Comparative advantage and the welfare effects of uniform wage policies

This paper analyzes the theoretical impact of a commonly cited union goal — the elimination or reduction of wage differentials within occupations. By dropping the usual assumption of homogeneous labor, we show how, and under what market conditions, workers will receive rents due to individual comparative advantage. In competitive labor markets a union-imposed uniform wage may lower the earnings of workers holding a productive advantage, causing a reduction in employment and a welfare loss of comparative advantage rents. The implications of a strict uniform wage rule imply that unions may be forced to adapt their wage policy to allow more productive workers to receive wage differentials. This consideration helps explain some common trade union institutions.     

Organizations advocating for youth: the local advantage

Youth occupy a unique place in our democratic society. They must primarily rely on others to speak on their behalf as decisions are made about the allocation of resources within and across various youth-serving institutions. Advocacy organizations comprise crucial representational assets for all youth, but America's poorest children and youth especially need an effective voice to speak for and about them. Yet advocates for youth in urban areas face tough challenges since urban voters typically have few positive connections to youth. This article draws on three years of research focused on three organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area that have successfully advocated for better policies for youth. The authors explore the strategies that these organizations have employed to overcome the challenges they face, with particular attention to the advantages that follow from advocating at the local rather than at the state or federal level.     

Infrastructure of mobility: navigating borders,cities and markets

In this article, which is based on research conducted in Hong Kong from 2010 to 2013, and again in 2018, I analyse the region‐bound circulation of independent women sex workers from the Philippines across the Asian global cities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Macau. Migrating as visa‐free tourists, they maintain a valid immigration status and maximize their income in the informal economy by adopting a step‐down transient mobility pattern characterized by a downward hierarchical circulation to multiple city‐states and country destinations. As I show, their multinational migration is produced and structured through the instrumentalization of a mobility infrastructure constituted by a regime of visa‐free circulation, transportation developments, commercialized migration services, and social networks. In this article, I attempt to extend the contemporary analysis of unauthorized migration by moving away from the prevailing focus on incorporation and settlement and towards an examination of the logics and mechanics of migration flows that occur outside state‐sanctioned channels.     

The social structure of liquidity: Flexibility,markets, and states

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Adapting the jury trial for program evaluation: A report of an experience

A portion of the graduate program in clinical community psychology at SUNY Buffalo was subjected to a jury trial as a form of program evaluation. The theory of the trial as evaluation, the problems of implementation, and a posttrial evaluation are discussed. The trial, while time-consuming, especially in its pretrial phases, has the potential for presenting a dramatic picture of a program through the medium of human testimony. The jury was able to arrive at clear decisions on questions put to it, with a high degree of confidence. Decision makers accepted some of the jury's conclusions, and subjective evidence suggests that many of the controversial issues which generated the trial were resolved for the group by the procedure. The posttrial evaluation revealed limitations, such as evidence which was not presented at the trial. The experience proved useful for purposes of interdisciplinary education, providing another lens through which the evaluation problem could be viewed.     

Efficiency, growth, and concentration: an empirical analysis of hospital markets

Taking an evolutionary view, Harold Demsetz hypothesized that firms differ persistently in efficiency and that industry concentration results from growth of efficient firms at the expense of inefficient ones. We test this idea with microdata from the hospital industry. Initial hospital efficiency and subsequent growth (and profitability) are significantly and positively related. Also, greater initial variation in hospital efficiency within local markets is positively related to subsequent growth in market concentration. Our findings support the evolutionary efficiency hypothesis, though they cannot confirm the stronger idea that variation in efficiency is the dominant explanation for changes in concentration.     

Race,poverty, and markets: urban inequality after the neoliberal turn

Classic scholarship on the problem of urban inequality tends to highlight the absence of “the market” and the correspondingly problematic and inadequate role of the state in poor communities. This article explores how the relationship between markets and urban poverty has shifted in recent decades. Scholars have become increasingly attentive to the growing influence of market logics and privatization—core features of “neoliberal” change—in areas such as housing, education, federal policy, local politics, employment, and social services. I discuss how this recent work adds to our understanding of how markets shape urban disadvantage. I also argue that—given the rising influence of market logics in city governance—urban scholarship stands to benefit from a deeper engagement with insights from the field of economic sociology. Building bridges between the two subfields, I argue, will help to specify what markets mean in the lives of the urban poor, and also can bring issues of race and poverty to the attention of economic sociologists.     

Internal communication: Definition,parameters, and the future

As an organizational function, internal communication is gaining in importance, meriting a special issue on the topic. This importance is evident in many recent efforts among practitioners in Europe and the US to seek recognition of this field as an independent domain. Scholarship on internal communication has not kept pace with these initiatives. This introduction to the special issue addresses several key issues related to this topic and presents findings from a Delphi study of the leaders of European associations on internal communication. Results of the study are fuzzy: respondents see internal communication as interdisciplinary management function integrating elements of human resources management, communication and marketing, but at the same time they see it primarily as a part of the organization's communication function that is simultaneously managerial and technical. However, they contend that internal communication is an independent research field.     

