Steam turbine blade deposits; a report of an investigation conducted by the Engineering experiment station, University of Illinois, in cooperation with the Utilities research commission

On cover: University of Illinois bulletin, v.43, no. 59.Bibliography: p. 80-83

Skills, social insurance, and changes in innovation investment after the onset of the financial crisis in Europe

This paper compares investments in innovation from the early days of the financial crisis up to mid 2009 using a survey covering more than 5,000 firms across twenty one European countries. Our interest is in how differences in labour market institutions and human capital affect a firm’s innovation investment during the recent financial crisis. We find that continuity of investment in innovation in Europe during the onset of the financial crisis in 2008-9 was strongest in countries which have both high earnings replacement rates and high participation in vocational education and training; countries with just one were more likely to see reduced innovation, while we find no effect (either positive or negative) from job security

Power, productivity and profits

New information and communication technologies, we argue, have been 'power-biased': in many industries they have allowed firms to monitor workers more closely, thus reducing the power of these workers. An efficiency wage model shows that 'power-biased technical change' in this sense may generate rising inequality accompanied by an increase in both unemployment and work intensity. JEL Categories: J31, O33power-biased technical change, efficiency wages, inequality, work intensity.

Information and communications technologies,coordination and control, and the distribution of income

We consider the links between information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the distribution of income, as mediated by problems of coordination and control within organizations. In the large corporations of the mid-twentieth century, a highly developed division of labor was coordinated and controlled with the aid of relatively underdeveloped ICTs. This created a situation in which the options of top manage- ment were constrained while the individual and collective power of lower paid workers was enhanced. Only in the late twentieth century, when the microprocessor and re- lated technologies transformed the information systems of organizations, did improve- ments in the tools of coordination and control race ahead of the growing demands of coordination and control. These technological changes have reduced the power of lower-paid employees, increased that for higher-paid employees, and led to an increase in income inequality. Thus, the more important aspects of new technology relate to the "power-bias", rather than the "skill-bias", of technological change. JEL Categories: J31, O33communications technology, power-biased technical change, inequality, work intensity, efficiency wage.

Power-Biased Technological Change and the Rise in Earnings Inequality

New information and communication technologies, we argue, have been 'power-biased': they have allowed firms to monitor low-skill workers more closely, thus reducing the power of these workers. An efficiency wage model shows that 'power-biased technical change' in this sense may generate rising wage inequality accompanied by an increase in both the effort and unemployment of low-skill workers. The skill-biased technological change hypothesis, on the other hand, offers no explanation for the observed increase in effort. JEL Categories: J31, O33power-biased technical change, skill bias, efficiency wages, wage inequality, work intensity

Knowledge in the air and cooperation between firms: Traditions of secrecy and the reluctant emergence of specialization in the ceramic manufacturing district of Lampang, Thailand

In the study of industrial clusters, the relative importance, and possible interrelationship, of inter-firm cooperation in production and broad knowledge transfers (both unintentional spillovers and intentional sharing) have long been disputed. To shed light on this we study ceramic tableware manufacturers in the city of Lampang, Thailand. Data consist of face-to-face interviews with principals in thirty-four manufacturers, and with representatives of supporting institutions. We find that an unwillingness to share knowledge with potential competitors retards the development of specialization in production; the outcome of efforts by various government actors and some manufacturers to change this situation is uncertain.ceramic manufacturing, knowledge, Lampang, networks, secrecy, Thailand

Power-Biased Technological Change and the Rise in Earnings Inequality

New information and communication technologies, we argue, have been ‘power- biased’: they have allowed firms to monitor low-skill workers more closely, thus reducing the power of these workers. An efficiency wage model shows that ‘power-biased technical change’ in this sense may generate rising wage inequality accompanied by an increase in both the effort and unemployment of low-skill workers. The skill-biased technological change hypothesis, on the other hand, others no explanation for the ob- served increase in effort.power-biased technical change, skill bias, efficiency wages, wage inequality, work intensity.

A model of power-biased technological change

New technologies have allowed firms to monitor low-skill workers more closely, thus reducing the power of these workers. We show that this ‘power-biased’ change may generate rising wage inequality and increases in the work intensity and unemployment of low-skill workers

What Are Over-the-Road Truckers Paid For? Evidence from an Exogenous Regulatory Change on the Role of Social Comparisons and Work Organization in Wage Determination

Using evidence from recent work on truckers and disaggregated older data prior researchers did not have, we revisit a classic topic and find some new answers. We focus on differentials in average annual earnings at the firm level among mileage-paid over-the-road tractor-trailer drivers ("road drivers") employed by US for-hire trucking companies, before and after economic deregulation. Road driver output is individualized, and pay is on the basis of a piece rate (mileage). However, road drivers work under two distinct logistical systems – less-than-truckload [LTL], and truckload [TL] – associated with two different forms of work organization. We find that – contrary to the predictions of Rose (1987) – not only are road drivers for LTL companies paid more than those for TL companies, but in LTL the union earnings premium was maintained following deregulation and union coverage fell slowly, while in TL both the union differential and union coverage fell sharply. We review relevant theoretical explanations: payment for cognitive abilities or non-pecuniary disamenities; standard efficiency wage models based on independent utilities; sharing of product market rents; equity concerns resulting from social comparisons between employee groups; and differences in work organization as a source of union rents or quasi-rents. Only equity concerns, for the LTL earnings differential, and quasi rents (but not a union threat effect, contrary to Henrickson and Wilson (2008)), for union coverage and premium in LTL, are consistent with our empirical results. Both earnings differentials are based on differences in work organization, rather than differences in the workers or the work itself.less-than-truckload (LTL), trucker, trucking, work organization, rent-sharing, quasi-rent, cognitive ability, compensating differential, equity, fair wage, truckload (TL), regulation, deregulation, union premium

Shaping the formation of university-industry research collaborations: what type of proximity does really matter?

Research collaborations between universities and industry (U-I) are considered to be one important channel of potential localised knowledge spillovers. These collaborations favour both intended and unintended flows of knowledge and facilitate learning processes between partners from different organisations. Despite the copious literature on localised knowledge spillovers, still little is known about the factors driving the formation of U-I research collaborations and, in particular, about the role that geographical proximity plays in the establishment of such relationships. Using collaborative research grants between universities and business firms awarded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), in this paper we disentangle some of the conditions under which different kinds of proximity contribute to the formation of U-I research collaborations, focussing in particular on technological complementarity among the firms participating in such partnerships.university-industry research collaborations, proximity, geography, industrial clustering, technological complementarity