Upjohn Open Access Books

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Banking the Furnace: Restructuring of the Steel Industry in Eight Countries

Trevor Bain
1992

Trevor Bain explores the industry restructurings that occurred in eight major steel-producing countries, including the U.S., Germany and Japan. He begins by categorizing each country as having either an adversarial or a cooperative industrial relations system, and then analyzes the differences in implementation strategies. He also determines who - employers, employees, or government - bore the cost of these adjustments and which industrial relations systems were more efficient in restructuring.
Wage and Employment Adjustment in Local Labor Markets

Randall W. Eberts and Joe Allan Stone
1992

Eberts and Stone have created dynamic models of labor supply and demand behavior for metropolitan labor markets. They use these models to simulate wage, employment, and personal income responses to local economic change, including changes brought about by governmental policy.
Excellence at Work: Policy Option Papers for the National Governors' Association

Evelyn Ganzglass, Editor
1992

State-level initiatives are proposed that address key issues affecting the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.
Improving Access to Health Care: What Can the States Do?

John Henry Goddeeris, Editor and Andrew J. Hogan, Editor
1992

Health care cost increases may seem under control but the issue of access remains a serious problem. This text features a dozen essays addressing that issue from the states' perspective.
Wage Flexibility and Unemployment Dynamics in Regional Labor Markets

Thomas Hyclak and Geraint Johnes
1992

Hyclak and Johnes explore the extent to which wage rigidity differs across regional labor markets in the U.S. and how it affects the unemployment response to shifts in regional aggregate demand. They also look at the determinants of differences in wage rigidity across regional labor markets.
Job Accessibility and the Employment and School Enrollment of Teenagers

Keith R. Ihlanfeldt
1992

Ihlanfeldt presents data that strongly support the "spatial mismatch hypothesis" for the high unemployment rate of disadvantaged teens. This theory, which the author thoroughly outlines in this work, asserts that the suburbanization of low-skill jobs and continued housing market segregation have reduced the job opportunities of inner-city dwelling minorities. This book extends Ihlanfeldt's earlier work on spatial mismatch by incorporating school enrollment decisions and other urban factors into his analysis. Thus, he also demonstrates empirically that job access is related to the high school dropout problem and concludes that poor access to jobs is useful in explaining the relatively low economic welfare of urban blacks.
From Socialism to Market Economy: The Transition Problem

William S. Kern, Editor
1992

This group of essays examines the ongoing economic struggles experienced by former Soviet-bloc countries as they attempt to establish market-based economies.
Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?

Timothy J. Bartik
1991

Bartik reviews evidence on whether state and local policies affect job growth. He then presents empirical data supporting the intentions of such programs, showing that job growth may lead to a number of positive long-term effects including: lower unemployment, higher labor force participation, higher real estate values, and better occupational opportunities. He also shows that the earnings gains to disadvantaged groups outweigh the resulting increased real estate values for property owners, and concludes by saying that regional competition for jobs may actually be a benefit for the nation as a whole.
Labor Unions and the Economic Performance of Firms

Barry T. Hirsch
1991

Hirsch develops a model of union rent-seeking in which the unions capture a share of quasi-rents that make up the normal ROI in long-lived capital and R&D. He finds that in response, firms adjust their investments in vulnerable tangible and intangible capital. Hirsch also attempts to explain the connection between the contraction of the size of unions which occurred in the 1970s and firms' lower profitability, diminished market value, and lower investment levels.
Essays on the Economics of Discrimination

Emily P. Hoffman, Editor
1991

This book explores the effects of discrimination on the economic outcomes of various societal groups.
The Tax Treatment of Fringe Benefits

Stephen A. Woodbury and Wei-Jang Huang
1991

Woodbury and Huang use econometric models to investigate how changes in the tax treatment of fringe benefits can be expected to influence the level of benefits and compensation provided by employers, federal revenues, and income inequality.
Evaluating Social Programs at the State and Local Level: The JTPA Evaluation Design Project

Ann B. Blalock, Editor
1990

This book draws upon the JTPA Evaluation Design Project initiated, developed and directed by the Washington State Employment Security Department. The five essays offer practical, instructive guidance about planning and executing program evaluations.
Back to Work: Testing Reemployment Services for Displaced Workers

Howard S. Bloom
1990

Bloom presents findings from the Texas Worker Adjustment Demonstration, a 2,192-person randomized experimental evaluation of reemployment programs for displaced workers conducted at three sites in Texas. This project demonstrated that a relatively inexpensive mix of job-search assistance and limited occupational skills training can be a cost-effective means of assisting displaced workers.
Labor-Management Cooperation: New Partnerships or Going in Circles?

