This paper examines the hypothesis that the gender salary gap observed in the academic labour market is predominantly explained by the differing average characteristics of male and female academics and barriers to female promotion. Preliminary analysis reveals that the crowding of women into the lower rungs of academia is a strong determinant of their lower average salary. This effect should be transitory as young women, now entering the profession, move up its ranks. We construct a rank attainment model and investigate the current and predicted distribution of females across ranks. Significant evidence of barriers to female promotion is revealed.
The data described in this paper come from a unique cross section study collected by the author, using a postal questionnaire, of five Scottish Universities: Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and St. Andrews undertaken in 1995/6. It encompasses detailed information on the personal and working history of 900 academics. The paper aims to provide the reader with a fuller picture of the characteristics of today's average UK academic. Second, it aims to take advantage of this more detailed information to make some comment on the current debate in the UK concerning gender discrimination and underpayment in academia.
The paper uses data from the International Social Surveys Program (ISSP) to investigate work-related stress among a group of 15 OECD countries. It examines the determinants of work-related stress and explores the importance of work-related stress as a predictor of individuals' quitting behaviour and the rate of absenteeism. We find that those individuals reporting to experience at least some stress in their current position are 10-14 % more likely to hold intentions to quit or be absent from work than those without any job stress, with the probability of intending to quit or being absent increasing with successively higher workrelated stress levels.
The rapid journey from central planning to EU (euro area) membership stress-tested the social learning processes of the Former Transition Economies (FTEs). The desire for a higher standard of living, to be anchored to the West, and to enter the EU, spurred major reform waves and led to the very rapid introduction of best-practice institutions. Although social learning accompanied this process, in many FTEs it was not fast enough to keep pace with the rapid reforms, leaving best-practice institutions with social norms that were not sufficiently strong to maintain them. As a result, wide-spread reform reversals emerged in the region. Such reform reversals appeared as formal reversals, which changed legislation (or formal rules), and behavioral reversals, which eroded the quality of an institution by materially changing the way it worked. It was frequently the interaction of reversals in different sectors that created a full-blown reform reversal episode, with the financial sector particularly prone to behavioral reversals, both in public and private institutions. External anchors such as the Washington institutions played a dominant role in shaping the transition process. Along with the EU accession process, the EU acted as a strong anchor that could prevent or reverse formal reform reversals in areas covered by EU law, but could play a much weaker role in the case of behavioral reversals. Our analysis naturally leads to the conclusion that the ultimate solution to prevent reform reversals is to accelerate social learning processes that strengthen the national ownership of reforms. It is also important to focus on the quality and internal coherence of reforms and newly created institutions.
