High school athletics and the wages of black males

This article examines the effects of high school athletic participation on the future wages of black males. Our evidence suggests that former black male athletes receive significantly greater wages than their otherwise comparable counterparts. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth was used for the analysis and allows for comparisons of the athlete premium to be made at different points in time. Both the human capital and signaling models are discussed. There appears to be a once and for all enhancement to human capital that accrues to black males who participated in high school athletics. The article adds to the literature on determinants of black male wages and on the earnings effects of athletic participation.     

Self-Employment and Job Satisfaction: Investigating the Role of Self-Efficacy, Depression, and Seniority

Are self‐employed workers more satisfied with their jobs compared to wage and salary workers? Using The National Survey of Families and Households: Wave I, 1987–1988, and Wave II 1992–1994 several expectations are evaluated in this article. First, self‐employed persons should enjoy higher job satisfaction than others. Second, a portion of the association between job satisfaction and self‐employment should be explained by higher levels of self‐efficacy and by lower levels of depression among the self‐employed compared to others. Third, self‐employment veterans are a select group and should be different systematically from self‐employment newcomers with respect to reported job satisfaction. Findings offer support for the first and second arguments above but not the third. Post‐hoc analysis suggests that among the newly self‐employed, the association between job satisfaction and self‐employment depends on both the quantity and quality of time invested in the business. Implications of these findings and directions for further research are discussed.     

Self-Efficacy Toward Service, Civic Participation and the Business Student: Scale Development and Validation

This paper presents the development andvalidation of new measurement tools to exploreself-efficacy toward service and toward civicparticipation. We developed and administereda survey to 851 students in an AACSB-accreditedcollege of business at a comprehensive publicuniversity located in the Midwest. Traditionalscale development methodologies plusconfirmatory factor analysis and simultaneousfactor analysis in several populations wereused to analyze both a primary sample and aholdback sample. Results strongly support thevalidity and reliability of the surveyinstrument. Future use for the instrumentincludes verification of the effectiveness ofpedagogies designed to increase self-efficacytoward service and motivation for civicparticipation in business students.     

Price Cap Regulation in the Cable Television Industry: Why was the Demand Stagnant?

During the period of 1992 to 1996, the cable television industry in the United States was regulated by the FCC, which took several price cap measures. As a result, the increase in the price cable service substantially slowed. However, the cable demand did not rise as anticipated. Using a model of imperfectly discriminating monopoly, the paper empirically investigates this curious phenomenon of stagnant demand despite lower prices. The paper finds that the FCC's price capping constrained both demand and prices. The demand was constrained since the price cap was designed to cover almost all TV channels carried by cable systems, and subsequently discouraged cable systems from meeting different customer preferences with multi-tier services.     

Domestic Support and Border Measures for Processed Horticultural Products

In horticultural markets, trade barriers often apply to the processed products whereas domestic support applies to farm-produced raw commodities. Here we assess the effects of such trade barriers and domestic support by simulating the effects of policy reform on global processing tomato markets, which are faced with modest processed product tariffs and high domestic support in the European Union (EU). Both protection and EU subsidy drive down world welfare, but we find that reducing import tariffs for tomato products would yield greater effects on markets and larger welfare impacts outside Europe than would reductions in EU domestic support.     

Negotiating leisure constraints: the case of an amateur musician with epilepsy

The purpose of this case study was to identify the negotiation strategies employed by an epileptic amateur musician engaged in serious leisure to overcome leisure constraints. Data were collected by semi-structured interview, observation and informal interaction. Results revealed that the subject employed various cognitive (i.e. anticipating benefits, weighing pros and cons, immediate resolving, accepting costs and pragmatism about performance) and behavioural (i.e. planning/event management, scaling back participation and communication and cooperation) negotiation strategies. While strategies were employed to overcome constraints, participation was also facilitated by individual beliefs and interpersonal relationships. Results also suggested that negotiation strategies are interconnected, and that perceived stigma did not influence participation in serious leisure.     

Employment Protection,Threat and Incentive Effects on Worker Absence

This article provides new evidence on the effect of changes in employment protection on worker absence. We use novel multi‐organization data to examine changes in worker absence as workers move from temporary to permanent employment contracts. We demonstrate a robust positive effect of employment protection on sickness absence. It has also been suggested that the impact of employment protection on absence and effort is due to a fear of dismissal. We also provide evidence that suggests that temporary workers' absence is influenced by incentives to attain jobs with protection that is unrelated to threat of dismissal. This has not been considered in earlier research. This channel of employment protection effects has important policy implications.