Are flexible contracts bad for workers? Evidence from job satisfaction data

If workers can choose between permanent and flexible contracts, compensating wage differentials should arise to equalize on-the-job utility in the two types of contracts. Estimating job satisfaction using the British Household Panel Survey shows that agency and casual contracts are associated with routinely lower satisfaction. This results because the low job satisfaction associated with less job security is not offset by higher compensation or other job characteristics. Job security is sufficiently important that holding constant this one facet of satisfaction eliminates the overall gap in job satisfaction between flexible and permanent contracts

Unions, Dissatisfied Workers and Sorting

A persistent and sizeable literature argues that the reported job dissatisfaction of union members is spurious. It reflects either the sorting of workers across union status or the sorting of union recognition across jobs. We cast doubt on this argument presenting the first estimates that use panel data to hold constant both worker and job match fixed effects. The estimates demonstrate that covered union members report greater dissatisfaction even when accounting for sorting in both dimensions. Moreover, covered union members are less likely to quit holding job satisfaction constant and their quit behaviour is far less responsive to job satisfaction. The paradox of the discontented union member remains intact.

Profit Sharing and the Quality of Relations with the Boss

Profit sharing generates conflicting changes in the relationship between supervisors and workers. It may increase cooperation and helping effort. At the same time it can increase direct monitoring and pressure by the supervisor, and mutual monitoring and peer pressure from other workers that is transmitted through the supervisor. Using data on satisfaction with the boss, we initially show that workers under profit sharing tend to have lower satisfaction with their supervisor. Additional estimates show this is largely generated by groups of workers who would be least likely to respond to increased supervisory pressure with increase effort: women, those with dependents and those with health limitations. Despite this finding, profit sharing seems to have little or no influence on overall job satisfaction as the reduction in satisfaction with the boss is offset with increased satisfaction with earnings, a finding consistent with profit sharing enhancing productivity and earnings.

Does profit sharing increase training by reducing turnover?

We test the theoretical prediction that profit sharing reduces worker separations and by doing so increases the incidence of training. Using individual level UK data, we confirm that profit sharing is a robust determinant of lower separation rates and of greater training incidence. Critically, we cannot confirm the predicted link between separations and training. Instead, the evidence supports alternative theories suggesting a direct link between profit sharing and training. Our results suggest that profit sharing changes employer-worker relations in a way that leads to greater formal and informal investment in worker skills but that this is independent of its influence on reducing separations.

Are flexible contracts bad for workers? Evidence from job satisfaction data

If workers can choose between permanent and flexible contracts, compensating wage differentials should arise to equalize on-the-job utility in the two types of contracts. Estimating job satisfaction using the British Household Panel Survey shows that agency and casual contracts are associated with routinely lower satisfaction. This results because the low job satisfaction associated with less job security is not offset by higher compensation or other job characteristics. Job security is sufficiently important that holding constant this one facet of satisfaction eliminates the overall gap in job satisfaction between flexible and permanent contracts.

Performance pay, sorting and the dimensions of job satisfaction

This paper investigates the influence of performance related pay on several dimensions of job satisfaction. In cross-sectional estimates, performance related pay is associated with increased overall satisfaction, satisfaction with pay, satisfaction with job security and satisfaction with hours. It appears to be negatively associated with satisfaction with the work itself. Yet, after accounting for worker fixed-effects, the positive associations remain and the negative association vanishes. These results appear robust to a variety of alternative specifications and support the notion that performance pay allows increased opportunities for worker optimization and do not generally demotivate workers or crowd out intrinsic motivation.

