bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
GLUT2 and TAS1R2 Polymorphisms and Susceptibility to Dental Caries
Authors: Izakovicova Holla Lydie , Borilova Linhartova Petra , Lucanova Svetlana , Kastovsky Jakub , Musilova Kristina , Bartosova Michaela , Kukletova Martina , Kukla Lubomir , Dusek Ladislav
Published: June 2015

Objective: Dental caries is one of the most frequent multifactorial diseases. Among the numerous factors influencing the risk of caries, genetics plays a substantial role, with heritability ranging from 40 to 60%. Gene variants affecting taste preference and glucose transport were recently associated with caries risk. The aim of this study was to analyze two common polymorphisms in the sweet taste receptor (TAS1R2) and glucose transporter (GLUT2) genes in children with dental caries and healthy controls in the Czech population. Methods: A total of 637 unrelated Caucasian children, aged 11-13 years, were included in this case-control study. One hundred and fifty-five subjects were caries-free (with decayed/missing/filled teeth, DMFT = 0) and 482 children were caries-affected (DMFT ≥ 1). The TAS1R2 (Ile191Val, rs35874116) and GLUT2 (Thr110Ile, rs5400) genotypes were determined using the 5′ nuclease TaqMan® assay for allelic discrimination. Results: Compared with subjects with the common Thr allele, carriers of the Ile allele of GLUT2 had significantly more frequently dental caries (p < 0.05, OR = 1.639, 95% CI: 1.089-2.466). Similarly, children with the Val allele for the TAS1R2 Ile191Val polymorphism were more frequently affected by caries than children who carried the Ile allele (p < 0.05, OR = 1.413, 95% CI: 1.014-1.969). In contrast, no significant associations between GLUT2 and/or TAS1R2 polymorphisms and fillings were found, but allele frequencies of the TAS1R2 variant were marginally significantly different between children with DMFT = 0 and DMFT ≥1 (p = 0.053, OR = 1.339, 95% CI: 0.996-1.799). However, no significant interaction between both genes and risk of dental caries was found. Conclusions: In conclusion, GLUT2 and TASR1 polymorphisms may influence the risk of caries in the Czech population.
Increasing Incidence of Juvenile Thyrotoxicosis in Denmark: A Nationwide Study, 1998-2012
Authors: Havgaard Kjær Rikke , Smedegård Andersen Maria , Hansen Dorte
Published: June 2015

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine in a Danish nationwide study whether the incidence rate (IR) of thyrotoxicosis in children below 15 years of age has increased between 1998 and 2012 and to compare the results with previously published national data from 1982 to 1988. Furthermore, we intended to conduct a descriptive study of children diagnosed with Graves' disease (GD) between 2008 and 2012. Methods: Children diagnosed with thyrotoxicosis between 1998 and 2012 were identified through the Danish National Patient Registry. All medical records were reviewed to verify the diagnosis. Additional data were collected on children diagnosed with GD in 2008-2012. Results: In total, 237 patients with juvenile thyrotoxicosis (JT) were identified. The overall IR in 1998-2012 was 1.58/100,000 person-years and has increased significantly from 0.79/100,000 person-years in 1982-1988 (p < 0.001). The IR has continued to increase during the recent 15 years (1.31-1.83/100,000 person-years), with a 12.5% increase with each 5-year time period. The IR increased with age and female sex (p < 0.001). The descriptive study included 79 children with GD, presenting with a wide spectrum of clinical features. Remission occurred in 13.9%. Conclusion: The IR of JT has increased significantly since 1982-1988 and has continued to increase during the recent 15 years. The overall IR was 1.58/100,000 person-years during 1998-2012.
Exacerbating Pressure Overload–Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy
Authors: Zhu Xuehai , Fang Jing , Jiang Ding-Sheng , Zhang Peng , Zhao Guang-Nian , Zhu Xueyong , Yang Ling , Wei Xiang , Li Hongliang
Published: June 2015

The adaptor protein Src homology 2-B3 (SH2B3), which belongs to a subfamily of Src homology 2 proteins, is a broad inhibitor of growth factors and cytokine signaling in hematopoietic cells. However, the role of SH2B3 in nonhematopoietic systems, particularly cardiomyocytes, has not been defined. In this study, we observed noticeable increase in SH2B3 protein expression during pathological cardiac remodeling in both humans and rodents. Follow-up in vitro gain- and loss-of-function studies suggested that SH2B3 promotes the cardiomyocyte hypertrophy response. Consistent with the cell phenotype, SH2B3 knockout (SH2B3
−/−
) mice exhibited attenuated cardiac remodeling with preserved cardiac function after chronic pressure overload. Conversely, cardiac-specific SH2B3 overexpression aggravated pressure overload–triggered cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, and dysfunction. Mechanistically, SH2B3 accelerates and exacerbates cardiac remodeling through the activation of focal adhesion kinase, which, in turn, activates the prohypertrophic downstream phosphoinositide 3-kinase-AKT-mammalian target of rapamycin/glycogen synthase kinase 3β signaling pathway. Finally, we generated a novel SH2B3 knockout rat line and further confirmed the protective effects of SH2B3 deficiency on cardiac remodeling across species. Collectively, our data indicate that SH2B3 functions as a novel and effective modulator of cardiac remodeling and failure.
Congruent and Incongruent Corticospinal Activations at the Level of Multiple Effectors
Authors: Sartori Luisa , Betti Sonia , Perrone Chiara , Castiello Umberto
Published: June 2015

