Documents Bryan, Mark L. 11 results

"Following theories of social and economic identity, we use representative data containing measures of personal identity to investigate the interplay of work identity and hours of work in determining subjective wellbeing (job satisfaction, job-related anxiety and depression, and life satisfaction). We find that for a given level of hours, having a stronger work identity is associated with higher wellbeing on most measures. Working long hours is associated with lower wellbeing and working part-time is associated with higher wellbeing, but for men hours mainly affect their job-related anxiety and depression rather than reported satisfaction. The relationships between hours and wellbeing are generally strengthened when controlling for identity implying that individuals sort into jobs with work hours that match their identities. Work identity partially mitigates the adverse effects of long hours working on job satisfaction and anxiety (for women) and on life satisfaction (for men). The effects of both work hours and identity are substantial relative to benchmark effects of health on wellbeing."

"Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) we show performance pay (PP) increased earnings dispersion among men and women, and to a lesser extent among full-time working women, in the decade of economic growth which ended with the recession of 2008. PP was also associated with some compression in the lower half of the wage distribution for women. The effects were predominantly associated with a broad measure of PP that included bonuses. However, these effects were modest and there is no indication that PP became increasingly prevalent, as some had predicted, over the decade prior to recession."

"We examine how couples' labour supply behaviour in the UK responds to a job loss by one partner, using the Labour Force Survey to compare the period of growth of 1995-2007 to the Great Recession and its aftermath of 2008-11. In single earner couples during the recession, both men and women substantially increased their job search activity following a partner's job loss, while the increase in search during the boom was smaller (and non-existent for men). However, the increase in job search during recession did not appear to translate into more success in finding work for either men or women. Among dual earner couples, we find little evidence that individuals searched for alternative jobs or tried to increase their hours if their partner lost their job, except that women working part-time were more likely to start looking for another job. Both men and women were more likely to quit their job voluntarily if their partner lost their job, but the recession seems to have made people more cautious about voluntarily quitting their job. We find little evidence that people react in advance of job losses, suggesting that unemployment typically comes as a surprise."

"Using harmonised data from the European Union Household Panel, we analyse gender pay gaps by sector across the wages distribution for ten countries. We find that the mean gender pay gap in the raw data typically hides large variations in the gap across the wages distribution. We use quantile regression (QR) techniques to control for the effects of individual and job characteristics at different points of the distribution, and calculate the part of the gap attributable to differing returns between men and women. We find that, first, gender pay gaps are typically bigger at the top of the wage distribution, a finding that is consistent with the existence of glass ceilings. For some countries gender pay gaps are also bigger at the bottom of the wage distribution, a finding that is consistent with sticky floors. Third, the gender pay gap is typically higher at the top than the bottom end of the wage distribution, suggesting that glass ceilings are more prevalent than sticky floors and that these prevail in the majority of our countries. Fourth, the gender pay gap differs significantly across the public and the private sector wages distribution for each of our EU countries."

"Economists have long suggested that labor unions suffer a free rider problem. The argument is that, since union-set wages are available to all workers covered by unions irrespective of their union status, and union membership entails costs, workers will only join if they are coerced or are offered non-wage goods that they value above membership costs. Yet U.S. and British empirical research has found a substantial union membership wage premium among private-sector union-covered workers, implying that there is no free rider problem. The authors of this study hypothesize that these findings arise due to selectivity problems associated with identifying the union membership effect. Their analysis, which uses rich data from a new linked employer-employee survey for Britain and exploits the within-establishment variation in wages as a function of individual union membership status, demonstrates that the apparent wage premium for members is illusory. Hence, a potential free rider problem remains."

"This article uses the British Workplace Employee Relations Survey 1998 dataset to evaluate the importance of firm-level factors in determining weekly hours of work in Britain, to analyse the amount of variation of hours within firms, and to assess whether workers are sorted into firms on the basis of hours. Nearly a third of the explained variation in weekly hours of work can be ascribed to firm-level differences, which are unrelated to any observed worker characteristics. Firm-level ‘policies' are especially important in the private-services sector. A further 40 per cent of variance can be attributed to the effect within firms of different occupation, skills and family characteristics. Finally, about a quarter of the explained variation in working hours is due to a sorting process of workers to firms, especially on the basis of skill and occupation."

"Using harmonized data for the years 1995-2001 from the European Community Household Panel, the authors analyze gender pay gaps by sector across the wage distribution in eleven countries. In estimations that control for the effects of individual characteristics at different points of the distribution, they calculate the part of the gap attributable to differing returns between men and women. The magnitude of the gender pay gap, thus measured, varied substantially across countries and across the public and private sector wage distributions. The gap typically widened toward the top of the wage distribution (the "glass ceiling" effect), and in a few cases it also widened at the bottom (the "sticky floor" effect). The authors suggest that differences in childcare provision and wage setting institutions across EU countries may partly account for the variation in patterns by country and sector."

"Indices of material deprivation are of increasing interest in Britain and the EU as potential markers of poverty, as an alternative, or complement, to measures of low income. This is the first panel regression analysis of the relationship between households' incomes and deprivation scores over time. We show a close underlying link (people with long-term low incomes report long-term deprivation), but only a weak dynamic link (people whose income increases do not always report a commensurate fall in deprivation). The implications for poverty measurement are important both to academic analysts and to policy-makers."

"We use matched employer-employee data to explore the relationship between employees? access to flexible working arrangements and the amount of informal care they provide to sick or elderly friends and relatives. Flexitime and the ability to reduce working hours are each associated with about 10% more hours of informal care, with effects concentrated among full-time workers providing small amounts of care. The wider workplace environment beyond formal flexible work also appears to facilitate care. Workplaces do not respond to the presence of carers by providing flexible work, instead there is some underlying selection of carers into flexible workplaces."

"Paid holiday entitlements are similar on average in the UK to other western European countries, but there is much more variation across jobs in the UK. This paper examines the determinants of paid holiday entitlements for full-time UK workers and the relationship of entitlements to earnings. Holiday entitlements are strongly related to educational qualifications, occupation, job tenure and other employer characteristics. However, these factors cannot explain most of the variation in entitlements, implying there is a wide range of remuneration policies across otherwise similar employers or that some workers manage to obtain higher levels of holiday entitlement than other comparable workers. Longer holiday entitlements are associated with higher earnings, even after controlling for human capital and job characteristics, so that earnings differentials are additional not compensating. By contrast, shorter weekly work hours are associated with lower earnings. Unmeasured skill accumulation or improvements in job match quality appear to be associated with longer holiday entitlements (and higher earnings) but to have little relation to weekly working hours."