Labor Economics Commons^™

The State Of The Missouri Economy And Workforce, Timothy J. Gronberg, Dennis W. Jansen, Lori L. Taylor

Center for Applied Economics

This article presents an overview of the state of the Missouri economy. We begin by assessing measures of economic output. Compared to the nation and to neighboring states, Missouri’s economy has hardly grown over the past 20 years. We identify several sources for this lackluster record. Perhaps one of the most important is the observation is that productivity in Missouri—output per worker—is lower than the national average. This poor productivity record quite possibly stems from two sources. One is problematic trends in labor force quality. A key factor here is a lack of commitment by the state to a higher …

Vocational Training Programs And Youth Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From Nepal, S Chakravarty, M Lundberg, Plamen Nikolov, J Zenker

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Lack of skills is arguably one of the most important determinants of high levels of unemployment and poverty. In response, policymakers often initiate vocational training programs in efforts to enhance skill formation among the youth. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we examine a large youth training intervention in Nepal. We find, twelve months after the start of the training program, that the intervention generated an increase in non-farm employment of 10 percentage points (ITT estimates) and up to 31 percentage points for program compliers (LATE estimates). We also detect sizable gains in monthly earnings largely driven by women who start self-employment …

Reforming Educator Compensation, Michael Podgursky

Center for Applied Economics

While compensation accounts for roughly 90 percent of K-12 instructional costs, there is little evidence of efficient or strategic design in these systems. Rigid salary schedules reward factors generally unrelated to effectiveness, induce field shortages, and encourage inequitable allocation of professional staff. Deferred compensation systems impose sharp penalties on mobility, promote early retirement and generate large unfunded liabilities. Serious attempts to bring greater efficiencies to K-12 spending and raising teacher quality must confront the dysfunctional compensation system.

Business Economics: Data For Decision Making, Brian Barnier, Kevin Foster

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for a course in data analytics for business economics, focusing on use of source data sets to answer the "why?" questions hidden in aggregate averages used in theory and "headline" news releases. Zero cost course using data available widely on the web. Optional texts are trade books available widely in libraries or used copies at low cost.

The Effects Of An Increasing Federal Minimum Wage On Federal Unemployment And Job Automation Levels, Kiana Krayeski

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The industrial revolution was the start of increasing technological advancements that are continuing to grow today. Technology improves accuracy, efficiency and is more productive in comparison to human labor as it does not require breaks and cannot violate any labor laws. With many innovations available today, firms have more options to choose from and can select the relatively cheaper solution. The push for a fifteen-dollar minimum wage affects the firm's options, and the use of technology might increasingly become the more viable choice. This study took data from the years 1993 to 2016 and created two regressions using the unemployment …

The Effect Of Unemployment On Democratic Warfare, Andres Rakower

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study was done to see the effects of a war on the economy and the internal politics of the United States. In selecting the engagement, we would study we agreed the Iraq War would be aided by a large amount of sampling of public opinion that was more nuanced than in previous wars. The Iraq War was a very complicated war, as it was controversial from the beginning and became a political issue while continuing to be a war fought by Americans abroad. Based on the literature, there were many starting effects and assumptions that were accounted for such …

Beliefs Influencing Hiring Agents' Selection Of Qualified Autistic Candidates, Angela Marie Mai

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Qualified and capable working age autistics face an 83% unemployment rate, thus, straining the economy and deteriorating their quality of life. This research examines potential contributing factors by inquiring what hiring agents' beliefs may be influencing their selection of qualified autistic candidates. This quantitatively weighted, concurrent, mixed methods (QUAN > qual), multiple linear regression study measured the influence of hiring agents' control, normative, and behavioral beliefs upon their selection of qualified autistic candidates. Through the theoretical lens of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior, conceptually crystallized with other validated theories; a representative, simple, random probability sample of hiring agents throughout the contiguous …

