Residential mobility with job location uncertainty

This paper investigates the relationship between job changes and residential mobility. A job change may be prompted by reasons unrelated to factors associated with housing consumption. However, a job change may lead to an adjustment to housing consumption, i.e., residential relocation. Previous studies find that job relocations are positively associated with residential mobility. This paper departs from previous studies by looking at the effects of an uncertain future job location on residential mobility and mobility expectation. It is conjectured that with the existence of costs of residential mobility, a household head's likelihood for changing jobs in the future dampens the household's propensity to move, but encourages the formation of mobility expectation. These conjectures are examined empirically using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and they are confirmed.     

Overtime pay regulation and weekly hours of work in Canada

The idea that overtime pay regulation can be used to create employment continues to receive attention in a variety of countries. Standard hours, beyond which a statutory overtime premium must be paid, varies across Canadian provinces, as do coverage rules. Exploiting this variation produces a smaller estimated response of weekly hours to standard hours than previous researchers have found in other countries. Combined with evidence of substantially more moonlighting and higher wages in jurisdictions with lower standard hours, these results support a somewhat pessimistic view of the idea that reducing standard hours can be used promote work-sharing in Canada.     

Trade Union Responses to zero hours work in Ireland

This paper examines the strategies adopted by Irish unions in responding to zero hours work in four sectors. It concludes that rather than adopting either a passive or a uniform approach, unions have pragmatically varied their strategies to curtail zero‐hours work through actively combining both bargaining and regulatory approaches.     

有效防治工作场所中的性骚扰

不久前,胡锦涛主席发布主席令公布的全国人大常委会关于修改妇女权益保障法的决定中,明确指出,反对性骚扰,禁止对妇女实施性骚扰. 性骚扰是目前人们比较关注的问题.全国妇联婚姻与家庭研究所关于北京市民遭受性骚扰情况的调查显示,女性中有70%的人受到过性骚扰,54%的人听到过黄色笑话,29%的人遇到过有暴露癖的人,27%的人曾经在不情愿的情况下与他人身体接触,8%的人曾经被别人偷窥,2%的人遇到过电话性骚扰.某女性调查中心关于性骚扰问题的调查表明,50%的性骚扰来自于工作场所,其中36%来自上级,14%来自同事.可见,性骚扰已经成为具有普遍性的社会问题,尤其是工作场所中的性骚扰,更具有危害性.     

Union wages,hours of work and the effectiveness of partial coordination agreements

Small monopoly trade unions decide upon the wage rate per hour and the hours of work subject to firm's demand for union members. Since the resulting Nash equilibrium is characterized by excess unemployment, we study the employment and welfare effects when trade unions try to coordinate their policies. Firstly, we consider a joint agreement about marginal wage moderation, where trade unions remain free to choose the hours of work non-cooperatively. Secondly, we analyze in which way a joint change in the hours of work affects employment and welfare if trade unions are free to choose the wage rate.     

The psychological role of pay systems in choosing to work more hours

Psychological and economic perspectives are blended to model aspects of pay systems that dispose employees to work more hours beyond what would be predicted by economically rational exchange alone. Three pay-system triggers and their respective paths to more work are expounded: 1) pay equated to units of time, 2) pay contingent on subjective performance standards, and 3) pay growth determined by tournament pay structures. The effects are conceived as self-reinforcing due to loss aversion stemming from endowment of income and sunk cost bias. Also considered are implications for human capital, a posed curvilinear relationship that holds practical relevance for organizational sustainability—i.e., maintenance of the firm's human capital over the long term.     

Unpredictable times: the extent,characteristics and correlates of insecure hours of work in Britain

This article presents new British evidence that suggests that cutting working hours at short notice is twice as prevalent as zero-hours contracts and triple the number of employees are very anxious about unexpected changes to their hours of work. The pay of these employees tends to be lower, work intensity higher, line management support weaker and the threat of dismissal and job loss greater. In addition, the well-being of these employees is lower and they are less committed to the organisations that employ them. However, the prevalence of insecure working hours is reduced by workplace level employee involvement exercised individually or through collective representation.     

Consequences of extended work hours: A comparison of moonlighters,overtimers, and modal employees

Stringent corporate controls on employee moonlighting and/or overtime are not uncommon. But are they necessary? Even the concept of overtime may need to be rethought—what about the “normal working hours” of managers and professionals who work hours at home or on the road—hours typically uncompensated?     

A model-based decision support system for solving vehicle routing and driver scheduling problems under hours of service regulations

In principle, hours-of-service (HOS) regulations are intended to help ensure truck drivers get adequate rest and perform safe operations. The new HOS regulations, however, may lead to substantial cost increases for regional common carriers which have already been hit hard by rising fuel prices and declining shipping demands. In addition, the new HOS regulations complicate driver schedules by not only restricting the driver's consecutive driving hours, but also expanding off-duty hours. To deal with this complex challenge, we propose a model-based decision support system (DSS) that helps determine the truck driver's working hours, rest periods, and his/her assigned truck's schedules and routes under HOS regulations. As a core of this model-based DSS, we developed a mixed-integer programming model and a simulated annealing metaheuristic for solving it. This model was also integrated with a geographical information system and relational database management system to enhance interfaces between the model and its parametric data using spatial, graphical displays.     

