Michael E. Borus

Validating Performance Indicators for Employment and Training Programs

Proxies are used to indicate the impact of employment and training programs. CETA prime sponsors and the Labor Department rely on these performance indicators for fund allocations. This study correlates eight indicators with the impact on earnings of participation in four types of programs. The study shows that performance indicators presently being used, which are primarily constructed from placement data, provide no useful information for judging relative program effectiveness. Other indicators, particularly changes in weeks in the labor force, weeks employed, and wage rates, while far from perfect, are correlated much more with earnings gain.

Willingness to Work among Youth

I argue against the popular view that young Black men experience more joblessness than their White counterparts because they have priced themselves out of the labor market. The seemingly excessive reservation wages of jobless young Black men, what they ...

Indicators of CETA performance

Attempts to identify the valid indicators of the long-run effects of manpower programs in the case of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 in the United States. Correlation between the long-run impact and the indicators used to estimate manpower program performance; Use of proxy variables. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

Response Error in Survey Reports of Earnings Information

Abstract This study examines response error in survey reports of earnings information to determine if systematic bias will exist in the responses of particular groups in a sample. The misreporting of earnings data is regressed upon the characteristics of the sample and of the jobs they held. Response error is found to regress significantly upon sex, age, education, training status (motivation to respond incorrectly), magnitude of reported earnings, interviewer familiarity with the schedule, and the number of hours employed. This leads to the conclusion that survey earnings data will require adjustments, other than those for sampling error, to remove the bias of response error.

PROBLEMS AND ISSUES IN THE EVALUATION OF MANPOWER PROGRAMS

Examines the methodologies used in the evaluation of manpower programs. Use of control groups; Application of multivariate techniques of analysis; Measurement of income changes as a primary dependent variable. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

Response Error and Questioning Technique in Surveys of Earnings Information

Abstract This article compares two questioning techniques for securing earnings information. Two broad earnings questions and detailed work history information were asked of 300 residents of low income neighborhoods. Systematic differences, based on the level of earnings, the age and the number of jobs of the respondents, were found between the estimates from the two techniques. When the estimates were compared with employer earnings data, it was found that for surveys dealing primarily with urban, low income neighborhoods, the broad question approach was as accurate as the work history method, and therefore, was preferable because of its lower cost and greater ease of use. For surveys of higher income groups, however, the work history approach provided more accurate earnings estimates. Here, the researcher will have to weigh the improved accuracy of the work history against its disadvantages. The relative response errors using the two approaches are presented to facilitate this decision.

Youth and the Labor Market: Analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey.

included summary tables comparing the origin, structure, functions, and future role of employers organizations. Second, no reason is given for not including Canada in this study. If that decision was based on the belief that Canadian employers associations are indistinguishable from their U.S. counterparts, I would suggest that such an assumption is as faulty as picturing the Canadian labor movement as the mirrorimage of American unionism. This book will have its widest appeal to students of comparative industrial relations and those wishing to develop a better understanding of one of the key actors in the industrial relations system. For those with these interests, this will be a valuable addition to their reference shelf.