Beyond Space: Spatial (Re)Production and Middle‐Class Remaking Driven by Jiaoyufication in Nanjing City,China

An extension of gentrification, jiaoyufication–urban change driven by a desire for high‐quality education–is not only displacing previous lower‐class residents, but also replacing earlier jiaoyufiers with newcomers, turning formerly blue‐collar neighbourhoods into white‐collar ones. New middle‐class communities are emerging as spatially limited school catchment zones attract social groups who occupy these spaces in an attempt to facilitate social mobility or consolidate social status, causing tension between them. Consequently, jiaoyufication has narrowed down opportunities for intergenerational social mobility and exacerbated social polarization, gradually replacing traditional social hierarchies with intergenerational neoliberal stratification.     

A model of Social Security Disability Insurance using matched SIPP/Administrative data

We study Disability Insurance (DI) application behavior in the US using matched SIPP and administrative data over 1989–1995. Certain state-contingent earnings projections and eligibility probabilities are central to the analysis. We find evidence for a small work disincentive effect of DI that seems to be restricted to a subset of the DI beneficiaries, including low earning groups such as blue collar workers and those subject to economic dislocation. Processing time, Medicare value, unemployment, private health insurance, and health shocks are some of the major factors that affect application propensity. The behavioral response of female workers to various parameters of the DI program is found to be quite different from that of males.     

The interests of white‐collar workers and their representation in the German manufacturing sector: new initiatives,opportunity structures,framing and resources

In the German manufacturing sector, white‐collar workers have outpaced blue‐collar workers in numbers. Therefore, unions and works councils have launched initiatives to attract, mobilise and organise white‐collar workers. The analysis is drawing on a conceptual framework that looks at the opportunity structures, framing processes and resources of the initiatives.     

Firm-specific Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from Brazil*

We introduce firm-specific returns to experience and tenure into a standard two-way fixed effects model, show that they are separately identified under the standard exogenous mobility assumption and with sufficient between firm mobility, and provide a new evidence on heterogeneity of returns to experience and tenure across firms using the administrative data from Brazil over the years 1999–2014. We document that (1) returns to tenure are not strongly related to firm wage premia, (2) returns to experience are strongly negatively correlated with firm wage premia, (3) the relationship between firm wage premium and return to experience is stronger for ‘blue collar’ firms.     

White collar unions in Switzerland

Swiss trade unionism differs from that of other countries: lower strike incidence, lower trade union density and organisational segregation of blue and white collar employees. The author reviews and explains these differences and reports on the attitudes towards trade unionism of the German-speaking members of Switzerland's biggest white collar trade union organisation.     

Trade union attitudes to flexible working hours

This paper describes a study of trade union involvement with flexible working hours or ‘flexitime’. This system is now viewed far more positively but ‘blue collar’ unions have more reservations than their ‘white collar’ counterparts.     

Pharmaceutical drug misuse: are industry of employment and occupation risk factors?

We explore the misuse of pharmaceutical drugs in the Australian workforce, focusing on whether any differences exist between workers in particular industries or occupations. In terms of industry, being employed in hospitality is positively associated with pharmaceutical drug misuse, while being employed in finance, insurance and retail is inversely related. In terms of occupation, we find that being a labourer is positively related to misuse of pharmaceutical drugs, while being employed in managerial, professional, sales, clerical or administrative roles is associated with a lower tendency. Further analysis of occupational effects revealed that being in a blue‐collar occupation, as a whole, is positively related to pharmaceutical drug misuse relative to white‐collar employment. Moreover, being employed in higher status roles is associated with a lower likelihood of such behaviour. Our findings imply that particular workplace pressures, cultural norms and/or working conditions might be influential factors behind workers' drug misuse.     

