Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: Lessons from Three Rounds of Negotiations

We examine an important recent organizing success of the US labour movement: the 'Justice for Janitors' campaign in Los Angeles. This campaign has spanned a complete business cycle and shows the union's capacity for growth over time. It illustrates the potential for unions to overcome pro–employer bias of labour laws, as well as their efficacy in appealing to the wider public. It exposes the importance of building coalitions, as well as the value of union analysis of legal, industrial, and political conditions. Our analysis suggests conditions under which unions might survive and thrive in the service sector in the twenty–first century.     

Homothetic functions revisited

Summary. This paper examines the proposition that homotheticity is equivalent to the property that (e.g., in the context of a production function) the marginal rate of substitution is constant along any ray from the origin. This claim is made in many places, but hitherto the prerequisites have not been stated explicitly. In the present contribution it is demonstrated that an additional condition is required for the claim to hold. We present a theorem that achieves equivalence by also assuming ‘nowhere ray constancy’. It turns out that this condition is implied by assumptions often made, e.g., in production theory. Further, a complete characterization is given of the class of functions that satisfy ray constant marginal rates of substitution or, somewhat more generally, a condition of ray parallel gradients. In addition to homothetic functions this class contains functions homogeneous of degree 0 (i.e., ray constant) and functions which are homothetic in disjoint regions separated by regions of ray constancy. Received: November 5, 1999; revised version: October 31, 2000     

Organizational Changes Resulting from the Privatization of State Enterprises

Agency and public choice theories, though commonly used, can only provide a static approach to the study of privatization and often neglect the cultural, contextual and organizational settings of the enterprises affected by privatization. The authors present a new model which can be used to understand the organizational processes involved in a successful privatization. This article analyses the academic literature on privatization, describes the cases of two privatized Swedish companies and then offers suggestions for further research.     

Employing labor-supply theory to measure the reward value of electrical brain stimulation

A model drawn from labor-supply theory is shown to provide a good account of time-allocation decisions taken by rats working for rewarding brain stimulation. The model makes it possible to infer, from behavioral data, the growth of the rewarding effect as a function of stimulation strength. Measurement of this function provides information about the stage of the reward circuitry where drugs or lesions alter the rewarding effect. The labor-supply model is used to illustrate how approaches drawn from economics, psychology, and neuroscience can inform each other. The model is linked to a set of psychological processes, including those responsible for transformation of the transient neural signal produced by the rewarding stimulation into an enduring record of payoff, estimation of a mean effort price, delay discounting, and estimation of the substitutability of work and leisure goods. All of these processes seem germane to economic behavior.     

The suitability of computer‐based training for workers with limited formal education: a case study from the US agricultural sector

The suitability of computer‐based instruction (CBI) for workers with limited education was evaluated in an Hispanic orchard workforce that reported little computer experience and 5.6 mean years of formal education. Ladder safety training was completed by employees who rated the training highly (effect size [d_gain] = 5.68), and their knowledge of ladder safety improved (d_gain = 1.45). There was a significant increase (p < 0.01) in safe work practices immediately after training (d_gain = 0.70), at 40 days post training (d_gain = 0.87) and at 60 days (d_gain = 1.40), indicating durability. As in mainstream populations, reaction or affective ratings correlated well with utility ratings, but not with behavior change. This demonstrates that an agricultural workforce with limited formal education can learn job safety from CBI and translate the knowledge to work practice changes, and those changes are durable.     

Managerial pay and executive turnover in the Czech and Slovak Republics*

Despite the crucial role played by managers in changing the functioning of labour markets in transition economies, research on the determinants of executive pay and CEO turnover in these countries is almost non‐existent. The current paper aims to add to this minuscule literature. For this purpose I make use of a unique dataset containing relevant firm–manager information from the Czech and Slovak Republics in the late nineties. This allows me to examine the influence of individual and in particular firm characteristics, such as, size, ownership type, industry and region, as well as corporate performance on chief executive compensation levels and changes therein and on the extent of executive turnover.     

Kalman filtering estimation of unobserved rational expectations with an application to the German hyperinflation

The assumption that rational expectations always lie on a convergent path is subject to an empirical test using the German hyperinflation data. The estimation technique employs a Kalman filtering algorithm. After presenting a brief background for the convergent expectations problem and a derivation of the various model specifications, a generalized expectations model and its attendant Kalman filtering estimation technique are discussed. Additional estimation details and empirical results are then presented. Based on an assumption of normally distributed errors, the null hypothesis of convergent paths is rejected in all situations involving a deterministic specification of the evolution of the unobserved parameter which characterizes the convergent path. The same null hypothesis is rejected in four of the six cases corresponding to a stochastic specification of the evolution of the unobserved parameter which characterizes the convergent path. A discussion of these findings, their economic significance, and suggestions for further research concludes the paper.     

Internal governance structures and earnings management

This paper investigates the role of a firm's internal governance structure in constraining earnings management. It is hypothesized that the practice of earnings management is systematically related to the strength of internal corporate governance mechanisms, including the board of directors, the audit committee, the internal audit function and the choice of external auditor. Based on a broad cross‐sectional sample of 434 listed Australian firms, for the financial year ending in 2000, a majority of non‐executive directors on the board and on the audit committee are found to be significantly associated with a lower likelihood of earnings management, as measured by the absolute level of discretionary accruals. The voluntary establishment of an internal audit function and the choice of auditor are not significantly related to a reduction in the level of discretionary accruals. Our additional analysis, using small increases in earnings as a measure of earnings management, also found a negative association between this measure and the existence of an audit committee.     

Financial Reform: A Review of the Past and Prospects for the Future

Over the past decade there have been a wide range of proposals for comprehensive financial reform. In terms of national legislation, these proposals— which are designed to alter the basic asset-liability mismatch of the housing oriented thrift institutions—have often been stymied. However, legislation is once again under serious consideration in Congress; and more importantly, significant change is already underway at the state and local level, fueled by technology, consumer pressure, financial markets and regulatory action. In fact, lead by such innovations as the money market certificate, negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts, alternative mortgage instruments and an expanded secondary market, it seems that a strong, silent revolution is underway which will substantially alter the activities and composition of thrift institutions. This paper, then, will outline what has happened over the past decade, the reasons for legislative failure during much of this period, and the factors which fuel the evolution and new pressure for change which is underway. It also discusses the prospects and implications for the future, especially as they relate to financial institutions, housing, and the consumer. **     

Switching before the pitch: Exploring television channel changing before the ads even start

Although much research examines ‘ad zapping’ or channel changing during the commercials, the present work explores preemptive ad avoidance before the commercials begin. Television programs give different ad signals, which could alter rates of preemptive ad avoidance. Ad pods from two hit shows were explored using second-by-second channel-changing data; rates of preemptive ad avoidance were practically important and varied between shows. Inspection of program episodes suggested that the show with more preemptive ad zapping gave clearer ad signals and had more ‘ad safe’ time per episode, that is, there was more time when an ad break would not occur clearly. The data suggest that advertisers should seek unit-specific measures of opportunities to see commercials as such measures become possible with digital distribution of television.