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1 – 10 of over 1000Kenta Ikeuchi, Kyoji Fukao and Cristiano Perugini
The authors' work aims to identify the employer-specific drivers of the college (or university) wage gap, which has been identified as one of the major determinants of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors' work aims to identify the employer-specific drivers of the college (or university) wage gap, which has been identified as one of the major determinants of the dynamics of overall wage and income inequality in the past decades. The authors focus on three employer-level features that can be associated with asymmetries in the employment relation orientation adopted for college and non-college-educated employees: (1) size, (2) the share of standard employment and (3) the pervasiveness of incentive pay schemes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' establishment-level analysis (data from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure (BSWS), 2005–2018) focusses on Japan, an economy characterised by many unique economic and institutional features relevant to the aims of the authors' analysis. The authors use an adjusted measure of firm-specific college wage premium, which is not biased by confounding individual and establishment-level factors and reflects unobservable characteristics of employees that determine the payment of a premium. The authors' empirical methods account for the complexity of the relationships they investigate, and the authors test their baseline outcomes with econometric approaches (propensity score methods) able to address crucial identification issues related to endogeneity and reverse causality.
Findings
The authors' findings indicate that larger establishment size, a larger share of regular workers and more pervasive implementation of IPSs for college workers tend to increase the college wage gap once all observable workers, job and establishment characteristics are controlled for. This evidence corroborates the authors' hypotheses that a larger establishment size, a higher share of regular workers and a more developed set-up of performance pay schemes for college workers are associated with a better capacity of employers to attract and keep highly educated employees with unobservable characteristics that justify a wage premium above average market levels. The authors provide empirical evidence on how three relevant establishment-level characteristics shape the heterogeneity of the (adjusted) college wage observed across organisations.
Originality/value
The authors' contribution to the existing knowledge is threefold. First, the authors combine the economics and management/organisation literature to develop new insights that underpin the authors' testable empirical hypotheses. This enables the authors to shed light on employer-level drivers of wage differentials (size, workforce composition, implementation of performance-pay schemes) related to many structural, institutional and strategic dimensions. The second contribution lies in the authors' measure of the “adjusted” college wage gap, which is calculated on the component of individual wages that differs between observationally identical workers in the same establishment. As such, the metric captures unobservable workers' characteristics that can generate a wage premium/penalty. Third, the authors provide empirical evidence on how three relevant establishment-level characteristics shape the heterogeneity of the (adjusted) college wage observed across organisations.
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Shravani Guduru, Nivethitha Santhanam and Nancyprabha Pushparaj
This paper aims to quantitatively explore the trends and patterns of the existing literature in the gig economy.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to quantitatively explore the trends and patterns of the existing literature in the gig economy.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a total of 1,707 documents retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, bibliometric analysis using R-Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software was performed to map the studies in the gig economy.
Findings
The paper provides information on the most productive authors, countries and journals, as well as the emerging themes in gig research. It highlights the most prolific authors, with a notable presence from the USA and the UK, which are also the countries with the most publications and citations. China has also emerged prominently, both in terms of the number of publications and its involvement in thematic clusters and trending topics. Through co-word analysis and thematic clustering, the study provides information about emerging themes in gig economy studies, such as labor, technology, management and precarity. The results provide insightful information for comprehending the effects of gig labor in the contemporary workforce.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a comprehensive overview of the scholarly literature related to the gig economy, exploring the key insights by highlighting the evolving trends in gig research.
Originality/value
By mapping thematic clusters, tracking research evolution and identifying trending topics, it provides a unique perspective on the field's development and emerging areas of focus. It serves as a valuable means for addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by the gig economy.
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John Owusu-Afriyie, Priscilla Twumasi Baffour and William Baah-Boateng
This study seeks to estimate union wage effect in the public and private sectors of Ghana, respectively. It also seeks to ascertain whether the union wage effect in the two…
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to estimate union wage effect in the public and private sectors of Ghana, respectively. It also seeks to ascertain whether the union wage effect in the two sectors varies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey 6 (GLSS 6, 2012/2013) and Ghana Labour Force Survey (GLFS, 2015). In terms of estimation technique, the authors employ the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition technique to estimate union wage effect in public and private sectors, respectively.
Findings
The findings indicate that union wage effect in the public sector is positive and higher relative to that of the private sector.
Practical implications
The findings imply that strict enforcement of Section 82 of Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) will curb the political influence of public sector unions over their employer (Government).
Originality/value
This research paper has not been presented to any journal for publication and it is the authors' original work.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2023-0045
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Nunzia Nappo and Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera
The main aim of this study was to examine gender differences in job satisfaction in Europe.
Abstract
Purpose
The main aim of this study was to examine gender differences in job satisfaction in Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
For the empirical analysis, data from the Sixth European Working Conditions Survey were used. Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition with a principal component analysis (PCA) aggregated variable, after unconditional quantile regressions in a multiple imputation background, was implemented.
