Approval of equal rights and gender differences in well-being

Women earn less than men but are not less satisfied with life. This paper explores whether norms regarding the appropriate pay for women compared to men may explain these findings. We find that the gender wage gap is smaller where a larger fraction of the citizenry has voted in favor of equal pay. We also find that employed women are less (not more) satisfied with life in liberal communities where the gender wage gap is smaller. These findings suggest that norms regarding the appropriate relative pay of women compared to men are shaping gender differences in well-being.     

Taking Adoption Issues into the New Millennium: An Introduction

The prevalence of adoption in our society and our awareness of adoption-related issues have increased markedly in recent years, due to socioeconomic and sociopolitical changes at the national and international level. Given the high incidence of adoption in the United States today, it is perplexing and unfortunate that many adoptive triad members still feel that the complexities of adoption are not fully understood. In addition, many clinicians still feel that clear and useful guidelines and training for therapy with adoptive triad members are hard to find. This introduction addresses these concerns in general in the context of discussing the different contributions included in this special issue.     

Protective service unions’ political activities and department expenditures

This paper examines how police and firefighter unions’ political activities influence departmental expenditures. Unlike prior research, we measure unions’ political activity independently of union bargaining power. Results indicate that a protective service union’s electoral activities positively affect departmental expenditures, and these effects are attributable to union political power rather than multilateral collective bargaining power. The authors thank Steve Blumenfeld, Wally Hendricks, Asghar Zardkoohi, and an anonymous referee for their excellent comments and suggestions.     

A dynamic model for double‐bounded time series with chaotic‐driven conditional averages

In this work, we introduce a class of dynamic models for time series taking values on the unit interval. The proposed model follows a generalized linear model approach where the random component, conditioned on the past information, follows a beta distribution, while the conditional mean specification may include covariates and also an extra additive term given by the iteration of a map that can present chaotic behavior. The resulting model is very flexible and its systematic component can accommodate short‐ and long‐range dependence, periodic behavior, laminar phases, etc. We derive easily verifiable conditions for the stationarity of the proposed model, as well as conditions for the law of large numbers and a Birkhoff‐type theorem to hold. A Monte Carlo simulation study is performed to assess the finite sample behavior of the partial maximum likelihood approach for parameter estimation in the proposed model. Finally, an application to the proportion of stored hydroelectrical energy in Southern Brazil is presented.     

NERJIT: Using Net Requirement Data in Kanban‐Controlled Jumbled‐Flow Shops

The bold lines that have separated the application of specific production planning and control techniques to specific production systems are being blurred by continuous advances in production technologies and innovative operational procedures. Oral communication among dispatchers and production units has given way to electronic communication between production planners and these units by continuous progress in information technologies. Current production literature alludes to the idea that, collectively, these advances have paved the way for application of Just‐In‐Time (JIT) production concepts, which were originally developed for mass production systems, in intermittent production systems. But this literature does not actually consider the possibility. This article presents a modification to JIT procedures to make them more suitable for jumbled‐flow shops. This article suggests providing real‐time information about net‐requirements for each product to each work center operator for setting production priorities at each work center. Simulation experiments conducted for this study show that using Net‐Requirements in JIT (NERJIT) reduces customer wait time by 45–60% while reducing inventory slightly. The analysis of work centers’ input and output stock‐point inventories shows that using the information about net‐requirements results in production of items that are in current demand. NERJIT results in smaller input stock‐point inventory and availability of products with higher priority in the output stock‐points of work centers.     

Consistent estimation for discretely observed Markov jump processes with an absorbing state

For a continuous-time Markov process, commonly, only discrete-time observations are available. We analyze multiple observations of a homogeneous Markov jump process with an absorbing state. We establish consistency of the maximum likelihood estimator, as the number of Markov processes increases. To accomplish uniform convergence in the continuous mapping theorem, we use the continuity of the transition probability in the parameters, the compactness of the parameter space and the boundedness of probabilities. We allow for a stochastic time-grid of observation points with different intensities for each observation process. Furthermore, we account for right censoring. The estimate is obtained via the EM algorithm with an E-step given in closed form. In our empirical application of credit rating histories, we fit the model of Weißbach and Mollenhauer (J Korean Stat Soc 40:469–485, 2011) and find marked differences, compared to the continuous-time analysis.     

Managerial Hostility and Attitudes Towards Unions: A Canada-US Comparison

We use a cross-country survey of attitudes toward work and unions, which includes a sample of managers in both the US and Canada, to explore whether there is greater attitudinal hostility to unions in the U.S. Our estimates indicate that American manager’s attitudes towards unions are, perhaps surprisingly, less hostile than those of Canadian managers. We explain this first finding by the differential effect of perceived union power, which is greater in Canada than the US and which is correlated negatively with union approval. We also find that US managers are less likely to use extreme methods to oppose union organizing drives, implying that the lower union rates in the US as compared to Canada are not likely the result of greater negativity towards unions themselves but rather some other factor or combination of factors. The implication is that if Canadian managers faced the same labor relations playing field as their US counterparts, they would likely find it easier to thwart union certification drives as well. Alternatively stated, Canadian-style labor relations reforms (such as card-check systems or quicker certification votes) could perhaps tip the balance in favor of unions when organizing in the US.     

DO FINANCIAL INCENTIVES AFFECT FIRMS’ DEMAND FOR DISABLED WORKERS?

A number of OECD countries aim to encourage work integration of disabled persons using quota policies. For instance, Austrian firms must provide at least one job to a disabled worker per 25 nondisabled workers and are subject to a tax if they do not. This “threshold design” provides causal estimates of the noncompliance tax on disabled employment if firms do not manipulate nondisabled employment; a lower and upper bound on the causal effect can be constructed if they do. Results indicate that firms with 25 nondisabled workers employ about 0.04 (or 12%) more disabled workers than without the tax; firms do manipulate employment of nondisabled workers but the lower bound on the employment effect of the quota remains positive; employment effects are stronger in low‐wage firms than in high‐wage firms; and firms subject to the quota of two disabled workers or more hire 0.08 more disabled workers per additional quota job. Moreover, increasing the noncompliance tax increases excess disabled employment, whereas paying a bonus to overcomplying firms slightly dampens the employment effects of the tax.