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Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Job Reallocation And Productivity Growth Under Alternative Economic Systems And Policies: Evidence From The Soviet Transition, J. David Brown, John S. Earle Dec 2002

Job Reallocation And Productivity Growth Under Alternative Economic Systems And Policies: Evidence From The Soviet Transition, J. David Brown, John S. Earle

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

How do economic policies and institutions affect job reallocation processes and their consequences for productivity growth? This paper studies the extreme case of economic system change and alternative transitional policies in the former Soviet Republics of Russia and Ukraine. Exploiting annual industrial census data from 1985 to 2000, we find that Soviet Russia displayed job flow behavior quite different from market economies, with very low rates of job reallocation that bore little relationship to relative productivity across firms and sectors. Since liberalization began, the pace, heterogeneity, and productivity effects of job flows have increased substantially. The increases occurred more quickly …


Evaluating The Impacts Of Local Economic Development Policies On Local Economic Outcomes: What Has Been Done And What Is Doable?, Timothy J. Bartik Nov 2002

Evaluating The Impacts Of Local Economic Development Policies On Local Economic Outcomes: What Has Been Done And What Is Doable?, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper argues that more rigorous evaluations of local economic development policies are feasible. Programs that aid selected small firms can be rigorously evaluated using an experimental approach, without excluding firms from assistance, by randomly assigning some firms to receive more intense marketing efforts by the program. Programs that aid distressed local areas can be rigorously evaluated by random assignment of the program among eligible distressed areas. If an experiment cannot be done, a variety of statistical approaches can be used to compare firms or areas that use the program with comparison groups of firms or areas that do not …


Income Replacement And Reemployment Programs In Michigan And Neighboring States, Stephen A. Woodbury Oct 2002

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 Jul 2002

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 …


A Frontline Decision Support System For Georgia Career Centers, Randall W. Eberts, Christopher J. O'Leary Jul 2002

A Frontline Decision Support System For Georgia Career Centers, Randall W. Eberts, Christopher J. O'Leary

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 emphasizes the integration and coordination of employment services. Central to achieving this aim is the federal requirement that local areas receiving WIA funding must establish one-stop centers, where providers of various employment services within a local labor market are assembled in one location. A major challenge facing staff in these centers is the expected large volume of customers resulting from relaxed program eligibility rules. Nonetheless, resources for assessment and counseling are limited. To help frontline staff in one-stop centers quickly assess customer needs and properly target services, the U.S. Department of Labor has …


Instrumental Variable Estimates Of The Labor Market Spillover Effects Of Welfare Reform, Timothy J. Bartik Apr 2002

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 Mar 2002

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 …


How Late To Pay? Understanding Wage Arrears In Russia, John S. Earle, Klara Sabirianova Peter Mar 2002

How Late To Pay? Understanding Wage Arrears In Russia, John S. Earle, Klara Sabirianova Peter

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We organize an empirical analysis of Russian wage arrears around hypotheses concerning factors that create incentives for firms to pay late and for workers to tolerate late payment, both reinforced by a prevalent environment of overdue wages. Our analysis draws upon nationally representative household panel data matched with employer data to show substantial interfirm variation with the probability of arrears positively related to firm age, size, state ownership, and declining performance. Estimation of a constrained multinomial logit model also reveals intrafirm, variation related to job tenure and small shareholdings in the firm. Workers tend to have higher arrears in rural …


The Role Of Partnerships In Economic Development And Labor Markets In The United States, Randall W. Eberts, George A. Erickcek Jan 2002

The Role Of Partnerships In Economic Development And Labor Markets In The United States, Randall W. Eberts, George A. Erickcek

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper describes the role of local partnerships in the delivery of workforce and economic development services in the United States. Partnerships include both public and private organizations and increasingly depend upon local business people for leadership. With grassroots organizations traditionally taking the lead in addressing local issues and a long history of decentralized government, it is not surprising that a labyrinth of partnerships characterize the provision of public services. This paper grew out of a study tour that the Upjohn Institute conducted in conjunction with the Local Employment and Economic Development (LEED) Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation …