Compensation vs. benefits: who gets paid more? A new survey analysis reveals the answer and possible causes

There is a discrepancy in pay between benefits and compensation professionals. These authors report on the results of a survey that measured the discrepancy and suggest possible reasons for the difference. They observe that, if benefits professionals are to reach pay equity with their compensation counterparts, they may need to play a strong role in helping organizations recognize the importance of benefits as a component of total reward strategy.     

Evaluating the H-1B visa program： Theoretical issues

The H-1 B visa program is popular and controversial at the same time. It is supposed to serve U.S. interests by helping bring some of the most talented scientists and engineers （S＆E） to this country. There is considerable dispute, however, whether the program is successful in this regard, or whether employers misuse it to undercut the salaries of citizens and green card holders who apply for the same positions. This paper sorts out some of the theoretical issues that complicate empirical analyses and which, if ignored, could produce misleading results.     

Development of academic entrepreneurship in a non-mature context: the role of the university as a hub-organisation

This paper focuses on how the evolving roles of a university and its Technology Transfer Office (TTO) are stimulating academic entrepreneurship in a non-mature entrepreneurial ecosystem. A more mature entrepreneurial ecosystem was built gradually by these actors through their progressive creation of innovation intermediaries and coordination among the local players involved in the creation of start-ups. We analyse how the university became a hub organisation. We use the case of the University of Strasbourg to show that the university contributed to the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem by acting as a boundary spanner and by building and orchestrating the network of the stakeholders in the local system of innovation. This ‘hub’ university became a leading regional organisation at the political level. The TTO played a central role in supporting academic entrepreneurship at the operational level based on its evolution from a revenue maximising model to a model that takes account of social and economic regional development. The progressive adoption of a more selective model of start-up creation requires good coordination among the local actors. Over time, the TTO’s boundary spanning function increased to encompass the development of operational network building and orchestrating functions.     

Human capital,migration strategy,and brain drain

Abstract

This research was motivated by the increasing number of foreign students and scientists who are in the United States on temporary visas and who are able to change their status to permanent immigrant. Origin countries, among them industrialized western European nations, are concerned about losing many of their best-educated and most talented citizens. This article modifies and extends a theoretical model of optimal human capital investment before and after migration to shed new light on the emigration/immigration of the highly skilled, and explores some possible implications for the study of the so-called ‘brain drain’ phenomenon.     

The leadership journey

It isn't always easy to change leadership hats or to alter the way you assess a business problem. Under pressure, most executives fall back on the management style or approach that worked in the last crisis they faced. But old approaches rarely work in new and demanding situations. Just ask Leonard Schaeffer, chairman and CEO of WellPoint Health Networks, one of the country's largest and most successful managed-care companies. In this account, he describes how he consciously adopted three very different styles of leadership at critical points during his 30-year career, depending on the business challenges at hand. Schaeffer headed up the U.S. Health Care Finance Administration during the Carter years--and led the charge toward more efficient work practices at that agency. Then he transformed Blue Cross of California from a floundering bureaucracy losing close to $1 million each day into a strong public company, WellPoint. The dire circumstances at Blue Cross had dictated that Schaeffer initially be an autocratic leader, which he considers the managerial equivalent of being an emergency room surgeon--forced to do whatever it takes to save a patient's life. But as the company rebounded, the CEO shed that "any decision is better than no decision" style. He has become a participative, hands-off leader-setting strategies and goals from above but letting WellPoint's line managers and executives figure out how best to achieve those goals. Most recently, Schaeffer has turned into a reformer--a leader who works with one foot outside the company to spur changes in health care and society. There are pitfalls in switching leadership styles, Schaeffer admits, but this flexibility is necessary for realizing corporate- and personal-success.     

Environmental and Social Accounting for Brazil

An environmentally extendedSocial Accounting Matrix (SAM) has beenconstructed for Brazil for the first time. Wereview in detail previous studies in thisfield, describe the construction, structure anddata sources of the Brazilian SAM, anddemonstrate the effect of system closure.Examining a range of type-I and type-IImultipliers, we show that incomes generated byfinal consumption are highly skewed towardsrich households, but energy requirements andcarbon emissions are higher for the consumptionof the poor. A significant negative correlationexists between employment and income on onehand, and energy requirements and carbonemissions on the other, while a significantpositive correlation exists between imports,and energy and carbon. These correlationsdemonstrate that there is scope for policiesthat pursue imports substitution and reduceenergy consumption and carbon emissions whilstincreasing employment and income.     

Empirical analysis of the impact of a landlord-tenant ordinance on property values2

The purpose of this article is to analyze the impact of a landlord-tenant ordinance (LTO) on property values, using time series data for the City of Evanston, Illinois, where the ordinance has been enacted since 1975. The empirical data analysis, which includes a trend analysis of hedonic price indices for both rental and owner-occupied property, has shown that an LTO is not likely to significantly affect housing values. Those remedies provided in the LTO are not likely to be radical departures from the current practices such as housing/building code, and can therefore not be expected to affect housing values substantially.     

Analysis of county employment and income growth in Appalachia: a spatial simultaneous-equations approach

County median household income and employment growth rates tend to be characterized by spatial interaction. A spatial simultaneous-equations growth equilibrium model was estimated using GS2SLS and GS3SLS. The results indicate strong feedback simultaneity between employment and median household income growth rates. They also show spatial autoregressive lag simultaneity and spatial cross-regressive lag simultaneity with respect to employment and median household income growth rates, as well as spatial correlation in the error terms. Estimates of structural parameters show strong agglomerative effects and significant conditional convergence with respect to employment growth and median household income growth in Appalachia in the 1990 s.