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We investigate within the context of Viet Nam how circumstances at age 15 or 16 relate to completion of upper secondary education four years later. We exploit the longitudinal elements of the Viet Nam Access to Resources Household Survey to identify household and commune characteristics and emphasize how the effects of these characteristics vary by gender. The gender differences we find suggest that unequal treatment of girls within their households has a negative impact on their educational attainment and that in the absence of such unequal treatment the reverse gender gap would be even larger. We find nothing in terms of local labour market conditions that could explain this gap.

We model a principal-firm offering training to its agent-worker under two alternative organizational structures: integration, where the principal retains authority to overrule the investment project recommended by the worker and delegation, where the principal cannot overrule the worker's preferred investment project. We assume that training reduces the worker's effort cost of assembling information about alternative projects' payoffs and identify the conditions under which delegation increases the profit-maximizing intensity of training. Empirical estimates from matched employer–employee data show that workplaces delegating authority do provide more worker training. This result persists in two cross sections, in panel fixed-effect estimates and, critically, in an instrumental variable exercise that also controls for establishment fixed effects. (JEL D21, D22, D23, M53, M54) 56 2 1089 1115

We investigate within the context of Viet Nam how circumstances at age 15 or 16 relate to completion of upper secondary education four years later. We exploit the longitudinal elements of the Viet Nam Access to Resources Household Survey to identify household and commune characteristics and emphasize how the effects of these characteristics vary by gender. The gender differences we find suggest that unequal treatment of girls within their households has a negative impact on their educational attainment and that in the absence of such unequal treatment the reverse gender gap would be even larger. We find nothing in terms of local labour market conditions that could explain this gap.

We uniquely examine the relationship between firm-organized training and the sensitivity of consumer demand to product quality. Cross section, panel fixed effect and instrumental variable estimates confirm that British workplaces provide more intensive training when their product demand is more sensitive to product quality. Robustness checks including using alternative key variable definitions and a counterfactual analysis examining the importance of competing on price support this confirmation. 155 C 159 177

Whilst it is well known that performance-related pay (PRP) may increase wage inequality within a firm, there is an inter-temporal lifecycle aspect that has been largely ignored in the literature. In this paper, we investigate theoretically how the introduction of PRP will influence the wage and remuneration profile over time. We develop a simple two-period model of efficiency wages that rationalizes recent empirical findings suggesting PRP flattens the pay-tenure profile. Such attenuation has important implications for the credibility of long-term employment contracts as it suggests that agency rather than human capital considerations drive the profile.

We uniquely examine the relationship between firm-sponsored training and product quality competition. Using an oligopolistic model of both price and quality competition, we show that an increase in the sensitivity of demand to product quality will strengthen firms’ incentives to train their workforce. Cross section, panel and instrumental variable estimations confirm that British establishments provide more intensive training when their competitive position is more sensitive to product quality. A variety of robustness checks and changes in variable definitions leave this confirmation in place.

We examined the horizontal measurement performance of five mapping-grade GPS receiver configurations operating simultaneously at three measurement test sites established in open sky, young forest, and closed canopy conditions. Two of the GPS receivers had external antennas, and two receivers were configured to collect data with real-time differential corrections through the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). The GPS receivers collected data using 1-, 30-, and 60-point recording intervals to test the influence of the number of point recordings on position determination. We also postprocessed all data to examine the influence of differential corrections. We found statistically significant differences in measurement accuracy between GPS receiver configurations that had an external antenna and receivers that did not. The top performer for unprocessed data collected measurements with real-time differential corrections and had average measurement errors of 0.4, 0.8, and 2.2 m, in open sky, young forest, and closed canopy conditions, respectively. The top performer for postprocessed data had average measurement errors of 0.2, 0.1, and 1.2 m, in open sky, young forest, and closed canopy conditions, respectively. The influence of number of points on measurement accuracy was observed between the 1- and 30-point intervals, with no statistically significant differences between the 30- and 60-point intervals. No statistically significant difference resulted in WAAS measurements that were postprocessed. The measurement accuracies we report are acceptable for many natural resource measurement applications. These findings encourage the use of external antennas when using GPS receivers under forest canopy. In addition, point recording intervals of 30 appear to be efficient for accurate measurements with mapping-grade GPS receivers.

