Becker's Theory Research Articles

“The Spider Is Alive”: Reassessing Becker's Theory of Artistic Conventions through Southern Italian Music

Howard Becker wrote that art is constructed, and understood, according to conventions. However, Becker does not adequately explain how artists negotiate historical circumstances affecting their work. Using the southern Italian phenomenon of tarantism and its music, I address how contemporary musicians employ conventions to transform sounds with deviant connotations. The alteration of musical conventions reflects material social conditions in the Salento region and provides insight into the formation of a Salentinian cultural movement's ideology. By accounting for how social groups contend with history, I argue that sociologists must reconsider the theory of artistic conventions.

How 'Chicagoan' are Gary Becker's Economic Models of Marriage?

This paper describes Gary Becker's theoretical models of marriage. At the micro-level, these are all rational choice models. At the market level, Becker offers two major types of models: partial equilibrium models based on Price Theory as taught by Marshall and Friedman and optimal sorting models based on optimal assignment models. The paper examines some of the possible intellectual influences on Becker's theory of marriage, compares Becker's research on marriage with that of some scholars interested in intra-marriage distribution, and documents that Becker's students at Chicago were more interested in Becker's Friedmanian models of marriage than in his optimal assignment models.

Impact of Educational and Religious Homogamy on Marital Stability

Using a rich panel data set from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we test whether spouses who are similar to each other in certain respects have a lower probability of divorce than dissimilar spouses. We focus on the effect of homogamy with respect to education and church attendance. Gary Becker's theory of marriage predicts that usually, positive assortative mating is optimal. Our results, however, suggest that homogamy per se does not increase marital stability but higher education and religiousness.

Competition and Gender Prejudice: Are Discriminatory Employers Doomed to Fail?

According to Becker's (1957) famous theory on discrimination, entrepreneurs with a strong prejudice against female workers forgo profits by submitting to their tastes. In a competitive market their firms lack efficiency and are therefore forced to leave. We present new empirical evidence for this prediction by studying the survival of startup firms in a large longitudinal matched employer-employee data set from Austria. Our results show that firms with strong preferences for discrimination, i.e. a low share of female employees relatively to the industry average, have significantly shorter survival rates. This is especially relevant for firms starting out with female shares in the lower tail of the distribution. They exit about 18 months earlier than firms with a median share of females. We see no differences in survival between firms at the top of the female share distribution and at the median, though. We further document that highly discriminatory firms that manage to survive submit to market powers and increase their female workforce over time.

Competition and Gender Prejudice: Are Discriminatory Employers Doomed to Fail?

According to Becker's (1957) famous theory on discrimination, entrepreneurs with a strong prejudice against female workers forgo profits by submitting to their tastes. In a competitive market their firms lack efficiency and are therefore forced to leave. We present new empirical evidence for this prediction by studying the survival of startup firms in a large longitudinal matched employer-employee data set from Austria. Our results show that firms with strong preferences for discrimination, i.e. a low share of female employees relatively to the industry average, have significantly shorter survival rates. This is especially relevant for firms starting out with female shares in the lower tail of the distribution. They exit about 18 months earlier than firms with a median share of females. We see no differences in survival between firms at the top of the female share distribution and at the median, though. We further document that highly discriminatory firms that manage to survive submit to market powers and increase their female workforce over time.

On the Information-Gathering Role of Firm-Sponsored Training for New Hires

According to Becker's human-capital theory, employers tend to underinvest in general training relative to specific training because it increases their existing employees' outside opportunities. We show that this is not necessarily true if training has an information-gathering function that allows an agent to learn his skills. An example is the training of new hires. When training creates an information asymmetry between the principal and the agent, the principal may overinvest in general training relative to specific training. General training helps the principal reduce the incentive problem inside the firm. Becker's result of underinvestment in general training may not hold when training creates asymmetric information. © 2009 Mohr Siebeck.

Gender roles and values of children: Childless Couples in East and West Germany

Abstract Presuming that not just economic circumstances but also ideational factors influence fertility decisions, the paper examines the values of children of East and West-German childless men and women living with a partner. Based on the survey about 'Change and Development of Family Life Forms', a confirmatory factor analysis identifies an affective, a utility and a cost dimension of the values of children, and for West-German women an additional dimension of opportunity costs. Although East and West-German men and women differed in their values of children, hypotheses about the higher affective value of children for East Germans compared to West Germans or for women compared to men are not supported for the specific sample. The values of children varied with respondent's labour-market position and the division of household work. An analysis of panel data for West Germany shows that first-birth rates depended on the values of children especially of women and on the gender roles in the home. Couples that practised a patriarchal division of labour had a relatively high first-birth rate whereas less traditional couples' behaviour was more varied depending on their affective value of children. 1. Introduction A popular explanation of current fertility trends in Western societies is the neoclassical economic theory (Becker 1981), which assumes that it is economically advantageous for spouses to specialize in market and in family work, respectively. As women's level of employment has risen during the last decades, women's increasing income has raised the opportunity costs of having children, lowering the presumed advantage of specialization. While these changes explain the drop in fertility in many Western countries, they do not fully account for the differences in fertility levels between these countries (Friedman et al. 1994). Recent research on the low levels of fertility in Western societies has suggested that not just the division of market work between the spouses but also the division of household work are key to their explanation (McDonald 2000a, 2000b; Olah 2003; Cooke 2004; Torr and Short 2004; de Laat and Sevilla Sanz 2007). The main argument is that women find it difficult to combine work and family if the household work is divided in the traditional way between the spouses. As a consequence women are reluctant to have children especially if they pursue a career. A more egalitarian setting should be associated with fewer stressors and higher fertility rates. The other major explanation of current fertility trends emphasizes the importance of ideational and cultural factors as part of the theory of the 'Second Demographic Transition' (van de Kaa 1987; Lesthaeghe 1995). According to this approach, the drop in fertility in Western societies was related to a change in the role and structure of the family in the context of rising postmaterialist values of self-expression and quality of life. This change might have progressed differently in different societal groups. In contrast, Becker's neoclassical economic theory presumes that all people have the same preferences about children. If one assumes that some couples are more eager for the woman to have a career than others, and that some couples have a more positive attitude to children than others, one can distinguish three situations: (a) The couple values children highly and wants the woman to be in paid work: these couples should profit from equality in the societal institutions and in the home when pursuing their fertility goals. (b) The couple does not especially value the woman's involvement in paid work but still holds positive values of children. These couples' intentions are compatible with a more traditional male breadwinner model. (c) The couple does not hold positive values of children. For these couples one would expect no relationship between gender equality and fertility. To test these scenarios it is necessary to consider in fertility models attitudes to children and to women's careers and the anticipated gender division of household work. …

Cada vez menos y más tarde: un análisis de la nupcialidad masculina durante los últimos treinta años en España (Less and Later: An Analysis of Male Nuptiality during the Last 30 Years in Spain)

Spaniards are getting married later and in smaller proportions. Gary Becker's economic theory of the family and Oppenheimer's theory of marriage timing try to explain these trends. The aim of this paper, focused on men's nuptiality patterns, is to determine whether the hypotheses derived from such theories apply to the Spanish case. To this end, the Spanish Labour Force Survey is used, and the method of artificial cohorts and logistic regression are applied. The findings show that unemployment, fixed-term contracts, the cost of access to the housing market and women's absolute rate of employment are negatively related to the likelihood of getting married. From these results, a discussion on how Spanish society has handled the socio-economic changes that have taken place in the last three decades with respect to the process of family formation is established. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.128 on Tue, 06 Sep 2016 06:02:27 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms JUAN IGNACIO MARTINEZ PASTOR Juan Ignacio Martinez Pastor Licenciado en Sociologia por la Universidad Complutense. Actualmente es Profesor Ayudante en el Departamento de Sociologia II de la Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia. He graduated in sociology from the Universidad Complutense, and is currently Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Sociology II at the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (the Spanish Open University). Departamento de Sociologia II. Facultad de Ciencias Politicas y Sociologia. Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia. C/ Obispo Trejo, s/n. 28040 Madrid. Spain.

The Theory of Human Capital Revisited: On the Interaction of General and Specific Investments

Human capital theory distinguishes between training in general-usage and firm-specific skills. Becker (1964) argues that employers will only invest in specific training, not general training, when labour markets are competitive. The article reconsiders Becker's theory. Using essentially his framework, we show that there exists an incentive complementarity between employer-sponsored general and specific training: the possibility to provide specific training leads the employer to invest in general human capital. Conversely, the latter reduces the hold-up problem that arises with firm-specific training. We also consider the desirability of institutionalised training programmes and the virtues of breach penalties, and discuss some empirical facts that could be explained by the theory.

Becker’s rational addiction theory: an empirical test with price elasticities for distilled spirits in Denmark 1911–31

To test an implication of Becker's rational addiction theory, namely that price changes will lead both to simultaneous consumption changes as well as lagged changes (and potentially also immediate changes if future changes in prices are anticipated). Time-series analysis, first of aggregate sales of distilled spirits and prices, controlled for gross national product (GNP), and secondly of deaths from delirium tremens. Denmark 1911-31. Price changes were very large in the period 1916-18 due to shortages during World War I, and the Danish case can be conceived as a natural experiment. No evidence for lagged price effects in the expected direction was found. On the contrary, the evidence pointed in the opposite direction. The immediate reduction in sales following rising prices are, to some degree, counteracted by an adjustment in the opposite direction the following year. The delirium tremens data confirm this pattern. Becker's theory is not confirmed. Several possible explanations are discussed. If the pattern observed in these data is representative of a more general mechanism, current price elasticity estimates may be too high, by ignoring lagged compensatory effects.

A market test for sex discrimination: Evidence from Japanese firm-level panel data

This paper examines the empirical implications of Becker's classical theory of employer discrimination. If the male–female wage differential is due to employer discrimination, then non-discriminatory employers will hire more women and enjoy a higher profit than discriminatory employers. This proposition is tested using Japanese firm-level panel data from the 1990s. The empirical results, based on pooled OLS, indicate that an increase in the proportion of women employed by a firm enhances its operating profit. The female proportion could be endogenous in the profit equation, however, because firms may adjust their female labor in response to positive productivity shocks. To deal with this possible endogeneity, investment or intermediate input amounts are used as proxy variables for productivity shocks, as suggested by Olley and Pakes (Olley, G. S., and A. Pakes (1996): “The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry,” Econometrica, 64(6), 1263–1297.) and Levinsohn and Petrin (Levinsohn, J., and A. Petrin (2003): “Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables,” The Review of Economic Studies, 70(2), 317–341.). The findings based on these proxy variable estimations confirm the robustness of the finding that hiring more women results in higher profit. This result fails to reject the hypothesis that employer discrimination is a source of the male-female wage gap. However, the size of estimated effect of female proportion on profit is 1/20 of the predicted coefficient calculated based on the assumption that all the observed gender wage gap is due to gender discrimination. This result suggests that the large portion of gender wage gap is due to gender productivity gap. In addition, those firms that hire more women do not necessarily grow faster than firms that hire fewer women.

Women's Labor Supply, Marriage, and Welfare Dependency

Abstract. This paper provides a rational choice model that simultaneously analyses women's decisions about welfare dependency, labor supply, and marriage. The model is based on the Demand and Supply (D&S) models of marriage inspired by Becker's theory of marriage. In addition to reproducing old insights about income effects and marriage market effects on welfare dependency, the model offers new insights regarding the effects on welfare dependency of sex ratios, divorce laws, cohort size, and traditional expectations about marriage and family. The model helps understand why welfare is more common among black women in the USA and offers a new interpretation for past trends in American women's welfare dependency: the big increase in welfare dependency in the late 1960s is interpreted as a baby‐boom phenomenon and recent reductions in welfare dependency are partially seen as the expression of young women's better marriage market opportunities.

The Price of Greatness: Pedagogical Lessons from Jersey Transactions in Professional Sports

As professional athletes are traded from team to team, various in-kind and monetary transactions for certain jersey numbers are becoming more common. Given the size of some of the recent payments, these stories have transitioned from relative obscurity to mainstream sports news. This paper provides two areas where these kinds of interactions can enhance the learning experience in microeconomics. These are (1) as a simple, illustrative way of discussing the importance of markets (and related concepts), and (2) as an interesting extension of Gary Becker's human capital theory. Thus, these examples could enhance the pedagogical process in principles of microeconomics and/or in undergraduate courses in labor and sports economics.

International Trade and the Value of Time

I discuss a generalized Heckscher–Ohlin–Vanek (HOV) model in which consumption requires time as well as money (as in Becker's theory of the allocation of time) and the amount of work that a worker can do per unit of time—her “ability”—varies from country to country. High ability implies high income per hour, which implies a high value of time and, therefore, high consumption of the good that is more “time-saving.” Therefore, if domestic production of this good is not commensurately high, it would have to be imported. In this way, I demonstrate that international differences in worker ability constitute an independent source of gains from trade. The model is able to explain several observed features of North–South trade that are not explained by the HOV model. The theoretical possibility of a Leontief paradox-type trade pattern is also demonstrated.

Development and Validation of a Situational Judgment Test of Employee Integrity

Based on Becker's theory (1998) and pilot work (2000), I developed a situational judgment test of employee integrity. In this study, I examine whether scores on this test predict integrity-relevant outcomes. The analysis of data from fast service employees, engineers, and production workers revealed that employees' integrity scores were correlated with managerial ratings of career potential, leadership activities, and job performance. Integrity was not related to the quality of interpersonal relationships.

The effect of aging on entrepreneurial behavior

Empirical evidence shows that younger individuals are more likely to start a new firm than older ones. As a result, the age distribution of a population may be important for the rate of new firm creation. Building upon Becker's theory of time allocation, we present a model in which individuals select a career path according to the dynamic interplay of age, wealth and risk aversion. Our analysis complements existing literature on the motivations of entrepreneurial behavior and discusses the potential implications of age for individuals' employment status choices.

On Becker’s Theory of Commitment: An Empirical Verification Among Blue-Collar Workers

The present study attempts to assess the empirical relevance of Becker's theory of commitment to study organizational commitment among blue collar workers. The relative importance of demographic, background and job factors as possible predictors of organizational commitment are examined. The sample is drawn from packaging, power distribution and manufacturing industries in Canada. Stepwise multiple regression analysis is used to isolate the important predictors of organizational commitment.

Development of a Scheduling Model for Car Tourists’ 1-Day Tours

Focusing on car tourists’ 1-day tours, a new scheduling model combines a nested paired combinatorial logit (NPCL) type of destination and route choice model and a time allocation (TA) model. The NPCL model, developed previously from the generalized extreme value family of discrete choice models to represent the similarity between pairs of alternatives in the same choice nest as well as the influence of inclusive value, indicates destination choice in the bottom level and route choice in the top level. The TA model applies Becker's theory to determine the time allocated to each touring site. Utility of destination choice is influenced by the time spent at each site. Different route choices result in a level of service for the road network that varies hourly, varying available time used in the TA model. The TA model endogenously incorporates the influence of hourly variance in level of service at the site of interest, which is affected by the allocated time. An iteration estimation procedure is proposed to estimate the parameters consistently in both models. Finally, revealed preference tourist travel survey data collected in a tourist attraction region near the Sea of Japan indicate that the proposed scheduling model is effective in representing car tourists’ scheduling behavior for 1-day tours.

Development of a Scheduling Model for Car Tourists' 1-Day Tours

Focusing on car tourists' 1-day tours, a new scheduling model combines a nested paired combinatorial logit (NPCL) type of destination and route choice model and a time allocation (TA) model. The NPCL model, developed previously from the generalized extreme value family of discrete choice models to represent the similarity between pairs of alternatives in the same choice nest as well as the influence of inclusive value, indicates destination choice in the bottom level and route choice in the top level. The TA model applies Becker's theory to determine the time allocated to each touring site. Utility of destination choice is influenced by the time spent at each site. Different route choices result in a level of service for the road network that varies hourly, varying available time used in the TA model. The TA model endogenously incorporates the influence of hourly variance in level of service at the site of interest, which is affected by the allocated time. An iteration estimation procedure is proposed to ...

THE PRICE OF DISCRIMINATION: AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION RULINGS 1985–2000

This paper investigates the price of discrimination and the identity of discriminators in Australia, using data from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. To the extent that Becker's (1971) theory is correct, we anticipate greater levels of discrimination in less competitive sectors of the economy. The data do not support that notion. We also investigate whether the price of discrimination varies by identity of discriminator. Overall the price of discrimination is about A$15,000.