earned Income Tax Credit?
Authors: Neumark David , Wascher William
Published: June 2015

The authors estimate the effects of the interactions between the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and minimum wages on labor market outcomes. They use information on policy variation from the Department of Labor's Monthly Labor Review, reports published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and data on individuals and families from the Current Population Survey to assess the economic impact of minimum wages and the EITC on families. Their results indicate that for single women with children, the EITC boosts employment and earnings, and coupling the EITC with a higher minimum wage enhances this positive effect. Conversely, for less-skilled minority men and for women without children, employment and earnings are more adversely affected by the EITC when the minimum wage is higher. Turning from individuals to families, for very poor families with children a higher minimum wage increases the positive impact of the EITC on incomes, so that a higher minimum wage appears to enhance the effects of the EITC. Whether the policy combination of a high EITC and a high minimum wage is viewed as favorable or unfavorable depends in part on whom policymakers are trying to help.
Does it Pay to Be Nice? Personality and Earnings in the United Kingdom
Authors: Heineck Guido
Published: June 2015

The author examines the relationship between individuals' personality traits and labor market success in the United Kingdom using data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS). With longitudinal individuals' earnings information as well as psychological profile data of respondents specifically from the 2005 wave, he is able to ascertain the extent to which basic traits from the Five Factor Personality Inventory–openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism–affect wages. Results indicate a positive relationship between openness to experience and wages, but a negative linear relationship between wages and agreeableness, and for females, between wages and neuroticism. Although there is no convincing evidence for an association between extraversion and earnings, there is a nonlinear gradient for conscientiousness. Moreover, there are no joint effects of personality and tenure. The study does support the suggestion that the associations found are causal.
The Human Rights Movement at U.S. Workplaces: Challenges and Changes
Authors: Gros James A.
Published: June 2015

The concept of workers' rights as human rights has only recently begun to influence the formation and implementation of labor policy in the United States. In the workplace, the growing human rights movement challenges long-held beliefs and practices in labor relations. The author explores this issue and its implications for U.S. labor policy and practice, focusing specifically on individual versus collective rights, exclusive representation, coverage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), employer resistance to workers' freedom of association, the right to strike, the statutory purposes of the NLRA, and the underpinnings of the traditional U.S. industrial relations system. These challenges also affect U.S. legal isolationism, the role of labor unions, the status and implementation of economic as well as civil and political rights, and the U.S. labor and employment relations research agenda.
Consequences of Seniority Wages on the Employment Structure
Authors: Zwick Thomas
Published: June 2015

The author examines seniority wage profiles in German establishments to discern hiring patterns with respect to age and sex. Using the country's linked employer-employee dataset (LIAB) over the period 1997–2004 and calculating establishment seniority wage profiles directly from individual seniority wages, he finds that establishments with steeper seniority wage profiles than the average establishment in their sector can keep their employees longer but hire fewer older employees. In addition, these firms prefer to hire employees with little experience in other firms and young men instead of young women. These findings imply at least two things: first, that establishments with internal labor markets use deferred payment as an incentive and give positions requiring long tenure to internal candidates and second, that such establishments offer fewer opportunities for unemployed or establishment switchers as well as young females and those with long previous experience in other firms.
Does the Impact of Union Experience on Job Satisfaction Differ by Gender?
Authors: Artz Benjamin
Published: June 2015

The author investigates gender differences in the impact of accumulated union experience on job satisfaction. Because there are fewer women than men in both public and private sector unions, and women are disproportionately underrepresented in union leadership, their collective bargaining power is not equivalent to that of men. As a result, women's preferences for job characteristics and benefits may be overlooked, contributing to reduced job satisfaction as their tenure in the union increases. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) panel data from 1979–2004, the author demonstrates that the accumulation of union experience negatively affects women's job satisfaction more severely than it does men's. This is particularly the case in private sector unions, in which women are more likely to be under-represented in both union membership and leadership positions.
Union Membership and Perceived Job Insecurity: Thirty Years of Evidence from the American General Social Survey
Authors: Brochu Pierre , Morin Louis-Philippe
Published: June 2015