The paradox of gender voting: An exploratory analysis

Voting studies have documented that white collar workers tend to vote for conservative parties and blue collar workers for parties that advance working class interests. In the United States during the era (1980–1992) of Republican Presidents Reagan and Bush, women who worked in white collar jobs tended to vote for the Democratic party and men for the more conservative Republican party. This shift created the paradox of gender voting, which this article explains. The effect of gender on vote is small but attains statistical significance due to the suppressor effect of occupation. Two interpretations of the gender effect are tested: thematerialist holds that women's occupation and class identification affect this gap; thepost-materialist suggests that affluence is pivotal. The materialist interpretation fits the data from the survey of the national election of 1984 — the middle-most election of the three won by the Republicans— but the post-materialist interpretation may explain the vote of the very affluent.To Morris Rosenberg and Roberta Simmons, fine sociologists who clarified the suppressor effect and causes of self-esteem.     

Demand for labour inputs and adjustment costs: evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

This paper studies the structure of the adjustment costs for heterogeneous labour inputs, allowing for asymmetries and interaction effects among them. To do this, I estimate Euler equations for the demands of permanent nonproduction (white collar) and production (blue collar) employees using a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. These equations are estimated using the subsample of observations for which adjustment is done, controlling for endogenous sample selection. The main results confirm the heterogeneity of adjustment costs for these two labour inputs, and the existence of cross-adjustment effects between them. Weak evidence of asymmetry in permanent nonproduction labour is also found.     

Access to training and its impact on temporary workers

Does temporary work provide a way for individuals to improve their skill levels? Using a sample of more than 4,000 employees of US temporary staffing agencies, we analyse whether blue, white and pink‐collar temps get access to company training, and the impact of skill development on wages and employee retention. We find that less than 25 per cent of temps take part in training. Educated and experienced individuals are more likely to be offered training, but lower‐skilled individuals are more likely to take training when it is offered and spend more hours on it. Office workers who took part in training were more likely still to be with the agency a year later and experienced significant wage growth, while training had no effect on wage growth for blue‐collar workers. Skill development that took place on the job was associated with greater wage growth for all types of temps.     

Inducing Employees to Leave: A Comparison of Four Severance Options

This study examines the demographic, economic, and psychographic characteristics of 324 blue‐collar workers who were offered four options for either retirement or severance from the organization. Consistent with previous research, individuals who accepted retirement options have more organizational tenure and believed that the packages would provide stable financial futures. A key finding for those who accepted the nonretirement options is that comparable employment would be available. The study concludes with research limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Does immigration affect wages? A look at occupation-level evidence

Previous research has reached mixed conclusions about the effect of higher levels of immigration on the wages of natives. This paper reexamines this question using data from the Current Population Survey and the Immigration and Naturalization Service and focuses on differential effects by skill level. Using occupation as a proxy for skill, we find that an increase in the fraction of foreign-born workers tends to lower the wages of natives in blue collar occupations—particularly after controlling for endogeneity—but does not have a statistically significant negative effect among natives in skilled occupations. The results also indicate that immigrants adjusting their immigration status within the U.S., but not newly arriving immigrants, have a significant negative impact on the wages of low-skilled natives. This suggests that immigrants become closer substitutes for natives as they spend more time in the U.S.     

Economic Integration of Immigrants

A bstract . This empirical study of the processes by which immigrants are absorbed into the economy and society of their host country was conducted among 500 families who had arrived in Israel from 3 to 13 years earlier. The following variables were found to have a positive impact on their economic integration: white collar occupations of husband and wife, young age , small size of the family , residence in proximity to a central city in contrast to living in a development town , and greater length of their stay in the host country. Analysis showed, however, that economic integration had no significant impact on any of the other indices of absorption, including the general index of "rootedness in the country." Hence for immigrants who come to the host country and remain a significant length of time—in the case of this sample, at least three years—more resources should be allocated to their cultural and social integration and less to the economic aspects of absorption. The study showed that there is at least one salient malleable variable, town of residence ; it can be controlled because most immigrants to Israel depend on the government for housing. Further research is needed on immigrants who migrated a second time during early years in their stay; they were not included in this study. It may be that, for this latter group, economic integration is a crucial aspect of absorption.     

