bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Union Membership and Contract Coverage in the United States, 1983–1988
Authors: Curme Michael A. , Hirsch Barry T. , MacPherson David A.
Published: June 2015

This paper presents union membership and contract coverage density figures, based on calculations from Current Population Survey tapes for the years 1983–88, for employed civilian workers classified by demographic and labor market characteristics, industry, occupation, state, and metropolitan area. The estimates are calculated using new Census category codes and large sample sizes for the years 1986–88. In 1988, economy-wide union membership was 16.6%, and contract coverage 18.8%, of the employed labor force. In the same year, membership and contract coverage densities for private sector workers were 12.6% and 13.8%, respectively, compared to 36.5% and 43.4% for public sector workers. Membership and contract coverage densities decreased throughout the 1983–88 period in the private sector, but remained stable in the public sector. All estimates presented here are available from the authors in machine-readable form.
Are Women and Blacks Closing the Gap? Salary Discrimination in American Science during the 1970s and 1980s
Authors: Haberfeld Yitchak , Shenhav Yehouda
Published: June 2015

The authors use two longitudinal surveys of American scientists conducted by the Census Bureau, one for the years 1972–76 and one for the years 1982–86, to estimate salary discrimination against black scientists and female scientists. In counterpoint to the results of some other studies, which have suggested that race- and gender-based salary discrimination has been either declining or stable in many occupations, this analysis provides evidence that salary discrimination against black scientists and female scientists worsened between the 1970s and the 1980s. Female scientists earned about 12% less than similarly qualified male scientists in 1972, but 14% less in 1982; and black scientists earned about the same amount as white scientists in 1972, but 6% less in 1982.
The Impact on Economic Performance of a Transformation in Workplace Relations
Authors: Cutcher-Gershenfeld Joel
Published: June 2015

This study examines how a transformation in patterns of conflict and cooperation affected economic performance in 25 work areas of a large, unionized manufacturing facility in the period 1984–87. Unlike most studies of industrial relations and economic performance, this study clearly distinguishes conflict from cooperation but evaluates the two together, rather than focusing on only one. An analysis of data collected from union and employer records and interviews strongly suggests that work areas with “traditional” labor-management relations, rooted in adversarial assumptions, had higher costs, more scrap, lower productivity, and a lower return to direct labor hours worked than work areas with “transformational” relations, characterized by increased cooperation and improved dispute resolution.
Fixed and Flexible Wages: Evidence from Panel Data
Authors: Rayack Wendy L.
Published: June 2015

Using data for the years 1968–84 from the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this study analyzes differential flexibility in nominal wages by tenure and occupation. The results show that short-run sensitivity to both unemployment and inflation is confined largely to low-tenure workers and that the cyclical upgrading and downgrading of employment opportunities makes a significant contribution to flexibility in nominal wages. The findings are consistent with a model in which long-term commitments insulate the wages of senior workers from short-run swings in economic conditions and in which nominal wages are largely noncyclical but employment opportunities shrink and expand.
The Wage Effects of Voluntary Labor Mobility with and without Intervening Unemployment
Authors: Antel John J.
Published: June 2015

This study investigates how an unemployment spell between jobs affects a job-changer's new wages. One hypothesis holds that the search and mobility costs associated with unemployment between jobs are compensated for by increased wage gains resulting from more intensive job search; opposing hypotheses are that unemployed job changers are at a disadvantage because they have fewer job contacts than job changers who move directly from one job to another, or because they are unable to gain new skills or develop good work habits while unemployed. The results of this analysis of 1979–81 data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men support the first hypothesis: an unemployment spell between jobs is associated with wage gains higher than those obtained when the job change was made with no intervening unemployment.
The Effects of Airline Strikes on Struck and Nonstruck Carriers
Authors: De Fusco Richard A. , Fuess Scott M.
Published: June 2015

This study provides new evidence on the industrywide impact of strikes by investigating how strikes have affected the values of struck and nonstruck airlines. Using stock market data for the years 1963–86, the authors show that most strikes adversely affected the value of struck airlines' stock but enhanced the stock value of nonstruck carriers. The results also show that strikes before October 1978, which marked the end of strict regulation of the industry and of the employers' mutual aid pact, had some effects different from those of strikes after that date.
Attribution Theory and Discipline Arbitration
Authors: Bemmels Brian
Published: June 2015

This study focuses on 230 male arbitrators' decisions in a hypothetical discharge grievance case. An analysis of the responses supports the central proposition of attribution theory that a decision-maker's response to an individual's action largely depends on the decision-maker's attributions of causality or responsibility for the action. The analysis also shows that, all else equal, the arbitrators tended to specify a more lenient penalty when the grievant was female than when the grievant was male; and more experienced arbitrators tended to decide either completely in favor of the grievant or completely in favor of the employer, whereas less experienced arbitrators tended to make compromise decisions.
The Social Charter of the European Community: A Defeat for European Labor
Authors: Silvia Stephen J.
Published: June 2015