Using the American General Social Survey covering the period 1978–2008, the authors investigate the link between union membership and perceived job insecurity. They find that overall, union members are 3.5 percentage points more likely than non-union members to feel insecure about their current jobs as well as future job prospects, especially during recessionary periods. This result is twice that in the manufacturing sector. By contrast, there is virtually no union effect on job insecurity in transportation, communication, and other services sectors. The use of instrumental-variables estimation methods and attitudinal proxy variables indicates that the positive correlation between union membership and perceived job insecurity is not due to self-selection, nor it is related to the decline of unionism in the United States.
Workplace Design, Complementarities among Work Practices, and the Formation of Key Competencies: Evidence from Italian Employees
Authors: Leoni Riccardo
Published: June 2015

The author analyzes the extent to which High Performance Workplace Practices (HPWP) act as a mediating variable between High Performance Work Organization (HPWO) and the economic outcomes of firms in developing workers' key competencies, which include higher order cognition, problem-solving, and self-reflexivity. Using a large survey of Italian employees drawn from a government-constructed database, the author finds that HPWPs that comprise greater worker discretion, participation in improvement groups, inclusion in workplace improvement schemes, and involvement in performance evaluation help employees develop such competencies, thus enabling firms to thrive and grow. He also shows that these organizational work practices result in more efficient production when simultaneously adopted as a bundle, which confirms the importance of complementarities or synergies among such practices.
The Labor Market Four Years into the Crisis: Assessing Structural Explanations
Authors: Rothstein Jesse
Published: June 2015

Four years after the beginning of the Great Recession, the labor market remains historically weak. Many observers have concluded that “structural” impediments to recovery bear some of the blame. The author reviews such structural explanations, but after analyzing U.S. data on unemployment and productivity, he finds there is little evidence supporting these hypotheses. He finds that the bulk of the evidence is more consistent with the hypothesis that continued poor performance is primarily attributable to shortfalls in the aggregate demand for labor.
Manufacturers' Outsourcing to Staffing Services
Authors: Dey Matthew , Houseman Susan N. , Polivka Anne E.
Published: June 2015

The authors estimate the effects of U.S. manufacturers' use of staffing services on measured employment and labor productivity between 1989 and 2009. Using time series data constructed from the Occupational Employment Statistics program, they document the dramatic increase in manufacturers' use of staffing services to fill core production occupations and to adjust employment levels during recessions. In 2006, just before the recent recession, staffing services added an estimated 9.2% to manufacturing employment, compared with only 2.3% in 1989. Outsourcing to staffing services significantly dampened measured employment volatility and inflated the growth and volatility of measured labor productivity in manufacturing.
Collective Agreements, Wages, and Firms' Cohorts: Evidence from Central Europe
Authors: Magda Iga , Marsden David , Moriconi Simone
Published: June 2015

Using a large, matched employer-employee data set, the authors investigate the impact of company and industry collective bargaining agreements on wages in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (CE3). They also examine the changing characteristics of the union wage premium in different cohorts of establishments. Their results challenge the common idea of weak unions in the CE3 by revealing a union wage premium whose characteristics depend on the level at which collective bargaining occurs. They find that industry agreements increase wages for low-skilled workers, while company agreements increase medium- and high-skilled wages. Their second finding is that the union wage premium is unevenly distributed between cohorts, with substantial cross-country variation. Wage premiums are concentrated in the transitional cohorts in the Czech Republic and Poland and, to a lesser extent, in the pre-transitional cohort in Hungary.
Long-Term Consequences of Natural Resource Booms for Human Capital Accumulation
Authors: Emery J. C. Herbert , Ferrer Ana , Green David
Published: June 2015

Tight labor markets driven by resource booms could increase the opportunity cost of schooling and crowd out human capital formation. For oil-producing economies such as the Province of Alberta, the OPEC oil shocks during the period from 1973 to 1981 may have had an adverse long-term effect on the productivity of the labor force if the oil boom resulted in workers reducing their ultimate investment in human capital rather than merely altering the timing of schooling. The authors analyze the effect of this decade-long oil boom on the long-term human capital investments and productivity for Alberta birth cohorts that were of normal schooling ages before, during, and after the oil boom. Their findings suggest that resource booms may change the timing of schooling but they do not reduce the total accumulation of human capital.
Work Environment and OPT-out Rates at Motherhood across High-Education Career Paths
Authors: Herr Jane Leber , Wolfram Catherine D.
Published: June 2015

