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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Work Organization And High-Paying Jobs, Dylan Nelson, Nathan Wilmers, Letian Zhang
Work Organization And High-Paying Jobs, Dylan Nelson, Nathan Wilmers, Letian Zhang
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
High-paying factory jobs in the 1940s were an engine of egalitarian economic growth for a generation. Are there alternate forms of work organization that deliver similar benefits for frontline workers? Work organization varies by type of complexity and degree of employer control. Technical and tacit knowledge tasks receive higher pay for signaling or developing human capital. Higher-autonomy tasks elicit efficiency wages. To test these ideas, we match administrative earnings to task descriptions from job postings. We then compare earnings for workers hired into the same occupation and firm, but under different task allocations. When jobs raise task complexity and autonomy, …
The Independent Contractor Workforce: New Evidence On Its Size And Composition And Ways To Improve Its Measurement In Household Surveys, Katharine G. Abraham, Brad J. Hershbein, Susan N. Houseman, Beth C. Truesdale
The Independent Contractor Workforce: New Evidence On Its Size And Composition And Ways To Improve Its Measurement In Household Surveys, Katharine G. Abraham, Brad J. Hershbein, Susan N. Houseman, Beth C. Truesdale
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Good data on the size and composition of the independent contractor workforce are elusive, with household survey and administrative tax data often disagreeing on levels and trends. We carried out a series of focus groups to learn how self-employed independent contractors speak about their work. Based on these findings, we designed and fielded a large-scale telephone survey to elicit more accurate and complete information on independent contractors, including those who may be coded incorrectly as employees in conventional household survey data and those who are independent contractors in a secondary work activity. We find that, upon probing, roughly one in …
Wage Posting Or Wage Bargaining? A Test Using Dual Jobholders, Marta Lachowska, Alexandre Mas, Raffaele Saggio, Stephen A. Woodbury
Wage Posting Or Wage Bargaining? A Test Using Dual Jobholders, Marta Lachowska, Alexandre Mas, Raffaele Saggio, Stephen A. Woodbury
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper examines the behavior of dual jobholders to test a simple model of wage bargaining and wage posting. We estimate the sensitivity of wages and separation rates to wage shocks in a worker’s secondary job to assess the degree of bargaining versus wage posting in the labor market. We interpret the evidence within a model where workers facing hours constraints in their primary job may take a second, flexible-hours job for additional income. When a secondary job offers a sufficiently high wage, a worker either bargains with the primary employer for a wage increase or separates. The model provides …
Job Search And Hiring With Two-Sided Limited Information About Workseekers’ Skills, Eliana Carranza, Robert Garlick, Kate Orkin, Neil Rankin
Job Search And Hiring With Two-Sided Limited Information About Workseekers’ Skills, Eliana Carranza, Robert Garlick, Kate Orkin, Neil Rankin
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
We present field experimental evidence that limited information about workseekers’ skills distorts both firm and workseeker behavior. Assessing workseekers’ skills, giving workseekers their assessment results, and helping them to credibly share the results with firms increases workseekers’ employment and earnings. It also aligns their beliefs and search strategies more closely with their skills. Giving assessment results only to workseekers has similar effects on beliefs and search, but smaller effects on employment and earnings. Giving assessment results only to firms increases callbacks. These patterns are consistent with two-sided information frictions, a new finding that can inform design of information-provision mechanisms.
Contract Work At Older Ages, Katharine G. Abraham, Brad J. Hershbein, Susan N. Houseman
Contract Work At Older Ages, Katharine G. Abraham, Brad J. Hershbein, Susan N. Houseman
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The share of workers who are self-employed rises markedly with age. Given policy concerns about inadequate retirement savings, especially among those with lower education, and the resulting interest in encouraging employment at older ages, it is important to understand the role that self-employment arrangements play in facilitating work among seniors. New data from a survey module fielded on a Gallup telephone survey distinguish independent contractor work from other self-employment and provide information on informal and online platform work. The Gallup data show that, especially after accounting for individuals who are miscoded as employees, self-employment is even more prevalent at older …
Bias And Productivity In Humans And Machines, Bo Cowgill
Bias And Productivity In Humans And Machines, Bo Cowgill
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Where should better learning technology (such as machine learning or AI) improve decisions? I develop a model of decision-making in which better learning technology is complementary with experimentation. Noisy, inconsistent decision-making introduces quasi-experimental variation into training datasets, which complements learning. The model makes heterogeneous predictions about when machine learning algorithms can improve human biases. These algorithms can remove human biases exhibited in historical training data, but only if the human training decisions are sufficiently noisy; otherwise, the algorithms will codify or exacerbate existing biases. Algorithms need only a small amount of noise to correct biases that cause large productivity distortions. …
Search And Multiple Jobholding, Etienne Lalé
Search And Multiple Jobholding, Etienne Lalé
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
A search-theoretic model of the labor market with idiosyncratic fluctuations in hours worked, search both off- and on-the-job, and multiple jobholding is developed. Taking on a second job entails a commitment to hold onto the primary employer, enabling the worker to use the primary job as her outside option to bargain with the secondary employer. The model performs well at explaining multiple jobholding inflows and outflows, and it is informative for understanding the secular decline in multiple jobholding. While some worry that this decline heralds a less-flexible labor market, the model reveals that it has contributed to reducing search frictions.
Effects Of The Affordable Care Act On Part-Time Employment: Early Evidence, Marcus O. Dillender, Carolyn J. Heinrich, Susan N. Houseman (Corresponding Author)
Effects Of The Affordable Care Act On Part-Time Employment: Early Evidence, Marcus O. Dillender, Carolyn J. Heinrich, Susan N. Houseman (Corresponding Author)
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers with at least 50 full-time-equivalent employees to offer “affordable” health insurance to employees working 30 or more hours per week. If employers do not comply with the mandate, they may face substantial financial penalties. Employers can potentially circumvent the mandate by reducing weekly hours below the 30-hour threshold or by using other nonstandard employment arrangements (direct-hire temporaries, agency temporaries, small contractors, and independent contractors). We examine the effects of the ACA on short-hours, part-time employment. Using monthly CPS data, we estimate that the ACA resulted in an increase in low-hours, involuntary part-time employment …
Domestic Outsourcing In The United States: A Research Agenda To Assess Trends And Effects On Job Quality, Annette Bernhardt, Rosemary L. Batt, Susan N. Houseman, Eileen Appelbaum
Domestic Outsourcing In The United States: A Research Agenda To Assess Trends And Effects On Job Quality, Annette Bernhardt, Rosemary L. Batt, Susan N. Houseman, Eileen Appelbaum
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The goal of this paper is to develop a comprehensive research agenda to analyze trends in domestic outsourcing in the United States—firms’ use of contractors and independent contractors—and its effects on job quality and inequality. In the process, we review definitions of outsourcing, the available scant empirical research, and limitations of existing data sources. We also summarize theories that attempt to explain why firms contract out for certain functions and assess their predictions about likely impacts on job quality. We then lay out in detail a major research initiative on domestic outsourcing, discussing the questions it should answer and providing …
The Rise Of Domestic Outsourcing And The Evolution Of The German Wage Structure, Deborah Goldschmidt, Johannes Schmieder
The Rise Of Domestic Outsourcing And The Evolution Of The German Wage Structure, Deborah Goldschmidt, Johannes Schmieder
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The nature of the relationship between employers and employees has been changing over the last three decades, with firms increasingly relying on contractors, temp agencies, and franchises rather than hiring employees directly. We investigate the impact of this transformation on the wage structure by following jobs that are moved outside of the boundary of lead employers to contracting firms. For this end we develop a new method for identifying outsourcing of food, cleaning, security, and logistics services in administrative data using the universe of social security records in Germany. We document a dramatic growth of domestic outsourcing in Germany since …
Temporary Help Employment In Recession And Recovery, Susan N. Houseman, Carolyn J. Heinrich
Temporary Help Employment In Recession And Recovery, Susan N. Houseman, Carolyn J. Heinrich
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The temporary help industry, although small, plays a significant role in the macro economy, reflecting employers’ growing reliance on temporary help agencies to provide flexibility in meeting staffing needs. Drawing on detailed temporary-help order data between 2007 and 2011 from a large, nationally representative staffing company, we provide insights into the characteristics of temporary help work, employers’ use of temporary agencies to screen workers for permanent positions, and the industry’s role in labor market adjustment over the business cycle. We estimate that the temporary help industry accounted for a large share of gross job losses and job gains over this …
The Potential Effects Of Federal Health Insurance Reforms On Employment Arrangements And Compensation, Marcus O. Dillender, Carolyn J. Heinrich, Susan N. Houseman
The Potential Effects Of Federal Health Insurance Reforms On Employment Arrangements And Compensation, Marcus O. Dillender, Carolyn J. Heinrich, Susan N. Houseman
