The Growing Importance of Family: Evidence from Brothers’ Earnings

We examine between‐brother correlation of earnings, family income, and wages from two cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys. Young brothers who entered the labor market in the 1970s had lower correlations of economic outcomes than did those who entered in the 1980s and early 1990s. Neither the rising brother correlation in education nor the rising return to schooling accounts for much of the increase in the brother correlation in earnings. These results suggest that family and community influences other than years of education that are shared by brothers have become increasingly important in determining economic outcomes.     

College Quality and Earnings in the Japanese Labor Market

The motivations underlying the pursuit of college prestige in Japan presumes a labor market that rewards workers according to the quality of the college that they attended. Yet studies that examine the relationship between college quality and earnings in Japan remain few and are riddled with shortcomings. This article examines the returns to college education among Japanese men using a 1995 cross-sectional data set. I find that college quality significantly improves earnings. My findings confirm that college quality plays a crucial role in shaping incentives and earnings in the Japanese labor market.     

What Can Explain the Increase in Earnings Inequality Among Males?

Increases in the inequality of earnings among male workers since the late sixties have been attributed primarily to shifts in employment from goods-producing to service-producing activities and the baby-boom cohort's entry into the labor market. This paper provides empirical estimates of the magnitude of these and other potential causes of the increase in earnings inequality from 1967 to 1985. The results show that changes related to the age composition of the labor force and to the industrial composition of the labor force account for only a portion of the increase in inequality. Most of the increase in unexplained by either factor. Other contributing factors include a rise in the return to education, a change in the relationship between age and education among males, and a decline in the marriage rate among younger males.     

It Pays to Value Family: Work and Family Tradeoffs Reconsidered

We use longitudinal data to assess whether individuals who place greater importance on marriage and family pay a price for that priority in subsequent labor market success. Males placing a high priority on family before entering the labor market earn more, contrary to behavioral research but consistent with the economics literature. More important, females who place a high priority on family do not suffer in terms of subsequent earnings, contrary to most previous research.     

Earnings behavior in food and tobacco manufacturing

This paper examines and empirically evaluales various relationships between product and labor market characteristics and industrial earnings and productivity behavior in the food and tobacco manufacturing sector. Both higher earnings and larger increases in those earnings over time are observed for more concentrated product classes; further, these classes show no appreciably larger productivity increase over time. Other significant factors in earnings and earnings change determination appear to be plant size distribution, industrial geographic dispersion, and industrial percentage of male employees.     

Gender Earnings Differentials Among College Administrators

This analysis examines gender pay gap among the top five salaried individuals at private higher education institutions. We find a 13.0 percent average pay disadvantage for women versus men. This pay gap can be decomposed into a 10.4 percent differential owing to differences in the types of institutions and occupations that women hold relative to men and a 2.6 percent unexplained earnings differential.     

收益与收益质量的分层研究

各层面对收益的不同认识以及所导出的收益质量问题是极为重要的实际问题。本文先以经济学和会计学辨析的视角说明收益的内涵及在理论与实践中的偏差，阐明全面收益理论的要点与意义。然后深入到收益质量内部，从经济收益的大小、会计收益与真实收益差异的客观性和人为因素导致的收益质量三个不同层面进行分析，最后就研究结论，运用统计分析的方法对我国上市公司收益质量进行实证描述与分析，本文旨在揭示收益质量不高的原因，找出辨析与提高收益与收益质量的方法与途径。     

Long‐Term Earnings Inequality,Earnings Instability and Temporary Employment in Spain: 1993–2000

This article provides a longitudinal perspective on changes in Spanish male earnings inequality for the period 1993–2000 by decomposing the earnings covariance structure into its permanent and transitory parts. Cross‐sectional earnings inequality of male full‐time employees falls over the second half of the 1990s. Such decline was determined by a decrease in earnings instability and an increase of the permanent earnings component. Given the marked decline in temporary employment over the sample period, we also examine the effect of the type of contract on earnings variance components and find that workers on a fixed‐term contract face, on average, more instability than workers on a permanent contract. This evidence suggests that the decline in temporary employment is responsible for the decreasing earnings instability.     

Earnings Inequality and Unions in Canada

This paper reports research examining differences in the earnings distributions of unionized and non–unionized workers and the impact of union status on the likelihood of a worker being in each region of the earnings distribution. Average earnings of unionized workers are shown to be higher than those of non–union workers in the first four quintiles, but lower than average earnings of non–unionized workers in the top quintile. Union effects are greatest among workers situated in the lower and middle regions of the distribution, and benefit workers who are typically disadvantaged in the labour market.     

Inequality and Union Membership: The Influence of Relative Earnings and Inequality Attitudes

Using surveys from the International Social Survey Programme covering the period 1985–2002 for seven European countries (West and East Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain), we examine the effect of relative earnings on union membership and show that union density is higher among workers in the intermediate earnings group than among low or high earners. Next, we examine the association of inequality attitudes with union membership and demonstrate that union membership is not only motivated by instrumental considerations related to relative earnings, but also by normative concerns about inequality. We interpret our findings suggesting that rising earnings inequality is in itself a source of union decline.     

Race and Post-Displacement Earnings Among High-Tech Workers

This study examines racial variations in post-layoff earnings among a cohort of workers displaced in 1985 from Silicon Valley's high-technology industries. The analysis shows that blacks and Hispanics suffered greater earnings losses than non-Hispanic whites, and that this racial disparity occurred both among those who found other jobs within the high-tech sector and among those who were reemployed outside the high-tech sector. There were no statistical differences in outcomes between Asians and non-Hispanic whites.     