The preferentially magnified active nucleus in IRAS F10214+4724 - II. Spatially resolved cold molecular gas

We present JVLA observations of the cold (CO (1-0)) molecular gas in IRAS F10214+4724, a lensed ULIRG at z=2.3 with an obscured active nucleus. The galaxy is spatially and spectrally well-resolved in the CO (1-0) emission line. A CO (1-0) counter-image is detected at the 3-sigma level. Five of the 42 km/s channels (with >5-sigma detections) are mapped back into the source plane and their total magnification posterior PDFs sampled. This reveals a roughly linear arrangement, tentatively a rotating disk. We derive a molecular gas mass of M_gas = 1.2 +- 0.2 x 10^10 M_sun, assuming a ULIRG L_{CO}-to-M_{gas} conversion ratio of \alpha = 0.8 M_sun / (K km/s pc^2) that agrees well with the derived range of \alpha = 0.3 - 1.3 for separate dynamical mass estimates at assumed inclinations of i = 90 - 30 degrees. Based on the AGN and CO (1-0) peak emission positions and the lens model, we predict a distortion of the CO Spectral Line Energy Distribution (SLED) where higher order J lines that may be partially excited by AGN heating will be preferentially lensed owing to their smaller solid angles and closer proximity to the AGN and therefore the cusp of the caustic. Comparison with other lensing inversion results shows that the narrow line region and AGN radio core in IRAS F10214+4724 are preferentially lensed by a factor >~ 3 and 11 respectively, relative to the molecular gas emission. This distorts the global continuum emission Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) and suggests caution in unsophisticated uses of IRAS F10214+4724 as an archetype high-redshift ULIRG. We explore two Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) models, incorporating spatial CO (1-0) and (3-2) information and present tentative evidence for an extended, low excitation cold gas component that implies that the total molecular gas mass in IRAS F10214+4724 is a factor >~2 greater than that calculated using spatially unresolved CO observations.Comment: Dedicated to Steve Rawlings. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 16 pages, 11 figure

Profit Sharing and the Quality of Relations with the Boss

Profit sharing generates conflicting changes in the relationship between supervisors and workers. It may increase cooperation and helping effort. At the same time it can increase direct monitoring and pressure by the supervisor, and mutual monitoring and peer pressure from other workers that is transmitted through the supervisor. Using data on satisfaction with the boss, we initially show that workers under profit sharing tend to have lower satisfaction with their supervisor. Additional estimates show this is largely generated by groups of workers who would be least likely to respond to increased supervisory pressure with increase effort: women, those with dependents and those with health limitations. Despite this finding, profit sharing seems to have little or no influence on overall job satisfaction as the reduction in satisfaction with the boss is offset with increased satisfaction with earnings, a finding consistent with profit sharing enhancing productivity and earnings

Unions, Dissatisfied Workers and Sorting

A persistent and sizeable literature argues that the reported job dissatisfaction of union members is spurious. It reflects either the sorting of workers across union status or the sorting of union recognition across jobs. We cast doubt on this argument presenting the first estimates that use panel data to hold constant both worker and job match fixed effects. The estimates demonstrate that covered union members report greater dissatisfaction even when accounting for sorting in both dimensions. Moreover, covered union members are less likely to quit holding job satisfaction constant and their quit behaviour is far less responsive to job satisfaction. The paradox of the discontented union member remains intact

Six months of mass outflow and inclined rings in the ejecta of V1494 Aql

V1494 Aql was a very fast nova which reached a visual maximum of mv≃ 4.0 by the end of 1999 December 3. We report observations from 4 to 284 d after discovery, including submillimetre- and centimetre-band fluxes, a single MERLIN image and optical spectroscopy in the 410 to 700 nm range. The extent of the radio continuum emission is consistent with a recent lower distance estimate of 1.6 kpc. We conclude that the optical and radio emission arises from the same expanding ejecta. We show that these observations are not consistent with simple kinematical spherical shell models used in the past to explain the rise and fall of the radio flux density in these objects. The resolved remnant structure is consistent with an inclined ring of enhanced density within the ejecta. Optical spectroscopy indicates likely continued mass ejection for over 195 d, with the material becoming optically thin in the visible sometime between 195 and 285 d after outburst