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Dualism In The Labor Market: A Perspective On The Lewis Model After Half A Century, Gary S. Fields
Dualism In The Labor Market: A Perspective On The Lewis Model After Half A Century, Gary S. Fields
Gary S Fields
This paper asks how the Lewis model might be viewed from the perspective of economic science half a century later. Many of the core propositions remain intact, some might be amplified, and a small number might be revised.
Earnings And Employment Dynamics For Africans In Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Panel Study Of Kwazulu-Natal, Paul L. Cichello, Gary S. Fields, Murray Leibbrandt
Earnings And Employment Dynamics For Africans In Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Panel Study Of Kwazulu-Natal, Paul L. Cichello, Gary S. Fields, Murray Leibbrandt
Gary S Fields
[Excerpt] The labour market is central in determining individual and household well-being in South Africa. Therefore, an understanding of earnings and employment dynamics is a key policy issue. However, the absence of panel data has constrained empirical work addressing these issues. This paper makes use of a regional panel data set for KwaZulu-Natal to begin the study of earnings and employment dynamics. The authors find that, on average, working-aged Africans in KwaZulu-Natal experienced large gains in earnings during the period 1993–8. These gains were progressive in nature, with the highest quintile of 1993 earners and those originally employed in the …
Achievement, Test Scores And Relative Wages, John H. Bishop
Achievement, Test Scores And Relative Wages, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] This article examines the causal connections between these two phenomena: changes in the academic achievement of high school graduates and changes in the payoff to college. Four specific questions are addressed. The questions and the answers generated by our examination of the data are outlined below[...]
Vocational Education For At-Risk Youth: How Can It Be Made More Effective?, John H. Bishop
Vocational Education For At-Risk Youth: How Can It Be Made More Effective?, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] Minority youth and non-minority youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds have great difficulty finding steady jobs that provide real training and advancement opportunities. In October 1986, only 32 percent of black youth who had recently dropped out of high school had a job and only 42 percent of the previous June's graduates not attending college had a job. For Hispanics, only 46 percent of recent drop outs had a job and only 65 percent of graduates not attending college had a job. While the employment rates among white youth were higher (47 percent for drop outs and 71 percent for …
Are National Exit Examinations Important For Educational Efficiency?, John H. Bishop
Are National Exit Examinations Important For Educational Efficiency?, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
“This paper analyses effects of national or provincial exit examinations on education quality. On theoretical grounds, the paper argues that such examinations should increase high school achievement, particularly in examination subjects, and that teachers and students and parents and school administrators should focus more on academic achievement when making school-quality decisions. On the negative side, exit examinations may lead to a tendency to concentrate on learning facts, rather than understanding contexts.”
Department Of Labor Testing: Seizing An Opportunity To Increase The Competitiveness Of American Industry And To Raise The Earnings Of American Workers, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] The professionalism that the American military recently exhibited in the Persian Gulf is in no small part due to care with which it selects, assigns and trains its soldiers. The military's success in preparing this highly skilled workforce was made possible by decades of research into occupational competency assessment, aptitude test development and validity research. The Department of Labor is also a world leader in the development and validation of employment aptitude tests and there is now an opportunity for this expertise to be implemented in ways that can enhance the nations's competitiveness and improve the standard of living …
The Impacts Of School-Business Partnerships On The Early Labor-Market Success Of Students, John H. Bishop, Ferran Mane
The Impacts Of School-Business Partnerships On The Early Labor-Market Success Of Students, John H. Bishop, Ferran Mane
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] This chapter examines the effects of improved signaling of student achievement in high school on the labor market success of recent high-school graduates. The chapter is organized into three sections. In the first section, we reproduce the argument that Bishop put forth in 1985 that better signaling of student achievement to employers would improve the quality of the jobs that recent high-school graduates could obtain and strengthen incentives to learn. In the second section, we analyze longitudinal data on eight graders in 1988 and attempt to measure the effect of school-employer partnerships on their subsequent success in the labor …
Academic Learning And National Productivity, John H. Bishop
Academic Learning And National Productivity, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] Concern about slackening productivity growth and deteriorating competitiveness has resulted, in many nations, in a new public focus on the quality and rigor of the elementary and secondary education received by the nation's front line workers. Higher order thinking and problem solving skills are believed to be in particularly short supply so much attention has been given to mathematics and science education because it is thought that these subjects are particularly relevant to their development.