The Likely Impact of Increases in Deposit Rate Ceilings on Thrift Earnings and Housing Construction*

Simulations of a seventy-equation econometric model are run in an attempt to deduce the likely impact of increases in deposit rate ceilings on financial markets, the earnings of depository institutions, and the composition of nonfinancial investment. The analysis suggests that the effect of binding rate ceilings during the 1973–75 period was to raise home mortgage rates (by about 30 basis points), accentuate the downturn in single family housing starts (by about 40,000 per year), and maintain earnings at depository institutions. Without the ceilings thrift earnings would have been about a billion dollars less per year. However, this loss might well be more than compensated for by greater thrift earnings in subsequent years and by lower noninterest expenses.     

Fluidity in Sexual Identity,Unmeasured Heterogeneity,and the Earnings Effects of Sexual Orientation

Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study (1) examines the sensitivity of the estimated earnings penalty of sexual minority status to family‐level unobserved heterogeneity, and (2) explores whether the earnings effects of sexual orientation differ by the degree of fluidity in individuals' self‐reported sexual identity over time. Evidence from sibling pairs suggests that unobserved family heterogeneity is not an important source of bias in the estimated relationship between sexual orientation and young adult earnings. I find that gay males and bisexuals earn lower wages than their heterosexual counterparts, while lesbians earn wages that are not significantly different from heterosexual females. Finally, I examine the role of fluidity in sexual orientation over time and find that males who are longer‐term gay identifiers earn wages that are 26.4 percent lower than their consistently heterosexual‐identifying counterparts.     

Earnings Progression and the Workforce Investment Act: Evidence from Washington State

This research measures earnings progression among participants in federally funded Workforce Investment Act (WIA) programs in the state of Washington during the period 2001 through 2008, using state administrative data and propensity score‐weighted regressions. Unlike previous evaluations that have emphasized earnings levels, this study addresses both earnings progression and levels to assess whether workers are on a path to reaching economic self‐sufficiency within a short time after participation. The analysis finds that participants in WIA Adult services had similar earnings progression as people receiving only less‐intensive Labor Exchange services.     

Language Skills and the Earnings Distribution Among Child Immigrants

In this paper, we estimate the language effects on the earnings distribution among child immigrants. Utilizing U.S. Census data, we find: (1) there exists a larger heterogeneity in language premiums across the earnings distribution, and the patterns change over time (2) occupation and education channels explain most of the language effects and the large heterogeneity in them. However, the importance of these two channels has decreased over time.     

Effects of Skill and Attitudes on Employee Performance and Earnings

This study uses original survey and archival data from factory and office employees in one firm to relate differences among individual employees' performance to differences in their skill and attitudes about work, and to test the association between employees' earnings and their performance, skill, and attitudes. We suggest that the way in which skill and attitudes affect performance will depend on the type of work that is done. The main results show that among factory employees, those who have on-the-job training and longer experience receive better performance ratings than those without training and with less experience. Factory employees' earnings depend on their performance, following the human capital model of wage determination. Among office workers, training and experience do not significantly affect performance ratings; instead, higher-rated employees have more positive attitudes about work. Office employees' earnings depend on their classroom training, experience, and attitudes, but not on their rated performance.     

Temporary Help Work: Earnings,Wages, and Multiple Job Holding*

Temporary help services (THS) employment has been growing in size, particularly among disadvantaged workers. An extended policy debate focuses on the low earnings, limited benefits, and insecurity that such jobs appear to provide. We investigate the earnings and wage differentials observed between THS and other jobs in a sample of disadvantaged workers. We find lower quarterly earnings at THS jobs but a $1 per hour wage premium. We reconcile these findings in terms of the shorter duration and lower hours worked at THS jobs. We interpret the premium as a compensating wage differential.     

Earnings and Percentage Female: A Longitudinal Study

Comparable worth advocates assume that the relation between earnings and percentage female in an occupation is due to crowding or other forms of discrimination. An alternative explanation is that the relation stems from women freely choosing different occupations. Using longitudinal data to control for time-invariant omitted variables, as well as cross-sectional data (for comparison with previous research), we find that although men's estimated penalty is not reduced, the percentage female penalty falls substantially for women and is not statistically significant. These results imply that estimates of the percentage female effect based on cross-sectional data may be inflated for women–except for those with intermittent labor force participation. This group does experience a sizeable penalty for working in female-dominated occupations. Hence, a comparable worth policy would most likely benefit women with discontinuous employment.     

The Relative Effects of Unionism on the Earnings Distributions of Women and Men

This study examines the differential effects of union density on the degree of earnings inequality among women and among men. Our results suggest an equalizing impact of union density for all men and for both men and women who work year-round and full time. Union density does not appear to equalize and may even contribute to a disequalization of the earnings distribution for all women.     

The Role of Sector-Specific Skills in Post displacement Earnings

This article examines how one form of transferable skills, those valued within an industry or sector, may influence reemployment and earnings following permanent job loss. The empirical analysis finds limited evidence of a sector-specific component to the returns to job tenure. The importance of these skills varies across sectors, with the strongest evidence found for sectors with sustained labor demand and growing employment. There is stronger evidence, particularly in reemployment, for a broader form of sector specificity that is not related to tenure, such as job search skills and vocational training. There is also sectoral evidence that is consistent with the role of individual ability in the returns to tenure.