Prizes in an industrial union environment

This paper proposes a short-run cross-sectional theory of how employers in an industrial union work environment try to foster and reward greater efforts and more productivity by individual workers by offering a “prize” in the form of shift premiums, overtime pay, and accident risk premiums. The theory is evaluated empirically with a set of micro data from a large industrial establishment. We found that the effect of such prizes is to steepen the upward portion of the earnings profile, dampen the compression of earnings in a union environment, and increase earnings differentiation.     

ESTIMATING TEMPORAL FARM INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS USING SPATIAL SMOOTHING TECHNIQUES

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics (ABARE) has conducted the annual Australian Agricultural and Grazing Industries Survey, covering the broadacre sector, in a consistent format since 1978/79. In this period the incomes of farmers have fluctuated considerably. Interest has focused on temporal income variation because of its relationship to the inherent riskiness of farming. Part of these income fluctuations can be explained by changing commodity prices and by highly variable climatic conditions. This paper outlines a method of measuring the magnitude of this income variation and how it relates to other variables. Due to rotation within the sample of farms surveyed, data are limited for determining the income variability of any particular farm. This paper, using spatial locations of surveyed farms, shows how kernel smoothing techniques can be adapted to estimate the distribution of a farm's income. This analysis uses data collected from 1978/79 to 1991/92. Summary information from these distributions is cross-tabulated against several other variables. This shows that income variability is strongly related to the production mixture of farming businesses.     

AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF CLIENT AND THERAPIST PERCEPTIONS OF THERAPY EFFECTIVENESS IN A UNIVERSITY-BASED TRAINING CLINIC

The purpose of this study was to explor client and therapist evaluations of direct practice in a university-based training center using an ethnographic research methodology. Client and therapist perceptions about the strengths and limitations of ethnographic practice evaluation were also analyzed. A domain analysis was performed on postsession interviews with both clients and practitioners over a 4- month period. Six core categories of client and therapist perceptions of therapy effectiveness emerged from a domain analysis: (a) changes associated with counseling, (b) important practitioner qualities, (c) effective interventions or techniques, (d) ineffective interventions or techniques, (e) recommendations for future sessions, and (f) strengths and limitations of ethnographic practice evaluation. Implications of this study for clinical practice, training, and future research are discussed.     

The Impact of Authority Relations and Feedback Delivery Method on Performance

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of technology has been changing feedback delivery methods in organizations. However, the effectiveness of feedback delivery methods can vary depending on social dynamics (e.g., authority relations) in the organization. The current study was designed to examine the impact of authority relations and feedback delivery methods on performance. A total of 120 participants were recruited to work on a simulated cell-phone assembly task and were exposed to one of the four feedback conditions: (a) authority figure with face-to-face feedback, (b) authority figure with e-mail feedback, (c) non-authority figure with face-to-face feedback, and (d) non-authority figure with e-mail feedback. Results showed that while both feedback delivery methods resulted in high performance with the presence of an authority figure, only face-to-face feedback resulted in high performance with a non-authority figure. Practical considerations for effective feedback delivery methods in relation to authority figures are also discussed.     

Computation of percentage points

In this note, it is proved that in computing percentage points of a distribution, Halley's method yields convergent solutions under most conditions, and we demonstrate the efficiency of the method with some examples.     

Corporate Environmental Behaviors in Voluntary Programs: Does Timing Matter?*

Objective. Why do some firms participate in voluntary programs earlier than others? What conditions dictate whether firms participate in voluntary programs earlier rather than later? Current research on voluntary programs has not considered discrete processes in which corporate actors could have different motives and objectives in different time dimensions, that is, early versus late. Methods. We adopt a diffusion theory to disaggregate corporate voluntary participation behavior in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sponsored Green Lights (GL) voluntary program. We focus on the GL participants during two periods—the early joiners in 1993–1994, and the late joiners in 1995–1996. Results. At the early diffusion stage, firms are more likely driven by the market motive that garners a “green” reputation, an important strategic asset to promote market competitiveness; at the late diffusion stage, firms are more driven by the institutional motive to improve their relationships with regulatory agencies and subsequently relieve regulatory pressures from them. Conclusion. We find that firms have different motives for GL participation at different diffusion stages. We suggest that policymakers who want to induce firms to join voluntary programs should pay more attention to program designs and implementation schemes that accommodate different corporate interests and objectives in different time orders of firms' participations in voluntary programs.     

Goodness-of-Fit Tests for the Additive Risk Model with (p > 2)-Dimensional Time-Invariant Covariates

This paper presents methods for checking the goodness-of-fit of the additive risk model with p(> 2)-dimensional time-invariant covariates. The procedures are an extension of Kim and Lee (1996) who developed a test to assess the additive risk assumption for two-sample censored data. We apply the proposed tests to survival data from South Wales nikel refinery workers. Simulation studies are carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed tests for practical sample sizes.