Not the right job but a secure one : over-education and temporary employment in France, Italy and Spain

Resorting to four waves of the European Community Household Panel, this research explores the association between temporary employment and the likelihood of being over-educated. Such an association has been largely ignored by the literature explaining over-education, more inclined to attribute such a mismatch to the system of education. Selecting three similarly standarised and stratified systems of education (France, Italy and Spain) and controlling for many other variables likely to affect over-education, like gender, age, tenure, job change, firm size or sector, the paper demonstrates that such an association between temporary employment and over-education exists. Being a stepping stone towards a more stable and adjusted position in the labour market, holding a temporary employment may be associated to a higher likelihood of being over-educated. Such an association is more likely in Italy and France. Yet, the opposite sign prevails where permanent employment becomes such a valuable asset as to make individuals trade human capital by employment security. This is the case of Spain.

Finding a suitable job: the effect of the institutional context on self-perceived over-education

The current research compares the perception of over-education in four different European countries, resorting to European Household Panel Data. The results confirm that the type of educational system accounts for some of the cross-national differences in self-perceived over-education. In qualificational spaces, like Denmark, where vocational training receives more importance, self-perceived over-education is not associated as much with educational attainment as in the so-called’ organisational spaces’, like Spain, France and Italy. Yet, the results confirm that, controlling for the system of education, the traits and regulation of the labour market also have an effect on over-education. Thus, in Spain, where temporary employment has soared in recent decades, this type of contract is clearly associated with the perception of over-education, to a much higher extent than in Italy or France. Temporary contracts in Spain may not work as a steppig stone for attaining a job suitable to the training received by the individual, as they may in the case of France or Italy. In sum, not only institutions offering skills and human capital, but labour market regulation as well, have a clear impact on the incidence of over-education.

Creation and validation of an instrument to identify nursing activities in pediatric wards: information for determining workload

The aim of this study was to develop and validate an instrument for identifying nursing activities performed in a pediatric ward and to provide a basis for defining the workload of these units. The instrument was developed by selecting the activities relevant to pediatric nursing from the Nursing Intervention Classification and then submitting them to a panel of judges for validation. The panel considered the selected activities relevant and representative of pediatric nursing practice. Now that representative activities for the nursing workload have been identified, we envision new studies to verify their usefulness in practice. Determining the amount of time each activity takes to perform will help to develop a system for measuring the workloads of nursing teams in pediatric wards.

Downsizing, Job Insecurity, and Firm Reputation

This paper studies how firms make layoff decisions in the presence of adverse shocks. In this uncertain environment, workers' expectations about their job security affect their on-the-job performance. This productivity effect on job insecurity forces firms to strike a balance between laying off redundant workers and maintaining survivors' commitment when deciding on the amount and timing of downsizing. This framework offers an explanation of conservative employment practices (such as zero or reduced layoffs) based on firms having private information about their future profits. High retention rates and wages can signal that the firm has a bright future, boosting workers' confidence. Moreover, the model provides clear predictions about when waves of downsizing will occur as opposed to one-time massive cuts.

Job satisfaction and life satisfaction: Analysis of a reciprocal model with social demographic moderators

The general objective of the study was to empirically test a reciprocal model of job satisfaction and life satisfaction while controlling for some social demographic variables. 827 employees working in 34 car dealerships in Northern Quebec (56% responses rate) were surveyed. The multiple item questionnaires were analysed using correlation analysis, chi square and ANOVAs. Results show interesting patterns emerging for the relationships between job and life satisfaction of which 49.2% of all individuals have spillover, 43.5% compensation, and 7.3% segmentation type of relationships. Results, nonetheless, are far richer and the model becomes much more refined when social demographic indicators are taken into account. Globally, social demographic variables demonstrate some effects on each satisfaction individually but also on the interrelation (nature of the relations) between life and work satisfaction.

Les quatre livres des rois : traduits en français du XIIe siècle. suivis d'un Fragment de moralités sur Job et d'un Choix de sermons de Saint Bernard / publiés par M. Le roux de Lincy,...

