February 2006 (No. 12)
Editor: Terence K. Huwe
Contributors: Elizabeth del Rocío Camacho, Janice Kimball


IIR News & Events
New San Francisco Minimum Wage Study Receives Media Attention
Paul Pierson Noted by UCB Media Center for New Book
AEA/LERA Presentation Chaired by Michael Reich
Spring Seminar Colloquia Announced
Spring 2006 Visiting Scholars: A Partial List
New and Returning GSRs
Recent Sponsored Research
New Editor, Kudos, and New Issue of Industrial Relations Journal
Working Paper Collections: Heavy Traffic in 4th Quarter 2005
IIR Announces Sponsored Research Support Services
New and Familiar Faces at IIR


IIR Unit News
Labor Center News
California Public Employee Relations News
Center for the Study of Child Care Employment News
Institute of Industrial Relations Library
Labor Project for Working Families


Campus Events
Center for Latin American Studies
Economics Department Seminars
Goldman School of Public Policy
Haas School of Business: Seminars and Events
Institute of Governmental Studies: Central Valley Conference


IIR NEWS & EVENTS


New San Francisco Minimum Wage Study Receives Media Attention

IIR Director Michael Reich, Arin Dube and Gina Vickery's recent policy brief, "The Economics of Citywide Minimum Wages: The San Francisco Model" has received substantial media attention, and was covered by every major newspaper in California.

To see the study, take a look at http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/research/sfminimumwage.pdf



Paul Pierson Noted by UCB News Center for New Book, “Off Center”

Professsor Paul Pierson (Political Science) has published a new book titled “Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of Democracy.” Pierson will be speaking at the IIR seminar on March 20, The January 26 issue of the campus News Center ran a feature article on his book, which was co-authored with Jacob. Hacker. For the full story, take a look at:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2006/01/26_Pierson.shtml


AEA/LERA Presentation Chaired by Michael Reich and Colleagues on the National Labor Relations Act

Michael Reich organized and chaired a heavily-attended AEA/LERA session in Boston on January 7, 2006, "The National Labor Relations Act after Seventy Years: an Assessment." Speakers included Richard Freeman of Harvard, William Gould, former chair of the NLRB, Jon Hiatt, General Counsel of the AFL-CIO, Barry Hirsch of Trinity University, Dan Mitchell of UCLA, and Paula Voos, of Rutgers.



IIR Spring 2006 Colloquia Announced

The seminars are held in the Directors Room
Light Lunch Provided
RSVP Myra Armstrong, 643-3012, zulu2@berkeley.edu

Monday, January 30, 2006
ENRICO MORETTI
Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley
“Biological Differences, Absenteeism, & the Earning Gender Gap”

Monday, February 6, 2006
TSUYOSHI TSURU
Freeman Visiting Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley
“Myths & Realities of Wage Reform Evaluation Pay for Performance in the Japanese Firm”

Monday, February 27, 2006
PAUL PIERSON
Title To Be Announced

Monday, March 6, 2006
CLAIR BROWN
Professor of Economics,UC Berkeley
“Offshoring in the Semiconductor Industry”

Monday, March 13, 2006
NEIL FLIGSTEIN
Professor of Sociology, UC Berkeley
“Globalization: Changes in the Organization of Companies Since 1980”

April 10, 2006
CAROL ZABIN
Labor Specialist, Center for Labor Research & Education, IIR, UC Berkeley
Title To Be Announced

April 17, 2006
PETER EVANS
Professor of Sociology, UC Berkeley
Title To Be Announced

April 24, 2006
MICHAEL GREENSTONE
Visiting Scholar, Economics, M.I.T.
Title To Be Announced

May 1, 2006
IRENE BLOEMRAAD and Naomi Hsu
Professor of Economics and Graduate Student, Dept. of Sociology
UC Berkeley
“Do Immigrant Politicians Care More About Immigrants? The Role of Biography, Economics and Politics on Congressional Voting”

May 8, 2006
DYLAN RILEY
Professor of Sociology, UC Berkeley
Title To Be Announced



Spring 2006 Visiting Scholars: A Partial List

The following is a partial list of visiting scholars who have joined the IIR community for the spring term. Fuller information will follow in future editions of eNews as the list is finalized.

Visiting Scholars (Academic Sponsor in parentheses)

Dion Aroner (Quan)
Paolo Buonanno (Card)
Federico Cingano (Card)
Liz Greenwood (Reich/Greenstone)
Sue Helper (Levine)
Roger Kaufman (Reich)
Aleks Luksyte (Banks)
Oscar G. Peral (Reich)
Thomas Rankin (Quan)
Alfonso Rosolia (Card)
Tsuyoshi Tsuru (Brown)
Andrea Weber (Card)



New and Returning GSRs

The following graduate students are working with various IIR affiliated academics and faculty. Their IIR sponsor and home department is shown in parentheses. (Note: this may not be a complete list.)