In the US Pacific Northwest and other mountainous regions, cable yarding using portable steel towers is a common harvesting system in steep terrain. These systems are expensive and can be unsafe if improperly rigged. For both economic and safety considerations, configurations are used that ensure that the system can sustain the forces applied during yarding operations. We present a computer-based application, GuylinePC, for evaluating the guyline and anchor loads resulting from an applied load. Our model extends the usability and scope of a model previously developed by other researchers. Specifically we (1) provide a more modern graphical user interface, (2) use optimization methods to determine equilibrium states, and (3) illustrate the capability of the program to be used in design. We briefly discuss the analytical model and software application and present a design problem. The program is intended to improve a forest engineer's understanding of cable yarding systems.

We developed an algorithm that was designed to create a spatial database of a forested transportation network using aerial LiDAR. The algorithm uses two main attributes, LiDAR intensity values and ground return density. The road extraction process was developed using aerial LiDAR from McDonald-Dunn Research Forest near Corvallis, Oregon, U.S.A. The road extraction process requires X, Y, Z coordinates, intensity values, canopy type, and the maximum road grade. To compare the results of the process, nine road segments were field surveyed with terrestrial LiDAR. The result of the road extraction process resulted in 80% true positives, 34% false positives, 20% false negatives, and 38% true negatives in identifying forest roads. The average absolute value difference in the road width between the two data sets were 1.1m, while the cut/fill slope differences were minimal (> 4%) and the difference in road cross slope was two percent. These results were comparable with other published studies that examined differences between LiDAR measurements and field measurements

By relaxing the common efficiency wage assumption of exogenous shirking detection probabilities, we demonstrate how standards and efficiency wages are related. In a more general setting where the probability of detection depends upon the equilibrium effort level of non-shirkers, we show that the uniformly positive (negative) supply-side relationship between wages (unemployment insurance) and effort is no longer guaranteed. Profit maximization on the part of the firm, however, ensures that effort will depend positively (negatively) on wages (unemployment insurance) in equilibrium.

We investigated the reciprocal relationship between individual social capital and perceived mental and physical health in the UK. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey from 1991 to 2008, we fitted cross-lagged structural equation models that include three indicators of social capital vis. social participation, social network, and loneliness. Given that multiple measurement points (level 1) are nested within individuals (level 2), we also applied a multilevel model to allow for residual variation in the outcomes at the occasion and individual levels. Controlling for gender, age, employment status, educational attainment, marital status, household wealth, and region, our analyses suggest that social participation predicts subsequent change in perceived mental health, and vice versa. However, whilst loneliness is found to be significantly related to perceived mental and physical health, reciprocal causality is not found for perceived mental health. Furthermore, we find evidence for reverse effects with both perceived mental and physical health appearing to be the dominant causal factor with respect to the prospective level of social network. Our findings thus shed further light on the importance of social participation and social inclusion in health promotion and aid the development of more effective public health policies in the UK.

By relaxing the common efficiency wage assumption of exogenous shirking detection probabilities, we demonstrate how standards and efficiency wages are related. In a more general setting where the probability of detection depends upon the equilibrium effort level of non-shirkers, we show that the uniformly positive (negative) supply-side relationship between wages (unemployment insurance) and effort is no longer guaranteed. Profit maximization on the part of the firm, however, ensures that effort will depend positively (negatively) on wages (unemployment insurance) in equilibrium.

Efficiency wage theory predicts that firms can induce worker effort by the carrot of high wages and/or the stick of monitoring worker performance. Another option available to firms is to tilt the remuneration package over time such that the lure of high future earnings acts as a deterrent to current shirking. On the assumption that firms strive for the optimal trade-off between these various instruments, we develop a two-period model of efficiency wages in which increased monitoring attenuates the gradient of the wage-tenure profile. Our empirical analysis, using two cross sections of matched employer-employee British data, provides robust support for this prediction. Copyright © 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 38 105 162 105-162

We build a model of worker interdependence in which two workers can either compete or cooperate and compare performance under either scenario to that of a single worker working in isolation. We show that whilst competition unequivocally reduces performance, cooperation may raise or lower performance. Employing a unique data set in which workgroups are comprised of either one or two workers, we are able to test explicitly for the presence of cooperation. We find empirical support for cooperative behavior.

The traditional Becker/Arrow style model of discrimination depicts majority and minority and workers as perfectly substitutable inputs, implying that all workers have the same job assignment. The model is only appropriate for determining whether pay differences between, for example, whites and non-whites doing job assignment A are attributable to prejudice ('within-assignment discrimination'); It is inappropriate, however, for determining whether pay differences between whites in job assignment A and non-whites in job assignment B reflect discriminatory behaviour ('cross-assignment discrimination'). We test the model of such cross assignment discrimination developed by Bodvarsson and Sessions (2011) using data on Major League Baseball hitters and pitchers for four different seasons during the 1990s, a decade during which monopsony power fell. We find strong evidence of ceteris paribus racial pay differences between hitters and pitchers, as well as evidence that cross-assignment discrimination varies with labour market structure.

