Union Density and Relative Wages: What is the Relationship?

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the impact of union density on relative wages under decentralised bargaining settings. Whilst, traditionally, empirical studies have focused on the impact of union status on wages (either at the individual or at the plant level), here it is argued that local trade union density can have an independent (positive) effect on wages. This occurs through the threat of collective action and the ability of the union to impose costs onto employers. First, a Nash bargaining model is presented under efficient-bargaining settings, and a wage-membership equation is derived. Wages are shown to be an increasing and convex function of union membership. Second, an empirical specification of the wage-membership equation, suitable for estimation, is obtained and fitted to establishment-level data for the Italian metal-mechanical engineering industry. A positive monotonic relationship between wages and union density is detected. Furthermore, wages are shown to be increasing with union density even where no formal local bargaining agreement is in force, thus suggesting that “union-threat” effects might be relevant.     

New ways of specifying data edits

Summary.   Data editing is the process by which data that are collected in some way (a statistical survey for example) are examined for errors and corrected with the help of software. Edits, the logical conditions that should be satisfied by the data, are specified by subject-matter experts with a procedure which could be tedious and could lead to mistakes with practical implications. To render the process of edit specification more efficient we provide a new step—the definition of the so-called abstract data model of a survey—which describes the structure of the phenomenon that is studied in a survey. The existence of this model enables experts to identify all combinations of variables which should be checked by edits and to avoid the definition of conflicting edits. Furthermore, we introduce an automatic data validation strategy—TREEVAL—that consists of fast tree growing to derive automatically the functional form of edits and of a statistical criterion to clean the incoming data. The TREEVAL strategy is cast within a total quality management framework. The application of the methodologies proposed is demonstrated with the help of a real life application.     

Understanding the Processes Underlying Inter‐firm Collaboration: Mutual Forbearance and the Principle of Congruity

This paper makes a theoretical innovation by integrating two key principles – mutual forbearance and the principle of congruity – into one general process model. It examines the micro‐mechanisms underlying the formation of a mutual‐forbearance agreement and explicates the role of time and of individual actions. We further understanding of the process of cooperation building by drawing a parallel between early stages of the formation process of mutual forbearance and cooperation, and argue that mutual forbearance may, under certain conditions, lead to long‐term cooperation or, if mismanaged, completely smother any chances of it. A prospective agreement may be put at risk when potential contributions are evaluated differently by each party and no action to mitigate the consequences is taken; even more so in a mutual‐forbearance context when the parties can only observe their counterparts’ actions through the market. Our model takes into account the micro‐mechanisms associated with the time between the actions of one entity/individual (e.g. the top manager) and the reaction of another entity/individual, the boundary conditions of the background to those actions and the alternative actions available during this time. Propositions for further exploration and implications are drawn.     

Social Policy for Poverty Reduction in Lower-income Countries in Latin America: Lessons and Challenges

This article provides a comparative study of income transfer programmes recently introduced in lower-income countries in Central and South America, aimed at raising human development and consumption among groups in extreme poverty. The successful introduction of these programmes is challenging in these countries due to their high incidence of poverty, low delivery capacity and poor service infrastructure. The article discusses the design, implementation and impact of these programmes, as well as their institutionalization and dynamics. It concludes that these programmes can be effective in reducing persistent intergenerational poverty, but that their sustainability is undermined by weak institutionalization.     

Large deviations for Bayesian estimators in first-order autoregressive processes

In this paper we consider first-order autoregressive processes and we allow either centered Normal or exponential innovations. We prove large deviation principles for posterior distributions on the unknown parameter and, motivated by potential applications in risk theory, we also prove large deviation principles for Bayesian estimators of Lundberg's parameter.     

Analysis of mutual funds’ management styles: a modeling,ranking and visualizing approach

A method to rank mutual funds according to their investment style measured with respect to the returns of a reference portfolio (benchmark) is introduced. It is based on a style analysis model estimating a mutual fund portfolio composition as well as the benchmark one. Starting from such compositions, it computes a proximity measure based on the L ₁ or L ₂ norm to assess the similarity between each mutual fund portfolio returns and the benchmark returns as well as between the returns of each benchmark constituent and that of the corresponding mutual fund constituent. To this purpose the mean integrated absolute error and the mean integrated squared error are computed to derive both a global ranking of mutual fund management styles and partial rankings expressing the over- (under-) weighting of each portfolio constituent. A visual inspection of the results emphasizing main differences in management styles is provided, using a parallel coordinates plot. Since a modeling, a ranking and a visualizing approach are integrated, the method is named MoRaViA. From the practitioners’ point of view, it allows the identification of a specific management style for each mutual fund, discriminating active management funds from passive management ones. To evaluate the effectiveness of MoRaViA, many sets of artificial portfolios are generated and an application on a set of equity funds operating in the European market is presented.     

Physical activity, exercise, and sedentary behavior in college students

The authors examined the relationship between physical activity, exercise, and sedentary behaviors in 493 college students who were enrolled in 10 conditioning activity classes and had completed questionnaires at the beginning of the course. They analyzed sedentary activities and indicators of participation in exercise and physical activity by demographic variables. Surveyed men reported greater participation in physical activity and exercise than did women, and they also spent more time watching television/videos and using the computer. Older students were more likely to report more computer use, whereas younger students scored higher on several physical activity indicators. Of the sedentary behaviors, only computer use for men and television watching for women were negatively correlated with exercise and physical activity. In addition to accessibility and reinforcing properties of sedentary activities, the gender-related relationships between sedentary and active behaviors should be considered in designing interventions to promote exercise in this population.     

Zero-Lifting for Integer Block Structured Problems

This paper deals with the relations between the polyhedron described by the inequalities of a block structured problem and the polyhedra described by the inequalities of the single blocks. In particular, classes of block structured problems are described for which zero-lifting of facet inducing inequalities of a single block yields facet inducing inequalities for the whole problem. Some applications are discussed.