Naomi Hsu, (Bloemraad, Sociology)
Janson Meggs, (Dube, City and Planning)
Elizabeth Pohlman, (Zabin, Medical Anthropology)
Jessica Sondheimer, (Vendrillo, CPER)
Manuel Vallee, (Fligstein, Sociology)
Gina Vickery, (Reich, Economics)
Lingyun Nie, (Levine, Haas School of Business)
Ryan Rideau, (Pitts, African American Studies)
Felix Su, (Dube, Public Policy)
Eunice Chang, (Zedeck, Psychology)
Eli Friedman, (Quan, Sociology)
David Reinstein, (Brown, Economics)
Teresa Sharpe, (Voss, Sociology)
Dorit Rubinstein, (EdelmanJSP)



Recent Sponsored Research

The following grants have been awarded in recent months:

PI: Carol Zabin
Title: Workforce Issues in California's services for people with developmental disabilities
Funder:University of California, California Program on Access to Care

Abstract: Carol Zabin is writing a research report that outlines the workforce challenges facing services for people with developmental disabilities in California.


PIs: Ken Jacobs and Arin Dube
Project Title: Job Quality in the Retail Industry
Funder: American Rights at Work Foundation

Abstract: This grant is for general assistance to support the Labor Center's "Job Quality in the Retail Industry Research Program". This research program includes compiling a database of retail supercenter store openings, analysis of the impact of the supercenter openings on a variety of employment and job-quality measures, and dissemination of new and previous Labor Center research on this topics.


PIs: Ken Jacobs and Arin Dube
Project Title: Labor Market Impact of Wal-Mart Growth
Funder: General Service Foundation

Abstract: This funding is to support the Labor Center's ongoing research program that is studying the impact of Wal-Mart and the Big Box retail model on job quality, health care, economic development and community life.


PI: Katie Quan
Project Title: Kirke Wilson Labor Summer Internship of 2005
Funder: Rosenberg Foundation

Abstract: The Rosenberg Foundation has offered to fully fund one internship for the summer of 2005. During the past four summers, the Labor Center has conducted the Labor Summer Internship program. For this program, they recruit and train UC students and match them with community organization and labor unions.



Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society:
New Editor, Top Ranking, and New Issue

Trond Petersen is the new editor of Institute’s refereed journal Industrial Relations. He joins UCLA's Daniel J.B. Mitchell in this capacity. David I. Levine has stepped down, having presided over a period of unprecedented growth in academic stature. Industrial Relations has consistently been ranked first out of a field of 19 comparable journals, by the ISI's influential ranking of cited sources. Congratulations are due to David and Dan, and a welcome to Trond in his new capacity.


Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society: Articles and Abstracts
January 2006 - Vol. 45 Issue 1 Page 1-118
Article Authors, Titles and Abtracts

Contracts–An Uneasy Partnership?
KNUT GERLACH and GESINE STEPHAN

Theoretical considerations suggest that firms establish consistent internal wage structures and pay wage premiums of similar size across occupational groups. Strong evidence for the existence of coherent employer pay policies across occupations is found using a German employer–employee data set. However, firm-specific elements of wage policies are less prevalent in firms applying industry-level collective contracts than in firms with individual-level wage contracts.


Decision-Making about Workplace Disputes: A Policy-Capturing Study of Employment
Arbitrators, Labor Arbitrators, and Jurors
BRIAN S. KLAAS, DOUGLAS MAHONY, and HOYT N. WHEELER

Firms are increasingly turning to the controversial practice of employment arbitration to resolve workplace disputes. Yet little is know about how decisions are made by employment arbitrators or how their decisions compare to those made in traditional dispute-resolution forums. This study uses a policy-capturing design and hierarchical linear modeling to compare how decisions about termination cases are made by employment arbitrators, labor arbitrators, and jurors. The results indicate significant differences in the overall willingness to uphold termination, with labor arbitrators being the most likely to rule in favor of the employee, followed by jurors, employment arbitrators judging statutory and for-cause claims, and employment arbitrators judging statutory-only claims. Significant differences were also observed between categories of decision makers in the weight given to procedural compliance, evidence of discrimination, employee work history, and stress-inducing personal circumstances.


The Marginal Revenue Product of a Women’s College Basketball Player
ROBERT W. BROWN and R. TODD JEWELL

This paper estimates the marginal revenue product of a premium women’s college basketball player. Ordinary least squares estimates indicate that acquiring another one of these players generates nearly $250,000 annually for her team. Quantile regression estimates, however, show that these quantitative effects vary substantially across teams: Players at less successful programs generate little revenue for their team, while those at the elite programs generate considerable revenues. The results provide empirical evidence that schools may have the ability to capture economic rents from the best players at the top women’s basketball programs.