This study examines the failure of the effort by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and its national affiliates to obtain a uniform and binding set of regulations for Europeanwide collective bargaining within the European Community's 1989 Charter of Fundamental Social Rights. The trade unions were prompted to act by the program to create a single European market by the end of 1992. The author argues that labor's weak position economically and politically in the late 1980s and early 1990s, particularly at the national level, prevented the ETUC and its member confederations from winning support for their version of the Social Charter, since they could neither credibly threaten recalcitrant governments with social unrest nor convincingly offer them electoral aid.
Male-Female Differences in Hourly Wages: The Role of Human Capital, Working Conditions, and Housework
Authors: Hersch Joni
Published: June 2015

This study uses a new data set from a 1986 survey of workers to examine simultaneously the wage effects of human capital, household responsibilities, working conditions, and on-the-job training. The analysis suggests that household responsibilities had a negative effect on women's earnings, but the unexplained difference between the earnings of men and women is not greatly reduced by inclusion in the explanatory model of information on either housework or working conditions. The presence of children appears to have had a positive effect on the wages of both men and women.
A Test of an Efficiency Model of Grievance Activity
Authors: Cappelli Peter , Chauvin Keith
Published: June 2015

The authors develop a model in which the extent of use of a grievance system is determined by wage premiums and alternative job opportunities. Specifically, they hypothesize that when workers enjoy comparatively high wages or are faced with poor alternative job opportunities, they are less likely to use withdrawal mechanisms that might lead to dismissal (such as shirking or absenteeism) and more likely to use grievance procedures to address workplace problems. The results of an analysis of data for the year 1982 from a large manufacturing company are consistent with this hypothesis.
Are Strikes Less Effective in Conglomerate Firms?
Authors: Rose David C.
Published: June 2015

The author develops an extension of the Ashenfelter-Johnson model of union wage bargaining to account for how diversification can improve a firm's ability to take strikes and therefore reduce wage settlements. To test the model, a wage equation is derived that is conditioned on the occurrence of a strike and is then estimated using union wage settlement data for 15 manufacturing firms covering contract settlements from 1954 to 1988. The estimation results support organized labor's contention that conglomerate firms enjoy a significant bargaining advantage over labor unions.
Government Wage Differentials in a Municipal Labor Market: The Case of Houston Metropolitan Transit Workers
Authors: Moore William J. , Newman Robert J.
Published: June 2015

Previous studies of wage and fringe benefit differentials between public and private sector workers have generally employed one of three different methods to measure the differentials. This study is the first to use all three simultaneously. The authors find that the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority provided total hourly compensation that was 82.8% higher for cleaners, 82.9% higher for bus drivers, and 31.3% higher for mechanics than the compensation received by comparable private sector workers in 1988. Separation rates for these three groups were less than half the national rate for similar workers. These findings suggest that previous studies, most of which have shown no significant wage premium for government workers, may be misleading. Also, estimates of government wage differentials may be biased downward for skilled workers because available data sets generally lack adequate information on fringe benefits and their distribution across occupations.
Public Sector Unions and Municipal Employment
Authors: Trejo Stephen J.
Published: June 2015

Using 1980 data for a large sample of U.S. cities, the author reexamines recent empirical findings of a positive association between public sector unionization and municipal employment. Several researchers have interpreted this correlation as evidence that public employee unions successfully exert political pressure to raise the demand for municipal services. Structural estimates of labor demand and the determinants of police and fire unionization reveal, however, that economies of scale in union formation are at least partly responsible for any positive association between public sector unionization and municipal employment. The author concludes that previous studies overstate the amount of political clout wielded by municipal labor unions.
Occupational Mobility of Black Women, 1958–1981: The Impact of Post-1964 Antidiscrimination Measures
Authors: Fosu Augustin Kwasi
Published: June 2015

This study finds that between 1965 and 1981, black women's occupational mobility rose relative to that of white women and white men by about 20% and 24%, respectively, and that more than half of these gains remain even after controlling for pre-existing trends, cyclical economic conditions, education, and factors potentially influencing the labor supply. No evidence is found to support the null hypothesis that this pattern is explained in significant measure by a decline in the labor supply of black women. The author argues, instead, that the results reflect the effects of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and, by the mid-1970s, affirmative action laws.
The Transformation of Labor Unions in Eastern Europe: The Case of Bulgaria
Authors: Jones Derek C.
Published: June 2015