[Bible. A.T.. Samuel (ancien français). 1841]

Compensating wage differentials and voluntary job changes: Evidence from West Germany

Does the labor market place wage premia on jobs that involve physical strain,job, insecurity or bad regulation of hours? This paper derives bounds on themonetary returns to these job disamenities in the West German labor market.We show that in a market with dispersion in both job characteristics andwages, the average wage change of workers who switch jobs voluntarily and optfor consuming more (less) disamenities,provides an upper (lower) bound on themarket return to the disamenity. Using longitudinal information from workersin the German Socio Economic Panel, we estimate an upper bound of 5% and alower bound of 3.5% for the market return to work strain in a job.

Turbulence and unemployment in a job matching model

According to Ljungqvist and Sargent (1998), high European unemployment since the 1980s can be explained by a rise in economic turbulence, leading to greater numbers of unemployed workers with obsolete skills. These workers refuse new jobs due to high unemployment benefits. In this paper we reassess the turbulence-unemployment relationship using a matching model with endogenous job destruction. In our model, higher turbulence reduces the incentives of employed workers to leave their jobs. If turbulence has only a tiny effect on the skills of workers experiencing endogenous separation, then the results of Lungqvist and Sargent (1998, 2004) are reversed, and higher turbulence leads to a reduction in unemployment. Thus, changes in turbulence cannot provide an explanation for European unemployment that reconciles the incentives of both unemployed and employed workers.

An investigation of the relationship between job characteristics and the gender wage gap

This paper re-examines gender wage differences, taking into account notonly worker characteristics but also job characteristics. Considerationof a wide set of job quality indicators can explain a fraction of thewage gap that would otherwise be attributed to pure wage discrimination.In any case, the fraction of the wage gap that remains associated todifferential rewards for identical factors across sexes is stillsubstantial. Our results suggest that in order to avoid overestimationof the fraction of the wage gap attributable to discrimination, it isnecessary to control for job characteristics.

Shocks and institutions in a job matching model

This paper explains the divergent behavior of European an US unemploymentrates using a job market matching model of the labor market with aninteraction between shocks an institutions. It shows that a reduction inTF growth rates, an increase in real interest rates, and an increase intax rates leads to a permanent increase in unemployment rates when thereplacement rates or initial tax rates are high, while no increase inunemployment occurs when institutions are "employment friendly". The paperalso shows that an increase in turbulence, modelle as an increase probabilityof skill loss, is not a robust explanation for the European unemploymentpuzzle in the context of a matching model with both endogenous job creationand job estruction.

When Preference Is Not Satisfied but the Individual Is: How Power Distance Affects Person-Job Fit

One aspect of person-job fit reflects congruence between personal preferences and job design; as congruence increases so should satisfaction. We hypothesized that power distance would moderate whether fit is related to satisfaction with degree of job formalization. We obtained measures of job-formalization, fit and satisfaction, as well as organizational commitment from employees (n = 772) in a multinational firm with subsidiaries in six countries. Confirming previous findings, individuals from low power-distance cultures were most satisfied with increasing fit. However, the extent to which individuals from high power-distance cultures were satisfied did not necessarily depend on increasing fit, but mostly on whether the degree of formalization received was congruent to cultural norms. Irrespective of culture, satisfaction with formalization predicted a broad measure of organizational commitment. Apart from our novel extension of fit theory, we show how moderation can be tested in the context of polynomial response surface regression and how specific hypotheses can be tested regarding different points on the response surface.

Downsizing, job insecurity and firm reputation

This paper studies how firms make layoff decisions in the presence of adverse shocks. In this uncertain environment, workers' expectations about their job security affect their on-the-job performance. This productivity effect on job insecurity forces firms to strike a balance between laying off redundant workers and maintaining survivors' commitment when deciding on the amount and timing of downsizing. This framework offers an explanation of conservative employment practices (such as zero or reduced layoffs) based on firms having private information about their future profits. High retention rates and wages can signal that the firm has a bright future, boosting workers' confidence. Moreover, the model provides clear predictions about when waves of downsizing will occur as opposed to one-time massive cuts.