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) presents an opportunity to significantly improve compensation for American workers. A potential concern, though, is that employers will circumvent the employer mandate by increasing their use of workers in staffing arrangements that are not covered by the mandate: workers averaging less than 30 hours per week, working on a temporary basis, or working in organizations with fewer than 50 full-time employees. In this paper, we shed light on the likely effects that the ACA will have on employment arrangements. We first examine how part-time employment in Massachusetts changed after its health insurance reform, which is …
Mothers' Long-Term Employment Patterns, Alexandra Killewald, Xiaolin Zhuo
Mothers' Long-Term Employment Patterns, Alexandra Killewald, Xiaolin Zhuo
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Previous research on maternal employment has disproportionately focused on married, college-educated mothers and examined either current employment status or postpartum return to employment. Following the life course perspective, we instead conceptualize maternal careers as long-term life course patterns. Using data from the NLSY79 and optimal matching, we document four common employment patterns of American mothers over the first 18 years of maternity. About two-thirds follow steady patterns, either full-time employment (38 percent) or steady nonemployment (24 percent). The rest experience “mixed” patterns: long-term part-time employment (20 percent), or a multiyear period of nonemployment following maternity, then a return to employment …
Short Hours, Long Hours: Hour Levels And Trends In The Retail Industry In The United States, Canada, And Mexico, Françoise Carré, Chris Tilly
Short Hours, Long Hours: Hour Levels And Trends In The Retail Industry In The United States, Canada, And Mexico, Françoise Carré, Chris Tilly
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
In settings where most workers have full-time schedules, hourly wages are appropriate primary indicators of job quality and worker outcomes. However, in sectors where full-time schedules do not dominate—primarily service-producing activities—total hours matter, in addition to hourly wages, for job quality and worker outcomes. In this paper we employ a sector-focused, comparative framework to further examine hours levels—measured as average weekly hours—and trends in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. We analyze the retail sector, which is of interest because of its high rate of part-time employment in the U.S. Based on our fieldwork in the United States and Mexico …
What Do We Know About Contracting Out In The United States? Evidence From Household And Establishment Surveys, Matthew Dey, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka
What Do We Know About Contracting Out In The United States? Evidence From Household And Establishment Surveys, Matthew Dey, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
A variety of evidence points to significant growth in domestic contracting out over the last two decades, yet the phenomenon is not well documented. In this paper, we pull together data from various sources to shed light on the extent of and trends in domestic outsourcing, the occupations in which it has grown, and the industries engaging in outsourcing for the employment services sector, which has been a particularly important area of domestic outsourcing. In addition, we examine evidence of contracting out of selected occupations to other sectors. We point to many gaps in our knowledge on trends in domestic …
Temporary Help Service Firms' Use Of Employer Tax Credits: Implications For Disadvantaged Workers' Labor Market Outcomes, Sarah Hamersma, Carolyn J. Heinrich
Temporary Help Service Firms' Use Of Employer Tax Credits: Implications For Disadvantaged Workers' Labor Market Outcomes, Sarah Hamersma, Carolyn J. Heinrich
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Temporary help services (THS) firms are increasing their hiring of disadvantaged individuals and claiming more subsidies for doing so. Do these subsidies-the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit (WtW)-create incentives that improve employment outcomes for THS workers? We examine the distinct effects of THS employment and WOTC/WtW subsidies using administrative and survey data. Results indicate that WOTC/WtW-certified THS workers have higher earnings than WOTC-eligible but uncertified THS workers. However, these workers have shorter job tenure and lower earnings than WOTC/WtW-certified workers in non-THS industries. Panel estimates suggest that these effects do not persist over time.