Observing a sample of Harvard alumnae in their late thirties, the authors study the relationship between workplace flexibility and the labor force participation of mothers. They first document a large variation in labor force participation rates across higher education fields. Mindful of the possibility of systematic patterns in the types of women who complete various graduate degrees, they use the rich information available for the sample, supplemented by the longitudinal nature of a subset of these data, to assess the extent to which these labor supply patterns may reflect variation in the difficulty of combining work with family. Although ruling out systematic sorting entirely is not possible, their evidence suggests that inflexible work environments “push” women out of the labor force at motherhood.
Exchange Rates and Wages in Unionized Labor Markets
Authors: Wright Peter W. , Bastos Paulo
Published: June 2015

The authors investigate the impact of exchange rate movements on wage determination in unionized labor markets. Using a simple model of international oligopoly, the authors show that organized labor has a rational incentive to accept lower wages in the face of a currency appreciation. They examine this proposition empirically using a matched worker-firm data set for Portugal and, though the impact varies considerably with worker characteristics, find results consistent with the predictions of the model.
Extra Status and Extra Stress: Are Promotions Good for Us?
Authors: Johnston David W. , Lee Wang-Sheng
Published: June 2015

Promotions ordinarily involve higher wages and greater privileges; but often they also increase responsibility, accountability, and work hours. Therefore, whether promotions are good for workers' well-being is an empirical question. Using high-quality panel data the authors estimate pre- and post-promotion effects on job attributes, physical health, mental health, and life satisfaction in an attempt at answering this question. They find that promotions substantially improve job security, pay perceptions, and overall job satisfaction in the short term, and that promotions have short- and longer-term effects on job control, job stress, income, and hours worked. Despite these large effects on job attributes, however, promotions have negligible effects on workers' health and happiness. Only mental health seems affected, with estimates suggesting significant deterioration two years after receiving a promotion. Thus, the authors conclude that the additional stress involved with promotions eventually outweighs the additional status, at least for the average worker.
Computerization and Skill Bifurcation: The Role of Task Complexity in Creating Skill Gains and Losses
Authors: Ben-Ner Avner , Urtasun Ainhoa
Published: June 2015

Does computerization increase or reduce the extent of skills that workers are required to have? The authors argue that the effects of computer-based technologies (CBT) are neither universal nor uniform. Rather, effects depend on the level of skill required by occupations prior to the introduction of CBT, and as such, a bifurcation emerges: occupations that historically (pre-computerization) could be accomplished with low skills and that entailed low-complexity tasks do not experience significant CBT, and they remain low skill or become less-skilled occupations, whereas historically high-skill occupations that entailed high-complexity tasks see an increase in CBT and the skills they require. The authors test this proposition using a unique data set that includes measures of the degree of computerization and changes attendant to computerization in the level of seven skills of core employees for a sample of 819 firms during 2000. This data set is linked by core employees' occupation to U.S. occupation-level data on three dimensions of task complexity during 1971 (pre-CBT). The authors find that occupations with higher pre CBT task complexity are associated with subsequent adoption and intensity of CBT, and that CBT affects most skills positively. For simple tasks, however, CBT does not affect skills or affects them negatively. Results shed light on the skill-based technological change and skilling-deskilling debates and suggest that the relationships are contingent in more nuanced ways than the literature has suggested.
The Effects of Broadband Internet Expansion on Labor Market Outcomes
Authors: Atasoy Hilal
Published: June 2015

The author analyzes the effects of the expansion of broadband Internet access from 1999 to 2007 on labor market outcomes throughout the United States. Recent federal policy programs have allocated $18 billion toward subsidizing the spread of this technology, especially to rural areas. Understanding the interplay between technology, firms, and the labor market is important for evaluating whether additional scarce government resources should be allocated to improve this type of infrastructure. Using models that include county and time fixed effects, the author finds that gaining access to broadband services in a county is associated with approximately a 1.8 percentage point increase in the employment rate, with larger effects in rural and isolated areas. Most of the employment gains result from existing firms increasing the scale of their labor demand and from growth in the labor force. These results are consistent with a theoretical model in which broadband technology is complementary to skilled workers, with larger effects among college-educated workers and in industries and occupations that employ more college-educated workers.
Manager Ethnicity and Employment Segregation
Authors: Giuliano Laura , Ransom Michael R
Published: June 2015

The authors examine the effect of manager ethnicity on the ethnic composition of employment using nine years of personnel records from a regional grocery store chain in the United States. The workforce studied is composed almost entirely of a white majority and a large Hispanic minority; the authors focus on the role of Hispanic ethnicity. Estimating models with store fixed effects, the authors examine the effects of manager ethnicity on hiring, transfer, and separation patterns. Effects of manager ethnicity are compared across several types of jobs, with significant effects occurring on hiring patterns but not on transfers, and effects occurring on separation patterns in only one atypical case. The authors also find that the effects on hiring occur only in jobs or departments with very few employees.
Union Status and Double-Breasting at Multinational Companies in Three Liberal Market Economies
Authors: Lamare J. Ryan , Gunnigle Patrick , Marginson Paul , Murray Gregor
Published: June 2015

The relationships among employee representation, formal union status, and employer strategies within and across institutional regimes offer a variegated landscape in the context of globalization. Key questions remain as to the relative weight of macro- and micro-level influences on union status at subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs). This study analyzes data gathered through coordinated surveys of MNC subsidiaries in Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom and tests the extent to which union status and double-breasting depend on home-country variation, host-country influences, and particular organizational characteristics. The authors find support for a combination of effects on both union status and double-breasting. Further analyses test explicit variations on union status within each host context and support arguments that effects depend on the particularities of national industrial relations regimes.
Employers Gone Rogue: Explaining Industry Variation in Violations of Workplace Laws
Authors: Bernhardt Annette , Spiller Michael W. , Theodore Nik
Published: June 2015

Drawing on an innovative, representative survey of workers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, the authors analyze minimum wage, overtime, and other workplace violations in the low-wage labor market. They document significant interindustry variation in both the mix and the prevalence of violations, and they show that while differences in workforce composition are important in explaining that variation, differences in job and employer characteristics play the stronger role. The authors suggest that industry noncompliance rates are shaped by both product market and institutional characteristics, which together interact with labor supply and the current weak penalty and enforcement regime in the United States. They close with a research agenda for this still-young field, framing noncompliance as an emerging strategy in the reorganization of work and production at the bottom of the U.S. labor market.
Mental Health and Working Conditions in Europe
Authors: Cottini Elena , Lucifora Claudio
Published: June 2015

The authors investigate recent patterns in mental health at the workplace across 15 European countries using three waves of the European Working Conditions Survey. Their study shows that adverse working conditions, defined in terms of job demands and job hazards, are strongly associated with workers' mental health problems, and it also finds a causal effect of job quality on workers' mental health. Their analysis detects heterogeneous effects across countries and demographic groups and shows that labor market regulations and health care systems explain some of these crosscountry differences.
The Effects of Organizational Change on Worker Well-Being and the Moderating Role of Trade Unions
Authors: Bryson Alex , Barth Erling , Dale-Olsen Harald
Published: June 2015

The authors explore the effects of organizational change on employee well-being using multivariate analyses of linked employer-employee data for Britain, with particular emphasis on whether unions moderate these effects. Nationally representative data consist of 13,500 employees in 1,238 workplaces. Organizational changes are associated with increased job-related anxiety and lower job satisfaction. The authors find that job-related anxiety is ameliorated when employees work in a unionized workplace and are involved in the introduction of the changes.
Convergence in Industrial Relations Institutions: The Emerging Anglo-American Model?
Authors: Colvin Alexander J. S. , Darbishire Owen
Published: June 2015

At the outset of the Thatcher/Reagan era, the employment and labor law systems across six Anglo-American countries could be divided into three pairings: the Wagner Act model of the United States and Canada; the Voluntarist system of collective bargaining and strong unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland; and the highly centralized, legalistic Award systems of Australia and New Zealand. The authors argue that there has been growing convergence in two major areas: First, of labor law toward a private ordering of employment relations in which terms and conditions of work and employment are primarily determined at the level of the enterprise; and second, of individual employment rights, toward a basket of minimum standards that can then be improved upon by the parties. The greatest similarity is found in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. Ireland retains a greater degree of public ordering, while the United States diverges in favoring the interests of employers over those of employees and organized labor. The authors explore reasons for the convergence.
Justice or Just between Us? Empirical Evidence of the Trade-off between Procedural and Interactional Justice in Workplace Dispute Resolution
Authors: Eigen Zev J. , Litwin Adam Seth
Published: June 2015

