The Effect of Unemployment Insurance on Temporary Help Services Employment

A model with fixed effects and controls for state-specific linear time trends is developed to analyze the influence of state unemployment insurance taxes on temporary help services employment using state level panel data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Prior research has shown that imperfect experience rating of unemployment insurance taxes increases temporary layoffs and that, conversely, more extensive experience rating leads to a decrease in temporary layoffs. The current analysis demonstrates that more extensive experience rating increases temporary help services agency-intermediated temporary employment. To the extent that the increase in temporary help services employment represents a substitution of temporary help services jobs for traditional direct hire jobs, it implies a negative effect on job quality. Steps to address low unemployment insurance recipiency rates by temporary help services workers may alleviate the impact of unemployment insurance tax structures on temporary help services employment.     

The development and field testing of a vocational education evaluation model

Reported is the development and field testing of an evaluation model used to evaluate the vocational education programs at the Metropolitan Community Colleges (MCC) of Kansas City, Missouri which can be implemented on vocational programs at other institutions. The model evaluated a vocational program on the following six criteria: (1) program's relationship to job market profile; (2) program's level of community support; (3) program's success in meeting vocational aspirations of clientele; (4) program's success in terms of student performance; (5) program 's cost-effectiveness; and (6) program 's success in reaching the handicapped and disadvantaged. The evaluation model provides a strategy and a set of procedures for assessing the quality of existing vocational education programs of study at any post-secondary institution. The model can be easily and inexpensively implemented, thus providing a data base which is useful for administrative planning and decision making.     

The Well-Made Play and the Theatre of the Absurd: A Study in Attitude Change

The general tenets of balance theory are applied to a study of two dramatic genres, the well-made play and the theatre of the absurd. The theory is used in an attempt to discuss the means by which these different forms achieve their characteristic effects and to place the evolution of dramatic forms within the general context of social change in the last century.     

A MULTIVARIATE MODEL OF JOB STRESS AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION

Although a significant relationship between job stress and alcohol consumption would seem quite logical, it has in fact received limited empirical support. A multi-variate model is developed in this article, in which the relationship between job stress and alcohol consumption is assumed to be mediated by beliefs regarding the efficacy of alcohol to relieve stress. Considerable support for this model is demonstrated, and the implications for practice as well as research are discussed.     

Response to Young and Wolf: goal attainment in urban ecology research

Our critique focuses on the poorly defined key concepts, methodological inconsistencies, circular research design, and over-reaching substantive claims made by Young and Wolf. We suggest that Young and Wolf have provided an assessment of the Urban Ecosystems journal, not of urban ecology as a field. We conclude by identifying questions to guide a bibliometric analysis that focuses on a collaborative and interdisciplinary future of urban ecology (how are participating disciplines contributing to urban ecological research and scholarship; what theories and conceptual frameworks are being used, and how are these theories being tested and modified; and what mixed methodologies are being developed to collect data to address complex urban issues that are inherently interdisciplinary). We take seriously Young and Wolf’s call for a “fundamental discussion as to if and how the intentions of the field have been or need to be updated” and argue that such a discussion requires a more inclusive, rigorous, and meaningful identification of the “core” of urban ecology literature than provided.     

Delivery, Management and Access Model for E_prints and Open Access Journals

A study conducted for the (United Kingdom) Joint Information Systems Committee reviewed possible models for implementing Open Access to research reports in institutional archives and Open Access journals. The conclusion was that a “harvesting model,” in which full texts reside on the original servers but metadata are harvested, held, and enhanced by a central service, was preferable to either a centralized national service or a completely decentralized service for the UK. The study included issues of populating institutional archives (IAs) and some form of mandatory archiving for publicly funded research results to obtain a critical mass of Open Access material in such a system.     

Collective bargaining and the determinants of teachers’ salaries

Using a national sample of public high schools, we find that bargaining spillovers play an important role in teachers’ labor markets. The spillover variable consistently indicates a larger bargaining effect than does the collective bargaining coverage dummy. We estimate that a 10 percent increase in the state density of teachers’ unions increases the highest teacher salaries by 2.6 percent and the lowest by 0.2 percent. Consistent with prior research, teacher union density was most strongly associated with highest salaries and had a nonsignificant positive association with lowest salaries. Teachers’ unions also affect the structural determinants of teachers’ salaries, offering some additional evidence supporting a median voter model. The proportion of unionized teachers with higher levels of education and experience (i.e., the highest paid) is positively related to highest salaries. Finally, our results confirm the importance of demand factors in teacher wage determination. The authors thank Shawn Windsor for his excellent research assistance and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on a previous draft of this paper. The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research provided the primary data set used in this paper. The U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics compiled the original data set. We gratefully acknoledge the assistance of Eric Hanushek and Lori Taylor who also provided data used herein. This research was funded in part by a grant from the McGill Faculty of Management Research Committee.     

A review of parallel processing for statistical computation

Parallel computers differ from conventional serial computers in that they can, in a variety of ways, perform more than one operation at a time. Parallel processing, the application of parallel computers, has been successfully utilized in many fields of science and technology. The purpose of this paper is to review efforts to use parallel processing for statistical computing. We present some technical background, followed by a review of the literature that relates parallel computing to statistics. The review material focuses explicitly on statistical methods and applications, rather than on conventional mathematical techniques. Thus, most of the review material is drawn from statistics publications. We conclude by discussing the nature of the review material and considering some possibilities for the future.     

Active parental consent in school-based research. An examination of ethical and methodological issues

To date, most school-based research has used passive parental consent. However, the Family Privacy Protection Act of 1995 aims to change these requirements. The proposed legislation requires written parental consent if minors are to be asked "sensitive" questions as part of any program or activity funded in whole or in part by the federal government. This act is representative of a growing trend toward restricting research involving minors. Whether or not this act is passed by Congress, two lines of concern are highlighted by this legislation. The first deals with ethical issues surrounding consent procedures. For instance, are parental rights compromised when active consent is not mandated? A second line of inquiry pertains to the effect of active consent procedures on response rates and sample bias. In this article, the authors discuss ethical issues surrounding passive and active consent procedures and then report response rates from two projects in which active consent procedures were implemented.