Bernard F. Lentz

Entrepreneurial Success and Occupational Inheritance among Proprietors

Roughly 50 percent of self-employed proprietors are second-generation proprietors. These individuals acquire informal business experience while growing up in the context of a family business. Since some of this informal experience substitutes for more formally acquired schooling, measured rates of return to the latter will not be as high as for wage/salary workers. Early acquisition of managerial human capital that can be acquired only through experience implies differentially greater proprietary success for second-generation proprietors compared with first-generation proprietors. The authors present evidence in favor of both hypotheses.

The Effects of Sexual Harassment on Job Satisfaction, Earnings, and Turnover among Female Lawyers.

Using data from the American Bar Associations National Survey of Career Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction (1990), the authors estimate the incidence and impact of sexual harassment in the legal profession. Nearly two-thirds of female lawyers in private practice and nearly half of those in corporate or public agency settings reported either experiencing or observing sexual harassment by male superiors, colleagues, or clients during the two years prior to the survey. Female lawyers who had experienced or observed sexual harassment by male superiors or colleagues reported lower overall job satisfaction than did those who had not, as well as a greater intention to quit. The authors speculate that employers and coworkers may sometimes be able to sexually harass female employees in ways or degrees that are not sanctionable but that induce the victims to quit. Sexual harassment may contribute to an undetermined extent to many aspects of womens employment experience, including absenteeism, turnover, productivity rates and work motivation, job dissatisfaction, and unemployment. —MacKinnon, Sexual Harassment of Working Women

Why So Many Children of Doctors Become Doctors: Nepotism vs. Human Capital Transfers

In this paper we document a statistically significant, marginally greater probability of admittance into (at least one) medical school for children of doctors as compared to children of non-doctors. This fact can plausibly be explained as resulting from nepotism, in various forms, as well as from human capital transfers from first to (would-be) second generation doctors. After controlling for acquired human capital and other attributes of medical school applicants, we cannot reject nepotism as a cause-children of doctors are nearly 14 percent more likely to be admitted into medical school than are comparable nonfollowers.

Is There Sex Discrimination in the Legal Profession? Further Evidence on Tangible and Intangible Margins.

Failure to observe differences between men and women with respect to earnings and/or promotions does not preclude the possibility that employers discriminate against women on other, intangible margins. Since female lawyers are highly educated generally, and specifically with respect to legal remedies to overt sex discrimination, it seems unlikely that employers would discriminate against them on tangible margins. Indeed, drawing from the 1984 American Bar Association Survey of Career Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction, we find no evidence of discrimination against female lawyers in terms of earnings or promotions. We do, however, find evidence of sex discrimination on several intangible margins and in terms of overall job satisfaction.

The impact of having a mentor on earnings and promotion: evidence from a panel study of lawyers

Based on our analysis of longitudinal data from the American Bar Associations National Survey of Career Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction, we report on the economic consequences of having a mentor. Specifically, we find that individuals who reported having a mentor in 1984 were more likely (in 1990) to have achieved partner status. However, we find no evidence of any statistically significant link between protegeship in 1984 and earnings in 1990.