Labor Economics Commons^™

The Sorting Function: Evidence From Law School, Richard A. Ippolito

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Employee Ownership After Privatization: Governance Institutions And Firm Performance In Romania, John S. Earle, ÁLmos Telegdy

Reports

This paper studies the governance institutions and performance consequences of privatization through management-employee buyout (MEBO) in Romania. Detailed firm-level survey data are used to analyze ownership rights practices concerning voting, dividend payment, and sales of shares, and to study the continued role of the state through restructuring restrictions in the privatization contracts, difficulties in installment payment, and possible renationalization of shares. Comprehensive privatization and registry data are used to estimate the productivity performance of industrial MEBOs, compared with mass transfers to dispersed individuals, sales to domestic and foreign blockholders, and continued ownership by the state. We find that the ownership …

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 …

Rural Community Economic Leadership By People With Disabilities, Tom Seekins Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

The lack of employment opportunities for people with disabilities is a major problem according to vocational rehabilitation (VR) service providers, American Indian Section 121 employment programs, and people with disabilities (Arnold, Seekins, & Nelson, 1997). This is particularly true in rural areas where local businesses struggle to create enough quality jobs for community members, including people with disabilities. In the face of this challenge, rural residents with and without disabilities frequently opt to pursue self-employment. Yet, VR and Section 121 programs are often confused about existing business opportunities and their potential for success. There are established procedures to analyze markets …

Targeting Welfare-To-Work Services Using Statistical Tools, Randall W. Eberts

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Risk Sharing Through Social Security Retirement Income Systems: A Comparison Of Canada And The United States, John A. Turner

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

St. Joseph County Benchmarking Study, George A. Erickcek, Brad R. Watts

Reports

No abstract provided.

Financing And Promoting Small-Scale Industries. Concept, Issues And Prospects., C. M. Anyanwu

Bullion

The importance of small-scale industries in promoting industrialization and economic growth has been recognized globally. This paper discusses the concepts and issues that are associated with the financing and promoting of small scale industries. Nigeria is blessed with vast natural resources, including oil, gas and solid minerals, already confirmed to exist in commercial quantities. Small-scale industries development can be used for achieving the objectives of the poverty alleviation programme of the Government, given that they are highly labour intensive. Nigeria is blessed with vast natural resources, including oil, gas and solid minerals, already confirmed to exist in commercial quantities. She …

Evaluating Active Labor Market Programs In Transition Economies, Christopher J. O'Leary

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

The Returns To Education And Basic Skills Training For Individuals With Poor Health Or Disability, Kevin Hollenbeck, Jean Kimmel

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper examines linkages between disability and health status and the returns to education and basic skills training. It bases analyses on two separate data sources: wave 3 from the 1993 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). The data sets have been used to estimate standard wage equations with education and basic skills training among the independent variables. The NALS data set allows us to control for prose, quantitative, and document literacy. The wage equations rely on Heckit corrections for labor force participation, and we stratify by sex. …

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 …

Assessment Of Kalamazoo County's Education For Employment (Efe) Programs Using 2001 Survey Data, Kevin Hollenbeck, Noyna Debburman

Reports

No abstract provided.

Fighting Poverty With Labor Demand Policies, Timothy J. Bartik

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Unemployment Compensation And Older Workers, Christopher J. O'Leary, Stephen A. Wandner

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

From Plant Closure To Reemployment In The New Economy: Risks To Workers Dislocated From The Declining Garment Manufacturing Industry, Cynthia Rocha

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The current study investigates financial and emotional consequences to workers as the U.S. economy continues to shift from a manufacturing to a service economy. One hundred eighty-eight garment workers were surveyed before their plant closed in 1998 and six months later to assess reemployment opportunities, financial difficulty and emotional well-being. All workers experienced some financial difficulty after the plant closed, with single parents reporting the greatest financial difficulty. Workers who became immediately reemployed lost an average of $2.41 in wages per hour. Sixteen percent of the sample lost their health insurance. Overall depression and anxiety scores declined over six months, …

The Incidence And Cost Of Wrongfully Denied Unemployment Benefits, Stephen A. Woodbury, Wayne Vroman