The Productivity Consequences Of What Is Learned In High School, John H. Bishop
The Productivity Consequences Of What Is Learned In High School, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] Another way of evaluating American performance in math and Science is to make comparisons with the upper secondary students of other nations. In the 196Os, the low ranking of American students in such comparisons was defended by citing the fact that higher proportions of American youth took the international test. This is no longer the case. Figures 1 to 4 plot the scores in Algebra, Biology, Chemistry and Physics against proportion of the 18-year old population in the types of courses to which the international test was administered. Where large proportions of the age cohort took the test, lower …
Are Early Investments In Computer Skills Rewarded In The Labor Market? , Ferran Mane, John H. Bishop
Are Early Investments In Computer Skills Rewarded In The Labor Market? , Ferran Mane, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
The paper assesses the relationship between investments in computer skills by adolescents and earnings at age 26. The heaviest investors earned 9 to 16 percent more than otherwise equivalent NELS-88 classmates. The payoff to early computer skills was substantial in jobs involving intense and complex uses of computers; negligible when computers were not used at work. It was non-gaming use of computers outside of school that enhanced future earnings, not playing video/computer games—which lowered earnings. Children in low SES families invested less in computer skills and thus benefited less from the job opportunities generated by the digital revolution.
Employer Training And Skill Shortages: A Review Of The State Of Knowledge With Recommendations For Future Research By The Department Of Labor, John H. Bishop
Employer Training And Skill Shortages: A Review Of The State Of Knowledge With Recommendations For Future Research By The Department Of Labor, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
"This report proposes that the Department of Labor undertake a program of research designed to inform the policy debate related to skill shortages and the role of employer training in ameliorating them. The paper reviews the currently available evidence and then proposes new research on seven questions."
Does The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit Create Jobs At Subsidized Firms?, John H. Bishop, Mark Montgomery
Does The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit Create Jobs At Subsidized Firms?, John H. Bishop, Mark Montgomery
John H Bishop
This paper uses the results of a survey of more than 3500 private employers to determine whether use of the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) alters the level of a fIrm's employment and/or whom the fInn hires. We estimate that each subsidized hire generates between .13 and .3 new jobs at a participating fIrm. Use of the program also appears to induce employers to hire more young workers (age 25 and under). Our results suggest, however, that at least 70% of the tax credits granted employers are payments for workers who would have been hired even without the subsidy. Such …
The Motivation Problem In American High Schools, John H. Bishop
The Motivation Problem In American High Schools, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
American high school students devote much less time and energy to their studies than the students of other nations. The cause of the lack of motivation is the lack of rewards for studying hard and for taking rigorous courses. This occurs for four reasons. First, the u.S. economy fails to give academic achievement its due reward in the labor market and rewards instead credentials that signify time spent, rather than competencies acquired. In most other countries credentials are more closely related to competencies obtained, so school achievement is a more important determinants of prestige and income as an adult than …
The Impact Of Previous Training In Schools And On Jobs On Productivity, Required Ojt, And Turnover Of New Hires, John H. Bishop
The Impact Of Previous Training In Schools And On Jobs On Productivity, Required Ojt, And Turnover Of New Hires, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] Workers who are assigned to the same job and paid the same wage often differ greatly in productivity. Coefficients of variation of individual productivity in specific jobs based on hard measures of physical output average .144 for factory operatives, .35 for sales clerks and .28 for craft workers (Hunter, Schmidt and Judiesch 1988). This paper examines whether and to what extent variations in productivity (and other job outcomes) across workers doing the same job at the same firm can be predicted by information on the background and training of the individual worker.
Some Thoughts On The Cost Effectiveness Of Graduate Education Subsidies, John H. Bishop
Some Thoughts On The Cost Effectiveness Of Graduate Education Subsidies, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] How much should doctorate training be subsidized? The answer proposed is, "Doctorate training should be subsidized to the extent and only to the extent that it produces externality or public benefits – i.e. benefits received by people other than the one receiving the diploma." This value judgment derives from three propositions: (1) In general, an adult knows better than anyone else what is best for himself; (2) the price (measured in both time and money) he is willing to pay for graduate education is the best measure of how much he values it relative to other offerings; and (3) …
Productivy Growth And Tenure: A Test Of On-The-Job Training Theories Of Wage And Productivy Growth, John H. Bishop, Stan Stephenson
Productivy Growth And Tenure: A Test Of On-The-Job Training Theories Of Wage And Productivy Growth, John H. Bishop, Stan Stephenson
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] Studies have found consistently that there is a strong positive correlation between a worker's tenure with a firm and that individual's wage rate. Becker's (1975) on-the-job training (OJT) model is the most widely accepted explanation for this association. The OJT model posits that new employees receive training early in their tenure, which raises their productivity both in and outside the firm. Competition forces the employer to pay employees who have completed this training at least as much as they are worth outside the firm less transfer costs. Jobs that offer such training are more attractive than jobs that do …
On-The-Job Training Of New Hires, John H. Bishop
On-The-Job Training Of New Hires, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
This paper presents an analysis of a unique data set containing measures of the time devoted to training during the first three months on a job and the productivity consequences of that training. The major findings derived from the analysis of the data on new hire training may be summarized as follows.
