Law commentary: discrimination in union influenced employment recruitment

This article examines union influenced employers’ recruitment practices in the light of a recent Court of Appeal case. It argues that unions need to acknowledge traditional practices can, even unintentionally, be racist and sexist and that in order to defend union influence, those practices must change.     

Tariff‐jumping FDI and domestic firms' profits

Abstract.  Studies of trade policy welfare effects often ignore the potential for tariff‐jumping foreign direct investment (FDI) to mitigate positive gains to domestic producers. Using event study methodology we find that affirmative U.S. antidumping decisions are associated with average abnormal gains of over 3% to a firm in the petitioning industry in the absence of tariff‐jumping FDI, but much smaller and statistically insignificant abnormal gains if there is tariff‐jumping FDI. We also find evidence that tariff jumping in the form of new plants or plant expansion has significantly larger negative effects on U.S. domestic firms' profits than other types of tariff‐jumping FDI. JEL Classification: F13, F23, L11     

A Diagnostic Tool for Assessing the Relative Importance of Information in Impression Formation: Application in Order Effects

This paper describes a diagnostic tool for assessing relative impact weights of time-dependent information on an impression or judgment and illustrates its use in the area of order effects. A novel and somewhat counterintuitive finding, based on applying this tool, is that the bit of information associated with the greatest impact weight is not necessarily the bit of information associated with the greatest relative impact weight. At the heart of this tool is the ability to compute precisely the relative impact weights associated with each piece of information, which are, in general, different from the actual impact weights associated with each piece of information. This provides the opportunity to determine relative impact weights under various assumptions about, and theories of, or related to, impression formation. In turn, this diagnostic information may be used to deepen understanding of a particular theory or, perhaps, to propose or define new theory.     

Charging for local telephone calls: How household characteristics affect the distribution of calls in the GTE Illinois experiment

When the billing of local telephone service is changed from flat rate to measured service, the distribution of monthly calling rates is altered. This paper models the distribution of flat-rate telephone use in terms of demographic variables and stochastic components; the shift to measured service affects both the systematic and stochastic parameters. The model is fitted by maximum likelihood to data for interviewed households participating in General Telephone's local-measured-service experiment in Illinois. Households tend to make more calls if they are larger (more people), older, or include teenagers. They tend to reduce calling proportionately more in response to usage charges if they average many calls under flat rate for any of the above reasons or for other, unexplained reasons. There is substantial variation in telephone use by households with similar demographic characteristics. Consequently, the benefits and costs of local measured service will tend to be diffused across demographic groups.     

Generational Accounting in New Zealand: Is There Generational Balance?

This paper uses a recently-developed technique, calledgenerational accounting, to assess New Zealand's long-term fiscalposition. Generational accounting has become a popular alternativeto traditional deficit accounting, because it provides a moreaccurate picture of the intergenerational distribution of fiscalburdens and the associated macroeconomic effects, particularlyin the presence of demographic transitions and large unfundedpublic transfer programs. Past studies have suggested the existenceof significant generational imbalances in several countries.We find that behind New Zealand's projectedbudget surpluses, there is indeed a sound fiscal picture. Evenunder the base case scenario, which entails substantial short-runtax reductions, the burden on future generations (relative toincome) is projected to fall slightly below that on current newborns.New Zealand appears to have avoided the large fiscal imbalancesplaguing the United States and other OECD countries not by placinglarge tax burdens on young current generations, but by limitingthe size of its commitments.     

Continuity and Change: Labour Market Programs and Education Expenditure

Since 1971 Australian governments have varied expenditure on labour market programs and education. This article attempts to explain these changes in the context of several straightforward hypotheses concerned with political processes. In both policy areas the evidence is generally consistent with four views: that ALP governments spend relatively more than coalition governments; that ALP expenditure is more likely to be directed to the public sector, and coalition expenditure to the private sector; that governments of both political persuasions tend to move towards their opponents' position in budgets immediately preceding elections; and that, after the marked changes initiated in the 1972 to 1974 period, the parties have become increasingly similar in expenditure terms. Apparently there have been important differences between the political parties in government, but these distinctions have become less clear–cut over recent years.     

Contractual nullification of economically-detrimental state-made laws

An economy may remain robust in the face of efficiency-inhibiting state-made rules if individuals are able to establish effective sources of credibility that do not rely on the state. After explaining how non-state sources of trust and private recourse evolve to enhance credibility, examples of contracting around undesirable rules in United States are discussed. The potential for contractual nullification varies considerably, however, in part because of state action that limits civil-society and/or market activities. In many less robust economies, there are even more significant barriers to building private sources of trust and recourse, undermining the potential for contractual nullification. JEL Code D230, K120, O170     

The Costs of Exhibiting Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been associated with positive organizational outcomes and with higher managerial ratings of employee performance. However, concerns have been raised about the possible personal costs of performing such activities. This paper examines the relationship between OCB and emotional exhaustion and work‐family conflict and explores the moderating role of job performance in shaping those relationships. In a time‐lagged field study of customer‐contact center employees the research found that one particular dimension of OCB—conscientiousness—was associated with higher emotional exhaustion and with work‐family conflict. The study also revealed that conscientious employees who performed their in‐role job responsibilities at a high level experienced greater emotional exhaustion and work‐family conflict than conscientious employees who performed their in‐role job responsibilities at a low level. Our findings suggest that organizational pressures to increase the level at which both discretionary and formal role obligations are performed can carry negative consequences for employees. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.