Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-160). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The purpose of this paper is to define and expand upon methods used to determine wage and employment effects of immigration on host countries’ labor markets. We start by examining existing literature, defining theoretical frameworks and exploring some of the empirical methods used to make these estimates. Using pooled OECD data from 2003 to 2013, we then attempt to combine an area-effects empirical model with macroeconomic assumptions about wage and unemployment determinants. Results line up somewhat with existing literature; there is no evidence that wages are affected by migrant inflows, though surprisingly, aggregated employment estimates are much larger than expected.

Recently there has been a substantial decline in the employment-to-population ratio, coinciding with a significant reduction in the unemployment rate. The ratio experienced a trend increase during the post-World War II period until 1999, primarily driven by the large influx of female workers into the labor force. Although pro-cyclical, the ratio always recovered to its previous peak and subsequently went beyond that level. Following the Dot-com recession, there was a decline followed by a mild recovery from 2003 to 2007, before a significant decrease. This thesis investigates the causes of the decline, which impacts on economic policy recommendations.

This study consists of two essays. In the first essay, I examine the effect of employee blockholdings on the values of corporate cash and capital expenditures. I find that when employees hold large equity stake in their companies, corporate cash holdings are worth less to outside shareholders and capital expenditures contribute less to shareholder value. The negative effect of employee block ownership on the values of cash and capital expenditures is concentrated in companies with fewer anti-takeover provisions, in companies which pay their employees abnormally high wages, and in companies where managers have little equity ownership. Our findings support the hypothesis that employee blockholdings can serve as a protection for managers from the market for corporate control and allow managers to extract private benefits at the expense of shareholders. In the second essay, I examine how labor power affects the informativeness of companies’ reported earnings. Using a sample of firms in 42 countries for the period of 1990 to 2009, I find that strong union laws provide managers greater incentives to manipulate reported earnings to hide firm true performance from labor, leading to lower value relevance of earnings in these countries. Further analysis shows that firms use more negative accruals in countries with more powerful labor unions. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis that managers intentionally distort reported earnings to shelter corporate income from labor so that they can improve their bargaining position against powerful labor unions

This thesis is comprised of three chapters which discuss topics related to labor market dynamics from a macroeconomic perspective. Although each chapter is self-standing in terms of research question and methodology, they are united by a common interest for the macroeconomic implications of worker heterogeneity. The chapters vary with respect to the time horizon over which they study aggregate dynamics, covering business cycle frequency, the economy's long run steady state, and households' life cycle. Furthermore, they develop the concept of heterogeneity across different dimensions: stages of the life cycle, households' income and wealth, observed worker characteristics, and worker-firm productivity levels. The overall purpose of this thesis is therefore to contribute to the study of labor markets and labor policies through a multi-faceted approach.

This paper extends upon Jennifer Hunt’s research on “Why do women leave science and engineering?”, that contributes to existing literature that overlooks underrepresented minorities level of commitment to STEM fields based on their STEM educational backgrounds and additional contributing factors that relates to women engineer’s leaving their felid to another felid that does not have any relation to their STEM degree. The following independent factors are the respondents’ gender, reasons for leaving the felid of major, how much does their highest degree relate to their current principle/ primary job, parents’ level of education, current citizenship status, level of highest degrees obtained and salary survey data impact on exit rates of STEM identifying URMs. This is done by running multiple linear regression statistical analysis models by creating dummy variables for underrepresented ethnic/ racial minority grouped all together and isolated each URMs’ group dependent variable along with the contributing factors as my independent variables. In order, to figure out which factors are heavily correlated to the exit rates of URMs departing from STEM fields. In addition to learning more about the reasons behind the increasing exit rates of STEM identifying URMs, I will be discussing the shortcomings of using the 2015 National College Graduate Survey as my data and how the survey respondents’ level of exposure to STEM education from their primary school years suggests that the respondent is more likely to stay within a STEM felid that collates with their highest STEM degree than someone who has rarely been exposure to STEM education from youth.

<p> Construction companies are able to show an increased bottom line by developing strategies to retain employees. However, the cost to develop and implement strategies that can decrease employee turnover is a substantial investment. As costs continue to rise in most business functions, strategies to facilitate cost savings must be identified and implemented to become or remain profitable. The Herzberg Two-Factor Theory served as the conceptual framework was chosen for this study and provided a baseline for developing retention strategies within the construction industry. The purpose of this single quantitative exploratory case study was to identify the retention factors that provided the greatest impact to retain construction employees. There was a sample of 68 individuals selected for this study, consisting of laborers within the U.S. construction industry. An online survey was used to collect the data, and the findings are intended to add to the current body of knowledge by identifying the impact that job satisfaction factors in the construction industry. A correlational analysis as well as a multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to reveal the relationships between job satisfaction and employee turnover intention. The findings of this study results revealed a moderate negative relationship between job satisfaction, both intrinsic and extrinsic and employee turnover intention. Additionally, the study found that by implementing developed retention strategies using factors of job satisfaction, organizational leadership can understand the drivers for employee retention, and increase overall job satisfaction, profitability, and productivity. The study limitations, implication, recommendations for practice and future research are also discussed in detail. Lastly, the study shows that the nature of the association between job satisfaction and employee turnover intention is significant to industrial psychological practices.</p><p>

Using data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), I examine the impact of birth order on occupational outcomes within the managerial/professional field. I first assess the impact of birth order within the entire managerial/professional field in the United States and then decompose the field into male-dominated, female-dominated, and mixed gender occupations to provide a specific and nuanced analysis of birth order effects within the field. Finally, I also isolate the impact of birth order specifically within the STEM managerial/professional field, given recent and rising interest in STEM occupations. In general, I find limited evidence that birth order has a significant effect across the entire managerial/professional field, male-dominated, female-dominated, and STEM managerial/professional occupations and that first born children are more likely to be in managerial/professional occupations than later born children. However, on average, these effects disappear as additional demographic, education and family characteristic related controls are added.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os diferenciais existentes na estrutura das aposentadorias entre diversas ocupações. Espera-se mostrar em que grau ocupações relativamente semelhantes possuem tratamentos diferenciados no que se refere à estrutura dos benefícios de aposentadoria, por estarem em regimes diferentes. Serão analisados os diferentes tratamentos aos quais estão sujeitas estas ocupações, levando-se em conta parâmetros como a Dívida Previdenciária Implícita, a Alíquota Necessária e a Taxa de Reposição dos Benefícios. / The main goal of this paper is to analyse the differences in the structure of pension schemes between several occupations. It is expected to show in what degree similar occupations have different treatments regarding their pension structure, depending under wich pension scheme they are. The parameters used in this analysis are the Implicit Pension Debt, the Balanced Payroll Rate and the Reposition Rate of Pensions.

Following developments in technological advancement and the ability to automate jobs in the 21st Century, the quantity and variety of jobs impacted by computerization has increased. Using data from the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS), this paper explores how demographic characteristics influence the probability of job computerization. I perform a linear regression and find evidence that differences in race, education, and gender significantly impact the probability of an individual’s occupation to be computerized. Specifically, Hispanics are the most at risk racial/ethnic group followed in order by blacks, Asians, and whites; increased education is associated with lower probability of computerization; and men are more susceptible to facing job automation than women.