Suchergebnisse

Using the unanticipated creation of a new agency in the French region of Lyon as a quasi-natural experiment, we question whether distance to local public employment agencies (LPEAs) is a new channel for spatial mismatch. Contrary to past evidence based on aggregated data and consistently with the spatial mismatch literature, we find no evidence of a worker/agency spatial mismatch, which pleads for a resizing of the French LPEA network. However, echoing with the literature on the institutional determinants of the local public employment agencies' efficiency, we do find detrimental institutional transitory effects.

Performance-based contracting (PBC) is becoming increasingly attractive to public human service agencies. By linking contract compensation to contractors' performance, PBC is expected to foster quality services, to improve outcomes, and to reduce government monitoring. However, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of PBC remains both limited and mixed. Based on a case study of the Indiana vocational rehabilitation program, this article employs a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of PBC for individual employment outcomes over the 2004–09 period, with the Michigan vocational rehabilitation program as a control. Using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences regressions to control for the imbalances between the two states, this article finds that PBC significantly improves employment results and reduces time to employment, two measured performance indicators. However, the impact of PBC on unmeasured employment quality, as indicated by working hours and wages, is trivial. This article further suggests relational contracting as a supplemental mechanism for PBC in human service provision.

Using Israeli census data, this study provides new evidence on the long-term effects of military service on the earnings of veterans. Among Druze men aged 25-34, we find an economically and statistically significant positive effect of 18% on their wages. The respective effect for the 35-44 age group is 23%. The positive effects are large and intensify with time. Skill-enhancement and usual human capital accumulation do not explain the positive effect of military service. Networking and widening the circle of contacts during service are suggested as the most likely explanations.

When is employee retaliation acceptable in the workplace? We use a quasi-experimental design to study the acceptability of several forms of retaliatory behavior at work, gathering data in this untested area. Consistent with hypotheses from theories of fairness, we find that employee retaliation in the workplace is perceived to be more acceptable if it is an act of omission instead of an act of commission. We do not find that a more damaging retaliatory act is significantly less acceptable than a less damaging one, suggesting a qualitative rather than a quantitative relationship. We also found individual differences: Respondents who are older, female, politically conservative, and managers typically show less tolerance for retaliation, while union members are a bit more accepting than average.

Iversen and Soskice's notion that electoral rules affect democracies' propensity for income redistribution is one of the political economy's most discussed concepts. Yet, it comes with a number of caveats. Most importantly, it is not clear whether electoral rules indeed affect states' propensity for redistribution or vice versa and thus whether or not Iversen and Soskice's findings are spurious. In this article, we focus on the critical case of New Zealand's electoral reform of the 1990s and offer a comprehensive test of Iversen and Soskice's concept. We employ the recently developed Bayesian alternative to the synthetic control method and compare the relevant dynamics for New Zealand to those of six majoritarian democracies. Our results largely support Iversen and Soskice's claims; due to the lower prevalence of right (center-right) governments, proportional representation democracies tend to redistribute more than majoritarian ones.