Labor Economics Commons^™

The Plight Of Kenyan Domestic Workers In Gulf Countries, Caroline Muthoni Gikuru

Master's Theses

Kenya’s economy remains the regional leader within the East African Community (EAC) and among East African countries at large. However, political instability such as the 2007 post-election violence and the region’s social and political instability trickling into Kenya, have negatively affected the country’s economic growth. To bridge the economic gap, Kenyan women are seeking employment in the domestic service sector in the Gulf Countries, with Saudi Arabia being the most popular destination. At their destination countries, some domestic workers are subjected to various forms of abuse by their employers, leaving the worker without recourse due to the lack of legal …

Breaking The Poverty Cycle With Education And Jobs In Kalamazoo, Randall W. Eberts

Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Politics For Zambia’S Public Sector Unions: A Case Study Of The 2013 Nursing Strikes, Andrew Stawasz, Thaddeus Talbot

Zambia Social Science Journal

Recent pay reform efforts in Zambia have sought to generate more competitive wages and benefits for workers in the public sector. However, these efforts have been characterised by inconsistent policy decisions during wage negotiations. Such decisions produce distortions in the pay structure that result in industrial unrest from unions in the public sector. Previous literature has not examined how public sector unions influence these outcomes in Zambia. This article examines factors that affect public sector unions’ influence in Zambia. Seven factors were identified after analysing the 2013 wage negotiations and subsequent nurses’ strikes at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) as …

Relook Link Between Low Wages And Foreign Workers, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

He felt that the commonplace idea that the huge inflow of foreign workers in the past decade caused a stagnation and even decline in real wage earnings of Singaporean workers in the bottom half of the income distribution was flawed. He argued that real wage earnings of the median worker actually increased when the number of inflows of foreign workers was reaching its peak. Prof Hoon thus felt that Singapore must now find a means to gear its political and economic institutions to continue to embrace economic openness in the next half-century, in order to be able to deliver good …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Current And Future Talent Needs For The Talent 2025 Region, George Erickcek, Brian Pittelko, Claudette Robey, Bridget Timmeney

Reports

No abstract provided.

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 16, Number 4, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Departmental Papers (E & F)

No abstract provided.

Strategies Of Cooperation And Punishment Among Students And Clerical Workers, Maria Bigoni, Gabriele Camera, Marco Casari

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We study the individual behavior of students and workers in an experiment where they repeatedly face the same cooperative task. The data show that clerical workers differ from college students in overall cooperation rates, strategy adoption and use of punishment opportunities. Students cooperate more than workers. Cooperation increases in both subject pools when a personal punishment option is available. Students are less likely than workers to adopt strategies of unconditional defection, and more likely to select strategies of conditional cooperation. Finally, students are more likely than workers to sanction uncooperative behavior by adopting decentralized punishment, and also personal punishment when …

Economic Effects Of Successful Sports Franchises On Local Economies, Joshua Goodrich

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

How Local Workforce Investment Boards Can Help Support Job Creation, Randall W. Eberts

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Licensing Occupations: How Time And Regulatory Attainment Matter, Morris M. Kleiner

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Minimum Wage In A Deflationary Economy: The Japanese Experience, 1994-2003, Ryo Kambayashi, Daiji Kawaguchi, Ken Yamada

Research Collection School Of Economics

The statutory minimum wage in Japan has increased continuously for a few decades until the early 2000s even during a period of deflation. This paper examines the impact of the minimum wage on wage and employment outcomes under this unusual circumstance. We find that the minimum-wage increase resulted in the compression of the lower tail of the wage distribution among women and that the wage compression is only partially attributable to the loss of employment. The continuous increase in the minimum wage accounts for one half of the reduction in lower-tail inequality that occurred among women during the period between …

The Nexus Of Human Capital And Governance, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Pakistan’s popular economic discourse has been rightly focused on short-run problems. Will we be able to end load-shedding in the country? Will the IMF agreement cause more hardships than benefits to the people? Will the inflation rate begin to rise again? Will the rupee keep on tumbling? These are legitimate questions that need to be addressed. The government of the day also devotes its attention towards these problems as the test of their success lies in finding solution to these issues.