Wage And Profit Rate Distributions, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Shaikh, A. (n.d.). Two models for relative income: CIR model, multitype product, and Yakovenko process [Handwritten equations on folder cover]. Personal research files.
• Shaikh, A. (2017, January 31). A partial solution to the problem of the probability distribution of profits and wages [Unpublished working paper with extensive handwritten annotations on sign-switching, mean-repelling behavior, and beta variants]. New School for Social Research.
• Shaikh, A. (2017, January 31). Fokker–Planck equation, Laplace and exponential distributions: Continuation of partial solution [Annotated working paper, page 2]. New School for Social Research.
• Shaikh, A. (n.d.). CIR model, multitype product income, and Yakovenko process: …

Strategies Hospitality Leaders Use To Reduce Employee Turnover, Borislav Perev

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover is a global problem with adverse effects on financial performance and sustainability of organizations. In the hospitality industry, employee turnover levels increased to 58.8%, and the associated cost of turnover may be more than 100% of an employee's yearly wage, with a total loss of over $25 billion a year. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies used by hospitality leaders in the southeastern United States to reduce employee turnover. The conceptual framework was the transformational leadership theory. Purposeful selection of participants included leaders with experience in developing and implementing strategies for reducing employee …

Effective Management Communication Strategies, Dr. Cad W. Shannon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managing employee engagement is critical to the success of an organization, but 85% of managers struggle with engaging employees. The purpose of this single-case study was to explore effective communication strategies within an organization and determine how managers used these strategies to increase employee engagement, productivity, and organizational effectiveness. Data were collected from organizational documents, observations, and semistructured interviews with 6 managers of a corporation located in the midwestern United States. All participants were working full-time for at least 3 years, had a managerial title, and were responsible for departmental communication. Moustakas's modified van Kaam method was used for data …

Third-Party Logistics' Hiring Manager Strategies To Recruit Supply-Chain Professionals, Beth D'Alessandro

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of third-party logistics companies face a critical talent shortage because of the global deficiency of supply-chain professionals. The lack of trained supply-chain professionals negatively affects business and market performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by third-party logistics hiring managers to recruit supply-chain talent to meet industry demands. The resource-based view theory was used as a lens for this study. Data were collected from 5 Pennsylvania third-party logistics hiring managers from interviews, organizational documents, and company websites. Member checking occurred after transcription and summarization of the interview data. Data analysis occurred using …

Reentry Practitioners' Perceptions Of Constraints During Ex-Offenders' Job Search Process, Crystal Raquel Francis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unemployment among formerly incarcerated citizens is a complex problem that continues to grow. Previous reentry studies describe the collateral effects of incarceration on employment from the perspective of formerly incarcerated individuals, yet little academic research exists regarding reentry practitioners' perceptions of constraints during the job search process. Using Goldratt's theory of constraints as the foundation, the purpose of this case study of reentry and employment in a mid-Atlantic state was to explore from the perspective of practitioners, the types of constraints individuals with criminal records face during the job search process, the most difficult phase of the job search process, …

The Future Encyclopedia Of Luddism, Miriam A. Cherry

All Faculty Scholarship

In common parlance, the term “Luddite” means someone who is anti-technology, or maybe, just not adept at using technology. Historically, however, the Luddite movement was a reaction born of industrial accidents and dangerous machines, poor working conditions, and the fact that there were no unions to represent worker interests during England’s initial period of industrialization. The Luddites did not hate technology; they only channeled their anger toward machine-breaking because it had nowhere else to go. The attached book chapter is an alternate history (written circa 2500) that depends on the critical assumption that the Luddites succeeded in their industrial campaign …

Unbundling Freedom In The Sharing Economy, Deepa Das Acevedo

Faculty Articles

Courts and scholars point to the sharing economy as proof that our labor and employment infrastructure is obsolete because it rests on a narrow and outmoded idea that only workers subjected to direct, personalized control by their employers need work-related protections and benefits. Since they diagnose the problem as being our system’s emphasis on control, these critics have long called for reducing or eliminating the primacy of the “control test” in classifying workers as either protected employees or unprotected independent contractors. Despite these persistent criticisms, however, the concept of control has been remarkably sticky in scholarly and judicial circles.

This …

La Pena Negra: Mexican Women, Gender, And Labor During The Bracero Program, 1942-1964, Mayra Lizette Avila

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most research on México and the Bracero Program has centered on the experiences of men. The scholarship details their decision to leave México, their experiences crossing the border and working in the fields, and their return migration home. "La Pena Negra: Woman, Gender, and Labor, During the Bracero Program, 1942-1964" adds to Bracero scholarship by looking at how the Mexican consulate dealt with Bracero treatment and death. However, the program did not only impact male laborers, but their spouses and family who they left behind in México. Women and families' survival depended on the female ability to adapt and negotiate …

Why Do Underrepresented Minorities Leave Science And Engineering?, Cindy Onyekwelu

Pitzer Senior Theses

This paper extends upon Jennifer Hunt’s research on “Why do women leave science and engineering?”, that contributes to existing literature that overlooks underrepresented minorities level of commitment to STEM fields based on their STEM educational backgrounds and additional contributing factors that relates to women engineer’s leaving their felid to another felid that does not have any relation to their STEM degree. The following independent factors are the respondents’ gender, reasons for leaving the felid of major, how much does their highest degree relate to their current principle/ primary job, parents’ level of education, current citizenship status, level of highest degrees …

Sexual Harassment, Public Transportation, And Labor Market Outcomes For Women: Case Study Of Lahore, Pakistan, Rachel A. Wilder

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis investigates an understudied question in the economics literature: how does sexual harassment experienced in and around public transportation affect labor market outcomes for women? Previous research suggests that access to public transport can improve labor market outcomes and that women's use of public transportation is sometimes limited by their experience of sexual harassment. It follows that when harassment is particularly widespread or severe – as is the case in much of South Asia – it may lead women who depend on public transportation for travel to make different labor market choices or not to work at all. If …

Essays On Transfer-Program Interactions Among Low-Income Households, Nicholas S. Moellman

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays examining the role of transfer-program interactions for families and households who participate in the social safety net. The safety net is comprised of many different programs, run by different agencies, governed by different rules, and often administered by disparate and secluded entities. However, many households participate in multiple programs, subjecting them to the milieu of administrative hurdles. In this dissertation, I try to untangle some of the intended and unintended effects of program participation that may be experienced by these households.

In Essay 1, I examine the effect of the Patient Protection and Affordable …

Three Essays On College Earnings Premium And China’S Higher Education Expansion, Chenxu Hu

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

My dissertation consists of three essays that study the college premium in China and how it has been affected by China’s higher education expansion.

In the first essay, I utilize the high education expansion as exogenous source to estimate the college premium. The rapidly changing access to college provides a rare opportunity to estimate a local treatment effect (LATE) of college education on earnings by utilizing the drastic increase in college admission rate in 1999. I also utilize the yearly admission rate as an instrumental variable for the endogenous college education. Using China Household Income Project 2013, the two IV …

The Effect Of Occupational Licensing On Wages And Employment: Evidence From Electricians And Massage Therapists, Matt Shafer

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

No executive summary.

Unemployment Insurance Reform: Fixing A Broken System, Stephen A. Wandner Editor

Upjohn Press

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) system is a lasting piece of the Social Security Act which was enacted in 1935. But like most things that are over 80 years old, it occasionally needs maintenance to keep it operating smoothly while keeping up with the changing demands placed upon it. However, the UI system has been ignored by policymakers for decades and, say the authors, it is broken, out of date, and badly in need of repair.

