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Full-Text Articles in Labor Relations
Counterpoint: Reply To Orrenius And Zavodny, Vernon Briggs
Counterpoint: Reply To Orrenius And Zavodny, Vernon Briggs
Vernon M Briggs Jr
[Excerpt] On the fundamental conclusions, the positions argued by Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny and my own are in essential agreement. The immigration policy of the United States is in dire need of changes. The public concern is, in their words, “driven by the increase in immigration in recent years, particularly of unauthorized immigration.” Our mutual worries pertain to the disproportionately adverse impacts of the immigrant inflow on the nation’s low-skilled work force and the high fiscal burden borne by local communities and states with growing immigrant populations. The differences between the two papers center on the approaches taken to …
The Elusive Goal: The Quest For A Credible Immigration Policy, Vernon Briggs
The Elusive Goal: The Quest For A Credible Immigration Policy, Vernon Briggs
Vernon M Briggs Jr
[Excerpt] The starting point for all immigration reform efforts must be making the immigration system enforceable. Nothing else makes sense. Otherwise, immigration policy is on a squirrel wheel going nowhere. Illegal immigrants will keep coming in defiance of its terms.
Workers’ Rights: Rethinking Protective Labor Legislation, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Workers’ Rights: Rethinking Protective Labor Legislation, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
This paper focuses on a few directions in which protective labor legislation might be expanded in the United States over the next decade and the implications of expansion in each area for labor markets. Specifically, it addresses the areas of hours of work, unjust dismissal, comparable worth, and plant closings. In each case, the discussion stresses the need to be explicit about how private markets have failed, the need for empirical evidence to test such market failure claims, the need for economic analysis of potential unintended side effects of policy changes, and the existing empirical estimates of the likely magnitudes …
Why Warn? The Impact Of Recent Plant-Closing And Layoff Prenotification Legislation In The United States, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, George H. Jakubson
Why Warn? The Impact Of Recent Plant-Closing And Layoff Prenotification Legislation In The United States, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, George H. Jakubson
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] WARN was passed only after a decade of strenuous debate. We can now look back and address a number of issues it raised. What benefits did its proponents think would arise from the notice legislation, and what costs did its opponents think there would be? What public policies toward advance notice do other nations have? Did displaced workers in the United States receive advance notice before the passage of WARN? What do we know empirically about the effects on workers and firms of the provision of advance notice? What has experience under WARN taught us? Finally, what research issues …
Retirement System Characteristics And Compensating Wage Differentials In The Public Sector, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Retirement System Characteristics And Compensating Wage Differentials In The Public Sector, Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
This paper presents evidence that a trade-off exists between wages and certain characteristics of retirement systems in the public sector. Cross-section econometric estimates for uniformed municipal employees, based upon data from two national surveys of municipalities, suggest that, other things equal, an increase in the contribution made by uniformed employees to their retirement system leads to a compensating increase in their salaries, while retirement systems with more "generous" characteristics are associated to some extent with lower salaries. The estimates also indicate that the extent of retirement system underfunding is related to employers' and employees' perceptions of the probability that promised …
Policy Decisions And Research In Economics And Industrial Relations: An Exchange Of Views: Comment, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Daniel S. Hamermesh, George E. Johnson
Policy Decisions And Research In Economics And Industrial Relations: An Exchange Of Views: Comment, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Daniel S. Hamermesh, George E. Johnson
Ronald G. Ehrenberg
[Excerpt] John Dunlop has presented what are certainly some of the most provocative remarks to appear in a scholarly journal in the labor field in many years. We find much to agree with in his remarks; however, we also find many areas where we feel he condemns research because of his overly optimistic expectations about its ability to contribute to the policy process, and other areas where he appears to be unaware that research in labor economics has already contributed fairly directly to policy decisions.
[Review Of The Book The Idea Of Poverty: England In The Early Industrial Age], George R. Boyer
[Review Of The Book The Idea Of Poverty: England In The Early Industrial Age], George R. Boyer
George R. Boyer
[Excerpt] One must have some knowledge of a society's conception of poverty in order to understand the existence of differing methods of poor relief over time and place. In The Idea of Poverty, Gertrude Himmelfarb presents a detailed account of England's poverty problem during the years 1750 to 1850 as seen by contemporary English economists, politicians, journalists, and novelists. She attempts to determine why the image of poverty, and of the poor, changed over those years and how the popular image of the poor influenced society's methods of relieving poverty. The result is a book that anyone concerned with the …