Wage structure and unionization in the US construction sector

This paper estimates the union effects on the wage gap and dispersion in two pooled samples of construction craftworkers (CPS 1983-88 and 2000-05) using decomposition analysis and kernel density estimation. It shows that despite the decline in the adjusted union wage gap declined over time, the unadjusted union wage premium remained high due to the divergence of returns to workforce characteristics in favor of union workers. This pattern was more marked in the basic trades in comparison with the mechanical trades. Unions also contributed to a wider wage dispersion because they created a union wage gap and this wage gap increased across the competitive wage distribution. Unions raised the wages of workers who were located in the middle of the wage density but did not have an effect on the lower wage workers

Inflation, growth, and import bottlenecks in the Turkish manufacturing sector

This paper argues that, in economies heavily dependent on imported inputs, the responsiveness of price and output to cost and demand factors are altered by foreign exchange bottlenecks if the government resorts to nonmarket allocation of import licenses. A model of price and output determination that captures this stipulation is presented. Estimation results for the Turkish manufacturing industry over the 1952-80 period support the hypothesis that price and output elasticities are different between the import crisis and noncrisis periods. Most importantly, monetary expansion is inflationary when there are important bottlenecks but has real output effects otherwise

The hazards of training: attrition and retention in construction industry apprenticeship programs

Journal ArticleApprenticeship programs in the United States, which provide workers with the broad-based skills required for practicing a trade via on-the-job training, are sponsored either unilaterally by employers or jointly by employers and trade unions. A comparison of the attrition and retention rates in these programs shows that program completion is more likely for apprentices in joint programs than for similar apprentices in unilateral programs. Rates of completion are lower for women than for men, and lower for ethnic and racial minorities than for whites. Apprenticeship duration rises with the unemployment rate

Distribution, inflation, and public industrial enterprises

A Kaleckian model, featuring the complementarity of the public and private sectors and administered pricing of public-sector products, is developed to examine the impact of public enterprises on income distribution between the state, capital, and labor. Public-sector mark-up and relative size affect the macroeconomy via both supply (private-sector good price) and demand (public and private savings, monetary expansion), and the short- and medium-term distributional effects may be contradictory. Public-sector price subsidy schemes and the cyclical properties of the private mark-up determine the direction and magnitude of these effects

Prevailing wage regulations and school construction costs: evidence from British Columbia

Journal ArticleThe stock of public school buildings constructed during the baby boom is aging along with that generation of Americans. Soon much of this building stock will have to be replaced.(FN1) The financing of this rebuilding of America's schools is an emergent political issue of considerable importance. Given these pressures on school construction financing, any proposal that promises to substantially lower the price tag for this reconstruction garners considerable public interest and potential support. One such proposal is the elimination of prevailing wage regulations that in 31 states and the District of Columbia govern the payment of wage rates on public school construction.(FN2) Prevailing wage laws require that state mandated wage rates be paid on public road and building construction. The purpose of these laws is to encourage collective bargaining in construction and to discourage the payment on public works of wages below those prevailing locally. Critics of prevailing wage laws assert that these laws raise public construction costs and discourage non-union contractors from bidding on public works

Gender and racial training gaps in Oregon apprenticeship programs

This paper uses micro data from Oregon to measure the gender and minority training gaps in apprenticeship training. Its methodological innovation is the use of on-the-job training credit hours of exiting workers as the measure of the quantity of training. Apprentices who started training between 1991 and 2002 are followed through 2007. Controlling for individual and program attributes, women and racial/ethnic minorities on average receive less training than men and whites, respectively. Union programs deliver more training than nonunion programs, regardless of gender and race/ethnicity. Prior education level has a strong impact on training, especially for women and minorities. The evidence does not support the hypothesis that apprentices who quit are sufficiently qualified to be able to obtain high-skill jobs

A macroeconomic analysis of agricultural terms of trade in Turkey, 1952-90

A two-sector model of terms of trade (TOT) determination is developed and tested using time-series data for Turkey. Empirical results support the structuralist 'flex-price agriculture fix-price industry' models. TOT is found to be sensitive to changes in nominal demand and the exchange rate. Rising nominal demand turns the TOT in favour of the agricultural sector provided that there are no supply constraints in the industrial sector. If industrial supply is constrained by import bottlenecks, then aggregate demand expansion turns the TOT in favour of the industrial sector. Devaluation turns the TOT against the agricultural sector primarily via the cost-push factors in the industrial sector.