Thesis (doctoral) - Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-234)

Remittances from individuals not residing in the home significantly affect recipient households' behavior. Using data from the Jamaican Survey of Living Conditions and the Jamaican Labor Force Survey for years 2001-2007, this dissertation aims to explore some of the most significant effects of remittances, namely effects on labor market participation and household expenditures. Jamaica's proximity to the United States and Canada coupled with Jamaica's diaspora of educated individuals shapes an economy largely dependent on remittances. The country, therefore, provides an interesting and exciting case study for examining the effects of remittances. / In the first essay, we investigate whether remittances alter the labor market behavior of married women (or those in long-term relationships) in remittance-receiving households located in Jamaica. As is often the case in labor supply studies, it is important to identify key variables that are likely endogenous in the model. For purposes of this research, endogenous variables include remittances, the wife's education, and wages. We instrument both when predicting labor market participation and hours worked. Unlike other studies which find the income effect of remittances on household behavior results in increased leisure, we find that after instrumenting for remittances, the outside income has no significant effect on the supply of labor, either in terms of hours worked or participation. / The second paper assesses the extent that remittances alter the consumption pattern of recipient households in Jamaica. Classical theory predicts that total income and not income sources affects household consumption decisions, but developments in behavioral economics suggest the contrary. The disaggregation of both income streams and consumption expenditures as reported in the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions provide us with unique insight into household behavior and in particular, spending on items such as food, schooling, and vices. Using Engel curve estimation and the two-part fractional response models, we find that the source of the income significantly affects the shares of income spent in specific consumption categories. Recipients, for example, generally spend larger shares of their income on schooling and home production and less at the grocery store. These findings suggest important implications should government look to tax or restrict the flow of remittances.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2003. Graduate Programme in Economics. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-95). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ99189

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-199). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

In 1938, San Antonio’s pecan shellers waged a five-week strike against their employers. The shellers had few resources at their disposal, and, moreover, most of them were Mexican women. During the work stoppage, the picketers endured widespread opposition and police brutality. Nonetheless, the shellers forced their employers to arbitrate. Previous scholars have characterized the strike as spontaneous, but closer examination reveals the events and circumstances that spurred the shellers to action. Specifically, this work will address why the strike occurred at the beginning of 1938, and how the shellers achieved a successful outcome. Political and economic factors in the early twentieth century resulted in a massive wave of migration from Mexico into the U.S. Newly arrived Mexican workers faced discrimination in the workplace and in their personal lives. That discrimination resulted in low wages for Mexican workers. Low wages forced Mexicans in San Antonio to live in the city’s west side neighborhood, which lacked adequate housing and infrastructure. Such conditions gave pecan workers considerable reason to resent their employers and seek change. Grievances alone might explain why the shellers struck, but they do not explain the strike’s success. Pecan workers relied on solidarity formed over many years to sustain their work stoppage until their employers surrendered. Solidarity was formed in a variety of venues on the west side, in both formal and informal organizations. Leisure activities also fostered unity, often along cultural lines. The shellers also built a sense of togetherness through labor organizations and mutual aid societies. The political climate in San Antonio during the late 1930s provided the final piece to the puzzle of the strike’s success. Election results at the federal, state, and local levels signaled that voters sought the leadership of individuals who advocated increased rights for workers and minorities. The shellers seized on the political climate, waging their strike at a time when it stood a better than average chance to succeed. Without the combination of poverty, solidarity, and opportunity that existed for Mexicans on the west side in January 1938, the strike’s occurrence and outcome would have been in considerable doubt.