Stephen A. Wandner pulls together a group of UI researchers, each with decades of experience, who describe the weaknesses in the current system and propose …

Intergenerational Transmission Of Educational Attainment: A Look At Racial Differences, James Imhoff

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

As a people, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that hard work alone can push even the most disadvantaged of us beyond our upbringing. The link between parental and child labor outcomes in the form of educational attainment, income, or social class is known as intergenerational correlation. Due to vast differences in black and white American educational attainment, this paper conducted a study to measure just exactly how parental education will impact a child’s future. As literature and theory suggest, parental education, family income, race, gender, and several other factors all have a tangible benefit on determining how much schooling …

The Impacts Of China's Rise On The Pacific And The World, Wei-Chiao Huang Editor, Huizhong Zhou Editor

Upjohn Press

This book provides the perspectives of a group of noted China experts on how China’s economic expansion and internal reforms are impacting its neighbors in the Pacific region as well as the United States and the rest of the world.

Welfare-To-Work: The Effect Of Childcare Subsidies On Labor Force Participation Rates For Low-Income Single Mothers, Ariana Cubela

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The allocation of funding toward childcare has historically been debated due to conflicting views on the effect childcare subsidies have on low-income, single mothers. Some suggest that federal, state and local funding could put the money allocated for childcare subsidies to better use – or perhaps that there is no need for additional federal, state and/or local funding. However, there is sufficient evidence that children raised in a family structure with low-income single mothers may face long-term negative consequences not only socially, but also economically. An increase in labor force participation rates as a result of childcare subsidies not only …

Opioids And Unemployment, David Robinson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There has been a ton of research in economics about the effects of drugs on the employment status of individuals. These papers have looked at the effects mainly pertaining to Marijuana and Cocaine, however this paper will be examining the effects of the opioid Heroin. As a first of its kind paper I will examine the relationship between employment and heroin use. To test this connection I have compiled data from the National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health. Through the use of two econometric models: OLS and Two Stage Least Squares models I will uncover the connection we can …

Stem And The Local Economy: Do Regions Reap The Benefits Of A Stem-Educated Workforce?, Fran Stewart

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Future Encyclopedia Of Luddism, Miriam A. Cherry

All Faculty Scholarship

In common parlance, the term “Luddite” means someone who is anti-technology, or maybe, just not adept at using technology. Historically, however, the Luddite movement was a reaction born of industrial accidents and dangerous machines, poor working conditions, and the fact that there were no unions to represent worker interests during England’s initial period of industrialization. The Luddites did not hate technology; they only channeled their anger toward machine-breaking because it had nowhere else to go. The attached book chapter is an alternate history (written circa 2500) that depends on the critical assumption that the Luddites succeeded in their industrial campaign …

The Cultural Legacy Of Communism In Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial Perceptions And Activity In Central And Eastern Europe, Amy Wu

CMC Senior Theses

Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, this paper examines differences in entrepreneurial perceptions (fear of failure, opportunity perception, self-efficacy, public opinion) between CEE and non-CEE countries, before and after the 2008 recession, as well as the effects of these perceptions on entrepreneurial motivation and overall levels of activity. The results suggest that CEE countries have systematically more pessimistic outlooks in terms of fear of failure and opportunity perception, but no difference from non-CEE countries in self-efficacy and public opinion. Additionally, most of the difference in fear of failure and opportunity perception, along with an increase in necessity-motivated entrepreneurship, comes …

Econophysics, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Shaikh, A. (2018, October 16). Notes on econophysics: Probabilistic approaches, labor theory of value, and wage and wealth distributions [Handwritten seminar notes]. Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow.
• Shaikh, A. (n.d.). Essential guide to critical development studies [Handwritten reference note on lined paper]. Personal research files.
• Shaikh, A. (2018, October). Property income models: CIR, log-normal, gamma, sign function, and simulation methods [Handwritten working notes]. Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow.
• Shaikh, A. (2018). Gini coefficient, truncated wage model, and log mean-reversion [Handwritten working notes]. Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow.
• Shaikh, A. (2018). Wages, …

The Dark Past Of Rhode Island In New Light, Yulyana Torres, Marcus Nevius

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.