Why Are Wage Profiles So Flat During The First Year On A Job?, John H. Bishop, Suk Kang
Why Are Wage Profiles So Flat During The First Year On A Job?, John H. Bishop, Suk Kang
John H Bishop
This paper presents evidence that productivity net of general training costs rise 4 or 5 times more rapidly than wage rates during the first 2 years on a job. This occurs for three reasons. First, sorting, high job search costs and the reputational damages that result from premature separations cause workers to prefer front loaded compensation packages which reduce the likelihood of involuntary terminations. Second, due to progressive income taxation and poor access to credit, workers discount the future more heavily than employers. Front-loading compensation is, therefore, a relatively cheap way for employers to attract top quality new hires. Finally, …
Occupational Competency As A Predictor Of Labor Market Performance, John H. Bishop
Occupational Competency As A Predictor Of Labor Market Performance, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] The paper examines the suitability of occupational competency measurement as a device for enhancing the accountability of vocational education programs. In order for occupational competency tests to be used as program performance measures, they must be demonstrated to be valid predictors of labor market outcomes like earnings and wage rates and of job performance in appropriate occupations. The paper undertakes this task.
Scientific Illiteracy: Causes, Costs And Cures, John H. Bishop
Scientific Illiteracy: Causes, Costs And Cures, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] This article examines the causes of the learning deficits in science, math and technology, evaluates their social costs and then recommends policy measures for remedying the problems identified. Following the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science for All Americans report, I define the domain of "science" very broadly to include mathematics and technology along with the natural sciences. To avoid confusing readers accustomed to the narrower definition of science, broadly defined science is referred to as science, mathematics and technology.
Why Students Don't Study: How You Can Make Studying Pay Off For Them, John H. Bishop
Why Students Don't Study: How You Can Make Studying Pay Off For Them, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
American high school students devote much less time and energy to their studies than the students of other nations. The cause of the lack of motivation is the lack of rewards for studying hard and for taking rigorous courses. This occurs for four reasons. First, the U.S. economy fails to give academic achievement its due reward in the labor market and rewards instead credentials that signify time spent, rather than competencies acquired. In most other countries credentials are more closely related to competencies obtained, so competencies acquired rather than just time spent are a more important determinant of prestige and …
The Federal Role In Education Reform, John H. Bishop
The Federal Role In Education Reform, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] The analysis of the causes of the American apathy regarding teaching and learning has important implications for the curriculum. Many of the weaknesses of math and science curricula--the constant review and repetition of old material, the slow pace and minimal expectations--are adaptations to the low level of effort most students are willing to devote to these subjects. When considering proposed revisions of the curriculum, one must remember that motivating students to take tough courses and to study hard must be a central concern.