<p>This dissertation consists of two essays that examine marital formation and dissolution in the United States. The first chapter highlights the roles that both the availability of men and competition from women within a marriage market play in the low marriage rates of uneducated black women. Black women who drop out of high school are far less likely to marry than those who do not; however, they also, counterintuitively, face much more favorable marriage markets than more educated women if we define marriage markets as independent by education level, as is standard. Using a simple model of the marriage market with men and women of different quality levels that allows for marriage market integration across education levels, I show that the marriage prospects of any woman should depend not only on the availability of men, but also the competition from more educated women. Additionally, this model predicts that any gender imbalance should disproportionately affect the marriage prospects for the least educated. Using data from the 1979-2004 waves of the NLSY79, I estimate discrete-time hazard models of first marriages for black women, capturing a woman's marriage prospects in four ways: (i) using a flexible specification that includes five ratios for the relative availability of men as well as the prevalence of competing women at each education level, (ii) using the ratios for the availability of men and women at adjacent education levels, (iii) using an education-specific simple sex ratio from the educationally segmented marriage markets that dominate the literature, and (iv) using a "cascading'' sex ratio implied by the simple model. The results emphasize the importance not only of the supply of men, but also of the competition from other women for the least educated women. Thus, marriage market measures that do not account for this cross-education competition greatly overstate the favorability of the marriage markets for uneducated black women. </p><p>The second chapter is joint work with my advisor Marjorie McElroy and Tongyai Iyavarakul which presents a new approach to the reduced-form estimation of dynamic models using aggregated panel data. With forward looking behaviors, exogenous changes in laws or rules give rise to selection effects on those considering entry and surprise effects for those who have already entered. We develop a model, the Cohort Panel Data Model (CPDM), to examine the effects of divorce law changes on divorce rates. Our analysis has several key features. First, we introduce the concept of a marriage cohort, a group of people married under a certain set of laws. The calculation of the shares of the population in each marriage cohort is a key element of our aggregation protocol. Second, the model includes floodgate effects, a spike in the divorce rate followed by a decline, resulting from heterogeneity within these marriage cohorts. Lastly, we develop a wait-time index for the cost of divorce and carefully code divorce laws based on two dimensions: costs and rights. Thus the model allows for an unbiased test of the Coase Theorem since our model gives the surprise effect of a change in the rights to divorce holding costs constant. Results strongly support the idea that unanticipated divorce law changes affected divorce rates, but finds that these effects are operating through changing costs and not changes in rights (supporting the Coase Theorem). Additionally, lower divorce costs are found to increase divorce rates through the selection of less well-matched couples into marriage. Finally we reconcile our results with previous studies by showing that previous studies that do not differentiate between costs and rights suffer from omitted variables bias and improper aggregation over marriage cohorts.</p> / Dissertation

Many argue that formal degrees are not necessary to be successful in the technology industry, and further argue that self-taught computer programmers are more productive than formally taught computer programmers. This sentiment is supported by the examples of industry leaders such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. This study examines the possible effects of this attitude on the returns to education for computer programmers. The empirical analysis finds that the wage return to formal education for computer programmers is less than for most other occupations including STEM and degree-dominated professions. These differences are attributed to the smaller impact of signaling through educational attainment on wages in the technology industry as well as the perceived ability to substitute the human capital accumulated through formal education with self-teaching and experience.

This is a descriptive study of the relationship between labor patients' perceptions of type of nursing care and labor patients' ability to meet psychosocial needs. The hypothesis tested was labor patients who perceive their nursing care as supportive are better able to meet their psychosocial needs during labor than those labor patients who perceive their nursing care as physical. Physical care included nursing care that meets the physical needs of the patient, and supportive care included nursing care which consists of physical and supportive aspects of nursing care. Psychosocial needs during labor consisted of maintenance of control and self-esteem, and realization of expectations.A sample of 50 postpartum patients was obtained using systematic sampling. The author's tool, Patient's Perception of Labor Questionnaire, was administered within 48 hours postpartum. The patients were divided into two groups, supportive care and physical care, based on their responses on the questionnaire. The statistic ANOVA was used to compare mean scores in relation to meeting psychosocial needs. Those patients who perceived their nursing (p >.05) for maintenance of self-esteem, realization of care as supportive had significantly higher mean scores expectations and maintenance of psychosocial needs. There was not a significant difference in means for maintenance of control for the two groups.

The household division of labor and the pay gap between men and women is examined using the 2003 American Time Use Survey. There are three components to an income determination model: individual, structural and gender level components. The individual component argues that people are rational human beings who make conscious decisions on how to maximize their utility, with increased investments in human capital possibly leading to increases in income. The structural component views society as organized into a hierarchy of economic positions, with different positions carrying different levels of income, independent of individual attributes. The gender component, based on feminist theory, views gender as a process of devaluation and sorting. It is predicted that women will complete the majority of household labor, resulting in a decrease in income. It is further predicted that women will earn less than men, net of other factors. An OLS regression analysis is performed. Women earn $108.24 less per week than men, net of other factors. The structural level component accounts for the most variance at 40.8%, followed by the individual component at 10.1% and then the gender component at 5.8%. Increased participation in household labor results in a slight decrease in income. This relationship, however, is only significant for married women, who receive a decrease of $1.01 per week for each additional hour of household labor performed. Policy implications are discussed, including stricter enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, development of a comparable worth policy, changes in societal views on gender, and more family-friendly work policies. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Dept. of Sociology. / "May 2006." / vii, 63 leaves : ill., digital, PDF file.

On March 26, 2010 the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that The Boeing Company engaged in several unfair labor practices when it decided to build a second production facility for the 787 Dreamliner in a non-union facility in North Charleston, South Carolina. However, the NLRB’s charges are unwarranted and should be dismissed. Boeing’s competitiveness, as well as the overall American economy, is threatened by the precedent that would be set by a decision in favor of the union.