04 Apr 2015
by Jim Rose
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, occupational choice
Tags: compensating differentials, gender wage gap, reversing gender gap, STEM
A lot of women did information science in the 70s, close to 40% of all information science majors, then women moved away to invest in other majors. It would be laughable to suggest that information science was more welcoming to women in the 1970s but not now. Clearly, a third set of factors is at play unrelated to hostile working environments. Similarly, a large number of women did maths and statistics then that trend petered out in the 1980s.
30 Mar 2015
by Jim Rose
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, population economics, poverty and inequality, welfare reform
Tags: child poverty, family demographics, family structures, single parents
30 Mar 2015
by Jim Rose
in economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia, politics - USA
Tags: David Autor, education premium, Gough Whitlam, top 1%
Gough Whitlam abolished tuition fees at Australian universities in 1972. The idea was to reduce inequality. He entrenched it instead, and gave a flying start to those of already above-average talents.
David Autor in a recent paper has illustrated how the gap between the highly educated and the less educated is growing at a far faster rate than the gap between the top 1% in the bottom 99% in the USA. David Autor argues that
a single minded focus on the top 1% can be counterproductive given that the changes to the other 99% have been more economically significant.
- since the early 1980s, the earnings gap between workers with a high school degree and those with a college education has become four times greater than the shift in income during the same period to the very top from the 99%.
- Between 1979 and 2012, the gap in median annual earnings between households of high-school educated workers and households with college-educated ones expanded from $30,298 to $58,249, or by roughly $28,000.
- If the incomes of the bottom 99% are grown at the same pace as the top 1% their incomes would have increased by $7000 per household.
Autor argues that the growth of skill differentials among the other 99% is more consequential than the rise of the 1% for the welfare of most citizens.
via How Education Drives Inequality Among the 99% – Real Time Economics – WSJ.
26 Mar 2015
by Jim Rose
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.
26 Mar 2015
by Jim Rose
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.
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