Job Re-grading, Real Wages, and the Cycle

This paper makes use of the British New Earnings Survey Panel Dataset between 1976 and 2010. It consists of individual-level payroll data and comprises a random sample of 1% of the entire male and female labor force. About two-thirds of within- and between-company moves involve job re-grading (measured at 3-digit occupation level) while one-third of movers retain their job titles. We find that the real wages of both male and female workers who change job titles within companies are significantly more procyclical than job stayers. This lends support to the predicted procyclical real wage effects of the Reynolds-Reder-Hall job re-grading hypothesis. On the extensive margin, title changers and title retainers who move jobs between companies exhibit the same degrees of wage cyclicality and these are considerably greater than for job stayers.real wage cyclicality, spot wages, job moves, job re-grading

Phenology and Infestation Patterns of the Cottonwood Twig Borer (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in Iowa

Cottonwood twig borer, Gypsonoma haimbachiana (Lepidoptera: Totricidae), phenology and infestation patterns on Populus spp. were examined over a 2-year period in Iowa. Weekly sampling of infested shoots during the host growing season verified the existence of five instars. Head capsule size increased nonlinearly from the first to the fifth instar and corresponded to a concomitant geometric increase in the volume of larval feeding galleries. The sampling indicated that the cottonwood twig borer had two generations per year in Iowa. Corresponding with the two generations, two peaks of larval abundance were observed; one in the second week of June and the other in the first week of August. Greater volume of feeding galleries occurred in the early season generation compared with the late season generation. Sampling of infested shoots revealed that more than 80% of infested terminals contained only one active attack (freshly bored hole in tree terminal with frass present); more than 88% of feeding galleries contained only one larva; and more than 80% of the larvae were found in the first active attack nearest the terminal apex. These data were compared with results published on the phenology and attack patterns of the cottonwood twig borer in the southern United States

Spot wages, job changes, and the cycle

This paper makes use of the British New Earnings Survey Panel Dataset between 1976 and 2010. Individual‐level pay and hours data are obtained from company payrolls and consist of a random sample of 1% of the entire British male and female labor force. We find that the real wages of both male and female workers who change job titles within companies are significantly more procyclical than job stayers. Wage cyclicality of internal job movers who retain their job titles is the same as that of job stayers. This lends support to the predicted procyclical real wage effects of the Reynolds‐Reder‐Hall job re‐grading hypothesis. On the extensive margin, title changers and title retainers who move jobs between companies exhibit the same degrees of wage cyclicality and these are significantly greater than for job stayers. We argue that our findings are compatible with earlier research that has established the importance of spot market wage setting in Britain

Job re-grading, real wages, and the cycle

This paper makes use of the British New Earnings Survey Panel Dataset between 1976 and 2010. It consists of individual-level payroll data and comprises a random sample of 1% of the entire male and female labor force. About two-thirds of within- and between-company moves involve job re-grading (measured at 3-digit occupation level) while one-third of movers retain their job titles. We find that the real wages of both male and female workers who change job titles within companies are significantly more procyclical than job stayers. This lends support to the predicted procyclical real wage effects of the Reynolds-Reder-Hall job re-grading hypothesis. On the extensive margin, title changers and title retainers who move jobs between companies exhibit the same degrees of wage cyclicality and these are considerably greater than for job stayers

Real wages, working time, and the Great Depression

We have assembled two British data sets to re-examine the behaviour of real wages over the 1927-1937 cycle that contained the Great Depression. Both provide a degree of micro detail that greatly exceeds previous studies. The first consists of annual wages for 36 manufacturing industries. The second is based on blue-collar workers’ company payroll data within engineering and metal working firms. It allows us to distinguish between pieceworkers and timeworkers, 14 occupations and 51 travel-to-work geographical districts. We measure the cycle using national unemployment rates as well as rates that match our industrial and district breakdowns. The roles of standard and overtime hours are found to be crucial to the behaviour of real pay during the Depression. Real weekly earnings are strongly procyclical. Real hourly earnings of pieceworkers are also significantly procyclical. Otherwise, real wage measures that do not fully reflect hours changes produce either weak procyclical or acyclical wage responses

The rise and fall of piecework–timework wage differentials: market volatility, labor heterogeneity, and output pricing

Based on detailed payroll data of blue collar male and female labor in Britain's engineering and metal working industrial sectors between the mid-1920s and mid-1960s, we provide empirical evidence in respect of several central themes in the piecework-timework wage literature. The period covers part of the heyday of pieceworking as well as the start of its post-war decline. We show the importance of relative piece rate flexibility during the Great Depression as well as during the build up to WWII and during the war itself. We account for the very significant decline in the differentials after the war. Labor market topics include piecework pay in respect of compensating differentials, labor heterogeneity, and the transaction costs of pricing piecework output

Industrial composition, methods of compensation, and real earnings in the Great Depression

In an extension of an earlier paper (Hart and Roberts, 2012), we investigate the pay and working time of blue-collar timeworkers and pieceworkers during the Great Depression within British engineering firms. We compare and contrast southern/midland engineering districts of Britain with northern districts. The south/midlands region was dominated by piece-rated workers and by modern sections of the industry, such as vehicle and aircraft manufacture. Time-rated work predominated in northern districts where older sections – for example, marine and textile engineering – were clustered. These contrasting industrial compositions and associated payment methods offer further insights into manufacturing real earnings responses to the Great Depression

Real wage cyclicality and the Great Depression: evidence from British engineering and metal working firms

Based on firm‐level payroll data from around 2000 member firms of the British Engineering Employers’ Federation we examine the behavior of real hourly earnings over the 1927‐1937 cycle that contained the Great Depression. The pay statistics are based on adult male blue‐collar workers within engineering and metal working firms. They allow us to distinguish between pieceworkers and timeworkers and they are delineated by 14 occupations and 51 travel‐to‐work geographical engineering districts. We measure the cycle using national unemployment rates as well as rates that match our district breakdowns. Differences are found in the real hourly earnings cyclicality of pieceworkers and timeworkers. We attempt to relate our findings to those of modern micro panel data studies of real wage cyclicality. We offer some insight into why the estimates of real hourly pay display less procyclicality during the 1920s and 1930s than in studies based on more recent data

Job spells, employer spells, and wage returns to tenure

We show that the distinction between job spells and employer spells matters for returns to tenure. Employer spells encompass between-job wage movements linked to promotions or demotions while job spells don't. Using a 1% sample of the British workforce over the period 1975-2010, we find that a significant proportion of the return to employer tenure arises due to job changes within employer spells. Conditional on tenure with employer, the return to job tenure is negative. This suggests that any positive effects of job-specific human capital on wage growth within jobs are outweighed by the effects of job changes within firms

Who gained from the introduction of free universal secondary education in England and Wales?

This paper investigates the introduction of free universal secondary education in England and Wales in 1944. It focuses on its effects in relation to a prime long-term goal of pre-war Boards of Education. This was to open secondary school education to children of all social backgrounds on equal terms. Adopting a difference-in-difference estimation approach, we do not find any evidence that boys and girls from less well-off home backgrounds displayed improved chances of attending selective secondary schools. Nor, for the most part, did they show increased probabilities of gaining formal school qualifications. One possible exception in this latter respect relates to boys with unskilled fathers