In this article, the authors examine the relationship between an employer's implementation of a typical dispute resolution system (DRS) and organizational justice, perceived compliance with the law, and organizational commitment. They draw on unique data from a single, geographically expansive, U.S. firm with more than 100,000 employees in more than 1,000 locations. Holding all time-constant, location-level variables in place, they find that the introduction of a DRS is associated with elevated perceptions of interactional justice but diminished perceptions of procedural justice. They also find no discernible effect on organizational commitment, but a significant boost to perceived legal compliance by the company. The authors draw on these findings to offer a “differential-effects” model for conceptualizing the relationship among organizational justice, perceived legal compliance, and the implementation of dispute resolution mechanisms.
Sexual Orientation and Wages in Young Adulthood: New Evidence from Add Health
Authors: Sabia Joseph J.
Published: June 2015

Using data from a rich new data source, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the author examines the sensitivity of the estimated earnings penalty faced by sexual minorities to 1) the use of multiple measures of sexual orientation, including both identity/attraction and behaviorally based definitions, and 2) controls for family and individual heterogeneity. Baseline regression results show that gay males and bisexuals earn less than their heterosexual counterparts, a result that persists after controlling for family-level observables. However, after controlling for personality and isolating self-identified sexual minorities who are most likely to be observed as such by employers, the estimated wage penalty for bisexuals falls sharply in absolute magnitude while the wage penalty for gay males persists. Preferred specifications show that relative to heterosexual males, gay males earn wages that are 13.1% lower, a result that is consistent with labor market discrimination. Neither lesbians nor bisexual females earn significantly less than their heterosexual counterparts.
Manager Impartiality: Worker-Firm Matching and the Gender Wage Gap
Authors: Hensvik Lena E.
Published: June 2015

Using a rich matched employer-employee data set from Sweden, the author examines whether female managers in a firm narrow the gender pay gap. The study's main contribution is its ability to account for unobserved heterogeneity among both workers and firms that is potentially correlated with manager gender. The results show a substantial negative association between the representation of female managers and the establishment's gender wage gap. Estimates that account for sorting on unobserved worker skills, however, do not support the conclusion that managers favor same-sex workers in wage setting. Additional results show that organizations with more female managers recruit more nonmanagerial, high-wage women. Together these findings suggest that associations between manager gender and male-female wage gaps should be interpreted with caution, as worker sorting seems to be a crucial component behind this relationship.
Economic Development and Sectoral Unions in China
Authors: Friedman Eli D.
Published: June 2015

Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in China's Guangdong and Zhejiang Provinces, the author asks how post-socialist unions respond to worker unrest and why the development of sectoral-level bargaining has been uneven in different regions of China. While Zhejiang has had relative success in establishing the organizational infrastructure for sectoral bargaining, Guangdong has had little success despite ongoing attempts by unions. The author explains variation in sectoral-level bargaining through an analysis of the different models of economic development, which are characterized as local entrepreneurialism and global integration for Zhejiang and Guangdong, respectively. Despite having different organizational forms, unions in both places suffer from a lack of credibility and capacity to enforce contracts. Given the ACFTU's ongoing focus on sectoral-level bargaining, however, experiments will likely continue in various regions and industries throughout China.
Wage Policies of a Russian Firm and the Financial Crisis of 1998: Evidence from Personnel Data, 1997 to 2002
Authors: Dohmen Thomas , Lehmann Hartmut F. , Schaffer Mark E.
Published: June 2015

The authors use a rich personnel data set from a Russian firm for the years 1997 to 2002 to analyze how the firm adjusts wages and employment during this period in which local labor market conditions changed in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 1998. They relate the development of turnover and wages for various employment categories to alternative models of wage and employment determination. The authors argue that the firm's behavior is consistent with the predictions of efficiency wage models of the shirking and turnover type.
Union Coverage and Work-Related Training in the Construction Industry
Authors: Waddoups C. Jeffrey
Published: June 2015

Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the author estimates the impact of union coverage on training in the United States, comparing the construction industry with other broad industry sectors. The author finds no statistically significant union training effect in construction or other private-sector industries for employer-paid training. For a more broadly defined job-training measure, however, a large union effect is found in construction, and a smaller, yet statistically significant, effect is found in other private-sector industries. The results are not entirely consistent with either the standard human capital model or models of imperfect competition.
Is the Minimum Wage a Pull Factor for Immigrants?
Authors: Giulietti Corrado
Published: June 2015