Discrete choice models and the housing price and travel to work elasticities of location demand

Multinomial logit and nested logit models of mode choice in travel to work and housing location choice are estimated from 1970 U.S. census data aggregated to small zones of the Chicago SMSA. The estimated models are then used to derive the “housing rent,” “travel time,” and “travel cost” elasticities of location demand. The effects of sampling variation, sample size, attribute inclusion, model specification, and estimation method on the estimated elasticities are evaluated and found to be important. The elasticities are also compared and found to agree with those obtained from other discrete choice models and, in the case of “housing rent,” with estimates obtained from models based on other theoretical structure.     

A dynamic programming approach to work force scheduling with time-dependent performance measures

An implicit enumeration algorithm is defined to obtain solutions to the commercial bank check processing encoder scheduling problem. The specific application is of particular interest because a significant factor in determining optimality is the float costs associated with checks which are unprocessed and unavailable for presentation at check clearing deadlines, thereby making the timing of the activity of crucial importance. A one day time horizon is employed to reflect those situations where banks have the scheduling flexibility afforded by part-time and/or temporary help in additon to a complement of full-time operators. Comparisons are made with other suggested approaches to daily encoder scheduling. Results indicate that dynamic programming can be an attractive methodology to attack this complex problem.     

Shiftworking and unsocial hours

Since the war, the practice of shiftworking has increased considerably in Britain. Yet, it is widely recognised that the more intensive shiftworking patterns may give rise to adverse effects on health, family and social life. The European Commission is currently preparing a proposal to limit night and other forms of shiftwork. In this article Derek Bosworth and Peter Dawkins make a useful contribution to the debate.     

Scheduled to work hard: The relationship between non‐standard working hours and work intensity among European workers (2005–2015)

Work intensity is of central importance for organisational performance, as well as workers' health and well‐being, yet its determinants at the workplace‐level remain underresearched. This article addresses this gap by examining consequences of working time adjustments for work intensity and the role of control over scheduling in influencing when working time adjustments have stronger effect on work intensity. Working hours are analysed on three dimensions: duration, distribution and flexibility. Analysis uses the European Working Conditions Survey (2005–2015) and a sample of employees from EU28 countries. Findings reveal that work intensity is closely related to the timing of work. Working long days or weeks, at night, on weekends, and with changes in hours imposed by employers is associated with more intense work. Moreover, the impact of non‐standard hours on work intensity differs depending on who (workers or employers) has control over their scheduling.     

Testing labour supply and hours constraints

This paper provides empirical evidence that, at a given wage, individuals cannot freely choose the number of hours they work. The novelty relative to the existing literature (e.g. [Altonji, J., Paxson, C., 1986. Job characteristics and hours of work. In: Ehrenberg, R. (Ed.), Research in Labor Economics, vol. 8. Westview Press, Greenwich, 1–55]) is twofold. We use the US data on prime age males from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and we account for endogenous switching between jobs. Our results are: (i) the variance of the change in hours worked is more than six times higher for movers than for stayers; (ii) the intertemporal labour supply elasticity is positive and significant for movers and zero for stayers. This is further evidence for the presence of hours constraints. One important implication is that estimates of the labour supply elasticity that ignore these constraints are biased.     

An insider's point of view: how a system of flexible working hours helps employees to strike a proper balance between work and personal life

Increasing numbers of organisations offer flexible working hours to help employees balance work and personal life. However, studies about the effects of flexible working hours on work–life balance and organisational outcomes are ambiguous. The aim of this study is to gain greater insights into how employees experience the influence of flexible working hours on their work–life balance. A qualitative research was performed by in-depth interviews with a variant sample of 15 employees and thematic analysis of the data. The more family responsibilities the respondents have, the more they tend to perceive flexible working hours as a necessity rather than an extra benefit. According to the interviewees, the system creates a situation which is advantageous for both employer and employee. The extent to which this is achieved though depends on how organisations apply and implement it. It is concluded that when flexible working hours are supported by management and fit the work culture, they are highly appreciated both for private and work-related reasons. Moreover, its meaning for the private life varies according to life stage. Findings are important for policy makers and human resources managers alike in order to implement and deal with flexible working hours effectively. Consequently, this will help employees strike a proper balance between work and personal life generating beneficial organisational outcomes.     

城市居住空间分异与共生的区别及启示

居住空间分异与共生的本质区别是,分异体现了城市居民在居住上的不平等,是支付能力极化和居民社会特性共同作用的结果.而共生是一种理想的居住空间状态.通过对二者的居住空间内涵和形成过程进行区分,对我国现实情况的启示是,要解决我国已经出现的空间分异问题要从其形成机理入手,并最终引导城市居住空间向共生模式发展.     

绿色住宅建筑与普通住宅建筑适用性对比研究——基于武汉城区的调查

随着科技发展,在社会大力倡导使用绿色节能技术的背景下,文章从用户体验出发,探讨绿色住宅建筑的适用性。根据调查数据,对指标进行量化处理,并选取隔热保温、日照采光、价格、基础设施、消防治安、水环境等6个方面13个指标来进行绿色住宅建筑与普通住宅建筑的对比分析,并从物业角度提出建议。     

Residential investment and recession predictability

We assess the importance of residential investment for the prediction of economic recessions for an unbalanced panel of 12 OECD countries over the period 1960Q1–2014Q4. Our approach is to estimate various probit models with different leading indicators and evaluate their relative prediction accuracies using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve as our forecasting performance metric. We document that residential investment contains information that is useful for predicting recessions both in-sample and out-of-sample. This result is robust to adding typical leading indicators, such as the term spread, stock prices, consumer confidence surveys and oil prices. It is shown that residential investment is particularly useful for the prediction of recessions for countries with high home-ownership rates. Finally, in a separate exercise for the US, we show that the predictive ability of residential investment is — in a broad sense — robust to employing real-time data.