Labor Demand by Daniel S. Hamermesh

book reviewed in this article:
Training at Work: A Critical Analysis of Policy and Practice by Jeff Hyman
Industrial Training in a Cold Climate: An Assessment of Britain's Training Policies by Peter Senker
Social Institutions and Economic Performance: Studies of Industrial Relations in Advanced Capitalist Economies by Wolfgang Streeck
Industrial Relations and European Integration by Paul Teague and John Grahl
Strategy and the Human Resource: Ford and the Search for Competitive Advantage by Ken Starkey and Alan McKinlay
Labor Visions and State Power: The Origins of Business Unionism in the United States by Victoria C. Hattam
Labour Markets in an Ageing Europe edited by Paul Johnson and Klaus Zimmermann     

Immigration, Race, and Labor: Unionization and Wages in the Canadian Labor Market

In Canada, most racial minorities have lower rates of unionization than do members of the majority workforce. Data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics ( N = 32,634) show that racial minority immigrants assimilate into unionization over time. However, unionization reduces net minority wage disadvantages only slightly. Union race relations policies should place more emphasis on collective bargaining as well as on unionization.     

Industrialization, Female Labor Force Participation, and the Modern Division of Labor by Sex

We examine the effect of industrialization on female labor force participation for 62 countries. Two hypotheses are tested: the emancipation hypothesis and the U-shaped hypothesis. Our results support the U-shaped hypothesis insofar as shifts in the distribution of occupations in early industrialization decrease female labor force participation by removing women from agriculture while excluding them from occupations in manufacturing and management. We further suggest that different paths to industrialization may have different effects on female labor force participation.     

Immigration and Informal Labor

We develop state‐level proxies for informal employment using differences between measures of self‐reported employment and officially sanctioned employment. In construction and landscaping, industries associated with under‐the‐table labor, we develop proxies for informal work based on productivity per officially sanctioned worker. We relate each set of proxies for informal employment to changes in immigrant population and composition. We find some evidence that immigration is associated with informal employment generally and in the construction industry when prevailing wages are low. States with high concentrations of low‐skilled male immigrants have higher levels of informal employment in the landscaping industry.     

Labor Law,Economics, and Industrial Democracy: A Reconciliation.

This article analyzes the competing economic and industrial democracy/ voice views of unionism. It points out that the economic arguments vis-àvis unionism and the costs of union rent seeking depend on competitive markets. If markets vary in their competitive characteristics, however, and employers also have an incentive to rent-seek, then decentralized, NLRA-type unionism with minimal government interference in establishing bargaining outcomes may serve to restore competitive wages. The article concludes by evaluating some proposals to amend the NLRA in the context of this “symmetry of motives” framework.     

Asset-Specific Investment and Unionized Labor

This article investigates the bargaining problem that exists when firms make asset-specific investments and then are subject to excessive union wage demands. In this context, the combination of both large asset specific investment and high union density is important in determining the magnitude of the bargaining problem. Using firm-specific union-density rates and various asset-specificity proxies, evidence is found that the bargaining problem results in substantially lower firm profitability, investment, and employment.     

Innovation in Labor Contracts: On the Adoption of Profit Sharing inCanadian Labor Contracts

I present a model in which I show that labor contracts with wages indexed to prices have longer optimal contract lengths and therefore are more likely to adopt performance-related pay. There is empirical support for these predictions in Canadian collective-bargaining agreements. Contract durations are longer in indexed contracts. Performance-related pay is more than twice as likely to be adopted and present in indexed contracts and more likely to be adopted in contracts with longer durations.     

U.S. Free Trade Agreements and Enforcement of Labor Law in Latin America

The paper provides difference‐in‐differences estimates suggesting that Latin American countries that signed a free trade agreement with the United States experienced an increase in the number of labor inspectors and inspections. We also find large heterogeneity across signers and no evidence that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) had a positive impact on Mexico. We conclude by suggesting that the stringency of content of the accord and the resources devoted by the U.S. government to increase enforcement make a difference.