This paper describes changes in trade unions in Bulgaria, where a fundamental shift away from the old communist union model is in progress. The author discusses the emergence of plural unionism, changes in the structure and functions of unions, and changing relationships between unions and political parties. These developments, he concludes, demonstrate that it is possible for unions formerly under strong centralized state control to implement effective labor reforms and to contribute to broader social reforms. Moreover, the author views this transformation in Bulgaria as a lasting one, barring severe political reversals.
Salary Arbitration and Pre-Arbitration Negotiation in Major League Baseball
Authors: Faurot David J. , McAllister Stephen
Published: June 2015

Two assumptions in this analysis of baseball salary arbitration are that (1) players and clubs, to serve their interests in pre-arbitration negotiation, submit final offers to maximize and minimize, respectively, the expected value of the arbitrator's decision, and (2) arbitrators whose decisions are predictably biased are not appointed to settle player disputes, because such arbitrators are vetoed by one or the other side. These assumptions allow the authors to estimate the effects of several variables on arbitrators' decisions in 1984–91 cases. They find statistically significant effects for four variables that the industry's collective bargaining agreement identifies as matters arbitrators should consider—the player's performance during the previous season, the length and consistency of the player's career performance, previous compensation, and the club's recent performance—and for one variable not mentioned in that agreement—player position.
The Effect of the Minimum Wage on the Fast-Food Industry
Authors: Katz Lawrence F. , Krueger Alan B.
Published: June 2015

Using a longitudinal survey of fast-food restaurants in Texas, the authors examine the impact of recent increases in the federal minimum wage on a low-wage labor market. Less than 5% of fast-food restaurants were using the new youth subminimum wage in July/August 1991, even though the vast majority paid a starting wage below the new hourly minimum wage immediately before it became effective. Although some restaurants increased wages beyond the level needed to comply with higher minimum wages in both 1990 and 1991, those federal minimum wage increases greatly compressed the distribution of starting wages in the Texas fast-food industry. Two findings at variance with conventional predictions are that (1) employment increased more in those firms likely to have been most affected by the 1991 minimum wage increase than in other firms and (2) price changes were unrelated to mandated wage changes.
Employment Effects of Minimum and Subminimum Wages: Panel Data on State Minimum Wage Laws
Authors: Neumark David , Wascher William
Published: June 2015

Using panel data on state minimum wage laws and economic conditions for the years 1973–89, the authors reevaluate existing evidence on the effects of a minimum wage on employment. Their estimates indicate that a 10% increase in the minimum wage causes a decline of 1–2% in employment among teenagers and a decline of 1.5–2% in employment for young adults, similar to the ranges suggested by earlier time-series studies. The authors also find evidence that youth subminimum wage provisions enacted by state legislatures moderate the disemployment effects of minimum wages on teenagers.
Der Differences in Attitudes toward Unions
Authors: Schur Lisa A. , Kruse Douglas L.
Published: June 2015

In the U.S. private sector, women are less likely than men to be union members. This study analyzes a unique national survey (conducted in 1984) to determine if women are less interested than men in unionizing or if, instead, they are equally interested but face higher barriers to unionization. The results support the latter interpretation. In particular, nonunion women in private sector white-collar jobs (representing over half of the female nonunion work force) expressed more interest than comparable men in joining unions. This finding appears to reflect more optimism among the women in this group than among the men about what unions can accomplish; it is not explained by gender differences in attitudes toward jobs or employers. The authors discount theories that family responsibilities, or concerns of female workers that set them apart from men, present special barriers to unionization.
Strikes as Collective Voice: A Behavioral Analysis of Strike Activity
Authors: Godard John
Published: June 2015

This paper outlines a “collective voice” approach for examining the behavioral determinants of variation in strike activity at the organizational level. The author argues that strikes should be viewed primarily as expressions of worker discontent rather than a result of imperfect or asymmetrical information. An analysis of survey data collected from 112 Canadian firms in 1980–81 indicates that managerial practices, operations size and technology, product market structure and conditions, union politics, and various other factors that influence the behavioral context of negotiations are significantly related to days lost due to strike activity. These findings are generally consistent with predictions from the collective voice approach.
Effects of Labor Legislation and Industry Characteristics on Union Coverage in Canada
Authors: Martinello Felice , Meng Ronald
Published: June 2015

