The Effects of Prevailing Wage Laws: A Comparison of Individual Workers'' Wages Earned on and off Prevailing Wage Construction Projects

I evaluate the effects of prevailing wage laws using a unique data set that shows the wages paid to workers on prevailing wage projects and the wages paid to the same workers during the same time period for work on projects not covered by prevailing wage regulations. The wage comparison shows that workers are generally paid more for work on prevailing wage projects than they are for work on non-prevailing wage projects. Thus, prevailing wage laws likely do increase the cost of public construction. In addition, to the extent that the quality of construction is improved, prevailing wage laws appear to be an inefficient mechanism by which to achieve additional quality, as the regulations often result in workers being paid more than they earn in the private market.     

Compulsory Persuasion: A Problem for Correctional Social Work

Summary Social work risks being misused as a technique for controllingundesirable behaviour, regardless of clients' expectations orchoices. This approach to social work involves certain underlyingassumptions about human nature which raise considerable ethicaland practical difficulties. Recent trends in the probation andafter care service are considered, together with some researchstudies of the effectiveness of social work in reducing offendingbehaviour. From these it is argued that social work servicesfor offenders are more likely to be effective when the emphasisis on helping with perceived problems and difficulties ratherthan on crime prevention.     

CROSS-COUNTRY EVIDENCE ON LONG-RUN GROWTH AND INFLATION

While inflation is generally inversely related to growth, I show that estimates of the relationship seer two robustness problems which plague a variety of model specifications. First, growth-inflation results are highly sensitive to modifications to the country sample, limited from the start to low- and moderate-inflation countries. Second, results are also sensitive to modifications in the time period of analysis. In conjunction with the regression specification sensitivity documented by Levine and Renelt [1992], these results should further discourage the practice cf quantifying inflation's effects with cross-county growth regressions.     

THE EFFECT OF THE DESIGNATED HITTER RULE ON HIT BATSMEN: PITCHER'S MORAL HAZARD OR THE TEAM'S COST-BENEFIT CALCULATION? A COMMENT

Goff, Shughart and Tollison [1997] attribute the American League's higher hit-batsman rate since 1973 to moral hazard: pitchers who no longer bat no longer face retaliation. We argue that retaliation is more efficiently directed at sluggers than at weak-hitting pitchers, and show that American League Designated Hitters (DHs) are plunked more frequently than are National League pitchers. We also offer a new estimating equation and update GST's sample. We show that the DH's effect on hit batsmen is no longer statistically significant. However, the point estimates are close to our prediction, which does not rely on moral hazard. ( JEL D81, J28)     

Accommodation and Employment: A Survey into the Circumstances and Expressed Needs of Users of Mental Health Services in a Northern Town

Correspondence to Barbara Hatfield, Mental Health Social Work Research and Staff Development Unit, University of Manchester, Department of Psychiatry, Mathematics, Tower, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary A sample of 120 mental health service users in a Northern Townwas interviewed about satisfactions and expressed needs in arange of life domains. Most of the 120 users were male, in theolder age ranges, and not in current partnerships. Most hadservere and long-term conditions. Living situations includedhospital wards, hostels, a group home, living with family orfriends, and living alone. The domains of accommodation andemployment are discussed in this paper. The majority of peopleexpressed themselves as ‘satisfied’ with their accommodation,although a sizeable monority were not satisfied. Lack of choiceof alternatives emerged as an underlying feature of ‘expressedsatisfaction’. A sizeable group expressed the need forhelp in obtaining employment, particularly those living in thecommunity. It is argued that for consumer choice to have a realisticmeaning, people with severe mental illnesses need the experienceof choice from more than one alternative.     

Comparative Narratives: Some Rules for the Study of Action

The paper explores the concept of a Narrative which is defined as a connected structure on a set of constrained actions and forbearances. Explanation via Narratives is compared with explanation through variable centred methodology and an interpretation of correlations in terms of Narratives is also outlined.     

A Survey of Approved Social Work in England and Wales

Correspondence to Prof. P. Huxley, Department of Psychiatry, University of Manchester, Mathematics Tower, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Summary A survey of approved social workers (ASWs) was undertaken withlocal authorities in England and Wales, to review the provisionand organization of ASW services, and the contribution theymake towards the establishment and maintenance of a comprehensivemental health service. The findings show some variation in provisionwhich is in itself indicative of a variety of factors operatingto produce local and regional patterns of provision. Some ofthese are related directly to policy decisions, others to demographicand geographic variables, while still more are related to teamstructure, workload demands, and generic/specialist issues.The future pattern of mental health social work following theimplementation of the NHS and Community Care Act is consideredin the light of the findings from the survey.