Gender Differences in Job Assignment and Promotion in a Complexity Ladder of Jobs

This paper studies gender differences in the allocation of workers across tasks of different complexity using panel data from a representative sample of Finnish metalworkers during 1990- 2000. Finnish metal industry data provide a continuous measure of the complexity of the worker’s tasks that can be used to construct a complexity ladder of jobs. We study whether women have to pass a higher productivity threshold to be promoted to more complex tasks. Gender differences in promotion rates, duration to promotion, and productivity among promoted and not promoted workers are estimated. It is found that women move up the ladder less than men, women have to wait longer to get promoted, and that women are on average more productive than men in the groups of both promoted and not-promoted workers. These productivity differentials are not observed within tasks at the initial task assignment. We interpret this as evidence on higher female promotion thresholds.Careers; Job ladders; Job complexity; Gender and wages

Criteria for assessment of welfare impacts within regional planning of transport

Regional transport system plans present the wide framework for local transport planning, and are the means of applying the national high-level objectives regionally. Transport system plans are usually created interactively with the regional land use planning. Prediction and appraisal of the potential impacts of the alternatives under discussion form an important part of the planning process. This paper presents Finnish experience in defining criteria for assessing the potential welfare impacts of a transport plan or policy. These criteria are to be used co-operatively by the planners and decision-makers. An important issue is the link between the formation of the objectives and the actual evaluation of impacts, as well as the underlying values and views that influence the selection of planning methods and practises. The criteria were drafted based on a literature review and preliminary discussions with national transport authorities. The preliminary criteria were selected and put into order by using the multi-criteria method MACBETH. The process involved active co-operation with the national transport authorities, as well as with other interest groups. The draft criteria were prioritised based on the opinions of selected representatives of national and regional authorities and transport planners. In this paper we focus on the priorisation process of the criteria, as well as discuss the validity and usability of the criteria created. Furthermore, the suitability of multi-criteria analysis in the context of regional transport planning is discussed, in addition to the consistency requirements between the criteria and the multi-criteria model. The criteria have been created in an ongoing Finnish study that aims at supporting regional transport planning, concerning the impacts that changes in the transport system may have on the welfare of the communities and individuals. Furthermore, the suitability of certain Multi-Criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) methods in creating consensus in the planning process is tested.

School tracking and development of cognitive skills

The Finnish comprehensive school reform replaced the old two-track school system with a uniform nine-year comprehensive school and significantly reduced the degree of heterogeneity in the Finnish primary and secondary education. We estimate the effect of this reform on the test scores in the Finnish Army Basic Skills test. The identification strategy relies on a differences-in-differences strategy and exploits the fact that the reform was implemented gradually across the country during a six-year period between 1972 and 1977. We find that the reform had a small positive effect on the verbal test scores but no effect on the mean performance in the arithmetic or logical reasoning tests. Still in all tests the reform improved the scores of students from families where parents had only basic education.Education; school system; tracking; comprehensive school; test scores

Educational policy and intergenerational income mobility: evidence from the Finnish comprehensive school reform

This paper estimates the effect of a major education reform on the intergenerational income mobility in Finland. The Finnish comprehensive school reform of 1972-1977 replaced the old two-track school system with a uniform nine-year comprehensive school and significantly reduced the degree of heterogeneity in the Finnish primary and secondary education. We estimate the effect of this reform on the intergenerational income elasticity using a representative sample of males born during 1960-1966. The identification strategy relies on a difference-in-differences approach and exploits the fact that the reform was implemented gradually across country during a six-year period. The results indicate that the reform reduced the intergenerational income elasticity by about seven percentage points.Intergenerational mobility; education; comprehensive school reform

School Tracking and Development of Cognitive Skills

The Finnish comprehensive school reform replaced the old two-track school system with a uniform nine-year comprehensive school and significantly reduced the degree of heterogeneity in the Finnish primary and secondary education. We estimate the effect of this reform on the test scores in the Finnish Army Basic Skills test. The identification strategy relies on a differences-in-differences strategy and exploits the fact that the reform was implemented gradually across the country during a six-year period between 1972 and 1977. We find that the reform had a small positive effect on the verbal test scores but no effect on the mean performance in the arithmetic or logical reasoning tests. Still in all tests the reform improved the scores of students from families where parents had only basic education.education, school system, tracking, comprehensive school, test scores

