Is there chronic excess supply of labor?: Designing a statistical test

We devise and implement a statistical test of the hypothesis that the labor market has chronic excess supply. We find that the data reject this hypothesis.     

Specification, evaluation, and interpretation of structural equation models

We provide a comprehensive and user-friendly compendium of standards for the use and interpretation of structural equation models (SEMs). To both read about and do research that employs SEMs, it is necessary to master the art and science of the statistical procedures underpinning SEMs in an integrative way with the substantive concepts, theories, and hypotheses that researchers desire to examine. Our aim is to remove some of the mystery and uncertainty of the use of SEMs, while conveying the spirit of their possibilities.     

Disability, absence and the health reform era

The total cost of employee absence for many employers is high, and the correlation between employee health and disability is clear. This article reviews several challenges employers face in managing employee health and absence in a well-integrated manner. Although such an undertaking is not easy, the additional cost national health care reform may bring makes the interrelationship between employer profitability and employee absence, health and disability more crucial than ever for employers to recognize and manage.     

International Approaches to Global Climate Change

This article surveys the issues involved in slowing the climatechange induced by global emissions of greenhouse gases, especiallycarbon dioxide. It addresses the possible social and economicimpacts of global warming, the elements involved in evaluatingthe pros and cons of steps to reduce those impacts, and theissues involved in engaging most of the worlds states in a cooperativeendeavor to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It expresses doubtsabout the efficacy of a global approach based on national emissiontargets, such as those set by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and favorsinstead mutually agreed actions focused on a common emissiontax. It also discusses issues of compliance with an internationalagreement to reduce emissions, actions states can take in theabsence of international agreement, and contingency actionsthat might be considered if the problem proves to be more seriousthan now seems to be the case.      

Valuation Implications of Investment Opportunities and Earnings Permanence

This study investigates the value-relevance of accounting earnings in the presence of investment (growth) opportunities after making two theoretical and methodological research design refinements. First, we test for the incremental effect of growth on firms earnings response coefficients after controlling for the extent of transitory earnings under the assumption that the value-relevance of earnings with respect to growth should be stronger when earnings are more permanent. Second, we perform comprehensive factor analysis using market-based and accounting-based measures to construct a composite proxy for investment opportunities. We find that firms investment opportunities and the relative permanence of current earnings affect the value-relevance of those earnings. Additionally, we find that the interaction between permanent earnings and investment opportunities produces an even stronger price response to earnings.     

Your company's secret change agents

Organizational change has traditionally come about through top-down initiatives such as hiring experts or importing best-of-breed practices. Such methods usually result in companywide rollouts of templates mandated from on high. These do little to get people excited. But within every organization, there are a few individuals who find unique ways to look at problems that seem impossible to solve. Although these change agents start out with the same tools and access to resources as their peers, they are able to see solutions where others do not. They find a way to bridge the divide between what is happening and what is possible. These positive deviants are the key, the authors believe, to a better way of creating organizational change. Your company can make the most of their methods by following six steps. In Step 1, Make the group the guru, the members of the community are engaged in the process of their own evolution. Step 2, Reframe through facts, entails restating the problem in a way that opens minds to new possibilities. Step 3, Make it safe to learn, involves creating an environment that supports innovative ideas. In Step 4, Make the problem concrete, the community combats abstraction by stating uncomfortable truths. In Step 5, Leverage social proof, the community looks to the larger society for examples of solutions that have worked in parallel situations. In Step 6, Confound the immune defense response, solutions are introduced organically from within the group in a way that promotes acceptance. Throughout the steps, the leader must suspend his or her traditional role in favor of more facilitatory practices. The positive-deviance approach has unearthed solutions to such complicated and diverse problems as malnutrition in Mali and human trafficking in East Java. This methodology can help solve even the most extreme dilemmas.