Reports

Since 1987, the U.S. Department of Labor has performed random audits of Unemployment Insurance (UI) payments in order to estimate the extent of benefit payment errors—particularly overpayments. However, the accuracy of the process that determines benefit eligibility is not currently assessed. In particular, the extent to which eligible claimants for UI are wrongfully denied benefits is not known. This paper reports the results of the Denied Claims Accuracy (DCA) Pilot Project, a five-state pilot conducted by the Department of Labor during 1997–98, in which random samples of monetary, separation, and nonseparation denials were subjected to intensive field investigation in order …

Rural Economic Development: Worker Cooperatives And Employment Of People With Disabilities Part Three, Charles Sperry, Joyce Brusin, Tom Seekins Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

The opportunities for self-empowerment and economic justice found in the worker cooperative structure may be especially relevant for people with disabilities, who as a population tend to experience extraordinarily high rates of unemployment. People with disabilities already successfully engage in a wide range of employment and self-employment situations (Seekins & Arnold, 1996; Shelley, 1999). Employment within a worker cooperative structure carries many benefits for people with disabilities and requires only a few carefully structured adaptations. Benefits include fair wages and an equitable share of profits; authority to manage the business in the best interest of the worker-members; a community-friendly business …

Rural Economic Development: A Stewardship Model For Organizing Worker Cooperatives Part Two, Charles Sperry, Joyce Brusin, Tom Seekins Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

Worker cooperative corporations are a particular way of organizing business and employment opportunities. They usually involve a for-profit business that is owned by the worker-members who are employed there. A worker cooperative must perform the same major functions as any other organized business. It must obtain sufficient financing, manage its personnel, and produce and market its product or service. Its staff engage in the same management activities as any other business: planning, staffing, controlling, organizing, and leading.

Rural Economic Development: Worker Cooperatives And Employment Of People With Disabilities Part One, Charles Sperry, Joyce Brusin, Tom Seekins Ph.D., University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

Across America, rural communities are looking for vibrant and stable local economies that will allow them to preserve the best qualities of their rural life in the face of rapid and relentless global economic change. The impacts of economic decline in rural America over the last two decades have been worsened by multiplier effects. Lost income has led to lost purchasing power, which has led to business closures; population loss has followed, resulting in downsizing of schools and hospitals and ultimately, in disintegration of communities themselves (Magdoff 1993; The Futurist, 1989).

Intergenerational Labor Market And Welfare Consequences Of Poor Health, Thomas J. Kniesner, Anthony T. Losasso

Center for Policy Research

Our research provides new econometric evidence concerning partial economic risk sharing between a frail elderly parent and an adult child. We estimate a jointly determined limited dependent variables system explaining the parent’s entry into a nursing home, the adult child’s visits to the parent, and the adult child’s labor supplied. The time allocation of adult sons is unaffected by a parent’s frail health. Adult daughters who visit a frail elderly parent daily decrease their annual labor supplied by about 1,000 hours annually, largely through labor force non-participation. The implied welfare loss to the daughter from a frail elderly parent in …

Unfinished Business: Inadequate Health Coverage For Privately Insured, Seriously Ill Children, Nancy Swigonski, Eleanor D. Kinney, Deborah A. Freund, Thomas J. Kniesner

Center for Policy Research

During the 1980s and 1990s there were great increases of health insurance coverage for poor children through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and extended Medicaid eligibility. Problems remain for the small number of children with serious medical conditions whose care is a high proportion of total health care expenditures on children. We report on the adequacy of health insurance coverage for a sample of children with serious and rare illnesses treated at the single tertiary care pediatric hospital in Indiana. One-third of privately insured children in our data had inadequate insurance. Compared to families with inadequate health insurance families …

Determinants Of Medical Costs Following A Diagnosis Of Depression, Regina H. Powers, Thomas J. Kniesner, Thomas W. Croghan

Center for Policy Research

Objective: Assess the determinants of medical costs for depressed individuals.

Method: Using medical insurance claims for a population of depressed individuals with employer provided insurance, we estimated multivariate models of the costs for general medical care, exclusive of costs for mental health services, following diagnosis. Explanatory variables included provider choice (psychiatrist or non-physician mental health specialist), treatment choice (medication, psychotherapy, or combination treatment); treatment adequacy as defined by APA guidelines; characteristics of depression symptoms and severity; and other demographic characteristics.

