Are employment effects of gender discrimination important? Some evidence from Great Britain

Interpreting the unexplained component of the gender wage gap as indicative of discrimination, the empirical literature to date has tended to ignore the potential impact wage discrimination may have on employment. Employment effects may arise if discrimination lowers the female offered wage and the labour supply curve is upward sloping. The empirical analysis employs the British Household Panel Study and finds evidence of both wage and associated employment effects.

Projections of the future path of the gender wage gap in Great Britain

Purpose – The paper attempts to project the future trend of the gender wage gap in Great Britain up to 2031.
Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis utilises the British Household Panel Study Wave F together with Office for National Statistics (ONS) demographic projections. The methodology combines the ONS projections with assumptions relating to the evolution of educational attainment in order to project the future distribution of human capital skills and consequently the future size of the gender wage gap.
Findings – The analysis suggests that gender wage convergence will be slow, with little female progress by 2031 unless there is a large rise in returns to female experience.
Originality/value – The paper has projected the pattern of male and female skill acquisition together with the associated trend in wages up to 2031.

'In the court of a great king': some remarks on Leo Strauss' introduction to the guide for the perplexed

This essay, which will be divided between two SOPHIA editions, proposes to test the consensus in Maimonidean scholarship on the alleged intellectualism of Leo Strauss’ Maimonides by making a close interpretive study of Strauss’ 1963 essay ‘How to Begin to Study the Guide for the Perplexed’. While the importance of this essay, which is Strauss’ last extended piece on the Guide, is established in Maimonidean scholarship, its recognised esotericism has been matched by a dearth of detailed studies of the piece. We aim in this essay to try to rectify this situation, by reading ‘How to Begin to Study’ as Strauss directs us to read esoteric texts in Persecution and the Art of Writing. As one control on our exegetical claims, we will close by situating our reading of ‘How to Begin to Study’ and Strauss’ positions there on philosophy, prophecy and the Torah alongside the claims of his earlier, much less esoteric, but also rarely studied: ‘Some Remarks on the Political Science of Maimonides and Farabi’. Because of the now widely recognised foundational importance of Maimonides in understanding Leo Strauss’ own lasting positions, this work will have wider importance in Strauss scholarship, and hopefully make a contribution to the continuing task of trying to understand Strauss’ important thoughts on Athens and Jerusalem, reason and revelation, the city and man.

Re Alex: adolescent gender identity disorder and the family court of Australia

'People with gender identity disorder live with a conviction that their physical anatomy is incompatible with their true gender role. They have an overwhelming desire to live and function in the opposite biological sex' . The manifestation of the disorder in children and adolescents is dominated by secrecy, confusion and shame. The purpose of this article is to promote discussion amongst the legal fraternity of the difficult issues confronting the Family Court of Australia when asked to make decisions with life-altering ramifications for the young and vulnerable.

A lawyer's lawyer joins the high court of Australia

In November 2005, Susan Crennan was sworn in as the 45th justice of the High Court of Australia. This follows a brief two year period as a justice of the Federal Court of Australia. In this article, the author recounts the debate leading up to the latest appointment regarding what type of justice should be appointed to the Court, and reviews Crennan's Federal Court judgments in an attempt to provide some insight on the type of High Court justice Crennan will be. What is for certain is that Crennan is enchantingly mysterious.

What explains dissent on the High Court of Australia? An empirical assessment using a cointegration and error correction approach

This article examines the factors influencing the annual dissent rate on the High Court of Australia from its first full year of operation in 1904 up to 2001 within a cointegration and error correction framework. We hypothesize that institutional factors, socioeconomic complexity, and leadership style explain variations in the dissent rate on the High Court of Australia over time. The institutional factors that we consider are the Court's caseload, whether it had discretion to select the cases it hears, and whether it was a final court of appeal. To measure socioeconomic complexity we use the divorce rate, urbanization rate, and real GDP per capita. Our main finding is that in the long run and short run, caseload and real income are the main factors influencing dissent. We find that a 1 percent increase in caseload and real income reduce the dissent rate on the High Court of Australia by 0.3 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively, holding other factors constant.

Hail to the chief! Leadership and structural change in the level of consensus on the High Court of Australia

This article identifies structural breaks in dissenting and single opinions on the High Court of Australia and uses a recent method proposed by Caporale and Grier (2002) to examine the effect of leadership on variations in the dissent rate between 1904 and 2001. Although there has been much speculation about the effectiveness of different Chief Justices in obtaining consensus on the Court, to this point most of the evidence has been anecdotal. Our main findings are that the structural breaks that we identify coincide with major turning points in the leadership of the Court and that leadership has been important in explaining variations in the proportion of dissenting opinions on the Court.

The Great East Window of York Minster

This inquiry into the meaning behind the images of this vast stained glass window has uncovered a complex theology of the Mass; replies to Lollard 'heretics'; and has identified threats to the power of the Church at this critical time in English history at the beginning of the fifteenth century.

Business valuation practice issues under Family Court of Australia proceedings

The study investigated the valuation of businesses valued for property settlements in the Family Court of Australia and related issues. The findings have important implications for the Family Court of Australia, the legal profession and the accounting profession in highlighting deficiencies in valuation practice at various stages of the settlement process.