Access to training and its impact on temporary workers

Does temporary work provide a way for individuals to improve their skill levels? Using a sample of more than 4,000 employees of US temporary staffing agencies, we analyse whether blue, white and pink‐collar temps get access to company training, and the impact of skill development on wages and employee retention. We find that less than 25 per cent of temps take part in training. Educated and experienced individuals are more likely to be offered training, but lower‐skilled individuals are more likely to take training when it is offered and spend more hours on it. Office workers who took part in training were more likely still to be with the agency a year later and experienced significant wage growth, while training had no effect on wage growth for blue‐collar workers. Skill development that took place on the job was associated with greater wage growth for all types of temps.     

The effect of business taxation on the location of industry

A theoretical and econometric model is specified which permits the estimation of the effect of local taxes on economic activity in a locality. A location elasticity of ?0.35 is found for manufacturing activity in New York City with respect to business taxes, while no significant elasticity is found for nonmanufacturing activity. The deadweight losses and revenue effects of the tax are analyzed and calculated, as are the optimal second-best taxes for a locality.     

“Such elements do not belong in an ordered society”: Managing rural–urban resettlement in democratic South Africa

In South Africa, the scale of rural–urban resettlement after apartheid continues to overwhelm the capacity of the government to house city dwellers in need of shelter. But the legitimacy of the postapartheid government rests on its ability to secure the rights of citizens who enjoy constitutional guarantees, including the right to housing. Because the government cannot simply repress this unhoused surplus population, it seeks instead to delegitimize some portion of it. It does so by developing a number of moralizing discourses, the subject of this paper, which distinguish between patient, deserving citizens, and unruly queue jumpers perceived to threaten the democratic project itself. Housing officials misrecognize squatters as a cause, rather than a consequence, of the state's failure to deliver, policing new land occupations with a draconian severity. They justify such repression in the name of protecting the democratic order, which is assumed to require waiting instead of improvisation.     

The Role of Agricultural and Female Labor Mobility in Taiwan's Industrialization: 1976–91

The period 1976–91 in Taiwan was one of rapid economic growth. Agricultural employment fell from 29% to 13% of the workforce, while the employment rate for prime-age females increased from 43% to 55%. These figures suggest widespread net movements of labor out of agriculture. In reality the net increase in nonagricultural jobs was filled by new labor-market entrants, not by net transfers of labor out of agriculture. Some women from agricultural households transferred into manufacturing. However, their role in fueling the industrial labor boom was dwarfed by the employment increases for women from nonagricultural households.     

Do Firms Get the Financing They Want? Measuring Credit Rationing Experienced by Small Businesses in the U.S.

This paper measures the extent to which small businesses in the United States in the late 1980s were able to access the external credit finance they desired. We argue that a comprehensive definition of credit rationing must account for both (a) creditworthy firms that apply for and are denied financing, and (b) creditworthy firms that decide not to apply for desired external financing, given expectations about how long it may take to obtain financing and the evolution of investment opportunities.Data from a national survey of small businesses shows that only 2.14 percent of firms did not obtain the funding for which they applied in 1987–88. Another 2.17 percent may have faced some short-run constraints on investment: they were initially denied by lenders but received the credit for which they applied by the end of the sample period. Finally, an additional 4.22 percent of firms are estimated to have been discouraged from applying because of expected denial.Constrained firms are smaller, younger, and more likely to be owned by their founders than those firms that successfully applied for external finance. The total number of credit constrained firms seems quite small, particularly because we cannot distinguish empirically between creditworthy and noncreditworthy firms. Thus the extent of true credit rationing appears quite limited.     

Move Your Research From The Ivy Tower To The Board Room: A Primer On Action Research For Academics,Consultants, And Business Executives

Today there is a large divide between the vast majority of management research that is conducted and the opportunities for doing work that is useful for both research and practice. Action research offers a great opportunity to bridge the divide, with benefits for all involved. For academic researchers, action research can increase access to important research sites that otherwise would remain off‐limits, while simultaneously increasing the relevance and scope of the research issues addressed. For researchers and practitioners who work in organizations, and for external consultants, action research offers a way to scientifically evaluate important organizational issues using scientific methods. These methods provide a type of external validity and support for actions that otherwise could be dismissed as representing a biased internal agenda. Moreover, internal researchers who engage in action research enable the sharing of insights that can benefit practitioners in other organizations as well as the research community. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.