WAGE DISCRIMINATION ACROSS ETHNIC GROUPS: EVIDENCE FROM ISRAEL

We investigate wage differentials between ethnic groups in Israel, proposing a new methodology and an illustration based on the latest Israeli census. By using separate wage equations for the various occupations, our methodology allows us to decompose the wage differential into three components: one reflecting human capital differences; one reflecting wage discrimination; and a third indicating occupational segregation. We find that 70 percent of the wage gap is due to segregation, 26 percent to wage discrimination and only 4 percent to human capital differences. Evidence is also found for the existence of duality in the Israeli labor market.     

The emergence of an Alpine environmental expertise

This article reports on the findings of research carried out on conflicts concerning major transport infrastructure projects in the Southern Alps. These conflicts were analyzed as delineating the gradual emergence of an environmental expertise network. Rather than fighting the administration and/or the transport operator in the field of transport, some opponents try to relocate the expertise into the field of the environment so as to catch the experts in the different administrations off guard. This resulting Alpine environmental expertise is based on the constitution of trans‐Alpine associative networks and the emergence of a constantly more supportive and structuring notion: sustainable development. In this article, we analyze the manner in which this notion is diffused and how it gradually builds up its definition in the course of action. The Alpine Agreement plays a major role in this operationalization: it constitutes a multilateral semantic point of reference for a variable Alpine policy and has influenced both major trans‐Alpine associative networks and official French land transport policy.     

Effects of migration on family structure in the receiving country

The recognition of the right to family reunification in 1976 brought far-reaching changes in the characteristics of the foreign population in France. Today, France's immigrant population has the following characteristics: 1) 42.6% are female, 2) 40% are under 25 years of age, and 3) foreigners are increasingly dispersed throughout France. Those with residents' cards may automatically obtain residents' cards for their spouses and children. France's reception policy calls for a social worker to visit a recently arrived family, to assess their need for and to promote social services. Problems of adaptation include 1) wives' social isolation and 2) changes in relations between father and children. The integration policy conducted by public authorities has 4 main aspects: 1) socio-educational activities, 2) cultural activities, 3) vocational training, and 4) activities connected with housing and lifestyle. In 1975, France began offering assisted return procedures to dismissed unskilled workers. In 1984, the authorities introduced public assistance in reintegration for workers under threat of dismissal or who had already been dismissed. The number of foreigners resident in France should remain stable over the next few years, making the integration of immigrant communities within French society a vital task.     

An Individual Mixed‐Evaluation Method for Career Intervention

Economic issues linked to career counseling are a cause for concern to policy makers in developed countries because they expect career practitioners to provide evidence of the efficiency of career counseling interventions. The aim of this study was to test an individual evaluation method mixing time series (outcomes) and life narrative (processes). The method used 5 items related to 1 client's career decision self‐efficacy and studied the evolution of those items throughout the intervention of 1 career counselor (43 days). Changepoint analysis helped in identifying the changes that have to be taken into account for time series and which are contextualized in the client's verbatim analysis. This mixed method highlighted that the career counselor's intervention increased the client's career decision self‐efficacy. Practitioners could use the methodology proposed in this article to evaluate their interventions. They could also report their practice to clients, employers, and decision makers.     

Early Retirement: The Case of The Netherlands

ABSTRACT This article takes a closer look at the scope of actual early retirements, reasons for choosing early retirement, the popularity of different types of flexible retirement schemes, and the status of elderly employees within their own organization. It appears that positive reasons for choosing early retirement are more often mentioned by persons in higher professional groups, by those with a higher level of education, and by those who work in the civil service or the service sector. Neutral and negative reasons are mentioned more often by persons in lower professional groups, by those with a lower level of education, and by those working in the industrial sector. Although the motives for opting for early retirement differ, there do not appear to be great differences between categories of respondents if they have been able to choose their age at retirement personally, within specified age limits. Approximately a quarter of the respondents indicated they would leave work at the age of 60, even if this meant a 30% drop in net income.     

Regional Dispersion of Industrial Labour Costs in the European Community (1988)

ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to present a measure of regional labour costs in manufacturing industry in the European Community in 1988. As raw data, derived from the Eurostat Labour Cost Survey, are strongly dependent on sectoral distribution of employment in each region, a method is presented, based on reweighting techniques and loglinear modelling, to eliminate the composition effect. As a result, a regular geographical pattern does emerge. The same type of technique is then applied to the evolution of regional labour costs between 1984 and 1988; some correlation does appear with regional unemployment levels in the United Kingdom and France, pointing the way towards further research.     

Activism among older women in Quebec, Canada: changing the world after age 65

The aim of this article is to examine senior women's involvement experience in Quebec, Canada. Study results are based on a qualitative methodology, and shed light on family history and continuity in the involvement trajectory, diversity in terms of group type and involvement practices, and gender differences in involvement. The meaning that older women attribute to their involvement is also addressed, including attitudes toward feminism. The discussion highlights the extent to which older women's involvement has been marked by their life trajectories, above and beyond their age. In sum, their involvement in the private and public spheres is quite impressive.     

On Theories of Unemployment Persistence: A Quick Look at Recent Developments

ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to supply a theoretical explanation for the persistence of the high unemployment rates found particularly in Europe. For this purpose, the authors briefly review the major contending theories presently available, but conclude that market clearing analyses of the business cycle are ill-suited to the case under examination. In the second section of the paper the authors offer a non-technical summary of the main results of the non-market clearing approach to macroeconomics, and in the third section discuss the microeconomic underpinnings of models with unemployment equilibria.