Motor resonance is defined as the subliminal activation of the motor system while observing actions performed by others. However, resonating with another person's actions is not always an appropriate response: In real life, people do not just imitate but rather respond in a suitable fashion. A growing body of neurophysiologic studies has demonstrated that motor resonance can be overridden by complementary motor responses (such as preparing a precision grip on a small object when seeing an open hand in sign of request). In this study, we investigated the relationship between congruent and incongruent corticospinal activations at the level of multiple effectors. The modulation of motor evoked potentials evoked by single-pulse TMS over the motor cortex was assessed in upper and lower limb muscles of participants observing a soccer player performing a penalty kick straight in their direction. Study results revealed a double dissociation: Seeing the soccer player kicking the ball triggered a motor resonance in the observer's lower limb, whereas the upper limb response afforded by the object was overridden. On the other hand, seeing the ball approaching the observers elicited a complementary motor activation in upper limbs while motor resonance in lower limbs disappeared. Control conditions showing lateral kicks, mimicked kicks, and a ball in penalty area were also included to test the motor coding of object affordances. Results point to a modulation of motor responses in different limbs over the course of action and in function of their relevance in different contexts. We contend that ecologically valid paradigms are now needed to shed light on the motor system functioning in complex forms of interaction.
Europe: Strategies for Co-operation and Joint Solutions
Authors: Rotfeld Adam Daniel
Published: June 2015

The article examines the sustainability and adaptability of European security institutions, structures and organizations in the context of the fundamental and qualitative change of the post-Helsinki European security order. Suggestions are presented for managing the Ukraine crisis by military and political restraint, the observance of the Helsinki Decalogue of principles and by upgrading executive mechanisms of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (osce). In a new European security order, the core political components would be constituted by the inviolability of frontiers and the incontestability of internal political order. In broader international change, the relative decrease of the role of old powers has to be accommodated with the growing clout of emerging powers. Since most of the conflicts take place within the States and not between them the risks and new threats have to be dealt with by transformed and upgraded security institutions adapted to the new security environment. At the same time, there is a manifested lack of interests by the great powers to rely on multilateral security institutions unless they are used as instruments in pursuing their own strategies. The new common security arrangement for the West and Russia has to reconcile the adversary national security interests within the Euro-Atlantic Security Forum.
Berlin’s Strategic Moment
Authors: Stelzenmüller Constanze
Published: June 2015

As Germany prepares to take on the chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (osce) in 2016 in the midst of Europe’s worst security crisis in a generation, crisis management is in the foreground—with a focus on containing risk and preventing escalation through diplomacy and sanctions against Russia. Yet Berlin is also fundamentally re-shaping its foreign and security policy across the board. Ultimately, Germany’s goal must be to restore a peaceful European security order: not on the terms of Vladimir Putin, but on the basis of the principles enshrined in the osce.
Taxonomy of Fulgoraecia melanoleuca (Fletcher, 1939), (Lepidoptera: Epipyropidae) in India, a biological control agent of Pyrilla perpusilla (Walker) (Hemiptera: Lophopidae)
Authors: KUMAR RAJESH , MITTAL VISHAL , CHUTIA PREETIREKHA , RAMAMURTHY V.V.
Published: June 2015

The parasitic lepidopteran insect, Fulgoraecia melanoleuca (Fletcher) has been reported as an ectoparasitoid of Pyrilla perpusilla (Walker) from the Indian subcontinent. For the first time, the complete morphology, field biology, egg laying behavior, larval pupal, and adult morphology, including male and female gentialic features, are described and illustrated.
Range extension and sexual dimorphism in Megabatrus caviceps Löbl (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Pselaphinae)
Authors: YIN ZI-WEI , LI LI-ZHEN
Published: June 2015

Megabatrus caviceps Löbl, originally described from Kuatun, Fou-kien (= Guadun, Fujian), eastern China, is recorded from the Nanling Nature Reserve, Guangdong, southern China, ca. 550 km SW from the type locality. The female of this species is discovered and described for the first time. For comparative purposes, male diagnostic characters of M. caviceps are figured and supplementary description is provided. Some new data on this species' biology are given.
An example of the importance of labels and fieldbooks in scientific collections: A freshwater sponge misunderstood for a marine new genus and species
Authors: PINHEIRO ULISSES , NICACIO GILBERTO , MURICY GUILHERME
Published: June 2015