Vocational And Academic Education In High School: Complements Or Substitutes, Suk Kang, John H. Bishop
Vocational And Academic Education In High School: Complements Or Substitutes, Suk Kang, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] A number of blue ribbon-panels have called for increases in the number academic courses required for graduation from high school and for lengthening the school day and the school year. Most states have adopted the first of these recommendations but not the second. With the amount of time a student spends in school remaining constant, increases in the number of required academic courses force reductions elsewhere. Which activities should be reduced? Should the reduction be made in study halls, music and fine arts,physical education, and life skills courses or should it come in vocational education? The answer to this …
The Worsening Shortage Of College Graduate Workers, John H. Bishop, Shani Carter
The Worsening Shortage Of College Graduate Workers, John H. Bishop, Shani Carter
John H Bishop
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projections of occupational employment growth have consistently underpredicted the growth of skilled occupations. BLS currently projects that professional, technical and managerial jobs will account for 44.5 percent of employment growth between 1988 and 2000, while we project they will account for 70 percent of employment growth. Between March 1988 and March 1991 these occupations, in fact, accounted for 87 percent of employment growth. The BLS's projections of the supply/demand balance for college graduates have also been off the mark--predicting a surplus in the 19808 when in fact relative wage ratios for college graduates were rising …
Department Of Labor Testing: Seizing An Opportunity To Increase The Competitiveness Of American Industry And To Raise The Earnings Of American Workers , John H. Bishop
Department Of Labor Testing: Seizing An Opportunity To Increase The Competitiveness Of American Industry And To Raise The Earnings Of American Workers , John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] Greater use of tests assessing competence in verbal, mathematical, technical arenas and in specific occupations for selecting workers will have important effects on the economy. First, the rewards for developing the competencies measured by the tests will rise and this will increase the supply of workers whh these competencies. Tests like the General Aptitude Test Battery predict job performance because they measure or are correlated with a large set of developed abilities which are causa}]y related to productivity and not because they are correlated with an inherited ability to learn. Legal barriers to increased use of tests assessing verbal, …
The Impact Of Academic Competencies On Wages, Unemployment And Job Performance, John H. Bishop
The Impact Of Academic Competencies On Wages, Unemployment And Job Performance, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] The scientific and mathematical competence of American high school students is generally recognized to be very low. Of those graduating from high echool in 1987, only 45 percent had taken chemistry, only 20 percent had taken physics and only 12 percent had taken pre-calculus and only 6 percent had taken calculus (Educational Testing Service 1990). The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports that only 7.5 percent of 17 year old students can "integrate specialized scientific information" (NAEP 1988a p.51) and 6.4 percent "demonstrated the capacity to apply mathematical operations in a variety of problem settings." (NAEP 1988b p. …
Underinvestment In On-The Job Training?, John H. Bishop
Underinvestment In On-The Job Training?, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] A growing number of commentators are pointing to employer sponsored training (OJT)as a critical ingredient in a nation's competitiveness. American employers appear to devote less time and resources to the training of entry level blue collar, clerical and service employees than employers in Germany and Japan (Limprecht and Hayes 1982, Mincer and Higuchi 1988, Koike 1984, Noll et al 1984, Wiederhold-Fritz 1985). In the United States, only 33 percent of workers with 1 to 5 years of tenure report having received skill improvement training from their current employer (Hollenbeck and Wilkie 1985). Analyzing 1982 NLS-Youth data, Parsons (1985) reports …
Educational Reform And Disadvantaged Students: Are They Better Off Or Worse Off?, John H. Bishop, Ferran Mane
Educational Reform And Disadvantaged Students: Are They Better Off Or Worse Off?, John H. Bishop, Ferran Mane
John H Bishop
This paper analyzes the effects of increased academic standards on both average achievement levels and on equality of opportunity. The five policies evaluated are: (1) universal curriculum-Based External Exit Exam Systems, (2) voluntary curriculum-based external exit exam systems with partial coverage such as New York State Regents exams in 1992, (3) state minimum competency graduation tests, (4) state defined minimums for the total number of courses students must take and pass to get a high school diploma and (5) state defined minimums for the number of academic courses necessary to get a diploma. We use international data to evaluate the …
Incentives For Learning: Why American High School Students Compare So Poorly To Their Counterparts Overseas, John H. Bishop
Incentives For Learning: Why American High School Students Compare So Poorly To Their Counterparts Overseas, John H. Bishop
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] The scientific and mathematical competence of American high school students is generally recognized to be very low. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports that only 7.5 percent of 17 year old students can "integrate specialized scientific information" (NAEP 1988a p.51) and 6.4 percent "demonstrated the capacity to apply mathematical operations in a variety of problem settings." (NAEP 1988b p. 42) There is a large gap between the science and math competence of young Americans and their counterparts overseas. In the 1960s, the low ranking of American high school students in such comparisons was attributed to the fact …
The Deskilling Vs Upskilling Debate: The Role Of Bls Projections, John H. Bishop, Shani Carter
The Deskilling Vs Upskilling Debate: The Role Of Bls Projections, John H. Bishop, Shani Carter
John H Bishop
[Excerpt] The growing shortage of professionally trained workers and the rising skill premiums will tend to cause supply to increase more rapidly than we have projected. But the gap between the projected growth of demand and supply is huge. Just to maintain the balance between the growth of supply and the growth of occupational demand that prevailed in the 1980s, itself a period of shortage, it will be necessary to increase in the stock of college graduates in the year 2000 by 3.7 million or, put another way, to raise the number of college graduates entering the labor forces by …