The authors investigate the determinants of union coverage using 1986 cross-section data on Canadian workers. Larger firm size, larger establishment size, and higher injury rates increase the probability of union coverage. Industry concentration, import penetration, and the substitutability of labor do not affect coverage through their impact on the union-nonunion wage differential, but concentration increases the probability of coverage through a mechanism unrelated to the wage differential. Mandatory checkoff provisions increase the probability of coverage, but the estimated effect is barely significant. Restrictions on replacement workers and interprovincial differences in automatic certification provisions have statistically insignificant effects. Finally, the results are sensitive to treating some industry characteristics as endogenous (that is, jointly determined with union coverage and union and nonunion wages)—a treatment not used in other studies.
Unionization among Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Authors: Defreitas Gregory
Published: June 2015

Using data on 23–30-year-olds from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the author presents the first comparative economic analysis of union coverage among black, Hispanic, Asian, and white workers in the United States. Coverage is found to be highest in this age group for blacks, followed by Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites, and Asians. Contrary to common belief, immigrants average higher rates of unionization than natives. Once the regression analysis takes into account the larger proportions of urban, immigrant, and less-educated workers in the Hispanic sample, the differences in demand for unionization among comparable whites, Asians, and Hispanics fall to insignificance. Blacks tend to exhibit a markedly stronger demand for representation than comparable workers from other groups.
The Determinants of Trade Union Membership in Britain: A Survey of the Literature
Authors: Mason Bob , Bain Peter
Published: June 2015

Trade union density, defined as the number of union members divided by the total number of workers, fell in Britain from 55% in 1979 to about 41% in 1989. (By comparison, the corresponding U.S. figures for those years are 23% and 16%.) Even before the decline began, British scholars and practitioners began focusing increasing attention on the determinants of union growth and decline. This literature review traces debate on the subject in Britain to the work of George Bain and his colleagues starting in the mid-1970s, and examines several key contributions of more recent years. The authors differentiate “structuralist” studies, which emphasize environmental determinants of union membership (such as the business cycle), from “interventionist” studies, which place more emphasis on the influence of unions themselves (through the involvement of full-time officials in recruiting, for example).
The Scope, Nature, and Effects of Employee Stock Ownership Plans in Japan
Authors: Jones Derek C. , Kato Takao
Published: June 2015

Using data for various years, including new data for 1973–84, the authors examine the scope, nature, determinants, and effects of Japanese employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). In 1988, of firms listed on Japan's eight stock exchange markets, 91% had an ESOP, and the average (non-executive) employee plan participant owned stock worth about $14,000. Probit estimates for a sample of manufacturing firms show that firms were more likely to adopt ESOPs when recent business performance was below average, the capital/labor ratio was relatively low, and employment growth was relatively fast. Evidence is also found that ESOPs enhanced enterprise productivity. The authors argue that ESOPs have played an important, and largely overlooked, role in the success of the Japanese economy over the past two decades.
Justifying Affirmative Action: Highway Construction in Louisiana
Authors: Lunn John , Perry Huey L.
Published: June 2015

Using data from Louisiana's Department of Transportation and Development for the years 1985–89 and a 1990 survey of construction firms doing business in Louisiana, the authors examine whether firms owned by minorities and women faced discrimination in the awarding of contracts in the state's public highway construction program. No evidence of discrimination is shown by a regression analysis, and only weak, ambiguous evidence of discrimination is shown by a disparity ratio analysis. The authors conclude that the sampled firms did not face discrimination in the years examined.
Trade Unionism, Social Justice, and Religious Discrimination in Northern Ireland
Authors: Cradden Terry
Published: June 2015

This article examines the actions of trade union leaders in response to religious discrimination in employment in Northern Ireland, and their influence on British Government policy-making on this question. The main finding is that despite the risk of alienating many members, the trade union movement persisted in seeking radical remedies for discrimination during the 1980s, and was influential in the shaping of anti-discrimination legislation enacted in 1989. The author finds points of similarity between this history and the AFL-CIO leadership's civil rights stand in the 1960s, and sees these examples as evidence that egalitarian values have played, and continue to play, an important role in shaping union purpose and action.
Trucking Deregulation and the Black/White Wage Gap
Authors: Peoples James , Saunders Lisa
Published: June 2015

The only previous study of the effect of product market deregulation on the black/white wage gap found that this gap in the trucking industry declined after trucking deregulation in 1978. That study did not, however, estimate the separate effects of deregulation on union and nonunion members or on black and white drivers. This study does so through an analysis of individual worker information from the March and May CPS files for the years 1973 through 1988. The authors find that deregulation is associated with significantly declining black/white wage gaps among both union and nonunion drivers. This wage pattern is attributable to significant reductions in the real wages of white drivers; the real wages of black drivers did not change with deregulation.
Do Workers Accurately Perceive Gender Wage Discrimination?
Authors: Hampton Mary B. , Heywood John S.
Published: June 2015