We investigate the potential compensating differential between wages and pensions on a sample of British workers. Random effects panel regressions are run applying the Schiller and Weiss (1980) methodology to test whether a pension-wage compensating differential exists. Using data from British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and derived prospective pension variables, calculated by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the regression results do not support evidence for a trade off. Further analysis finds no significant differences in results between public and private sector workers, even after controlling for sample selection bias wage.

Whilst existing efficiency wage literature assumes detection probabilities of shirkers are exogenous, this paper finds them positively and endogenously dependent on non-shirkers' effort. It shares the result with the endogenous monitoring models where, in some regions, workers reduce effort in response to higher wages, but differs in that firms never operate in those regions. The paper further provides theoretical reasons for the empirical regularity that increased usage of performance related pay (PRP) flattens the pay-tenure profile. Wages and effort increase over the lifecycle, both with and without PRP, but with late payments in PRP falling short of pure wage arrangements.

The traditional Becker/Arrow style model of discrimination depicts majority and minority and workers as perfectly substitutable inputs, implying that all workers have the same job assignment. The model is only appropriate for determining whether pay differences between, for example, whites and non-whites doing job assignment A are attributable to prejudice ('within-assignment discrimination'); It is inappropriate, however, for determining whether pay differences between whites in job assignment A and non-whites in job assignment B reflect discriminatory behaviour ('cross-assignment discrimination'). We test the model of such cross assignment discrimination developed by Bodvarsson and Sessions (2011) using data on Major League Baseball hitters and pitchers for four different seasons during the 1990s, a decade during which monopsony power fell. We find strong evidence of ceteris paribus racial pay differences between hitters and pitchers, as well as evidence that cross-assignment discrimination varies with labour market structure.

When immigrants experience “nationality discrimination” in the labor market, ceteris paribus their earnings are lower than native-born workers because they were born abroad. The challenge to testing for nationality discrimination is that the native/immigrant earnings gap will very likely also be influenced by productivity differences driven by incomplete assimilation of immigrants, as well as the possibility of racial or gender discrimination. There is relatively little empirical literature, and virtually no theoretical literature, on this type of discrimination. In this study, a model of nationality discrimination where customer prejudice and native/immigrant productivity differences jointly influence the earnings gap is presented. We derive an extension of Becker’s Market Discrimination Coefficient (MDC), applied to the case of nationality discrimination when there are productivity differences. A number of novel implications are obtained. We find, for example, that the MDC depends upon relative immigrant productivity and relative immigrant labor supply. We test the model on data for hitters and pitchers in Major League Baseball, an industry with a history of immigration, potential for customer discrimination, and clean, detailed micro-data on worker productivities and race. OLS and decomposition methods are used to estimate the extent of discrimination. We find no compelling evidence of discrimination in the hitter group, but evidence of ceteris paribus underpayment of immigrant pitchers. While our test case is for a particular industry, our theoretical model, empirical specifications, and general research design, are quite generalizable to many other labor markets.

We examine the impact of parental education on the shape of an individual's experience-earnings profile. A number of factors suggest that parental education will affect the ability of an individual to translate labor market experience into earnings. Our empirical analysis of US data suggests that this is indeed the case. Higher parental education shifts the earnings profile significantly to the left – the profile of individuals with parents who both have 15 years of education peaks at 16 years of experience when their wages are 52% (24%) greater than those whose parents both have only 5 (10) years of education.

We undertake the first empirical investigation of the relationship between the slope of the wagetenure profile and the level of monitoring. On the assumption that firms strive for the optimal trade-off between these various instruments, we hypothesise that increased monitoring leads to a decline in the slope of the wagetenure profile. Our empirical analysis, using two cross sections of matched employer-employee British data, provides robust support for this prediction.

We undertake the first empirical investigation of the relationship between the slope of the wagetenure profile and the level of monitoring. On the assumption that firms strive for the optimal trade-off between these various instruments, we hypothesise that increased monitoring leads to a decline in the slope of the wagetenure profile. Our empirical analysis, using two cross sections of matched employer-employee British data, provides robust support for this prediction.

