John G. Sessions

Education and employment status: a test of the strong screening hypothesis in Italy

Abstract We apply the comparative techniques originated by Wolpin, K.I. (1977, Education and screening, American Economic Review, 67, 949–958) and Psacharopoulos (1979, On the weak versus the strong version of the screening hypothesis, Economics Letters, 4, 181–185) to discriminate between the `weak and `strong screening hypotheses. Controlling for sample selection, we find evidence for weak but not strong screening in the Italian labour market. [JEL J3, J24, J41]

Education, Employment Status and Earnings: A Comparative Test of the Strong Screening Hypothesis

The authors apply the comparative technique originated by K. I. Wolpin (1977) to discriminate between the weak and strong screening hypothesizes. Controlling for self-selection, they find evidence for weak, but not strong, screening. Copyright 1998 by Scottish Economic Society.

A Profile of UK Unemployment: Regional versus Demographic Influences

n This paper profiles the incidence of unemployment in the [United Kingdom] over the period 1985-91 using data derived from the British Social Attitudes Survey. The approach of the paper is to quantify the differential probabilities of unemployment faced by particular groups within the population, focusing in particular on the relative effects of demographic and regional influences. Our results indicate that, even after controlling for a plethora of demographic characteristics, regional disparities in unemployment risk are prevalent, with individuals in Northern Ireland, Wales, the North and West Midlands of England facing a higher chance of unemployment ceteris paribus. (EXCERPT)n

Signalling and Screening

This major Handbook comprehensively surveys the rapidly growing field of the economics of education. It is unique in that it comprises original contributions on an exceptional range of topics from a review of human capital, signalling and screening models, to consideration of issues such as educational externalities and economic growth, funding models, determinants of educational success, the educational production function, educational standards and efficiency measurement. Labour market issues such as the market for teachers and the transition of students from school to work are also explored.

Supervisor Heterogeneity: An Analysis of UK Microdata

We investigate the attributes of supervisors and the key correlates of the extent of their supervisory responsibilities. We find a strong correlation between wages, education, experience, firm size and the extent of supervision. One implication of this is that firms may be indifferent between employing a few, high responsibility or many low responsibility supervisors. Our findings, suggestive as they are of supervisory heterogeneity, should be taken into account in studies that proxy the intensity of monitoring primarily by the number of supervisors employed. Copyright 2002 by Scottish Economic Society.

Experience‐earnings profiles, education and gender

Investigates the shape of experience‐earnings profiles across gender. Given that self‐employment offers both an alternative to unemployment and potentially flexible – and thereby attractive to female labour market participants – working arrangements, estimates separate profiles for employees and self‐employees. The male results support Lazear and Moore’s agency‐driven explanation for the shape of experience‐earnings profiles with self‐employment being characterized by a relatively flat profile. The estimated female employee profile is flatter than its male counterpart, a finding which lends support to the human capital explanation for gender‐specific earnings profiles, whereby females tend to withdraw from the labour market and so reduce their incentive to invest in human capital. In the case of female self‐employees, educational attainment rather than labour market experience appears to be the significant determinant of earnings.

Real Business Cycles: sectoral versus aggregate shocks and the elasticity of demand for income in terms of work effort

Real business cycle theory asserts that technological shocks are a major root cause of cyclical fluctuation, but has yet to explain how a sector technological change impacts upon other sectors of the economy to produce aggregate fluctuations in output. This paper suggest that an appropriate analytical framework with which to address the issue may be derived from the long forgotten concept of the elasticity of demand for income in terms of work effort. Our contention is that the concept could be usefully employed by contemporary real business cycle theorists to explain the macroeconomic repercussions of sectoral changes.

Jurassic Union Man? A Profile of the British Trade Union Member

This paper examines the determinants of trade union membership in Great Britain utilising micro-data taken from the British Social Attitudes Survey over the period 1985–91. Our results suggest that, contrary to previous micro-studies, personal characteristics and the perceptions of workers attitudes as regards their working environment impact significantly upon the decision to join a trade union. Moreover, it would appear that the union membership decision is becoming increasingly endogenised, especially in the case of the white-collar worker.