Nurses’ labour supply elasticities: The importance of accounting for extensive margins

We estimate a multi-sector model of nursing qualification holders’ labour supply in different occupations. A structural approach allows us to model the labour force participation decision, the occupational and shift-type choice, and the decision about hours worked as a joint outcome following from maximising a utility function. Disutility from work is allowed to vary by occupation and also by shift type in the utility function. Our results suggest that average wage elasticities might be higher than previous research has found. This is mainly due to the effect of wages on the decision to enter or exit the profession, which was not included in the previous literature, rather than from its effect on increased working hours for those who already work in the profession.     

Relationship between regulatory barriers to entry and pharmacy technician wages

BackgroundPharmacy technicians are vital to the operation of pharmacies, and national pharmacy associations have advocated for mandatory education and training requirements. While these requirements may improve patient safety, there is a risk that laws and regulations which impose substantial education and training requirements on technicians could create barriers to entry which restrict the workforce and increase wages.ObjectiveThis study has two objectives: 1) Describe changes in barriers to entry and wages over time; and 2) Evaluate the correlation between changing barriers to entry and pharmacy technician wages.MethodsData come from Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics from 1997 to 2017 and National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Surveys of Pharmacy Law from 1997 to 2014. A barrier to entry was defined as adoption of registration, licensure, or certification. Wage data was adjusted to 2017 dollars using the Consumer Price Index. Ordinary least squares regression evaluated the correlation between the proportion of states which had at least one barrier to entry and wages. An interrupted time series model estimated the impact of adopting a barrier to entry on the trend in technician wages over time.ResultsTechnician wages increased between 1997 and 2007 but remained flat between 2008 and 2017. A strong correlation was observed between the proportion of states which had at least one barrier to entry and technician wages (R2 = 0.93, p < 0.0001). However, the interrupted time series models did not identify any relationship between adoption of a barrier to entry and the trend in technician wages (p = 0.363).ConclusionsThis research suggests adoption of legal/regulatory barriers to entry did not have a significant influence on the trend in technician wages over time. More research is needed to evaluate the impact of barriers to entry on non-wage practice variables, such as privileges and satisfaction.     

Propensity score matching without conditional independence assumption—with an application to the gender wage gap in the United Kingdom

Summary Propensity score matching is frequently used for estimating average treatment effects. Its applicability, however, is not confined to treatment evaluation. In this paper, it is shown that propensity score matching does not hinge on a selection on observables assumption and can be used to estimate not only adjusted means but also their distributions, even with non‐i.i.d. sampling. Propensity score matching is used to analyze the gender wage gap among graduates in the UK. It is found that subject of degree contributes substantially to explaining the gender wage gap, particularly at higher quantiles of the wage distribution.     

Wage formation and employment in a cointegrated VAR model

This paper uses a general equilibrium, monopolistic competition model of wage bargaining between trade unions and firms to derive two steady state relations which are estimated within a cointegrated VAR framework using quarterly Danish data. The first cointegrating relation is the marginal productivity condition for labour, derived from profit maximization of firms who face a downward sloping demand curve for their product. The second cointegrating relation is a real wage relation, derived from the bargaining between trade unions and firms over wages, in the right‐to‐manage manner. The theoretical model is not rejected and the model displays parameter constancy throughout the estimation period and is able to forecast out‐of‐sample.     

Differences in employment and income poverty between people with and without disabilities in South Africa

There is a substantial body of literature that confirms the cyclical relationship between poverty and disability. However, while there are studies that have sought to understand the relationship between income poverty and disability and how disability intersects with other factors to influence poverty, most do not offer insight into how this relationship is shaped – particularly given the limited availability of panel data. Furthermore, there is limited research on the effect of social grants and employment on income poverty, as well as how disability intersects with other factors to shape poverty. Guided by the capabilities approach, the focus of this article was therefore on the dynamics of the relationship between disability and two aspects of poverty, namely, income and employment, which are critical to the realization of capabilities. The findings show that people with disabilities in South Africa are more likely to be income poor and remain so over time, but that social grants serve to alleviate income poverty. Income poverty is explained in part by the fact that people with disabilities are less likely to be employed and that when they are employed they face significant wage gaps. Disability also intersects with race, sex and geographic location to shape income poverty in ways that have important implications for policy and programme development.     

The impact of psychological trauma on wages in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

In the last three decades, armed conflict has increasingly been fought among civilian populations, resulting in greater physical and mental tolls. Soldiers returning from combat with psychological trauma are now receiving medical and policy attention for reintegration into the workforce. However, there is little attention on the impacts and options available to civilians who may face similar problems achieving labor force success after exposure to war-related trauma. Using the Bosnia and Herzegovina Living Standards Measurement Survey for years 2001–2004, we study wage attainment for 7659 respondents in relation to a series of psychological trauma measures which correspond to those used in PTSD diagnosis. In standard OLS regression, all subcomponents of PTSD have a negative impact; however, once unobserved individual heterogeneity is taken into account, some of the individual elements of psychological trauma have positive impacts on wage attainment. This is one of the first studies to find evidence of Posttraumatic Growth using information beyond psychometric instruments. The impact of the PTSD condition itself is insignificant in both models, and we do not find evidence of selection bias. We determine that the traditional means of predicting wages in labor economics are relevant in a post-conflict environment.     

The incidence of the healthcare costs of obesity

Who pays the healthcare costs associated with obesity? Among workers, this is largely a question of the incidence of the costs of employer-sponsored coverage. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we find that the incremental healthcare costs associated with obesity are passed on to obese workers with employer-sponsored health insurance in the form of lower cash wages. Obese workers without employer-sponsored insurance do not have a wage offset relative to their non-obese counterparts. A substantial part of the lower wages among obese women attributed to labor market discrimination can be explained by their higher health insurance premiums.     

生育年龄与社会影响因素分析

目的:调查河北省11个市育龄夫妇平均生育年龄态势及其社会影响因素。方法:根据河北省11个市对农村随访孕妇的调查资料,对农村育龄夫妇的性别、年龄、生育年龄及生育状况与文化水平、民族职业以及辖区经济状况等数据进行筛选与分析。结果:河北省一胎孕妇平均年龄为23.9±2.50岁,二胎孕妇平均年龄为31.3±3.30岁;一胎孕妇丈夫平均年龄24.85±2.48岁,二胎孕妇丈夫平均年龄32.03±3.60岁;孕妇及其丈夫生年育龄与其所在市辖区内人均经济收入水平呈明显负相关,且生育年龄在不同文化程度、不同职业各组间有明显差异,其中文盲、小学、大学、干部生育年龄比其他组明显上升。结论:本研究表明生育年龄与所在辖区内人均收入水平呈负相关,且生育年龄向后推迟现象在文化层次上向最高和最低学历两极分化。     

医院分配制度改革的实践与体会

为适应市场经济的要求，构建医院的管理模式，我们在实际行人事制度改革的基础上，结合医院特点和自身的实际，进行了医院分配制度的改革。主要是采取院，科两级分配的办法，把工资与各科室的效益，职工的工作情况捆绑在一起，把医院的兴衰成败与职工的切身利益联系在一起，从而调动了各方面的积极性，取得了显著的成效，推动了医院各项事业的健康发展，并为今后的进一步改革和发展奠定了坚实的基础。     

医院绩效工资核算方法研究与应用

介绍了应用病例组合方法,确定医院病种分类及难度系数,并采用总额预算法,推算病种/检查项目费率,建立一套以病种/项目、难度系数、费率和工作量为主要指标的绩效工资核算体系.同时以实例阐述医院各类科室绩效工资核算方法.