Jacob Mincer's Contribution to Modern Labor Economics: A Review Essay

One of the key figures in the development of modern labor economics is Jacob Mincer (1922- 2006). His contributions have recently been highlighted and assessed in two books. The most indepth and substantive of these volumes is by Portuguese economist Pedro Teixeira, entitled Jacob Mincer: A Founding Father of Modern Labor Economics (2007). Also valuable and well done is an edited volume by Shoshana Grossbard, Jacob Mincer: A Pioneer of Modern Labor Economics (2006). It is composed of a number of short remembrances by Mincer's colleagues and students, an oral history interview with Mincer by Teixeira, several larger review chapters on important parts of Mincer's research program, and several speeches and short articles by Mincer. In this review essay I provide a brief summary and evaluation of Mincer's research contributions and place in the history of thought in labor economics, drawing largely on these two books but with some of my own observations and perspectives interspersed. Working Paper 08-2

Hired Hands of Human Resources? Case Studies of HRM Programs and Practices in Early American Industry

[Excerpt] This book is the second volume of a two-volume set on the roots, birth, and early development of the human resource management (HRM) function in American industry. The story starts in the mid-1870s with the emergence of large-scale industry, an urban-based wage-earning workforce, and a growing labor problem heralded by the Great Railway Strike of 1877; it ends in 1932 at the nadir of the Great Depression when the nonunion welfare capitalism movement of the 1920s is in tatters and its New Deal union replacement lies just over the horizon. Between these two end points lies a remarkable half-century evolution in human resource management philosophy and practice that in cumulative form and effect can only be described as a transformation. The first volume, Managing the Human Factor: The Early History of Human Resource Management in American Industry (2008) presents the big picture side of the story with a broad historical account of the people, events, and ideas that together led a small band of innovative, pioneering companies to transform the way they managed their employees. Parading through these pages are the main forces and actors that revolutionized labor management a century ago. Counted in the former, for example, are the welfare, safety, and scientific management movements; the rise of trade unionism and labor law; World War I and the industrial democracy movement, and the invention of the assembly line and mass production; counted among the latter are such big names as Henry Towne, George Patterson, Frederick Taylor, Samuel Gompers, John D. Rockefeller Jr., Meyer Bloomfield, Walter Dill Scott, John Commons, Henry Ford, and Clarence Hicks. At the height of the HRM transformation in the late 1920s, labor management at leading companies in the United States had much greater similarityto what was to follow a half century later (in the 1980s) than to what had already passed a half century earlier (in the 1880s). This volume complements the first by filling in and rounding out the story with a set of fifteen detailed case studies of early HRM programs and practices in individual companies and industries. The time span is exactly the same as the first volume—the mid-1870s to the early 1930s—but is broken into two distinct parts. Part 1 is devoted to nine case studies that extend through the World War I years, and the six case studies of part 2 cover the 1920s and early 1930s

The Core Principle and Fundamental Theorem of Industrial Relations

This paper describes the original paradigm of industrial relations, as developed in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. The original paradigm had three faces: science-building, problem-solving, and ethical/ideological. It is argued that the core principle that spans and unites these three faces is rejection of the orthodox economic model of a competitive labour market. This proposition may also be stated as rejection of the proposition that labour is a commodity. Building on this core principle is the fundamental theorem of industrial relations. It states that a free market capitalist economic system cannot survive and efficiently perform without the practices and institutions of industrial relations that humanize, stabilize, professionalize, democratize and balance the employment relationship. Working Paper 07-0

Technology utilization workshop subjects study, supplement 1

Aerospace technology utilization and information dissemination for industry and commerc

Nonunion Employee Representation in North America: Diversity, Controversy, and Uncertain Future

The diverse conceptual perspectives and practical experiences with nonunion employee representation (NER) in the United States and Canada are reviewed. We first propose a 6 dimensional descriptive schema to categorize observed NER practices. Dimensions of diversity include (1) form, (2) function, (3) subjects, (4) representation characteristics, (5) extent of power, and (6) degree of permanence. We then turn to the NER controversy, which is a tangled skein consisting of many different threads of values and prescriptions. To unbundle the controversy, we develop four "faces" of NER - (1) evolutionary voice, (2) unity of interest; (3) union avoidance, and (4) complementary voice -- so that future research can more consciously test the validity of competing perspectives with hard data. Generalizing about NER is problematic because of these many dimensions of diversity, and because NER is viewed through different ideological and conceptual lenses. We conclude that NER's future trajectory is uncertain due to conflicting trends but in the short-run is most likely to remain a modest-sized phenomenon. Working Paper 06-4

Local Solutions for Generic Multidimensional Resonant Wave Conversion

In more than one spatial dimension, resonant linear conversion from one wave type to another can have a more complex geometry than the familiar 'avoided crossing' of one-dimensional problems. In previous work we have shown that helical ray shapes are generic in a mathematical sense. Here we briefly describe how the local field structure can be computed.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the AIP Proceedings of the 15th Topical Conference on RF Power in Plasma

Elastic-plastic finite-element analyses of thermally cycled double-edge wedge specimens

Elastic-plastic stress-strain analyses were performed for double-edge wedge specimens subjected to thermal cycling in fluidized beds at 316 and 1088 C. Four cases involving different nickel-base alloys (IN 100, Mar M-200, NASA TAZ-8A, and Rene 80) were analyzed by using the MARC nonlinear, finite element computer program. Elastic solutions from MARC showed good agreement with previously reported solutions obtained by using the NASTRAN and ISO3DQ computer programs. Equivalent total strain ranges at the critical locations calculated by elastic analyses agreed within 3 percent with those calculated from elastic-plastic analyses. The elastic analyses always resulted in compressive mean stresses at the critical locations. However, elastic-plastic analyses showed tensile mean stresses for two of the four alloys and an increase in the compressive mean stress for the highest plastic strain case

Cyclic structural analysis of air-cooled gas turbine blades and vanes

The creep fatigue behavior of a fully impingement cooled blade for four cyclic cases was analyzed by using the Elas 55, finite element, nonlinear structural computer program. Expected cyclic lives were calculated by using the method of strainrange partitioning for reversed inelastic strains and time fractions for ratcheted tensile creep strains. Strainrange partitioning was also applied to previous results from a one dimensional cyclic analysis of a film impingement cooled vane. The analyses indicated that strainrange partitioning is more applicable to a constrained airfoil such as the film impingement cooled vane than to the relatively unconstrained fully impingement cooled airfoil

Analyses of vaporization in liquid uranium bearing systems at very high temperatures

Liquid uranium bearing material as heat exchanger for hydrogen gas - vaporization analyses at very high temperature

Materials constitutive models for nonlinear analysis of thermally cycled structures

Effects of inelastic materials models on computed stress-strain solutions for thermally loaded structures were studied by performing nonlinear (elastoplastic creep) and elastic structural analyses on a prismatic, double edge wedge specimen of IN 100 alloy that was subjected to thermal cycling in fluidized beds. Four incremental plasticity creep models (isotropic, kinematic, combined isotropic kinematic, and combined plus transient creep) were exercised for the problem by using the MARC nonlinear, finite element computer program. Maximum total strain ranges computed from the elastic and nonlinear analyses agreed within 5 percent. Mean cyclic stresses, inelastic strain ranges, and inelastic work were significantly affected by the choice of inelastic constitutive model. The computing time per cycle for the nonlinear analyses was more than five times that required for the elastic analysis