Using data from a 1987 American Medical Association survey of young physicians, the authors investigate how accurately the women in the sample perceived the gender wage discrimination affecting them. Contrary to the conclusion of some studies that women inaccurately perceive gender discrimination against them, this study finds a strong, positive correlation between women's perceptions of the gender income differences they were experiencing and econometric estimates of those differences. The women in this sample accurately perceived gender wage discrimination, and built that perception into their judgment of the amount by which they were underpaid.
The Effect of Employee Benefits on the Demand for Part-Time Workers
Authors: Montgomery Mark , Cosgrove James
Published: June 2015

This paper uses the results of a unique survey of child care centers in 1989 to examine the effect of fringe benefits on the demand for part-time teachers and teacher aides. An analysis that controls for wages and other establishment characteristics shows that as the level of fringe benefit payments at the establishment rises, hours of work by part-time workers fall significantly relative to the hours worked by full-time teachers and teacher aides. Particularly influential are insurance payments (such as health and dental), which have an effect more than twice that of fringe benefits in general.
Gender and Union Organizing
Authors: Crain Marion
Published: June 2015

Analyzing survey and interview data gathered in 1990 and 1991, the author assesses the influence of worker gender on the union organizing philosophy and strategies adopted by union organizing directors and field organizers. The results suggest that although most of those sampled did not view worker gender as influential in shaping organizing style, some service sector union organizers and organizers of “pink-collar” workers (who are predominantly female) were using organizing styles different from the conventional style. Further, the approaches of female organizers, particularly those organizing for occupationally targeted divisions of manufacturing unions, appeared to be explicitly gender-conscious.
Shareholder Risk and Returns in Union and Nonunion Firms
Authors: Hirsch Barry T. , Morgan Barbara A.
Published: June 2015

This study examines shareholder risk and rates of return in union and nonunion companies in 1973–87. Shareholder risk declined with the extent of union coverage in the 1970s, and returns were lower among highly unionized companies than among other companies during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Union-nonunion differences in risk were small and insignificant by the mid-1980s, however, and there was no systematic relationship between union coverage and shareholder returns in the mid-1970s or mid-1980s. Finally, firms with relatively low rates of return to investors in 1977–82 tended to experience larger than average declines in firm-level union coverage between 1977 and 1987. As a partial explanation for these findings, the authors posit a relationship between shareholder risk and the differential use of COLAs across industries and time.
The Role of Pensions in the Labor Market: A Survey of the Literature
Authors: Gustman Alan L. , Mitchell Olivia S. , Steinmeier Thomas L.
Published: June 2015

Because employer-sponsored group pension plans entail agreements between workers and their employers explicitly linking future payment and employment, they offer an unusual window into long-term employment relationships. This review of recent research on pensions explores how pensions influence employee compensation, retirement, turnover, and other matters central to the determination of labor's price and quantity over time. The authors also outline some unanswered questions and difficult-to-reconcile findings.
Long-Run Convergence of Ethnic Skill Differentials: The Children and Grandchildren of the Great Migration
Authors: Borjas George J.
Published: June 2015

This paper investigates whether the ethnic skill differentials introduced into the United States by the inflow of very dissimilar immigrant groups during the Great Migration of 1880–1910 have disappeared during the past century. An analysis of the 1910, 1940, and 1980 Censuses and the General Social Surveys reveals that those ethnic differentials have indeed narrowed, but that it might take four generations, or roughly 100 years, for them to disappear. The analysis also indicates that the economic mobility experienced by American-born blacks, especially since World War Two, resembles that of the white ethnic groups that made up the Great Migration.
The Credibility of Drug Tests: A Multi-Stage Bayesian Analysis
Authors: Barnum Darold T. , Gleason John M.
Published: June 2015

The authors show that even when drug tests are extremely accurate by conventional measures, under some circumstances they will yield a high “false accusation rate” (that is, a high percentage of those testing positive for drugs will not have drugs in their systems). For example, if a drug-testing process that produces only one false positive per 2,000 drug-free specimens, and no false negatives, is administered to a population in which 0.1% of the people use the targeted drugs, one-third of those identified as drug users will be falsely accused. The authors propose a multi-stage Bayesian algorithm—an approach commonly used in management science but novel to industrial relations—that assures that a drug-testing process will have a low enough false accusation rate to provide credible evidence of drug use. They also identify other types of employee evaluations to which Bayesian modeling could be applied.
Multisite Employment and Training Program Evaluations: A Tale of Three Studies
Authors: Greenberg David , Meyer Robert H. , Wiseman Michael
Published: June 2015

