Gender,race, pay and promotion in the British nursing profession: estimation of a generalized ordered probit model

We analyse job grading within the UK National Health Service nursing profession, using 1994 survey data. We start from the ordered probit model, for which we develop and apply appropriate specification tests. Threshold constancy and covariate exogeneity are rejected, with important consequences for estimates of the influence of gender, ethnicity, training and career interruptions. We find little evidence of disadvantage for females relative to males, but significant differences in speed of promotion between ethnic groups, implying non‐negligible differences in lifetime earnings. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The 'Charge of the Right Brigade': Transnational Social Forces and the Neoliberal Configuration of Poland's Transition

Enormous new markets in uncertainty and in carbon have been created recently, ostensibly to enhance the cost-effectiveness of both finance and climate action. In both cases, however, creating the abstract commodity framework necessary to make sense of the notion of ‘cost-effectiveness’ has entailed losing touch with what was supposedly being costed, helping to engender systemic crisis. The new financial markets expanded credit and multiplied leverage by isolating, quantifying, slicing, dicing and circulating diverse types of uncertainty; the resulting unchecked pursuit of liquidity led to a catastrophic drying up of liquidity. The carbon markets, meanwhile, by identifying global warming solutions with reductions in an abstract pool of tradable pollution rights and linking them with ‘offsets’ manufactured through quantitative techniques, ended up blocking prospective historical pathways toward less fossil fuel dependence and thus exacerbated the climate problem. Unsurprisingly, both markets have provoked strong, if diverse and confused, movements of societal self-defence. This pattern of action and reaction constitutes a chapter in the political history of commodification as significant in some ways as that describing the movements to commodify land and labour analysed by Karl Polanyi.     

The asymmetric effects of uncertainty on inflation and output growth

We study the effects of growth volatility and inflation volatility on average rates of output growth and inflation for post‐war US data. Our results suggest that increased growth uncertainty is associated with significantly lower average growth, while higher inflation uncertainty is significantly negatively correlated with lower output growth and lower average inflation. Both inflation and growth display evidence of significant asymmetric response to positive and negative shocks of equal magnitude. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can the Large Swings in Russian Life Satisfaction be Explained by Ups and Downs in Real Incomes?*

Russians reported large changes in their life satisfaction over the post‐transition years. In this paper, we explore the factors that drove these changes, focusing on exogenous income changes, using panel data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey over the period 1995 to 2001 and implementing a recently developed ordinal fixed‐effects estimator. We apply a causal decomposition technique that allows for bias arising from panel attrition when establishing aggregate trends in life satisfaction. Changes in real household incomes explained 10% of the total change in reported life satisfaction between 1996 and 2000, but up to 30% of some year‐on‐year changes.     

Perceptions of tourism promotion and business challenges: A survey-based comparison of tourism businesses and promotion organizations

Tourism is an important economic development driver in the U.S. especially in rural areas. Most US regions have tourism-related economic development organizations to assist the local industry. Despite such assistance, however, many tourism-based businesses struggle. One possible reason is a disconnect between business needs and the activities of related organizations. This study uses survey data from tourism-based businesses and tourism promotion and economic development organizations in rural western Pennsylvania and West Virginia to compare how the various actors perceive the most pressing tourism promotion efforts and business challenges. In general, tourism businesses and support organizations agree on the promotional needs of tourism-based businesses and hold similar perceptions about industry problems. However, tourism promotion agencies underestimate the role of the internet in promotions and perceive workforce issues differently than do businesses. Better alignment of priorities within tourism partnerships should enhance promotional and educational efforts as well as the integration of tourism into overall economic development efforts.     

Life Satisfaction Dynamics with Quarterly Life Event Data*

Using life satisfaction responses from Australian panel data we examine the questions of when and to what extent individuals are affected by major positive and negative life events, including changes in financial situation, marital status, death of a close relative, and being the victim of crime. The key advantage of our data is that we are able to identify these events on a quarterly basis rather than on the yearly basis used by previous studies. We find evidence that life events are not randomly distributed, that individuals anticipate major events to a large extent, and that they fully adapt to many events within 12 months. The estimates can be used to calculate monetary values needed to compensate individuals for life events. Using a new valuation methodology that incorporates these dynamic factors produces considerably smaller compensation valuations than those calculated using the standard approach.     

Exploring The Determinants Of Unhappiness For Ethnic Minority Men In Britain

This paper explores the determinants of unhappiness for ethnic minority men living in Britain, and compares these findings with those for White males. Data is drawn from the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities conducted in 1994, which has the advantage of over–sampling members of Britain's ethnic minority population. Using this unique data source we are able to provide some of the first evidence of the psychological impact of unemployment, low levels of household income, residing in an ethnic enclave and living in fear of racial harassment for Black Caribbean and South Asian men.     

Gender and Racial Discrimination in Pay and Promotion for NHS Nurses

For many years the NHS has been subject to allegations that gender and racial discrimination are a feature of the internal labour market for qualifiednurses. This paper examines this issue with regard to the promotion process using 1994 survey data. We start by rejecting the assumption of covariate exogeneity inherent in the ordered probit model. A full simultaneous modelis then developed which has important consequences for estimates of the influence of gender, ethnicity, training and career interruptions. We findevidence of significant differences in speed of promotion between gender and ethnic groups, which imply large differences in career earnings.