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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes? A Pilot Analysis With Welfare Clients, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman
Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes? A Pilot Analysis With Welfare Clients, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman
Reports
We draw upon administrative data from an unusual policy experiment in the state of Michigan to study the effects of temporary agency employment among welfare-to-work clients on job retention, program recidivism, and earnings. To identify these effects, we exploit the fact that welfare-to-work clients in one Michigan county were randomly assigned to service providers who had substantially different placement rates in temporary agencies but otherwise similar policies. Our findings indicate that moving welfare clients who otherwise would have been unemployed into temporary agency jobs provides some benefits to these workers, primarily by increasing their short-term earnings. Temporary agency jobs also …
Income Replacement And Reemployment Programs In Michigan And Neighboring States, Stephen A. Woodbury
Income Replacement And Reemployment Programs In Michigan And Neighboring States, Stephen A. Woodbury
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Governments in every developed industrial economy administer programs that partially replace the earnings of workers who suffer job loss or on-the-job injury. In addition, governments administer programs to help job losers gain reemployment, either through direct job placement (for those who are job-ready) or through retraining (for those who are not). This chapter describes and discusses current policy issues surrounding the main social insurance and reemployment programs in Michigan: Unemployment Insurance (UI), which partially replaces lost earnings following loss of a job; Workers' Compensation (WC), which pays for medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, and lost earnings following a work-related injury or …
The Effects Of Temporary Services And Contracting Out On Low-Skilled Workers: Evidence From Auto Suppliers, Hospitals, And Public Schools, George A. Erickcek, Susan N. Houseman, Arne L. Kalleberg
The Effects Of Temporary Services And Contracting Out On Low-Skilled Workers: Evidence From Auto Suppliers, Hospitals, And Public Schools, George A. Erickcek, Susan N. Houseman, Arne L. Kalleberg
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
We examine why employers use temporary agency and contract company workers and the implications of these practices for the wages, benefits, and working conditions of workers in low-skilled labor markets. Through intensive case studies in manufacturing (automotive supply), services (hospitals), and public sector (primary and secondary schools) industries, we define the circumstances under which these workers are likely to be adversely affected, minimally affected, or even benefited by such outsourcing. Adverse effects on compensation are clearest when companies substitute agency temporaries or contract company workers for regular employees on a long-term basis because low-skilled workers within the organization receive relatively …
Instrumental Variable Estimates Of The Labor Market Spillover Effects Of Welfare Reform, Timothy J. Bartik
Instrumental Variable Estimates Of The Labor Market Spillover Effects Of Welfare Reform, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
By increasing the labor supply of welfare recipients, welfare reform may reduce wages and increase unemployment among other less-educated groups. These "spillover effects" are difficult to estimate because welfare caseloads decrease in response to improvements in the economy, which leads caseload reductions to be associated with improvements in labor market outcomes. This paper corrects for the endogeneity of caseloads by using instruments that reflect policy. The estimates suggest that welfare reform has significant spillover effects: welfare reform reduces employment of male high school dropouts, and reduces wages of single mothers and male high school dropouts.
Thinking About Local Living Wage Requirements, Timothy J. Bartik
Thinking About Local Living Wage Requirements, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper reviews what we currently know about the benefits and costs of different varieties of a "living wage": a local government requirement, now adopted by over 50 local governments, for wages above the federal minimum imposed on employers with some financial link to the local government. The review includes economic theory, empirical research on local labor markets, and empirical research on the living wage. The paper concludes that moderate living wage requirements applied to the local government's own employees, and contractors' and grantees' employees who are funded by the local government, may do more good than harm. Excessive living …