This paper explores the gains from multiplying the number of sites used in experimental evaluation of the effects of employment and training programs. Using a multilevel (hierarchical) statistical framework, the authors analyze the role of site multiplication in three recent program evaluations. Although several experiments have involved substantial numbers of sites, the potential benefits from such strategies are largely unrealized. The authors argue for more involvement of the federal government in designing and implementing evaluations that will allow analysis of how the interaction of client, program, and environmental variables affects outcomes.
Labor Costs and the Social Dumping Debate in the European Union
Authors: Ericksno Christopher L. , Kuruvilla Sarosh
Published: June 2015

This study examines the labor cost incentive for capital movement in manufacturing within the European Union, a key aspect of the “social dumping” debate in Western Europe. The authors find that the percentage differences in unit labor costs between the more developed and less developed countries in the Union not only were large in 1980 but actually grew between 1980 and 1986, and separate estimates of compensation and productivity growth rates do not indicate that significant convergence occurred over the remainder of the 1980s. Although these findings apparently confirm that a labor cost incentive for capital mobility does exist, analysis of foreign direct investment data indicates that during the period 1980–88 capital flows to the lower labor cost countries actually were not much larger than capital flows to the higher labor cost countries.
Employer-Provided Health Insurance and Retirement Behavior
Authors: Gustman Alan L. , Steinmeier Thomas L.
Published: June 2015

Using data from the 1969–79 Retirement History Study, the 1977 National Medical Care Expenditure Survey, the 1983–86 Survey of Consumer Finances, and the 1988 Current Population Survey, the authors analyze, with a structural retirement model, the effect on retirement of employer-provided health benefits. Such benefits, they find, tend to delay retirement until the age of eligibility and afterward to accelerate it. The net effect is small: employer-provided health benefits lowered male retirement age by only about 1.3 months. Valuing health benefits at the price of private health insurance to unaffiliated men, rather than at the cost to employers, increases the effect. Ignoring retiree health benefits in retirement models creates only a small bias.
Pension Portability and Labor Market Efficiency: A Survey of the Literature
Authors: Dorsey Stuart
Published: June 2015

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature evaluating the labor market effects of policies to enhance pension portability. One perspective is that reducing the cost of job change will result in a more efficient allocation of workers. In contrast, long-term employment contract models suggest that incentives established by nonportable pensions may enhance efficiency by discouraging quits when there are job-specific productivity gains. No empirical studies have produced estimates conclusively showing that workers covered by pensions are more productive than other workers. Various indirect evidence, however—for example, on the relationship between pensions and wages, the pattern of pension coverage across workers and jobs, and the effect of pensions on layoffs—is consistent with pension-related productivity gains.
Does Salaried Status Affect Human Capital Accumulation?
Authors: Haber Sheldon E. , Goldfarb Robert S.
Published: June 2015

Human capital studies do not usually consider whether an individual is paid an hourly wage or a salary. The authors of this paper develop a conceptual framework that explains why some workers are paid salaries and predicts that salaried workers will invest more in human capital than will hourly workers. In particular, this prediction hinges on the differing effort incentives facing hourly and salaried workers, and their employers, in jobs that are paced versus unpaced. Empirical evidence supporting this prediction and other hypotheses implied by the proposed framework is presented using data on individuals covering a 16-month period in 1984–85 from the Bureau of Census Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a longitudinal survey.
Managing Work Disability: Why First Return to Work is Not a Measure of Success
Authors: Butler Richard J. , Johnson William G. , Baldwin Marjorie L.
Published: June 2015

Studies of the effectiveness of medical and vocational rehabilitation and the disincentive effects of workers' compensation benefits frequently assume that a return to work signals the end of the limiting effects of injuries. This study is the first to test that assumption empirically. The authors use a rich data set on Ontario workers with permanent partial impairments resulting from injuries that occurred between 1974 and 1987 to show that the effects of injuries on employment are more enduring than previous studies indicate. The rate of successful returns to employment, measured by first return to work, is 85%, but the rate of success evaluated over a longer time period is only 50%.
Leveraging Human Assets in Law Firms: Human Capital Structures and Organizational Capabilities
Authors: Sherer Peter D.
Published: June 2015

Partners in a law firm are the source of firm knowledge and hold claims to the firm's residual income; associates work for partners, acquire knowledge, and receive a fixed level of compensation. The author uses the ratio of associates to partners to measure the leveraging of human assets in law firms, which he likens to the leveraging of financial capital in other firms. Analyzing data on 312 large offices of law firms in 1991, he finds that this leverage ratio was related to business strategy, human resource management, and organizational structure. As an index of law firms' human capital structures, it also had important implications for organizational capabilities and firm competitiveness. For example, offices characterized by a rare and tightly controlled human capital structure had the highest billing rates, reflecting their capability of providing clients with services that deeply embody the knowledge of partners.
Do Health Insurance and Pension Costs Reduce the Job Opportunities of Older Workers?
Authors: Scott Frank A. , Berger Mark C. , Garen John E.
Published: June 2015

