Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper considers the types of governments that less developed nations can use to raise employment even in fiscal crisis. One effective option is adult vocational education which is both cheap and supported by significant transnational governments. In principle, such programs should fail because high labor surpluses and low reservation wages facilitate employer on the job training, reducing the impact of government training in raising human capital stocks per se. The surprise twist is that graduates of adult vocational training who are self employed market their way into economic success by increasing aggregate demand for their sector. This unexpected finding is illustrated with econometric data on service sector employment in Brazil. The key lesson is that more attention needs to be paid to programs that increase self employment and less to human capital per se.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: UK labour law has recently seen a shift in the prevailing definition of the employment relationship, aimed at extending the range of casual workers and others in ‘non-standard’ relationships who are covered by basic labour laws. The move is controversial, in part, because in recognizing, across a wider range of contexts, a category of ‘workers’ who are not ‘employees’, the legislation runs the risk of creating a two-tiered employment status. The reform is supported, however, by the current government, as offering universal basic protection (in respect, inter alia, of health and safety, discrimination law and protection of freedom of association), while avoiding the imposition of excessive employment protection costs on all work relationships. This paper will review the experience of the new system, looking at relevant case law and the response of government, trade unions and employers to its operation. A striking and not very reassuring feature is the use by employers of contractual boilerplate aimed at evading even the most basic labour laws, and the often compliant judicial response to such attempts. The paper will also put this UK experience in a comparative perspective of current debates about the coverage and effectiveness of labour laws and their implications for efficiency.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study addresses two central issues concerning labor market transformations. The first question asks how declining job security is embedded in changing labor market conditions, which in turn constrains and conditions labor market behavior such as the propensity to engage in job search activities. The second question deals with whether or not unionization, despite of its continuing decline, would moderate the effects of adverse labor market conditions on perceived job insecurity and potential labor turnover. Hypotheses developed from the perspective of labor market flexibility are tested against data from the February 1999 Current Population Survey. Results suggest that nonstandard employment and secondary jobs significantly increase the likelihood of perceiving job insecurity and the propensity to search for alternative job opportunities. However, unionization has no significant effect on perceived job insecurity and potential labor turnover in flexible and segmented labor market conditions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although over 80,000 workers charge their employers with unlawful discrimination annually, less than 15% of these charges result in outcomes favorable for the complainant. By merging EEO-1 data with charge data provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission into a longitudinal data set, I am able to investigate the conditions under which discrimination charges result in favorable outcomes for complainants. Specifically, I examine how the nature of the workplace dispute, characteristics of the complainant, and the organizational resources of the accused firm affect charge outcomes. Preliminary results suggest that charges citing race or national origin discrimination and those involving personnel disputes are less likely to result in outcomes favorable for the complainant. Charges brought against racially segregated firms are more likely to result in favorable outcomes for complainants. Finally, employers that receive repeat charges are more likely to prevail, suggesting that previous experience resolving charges gives employers an edge in resolving subsequent disputes. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The entrance of large numbers of black workers into the northern industrial labor force between 1890 and 1945 was central to shaping twentieth and twenty-first century black-white relations. That period, and that experience, has been central to the ways U.S. academic scholars have thought about black workers and workplace race relations. Furthermore, the marginalization of black workers during this era had profound consequences for the material well-being of African-Americans for decades afterwards.

The majority of the literature regarding this era has focused on white workers’ (and their unions) role in marginalizing black males at work. I argue that while this literature on white workers has contributed a great deal to our understanding, there is a need to explicitly focus on employers’ actions vis a vis black male workers. Additionally, theories about employers’ treatment of black workers in industrial labor have generally been static and provided a “one size fits all” framework. I argue that it is more useful to understand employers’ actions as being contingent upon the various ways black and white workers interact with one another in a racially split labor market.
This paper provides a typology of the varying ways employers’ utilized racial ideology in order to forestall labor unrest.