Documents Hyatt, Douglas 6 results

"Empirical evidence presented in this paper, based on survey data for Canadian childcare workers in 1991, contradicts most stereotypes of the childcare labor market. Although childcare labor was low-wage, the authors find that the union impact on wages (15%) and fringe benefits was in line with union effects found in other, better-compensated work, and they find substantial returns to education, occupational level, and firm-specific experience. The returns to the skill-related attributes were blunted somewhat in the union sector, except where such returns stood to benefit the median union voter. The findings suggest that monetary incentives can be used to encourage improvements in the education, experience, and skill acquisition of childcare workers. Unions can improve wages and benefits for childcare workers just as they can for most other workers, suggesting the viability of union organizing in this sector despite the traditional barriers to organizing low-wage service sector workers in small firms."

"In 1986, British Columbia's Workers' Compensation Board introduced an experience rating program that provided a modest financial incentive for employers to reduce the costs of claims. Using a comprehensive panel data set, we find that claims frequency for health care only and short-term disability claims was reduced following the introduction of experience rating. The introduction of the program did not affect costs for most claim types, except for health care only claims."

"We use data from a unique survey of Ontario physicians to examine the determinants of work and personal stress in physicians with six stress indexes we constructed. We have a number of findings of particular interest. First, we find that males experience significantly less stress than women in a number of our regressions. Second, some of our estimates suggest that physicians who practice in health service organizations, which are paid primarily by capitation rather than fee-for-service, experience less stress. This estimate suggests that alternative payment systems, which are becoming more prevalent, may help to alleviate the stress experienced by physicians. Third, increases in the percentage of billings required to cover overhead expenses are associated with higher levels of stress. Finally, our most consistent empirical finding relates to the number of hours a week the physician works, which had a significant effect on all six of our stress indexes."

" Based upon unique Canadian administrative data from the years 1996 to 1999, this study examines the duration of absences from work due to injuries arising from workplace violence with a hazard model. We find that policing and nursing occupations, larger health care expenditures and more severe acts of violence are associated with longer absences from work. On the other hand, workers from larger firms have shorter absences from work. Our estimates are also quite sensitive to the inclusion of unobserved heterogeneity distribution, i.e., an individual specific random effect. This suggests that unobservable factors, such as stress and psychological or psychosomatic problems resulting from the workplace violence could have a large impact on the duration of work absences."