Career Change for Those Over 40: Critical Issues and Insights

This article discusses the recent phenomenon of older career changers and highlights some of the strengths and proactive strategies for such people. Issues include dealing realistically with negative perceptions and stressing advantages of the mature career changer.     

Public transit wage rates: Pre-Reagan and Reagan-Bush eras

This paper examines the earnings of public transit bus drivers for both the pre-Reagan and Reagan-Bush eras using Current Population Survey data. The findings show that union drivers were consistently paid a significant wage premium over nonunion drivers, a premium which also exceeded that for unionized private nontransport operatives — suggesting that special institutional features of the public transit industry have collectively conferred market power on unionized public transit workers. During the Reagan years, the earnings of public transit drivers, union and nonunion alike, rose relative to those of private and public nontransport operatives in spite of federally-spearheaded cost containment policies. In 1990, these earnings fell relative to those of private and public nontransport operatives, suggesting that the effects of these policies may be beginning to be felt. Helpful comments were provided by Don Bellante and an anonymous referee     

The dependence of voter shares under a two-vote system

In an electoral system where each voter is allowed to select up to two candidates in a double-seat constituency, the combination of votes forms a special kind of contingency table. The usual hypothesis of complete independence of the voter shares for the candidates is of interest, but it is shown to be almost unattainable. The correlation coefficient of the voter shares is constructed. It is shown to be equivalent to Pearson's phi coefficient. The limitations of the coefficient are discussed. It is found that the use of conditional probabilities gives a better understanding of the dependence of the voter shares under the system considered.     

Statistical approaches for the reliability of structural designs

The Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) has produced some guidelines for the assessment of the reliability of components and/or structures. The methods of analysis suggested by these guidelines are far from adequate and, in certain cases, contain some imperfections. In this paper, some of the weaknesses of the guidelines are identified. The shortcomings are mainly in the ease of calculations and the feasibility of the assumptions which are imposed. Three alternative methods aimed at tackling some of the weaknesses are introduced. A simulation study is used to compare these methods.     

THE PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT OF HIGHLY EDUCATED WOMEN: THE IMPACT OF FAMILY

The purpose of this article is to examine factors related to the professional involvement of highly educated women. Three indicators of involvement are considered: nonemployment, part-time work, employment not making use of highest degree. The sample consists of 663 women who received high-level degrees from a large midwestern university between 1964 and 1974. Results indicate that both family role position and role bargaining outcomes play a major role in determining the level of involvement. Indicators of the latter, including previously untested measures of the timing of family and career beginnings and husband's moves for his wife's career, were important determinants of all three measures of involvement. As a caveat, we question the culturally pervasive assumption that lower involvement is necessarily negative. Information from a small number of in-depth interviews suggests that these women value an overall balance between work and family rather than consistently high levels of professional involvement. Future research must explore this possibility.