"The Educational Value of the College Fed Challenge"

The College Fed Challenge, a competition between undergraduate students from different colleges and universities, is designed to enhance the development of research, critical thinking, and presentation skills. This paper analyzes the value of the competition as an instrument for improving undergraduate economics education. We present results from surveys of (a) students who participated in one district in November 2010 and (b) graduates from the University of Delaware who participated in past years. The results reflect the impressive effect on student learning outcomes. We conclude that the visibility of the College Fed Challenge can be an important factor in determining its impact and that the competition could conceivably have a significant and positive impact on economics education in the United States.economic education, undergraduate economics, education environment, experienced based education

Unemployment and unemployment compensation from a global perspective

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the presence and importance of Unemployment Compensation in the world today. Summary measures are developed built-up from country-specific detail, and aggregated for the major regions of the world. The paper also summarizes key details about the measurement of unemployment in labor force surveys. After all, it is the volume of unemployment that is crucial in assessing the performance of UC programs: how capable is a countrys UC program in providing short term protection to its citizens against the loss of earnings and income due to unemployment? -- Das vorliegende Papier bietet einen Überblick über die derzeitige Verbreitung und Bedeutung von Arbeitslosenunterstützung in der Welt. Anhand von länderspezifischen Daten werden aggregierte Maßzahlen entwickelt und nach Großregionen zusammengefasst. Zugleich werden auch Schlüsselcharakteristika der Messung von Arbeitslosigkeit in Arbeitskräfteerhebungen dargestellt. Letztendlich ist das Ausmaß der Arbeitslosigkeit ausschlaggebend für die Beurteilung der Leistungsfähigkeit von Programmen zur Unterstützung von Arbeitslosen: Inwieweit ist das System der Arbeitslosenunterstützung eines Landes in der Lage, die Bürger kurzfristig vor Verdienstausfällen und Einkommensverlusten infolge von Arbeitslosigkeit zu schützen?

Unemployment Compensation Recipiency in English-speaking Countries

The paper explores developments in unemployment compensation recipiency rates in the member-countries of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with particular attention to six English-speaking countries. While the generosity of social protection programs can be assessed by looking at both replacement rates and recipiency rates, the paper highlights changes in the latter. The study uses time series data for OECD member-countries from 1959 to 2005. Data for 20 high-income countries are utilized to explore the effects of changes in the statutory provisions of unemployment compensation programs. Again, more detail is presented for the six English-speaking countries.

Severance pay compliance in Indonesia

This paper contributes new evidence from two large household surveys on the compliance of firms with severance pay regulations in Indonesia, and the extent to which changes in severance pay regulations could affect employment rigidity. Compliance appears to be low, as only one-third of workers entitled to severance pay report receiving it, and on average workers only collect 40 percent of the payment due to them. Eligible female and low-wage workers are least likely to report receiving payments. Widespread non-compliance is consistent with trends in employment rigidity, which remained essentially unchanged following the large increases in severance mandated by the 2003 law. These results suggest that workers may benefit from a compromise that relaxes severance pay regulations while improving enforcement of severance pay statutes, and possibly establishing a system of unemployment benefits.Labor Markets,Wages, Compensation&Benefits,Social Protections&Assistance,Labor Policies,Labor Management and Relations

Disasters in the United States : Frequency, Costs, and Compensation

Disasters are increasing in both frequency and financial costs. Analysis presented here deals with what we know about disasters in the United States including their increasing frequency of occurrence and associated financial costs, compensation available to survivors, where particular types of disasters are most likely to occur, and how disasters can be mitigated.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1260/thumbnail.jp