Using a 1991 nationwide survey of employers and 1979, 1983, 1988, and 1993 data from the Employee Benefits Supplement of the Current Population Survey, the authors examine the effects of fringe benefit provision on the decision to hire older workers. They find that higher health insurance costs, in the presence of prohibitions against age discrimination and discrimination in the provision of fringe benefits, adversely affected older workers' employment opportunities. In all five data sets over a fourteen-year period, the probability that a new hire was aged 55–64 was significantly lower in firms with health care plans than in those without, and was also significantly lower in firms with relatively costly plans than in those with less costly plans. On the other hand, neither the cost nor the presence of a defined contribution or defined benefit pension plan significantly affected that probability.
Sources of Training and Their Impact on Wages
Authors: Veum Jonathan R.
Published: June 2015

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth from 1986 to 1990, the author investigates the wage impact of various sources of training—among them, company training programs, apprenticeships, business schools, vocational and technical institutes, correspondence courses, and seminars outside the workplace. Time spent in training (of whatever kind) apparently did not affect 1990 wage levels. The incidence of two kinds of training, however—company training and seminars outside work—was positively related to wage levels as well as to wage change between 1986 and 1990; that is, workers who undertook such training enjoyed higher wages than those who did not. Time spent in vocational schools was also positively associated with wage change, though not with 1990 wage levels. The other forms of training had no apparent impact on either wage levels or wage change.
Union Rents as a Source of Takeover Gains among Target Shareholders
Authors: Becker Brian E.
Published: June 2015

This paper tests the hypothesis that the substantial gains enjoyed by shareholders in target firms during the corporate acquisition boom of the 1980s reflected, in part, shareholders' recouping of the value of “rents” (in the form of wage premiums, higher fringe benefits, and constraints on managerial authority) held by unionized labor. Analyzing data on the merger and acquisition experience of nearly 300 large publicly traded target firms during the period 1982–86, the author finds, consistent with that hypothesis, that shareholders' average returns from takeover activity were higher in unionized target firms (41%) than in nonunion target firms (35%). For unionized workers, these effects are equivalent to an annualized employee “loss” approaching 8% of annual earnings, or 50% of the wage premium conventionally associated with union coverage.
Successor Unions in Transitional Economies: Evidence from St. Petersburg
Authors: Jones Derek C.
Published: June 2015

This study of successor unions to the official unions in the former USSR, which uses data from 1992–93 field work and surveys of union leaders, demonstrates that, contrary to the claims of some observers, successor unions are capable of reform. Compared to the old unions, the successor unions examined in this study were more decentralized and democratic, placed more emphasis on job-related concerns, and had leaders with more varied profiles and compensation. The author finds no relationship between leaders' membership in the Communist Party and either their political beliefs or the probability of their being newly elected leaders. Union membership was far higher in successor unions than in the new, alternative unions. Tempering these indications of reformation, however, is some evidence of institutional inertia and persistence of privilege in the successor unions.
Labor Market Effects of Women's Post-School-Age Training
Authors: Hill Elizabeth T.
Published: June 2015

Using data from the 1984 NLS Mature Women's Cohort, this study investigates whether post-school-age training (defined as both formal education and other forms of training received after the end of formal schooling) affected women's wages and labor force participation. The author analyzes the association between training and wage changes over the years 1967 (when the women in the sample ranged in age from 30 to 44) through 1984 (when they had reached ages 47 to 61) and compares labor force participation in 1984 between women who had obtained post-school-age training and those who had not. Women who received post-school-age training experienced a greater rise in wages and participated in the labor force at older ages than did women who received no training.
The Effect of Deregulation on Employee Earnings: Pilots, Flight Attendants, and Mechanics, 1959–1992
Authors: Crémieux Pierre-Yves
Published: June 2015

Previous studies of the effect of the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act on employee earnings have reported mixed results: some have found no negative long-run effect of deregulation and others have found a negative effect of up to 10%. Most of these studies relied on cross-sectional analysis of a few years' data. This paper, in contrast, examines the long-term trends in airline earnings, based on 34 years of newly collected firm-level data from the Department of Transportation's Form 41 and airline workers' unions. The author finds that although deregulation had no statistically significant effect on the earnings of mechanics, it strongly affected the earnings of flight attendants and pilots. Flight attendants' earnings were at least 12% lower by 1985 and 39% lower by 1992 than they would have been if deregulation had not occurred, and the corresponding shortfalls for pilots were 12% and 22%.
Does the Level of Occupational Aggregation Affect Estimates of the Gender Wage Gap?
Authors: Kidd Michael P. , Shannon Michael
Published: June 2015