The demosponge genus Crelloxea Hechtel, 1983 was created to allocate a single species, Crelloxea spinosa Hechtel, 1983, described based on specimens collected by Jacques Laborel in northeastern Brazil in 1964 and deposited at the Porifera Collection of the Yale Peabody Museum. The genus Crelloxea was originally defined as "Crellidae with dermal and interstitial acanthoxeas and acanthostrongyles, with skeletal oxea and without microscleres or echinators" (Hechtel, 1983). Crelloxea was allocated in the marine sponge family Crellidae (Order Poecilosclerida), which is characterized by a tangential crust of spined ectosomal spicules (oxeas, anisoxeas or styles), a choanosomal plumose skeleton of smooth tornotes, sometimes a basal skeleton of acanthostyles erect on the substrate, microscleres usually arcuate chelae or absent, and surface with areolated pore fields (van Soest, 2002). Nowadays, Crelloxea is considered a junior synonym of Crella (Grayella) Carter, 1869 (van Soest, 2002; van Soest et al., 2015).
Wallacellus is Euwallacea: molecular phylogenetics settles generic relationships (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae: Xyleborini)
Authors: STORER CAROLINE G. , BREINHOLT JESSE W. , HULCR JIRI
Published: June 2015

Euwallacea Hopkins and Wallacellus Hulcr & Cognato are ambrosia beetle genera within the tribe Xyleborini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae). Several species have recently received attention due to their establishment in non-native regions with serious ecological and economic consequences. To clarify generic placement of these species, we tested reciprocal monophyly of the two genera and the placement of several species using molecular phylogenetics. We sequenced, or re-used published sequences of, three markers (COI mtDNA, 28S nuclear rDNA and ArgK single-copy nuclear) from representatives of Euwallacea, Wallacellus, the Ambrosiodmus clade, and the clade containing Xyleborus s. str., and inferred their relationships with a Bayesian approach. We also tested explicit alternative topologies, and examined taxonomic utility of characters used for the delimitation of the genera.        All species of Euwallacea, Wallacellus, and two species of Xyleborus were monophyletic with high phylogenetic support. Based on the analysis and shared morphological characters, we transferred the following species to Euwallacea: Xyleborus declivispinatus (Schedl), Wallacellus piceus (Motschulsky), Xyleborus posticus (Eichhoff), Wallacellus similis (Ferrari), and Wallacellus striatulus (Browne). The genus Wallacellus was made a junior synonym of Euwallacea and morphological diagnosis of Euwallacea was updated. The results demonstrated that Euwallacea has a pantropical distribution.
The Effects of Local Market Conditions on Two Pay-Setting Systems in the Federal Sector
Authors: Olson Craig A. , Schwab Donald P. , Rau Barbara L.
Published: June 2015

The authors examine the sensitivity of wage setting in two federal pay systems—the General Schedule (GS) system, covering white-collar workers, and the Federal Wage System (FWS), covering blue-collar workers—to local wages and cost-of-living. In 1978 and 1980, the years of the data, FWS wages were designed to reflect local labor market wage levels, while GS wages were intended to be responsive to national wage trends, independent of local wage levels. The authors find that FWS wages were closely tied to local external market conditions, as intended. However, GS wages, both for new hires and for longer-tenure employees, were also responsive to those conditions (though less so than FWS wages). To circumvent policies designed to screen out local labor market effects, GS administrators apparently employed such pactices as assigning new employees to higher grade levels than were formally warranted.
Computer Use and the Demand for Female Workers
Authors: Weinberg Bruce A.
Published: June 2015

Using data from the March and October CPS, the author investigates the effect of computers on the demand for female workers. A model illustrates that computers, by changing skill requirements and the conditions of work—de-emphasizing physical skill—should favor women even if women have no advantage over men in using computers or in acquiring computer skills. Decompositions of the growth in women's employment and cross-industry-occupation regressions indicate that increases in computer use can account for over half of the growth in demand for female workers. Consistent with the hypothesis that differences in the physical requirements of jobs are responsible for these effects, increases in computer use have the greatest effect among skilled blue-collar workers and workers with less than a college education. The increase in computer use may contribute to an apparent substitutability between highly skilled women and less skilled men found in other research.
Occupational Age Structure and Access for Older Workers
Authors: Hirsch Barry T. , Macpherson David A. , Hardy Melissa A.
Published: June 2015

This paper examines covariates of the occupational age structure and the openness of jobs to older workers. Using a large number of data sets, which together span the years 1983–98, the authors focus on the structure of compensation, job skill requirements, and working hours and conditions as the principal determinants of occupational access. Older male and female workers, they find, face substantial entry barriers in occupations with steep wage profiles, pension benefits, and computer usage. In addition, union coverage is associated with limited access for older men, while older female hires are concentrated in occupations where flex-time, part-time work, and daytime shifts are common. Segregation across occupations among older new hires exceeds that for younger workers, but there is no evidence that it has worsened over time.
Estimating the Union Earnings Effect Using a Sample of Displaced Workers
Authors: Raphael Steven
Published: June 2015