INDUSTRY AND STRATEGIC GROUP DYNAMICS: COMPETITIVE STRATEGY IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY, 1970–84

This article focuses upon dynamic aspects of strategic groups in the context of the US insurance industry from 1970–84. It examines the longitudinal structure of industry strategic groups and identifies the strategic patterns followed by these strategic groups over time. the mobility rates of firms between strategic groups are also assessed. It appears that three dominant groups are present throughout the period of the study while other group positions emerge and disappear over time. the evidence suggests that the quantum theory of strategic adaptation (i.e. dramatic and concerted change) satisfactorily models the processes of strategic group change. And, a low level of firm mobility is found to exist between strategic groups consistent with the presence of inertia and mobility barriers.     

MODELLING COGNITIVELY BOUNDED RATIONALITY: AN EVALUATIVE TAXONOMY

Abstract Since its origins in the 1950s, the notion of bounded rationality has been incorporated into economic theory using an array of methodological approaches. This paper presents a taxonomy by which these approaches can be categorized and understood, evaluating each approach against a range of important criteria. At a time when the foundations of economic theory are being re‐examined, this paper should be viewed as a first step towards an assessment of the appropriate role that this more realistic view of cognition should take in different areas of economic theory, and also of the desirable characteristics of models that incorporate it.     

Gender Differences in the Effect of Education on the Slope of Experience-Earnings Profiles

A bstract . TWO earnings models are estimated for men and women of the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience of Youth (1979 to 1988). Model 1 (a standard human capital equation) indicates women receive a relatively higher earnings effect from another year of education and week of work, suggesting that narrowing of the wage gap can occur through increasing these. However, increases in female education of over 20%, or increases in weeks worked of over 100% are needed to bring female earnings to the level of white males. Model 2, which includes the interaction between education and work experience, shows that more educated men have steeper experience-earnings profiles while more educated women do not. This finding indicates different earnings growth patterns among similarly skilled and market attached men and women. Results imply that increasing female skills and work effort alone are insufficient in obtaining more equitable market outcomes and that the continuation of affirmative action policies are needed to achieve this goal.     

White-collar workers,unionisation and political behaviour

Evidence from a variety of sources confirms that the number of non-manual employees in trade unions has been increasing rapidly over the past twenty years. The author surveys the explanations of this growth and examines the relationship between political behaviour and membership of white collar trade unions.     

Post-war movements in teachers' salaries

Public sector white collar employees are a large and important part of the labour force. It is interesting, therefore, to look at the forces determining the pay of such workers, given the highly administered nature of the markets for their services, and at the operation of their negotiating procedures which have remained highly centralized at a time when there has been a growing tendency to move away from national bargaining. This paper looks at some aspects of the pay of one group of public employees – school teachers. The examination deals mainly with global aspects of teachers' pay, comparatively little attention being given to structural aspects of the problem. The discussion is confined to the full-time teaching force in England and Wales, though the growth in the number of part-time teachers and para-teaching personnel has been an important feature of the market in recent years.     

Do Short‐Term Observed Income Changes Overstate Structural Economic Mobility?*

The recent empirical literature on household income dynamics in developing countries has tended to find considerable intertemporal economic mobility and thus inferred that a large proportion of poverty is transitory. This article introduces a statistical test which shows that these findings are partially driven by stochastic changes in transitory income. Estimates of total economic mobility are inversely correlated with the panel spell length. For short data spells, estimated total economic mobility is significantly greater than the underlying structural economic mobility because of short‐lived movements across the poverty line that cancel out over periods of multiple years.     

SOCIAL STATUS IN ECONOMIC THEORY

Abstract.  Social distinction or status is an important motivation of human behaviour. This paper provides a selective survey of recent advances in the economic analysis of the origins and consequences of social status concerns. First, a selection of empirical research from a variety of scientific disciplines is discussed to underpin the further theoretical analysis. I then consider the origins and determinants of tastes for status, discuss the endogenous derivation of such preferences for relative standing and assess the different formalizations of these preferences. Subsequently, the consequences of preferences for status are studied for a variety of problems and settings. The last section discusses a number of implications of status concerns for normative economics and public policy.