Findings
Women report higher job satisfaction than men do. Women were significantly more satisfied than men for the middle levels of the job satisfaction distribution.
Originality/value
This study expands the evidence on the determinants of job satisfaction in the European labour market by applying a recent form of decomposition that invests in unconditional quantile regression (UQR). To the best of this study knowledge, this is the first time that the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition with a PCA aggregated variable after unconditional quantile regression has been employed to study gender-based differences in job satisfaction.
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David J. Williams and Francisco Scott
Nonfamily farms are responsible for a disproportionate amount of US agriculture production. The importance of these operations to the volume of agriculture production in the…
Abstract
Purpose
Nonfamily farms are responsible for a disproportionate amount of US agriculture production. The importance of these operations to the volume of agriculture production in the United States has led researchers and policymakers to understand nonfamily farms as large commercial operations. This paper examines whether the distinction between family and nonfamily helps explain the financial outcomes of farm operations and households.
Design/methodology/approach
We test for differences in financial outcomes of the household and operations of family and nonfamily farms using an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. We compare these results to a decomposition of other possible typologies.
Findings
We present evidence that nonfamily farms are a heterogeneous group with a majority of small operations that are dominated by a small number of large operations. We discover that differences associated with the family-nonfamily distinction are largely explained by observable farm and operator characteristics that arise mechanically from the definition. However, we find suggestive evidence that family-nonfamily classification captures differences in economic behavior that lead to higher profitability measures to nonfamily farms. We find little evidence of any inherent structural differences between family and nonfamily farms that helps explain financial outcomes related to leverage or household finances.
Practical implications
We conclude that including nonfamily farms in official statistics of farm households may provide a more comprehensive overview of the farm sector, as our results suggest that family and nonfamily farms do not have innate differences that help explain many of their financial outcomes.
Originality/value
We incorporate previously unused data on nonfamily farm households and test the difference in mean financial outcomes between family and nonfamily farms.
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Sudhir Rama Murthy, Thayla Tavares Sousa-Zomer, Tim Minshall, Chander Velu, Nikolai Kazantsev and Duncan McFarlane
Advancements in responsive manufacturing have been supporting companies over the last few decades. However, manufacturers now operate in a context of continuous uncertainty. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Advancements in responsive manufacturing have been supporting companies over the last few decades. However, manufacturers now operate in a context of continuous uncertainty. This research paper explores a mechanism where companies can “elastically” provision and deprovision their production capacity, to enable them in coping with repeated disruptions. Such a mechanism is facilitated by the imitability and substitutability of production resources.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive study was conducted using Gioia methodology for this theory generation research. Respondents from 20 UK manufacturing companies across multiple industrial sectors reflected on their experience during COVID-19. Resource-based view and resource dependence theory were employed to analyse the manufacturers' use of internal and external production resources.
Findings
The study identifies elastic responses at four operational levels: production-line, factory, company and supply chain. Elastic responses that imposed variable-costs were particularly well-suited for coping with unforeseen disruptions. Further, the imitability and substitutability of manufacturers helped others produce alternate goods during the crisis.
Originality/value
While uniqueness of production capability helps manufacturers sustain competitive advantage against competitors during stable operations, imitability and substitutability are beneficial during a crisis. Successful manufacturing companies need to combine these two approaches to respond effectively to repeated disruptions in a context of ongoing uncertainties. The theoretical contribution is in characterising responsive manufacturing in terms of resource heterogeneity and resource homogeneity, with elastic resourcing as the underlying mechanism.
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Fabrício Rios Nascimento Santos, Viviani Silva Lírio and Anderson Moreira Aristides dos Santos
In addition to being a violation of human rights, the practice of child labor can be related to criminality against young people. In view of this, the hypothesis tested in this…
Abstract
Purpose
In addition to being a violation of human rights, the practice of child labor can be related to criminality against young people. In view of this, the hypothesis tested in this article was that child labor aggravates youth homicide through educational level.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used annual data for the 26 states plus the Federal District for the period 2001 to 2014. To do so, the authors used the iterated feasible generalized least squares (IFGLS) estimator under the seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) model.
Findings
The results showed that child labor positively affects the homicide of young people, showing education as a transmission channel through which the effect is materialized. The general conclusion, given this, that work is an alternative for children not to enter the world of crime due to its socializing character, cannot be sustained.
Practical implications
This evidence provides input to the formulation of policies and programs to eradicate or slow child labor. In addition to the social and economic rise of individuals, it is important to emphasize the role of education (human capital) in explaining economic growth.
Originality/value
So far, there is no record of national research that sought to empirically assess the effect of child labor on crime, in particular, on the homicide of young people, considering education as a transmission channel, and this assessment is the contribution of the present study to the economic literature on crime.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2023-0163
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Anthony Orji and Emmanuel O. Nwosu
This study investigated the gender wage gap in Nigeria by analysing two waves of household surveys (in 2003–2004 and 2018–2019) in order to understand the dynamics or polarisation…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigated the gender wage gap in Nigeria by analysing two waves of household surveys (in 2003–2004 and 2018–2019) in order to understand the dynamics or polarisation of the labour market in Nigeria in terms of the gender wage gap over time.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applied an extension of Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition that relies on the re-centred influence function (RIF) regressions to analyse the gender wage gap at all points along the wage distribution.