Regional development platform analysis as a tool for regional innovation policy

European regions have to direct their innovation and technology policies in the world of ever increasing competition. Right kinds of policy decisions aiming towards sustainable futures are essential in achieving competitive advantage for a region. The strategic choices are especially important because of the often very scarce resources in a region. The evolutionary economic theory has indicated the great difference of the development paths of the regions in seemingly similar circumstances, which manifests the unique character of each region, and the need of understanding the importance of path dependency in regional development. Helpful tools for supporting regional strategy building and decision-making in extremely different regions are needed. In this study, 'Regional Development Platform Analysis' is presented as a method of finding the regional potential for future development strategies. The method is under construction at Helsinki University of Technology Lahti Center. It needs a lot of further development in order to fulfil the demands of a real instrument for regional development. However, this paper presents a pilot case conducted in Lahti Region, where the method has been used as a tool for building the regional science park concept. A regional development platform is a concept understood as an industry or expertise based 'platform' presenting the business potential of the actors working for the platform. The actors of a regional development platform are the firms technology centers, expertise centers, research centers, education organisations etc. contributing to the defined development platform. A regional development platform has to be defined separately each time. A development platform is often based on an industry, including the development organisations and the regional innovation system supporting the development of the industry/platform. The analysis method consists of four phases: -Background study of the region, -expert analysis, -study of possible technological scenarios in the future, -development platform analysis. In the background study, all the available statistical data was gathered pertaining to regional economics, industries and expertises in Lahti region. And if possible, the regional data was compared with the data of the national level. In the second phase, an expert analysis panel was organised. The 30 respondents working for regional development organisations were asked to give marks to 15 industries using 10 given criteria. The same was asked of 13 expertises using five given criteria. The grade of importance of the connection between industries and expertises was asked as well. The material prepared in the first phase was given to the respondents. In the third phase, a brief look was taken at possible technological scenarios affecting the region in the future. Technological changes might change radically the potential of a development platform in the future. The regional development analysis of Lahti Region itself was conducted by using the material produced in the first three phases. The most potential development platforms were outlined for the future development strategies. The development platform analysis was also used as substantial basis in defining the science park concept of Lahti Region.

Gender Differences in Strategic Behaviour under Competitive Pressure: Evidence on Omission Patterns in University Entrance Examinations

This paper studies gender differences in performance in university entrance examinations. We exploit data from the exams that the nine Finnish universities providing education in economics and business use to choose their students. These exams are multiple choice tests where wrong answers are penalized by minus points and omissions yield zero points. This scoring rule means that the number of omitted items will affect the probability of entry. The strategic setting of the applicants varies depending on the university where she is applying to and on the amount of starting points that she is rewarded based on her high school success. The results show that, controlling for starting points, women perform worse than men in the entrance exam and are less likely to gain entry. Women also omit more items in the exam. Using the Rasch Model to derive the predicted probabilities of answering items correctly for each applicant, we show that women deviate more from the number of answered items that would maximise the predicted probability of entry than men and that they do so because they answer to too few items

Gender differences in educational attainment: evidence on the role of the tracking age from a Finnish quasi-experiment

This paper studies the relationship between the timing of tracking of pupils into vocational and academic secondary education and gender differences in educational attainment and income. We argue that in a system that streams students into vocational and academic tracks relatively late (age 15-16), girls are more likely to choose the academic track than boys because of gender differences in the timing of puberty. We exploit the Finnish comprehensive school reform of the 1970's to analyze this hypothesis. This reform postponed the tracking of students from the age of 10-11 to 15-16 and was adopted gradually by municipalities so that we can observe members of the same cohorts in both systems. We find that the postponement of the tracking age increased gender differences in the probability of choosing the academic secondary education and in the probability of continuing into academic tertiary education. The reform had particularily negative effects on boys from non-academic family backgrounds. Finally, the reform decreased the gender wage gap in adult income by four percentage points

School tracking and intergenerational social mobility

The goal of school tracking (assigning students to different types of school by ability) is to increase educational efficiency by creating more homogeneous groups of students that are easier to teach. However, there are concerns that, if begun too early in the schooling process, tracking may improve educational attainment at the cost of reduced intergenerational social mobility. Recent empirical evidence finds no evidence of an efficiency–equality trade-off when tracking is postponed