Suchergebnisse

Theory-based evaluations have helped open the 'black box' of programmes. An account is offered of the evolution of this persuasion, through the works of Chen and Rossi, Weiss, and Pawson and Tilley. In the same way as the 'theory of change' approach to evaluation has tackled the complexity of integrated and comprehensive programmes at the community level, it is suggested that a theory-oriented approach based on the practice of realistic cumulation be developed for dealing with the vertical complexity ofmulti-level governance.

This paper presents an overview of recent trends in U.S. earnings inequality with a focus on gender differences. Data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses are used. Earnings and per capita household income inequality measures have risen from 1980 to 2000, both overall and among women and men separately. Theil index decompositions illustrate that within-gender inequality is rising. Simulations that treat women "more like men" in the labor market raise women's earnings relative to men but also have the effect of increasing within-gender inequality for women.

Using data from the Current Population Survey, we examine recent trends in the relative economic status of black men. Our findings point to gains in the relative wages of black men (compared to whites) during the 1990s, especially among younger workers. In 1989, the average black male worker (experienced or not) earned about 69% as much per week as the average white male worker. In 2001, the average younger black worker was earning about 86% as much as an equally experienced white male; black males at all experience levels earned 72% as much as the average white in 2001. Greater occupational diversity and a reduction in unobserved skill differences and/or labor market discrimination explain much of the trend. For both younger and older workers, general wage inequality tempered the rate of wage convergence between blacks and whites during the 1990s, although the effects were less pronounced than during the 1980s.

We examine the effect of job displacement on changes in the wage structure using nonparametric estimation methods. We argue that job displacement is a plausible mechanism that transmits causes such as skill-biased technological change or deindustrialization to changes in the wage structure. Employing a combination of data from the January and Outgoing Rotation Groups of the Current Population Survey, we compare the distribution of earnings prior to and after worker displacement. Although the conventional wisdom argues for a strong connection between worker displacement and changes in the wage structure, we find limited effects of displacement on the wage distribution.

This paper documents changing patterns in employment-based health insurance and pension benefits among private-sector wage and salary workers between 1987 and 2001 and examines the trends by workforce characteristics. The results show that benefit differentials across educational groups increased in terms of both accessibility and participation rates during this period. The differential in pension accessibility and health insurance coverage rose primarily prior to 1993, whereas the differential in pension participation expanded consistently throughout the period. Using decomposition methods, we evaluate the importance of shifts in the relative employment distribution and changes in unobserved differences in explaining these trends.

This paper examines the trend in intergenerational earnings mobility by estimating ordinary least squares, quantile regression, and transition matrix coefficients using five cohorts from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The results indicate that mobility in real earnings increased for sons with respect to fathers and remained constant for all other parent-child pairs. The findings from the father-son sample also suggest that the difference between the mobility levels of the rich and the poor narrowed over this period. These results suggest that a rise in equality of opportunity for sons accompanied the recent growth in inequality.

Using data from the March Current Population Survey, summary inequality measures as well as kernel density estimations, we find gains from economic growth over the 1990s business cycle (1989-2000) were more equitably distributed than over the1980s business cycle (1979-1989). The entire distribution of household size-adjusted income moved upwards in the 1990s with profound improvements for African Americans, single mothers and those living in households receiving welfare. Most gains occurred over the growth period 1993-2000. Improvements in average income and income inequity over the latter period are reminiscent of gains seen in the first three decades after World War II.