Dale Belman

Sheepskin Effects in the Returns to Education: An Examination on Women and Minorities

Recent confirmation of sheepskin effects in the returns to education for prime age white males has been taken as evidence of screening or signaling in the labor market. The authors report evidence of sheepskin effects among women and minority males, and demonstrate that they are somewhat smaller for lower diploma years, but larger for higher diploma years, than those of white males. These are among the first broad-based results confirming the frequent contention derived from signaling models that minorities have smaller returns to low productivity signals, but larger returns to high productivity signals. Copyright 1991 by MIT Press.

What Does the Minimum Wage Do

The authors perform a meta-analysis of more than 200 published studies on the effects of raising the minimum wage to determine impacts on employment, wages, and more.

Government wage differentials: a sample selection approach

This paper uses the econometrics of sample selection to estimate the net wage differential between workers in the public and private sectors of the United States. The results indicate workers self select by systematically locating in the sector which offers them the higher expected wage. As a consequence, previous research based on the assumption of random allocation between sectors is subject to serious specification bias. The present estimation indicates government workers are slightly underpaid taking into account their observed characteristics and the selection process.

Concentration, Unionism, and Labor Earnings: A Sample Selection Approach

Using a simultaneous equations model of wages and union membership, the elasticity of the wage with respect to market concentration is estimated to be approximately 0.2. The estimate uses a large data set and extensive controls to measure concentrations direct effect on the wage, an indirect effect through unionization, and a feedback effect. The indirect effect represents the majority of concentrations effect. Copyright 1988 by MIT Press.

Public Sector Earnings and the Extent of Unionization

Many studies have examined the influence of union density (union members as a percentage of all workers) on earnings in the private sector, but few such studies have looked at the public sector. Using data from the 1991 Current Population Survey, this study estimates the determinants of earnings for state and local government employees in both the union and nonunion sectors. The extent of public sector unionization appears to be positively correlated with earnings for both state and local government workers and for those covered and not covered by collective agreements. Although the effect for non-covered employees is smaller than that for covered employees, both effects are larger than those typically found in similar estimates for the private sector. The authors also find that bargaining structure has some influence on earnings, with the most consistent effect being a positive influence of arbitration on the earnings of local government workers.

The Minimum Wage

Do moderate increases in the minimum wage reduce employment? If not, do they nevertheless raise wages? To examine these questions, we apply techniques of time series analysis and systems estimation that are commonly used in macroeconomics and finance to five panels of data that contain between 11 and 34 low-wage industries. Our answers are “No” and “Yes,” respectively. We find that increases in the federal minimum wage between 1947 and 1997 have raised average wages in many of these industries, especially the lowest wage ones. The effect on employment, however, is mixed and typically nonsignificant, even when average wages have risen.

Public-Sector Wage Comparability: The Role of Earnings Dispersion

Economists use average wage differentials to examine whether public- and private-sector workers have comparable earnings. Such average differentials, originally developed for other purposes, fail to measure the true distance from comparability. In short, if average earnings in the public and private sectors are identical, earnings need not be comparable. The authors develop alternative statistical measures of comparability that demonstrate that differences in average earnings contribute only modestly to deviations from comparability and that state and local governments in the United States deviate more from comparability than does the federal government.

Trucking in the age of information

Contents The evolution of the U.S. motor carrier industry, B. Starr McMullen The truckload carrier industry segment, Thomas M. Corsi Less-than-tuckload motor carriers: a story of diversity and change, Peter F. Swan and Stephen V. Burks The package express industry: a historical and current perspective, Les Hough and Maciek Nowak Logistics service providers, C. John Langley, Jr Industry performance following reformation of economic and social regulation in the trucking industry, James Peoples Technology in trucking, Anuradha Nagarajan, Enrique Canessa, Maciek Nowak, Will Mitchell and C.C. White III Truck drivers in the age of information: transformation without gain, Dale L. Belman, Francine Lafontaine and Kristen A. Monaco Just-in-time and trucking logistics: the lean learning enterprise, Jennifer N. Karlin and Jeffrey K. Liker Motor carrier safety in the age of information, Lee Husting and Elyce Biddle Future truck drivers: where will they come from, why take the job?, Michael E. Conyngham Index.

State and local government wage differentials: An intrastate analysis

Previous estimates of state and local government wage differentials have been typically based on data aggregated across all states, and such aggregation may produce seriously misleading differential estimates. We estimate intrastate earnings differentials for the state and local sectors in Wisconsin, four other midwestern states, and two states outside the midwest. There is substantial variation in the differentials: aggregated differentials can be misleading. Our work also confirms that state and local government labor markets have reduced earnings dispersion and investigates the possibility that higher public sector earnings may attract an “over-qualified” work force.

Direct and indirect effects of unionization and government employment on fringe benefit provision

The separate influences of unionization and government employment on the provision of two major fringe benefits, pensions and health insurance, are investigated. Each influence is decomposed into a direct effect and an indirect effect through earnings. The sum of these effects often differs in size from estimates that ignore the two distinct effects. Moreover, studies that argue that both unions and governmental employees capture greater fringe benefits focus on the direct effect, yet estimates usually have not isolated this effect.