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Pension Incentives and Job Mobility

Alan L. Gustman and Thomas L. Steinmeier
1995

Using models developed for this study which incorporate an array of behaviors generally omitted from conventional models relating backloading to turnover, Gustman and Steinmeier find that backloading plays only a slight role in explaining mobility differences associated with pension coverage. They propose that higher wages often paid at pension-covered jobs play a greater role in reducing mobility than do pensions.
Permanent Job Loss and the U.S. System of Financing Unemployment Insurance

Frank P.R. Brechling and Louise Laurence
1995

The authors reexamine the experience rating provisions in the U.S. UI system and look at its effects on both temporary layoffs and long-term permanent layoffs. For temporary layoffs, they propose a higher degree of experience rating through a restructuring of the tax code while eliminating administrative time lags between the payment of benefits and the resulting changes in taxes. Brechling and Laurence also propose experience rating as an effective means of internalizing the costs of the growing number of permanent layoffs, making the case that payroll taxes are not the ideal means of implementing experience rating in this situation. In addition, they compare how the reserve and benefit ratio methods of experience rating internalize the costs of permanent layoffs.
Private Pension Policies in Industrialized Countries: A Comparative Analysis

John A. Turner and Noriyasu Watanabe
1995

In this comprehensive review of private pension systems in effect world-wide, Turner and Watanabe discuss the fundamental issues facing nations as they adopt and expand private pension systems. Specific policies in effect in several private pension systems are analyzed including those in nations dominating world pension assets (Japan, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S.), as is the country whose system is widely regarded as the model for developing nations, Chile. Turner and Watanabe also provide a compendium on the worldwide trends influencing pension systems and their implications for pension policy.
Program Applicants as a Comparison Group in Evaluating Training Programs: Theory and a Test

Stephen H. Bell, Larry L. Orr, John D. Blomquist, and Glen George Cain
1995

The authors begin with a thorough assessment of the many nonexperimental employment and training program evaluation techniques based on non-random comparison groups. These techniques typically use econometric methods to estimate the effects of employment and training programs by using comparison groups from non-program "external" sources. Then, recognizing the inherent drawbacks in these methods, Bell, Orr, Blomquist and Cain respond by reintroducing an evaluation method first implemented in the 1960s, the use of "internal" comparison groups consisting of nonparticipating program applicants. These groups include withdrawals, screen-outs and no-shows of the programs being evaluated in order to solve the selection bias problem. By applying to the program, say the authors, nonparticipating applicants reveal themselves to have some of the same difficult-to-measure, personal characteristics that inspire participants to seek help in response to their current economic situation. The methodology of this technique is updated, then tested against the random experimental findings derived from a controlled job training experiment, the AFDC Homemaker-Home Health Aide Demonstrations. Encouraging results are presented along with useful suggestions for designers and implementers of all types of program evaluations.
Human Capital and Economic Development

Sisay Asefa and Wei-Chiao Huang
1994

Six essays are presented that explore human capital and its relationship to issues such as demographics, population growth, families, workplace training and economic progress.
Classrooms in the Workplace: Workplace Literacy Programs in Small- and Medium-Sized Firms

Kevin Hollenbeck
1993

Hollenbeck, using a combined qualitative/quantitative approach, estimates the linkage between workplace literacy programs and the reason for their existence - increased productivity requirements. He utilizes in-depth case studies as well as a large database to look at the costs and benefits of such programs, also the determining factors for why firms choose to implement literacy programs.
Economic Restructuring and Emerging Patterns of Industrial Relations

Stephen R. Sleigh
1993

This book's essays analyze innovative responses by unions, corporations and governments to job loss caused by economic restructuring, drawing on examples from Western Europe and the U.S.
Essays on the Economics of Education

Emily P. Hoffman
1993

The contributors provide an economic perspective on a wide range of education-related issues related to K-12 and higher education.
Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: Issues, Magnitudes, and Location Choice of New Manufacturing Plants

Jan Ondrich and Michael J. Wasylenko
1993

What effect does foreign direct investment (FDI) have on job creation, wages, and productivity in the U.S.? How does FDI impact the budget deficit? How do changes in states' fiscal policy affect plant location choices? Ondrych and Wasylenko address these and other politically-charged questions concerning FDI. Provided is empirical evidence drawn from a pooled cross-section and time-series data set that identifies the criteria foreigners use to make location decisions. The authors also develop a model, against which they compare their findings, and review policy options available at the state and federal levels. Information provided will help states shape, focus, and refine their recruitment strategies for attracting foreign plants.
Pension Policy for a Mobile Labor Force

John A. Turner, Tabitha A. Doescher, and Phyllis A. Fernandez
1993

Employers often create a conflict between job mobility and retirement security when they deny future pension benefits to workers who quit a job before reaching retirement age. Unfortunately, this deterrent to job-changing inhibits the labor market's ability to adjust. It also means workers may be unprepared financially upon retirement. Turner describes why pension losses are such a significant problem and presents empirical evidence as to the number of workers affected and the amount of losses they incur. He also probes pension portability policy options and looks at portability options in effect in Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Profit Sharing: Does It Make a Difference?: The Productivity and Stability Effects of Employee Profit-Sharing Plans

Douglas Kruse
1993

Kruse details the reasons profit sharing plans are implemented and the systemic factors within firms, particularly in relation to unions, that influence whether or not they are successful. Presented is evidence based on a unique database developed from 500 public U.S. firms - matched to firm performance over the period of 1979-1991 - on the two central theories related to profit sharing: 1) The Productivity Theory, and 2) the Stability Theory
The Costs of Worker Dislocation

Louis S. Jacobson, Robert John Lalonde, and Daniel Gerard Sullivan
1993

The authors use findings from this study, in conjunction with their comprehensive interpretation of existing worker dislocation literature, to develop policy recommendations concerning prevailing and potential assistance programs. They conclude by proposing that any new policies designed to compensate dislocated workers should target those suffering the greatest losses while providing incentives to take new jobs - even if lower paying - as soon as possible. Programs which allow dislocated workers to receive compensation after regaining employment (modified earnings subsidies) are promoted as practical and financially feasible.
Unemployment Insurance in the United States: The First Half Century

Saul J. Blaustein, Wilbur J. Cohen, and William Haber
1993

Blaustein offers the definitive summary of the U.S. unemployment insurance system. This is the first of a two-volume update of Haber and Murray's Unemployment Insurance in the American Economy.
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.
Excellence at Work: Policy Option Papers for the National Governors' Association

Evelyn Ganzglass
1992

State-level initiatives are proposed that address key issues affecting the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.
From Socialism to Market Economy: The Transition Problem

William S. Kern
1992

This group of essays examines the ongoing economic struggles experienced by former Soviet-bloc countries as they attempt to establish market-based economies.
Improving Access to Health Care: What Can the States Do?

John Henry Goddeeris and Andrew J. Hogan
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.
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.
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.
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.
Essays on the Economics of Discrimination

Emily P. Hoffman
1991

This book explores the effects of discrimination on the economic outcomes of various societal groups.
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.
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.
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.
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.