Underemployment in Australia: a panel investigation

This 2001–2013 panel study finds 33% of part-time employees to be underemployed, disproportionately affecting males, immigrants, youth, the blue-collared and new to our study, those on casual contracts. Within the underemployed sample, we report that the gap between preferred and actual hours (working hour tension) also varies by personal and labour characteristics, largely consistent with that found for the determinants of underemployment. The continued growth of part-time employment and casualization in recent years has been more pronounced among males, raising their rates of underemployment as they disproportionately prefer to work more hours vis-à-vis their part-time female peers.     

Are women really that happy at work? Australian evidence on the ‘contented female’

This article investigates the apparent paradox of females possessing higher levels of job satisfaction compared to their male counterparts despite possessing worse employment outcomes. Postulating that the female workforce is heterogeneous by age, education and the presence of children, we create four groups; the aggregated, young and childless, young with children and the educated. The article finds statistical evidence of significant gender differences, though not uniformly so. Econometric results, however, paint a muddier picture, indicating that statistical results alone should not be used to categorically report incidences of gender differences in job satisfaction. Sample-selection bias results also evince sub-group heterogeneity and require further study. The determinants of job satisfaction vary between measures and sub-groups, though not necessarily so across gender. In sum, the article finds that the paradox does exhibit itself for the aggregated and young and childless sub-groups, but is largely absent for the young with children group. As well, there is a clear bifurcation in job satisfaction between genders for the educated sub-group. This suggests that employed females should not be viewed as a monolithic bloc in the labour force.     

Book reviews

There is growing evidence that young tourists at nightlife resorts have a propensity for risk-taking. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at an international nightlife resort in Bulgaria, this article examines how guides help tourists lower their inhibitions and reach states of collective effervescence. Focus is on young guides and tourists from Denmark. The article argues that the guides use four basic techniques to stir up effervescence: body techniques, speech and sound effects, crowd effects and alcohol.     

Corporate governance and the sensitivity of investments to cash flows

We find very strong and consistent evidence that investments in Strong‐Governance firms (managers not entrenched) are strongly sensitive to availability of internal cash flows while such sensitivity is not different from zero for Weak‐Governance firms (entrenched management). We interpret this as evidence in support of Kaplan and Zingales' (1997) contention that sensitivity of investments to cash flows is not an adequate measure of financing constraints. More importantly, our findings are consistent with Kaplan and Zingales’ conjecture that the observed sensitivity of investments to cash flows in firms that do not face financing constraints may be driven by excessive risk aversion of managers.     

Flexible Contract Workers in Inferior Jobs: Reappraising the Evidence

There is concern that the increase in flexible employment contracts witnessed in many OECD economies is evidence of a growth in low‐pay, low‐quality jobs. In practice, it is difficult to evaluate the ‘quality’ of flexible jobs. Previous research has primarily investigated objective measures of job quality such as wages and training or subjective measures such as job satisfaction. We jointly evaluate these elements of flexible employment contracts using a job quality index. Analysis of this index demonstrates that flexible jobs are of a lower quality. Differences in the subjective and objective assessment of factors like pay and hours are evident.     

The assimilation of Australian immigrants: does occupation matter?

This paper utilises the occupational attainment approach to investigate immigrant labour market assimilation, complementing other assimilation approaches such as employability, earnings, skills-match and job satisfaction. Our results show that all immigrant groups suffer from initial occupational attainment disadvantage. Worryingly, no ‘catch-up’ over time is evident – even when disaggregated to reflect different cultures and backgrounds. Nor is there much evidence that the occupational status of younger arrivals matches those of Australian born residents, despite being immersed in local mores and institutions while undertaking schooling in Australia. Newer cohorts of immigrants (those who arrived between 2000 and 2014) are also more prone to suffering an occupational penalty. We recommend policymakers subsidise bridging courses to aid recognition of overseas-obtained qualifications and encourage immigrants to obtain local qualifications that can complement their overseas-obtained work experience. This will increase their ‘Australian-ready’ skill-set and occupational attainment in their new host country.