Sheldon E. Haber

Participation in industrial training programs

Two questions suggested by the recent literature on the matching of workers and firms are examined. The first relates to differences in the proportion of workers that participate in industrial training programs in large and small firms. The second relates to the characteristics of workers who participate in such programs. The major finding of this study is that workers in large firms are more likely to participate in industrial training programs than similar workers in small firms; the large-small firm training program participation rate differential is less, however, among low productivity workers than among high productivity workers. Additionaly, workers with vocational training received outside of a work setting are just as likely to find employment in small firms as in large ones.

Does Salaried Status Affect Human Capital Accumulation

Human capital studies do not usually consider whether an individual is paid an hourly wage or a salary. The authors of this paper develop a conceptual framework that explains why some workers are paid salaries and predicts that salaried workers will invest more in human capital than will hourly workers. In particular, this prediction hinges on the differing effort incentives facing hourly and salaried workers, and their employers, in jobs that are paced versus unpaced. Empirical evidence supporting this prediction and other hypotheses implied by the proposed framework is presented using data on individuals covering a 16-month period in 1984–85 from the Bureau of Census Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a longitudinal survey.

An optimal inventory model where resupply is possible but uncertain

Abstract A model is formulated for computing the optimal stock quantity of an item when resupply is possible but uncertain. The distinguishing feature of the model is that the optimal stock quantity calculation takes into account the cost of resupply and the probability of stock arriving by a specified mode of transport in time for issue to customers. The model is then applied to the problem of determining a preferred mode of transport for an assumed set of parameters.

On the Racial Composition of Workers Available to an Organization

As in most nations, the labor force in the United States is composed of many diverse groups. Where it is public policy to hire workers in a nondiscriminatory manner, the problem arises as to how to determine the fair-share of each group in an organization’s work force. In this paper, a number of occupations are looked at; particular attention is given to the professional occupations for which inter-labor market mobility is pronounced.

The cyclical sensitivity of white-collar skill margins

SummaryIn this paper the authors assess the extent to which white-collar skill margins (SMs) fluctuate over the business cycle. Whether the SM increases (decreases) during economic expansion (recession) or moves in an opposite direction depends on the elasticity of supply of highly skilled and entry level workers and, according to Ois model of labor as a quasi-fixed factor, the fixed employment costs incurred by firms in hiring each of these categories of labor. Since the effects of supply elasticity and fixed employment costs tend to offset each other, the cyclical sensitivity of the white-collar SM can only be ascertained by recourse to empirical data. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the Professional, Administrative, Technical, and Clerical Survey covering the period 1962–85 are used for this purpose.The major finding of the paper is that white-collar SMsnarrow during the expansionary phase of the business cycle andwiden during periods of recession. In accordance with implications that can be drawn from the Oi model, it is also found that over the business cycle the SM of professional workers varies more than the SM of clerical workers; likewise the SM of workers with higher-order skills varies more than the SM of workers with lower-order skills. The primary policy implication of the findings is that, during the period covered by the data, white-collar SMs have moved in such a manner as to dampen price increases during the expansionary phase of the business cycle.Skill margins are found to narrow when the rate of inflation is high among workers with lower-order skills in the clerical occupations, but to widen among workers in the higher-order skills in the professional and clerical occupations. Overall, however, inflation appears to exert a much smaller influence on white-collar SMs than the unemployment rate.