Neglected due to this pre-occupation with short-term problems are the issues that will impinge upon the future of this …

Global And Local Youth Unemployment: Dislocation And Pathways, Ramon Borges-Mendez, Lillian Denhardt, Michelle Collett

New England Journal of Public Policy

The impact of economic recessions is not felt uniformly across demographic groups, and the detrimental effects of the one-time dislocations can significantly shift the long-term prospects of human development for many years to come. The current recession has been hard on young people in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24, especially minorities (Latino or African American). Labor force participation rates have dropped dramatically and unemployment has reached as high as 30% in some states. Long spells of unemployment and adverse conditions for labor market incorporation further increase the likelihood of other poor life outcomes, such as …

What Works For Whom In Public Employment Policy?, Christopher J. O'Leary, Randall W. Eberts, Kevin Hollenbeck

Reports

No abstract provided.

Simulation Analysis Of The Louisiana Unemployment Insurance Tax System: Final Report, Christopher J. O'Leary

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

Unemployment insurance (UI) is a federal-state program designed to provide adequate partial income replacement to workers during temporary periods of involuntary joblessness. The UI system acts as an automatic macroeconomic stabilizer, increasing spending during recessions and reducing aggregate spending during recoveries. The program helps prevent recipients from slipping into poverty during unemployment.

This report reviews the recent history of financing regular UI benefits in Louisiana, assesses the adequacy of financing, and suggests areas where the financing system could be improved. The project aims to identify possible system reforms that will 1) assure long-term financial stability, 2) increase tax equity, and …

Unemployment Insurance, Stephen A. Woodbury

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Unemployment insurance (UI) provides temporary income support to workers who have lost their jobs and are seeking reemployment. This paper reviews the origins of the federal-state UI system in the United States and outlines its principles and goals. It also describes the conditions for benefit eligibility, the benefits themselves, and their financing through the UI payroll tax. The UI system is complex and includes many interested parties, including employers, worker advocates, state UI administrators, and the federal government. These parties’ differing views have led to controversies over benefit eligibility, adequacy, and whether the states or federal government should bear primary …

Demographics, Skills Gaps, And Market Dynamics, Randall W. Eberts

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Building More And Better Jobs: Lessons From The United States, Randall W. Eberts

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Do Mlb Hitters Boost Performance In Their Contract Year?, Heather M. O'Neill

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

This study focuses on 256 MLB free agent hitters playing under the 2006-2011 CBA to determine whether they boost their offensive performance in their contract year. Prior studies’ results are mixed, depending on the econometric technique used and the choice of the offensive performance measure.

Having multiple year observations per player, one can incorporate the unobserved traits of the players (ability, risk aversion, work ethic, etc.) by using Fixed Effects (FE) estimation. Since these unmeasured player traits are likely to be correlated with observed predictors of performance (games played, playoff contention, age, etc.), traditionally used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and …

Vocational Rehabilitation Transition Services In Rural Areas, Rebecca Goe, Catherine Ipsen, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

The receipt of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services as students transition out of high school may be an important predictor of post-graduation success (Harvey, 2002; National Council on Disability, 2008). In rural, limited job opportunities and limited access to counselors intersect to create a challenging VR service environment for transition youth. While 2008 and 2009 case services data indicate that a greater proportion of clients are transition aged in rural versus urban counties (RSA 911, 2009), rural transition students fall behind their urban counterparts in rates of employment and enrollment in postsecondary education following graduation (Harvey, 2002). This fact sheet reports …

Premature Exit From The Vocational Rehabilitation System, Catherine Ipsen, Rebecca Goe, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