This paper improves on past longitudinal estimates of the union earnings effect by using a sample of workers for whom the error in measuring changes in union status is minimized. The author uses a sample of workers displaced by plant closings from the 1994 and 1996 Current Population Survey Displaced Workers Supplement files to estimate the effects of union membership on weekly earnings. When models are estimated using the entire sample of displaced workers, longitudinal estimates of the union earnings effect are quite similar in magnitude to estimates from cross-sectional regressions. In models estimated separately by skill group, the author finds some evidence of positive selection into unions among workers with low observed skills and negative selection into unions among workers with high observed skills.
Hours of Work and the Fair Labor Standards Act: A Study of Retail and Wholesale Trade, 1938–1950
Authors: Costa Dora L.
Published: June 2015

When the Fair Labor Standards Act was first implemented, a 5% reduction in the length of the standard workweek reduced by at least 18% the proportion of men and women working more than 40 hours per week. This analysis, based on monthly time series data from 1935–41 BLS surveys and individual-level data from the 1940 and 1950 censuses, shows that the Act's impact was larger in the South, where the proportion of men and women working over 40 hours fell by 23% and 43%, respectively, than in the North. Because of much lower pre-Act wages in the South than in the North, the minimum wage provisions of the Act were much more binding in the South southern employers were less able than northern employers to adjust straight-time wages in response to the Act's overtime provisions.
The Impact of Representation and other Factors on the Outcomes of Employee-Initiated Workers' Compensation Appeals
Authors: Hyatt Douglas , Kralj Boris
Published: June 2015

Using a unique data set from Ontario, the authors investigate the relationship between representation and the probability that a workers' compensation appeal initiated by a worker will be granted. Unlike similar previous investigations, this study includes many types of claims, not just permanent partial disability, low-back, or lost-time claims. Only representation by the Office of the Workers Advisor or by a member of a politician's staff, both of which are available to workers free of charge, increased the likelihood of an appeal being granted or partially granted. Injured workers who hired lawyers, consultants, or advocates, or who sought representation by a union, were no more likely to win their appeal than were workers who represented themselves.
Gender and Promotion in the Economics Profession
Authors: McDowell John M. , Singell Larry D. , Ziliak James P.
Published: June 2015

The authors use unique panel data on American Economic Association members to test for gender differences in promotion in a profession with a well-defined promotion and job hierarchy and in which men and women exhibit similar labor-market attachment. The results suggest that over the period from the 1960s through the early 1980s, female economists had lower levels of professional attainment and career advancement than did their male colleagues with similar attributes. These gender differences remain in evidence despite controls for unobserved heterogeneity and self-selection between academic and non-academic jobs. There is evidence, however, that promotion prospects for female economists significantly improved during the 1980s, not only at all ranks, but also within both Ph.D.-granting institutions and non-Ph.D.-granting institutions. In fact, the results reveal no unexplained gender-specific differences in promotion by the end of the 1980s.
Inter-Industry Wage Differentials and the Gender Wage Gap: An Identification Problem
Authors: Horrace William C. , Oaxaca Ronald L.
Published: June 2015

An intuitively appealing method for estimating gender wage gaps by industry is shown to yield estimates that vary according to the arbitrary choice of left-out reference groups for non-industry categorical variables, such as race and marital status. This study uses data from the Current Population Surveys to explore alternative methods for estimating gender wage gaps by industry that are not susceptible to the identification problem. Statistical significance measures reveal when relative industry wage gap rankings are not statistically meaningful. The methodology readily extends to other contexts such as racial, union-non-union, or immigrant-native wage gaps by industry, occupational, or regional groupings.
Does Training Generally Work? The Returns to in-Company Training
Authors: Barrett Alan , O'Connell Philip J.
Published: June 2015

Using data from surveys of enterprises in Ireland in 1993 and 1996–97, the authors estimate the productivity effects of general training, specific training, and all types of training combined. Statistically significant positive effects on productivity are found both for all training and for general training, but not for specific training. The positive effect of general training remains when the researchers control for factors such as changes in work organization, corporate re-structuring, firm size, and the initial level of human capital in the enterprise. The impact of general training varies positively with the level of capital investment.
The Earnings and Employment of Nurses in an Era of Cost Containment
Authors: Schumacher Edward J.
Published: June 2015