In this article, the author studies the effects of the minimum wage on immigration. He develops an analytical framework in which immigration is a function of the expected wage in the region of destination. In the analysis, the author exploits the state variation in expected wages stemming from the changes in the U.S. federal minimum wage during 1996–1997 and 2007–2009. The author addresses endogeneity between immigration and the expected wage using an instrumental variable approach. His results provide consistent evidence that the policy induced a sizeable flow of low-skilled immigrants to the United States in both periods. This pull is attributable to the minimum wage increasing immigrants' wages without harming their potential employment outcomes. The author corroborates these findings by showing that the policy did not have any impact on the flow of high-skilled immigrants. The effect on low-skilled immigration is also found when the interstate mobility of immigrants is considered. Finally, changes in the minimum wage only attracted legal immigrants, while undocumented immigrants were not affected.
Navigating the Great Recession
Authors: Herzog-Stein Alexander , Zapf Ines
Published: June 2015

The existence of working-time accounts played an important role in overcoming the negative effects of the Great Recession in Germany. The authors’ analysis of data on establishments with a works council and at least 20 employees from the WSI Works Council Survey shows that the presence and influence of trade unions and the direct impact of the economic crisis are factors that increased the probability of reducing time credits, or building up time deficits on working-time accounts, to safeguard employment. Individual characteristics, such as the proportion of female workers or the proportion of highly qualified employees, had a negative impact on the ability to use working-time accounts. No significant differences were found between the general use of working-time accounts and their use in consequence of the economic crisis. This could be an indication that working-time accounts need to be well established in order to be useful for safeguarding jobs during an economic crisis.
Part-Time Work, Wages, and Productivity
Authors: Garnero Andrea , Kampelmann Stephan , Rycx François
Published: June 2015

The authors use matched employer-employee panel data on Belgian private-sector firms to estimate the relationship between wage/productivity differentials and the firm’s labor composition in terms of part-time work and gender. Findings suggest that the groups of women and part-timers generate employer rents but also that the origin of these rents differs (relatively lower wages for women, relatively higher productivity for part-timers). Interactions between gender and part-time work suggest that the positive productivity effect is driven by male part-timers working more than 25 hours, whereas the share of female part-timers is associated with wage penalties. The authors conclude that men and women differ with respect to motives for reducing working hours and the types of part-time jobs available to them: women often have to accommodate domestic constraints by downgrading to more flexible jobs, whereas male part-time work is frequently related to training and collectively negotiated reductions in hours that do not affect hourly pay.
Rewards of (Dis)Integration
Authors: Vadlamannati Krishna Chaitanya
Published: June 2015

A much-debated issue regarding globalization is whether it translates into Free Association and Collective Bargaining (FACB) rights for workers. The author uses Dreher’s (2006) globalization index, which gauges globalization on economic, social, and political dimensions, and Mosley’s (2011) FACB rights index, which measures 37 aspects of both practices and laws violations of FACB rights, to examine the impact of globalization on FACB rights of workers. Using panel data for 142 developing countries during the 1985–2002 period, the author finds mixed evidence of the impact of globalization on FACB rights, controlling for a host of relevant factors, including endogeneity concerns using a System-GMM approach. While social globalization is associated with both strengthening laws and enforcing the laws to protect FACB rights, this is not the case for political globalization. In addition, the positive effect of economic globalization on FACB rights is sensitive to estimation specifications.
Pay for Performance and Compensation Inequality: Evidence from the ECEC
Authors: Gittleman Maury , Pierce Brooks
Published: June 2015

This article examines the relationship between performance-based pay and widening wage inequality using data from the Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC). The results suggest that jobs using performance-based pay have made only a modest contribution to increased inequality during the 1994 to 2010 period. These results contrast with those reported by Lemieux, MacLeod, and Parent (2009), who investigated the relationship between performance-based pay and wage inequality using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. They found that pay for performance accounted for about one-fifth of the growth in the variance of male wages between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, and for almost all of the increase in wage inequality in the top quintile during the same period.
Determinants and Performance Effects of Executive Pay Multiples
Authors: Shin Jae Yong , Kang Sung-Choon , Hyun Jeong-Hoon , Kim Bum-Joon
Published: June 2015

The authors examine factors influencing the executive pay multiple (executive-employee pay disparity) and its effects on performance. Using unique data from Korea, where all publicly listed firms are required to provide detailed information on average employee pay in their annual reports, they find that a substantial portion of cross-sectional variation in the executive pay multiple is explained by the firm’s economic and political characteristics. Results also indicate that the executive pay multiple has a statistically significant negative relation with subsequent operating and stock return performance. A two-stage approach, however, reveals that the performance effects of the executive pay multiple are likely to be influenced more by deviations from the expected executive pay multiple, estimated using the first-stage determinant model, than by the absolute pay multiple per se. The study sheds light on recent debates regarding the usefulness of executive pay multiple disclosure.
The Lasting Effects of Leaving School in an Economic Downturn on Alcohol Use
Authors: Maclean Johanna Catherine
Published: June 2015

The author tests whether leaving school in an economic downturn persistently affects alcohol use. She models alcohol use in middle age as a function of the state unemployment rate at school-leaving in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort. The results suggest that men, but not women, who leave school in an economic downturn consume more drinks and are more likely to report heavy and binge drinking than otherwise similar men. Findings are robust to addressing the endogeneity of the time and location of school-leaving and contribute to the literature on the lasting consequences of leaving school in an economic downturn.
How Institutional and Organizational Characteristics Explain the Growth of Contingent Work in China
Authors: Liu Xiangmin
Published: June 2015

China’s traditional model of long-term employment has been undermined by an increased reliance on nonrenewable fixed-term and temporary agency employment contracts. In this study, the author draws on survey data from 130 establishments and interviews of 48 key informants to explore the spread of contingent work. Results indicate that state-owned and unionized establishments are more likely to use contingent labor, and stringent and uncertain enforcement of labor regulations is positively associated with its use. The qualitative analysis presents managers’ interpretations of these relationships. In the presence of weak labor institutions and poor enforcement, managers adopt contingent employment practices to retain the power to terminate employees at will, accrue benefits through regulatory arbitrage, and promote their own interests when handling conflicting intra-organizational demands.
Estimating the Effect of “Change to Win” on Union Organizing
Authors: Aleks Rachel
Published: June 2015

In a 2005 effort to reinvigorate new-member organizing efforts, seven unions split from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to form a new union federation, Change to Win. Using ten years of data from the National Labor Relations Board and the National Mediation Board and a difference-in-difference estimator, the author estimates the effect of Change to Win policies on whether a union won its certification election and the number and percentage of workers successfully organized. The results indicate no statistically significant difference in organizing success following Change to Win’s implementation of new organizing strategies and practices, relative to the AFL-CIO.
What Determines Employer Accommodation of Injured Workers? The Influence of Workers’ Compensation Costs, State Policies, and Case Characteristics
Authors: Bronchetti Erin Todd , McInerney Melissa P.
Published: June 2015

Despite a recent dramatic increase in the rate of employer accommodation of injured workers, the extant literature provides little evidence on the determinants of accommodation or the reasons for this upward trend. In this study, the authors take a comprehensive approach to estimating the determinants of workplace accommodation, assessing the influence of employer workers’ compensation (WC) costs; WC market features and state WC laws; and characteristics of firms, injured workers, and their injuries. Using state-level data from the BLS, they find that employer WC costs, WC market features, and state return-to-work (RTW) policies all have an impact on accommodation, but the effects are small and explain only one-fifth of the increase in restricted work. With data on injured workers from the NLSY79 and HRS, the authors study case-specific determinants of accommodation. Results suggest that employer and injury characteristics matter most, and these results are consistent with accommodation occurring mostly at large, experience-rated employers.
Do Large Modern Retailers Pay Premium Wages?
Authors: Cardiff-Hicks Brianna , Lafontaine Francine , Shaw Kathryn
Published: June 2015

With malls, franchise strips, and big-box retailers increasingly dotting the landscape, many are concerned that U.S. middle-class jobs in manufacturing are being replaced by minimum-wage jobs in retail. Retail jobs have spread, whereas manufacturing jobs have shrunk in number. The authors show that wage rates in the retail sector rise markedly with firm size and with establishment size. These increases are halved when they control for worker fixed effects, suggesting that better workers are sorted into larger firms. Also, higher-ability workers are promoted to the position of manager, which is associated with higher pay. The authors conclude that the growth in modern retail, characterized by larger chains of larger establishments with more levels of hierarchy, is raising wage rates relative to traditional mom-and-pop retail stores.