Data from the 2009 Rebahilitation Services Administration Case Services Report (RSA 911) indicate that approximately 50% of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) consumers leave the system prematurely. Premature exits include case closures related to lost contact with the consumer due to inaccurate address, disconnected phone or consumer relocation (17.4% of cases); consumer refusal to continue services (17.2% of cases); or consumer failure to cooperate (15% of cases). Both the consumer and the VR system as a whole lose out when a consumer enrolls in services but drops out early. For the consumer, premature exit from VR services is correlated with worse economic …

Social Media Use Within State Vocational Rehabilitation Programs, Catherine Ipsen, Rebecca Goe, Kathy West-Evans, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Employment

Increasingly, employers use company websites, job boards, and social networking sites to recruit and evaluate potential employees. In 1997, newspaper ads and employee referrals accounted for almost half of new business hires. Yet by 2009, online career sites replaced newspaper ads as a major source for new recruits (CareerXroads, 2010). Likewise, 75% of U.S. recruiters reported that their companies required online research of candidates, and 70% reported they had rejected candidates based on information found online (Bontke & Lawler, 2012).

Short-Time Compensation As A Tool To Mitigate Job Loss? Evidence On The U.S. Experience During The Recent Recession, Katharine G. Abraham, Susan N. Houseman

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

During the recent recession only 17 states offered short-time compensation (STC)—pro-rated unemployment benefits for workers whose hours are reduced for economic reasons. New federal legislation will encourage the expansion of STC. Exploiting cross-state variation in STC, we present new evidence indicating that jobs saved during the recession as a consequence of STC could have been significant in manufacturing, but that the overall scale of the STC program was generally too small to have substantially mitigated aggregate job losses in the 17 states. Expansion of the program is necessary for STC to be an effective counter-cyclical tool in the future.

North Carolina's Unemployment Insurance System: A Simulation And Policy Analysis, Christopher J. O'Leary, James Van Erden

Reports

The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research (Upjohn) in partnership with the Center for Employment Security Education and Research (CESER) in the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) has been contracted by the North Carolina Department of Commerce (Department) to develop options for improving the North Carolina unemployment insurance (UI) benefit financing system. The work will also review alternative financial management strategies to regain and maintain solvency of the North Carolina account in the Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF) and to service debt to the federal government under Title XII of the US Social Security Act.

Michigan's Auto Workers: Tracking Their Transition During Significant Industry Restructuring, Randall W. Eberts

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Michigan's Displaced Auto Workers: Using Administrative Data To Track Their Transition During Significant Industry Restructuring, Randall W. Eberts

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Tracking The Transition Of Michigan's Displaced Auto Workers During Significant Restructuring In The Auto Industry, Randall W. Eberts, Kenneth J. Kline

Reports

No abstract provided.

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 16, Number 3, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Departmental Papers (E & F)

No abstract provided.

On The Effect And Remedies Of Shrinkage On Classification Probability Estimation, Zhengxiao Wu, Yufeng Liu, Zhengxiao Wu

Research Collection School of Economics

Shrinkage methods have been shown to be effective for classification problems. As a form of regularization, shrinkage through penalization helps to avoid overfitting and produces accurate classifiers for prediction, especially when the dimension is relatively high. Despite the benefit of shrinkage on classification accuracy of resulting classifiers, in this article, we demonstrate that shrinkage creates biases on classification probability estimation. In many cases, this bias can be large and consequently yield poor class probability estimation when the sample size is small or moderate. We offer some theoretical insights into the effect of shrinkage and provide remedies for better class probability …

Partial Disability System And Labor Market Adjustment: The Case Of Spain, Jose I. Silva, Judit Vall-Castello

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Although partially disabled individuals in Spain are allowed to combine the receipt of disability benefits with a job, the empirical evidence shows that employment rates for this group of individuals are very low. Therefore, in this paper we construct labor market model with search intensity and matching frictions in order to identify the incentives and disincentives to work provided by the partial disability system in Spain from the point of view of both disabled individuals and employers. According to the model, the high employment rate gap observed between nondisabled and disabled workers can be partially explained by the presence of …