Previous research has shown that from the 1980s through the early 1990s, nurses enjoyed substantial wage and employment gains that stemmed, to some extent, from increased labor demand. Using individual data for 1988–98 to compare nurses' fortunes with those of college-educated women and other workers in the health care industry, the author documents that nurses experienced a decline in real wages beginning in the early 1990s, at the same time that the skill premium for RNs, as reflected by the return to education and experience, was increasing. Changes in measured characteristics and their returns explain very little of the decline, consistent with the theory that the relative wage decrease was driven by a decline in the demand for RNs and increased cost constraints. The effects of HMO penetration are found to explain only a small part of the variation in wages across metropolitan statistical areas and across time.
Why Do Contractors Contract? The Experience of Highly Skilled Technical Professionals in a Contingent Labor Market
Authors: Kunda Gideon , Barley Stephen R. , Evans James
Published: June 2015

This study examines 52 highly skilled technical contractors' explanations, in 1998, of why they entered the contingent labor force and how their subsequent experiences altered their viewpoint. The authors report three general implications of their examination of the little-studied high-skill side of contingent labor. First, current depictions of contingent work are inaccurate. For example, contrary to the pessimistic “employment relations” perspective, most of these interviewees found contracting better-paying than permanent employment; and contrary to optimistic “free agent” views, many reported feeling anxiety and estrangement. Second, occupational networks arose to satisfy needs (such as training and wage-setting) that employing organizations satisfy for non-contingent workers. Third, regarding their place in the labor market, high-skilled and well-paid technical contractors cannot be called—as contingent workers usually are—“secondary sector” workers; and their market is not dyadic, with individuals selling labor and firms buying it, but triadic, involving intermediaries such as staffing firms.
Upstairs, Downstairs: Computers and Skills on Two Floors of a Large Bank
Authors: Autor David H. , Levy Frank , Murnane Richard J.
Published: June 2015

Many studies document a positive correlation between workplace computerization and employment of skilled labor in production. Why does this correlation arise? The authors posit that improvements in computer-based technology create incentives to substitute machinery for people in performing tasks that can be fully described by procedural or “rules-based” logic and hence performed by a computer. This process typically leaves many tasks unaltered, and management plays a key role—at least in the short run—in determining how these tasks are organized into jobs, with significant implications for skill demands. This conceptual framework proves useful in interpreting how jobs were affected by the introduction of digital check imaging in two departments of a large bank. In one department, the tasks not computerized were subdivided into narrow jobs; in the other department, management combined multiple linked tasks to create jobs of greater complexity. The framework may be applicable to many organizations.
Early Retirement Programs and Wage Restraint: Empirical Evidence from France
Authors: Gray David M.
Published: June 2015

Labor-force withdrawal programs such as government-subsidized early retirement programs are an important unemployment policy instrument in some European countries. Most economists, however, have expressed doubts concerning these programs' efficacy in combating unemployment, in part because they cause a reduction in effective labor supply, which in turn places undue upward pressure on the wage level. This paper analyzes the wage pressure effects of the early retirement program in France in 1984–86. In contrast to most existing studies of such programs, which have analyzed aggregate labor markets based on the country as the unit of observation, the empirical analysis in this paper employs a partial equilibrium framework and uses less aggregated, sectoral data. The findings suggest, consistent with results from most of the aggregate labor market studies, that the early retirement program had a slight positive impact on wage pressure.
Market and Institutional Determinants of Wage Differentiation in Russia
Authors: Clarke Simon
Published: June 2015

Using a range of official and survey data, the author evaluates the relative success of two approaches—competitive labor market theory and industrial relations theory/institutional economics—in explaining wage determination in Russia. Following a review of the analysis of wage determination by an influential team of World Bank economists, the author shows that increased wage inequality in Russia is dominated by inequality within occupational categories within local labor markets. Such inequality, he suggests, is primarily associated with inter-firm differences in wage levels, rather than barriers to labor mobility or differences in “human capital.” Such a pattern of differentiation entirely accords with the analyses of those institutional economists and industrial relations theorists who stress the role of the wage in regulating and motivating the labor force above its role in securing labor market equilibrium. The paper concludes by outlining the institutional framework of wage determination that underlies the observed results.
Wage Rigidity in Canadian Collective Bargaining Agreements
Authors: Christofides Louis N. , Stengos Thanasis
Published: June 2015

The authors search information on the provisions of 10,947 wage contracts signed in the Canadian unionized sector between 1976 and 1999 for evidence of downward nominal wage rigidity (the disinclination of wages to fall, in nominal dollars, below their established level). Over the sample period, real wage reductions were common, but nominal wage reductions were rare. The probability of downward nominal wage rigidity increased substantially during low-inflation periods. During such periods, apparently there was no reduction in the incidence of real wage cuts, but the magnitude of those cuts was modest, suggesting a lesser ability of wages to adjust to labor market conditions than at other times.
The Earnings Effects of Sexual Orientation
Authors: Black Dan A. , Makar Hoda R. , Sanders Seth G. , Taylor Lowell J.
Published: June 2015

