Rafael Gomez

Membership has its privileges: the effect of social capital and neighbourhood characteristics on the earnings of microfinance borrowers

This paper examines the determinants of self-employment success for microcredit borrowers. Theories of social capital and neighbourhood effects are integrated in an attempt to account for earnings differentials amongst a unique sample of microfinance borrowers. The paper posits that social capital - social relations that facilitate individual action – is essential for microentrepreneurial success. Based on a survey and data collected by the authors, this study demonstrates that social capital is a positive determinant of self-employment earnings. It also highlights the role that neighbourhoods play in fostering social capital and improving microentrepreneurial performance.

Comparing Youth and Adult Desire for Unionization in Canada

Survey data for Canada indicates that youths have a stronger preference than adults for unionization. We show that most of that difference reflects the stronger desire of youths to have unions deal with workplace issues rather than a greater exposure of youths to these issues. In particular, youth preferences for unionization are influenced to a greater degree than for adults by social capital (e.g, familial union status and peer–group attitudes). The possible role of progressive HRM practices and legislative protection in substituting for unionization is also highlighted. Finally, implications of the findings for the future of unionization and organizing youth are discussed.

Youth-Adult Differences in the Demand for Unionisation: Are American, British, and Canadian Workers All That Different?

We examine demand for union membership amongst young and adult workers in Britain, Canada, and the United States. Using a model of representation advanced by Farber (1983, 2001) and Riddell (1993), we find that a majority of the union density differential between young and adult workers in all three countries is due to supply-side constraints rather than a lower desire for unionization by the young. This finding lends credence to two conjectures: first, tastes for collective representation do not differ substantially among workers (either by nationality or by age) and second, union representation can be fruitfully modeled as an experience-good. The experience-good properties of union membership explain the persistence of union density differentials (in this case between youth and adults) in the face of equal levels of desired representation.

The long goodbye: new establishments and the fall of union voice in Britain

This paper argues that the secular decline in union voice in the UK cannot be fully explained without understanding the role of employers in choosing and modifying voice regimes. The paper presents a model of employee voice; the model assumes regimes are chosen by firms on the basis of positive net benefits, and that once adopted there are switching costs associated with changing regimes. The paper presents data from WERS, which is then analysed in terms of the model. We find a rise in voice regimes that do not include unions (i.e. the growth of so-called non-union voice) and a clear decline in voice regimes involving unions, particularly union-only voice. Ecological factors (i.e. new entrants and the demise of older workplaces) are primary in explaining the rise in non-union voice, whereas the shift to dual forms of voice (made up of union and non-union regimes side by side) was primarily the result of switches undertaken by union only workplaces as early as the 1950s.

The Comparative Advantage of Non‐Union Voice in Britain, 1980–2004

Non-union direct voice has replaced union representative voice as the primary avenue for employee voice in the British private sector. This study explains this development by providing a framework for examining the relationship between employee voice and workplace outcomes. Voice is associated with lower voluntary turnover, especially in the case of union voice. However, union voice is also associated with greater workplace conflict. We argue changes in voice in Britain are not best understood using a simple union/non-union dichotomy. Union effects on workplace outcomes and the incidence of human resource management hinge on whether it coexists at the workplace with non-union voice in what we term a “dual” system. In the first part of the 21st century, these dual voice systems were performing at least as well as non-union only regimes, suggesting that the rise of non-union regimes is attribu` to something other than clear comparative performance advantages over other forms of voice.

Salary Compression and Team Performance: Evidence from the National Hockey League

This paper seeks to develop a better understanding of the conditions under which equity (defined here as a compressed salary structures) and efficiency (defined here as team performance) are complementary. The mechanism linking internal pay equality and organizational performance are indirect, i.e. working through the creation of social cohesion within a team. It is social capital that is harmed in an organization that treats its labor input simply as a variable cost of production in need of minimization rather than a fixed cost of production. This prediction receives tentative confirmation in an empirical analysis that uses data from 26 NHL teams over the course of five seasons. This result, however, is sensitive to time periods used — a finding suggesting that in subsequent research richer data sets (covering different leagues and more seasons) need to be employed.

From Playstations to Workstations: Young Workers and the Experience-Good Model of Union Membership

Union membership confers certain benefits to workers. Some of these benefits, like the union wage premium, are visible to both members and non-members alike. Most others, such as the enforcement of procedural justice or the establishment of family friendly practices, are hard to identify before entering the labour market and near impossible if one has never sampled union membership (Fernie and Gray, 2002). It is only when a worker has actually been employed in a unionised environment for a long enough duration, or, when a worker has access to reliable information about the nature of unionisation, that s/he can form an accurate opinion about the value of membership (i.e., whether the benefits of joining a union outweigh any of the potential costs). If workers never experience any of these hard-to-observe benefits, they may be less inclined to become active dues paying members where unions are present, and even less likely to actively organise in workplaces lacking any union presence. This is especially the case if, as recent British and American research suggests, the largest and most visible benefit (i.e. the wage advantage conferred to unionised workers) has largely disappeared (Blanchflower and Bryson, 2003).

Catching a Wave: The Adoption of Voice and High-Commitment Workplace Practices in Britain, 1984-1998

In this paper we treat workplace voice and systems of high-commitment human resource management (HCHRM) as technological innovations in order to account for the uneven diffusion patterns observed across establishments. Using British data, the paper finds that variables highlighted in the technological diffusion literature are significant predictors of voice and HRM adoption decisions. Workplace size, size of multi-establishment network, ownership type, set-up date and network affects all play a significant role in high-commitment HRM adoption. We also find that union presence, per se, is not an inhibitor to the adoption of high commitment HRM practices.

Age Structure, Income Distribution and Economic Growth

A recent body of empirical cross-country research has confirmed that income inequality is negatively related to economic growth. This paper provides an explanatory channel for this observed relationship. The novelty of our approach consists in the use of demographic channels to account for cross-country differentials in economic growth and income distribution. We present four models that have emerged as the most plausible transmission mechanisms linking inequality to slower growth. In each instance we demonstrate how a consideration of demographic age structure can complement the four mainstream accounts.

Mandatory retirement: a constraint in transitions to retirement?

Issues associated with retirement in general, and phased transitions into retirement in particular, are taking on increased importance for a variety of reasons. Outlines those reasons, paying particular attention to the practice of mandatory retirement. Presents age dependency ratios for the OECD to highlight the importance of these issues in the context of an ageing and longer‐lived workforce relative to a smaller working age population. Then discusses the prevalence of mandatory retirement in Canada and the USA, and presents empirical evidence from Canada on variables associated with retiring because of mandatory retirement. The Canadian case is of particular interest, because mandatory retirement in Canada has generally not been banned, which is in marked contrast with the situation in the USA, where it has been banned as constituting age discrimination. The public and legal debate over the issue of mandatory retirement has also been extensive in Canada, and this debate may provide information for other countries dealing with the issue. Ends with an assessment of the extent to which mandatory retirement exerts a constraining influence on transitions into retirement. The essential argument is that its constraining impact is not as simple as it may initially appear. To the extent that mandatory retirement is an intricate part of the compensation and human resource function of firms, banning it can have important implications for those functions and, in turn, for transitions into retirement. The complexities of these issues and dramatically increasing old‐age dependency ratios will ensure that this is an area of growing importance for public policy and human resource management.