The Federal Emergency Employment Act of 1971: An Appraisal of Texas\u27 Experience

An assessment of the first few years of the Federal Emergency Employment Act’s implementation in the state of Texas, with focuses on various perspectives including the federal, state, and city levels

Gender Pay Gap: A Macro Perspective

This paper examines the factors influencing the gender wage gap by using an unbalanced cross-country aggregated panel data set for a sample covering 53 economies for the period 1995–2010. Using robust estimators proposed by Lewbel (2012) to correct for heterogeneity and endogeneity, results suggest that a higher female share in the industry sector tends to widen the gender wage gap regardless of a country’s development stage. While having more children widens the gender wage gap, as expected, the effect is only statistically significant for developing countries. In developed countries, more labor force participation by women seems to narrow the gender wage gap, probably due to the number of female labor market entrants taking up higher-paying service sector jobs. For developing countries, closing the gender gaps in labor force participation and education is not sufficient to achieve gender wage parity. Higher-paying jobs should be created by developing the service sector in these economies

Labor Markets in South Africa During Apartheid

Conventional wisdom holds that international political pressure and domestic civil unrest in the mid-1970s and 1980s brought an end to apartheid in South Africa. I show that, prior to these events, labor market pressure in the late 1960s/early 1970s caused a dramatic unraveling of apartheid in the workplace. Increased educational attainment among whites reduced resistance to opening semi-skilled jobs to Africans. This institutional change reflected white economic preferences rather than a relaxation of attitudes toward apartheid. I show that whites benefited from the relaxation of job reservation rules and that this is the primary cause of black occupational advancement.Discrimination; Job Reservation; Education; Labor markets

The quest for a balanced manpower capacity: different flexibility strategies examined

To cope with permanent fluctuations in demand, organizations are challenged to organize their manpower capacity in a flexible way. Different strategies of manpower planning are being used for this purpose. Using data from the 2002 Panel Survey of Organisations Flanders, we first verify to what extent temporal, contractual and functional flexibility strategies are applied in Flemish organizations. Subsequently, logistic regression is used to analyse the link between these flexible work strategies and a ‘fitting manpower capacity’. While the results show a negative association between the use of temporal or contractual flexibility measures and a balanced manpower capacity, functional flexibility seems to be positively related. The different logics in which numerical and functional flexibility proceed can be labeled as ‘curative’ versus ‘preventive’ strategies of flexibility. Further analyses discern between various interpretations of functional flexibility and assess whether different team types make a contribution to a fitting manpower capacity.Knowledge Society; work; Foresight

Beyond Manpower Planning: ROA's Labour Market Model and its Forecasts to 2002

This paper describes the forecasting model of the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA), which has been developed for making forecasts about developments of the labour market position of different types of education with respect to the Dutch labour market. Every two years, ROA compiles forecasts of changes in the labour market in the medium term, differentiated by a large number of economic sectors, occupational classes and types of education to illustrate the meaning of the information. The paper aims particularly to describe the objectives, the basic principles, the theoretical foundations and the structure of ROA''s forecasting approach and the major labour market indicators in more detail. The forecast labour market developments for the types of education up to the year 2002 will also be presented. Due to the low level of aggregation used, these forecasts provide very useful information for people who are involved in decisions about educational investments.education, training and the labour market;

China's vocational and technical training

China has embarked on a series of reforms designed to improve the efficiency of productive enterprises through the introduction of elements of a competitive market economy. Vocational and technical education and training (VTE) is to be expanded and improved to meet the skilled labor requirements of a changing economy. The efficiency of the VTE system in meeting changing requirements for skilled labor depends in large part on effective planning and linkages with employment. This study analyzes VTE planning and labor market linkages in the context of the economic reforms, and in comparison with the vocational education and training systems in other countries.Teaching and Learning,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Curriculum&Instruction,Gender and Education,Tertiary Education

Private and Social Returns to Education in Labour Surplus Economies

[Excerpt] The purpose of this paper is to consider the cost-benefit criterion for resource allocation in labour surplus economies calling particular attention to the contrasts with full employment economies. The specific plan is as follows. Section 1 reviews the debate over the applicability of cost-benefit analysis to problems of investment in education. Section 2 draws two important distinctions which are not always clear to educational planners and enumerates the likely benefits, both private and social, from education. Section 3 considers the case of full employment economies. Section 4 looks at the private returns to education in labour surplus economies in relation to the demand for education. Section 5 considers the social costs and benefits in labour surplus economies. Section 6 raises the problems of measuring marginal social rates of return and demonstrates the inadequacy of wage differentials as a measure of marginal social benefit. Section 7 summarizes the main points