Unemployment and unemployment compensation from a global perspective

"The purpose of this paper is to summarize the presence and importance of Unemployment Compensation in the world today. Summary measures are developed built-up from country-specific detail, and aggregated for the major regions of the world. The paper also summarizes key details about the measurement of unemployment in labor force surveys. After all, it is the volume of unemployment that is crucial in assessing the performance of UC programs: how capable is a country's UC program in providing short term protection to its citizens against the loss of earnings and income due to unemployment? The paper reaches three main conclusions. First, unemployment rates vary widely across major geographic regions, for instance, low unemployment is a notable feature of Asian economies. Second, nearly half of the world's population (47 percent) resides in countries where UC programs are not available. Third, even where UC is present, the number of beneficiaries relative to total unemployment is often very low. In the countries where recipiency could be assessed for this paper, UC recipients averaged less than one person in five among the unemployed. The combined effects of not having UC programs and low recipiency in many countries with UC means that most of the world's unemployed are effectively beyond the reach of these programs. This implies widespread reliance upon coping mechanisms by affected individuals as well as added financial burdens for the other social programs that serve the unemployed." (author's abstract)"Das vorliegende Papier bietet einen Überblick über die derzeitige Verbreitung und Bedeutung von Arbeitslosenunterstützung in der Welt. Anhand von länderspezifischen Daten werden aggregierte Maßzahlen entwickelt und nach Großregionen zusammengefasst. Zugleich werden auch Schlüsselcharakteristika der Messung von Arbeitslosigkeit in Arbeitskräfteerhebungen dargestellt. Letztendlich ist das Ausmaß der Arbeitslosigkeit ausschlaggebend für die Beurteilung der Leistungsfähigkeit von Programmen zur Unterstützung von Arbeitslosen: Inwieweit ist das System der Arbeitslosenunterstützung eines Landes in der Lage, die Bürger kurzfristig vor Verdienstausfällen und Einkommensverlusten infolge von Arbeitslosigkeit zu schützen? Aus den Untersuchungen ergeben sich drei wesentliche Schlussfolgerungen: Zum einen fallen die Arbeitslosenraten in den verschiedenen Regionen der Welt sehr unterschiedlich ausasiatische Wirtschaftssysteme zeichnen sich z.B. durch eine geringe Arbeitslosigkeit aus. Zum zweiten lebt fast die Hälfte der Weltbevölkerung (47 Prozent) in Ländern, in denen es gar keine Programme zur Unterstützung von Arbeitslosen gibt. Zum dritten profitiert aber selbst dort, wo eine Arbeitslosenunterstützung existiert, meist nur ein kleiner Teil der Arbeitslosen davon - in den Ländern, in denen für diese Untersuchung die entsprechenden Daten zur Verfügung standen, war es im Durchschnitt weniger als ein Fünftel von ihnen. Zusammengenommen ergibt sich aus der Nichtexistenz einer Arbeitslosenunterstützung in vielen Ländern bzw. aus dem geringen Anteil von Leistungsempfängern dort, wo entsprechende Systeme existieren, dass für den Großteil der Arbeitslosen in der Welt praktisch keinerlei Arbeitslosenunterstützungsprogramme greifen. Das hat zur Folge, dass die Betroffenen weithin auf andere Bewältigungsmechanismen angewiesen sind und zur finanziellen Belastung anderer Sozialprogramme beitragen, die Leistungen für Arbeitslose erbringen." (Autorenreferat

Disasters in the United States

This book focuses on three disaster-related categories: major disaster declarations, emergency declarations, and fire management assistance declarations. The authors utilize these official definitions to draw inferences about the frequency, geographic patterns, trends, and financial costs related to disasters

A Decomposition of the Labour Market Participation of Married Women in Three Countries: Australia, Canada and the United States of America

This study examines cross-national variation in the labour force participation of married women in Australia, Canada and the United States of America (USA), three countries of similar socio-economic development, in order to assess the observed differences in their labour market behaviour. While cross-national variation in labour force participation may be explained by a number of factors, a decomposition of the variation in cross-national labour market participation rates is explored in this study. Initially, a basic model of female labour force participation is presented using data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). The results of the basic model show that the probability of married women participation in the labour market in all three countries is inversely associated with the number of children under the age of 18 years, while higher eductaion and age at younger ages are associated with a higher probability. Two applications of the estimates are presented in the study: a simulation and a decomposition of the variation in cross-national labour force participation. The simulation exercise indicates that variation in cross-national labour force participation rates for married women can be explained by both country-specific characteristics and the measured differences in the responses to those characteristics. The decomposition of the differential in labour force participation into the effect of country-specific characteristics and the effect of responses shows that if the responses of married women in Canada are imposed on the characteristics of Australian women, then participation is higher. On the other hand, if the characteristics for either Canada or the USA are applied to the behavioural responses in Australia, then the labour market partiicipation of married women is also higher. This confirms that differences in country-specific characteristics and responses both contribute to explaining cross-national variation.