Factors Related to Employees’ Desire to Join and Leave Unions
BARRY A. FRIEDMAN, STEVEN E. ABRAHAM, and RANDALL K. THOMAS

Regression analyses based on a sample of 3372 nonunionized and unionized employees showed that, while the desire to join a union is associated with a wide range of work attitudes, perceived company performance, and facets of satisfaction, one’s desire to leave one’s union is associated with a narrow range of economic concerns. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of the declining unionization rate in the United States.



IIR Working Papers and Unit Publications: Heavy Fourth Quarter Web Traffic

The IIR Working Papers Series, together with several series published by IIR units, reside in the California Digital Library’s eScholarship Repository (http://repositories.cdlib.org). Traffic on all series was quite heavy this past fall. Data on activity for each series follow below. Digital publication of these series is managed by the IIR Library.

Institute of Industrial Relations Working Paper Series
18,249 full-text downloads between 2005-09-23 and 2006-01-24
65,211 full-text downloads since series' inception date (2002-02-07)
http://repositories.cdlib.org/iir

Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics
1,709 full-text downloads between 2005-09-23 and 2006-01-24
6.870 full-text downloads since series' inception date (2002-04-05)
http://repositories.cdlib.org/iir/ccop

Center for the Study of Childcare Employment
495 full-text downloads between 2005-09-23 and 2006-01-24
1,566 full-text downloads since series' inception date (2003-04-01)
http://repositories.cdlib.org/iir/cscce

Center for Work, Technology and Society
189 full-text downloads between 2005-09-23 and 2006-01-24
488 full-text downloads since series' inception date (2004-09-01)
http://repositories.cdlib.org/iir/cwts

The Institute of Industrial Relations Library Contracts Repository
1,546 full-text downloads between 2005-09-23 and 2006-01-24
4,832 full-text downloads since series' inception date (2003-03-27)
http://repositories.cdlib.org/iir/library



IIR Announces Sponsored Research Support Services

Research Funding Opportunities

The IIR can assist you with finding funding opportunities that match your specific research interests. We have access to numerous funding references and on-line databases such as the Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS) which currently contains over 8,600 active federal and private funding opportunities in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities or the Community of Science (COS) database which includes more than 22,000 records, representing over 400,000 funding opportunities, worth over $33 billion. The IIR also subscribes to INFOED’s Sponsored Programs Information Network (SPIN) that provides up-to-date information on current national and international government and private funding sources, including fellowships, research grants, publication support, sabbatical support, curriculum development, and more. One of the most useful features of this program is its automated alerts system that allows us to match our investigators with grant and contract announcements based on their user profiles. The profiles for many of the IIR’s principal investigator’s have already been inputted into the system.

Contact Barbara Campbell to update your information so that you can start benefiting from these important funding opportunities.

Proposal Preparation and Submission

Our goal is to increase the competitiveness of your grant proposals and to ensure that all UC, federal and funding agencies grant requirements are met. All UCB proposals and grant awards must be processed through the UCB Sponsored Projects Office (SPO) and Extramural Funds Accounting (EFA). We will serve as your liaison with these units and navigate your proposal through UCB’s bureaucratic maze. SPO requests 10 working days to review proposals, so we just ask that you provide us with enough time (5 working days) to complete our own thorough review of your proposal. This will not preclude us from assisting you with proposals with more imminent deadlines, particularly small, uncomplicated grants to non-federal agencies. However, please keep in mind that proposals submitted less then two days before agency due dates risk not being submitted by SPO or being forwarded to the funding agency with a SPO disclaimer notice. Therefore, it is best to plan ahead and to include us in the earliest stages of your proposal preparation process.

Financial and Human Resource Management

Let us handle the financial and personnel management of your grant, so that you can focus on the research. Eric Gillet, the IIR Fund Manager is highly skilled at preparing budget projections and expenditures reports and can assist with all of your accounting and purchasing needs, such as ordering equipment and supplies, reimbursement of travel and other expenses. Annette Barnes, the IIR Human Research Administrator, has 15 + yrs. of human resources experience and will manage the employment of student researchers and other personnel funded by your research grants.

CONTACT Information:

Barbara Campbell
Contracts and Grants Manager
bcampbel@berkeley.edu
3-3505

Eric Gillet
Fund Manager
gillet@berkeley.edu
3-8151

Annette Barns
Human Resources
annetteb@berkeley.edu
3-7063



New and Familiar Faces at IIR

Margaret Henderson has been working at the IIR front desk during January, helping Hadidjah, Myra and others with many projects. Margaret has been a new and friendly face at the front desk, and IIR extends a warm welcome to her.

CPER has retained former editor Eric Borgerson to write a pocket guide. Eric is sharing office space with Stephanie Kalmin, and it’s been great to see a familiar face.