Is Discrimination Against Women Really Declining? The Puzzle of Survey Reports

This paper seeks to explain why young women are much more likely to report being harmed by gender discrimination than older women. Using a recent sample of job seekers, we conclude that the answer does not lie in higher "objective" discrimination, as usually measured by economists, since measured discrimination is not higher against young women on any dimension we can measure. Because young women are also more likely to report that they were the beneficiaries of labor market discrimination than older women, and because young men are more likely than older men to report that they were harmed by discrimination, we conclude that the answer is also unlikely to lie in a higher overall level of unmeasured discrimination against young women. Using a formal model of the reporting decision, we conclude that the most likely cause of young women's higher reports is a difference in reporting behavior between young and old workers of both sexes: young workers are more willing to interpret departures in either direction from gender-neutral treatment as discriminatory than older workers.

Investigation of pre and post plating surface roughness of electroless nickel phosphorus coated substrate for diamond turning application

In an overarching project to reduce the number of defects found in electroless nickel phosphorus alloy (EN-P) coatings on large diamond-turned components used in the next generation of reel-to-reel (R2R) printing stations, the significance of the coating surface on achieving a wear resistant and optically smooth surface has been investigated. This paper presents an investigation that focuses on the substrate roughness variation achieved through different pre-treatment methods prior to coating using a commercial plating solution. It looks at the number of features observed pre and post plating. The results provide some suggestions with respect to the diamond machining of a 100 micron thick EN-P coating

Unpacking Unequal Pay Between Men and Women Across Cohort and Lifecycle

This paper analyses the pay gap between men and women in the two British birth cohort studies using the new data collected in 2000 when their subjects had reached the ages of 30 and 42 respectively. The paper also includes new analysis of improved data on the 1958 cohort at 33 in 1991, and a comparison with our earlier analyses of the 1946 cohort at 32 in 1978 and the 1958 cohort at 33 in 1991. The analysis is of hourly earnings in full-time jobs, where the impact of the Equal Pay Act might be expected to be more complete, given the lack of male comparators in the extensive but low paid part-time employment sector for women. We decompose the wage gap at each age, and the change in the components of the average wage gap over time. We also examine the distribution of estimated gender premia across our samples and relate them to the wage level. For people in their early thirties, the crude wage gap closed between 1978 and 2000, but this was mainly due to improved human capital characteristics of the women in full-time employment at that stage of their lives. Unequal treatment also fell, but not by much. When following the 1958 cohort from age 33 to age 42 in 2000, men’s real wages rose more than women’s. The increased gap was roughly equally due to widening differentials in characteristics and deteriorating rates of remuneration for women entering middle age. Although the 42 year-old employees included women with less exceptional qualifications, who had returned to the labour force with interrupted employment histories, women who had been relatively continuously in employment also experienced the rising gender penalty over time

Study on Capacity, Change and Performance: Interim Report

In 2002 the chair of the Govnet, the OECD's Network on Governance and Capacity Building, asked the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Maastricht, the Netherlands, to undertake a study of the capacity of organisations and groups of organisations, mainly in low-income countries, its development over time and its relationship to improved performance. The specific purposes of this study were twofold:to enhance understanding of the interrelationships amongst capacity, change and performance across a wide range of development experiences; andto provide general recommendations and tools to support the effectiveness of external interventions aimed at improving capacity and performance

School Budgets and Student Achievement in California: The Principal's Perspective

Presents the results of workshops conducted with 45 elementary, middle, and high school principals from California public schools. Documents the variety of resource allocation strategies used by principals to maximize student academic performance

More or less unequal? Evidence on the pay of men and women from the British Birth Cohort Studies

Gender pay differences are not merely a problem for women returning to work and part-time employees, but also for those in full-time, continuous careers. In data from cohort studies, the gender wage gap for full time workers in their early thirties fell between 1978 and 2000. This equalisation reflects improvements in women’s education and experience, rather more than a move towards equal treatment. Indeed, had the typical woman full-timer in 2000 been paid at men’s rates she would have actually received higher pay than the typical man. Women in one cohort faced increasing inequality as they aged from 33 to 42, partly due to differences in qualifications and experience. However, unequal treatment also rose among women employed full-time at both ages

Assimilation via Prices or Quantities? Sources of Immigrant Earnings Growth in Australia, Canada and the United States

Using 1980/81 and 1990/91 census data from Australia, Canada, and the United States, we estimate the effects of time in the destination country on male immigrants' wages, employment, and earnings. We find that total earnings assimilation is greatest in the United States and least in Australia. Employment assimilation explains all of the earnings progress experienced by Australian immigrants, whereas wage assimilation plays the dominant role in the United States, and Canada falls in-between. We argue that relatively inflexible wages and generous unemployment insurance in countries like Australia may cause assimilation to occur along the "quantity" rather than the price dimension.

Washington Pension System Review

The purpose of this study is to analyze the incidence of Total Permanent Disability (TPD)pensions in Washington State's workers' compensation program. Concerns exist at both thelegislature and in the Department of Labor and Industries as there appears to have been a sharp upturn in the number of pensions awarded since late in the 1990s. This report examines the factors that may be causally related to any upsurge in such awards. Our task is to evaluate pension incidence for both the state fund and the self-insured populations, with a view towards identifying causes of the trend in both sectors, although we concentrate more on the state fund Cclaims due to data limitations

Introduction: changing lives and new challenges

How is women's employment shaped by family and domestic responsibilities? This book, written by leading experts in the field, examines twenty five years of change in women's employment and addresses the challenges facing women today. This book offers an innovative analysis of how global changes including new migration processes, educational expansion, transnational labour markets, technological advances, and the global economy affect women's labour market experiences. It tackles issues relevant for future change, including gender inequalities and ethnic diversities and confronts such contentious questions as what work-life balance means? This book provides new empirical research that advances our understanding of the challenges posed by women's employment in our changing society and draws out the policy lessons that could improve economic and social well-being