This investigation of the effect of sexual orientation on earnings employs General Social Survey data from 1989–96. Depending largely on the definition of sexual orientation used, earnings are estimated as having been between 14% and 16% lower for gay men than for heterosexual men, and between 20% and 34% higher for lesbian women than for heterosexual women. This evidence, the authors suggest, is consistent with either of two complementary constructions: Gary Becker's argument that male/female earnings differentials are rooted in specialization within households and in optimal human capital accumulation decisions individuals make when they are young; and Claudia Goldin's observations about marriage-based gender discrimination, according to which the paternalistic “protection” of wives and mothers from the world of work has tended to overlook lesbians.
The Hazards of Training: Attrition and Retention in Construction Industry Apprenticeship Programs
Authors: Bilginsoy Cihan
Published: June 2015

Apprenticeship programs in the United States, which provide workers with the broad-based skills required for practicing a trade via on-the-job training, are sponsored either unilaterally by employers or jointly by employers and trade unions. A comparison of the attrition and retention rates in these programs shows that program completion is more likely for apprentices in joint programs than for similar apprentices in unilateral programs. Rates of completion are lower for women than for men, and lower for ethnic and racial minorities than for whites. Apprenticeship duration rises with the unemployment rate.
Escaping Low Earnings: The Role of Employer Characteristics and Changes
Authors: Holzer Harry J. , Lane Julia I. , Vilhuber Lars
Published: June 2015

Using a unique dataset based on individual Unemployment Insurance wage records for Illinois in the 1990s that are matched to other Census data, the authors analyze the extent to which escape from or entry into low earnings among adult workers was associated with changes in their employers and firm characteristics. The results show considerable mobility into and out of low earnings status, even for adults. They indicate that job changes were an important part of the process by which workers escaped or entered low-wage status, and that changes in employer characteristics help to account for these job changes. Matches between personal and firm characteristics also contributed to observed earnings outcomes.
Public Enforcement/Private Monitoring: Evaluating a New Approach to Regulating the Minimum Wage
Authors: Weil David
Published: June 2015

This paper examines compliance with federal minimum wage laws in the U.S. apparel industry and analyzes the impact of new methods of intervention designed to improve regulatory performance. Drawing on data from a randomized survey of apparel contractors, the author evaluates the impact of agreements between manufacturers and the government used to monitor contractor behavior as a means of improving compliance outcomes. Several non-regulatory variables predicted by theory to be important influences—the level of work skills, for example, and product market factors related to the elasticity of labor demand—are indeed found to be correlated with compliance. Nonetheless, stringent forms of contractor monitoring are associated with substantial reductions in violations of minimum wage standards. The results suggest that well-designed public/private monitoring efforts can lead to significant improvements in compliance with labor standards.
Did American Welfare Capitalists Breach Their Implicit Contracts during the Great Depression? Preliminary Findings from Company-Level Data
Authors: Moriguchi Chiaki
Published: June 2015

It has been claimed that American employers' experiments in private welfare capitalism collapsed during the Great Depression, giving place to the welfare state and industrial unionism. Recent studies, however, reveal considerable differences in experience across firms. The author of this study, who characterizes private welfare capitalism as a set of human resource management practices constituting an implicit contract equilibrium, tests the implications of implicit contract theory using data from fourteen leading manufacturing firms. The repudiation of implicit contracts, she finds, was positively correlated with the severity of the depression's impact experienced by firms and negatively correlated with the effectiveness of “internal enforcement mechanisms” instituted by firms. Furthermore, she finds that greater breaches of implicit contracts were associated with greater employee support for industrial unions and more explicit employment contracts concluded under the New Deal. A comparative case study complements the quantitative analysis by exploring internal dynamics.
Firm-Level Contracting and the Structure of Wages in Spain
Authors: Card David , De La Rica Sara
Published: June 2015

In many European countries, sectoral bargaining agreements are automatically extended to cover all firms in an industry. Employers and employees can also negotiate firm-specific contracts. The authors of this paper use a large matched employer-employee data set from a 1995 survey in Spain to study the effects of firm-level contracting on the structure of wages. They estimate a series of wage determination models, including specifications that control for individual characteristics, coworker characteristics, the bargaining status of the workplace, and the probability that the workplace was covered by a firm-level contract. They find that firm-level contracting was associated with a 5–10% wage premium, with larger premiums for more highly paid workers. Although they cannot decisively test between alternative explanations for the firm-level contracting premium, they find that workers with firm-specific contracts had substantially longer job tenure than other workers, suggesting that the premium was at least partially a non-competitive phenomenon.
Union Wages and Union Decline: Evidence from the Construction Industry
Authors: Belman Dale , Voos Paula B.
Published: June 2015

Two well-documented empirical findings are that unionized employees typically receive substantially higher compensation than their non-union counterparts and that union representation in the United States has declined over time. Some observers have hypothesized a causal link between these two phenomena: the achievement of a union wage premium, they argue, hastened union decline both by reducing union firms' economic competitiveness and by inducing employers to adopt various union avoidance strategies. Using data from the Current Population Survey and the Census Bureau's Census of Construction, the authors test this hypothesis for the construction industry. Even in estimations that allow for a lagged response and incorporate a variety of controls, they find no evidence that high union/nonunion wage ratios in construction in the 1970s or 1980s resulted in lower union membership in 2000.
Complementarities in Organizational Dispute Resolution Systems: How System Characteristics Affect Individuals' Conflict Experiences
Authors: Bendersky Corinne
Published: June 2015

In 1999–2000, a Canadian national government agency pilot-tested different employment dispute resolution systems (DRSs). The author analyzes how DRS characteristics in this natural quasi-experiment affected employees' approaches to conflict management, their attitudes toward conflict at work, and their rate of success in resolving conflict. A system that added negotiation training to a rights-based grievance procedure, she finds, was actually associated with worse conflict-related problems than a system consisting solely of a rights-based grievance procedure. In contrast, the joint use of a rights-based grievance procedure, negotiation training, and an interest-based neutral generated greatly improved outcomes. The author attributes the superior performance of a three-component DRS to complementarities among the components.
Time Out of Work and Skill Depreciation
Authors: Edin Per-Anders , Gustavsson Magnus
Published: June 2015

This paper investigates the role of skill depreciation in the relationship between work interruptions and subsequent wages. Using Swedish data from two waves (1994 and 1998) of the International Adult Literacy Survey, which included results of tests gauging respondents' ability to read and make practical use of printed information, the authors are able to analyze changes in individuals' skills as a function of time out of work. They find statistically strong evidence of a negative relationship between work interruptions and skills. The analysis suggests that depreciation of general skills was economically important. A full year of non-employment, for example, was associated with a 5-percentile move down the skill distribution.
Wage Growth and Job Mobility in the United Kingdom and Germany
Authors: Dustmann Christian , Pereira Sonia C.
Published: June 2015

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey for 1991–99 and the German Socio-Economic Panel for 1984–99, the authors investigate job mobility and estimate the returns to tenure and experience. Job mobility was higher in the United Kingdom than in Germany. Returns to experience also seem to have been substantially higher in the United Kingdom, where the wage gain associated with ten years of labor market experience was around 80%, compared to 35% in Germany. The low returns to labor market experience in Germany appear to have been accountable to one group of workers: those with apprenticeship training, who tended to receive fairly high starting wages but to experience relatively low wage growth thereafter. Wage growth due to labor market experience was similar between the two countries for the other skill groups. Returns to tenure were close to zero in both countries.
Strikes in Colonial India, 1921–1938
Authors: Wolcott Susan
Published: June 2015

Newly collected data on India's textile industry over the years 1921–38 show strike rates far higher than those observed in the British or U.S. textile industries when they were at a similar stage of development, despite an absence of formal union organization or state support for collective bargaining. Colonial India's high strike frequency is hard to account for in terms of current theories of strikes and collective action in general. The author believes that these data may point to the important role of social norms of cooperation in sustaining collective action.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program and Job Mobility: Identifying Job Lock among Working Parents in Near-Poor Households
Authors: Bansak Cynthia , Raphael Steven
Published: June 2015

To assess whether near-poor parents' job mobility is reduced due to the non-portability of employer-provided health insurance—an effect termed job lock—the authors examine data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation for 1996 and 2001, years bracketing the introduction of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Among the working fathers whose children met the SCHIP eligibility criteria, those whose wives did not have their own employer-provided insurance were 5–6% more likely to separate from their current employer in the year of the later survey than in the year of the earlier survey, whereas those whose wives were insured exhibited no comparable change in mobility. These results confirm the presence of job lock: for men whose wives were uninsured, but not for those whose wives were insured, the authors argue, the SCHIP program presented a new opportunity to switch jobs without losing health insurance.
Union Membership and Political Inclusion
Authors: Zullo Roland
Published: June 2015

Using county-level data, the author evaluates how labor affected the general population's political behavior during the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Voter turnout increased with unionization, but at declining rates with higher levels of unionization. The unionization/voter turnout link was stronger in counties with lower median incomes, higher income inequality, and lower levels of education, suggesting that unions partially closed the political participation gap between low- and high-SES (socioeconomic status) populations. State right-to-work laws, and the absence of collective bargaining rights for public employees, reduced labor's ability to increase voter turnout. The union effect on candidate preference had a positive, curvilinear association with union membership, but this effect was stronger in high-SES regions than in low-SES regions. Overall, these results imply a paradox for organized labor: unions can effectively increase working-class voter turnout, but they have difficulty persuading the working class to vote for pro-labor political candidates.
Economic Development Strategies and Macro-and Micro-Level Human Resource Policies: The Case of India's “Outsourcing” Industry
Authors: Kuruvilla Sarosh , Ranganathan Aruna
Published: June 2015

