Labour market inequality between men and women: Allocational differences versus wage rate differences

Summary This article discusses the question to what extent there are differences between men and women concerning the allocation of workers to jobs on the one hand and the remuneration for a given allocation on the other. Human capital variables do not only affect the allocation of men and women to job levels and job categories differently, they also have different effects on wage rates for men and women in given job levels and job categories. The wage gap between men and women partly stems from the fact that men and women have different personal characteristics, and partly from the different allocation of men and women to job levels and job categories. Besides, wage rate inequality stems from the different rewards for men and women with given characteristics. By decomposing the average wage rate difference between men and women it can be established that 40 percent of this difference can be attributed to differences concerning education, experience, and age; 28 percent to differences in the allocation of men and women to job levels and job categories, and 32 percent to higher rewards for men than for women with given characteristics.Economic Institute/Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Labour Market and Distribution Issues (CIAV) Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht; Economic Institute/Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Labour Market and Distribution Issues (CIAV), ijksuniversiteit Utrecht, and Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), Den Haag. The authors wish to thank the Dutch Wage Bureau for making available the data, and Frank Kalshoven, Ingrid Plas and Yolanda Grift for their computational assistance.     

Corporate codes of ethics and sales force behavior: A case study

A growing public concern regarding ethical business conduct has stimulated marketing research in the ethics area. This study is the first empirical research to investigate the relationship between a code of ethics and sales force behavior. The findings present preliminary evidence that a well communicated code of ethics may be related to ethical sales force behavior. Furthermore, it appears that a sales force that is employed in such an environment can be profiled as being relatively high in job performance and receiving equally high satisfaction from their positions. Suggestions are made for future research and recommendations are offered for marketing practitioners.     

The implications of 1992 for financial management

With the process of integration gathering momentum all the time, the implications of 1992 for the European financial sector merit special attention.     

Risk-based capital, portfolio risk, and bank capital: A simultaneous equations approach

This paper examines the impact the risk-based capital standards had on bank capital and portfolio risk during the first year the risk-based standards were in effect. To date, insufficient attention has been focused on how the risk-based capital standards have impacted bank capital and risk. Building on previous research, this study used a three-stage least squares (3SLS) model to analyze the relationship between bank capital, portfolio risk, and the risk-based capital standards. The results suggest that the risk-based capital standards were effective in increasing capital ratios and reducing portfolio risk in commercial banks.     

Bargaining over employment as a firm strategic choice

This paper develops a simple model as to why unionized Cournot firms acting non-cooperatively in the product market may find it optimal to commit to bargaining outcomes with their specific union, which are off the labor demand curve, hence restricting their behavior to non-profit maximizing practices in their product markets. The prediction that power over labor conceded strategically to the union by the firm is negatively linked to union wage power is not rejected on a panel of Belgian firms as well as the prediction that the union bargaining power can be affected by product market structure and other variables affecting union wages.     

PRODUCTION LOANS

In this paper, agency problems between stockholders and debtholders are considered in a simple model of the firm's optimal production decision. It is shown that in the presence of debt financing other than a production loan, the firm is motivated to underproduce, an agency problem analogous to Myers' classic underinvestment problem. If a production loan is employed in lieu of these other forms of debt, the underproduction problem is rectified.     

R&D-based strategies in the semiconductor and drug industries: rationale, organization and actions

The author's aim was to elicit the factors that determine the success or failure of corporate innovations in the European semi-conductor and pharmaceutical industries. To do this he divided firms into two groups, the members of one having a good innovation record ('prospectors') and of the other a poor one ('would-be innovators'). Members of both groups spent heavily on R&D. The author used as his data-base a combination of publicly available data, interviews and questionnaires administered to staff.
Among the success factors identified are the following: Concentrate innovation projects and related R&D into fairly restricted channels; minimise diversification; work to explicit but not too detailed top management guidelines for innovation activity; define clear and realistic goals; minimise red-tape and formality and be willing to revise plans frequently; ensure a close relationship between R&D, Marketing and Manufacturing, but allow R&D to maintain a long-range perspective; provide a stimulating, supportive and well-supervised working environment.