William N. Cooke
1990

Cooke answers important questions about labor-management cooperative efforts and addresses the problems undermining these efforts. His analyses are based on a variety of secondary data sources plus primary data from three nationwide surveys of plant managers, union leaders, and industry executives. Also included are several prescriptions for the success of labor-management cooperative efforts.
Recent Developments in the Theory of Involuntary Unemployment

Carl Davidson
1990

This monograph provides a relatively nontechnical summary of the prominent theories of unemployment that have emerged since 1960: search, disequilibrium, implicit contracts, efficiency wage, and insider/outsider models. Davidson focuses on the overall purpose of each line of research, reviewing selected articles on each of the theories. He then offers clear descriptions that make the topics readily accessible to both students and nonspecialists.
The Japanese Labor Market in a Comparative Perspective with the United States: A Transaction-Cost Interpretation

Masanori Hashimoto
1990

This study offers a comparative analysis of a number of Japanese labor market features in relation to the U.S. The author examines employer-employee attachment, workforce adjustment, and industrial relations including "unique" Japanese institutions such as joint consultation and consensus-based decision making. Hashimoto argues that cultural-traditional influences, which shape the transaction-cost environment, interacted with technological progress in shaping the various uniquely-Japanese labor market features.
The Earned Income Tax Credit: Antipoverty Effectiveness and Labor Market Effects

Saul D. Hoffman and Laurence S. Seidman
1990

The authors begin with a detailed assessment then perform empirical analyses to predict the outcomes of changes to the structure of the program.
The Economics of Comparable Worth

Mark R. Killingsworth
1990

Killingsworth provides a clear statement of the definitional and conceptual issues surrounding comparable worth as well as an examination of its actual and potential effects. He also shows how comparable worth might work in alternative labor market settings and provides evidence of the effects of the comparable worth measures implemented in San Jose, Calif., the State of Minnesota, and Australia.
Does Training Work for Displaced Workers?: A Survey of Existing Evidence

Duane E. Leigh
1990

Leigh examines nine demonstration projects and operating programs to determine how well public retraining programs for displaced workers fulfill their roles.
Two-Tier Compensation Structures: Their Impact on Unions, Employers, and Employees

James Martin and Thomas D. Heetderks , Collaborator
1990

Martin conducted a study at a large company where its various wage tier systems allowed assessment of the long-term impact of tiers. Part of this study included the development of a survey designed to explore eight research questions related to tiers and to test five hypotheses of low-tier v. high-tier employees.
Passing the Torch: The Influence of Economic Incentives on Work and Retirement

Joseph F. Quinn, Richard V. Burkhauser, and Daniel A. Myers
1990

This book summarizes research on individual retirement decisions and aggregate retirement trends. It also serves as an excellent reference source on the economics of retirement.
Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund Adequacy in the 1990's

Wayne Vroman
1990

Vroman introduces a model-based approach to the study of UI financing. He creates simulations for several large states in order to examine a series of funding issues, and analyzes the performance of those state's systems. In addition, he presents the regional aspects of UI funding. Vroman concludes with a brief presentation of UI solvency prospects and a description of a possible federal role in enhancing UI fund solvency.
Unemployment, Vacancies and Local Labor Markets

Harry J. Holzer
1989

Unemployment rates in the U.S. vary considerably over time and across local areas. Economists have long been concerned with explaining these variations and have attempted to distinguish various components of unemployment to explain these variations in rates. Holzer uses firm-level data on job vacancies, sales growth, and wages within and across a group of 28 local labor markets to examine these issues.
Organized Labor at the Crossroads

Wei-Chiao Huang, Editor
1989

This group of essays offers a detailed look at the problems, choices and future of industrial relations.
Strikers and Subsidies: The Influence of Government Transfer Programs on Strike Activity

Robert M. Hutchens, David B. Lipsky, and Robert N. Stern
1989

The authors assess laws governing striker eligibility for government transfers, finding evidence linking UI payments to strike activity.