The Structure of the Permanent Job Wage Premium: Evidence from Europe

Using individual longitudinal European Community Household Panel data for thirteen countries during 1995–2001 and fixed‐effects models, I find for men, the permanent job wage premium is higher for younger workers and those who were noncitizens or foreign born; for women, the premium is higher for young workers, short‐tenure workers, and those who were noncitizens or foreign born. Thus, the gain to permanent employment is higher for those with less experience in the domestic labor market.     

The influence of management journals in the 1980s and 1990s

It is difficult to get a clear picture of the relative influence of management journals because previous studies have focused on a single sub‐area in the field over a relatively restricted number of years, and/or have used inconsistent criteria to judge journal influence. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine journal influence using citations from 28 journals over the past two decades. The findings show that the top seven journals accounted for 61 percent of all of the citations in the journals included, and that the three journals that showed the greatest increase in influence over the past 20 years were AMJ, AMR, and SMJ. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Previous Marriage and the Lesbian Wage Premium

This paper provides insight into the wage gap between partnered lesbians and other groups of women. Using data from the 2000 Decennial Census, we find that wages of never-married lesbians are significantly higher than wages of previously married lesbians and other groups of women. Results indicate that controlling for previous marriage reduces the estimated lesbian wage premium by approximately 20 percent. Our research also reveals that wage patterns of previously married lesbians mirror those of cohabiting heterosexual women. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that the lesbian wage premium is driven, in part, by differences in the labor-market commitment of lesbians and heterosexual women.     

Changes in Union Status, Increased Competition and Wage Growth in the 1980s

This paper reports that unionized firms experienced lower average wage growth than their non-union counterparts between 1984 and 1988. We attempt to evaluate the relative importance of two possible explanatory factors, the union-related legislation of the 1980s, and increases in product market competition. While recognizing that these factors are intertwined, the results suggest the latter is of primary importance.     

Job Attributes and Federal Wage Differentials

As part of the debate on how to treat attributes of a job (as opposed to a worker) when measuring federal differentials, the focus has been on the proper treatment of employer size. Using employer size, we highlight the two extremes in the literature of either holding job attributes constant or of assuming attributes do not transfer between sectors. A third alternative-estimating the extent to which the attribute will transfer-is much closer in value to that generated by holding employer size constant.     

Changes in Working Practices in British Manufacturing Industry in the 1980s: A Study of Employee Concessions Made During Wage Negotiations

The 1980s witnessed a considerable increase in the rate of growth of manufacturing productivity in Britain. This paper attempts to reveal the extent of systematic change at the work-place which was associated with this improvement. The study focuses on changes in working practices introduced concurrently with negotiations over wage increases; in every year throughout the decade around one third of wage settlements involving trade unions included productivity enhancing change. It is argued that the discipline of competitive pressure and the absence of incomes policy gave rise to the growth in the incidence of wage negotiations which featured a productivity element.     

Paradox Lost: The Disappearing Female Job Satisfaction Premium

Using the original data source of Clark, we show that over the last two decades the female satisfaction gap he documented has vanished. This reflects a strong secular decline in female job satisfaction. This decline happened both because younger women became less satisfied as they aged, and because new female workers entered with lower job satisfaction than their early 1990s peers. Decompositions make clear that the decline does not reflect changing job characteristics for women but rather their increasingly less favourable evaluation of job characteristics. These findings fit with the suggestion that women in the early 1990s had a gap between their labour market expectations and actual experience that has since closed and that the gender satisfaction gap has vanished as a consequence.     

The Role of Job Attributes in Understanding the Public-Private Wage Differential

This study uses a unique data set for Great Britain to investigate the impact of differences in job attributes on the public-private wage differential. The study reveals that (1) there are substantial differences in wage structure between the two sectors, particularly finding that the public-sector wage structure is less sensitive to differences in the attributes of jobs, and (2) differences in job attributes play in a major role in accounting for pay differences across sectors.     

The FTC in the 1980s

This paper reviews the antitrust activities of Federal Trade Commission during the 1980s with special emphasis on the role of economics and economists. We contrast the FTC during the 1980s to its record in the 1970s and conclude that the agency was more active during the 1980s than is popularly believed. Perhaps more significant than changes in the level of enforcement activity was the agency's move to a more economics-oriented approach to antitrust enforcement and an increased role for Commission economists. The paper also comments on what FTC economists learned about American industry during the 1980s.     

Estimating the Wage Premium of Collective Wage Contracts: Evidence from Longitudinal Linked Employer–Employee Data

Using a large‐scale linked employer–employee dataset from western Germany, this paper presents new evidence on the wage premium of collective bargaining contracts. In contrast to previous studies, we seek to assess the extent to which differences in wages between workers in covered and uncovered firms arise from the nonrandom selection of workers and firms into collective bargaining coverage. By measuring the relative wage changes of workers employed in firms that change contract status, we obtain estimates that depart considerably from previous results relying on cross‐sectional data. Results from analyzing separate transitions show that leaving industry‐level contracts is associated with subsequent wage losses. However, the results from a trend‐adjusted difference‐in‐difference approach indicate that particularly the transitions to no coverage appear to be associated with negative shocks. Overall, our findings provide no evidence of a “true” wage effect of leaving wage bargaining, once we account for differences in pretransition wage growth.     

The Greek Public Sector Wage Premium before the Crisis: Size,Selection and Relative Valuation of Characteristics

We examine the Greek public–private wage differential before the debt crisis to evaluate the prospective impact of the recent public sector pay cuts. We find a large public premium which persists after controlling for individual and job characteristics. For men, much of this is accounted for by self‐selection into the sector that rewards better their characteristics, while for women it is largely driven by sectoral differences in returns. We attribute these effects to more egalitarian pay structures in the public sector and to demand problems in the private sector. The recent policy measures only partially change this situation, as wage deflation extends to the private sector, preserving public premia for the low paid.     

The great school milk conspiracies of the 1980s

Various dairy companies' allocation of school milk contracts using signalling, sham bids to honor incumbency and other devices are examined to determine whether bidding was collusive or pure oligopolistic interdependent behavior following noncooperative game theory. The schemes used to allocate contracts were found to be efficient methods for reaching agreements. Since pure interdependent (noncoorperative) behavior requires rivals to corelate signals, coordinate expectations, and resolve timing-uncertainty problems within sealed-bidding constraints, detailed analysis of the economic evidence of bidding practices requires rejection of a Nash equilibrium explanation for the behavior.     

Syrian food security in the 1970s and 1980s

An analysis of changes in domestic production, foreign trade and aid in Syria from 1970 to the late 1980s reveals a marked contrast between the two decades. In the 1970s per capita incomes expanded rapidly due to the regional oil boom. Demand for food grew quickly and, despite respectable supply growth, food imports as a percentage of consumption increased. During the 1980s income per capita stagnated and demand growth slowed. At the same time a series of poor rainfall years reduced domestic supply growth and increased production variability, yet food imports showed no trend     

Visual communication technology : Priorities for the 1980s

The author considers a strategy for the study of visual communications in the 1980s. To establish a basis for this strategy, market research was carried out to ascertain major visual communications needs in leading business organizations. The systems found to have greatest potential were video conferencing, interactive information retrieval, facsimile, document processing, and office automation (integrating all four systems). In the light of these requirements, the author describes a study programme for the 1980s and shows which technologies should be developed.