We examine the impact of parental education on the shape of an individual’s experience-earnings profile. A number of factors suggest that parental education will affect the ability of an individual to translate labor market experience into earnings. Our empirical analysis of US data suggests that this is indeed the case. Higher parental education shifts the earnings profile significantly to the left – the profile of individuals with parents who both have 15 years of education peaks at 16 years of experience when their wages are 52% (24%) greater than those whose parents both have only 5 (10) years of education.

The traditional model of taste discrimination in labor markets presumes perfect substitution, making it unsuitable for the measurement of discrimination across job assignments. We extend the model to explain cross-assignment discrimination and test it on data from Major League Baseball. A competitive firm with a Generalized Leontief production function fills each job assignment with whites and nonwhites in an environment of customer prejudice. According to the model, cross-assignment discrimination depends upon racial productivity differences, the productivity x prejudice interaction, technology, relative labor supply and racial integration. We find strong evidence of ceteris paribus racial salary differences between hitters and pitchers.

The traditional model of taste discrimination in labor markets presumes perfect substitution, making it unsuitable for the measurement of discrimination across job assignments. We extend the model to explain cross-assignment discrimination and test it on data from Major League Baseball. A competitive firm with a Generalized Leontief production function fills each job assignment with whites and nonwhites in an environment of customer prejudice. According to the model, cross-assignment discrimination depends upon racial productivity differences, the productivity x prejudice interaction, technology, relative labor supply and racial integration. We find strong evidence of ceteris paribus racial salary differences between hitters and pitchers.

This thesis comprises five chapters that together offer some contribution to the economics of unemployment, earnings and absence. Chapter One: Unemployment Stigma investigates the implications of an occupational hierarchy on labour market behaviour. The ideas developed are applied, firstly, to a model of the wage curve where it is shown that the relationship between unemployment and pay may be upward slopping over some range; and secondly, to a non-shirking model of efficiency wages where the potential for multiple labour market equilibria is highlighted. Chapter Two: The Economics of Absence investigates the relatively neglected issue of worker absence. The Chapter reviews and offers some perspective to existing studies of absence, develops a theoretical model of absence that incorporates both the supply and demand aspects of the employment relation, and sets out an empirical analysis of the relationship between absence and labour supply. Chapter Three: Absence and Profit Sharing explores the relationship between employee sharing and worker absence using data from a panel of 127 French firms over the period 1981-1991. The results suggest that both profit sharing and employee share ownership schemes are associated with significantly lower absence, the extent of the decline depending crucially upon whether or not the schemes operate exclusively of one another. An interesting question also emerges concerning the relationship between contractual flexibility and absence behaviour, the empirical analysis suggesting that a more widespread use of part-time contracts may act to reduce the incidence of absence in firms operating profit sharing schemes. Chapter Four: U.K. Unemployment profiles the incidence of unemployment in the U.K. over the period 1985-91 by quantifying the differential probabilities of unemployment faced by particular groups within the population. The results indicate that, even after controlling for a plethora of demographic characteristics, regional disparities in unemployment risk are prevalent. Chapter Five: Trade and Trade Unions examines the effects of international trade on the employment and earnings prospects of a sample of U.K. workers. The Chapter develops a model of international oligopoly with generally unionised labour markets which suggests that an increased exposure to trade is more likely to impact negatively upon the wage (employment) prospects of workers the greater (lesser) the degree of union bargaining power to which they are subservient. The empirical analysis in the Chapter offers substantive support for this proposition.

Research Article Forest and fire management planning activities are carried out mostly independently of each other. This paper discusses research aiming at the development of methods and tools that can be used for enhanced integration of forest and fire management planning activities. Specifically, fire damage models were developed for Eucalyptus globulus Labill stands in Portugal. Models are based on easily measurable forest characteristics so that forest managers may predict post-fire mortality based on forest structure. For this purpose, biometric data and fire-damage descriptors from 2005/2006 National Forest Inventory plots and other sample plots within 2006, 2007 and 2008 fire areas were used. A three-step modelling strategy based on logistic regression methods was used. In the first step, a model was developed to predict whether mortality occurs after a wildfire in a eucalypt stand. In the second step the degree of damage caused by wildfires in stands where mortality occurs is quantified (i.e. percentage of mortality). In the third step this mortality is distributed among trees. Data from over 85 plots and 1648 trees were used for modeling purposes. The damage models show that relative damage increases with stand basal area. Tree level mortality models indicate that trees with high diameters, in dominant positions and located in regular stands are less prone to die when a wildfire occurs info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion