November 2005 (No. 10)
Editor: Terence K. Huwe
Contributors: Elizabeth del Rocío Camacho, Janice Kimball


IIR News & Events
IIR Seminar Series: Fall 2005
New Sponsored Research Projects


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


Campus Events
Center for Latin American Studies: Peter Evans to Lecture
Center for Social Justice: Special Event
Economics Department Seminars
Haas School of Business Events
Sociology Department Colloquium Series



IIR NEWS & EVENTS


IIR Fall Colloquia

Susan Helper
Professor of Economics, Case Western University & IIR Visiting Scholar
“Offshoring Interfaces and incentives: the Case of Automotive Product Development”
November 7, 2005, Noon
IIR Directors Lounge
RSVP to Myra Armstrong, zulu2@calmail.berkeley.edu

Ashok Bardhan and Cynthia Kroll
Senior researcher, Haas School of Business; Senior Regional Economist, Haas School of Business
“Offshoring: Outlook and Implications”
November 14, 2005, Noon
IIR Directors Lounge
RSVP to Myra Armstrong, zulu2@calmail.berkeley.edu



New Sponsored Research Projects

PI: Trond Petersen
Funder: National Science Foundation
Project Title: Firm-Level Gender Inequalities in Transitional Societies

Abstract: The collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe in 1989-1990 brought about a spectacular increase in social inequalities. While there is agreement in the literature about the rise of class-based and racial differentiation, there is a lively controversy about the status of gender inequalities. Most notably, some researchers argue that the gender gap in wages is large and increasing in Eastern Europe, while others suggest a declining, and rather small wage gap. These studies are based on national level representative surveys, and thus their ability to control for all possible outside factors is limited and the data collected are often unreliable. Therefore, we propose to explore gender discrimination in wage setting and promotion at the level of the enterprise, by analyzing quantitative firm-level information on the wages and earnings of men and women. With access to unique firm-level data from the Czech Republic in 1998-2004, so called matched employer-employee data, we ask: What is the size of the gross gender wage gap among male and female employees? What part of the wage gap is attributable to differences among women and men in skills, qualities, and experience? What part of the wage gap may be attributed to men and women doing different jobs? And finally, what part of the wage gap is due to discrimination?

PI: Clair Brown
Funder: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Project Title: Change is the Only Constant: How the Chip Industry Reinvents Itself to Keep the World Running

Abstract: The semiconductor industry, with its rapid pace of technological change and turbulent history of international diffusion, has often been declared to be in a major crisis that threatens its future. Yet the industry has found effective ways to overcome each crisis, often reinventing itself in the process. Since other industries eventually experience similar crisis, the semiconductor industry has much to teach us about how to respond to crises stemming from technological change and globalization. Professor Clair Brown and Dr. Greg Linden are writing a book that analyzes the major challenges the industry has faced, and overcome, since the mid-1980s.

PI: Juliann Sum
Funder: California Department of Industrial Relations
Project Title: Coordinating and Consolidating Information for Injured Workers

Abstract: The legislative changes from 2003 and 2004 have complicated access to medical care in the workers' compensation system in the following areas: rights to select the initial primary treating physician; rights to change physicians; limits on the kinds of treatment and the amount of treatment that may be given; utilization review procedures; and methods to resolve disputes over medical care. At the same time, provisions that allow labor unions and employers in construction to negotiate carve-outs have been expanded to include any unionized industry. Unions, employers, and other members of the workers' compensation community have expressed a need for further information on how to manage and navigate aspects of medical care in the workers' compensation and on options for creating effective carve-outs. In response to this, Juliann Sum will assist the Commission in developing and producing "Medical Care Educational Factsheets" which will supplement the "Workers' Compensation in California: A Guidebook for Injured Workers, 2nd Edition, February 2005" by further describing injured workers' rights and options in medical care and appropriate steps to take if there are questions or problems. In addition, she will expand on "Carve-Outs: A Guidebook for Unions and Employers in Workers' Compensation, May 2004" by further describing issues to consider in negotiating and creating carve-outs.