Manufacturers' Outsourcing To Employment Services, Matthew Dey, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka
Manufacturers' Outsourcing To Employment Services, Matthew Dey, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
We estimate the effects of manufacturers' use of employment services—comprised primarily of temporary help and professional employer organizations—on measured employment and labor productivity in manufacturing between 1989 and 2004. A major contribution of the paper is the construction of panel data on employment by occupation and industry from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. We use these data to document the dramatic rise of production and other manual occupations within the employment services sector and, in conjunction with information from the Contingent Worker Supplements, to estimate the number of employment services workers assigned to manufacturing over the period. Although measured employment …
Nonstandard Forms And Measures Of Employment And Unemployment In Transition: A Comparative Study Of Estonia, Romania, And Russia, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Vladimir Gimpelson, Rostislav Kapeliushnikov, Hartmut Lehmann, Álmos Telegdy, Irina Vantu, Ruxandra Visan, Alexandru Voicu
Nonstandard Forms And Measures Of Employment And Unemployment In Transition: A Comparative Study Of Estonia, Romania, And Russia, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Vladimir Gimpelson, Rostislav Kapeliushnikov, Hartmut Lehmann, Álmos Telegdy, Irina Vantu, Ruxandra Visan, Alexandru Voicu
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper looks behind the standard, publicly available labor force statistics relied upon in most studies of transition economy labor markets. We analyze microdata on detailed labor force survey responses in Russia, Romania, and Estonia to measure nonstandard, boundary forms and alternative definitions of employment and unemployment. Our calculations show that measured rates are quite sensitive to definition, particularly in the treatment of household production (subsistence agriculture), unpaid family helpers, and discouraged workers, while the categories of part-time work and other forms of marginal attachment are still relatively unimportant. We find that tweaking the official definitions in apparently minor ways …
Temporary Agency Employment As A Way Out Of Poverty?, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman
Temporary Agency Employment As A Way Out Of Poverty?, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The high incidence of temporary agency employment among participants in government employment programs has catalyzed debate about whether these jobs help the poor transition into stable employment and out of poverty. We provide direct evidence on this question through analysis of a Michigan welfare-to-work program in which program participants were randomly allocated across service providers ('contractors') with different job placement practices. We draw on a telephone survey of contractors and on administrative program data linked with wage records data on all participants entering the program over a three-and-a half-year period. Our survey evidence documents a consensus among contractors that temporary …
Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes For Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence From Random Assignments, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman
Do Temporary Help Jobs Improve Labor Market Outcomes For Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence From Random Assignments, David H. Autor, Susan N. Houseman
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
A disproportionate share of low-skilled U.S. workers is employed by temporary help firms. These firms offer rapid entry into paid employment, but temporary help jobs are typically brief and it is unknown whether they foster longer-term employment. We draw upon an unusual, large-scale policy experiment in the state of Michigan to evaluate whether holding temporary help jobs facilitates labor market advancement for low-skilled workers. To identify these effects, we exploit the random assignment of welfare-to-work clients across numerous welfare service providers in a major metropolitan area. These providers feature substantially different placement rates at temporary help jobs but offer otherwise …
Single Mothers Working At Night: Standard Work, Child Care Subsidies, And Implications For Welfare Reform, Erdal Tekin
Single Mothers Working At Night: Standard Work, Child Care Subsidies, And Implications For Welfare Reform, Erdal Tekin
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper estimates the effect of child care subsidies on the standard work decision of single mothers and examines whether this effect differs between welfare recipients and nonrecipients. The analysis uses data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families. Results suggest that child care subsidy receipt is associated with a 6.9 percentage point increase in the probability of single mothers' working at standard jobs. When the effect of subsidy receipt is allowed to differ between welfare recipients and nonrecipients, results indicate that welfare recipients who are offered a child care subsidy are 14 percentage points more likely to work …
The Role Of Temporary Agency Employment In Tight Labor Markets, Susan N. Houseman, Arne L. Kalleberg, George A. Erickcek
The Role Of Temporary Agency Employment In Tight Labor Markets, Susan N. Houseman, Arne L. Kalleberg, George A. Erickcek
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper examines the reasons why employers used and even increased their use of temporary help agencies during the tight labor markets of the 1990s. Based on case study evidence from the hospital and auto supply industries, we evaluate various hypotheses for this phenomenon. In high-skilled occupations, our results are consistent with the view that employers paid substantially more to agency help to avoid raising wages for their regular workers and to fill vacancies while they recruited workers for permanent positions. In low-skilled occupations, our evidence suggests that temporary help agencies facilitated the use of more "risky" workers by lowering …