Redundancy,labour markets and informal relations

As a result of its 'slimline’plan put into effect in May 1980, the British Steel Corporation made nearly 6,000 workers redundant from its Abbey Works in Port Talbot. The relationship between redundancies at the plant, the labour market experiences of those made redundant and the way in which the two are mediated by informal relational structures is examined. It is argued (a) that the labour market chances of those made redundant were structured by the character of the redundancy process which made certain kinds of worker vulnerable to selection for redundancy; and (b) that the operation of the labour market changed as a result of the redundancies in ways which advantaged those among the redundant who were informally linked to certain kinds of opportunities on the demand side of the labour market. Some wider implications of the patterns found are discussed.     

Technology, skills, and health care labor markets

Conclusion I examine the role of technological change in health care labor markets. One of the biggest issues in the U.S. economy over the recent past has been rapidly rising health care costs. Conventional wisdom holds the main factor driving these costs increases has been technological change. These changes in technology have lead to a direct transformation in the delivery of health care and have also lead to indirect transformations through the reshaping of the private and public insurance industry. My findings are consistent with the idea that technological change has resulted in an increase in demand for higher skilled workers in the industry, while being labor-saving among low-skill workers. The earnings of RNs and health therapists rose rapidly over the 1983 to 1993 period, declined between 1993 and 1996, but then began to rise again after 1996. It is generally believed that managed care has had a one-time cost reducing effect in the industry by eliminating some of the inefficiencies associated with fee-for-service health insurance (Newhouse, 1992). The results here suggest a similar finding in the labor market. I appreciate helpful comments from Laurence Baker, James Bennett, Ann Frost, Barry Hirsch, Joanne Spetz, and Daphne Taras.     

Socioeconomic status, smoking, and health: a test of competing theories of cumulative advantage

Although both low socioeconomic status and cigarette smoking increase health problems and mortality, their possible combined or interactive influence is less clear On one hand, the health of low status groups may be harmed least by unhealthy behavior such as smoking because, given the substantial health risks produced by limited resources, they have less to lose from damaging lifestyles. On the other hand, the health of low status groups may be harmed most by smoking because lifestyle choices exacerbate the health problems created by deprived material conditions. Alternatively, the harm of low status and smoking may accumulate additively rather than multiplicatively. We test these arguments with data from the 1990 U.S. National Health Interview Survey, and with measures of morbidity and mortality. For ascribed statuses such as gender, race, and ethnicity, and for the outcome measure of mortality, the results favor the additive argument, whereas for achieved status and morbidity, the results support the vulnerability hypothesis--that smoking inflicts greater harm among disadvantaged groups.     

Rationing,bargaining, and voting in 2-sided markets

This paper analyzes the temporary equilibrium of 2-sided markets from the point of view of bargaining theory. The minimum rule, quantity traded equal the minimum of demand and supply, is shown to hold under both the Nash bargain and the -transfer value. Moreover, both concepts imply that rationing is uniform on the long side of the market. The paper then considers disequilibrium price dynamics. Under majoritarian price dynamics, nex period's price is the majority rule price of this period's active traders. The sequence of temporary equilibria according to the majoritarian price dynamics is shown to converge to Walrasian equilibrium.The author wishes to thank Y. Balaska, V. Böhm, F. Breyer, J. M. Grandmont, R. Guesnerie, R. Myerson, W. Hildenbrand, and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments. Research support from the National Center for Scientific Research (France) and the National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged     

‘Intermediation’ in used goods markets: Transactions,confidence, and social interaction

An economic sociology approach grounded in an empirical study of second-hand sporting goods stores is used to examine ‘intermediation’ in used goods markets and its impact on confidence-building in market relations. Neo-institutional economic interpretation is contrasted with interpretation that uses a Goffmanian microsociological approach. The first type emphasizes the development of market credibility, analyzing the cognitive and formal arrangements (contractual and technical) which, by ‘professionalizing’ the behavior of self-improvised salespeople, reduce both ‘market opacity’ and the threat of opportunistic behavior. The second shows that such analysis is insufficient for understanding how actual relations in the marketplace are maintained. It aims to describe how partners to a transaction co-produce confidence, using their social skills and signaling honesty by the way they allow the quality of second-hand goods to be assessed. The two approaches converge, however, in that they both involve recognition of the limitations of analysis in terms of personal networks and the impersonality of economic transaction determinants. The article concludes by calling for closer attention to social relations in the marketplace and greater focus on how those relations are depersonalized.     

Resource characteristics in social exchange networks: Implications for positional advantage

Despite the wide range of resources that traverse social networks, social exchange research has focused on only a narrow subset. Notably, prior social exchange research has not considered resources like information that have the capacity to diffuse through networks. The current study investigates how differences between the standard social exchange resource and an information-type resource affect the advantage provided by one's network position. Results of a laboratory experiment support predictions and offer two new insights to the foundations of positional advantage: (1) the location of advantageous positions in a network differs by resource characteristics, and (2) only in particular situations is a single position able to experience high levels of both power and exchange frequency.     

The economic sociology of markets,industries, and firms

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