Findings
The results unambiguously show that there is a significant gender wage gap in Nigeria at all points along the wage distribution, such that for the two surveys used and after nearly two decades, men still earn more than women. That is, the log wage difference between males and females is statistically significant at all points between the 10th and the 90th quantiles. In 2003–2004 period, the authors found that most of the wage difference was significantly accounted for by the wage structure effect, whilst the composition effect was negative and only significant at the bottom of the wage distribution. Since the 2018–2019 period, the authors found that there has been a visible change such that most of the gender wage gap is now accounted for by the composition effect at all points along the wage distribution. Another interesting finding is that there has been a general decline in the gender wage gap along the entire wage distribution, such that inequality was higher in 2003–2004 than in 2018–2019. This decline is bigger at the top than at the bottom of the wage distribution. The authors also found that, contrary to some of the studies on the wage gap, the raw gaps for the two surveys appear to show inverted U-shape, but the gap has fallen quickly since the 2018–2019 period. Thus, the authors found strong evidence of a “sticky floor” compared to a “glass ceiling” effect in both periods, and this becomes more pronounced over time. In terms of the contributions of individual covariates on gender pay gap in Nigeria, the authors found that urban residence, unionisation, education and occupation variables exhibit major influence. However, the effects of covariates on the composition and wage structure components of the wage gap have changed over time.
Practical implications
The major policy implication of these findings is that to address the gender wage gap in Nigeria, policy should focus more on how labour is rewarded and improving human capital for women.
Originality/value
This study is a novel paper in Nigeria that has investigated the gender wage gap in Nigeria by extending the focus of literature in three ways. First, the authors applied an extension of Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition that relies on the RIF regressions to analyse the gender wage gap at all points along the wage distribution. Second, the authors used sample selection bias to account for the non-randomness of participation in wage employment. And third, the authors applied similar analysis to two waves of household surveys (in 2003/2004 and 2018/2019) in order to understand the dynamics or polarisation of the labour market in Nigeria in terms of the gender wage gap over time.
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The study investigates the influence of ChatGPT on the labor market dynamics, aiming to provide a structured understanding of the changes induced by generative AI technologies.
Abstract
Purpose
The study investigates the influence of ChatGPT on the labor market dynamics, aiming to provide a structured understanding of the changes induced by generative AI technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis of existing literature serves as the foundation for understanding the impact, while the supply and demand model helps assess the effects of ChatGPT. A text-mining approach is utilized to analyze the International Standard Occupation Classification, identifying occupations most susceptible to disruption by ChatGPT.
Findings
The study reveals that 32.8% of occupations could be fully impacted by ChatGPT, while 36.5% might experience a partial impact and 30.7% are likely to remain unaffected.
Research limitations/implications
While this study offers insights into the potential influence of ChatGPT and other generative AI services on the labor market, it is essential to note that these findings represent potential implications rather than realized labor market effects. Further research is needed to track actual changes in employment patterns and job market dynamics where these AI services are widely adopted.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the field by systematically categorizing the level of impact on different occupations, providing a nuanced perspective on the short- and long-term implications of ChatGPT and similar generative AI services on the labor market.
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Dongmin Kong, Shasha Liu and Rui Shen
On the basis of labor economics theories, this study examines how adjustment in human capital accounts for labor cost stickiness.
Abstract
Purpose
On the basis of labor economics theories, this study examines how adjustment in human capital accounts for labor cost stickiness.
Design/methodology/approach
This study makes use of employee education level as a measure of the quality of human capital and relies on data from Chinese public firms to conduct the empirical test. This study focuses on two important components of labor cost changes: one corresponding to the adjustment in the number of employees (capacity adjustment) and another corresponding to the adjustment in the mix of employee education levels (quality adjustment).
Findings
This study reveals that labor cost changes driven by the adjustment of employee education level are sticky. This stickiness cannot be explained by the standard adjustment cost theory. This further shows that firms that actively adjust their employee quality during downturns experience improved future performance. The findings are robust to alternative measures and specifications.
Originality/value
This study provides new evidence for and insights into the cost behavior literature. Previous studies treat input resources in a homogenous way and focus on the effect of capacity adjustment. This study considers the heterogeneity of resources and examines three dimensions of salary cost adjustment: capacity, structure, and unit cost. In line with the economic theory of sticky costs proposed by Banker et al. (2013a), the study’s evidence sheds light on the additional underlying economic mechanisms driving cost stickiness behavior. Specifically, managers asymmetrically adjust both employee structure and average salaries, in addition to employee number. This study also adds to the existing knowledge of the consequences of managers' actions regarding cost behavior.
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