Snakes or Ladders? Skill Upgrading and Occupational Mobility in the US and the UK during the 1990s

It is frequently argued that the process of skill upgrading has both worsened the employment prospects and decreased the relative wages of unskilled workers. However, workers are not immutably either low skill or high skill, and skill upgrading may offer the opportunity for workers to move up the ‘skill ladder’. In this paper we examine the balance of these two effects. We use comparable individual-level panel data from the US and the UK to relate the probability of individual occupational movement to the extent of skill upgrading at the industry level. We find that whilst skill upgrading does indeed have a positive impact on the probability of moving up the job ladder, this is insufficient to outweigh the increased probability of unemployment. We also find that workers moving down or off the ladder suffer large wage penalties.Skill upgrading, occupational mobility, promotions and demotions

Exchange rates and wages in unionised labour markets

We investigate the impact of exchange rate movements on wage determination in unionised labour markets. Using a simple model of international oligopoly, we show that organised labour has a rational incentive to accept lower wages in the face of a currency appreciation. This proposition is examined empirically using a matched worker-firm dataset for Portugal. We find results consistent with the predictions of the model, though the impact varies considerably with both worker characteristics and the regional unemployment rate.Exchange rates, trade unions, wage bargaining, worker-firm data

Content without context is noise : Looking for curriculum harmony in primary arts education in Western Australia

Arts education in Western Australian primary schools consist of learning opportunities outlined by mandated curriculum. However, assumptions underlying this curriculum involving access, resources and support impact schools’ capacity to implement the curriculum without them being adequately addressed by the written curriculum. Drawing on the policy enactment theory of Ball, Maguire, and Braun (2012), four contextual variables (situated contexts, professional cultures, material contexts and external factors) are used to highlight the differences between the written published curriculum and the implemented, practised curriculum. Drawing on interviews with 24 participants across four schools issues of geographic location, use of arts specialists, appropriate learning spaces and the stresses associated with mandated literacy and numeracy testing are reported as contextual pressures by this study. This paper details the disruptive interference of these contextual pressures that we describe as ‘noise’. The provision of a better understanding of this contextual landscape brings schools and teachers away from the ‘noise’ of disruption and closer to curriculum harmony

Job Creation, Job Destruction and the Role of Small Firms: Firm-Level Evidence for the UK

Evidence on job creation and destruction for the UK is still limited compared to that available from other countries. What evidence there is refers almost entirely to the manufacturing sector, with the most recent figures referring to the 1980s. There are therefore no recent estimates for the great majority of firms in the UK . In this paper we use firm-level data from 1997–2005 to calculate job creation and destruction rates for almost all sectors, including services. We show that firms in the service sector exhibit much higher rates of job creation and slightly higher rates of job destruction. One-third of new jobs are created by the entry of new firms, while half of lost jobs are destroyed by the exit of firms. “Small” firms (those with fewer than 100 employees) account for a disproportionately large fraction of job creation and destruction relative to their share of employment. This finding is robust to the definition of firm size used.Job creation, job destruction, small firms

A New Labour Force: An econometric analysis of multiple jobholding

In this paper we model multiple jobholding empirically using a specially collected database for the region of Magnesia in Greece. We find that although income plays a major deterministic impact on multiple jobholding, other factors have a determining the final outcome of the individual’s choice. These determining factors can either explain the amount of fixed costs that is involved towards taking up a second job, or the restrictions arising from the individual’s personal and family characteristics.

Computer Mediated Communications and Communities of Practice

Within the Knowledge Management context, there is growing interest in computer support for group knowledge sharing and the role that Communities of Practice play in this. Communities of Practice are groups of individuals with a common purpose and who share some background, language or experience. The community is regenerated as newcomers join the group and old-timers leave. The newcomers have access to the old- timers and learn from them. This generally takes place through situated learning. New group knowledge is also created as members of the community have a problem to solve and swap experiences and anecdotes to solve the problem, possibly arriving at a novel solution. This may then be further shared through anecdotes so that it eventually becomes part of the group's store of collective knowledge. Communities of Practice provide an excellent forum for knowledge sharing and a vital question is whether the new communications media, which provide new possibilities for collaboration and distributed working, could support the existence of such groups in a distributed environment. This question takes on an added relevance with the rapid internationalization of business that can spread the distribution over national boundaries posing problems of cultural and temporal as well as physical distance. This paper reports on a case study which was the first stage in exploring whether Computer Mediated Communications technologies (CMCs) can support distributed international Communities of Practice. The aim of the case study was to explore the possible existence of Communities of Practice in an international organization, to identify such groups and to ascertain the media used.Computer Mediated Communications technologies, CMC, Communities of Practice, CoP, Knowledge Management, KM