The traditional decomposition of the gender wage gap distinguishes between a component attributable to gender differences in productivity-related characteristics and a residual component that is often taken as a measure of discrimination. This study of data from the 1989 Canadian Labour Market Activity Survey shows that when occupation is treated as a productivity-related characteristic, the proportion of the gender wage gap labeled explained increases with the number of occupational classifications distinguished. However, on the basis of evidence that occupational differences reflect the presence of barriers faced by women attempting to enter male-dominated occupations, the authors conclude that occupation should not be treated as a productivity-related characteristic; and in a decomposition of the gender wage gap that treats occupation as endogenously determined, they find that the level of occupational aggregation has little effect on the size of the “explained” component of the gap.
Is Gender Pay Discrimination on the Wane? Evidence from Panel Data, 1968–1989
Authors: Ashraf Javed
Published: June 2015

Previous studies of the gender pay gap in the United States have found a narrowing of that gap in the past two decades, but have differed substantially in the reported magnitude of that change. This study calculates gender earnings differences using Panel Study of Income Dynamics data for 1968–89, a longer time series than has been examined by any similar study. It also employs improved statistical techniques, notably an adjustment for selection bias and a recently recommended modification of the most commonly used decomposition technique. The author finds a significant decline both in the portion of the differential due to observed differences between men's and women's characteristics and in the “unexplained” component, which is often attributed to discrimination. The results of one analysis show that over the 1968–89 period the gender pay gap narrowed to as little as 47%.
The Gender Wage Gap: A Comparison of Australia and Canada
Authors: Kidd Michael P. , Shannon Michael
Published: June 2015

Using data from the 1989 Canadian Labour Market Activity Survey and, for Australia, the 1989–90 Income Distribution Survey, the authors investigate the reasons for the significantly lower gender wage gap in Australia than in Canada. Key similarities and differences between these two countries, the authors argue, make them a good basis for a “natural experiment” to investigate the effects of different labor market institutions. In particular, Australia has a stronger union movement and a greater degree of centralization in wage determination than Canada, and most of its workers are covered by legally binding minimum working conditions. The authors conclude that several differences between the countries in labor market structure—notably, a lower rate of return to education, a lower rate of return to labor market experience, and a lower level of wage inequality in Australia than in Canada—are largely responsible for the smaller gender wage gap in Australia.
Using Event History Analysis to Model Delay in Grievance Arbitration
Authors: Ponak Allen , Zerbe Wilfred , Rose Sarah , Olson Corliss
Published: June 2015

Applying event history analysis to data on a sample of arbitration awards in Alberta in 1985–88, the authors investigate the factors that contribute to delay in different stages of the grievance arbitration process. The analysis shows that a different combination of factors explains delay at each stage of the process. The length of time from the filing of a grievance to referral to arbitration is a function of the complexity and type of the issue; delay in arbitrator selection is associated with the use of legal counsel and the size of the arbitration board; scheduling delay is associated with the nature of the grievance and the use of outside legal counsel; and delay in preparing the decision is linked to the complexity and type of the issue, board size, the presence of legal counsel, and the arbitrator's workload.
Learning from Interest Arbitration: The Next round
Authors: Olson Craig A. , Rau Barbara L.
Published: June 2015

In final offer arbitration the decision of the arbitrator provides the parties with information about the preferences of the arbitrator that is not available prior to the award. Using data from Wisconsin teacher negotiations from 1977 to 1986, the authors find that the information contained in an award altered the parties' expectations about the arbitrator's preferences and influenced the subsequent negotiated settlement. The negotiated settlement following an award was higher when the union's final offer was selected than when the employer's offer was selected. In the round following an award, the variance in negotiated settlements declined, and the wage structure toward which the settlements converged was one that conformed with the arbitrator's views of fairness.
The Labor Market Status of Immigrants: Effects of the Unemployment Rate at Arrival and Duration of Residence
Authors: Chiswick Barry R. , Cohen Yinon , Zach Tzippi
Published: June 2015

Combining Current Population Survey samples from November 1979, April 1983, June 1986, and June 1988, all of which included data on country of birth and year of immigration, the authors examine patterns of immigrant employment and unemployment. Human capital was less strongly linked to employment status for immigrant men than for native-born white men, probably because human capital acquired outside the United States was only imperfectly transferable to the U.S. labor market. Immigrants had some initial difficulty finding work, but their employment and unemployment rates quickly attained levels comparable to those of the native-born. There is no evidence that immigrants who arrived in a recession were subjected to a long-term “scarring” effect. Immigrants' labor market status appears to have been somewhat more sensitive to cyclical changes in economic activity than was that of the native-born.