The downtrodden low paid workers are experiencing the fastest wages growth
29 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
Is the gender wage gap in New Zealand 6% or 9.9%?
26 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, econometerics, gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand
The OECD puts the gender wage gap in New Zealand at about 6% for full-time employees on an hourly basis when measured using median earnings.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs puts that gender wage gap estimate at 9.9% by measuring median hourly earnings, but the Ministry includes both full-time and part-time employees.
Conflating full-time and part-time earnings when measuring wage gaps is unwise. The level of compensating differentials in full-time and part-time jobs differ. More of the net pay package of a part-time job would be convenience and flexibility. A full-time job tends to indicate greater commitment to the labour force day in day out and less interest in flexibility and time off during the week.
England riots culprits jailed for 1,800 years, which deterred crime
26 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, law and economics, occupational choice Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, London riots
The level of lawlessness was shocking and wholly inexcusable. The imposition of severe sentences, intended to provide both punishment and deterrence, must follow…
The context hugely aggravates the seriousness of each individual offence … the sheer numbers involved may have led some of the offenders to believe that they were untouchable and would escape detection…
When there is wanton and vicious violence of gross degree the court is not concerned with whether it originates from gang rivalry or from political motives. It is the degree of mob violence that matters and the extent to which the public peace is broken.”
The Lord Chief Justice Judge
The response of the criminal fraternity in London to the sentences handed out during the London riots was very business like. Offending for those particular sentences dropped. Criminals substituted to other forms of crime to pursue their chosen occupation as a criminal in light of the changed incentives:
…a significant drop in riot crimes across London in the six months after the riots, consistent with a deterrence effect from the tougher sentencing. More evidence of general deterrence comes from the observation that crime also fell in the post‐riot aftermath in areas where rioting did not take place.
Women who worked 34 hours or less per week earned 5.6% more than their male counterparts
26 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, part-time work
The gender gap that has no name
26 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, health and safety, labour economics, occupational choice Tags: fatal occupational injuries, gender fatalities gap, workplace injuries
The New Zealand gender wage gap is 6%, not 36% as the Greens claim
25 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand Tags: gender wage gap
Another job that was replaced by a robot
25 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, technological progress Tags: automation, creative destruction, technological unemployment
The industries where personal connections matter the most in getting a job – The Washington Post
23 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in job search and matching, labour economics, occupational choice Tags: job networks
via The industries where personal connections matter the most in getting a job – The Washington Post.
The mummy penalty in the labour market
21 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, labour economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap
Indian parents are scaling walls to help their kids cheat because economics
20 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, occupational choice Tags: cheating, signalling
I ask what is the point of passing an exam where there is widespread cheating, and in consequence the exam has little credibility. What is the point of holding an exam when there is widespread cheating?
If you seek to learn skills, cheating would be totally counter-productive. But if the exam simply produces a credential that people accept, students look for ways to get the credential as painlessly as possible.
Cheating works best if the signalling model of education is true. Students should cheat more in those courses that offer the least productivity gains.
Serious cheaters have been found to be more likely to be younger and have a lower grade point average. But as Alex Tabarrok argues
“I sometimes find evidence of cheating on exams but I rarely take action, I don’t have to. Almost invariably the cheaters get abysmally low grades even without penalty.
Some people I know get annoyed when students without evident handicap ask for and receive special treatment such as extra time on exams. I comply without rancor as the extra time never seems to help. Over the years I have had a number of students ask for incompletes. None have ever become completes.
I call this the law of below averages.”
The reversing gender gap
19 Mar 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: gender wage, reversing gender gap, sex discrimination
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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