The Heterogeneous Effect of the Passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act on Stock Returns

I analyze how stock prices reacted to the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970. Previous studies focus on accounting measures or actual OSHA violations, and my work complements the literature by examining how shareholders expected OSHA to affect firm profitability. Returns fell around the OSH bill’s release to the House floor and its eventual passage, and average market value dropped by $1.5 million over the 3 days surrounding House Rules Committee release. Durable manufacturing and mining industries were hardest hit in OSH passage, losing $2.6 million and $5.7 million in average market value, respectively. I also find that larger firms with poorer working conditions sustained more negative returns, and market power, not union density, explains variation in expected profitability. Furthermore, future penalties appear unrelated to shareholder expectations about compliance costs.

中国劳动力受教育程度的实证研究—基于人口普查数据平台的时间序列分析

本文将以第五次、第六次全国人口普查资料为数据平台,以劳动力人均受教育年限以及具有各种文化程度人口比重为核心指标,对劳动力资源整体受教育程度变动进行系统的实证分析,从劳动力整体资源剖析到行业、职业视角切入,全景式地解读新世纪以来我国劳动力的数量变化和质量进展状况,剖析当前存在的问题与面临的挑战。     

When Do Benevolent Capitalists Change Their Mind? Explaining the Retrenchment of Defined‐benefit Pensions in Britain

This paper explores the politics of welfare retrenchment, but differs from much of the current literature in this area by focusing not on the decisions of politicians but those of private sector employers. In countries with a large private welfare sector, employers are major social policy players with a significant influence on the generosity of welfare provision, but the rationale behind their actions is not well understood. To explore these issues, a case study is used of the recent fundamental change in UK occupational pension provision, involving a rapid shift from defined‐benefit to defined‐contribution pensions. The paper shows by means of a micro‐simulation of the relative performance of defined‐benefit, defined‐contribution and state pensions that this shift represents a significant retrenchment. It suggests, using historical material, interview data and insights from behavioural economics, that existing explanations for this change, while valuable, have important gaps because they are based on too narrow a conceptualization of business motives. In this regard, the paper highlights the importance of herd behaviour.     

Developing youth workers: Career ladders for sector stability

Youth development principles advocate for supporting young people, while the staff who work with them face chronic issues like heavy workloads and poor support which are linked to job turnover. Prior quantitative research has presented college-based training as a best practice to professionalize and stabilize the youth workforce. Career ladders that are credit-bearing offer youth workers a stackable credential, as well as an entrée into higher education for their personal and professional growth.     

论农民工职业病防治的现实困境与突破

农民工劳动群体是职业病高发群体,他们在得了职业病后往往不知道该如何维护自己的权利。通过分析我国目前农民工职业病防治存在的现实困境:农民工对职业病缺乏了解;农民工处于"双重体制外",劳动关系比较松散;用人单位缺乏责任意识、法律意识;行政机关监管不力等。据此提出相应的措施:加强职业病知识和法律法规的宣传;建立职业病救助基金;简化职业病鉴定程序;对不遵守《职业病防治法》的单位严惩不贷等,以期改善农民工劳动群体职业病防治现状。     

社会工作核心竞争力的培育路径研究

社会工作的核心竞争力是知识力、技术力和资源力的合力。本文分析了当前社会工作所面临的外部条件对社会工作核心竞争力提升的具体影响,结合核心竞争力的理论论述了社会工作的学科核心竞争力、专业核心竞争力和职业核心竞争力的培育路径。为社会工作核心竞争力的培育提升参照。     

Does higher education expansion promote educational homogamy? Evidence from married couples of the post-80s generation in Shanghai,China

The expansion of higher education witnessed in many societies influences the pattern of educational assortative mating. Structural transition theory predicts growing educational homogamy due to increasing preference for highly-educated partners who become more widely available. In contrast, social closure theory suggests depressed educational homogamy because the inflation of the education elite circle fosters the openness of marriage market, reducing the preference for a highly-educated mate and increasing the penetrability across social-status boundaries. Capitalizing the survey data that are representative of the post-80s one-child generation collected in Shanghai, China, we test the hypotheses derived from the two theories. Empirical results suggest that, with increasing availability of highly educated individuals, the extent of educational homogamy by birth cohort reveals a U-shaped pattern. This U-shaped pattern demonstrates increasing levels of educational homogamy and lends support to structural transition theory.     

Ethnic differences in the labour market: a comparison of the samples of anonymized records and Labour Force Survey

The public use sample from the 1991 UK census makes it possible to conduct individual level analyses of ethnic minorities' educational and occupational attainments. Unfortunately, however, the census asked only about higher level qualifications obtained after reaching 18 years of age. A comparison with the Labour Force Surveys (LFSs) shows that the census gives in some respects a misleading impression of qualifications among the first-generation members of ethnic minorities: the LFS data show that ethnic minorities tend to be more polarized in their qualifications than the British-born whites, with relatively large proportions at the two extremes, either with degrees or with no qualifications at all. It follows that the census's treatment of qualifications may tend to exaggerate the scale of disadvantage of ethnic minorities in the labour market, and particularly in access to the salariat where qualifications play a particularly large role in recruitment. Regression analyses of sample of anonymized records and LFS data confirm these expectations although they indicate that the results of the census are not seriously misleading as regards the pattern of ethnic disadvantages in the competition to avoid unemployment. The LFS data also confirm earlier findings that the ethnic penalties are in general of similar magnitude among the second generation to those among the first generation, despite the substantial equalization of educational experience that has taken place. There is some evidence that disadvantages in access to the salariat may have been reduced, but this is counterbalanced by the evidence that disadvantages in the avoidance of unemployment may have deteriorated.     

职业学校实施职业资格证书制度的现状与对策

职业学校推行职业资格证书制度取得了可喜的成绩,但也不可避免地出现了一些问题。制定一系列政策,采取相应措施,调动职业教育机构、求职者和用工单位的积极性,共同加速推进职业资格证书制度的实施非常必要。     

职业学校实施职业资格证书制度的现状与对策

职业学校推行职业资格证书制度取得了可喜的成绩,但也不可避免地出现了一些问题。制定一系列政策,采取相应措施,调动职业教育机构、求职者和用工单位的积极性,共同加速推进职业资格证书制度的实施非常必要。