Results: On average, there were increases in the costs for general medical services in the year following diagnosis of a …

Social Work And Labor: A Look At The North American Agreement On Labor Cooperation, Constance Phelps

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), a side agreement to NAFTA, provides an instructive example of an attempt to link global trade to labor standards. While this side agreement was created in order to bolster the internationalization of trade, it has brought Labor, human rights groups and governments together to scrutinize and challenge the ways that each NAFTA member country ensures the provision of basic health, safety, and human rights on the job. Effective enforcement of the Agreement will come only with political pressure from a wide variety of groups interested in improving quality of life for workers …

The Effect Of Child Care Costs On The Labor Force Participation And Welfare Recipiency Of Single Mothers: Implications For Welfare Reform, Rachel Connelly, Jean Kimmel

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

This paper considers the effect of child care costs on two labor market outcomes for single mothers - whether to participate in the labor market and whether to receive welfare. Hourly child care expenditures are estimated for all women in the sample (using data drawn from the 1992 and 1993 panels of the SIPP), whether or not they are currently using nonmaternal child care. These expenditures are then included as an independent variable predicting the probability of welfare recipiency and the probability of labor force participation. Results show a substantial positive effect of child care costs on welfare recipiency, with …

Market Structure And Racial Earnings: Evidence From Job Changers, Richard U. Agesa, Jacqueline Agesa, Gary A. Hoover

Economics Faculty Research

In his seminal contribution, Gary Becker (1957) suggests that rents in noncompetitive industries provide employers with the latitude to engage in earnings discrimination. Implicit in this theory, is that white workers in noncompet­itive industries would capture a disproportion­ ate share of monopoly rents (excessive wages) relative to their minority counterparts. We utilize wage-change equations to exam­ine earnings shifts for whites and minorities stemming from a job switch to a different mar­ket structure. Additionally for each racial group, wage equations of workers before and after the job change are used to calculate difference­ in-differences estimates of wage change as a result …

Does Free Trade Cause Hunger? Hidden Implications Of The Ftaa, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Voluntary free trade has the potential, slowly and gradually over time, to create "general opulence" because it allows workers to acquire greater competency and specialization: in a word, workers become more productive. The creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would expand market areas and thereby potentially contribute to raising future living standards of workers. This paper seeks to analyze the theoretical basis for trade, provide an economic overview of FTAA countries, and analyze the winners and losers from trade.

Inflation Conflict Models, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes.

• Screpanti, E. (1997, October). Wages, inflation and employment: A dynamic model (Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia Politica No. 217). Siena, Italy: Dipartimento di Economia Politica, Università degli Studi di Siena.

• Stirati, A. (2001). Inflation, unemployment and hysteresis: An alternative view. Review of Political Economy, 13(4), 427–451.

• Scitovsky, T. (1983). The demand-side economics of inflation (with comments by A. J. Brown & J. Flemming). In D. Worswick & J. Trevithick (Eds.), Keynes and the modern world: Proceedings of the Keynes centenary conference (pp. 223–254). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

• Robinson, A., Braithwaite, R., …

Working Time In Comparative Perspective: Volume I - Patterns, Trends, And The Policy Implications For Earnings Inequality And Unemployment, Ging Wong Editor, W. G. Picot Editor

Upjohn Press

The chapters in this volume focus on weekly hours worked by individuals, including the recent changes in the distribution of weekly working time in Canada and the United States, the implications of the changing distribution of hours worked for earnings inequality, and efforts to reduce unemployment through mandated hours reductions.

The Great Divide: A Comparison Of Kentucky And Ohio Counties Along The Ohio River (1840-1860), Jennie Berry

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

This paper operates under an opposite assumption and, instead, argues that the Kentucky-Ohio border is an ideal test case for the null hypothesis that the institution of slavery per se had no significant economic effects. Kentucky and Ohio counties tracing the Ohio River are composed of the same soil and face similar weather conditions (Blanford, 2001; Barnhisel, 2001; Foster, 2001). Both regions likewise claim the same geographical access to outside markets.

The Economics Of Dowry: Causes And Effects Of An Indian Tradition, Tonushree Jaggi

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

I argue that dowries exist because of a combination of two reasons. First, there is an excess supply of women in the Indian marriage market that results in the use of dowry as an equilibrating mechanism. Secondly, a differential in the patterns of human capital accumulation of men and women have led to a larger positive benefit from marriage for women than for men, the net difference of which is theoretically equivalent to the amount of the dowry. Both these explanations for the existence of dowry are fundamentally grounded in the powerful social and cultural ideologies of marriage held by …