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 …
Nonstandard Work And Child Care Choices Of Married Mothers, Jean Kimmel, Lisa M. Powell
Nonstandard Work And Child Care Choices Of Married Mothers, Jean Kimmel, Lisa M. Powell
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
The focus of this paper is to examine the interplay between nonstandard employment and child care choice decisions of married mothers with young children. We draw on the 1992/93 Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate two related econometric models of child care choice that include the choice among center, sitter, relative and parental care. First, controlling for the potential endogeneity of the nonstandard work decision, we find that being a nonstandard worker significantly reduces the likelihood of using formal modes of child care such as center and sitter care. In our second model, where we jointly estimate the …
The Benefits Implications Of Recent Trends In Flexible Staff Arrangements, Susan N. Houseman
The Benefits Implications Of Recent Trends In Flexible Staff Arrangements, Susan N. Houseman
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Workers in flexible staffing arrangements - including temporary agency, direct-hire temporary, on-call, and contract workers - are much less likely than regular, direct-hire employees to be covered by laws mandating or regulating workplace benefits. Workers in such arrangements, in turn, are much less likely to receive pension, health insurance, and other benefits on the job. This paper documents these differences in coverage by benefits regulations and differences in benefits receipt. The paper also reviews evidence on the incentives employers have to use workers in these various flexible staffing arrangements. Although reducing benefits costs is not the only reason employers use …
Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence From An Establishment Survey, Susan N. Houseman
Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence From An Establishment Survey, Susan N. Houseman
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
This paper examines which employers use flexible staffing arrangements, why they use these arrangements, and their implications for workers and public policy, drawing on a nationally representative survey of private sector establishments. Use of flexible staffing arrangements-including temporary help agency, short-term, on-call, regular part-time, and contract workers-is widespread and two-thirds of employers believe this use will increase in the near future. Traditional reasons concerning the need to accommodate fluctuations in workload or absences in staff are the most commonly cited reasons for using all types of flexible staffing arrangements. Many employers also use agency temporaries and part-time workers to screen …
Marital Status And Full-Time/Part-Time Work Status In Child Care Choices, Rachel Connelly, Jean Kimmel
Marital Status And Full-Time/Part-Time Work Status In Child Care Choices, Rachel Connelly, Jean Kimmel
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Using recent SIPP data, we estimate two econometric models to study the differences in the effect of child care costs on employment status and differences in the mode of child care used controlling for employment status. For both married and single women, full-time employment is more elastic with respect to changes in the price of child care than part-time employment and employment elasticities are larger for single than married mothers. In the model of child care modal choice, we find that an increased probability of full-time employment is associated with an increase in the use of center care and a …
The Implications Of Flexible Staffing Arrangements For Job Stability, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka
The Implications Of Flexible Staffing Arrangements For Job Stability, Susan N. Houseman, Anne E. Polivka
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
In this paper, we examine the job stability of workers in a wide range of flexible staffing arrangements: agency temporary, direct-hire temporary, on-call, contract company, independent contractor, and regular part-time work. We draw upon two data sources in our analysis. The first is a nationwide survey of employers on their use of flexible staffing arrangements conducted by the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. This survey provides evidence on why employers use various types of flexible staffing arrangements and the extent to which employers move workers in these positions into regular arrangements within their organization. The second data source is the …
Moonlighting Behavior: Theory And Evidence, Karen Smith Conway, Jean Kimmel
Moonlighting Behavior: Theory And Evidence, Karen Smith Conway, Jean Kimmel
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
Two labor supply issues that have received substantial attention are the responsiveness of labor supply to wage changes and the imposition of labor supply constraints. Adjusting hours worked on a second job may be the practical and perhaps only available response to either event yet, most labor supply studies only examine behavior on the primary job. Examining the motives for moonlighting provides evidence on both the wage-responsiveness of labor supply in general and the existence and consequences of labor supply constraints.
Efficient Bargains In The Context Of Recent Labor Market Experience And Policy, Robert A. Hart, Thomas Moutos
Efficient Bargains In The Context Of Recent Labor Market Experience And Policy, Robert A. Hart, Thomas Moutos
Upjohn Institute Working Papers
In Europe in recent times, bargaining between a leading nationally-based industrial union and a representative group of employers over the issues of employment, wages and working time has proved to be influential in a much wider industrial context. Adopting a generalized Nash bargaining approach, this paper considers the possible effects on such "key" bargains of several prominent labor market events and policies experienced since the middle 1970s. These include the impacts of OPEC supply shocks, changes in union power, greater emphasis on payroll taxes as well as growing government economic orthodoxy as expressed through the goal of a balanced budget.