This detailed case study of India's “outsourcing” industry illustrates the challenges in linking macro and micro human resource policies with an economic development strategy based on export-oriented services. The rapid expansion in the outsourcing of services to India has raised the possibility that this sector will be a key engine of India's economic growth. Based on extensive field research carried out over a four-year period, the authors of this study argue that four interrelated human resource policy challenges threaten the outsourcing industry's growth: two “macro” problems (current skill shortages and the inability of the country to produce higher levels of skills for the long-term growth and sustainability of the industry), and two micro problems (very high levels of employee turnover and rapidly increasing employee costs). The authors evaluate current policy responses and suggest options.
Alcohol Abuse, Alcoholism, and Labor Market Outcomes: Looking for the Missing Link
Authors: Renna Francesco
Published: June 2015

There is puzzling evidence that alcohol abuse and alcoholism reduce labor earnings but have no effect on either hours worked or the hourly wage. This study revisits the link between problem drinking and earnings using data from the 1989 and 1994 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Questions about problem drinking were keyed to a table of symptoms for alcohol abuse and alcoholism in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The author finds no effects associated with alcohol abuse. In OLS regressions, alcoholism appears to have had negative effects on both labor market outcomes. In the lag variable and in the first difference regressions, alcoholism's negative effect on wages disappears, but its negative effect on hours of work remains, suggesting that the negative effect of alcoholism on earnings operates through reduced work hours. These results of the two-stage least squares are inconclusive.
Identifying the “Invisible Colleges” of the Industrial & Labor Relations Review: A Bibliometric Approach
Authors: Casey Debra L. , McMillan G. Steven
Published: June 2015

Since its inaugural issue in 1947, the Industrial and Labor Relations Review (ILRR) has been considered among the foremost industrial relations journals. Prominent among subjects treated by ILRRs articles in the journal's early years were collective bargaining and industrial strife, but the subject mix has changed greatly with the times. This paper employs bibliometric techniques to compare ILRR's intellectual bases across three recent periods: 1974–1984, 1985–1995, and 1996–2006. Using co-citation and network analyses, the authors identify the “invisible colleges”—research networks that refer to each other in their publications—of ILRR Economics-oriented journals were heavily cited by ILRR authors across the entire 33-year observation period, but there is evidence that another field, human resource management, was of growing importance in the most recent years.
Do Changes in Regulation Affect Employment Duration in Temporary Help Agencies?
Authors: Antoni Manfred , Jahn Elke J.
Published: June 2015

The employment duration of workers in temporary help agencies is seen as an important indicator of their job quality. Most of the countries that regulate temporary agency employment do so to ensure at least a minimal level of employment stability. Over the past three decades Germany has repeatedly liberalized the law on temporary agency employment. These successive reforms should have affected the employment duration in the temporary employment sector. Applying a mixed proportional hazard rate model to administrative data, the authors examine whether employment duration changed in response to these reforms. They find that successive extensions of the maximum assignment period significantly increased average employment duration, while “liberalizing” legislation, such as that allowing fixed-term contracts, tended to reduce it.
Institutions and Activism: Crisis and Opportunity for a German Labor Movement in Decline
Authors: Turner Lowell
Published: June 2015

In recent decades, German unions have rested on their institutional laurels even as the ground has slipped away. This article analyzes two recent innovative campaigns based on grassroots mobilization that, the author argues, offer possibilities for renewed union strength. A breakthrough campaign against a militantly anti-union firm in the retail industry demonstrates the potential for a German brand of social movement unionism. The story line and institution-building strategy of this campaign fall entirely outside the framework of traditional German industrial relations. A second, very different campaign, from deep inside that traditional framework, has mobilized union members in Nordrhein-Westfalen (IG Metall's largest district) for active engagement in contract negotiations and membership growth. Together, these two stories challenge existing perspectives on once stable German industrial relations, point toward inadequacies of prominent contemporary theories of institutional stability and change, and suggest constraints and opportunities for a German labor movement in need of strategic reorientation.
The Effects of National Institutions and Collective Bargaining Arrangements on Job Quality in Front-Line Service Workplaces
Authors: Doellgast Virginia , Holtgrewe Ursula , Deery Stephen
Published: June 2015

This paper analyzes the relationships among national institutions, collective bargaining arrangements, and job quality in call center workplaces, using establishment-level survey data obtained in 2003–2006 in five European coordinated market economies (CMEs) (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, and Sweden) and three liberal market economies (LMEs) (Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom). Overall, the authors find lower dismissal rates, more use of high-involvement management practices, and less performance monitoring in the CMEs, consistent with the notion that national institutions can influence employment practices even in more poorly regulated service workplaces. However, workplace-level collective bargaining arrangements and in-house (compared to outsourced) status also were associated with significantly higher measures of job quality across countries. Findings suggest that within CMEs, dual union/works council representation continues to provide important support for job security, participation, and discretion, but that outsourcing can effect a partial escape from this institution.