Large Employers Research Articles

Increasing the Retirement Age: Policy Effects and Underlying Mechanisms

We study the effects of increasing the statutory retirement age (SRA) in the Netherlands, using regression discontinuity design and administrative data on the universe of the population. We find clear and large employment effects of the reform. A simple model in which individuals stay longer in their pre-SRA labor market state predicts the treatment effects well. The employment level before the SRA and the retirement hazard at the SRA are the key determinants of the effects of the policy change. Exploring potential explanations for the high hazard rate observed in the Netherlands, our results point to an important role for employers’ effects. (JEL H55, J14, J26, J32)

Granular Search, Market Structure, and Wages

Abstract We develop a model of size-based market power in a frictional labour market. In the canonical search environment, competition for workers is encoded in outside options. In our granular setting, large employers remove their own job postings from their workers’ outside option. Thus, size gives market power and a more concentrated market structure depresses wages because it reduces competition for workers. We calibrate the model to Austrian data and find that such size-based market power depresses wages by about 2.6% or 1,500 euros annually per worker.

Prediction of job-seeking intention of college students based on group intelligence algorithm and its guidance for career planning

Abstract The increasingly large employment group has brought great employment pressure to society. Therefore, predicting the job-seeking intentions of college graduates and providing personalized career planning has become feasible methods to solve the structural contradiction of college employment. This paper proposes a better support vector machine model that utilizes the gray wolf optimization algorithm in the group intelligence algorithm, with the aim of establishing a prediction scheme for the job-seeking intentions of college graduates using this model. The collected data are pre-processed by cleaning, integrating, converting, and other pre-processing work to form a standardized dataset to prepare for the subsequent experiments. Finally, the prediction scheme of the job-seeking intention of college graduates is designed and developed based on the GWO-SVM optimization model, and the actual application of the prediction model is analyzed as a case study based on the real data of graduates from a college. The study shows that when the number of input features is 9, the average value of the comprehensive score of this prediction model is 0.5703, the standard deviation is 0.0278, the optimal learning rate of the model is 0.165, the F1 value is stable above 0.6, and the optimal F1 value is 0.856, which proves that this prediction model has a good prediction effect. This study has certain guiding significance in helping college students establish reasonable job-hunting intentions, proposing personalized career planning for students, and promoting high employability.

Оценка работодателями компетенций сотрудников судостроительной, лесной и рыбопромышленной отраслей Архангельской области в контексте развития цифровизации и автоматизации производств

The article is devoted to the study of employers’ perceptions of the competences of employees in the shipbuilding, fishing and forestry industries of the Arkhangelsk Oblast in the context of digitalization and automation of production. As part of the sociological research, the team conducted a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews among representatives of enterprises in these industries. The results of the research allowed drawing conclusions that the professional competencies of employees, as well as abilities to work independently, in non-standard situations and under stress are currently the most in demand for employers. There is also a very high demand for qualities associated with discipline and the desire to develop in the profession. In terms of the size of enterprises, the higher requirement for almost all competences in small and medium-sized enterprises compared to large employers is noteworthy. The authors conclude that about half of the enterprises in the shipbuilding, forestry and fishing industries of the Arkhangelsk Oblast have implemented automation and digitalization into all key production processes. In the near future, more than 50% of employers expect a high demand for employee competencies related to the use of new production technologies. The survey revealed a gap between employers’ expectations and the actual level of professional training and skills of recent graduates of educational institutions of higher and secondary vocational education, including with regard to the most in-demand knowledge, skills and abilities. In the context of industries, it is noteworthy that the level of satisfaction with the training of graduates of shipbuilding industry is much lower, except for those who received education through the “Plant-University” system (Severodvinsk).

Nothing About Patients Without Patients: More Than Just a Catchphrase!

Health care is sometimes called a "team sport," yet patients were traditionally not considered to be "on the team" in medicine. In 2001, the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) published its seminal book Crossing the Quality Chasm, in which patient-centered care was identified as 1 of 6 quality aims. Many organizations have since included patient-centered care as an important aspect of quality, including The Joint Commission, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, and many large employers. In the past 10 years, the focus on patient-centered care has expanded in the Kaiser Permanente, Southern California region to include innovative ways for patients to collaborate with health care teams to codesign improvement efforts that are truly patient-centered. We will describe 3 important approaches that have greatly increased the patient-centeredness of our organization: individual patient approaches; adding patients onto health care teams; and effectively utilizing patient and family advisory councils. We will provide examples of how all health care organizations can better partner with their patients to improve their ability to provide higher quality, safer, more equitable, and affordable health care. The slogan "Nothing About Patients Without Patients" was an early rallying cry of the patient engagement movement. It conveyed the idea that as with everything else in our society, patients now expect to have a say in the design and implementation of their care. We show that this is not only possible, but also highly effective and even necessary to improving care.

Trade and employment in the formal and informal sectors: A natural experiment from Cambodia

How does trade affect formal and informal jobs in developing economies? This paper estimates the impact of exports on employment in the formal and informal sectors by exploiting the European Union (EU)’s reform in rules of origin for duty-free market access, which produced a large positive shock to Cambodia’s garment exports to the EU. We use nationally representative datasets on formally registered and unregistered establishments in Cambodia for 2009, 2011, and 2014. The results show that the export shock caused large employment growth in formal garment establishments, but had little effect on employment in informal garment establishments. While the positive effect is pronounced for incumbent establishments and female workers, our estimates are not magnified by transitions between formal and informal status in the garment industry. Thus, trade promotes employment disproportionately in the formal sector.

Tiered Physician Network Plans and Patient Choices of Specialist Physicians

Tiered physician network (TPN) health plans sort physicians into tiers based on their cost and quality, and patients pay lower copays for visits with physicians in the lower-cost and better-quality tiers. When the plans are first introduced, they lead patients to seek care from higher-value physicians. To examine whether TPNs are associated with patient choice of physician when the plans have been in place for 8 to 12 years and whether there are inequities in patient out-of-pocket costs associated with inequities in access to physicians in lower-copay tiers. This cross-sectional study comprising 46 645 physicians and 585 399 patients in TPNs, including 54 683 patients who had a new patient visit with a physician in a TPN, used health insurance claims data from a large employer purchaser from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2019. Statistical analysis was performed from November 2020 to August 2023. Evaluation and management visit with a physician in a TPN. Main outcomes were new patient market share per physician-carrier-zip code-year, distance from centroid of patient zip code to centroid of zip code of nearest low- or medium-copay physician, and mean TPN physician office visit copay per patient. A regression discontinuity design was used to estimate the association of a physician's tier ranking, and a difference-in-differences analysis was used to estimate the association of copayment differences across tiers with market share among new patients. Equity in access was measured by comparing travel distance to the nearest physician in a low-copay or medium-copay tier and mean copayments across patient incomes. The main analysis sample included 46 645 physician-carrier-zip code-year observations, 9506 (20.4%) of which were in the low-copay tier, 31 798 (68.2%) in the medium-copay tier, and 5341 (11.5%) in the high-copay tier. The 54 683 new patients in the sample had a mean (SD) age of 46.4 (16.7) years and included 33 542 women (61.3%). There was no association of having a worse tier ranking (0.045 percentage points [95% CI, -0.058 to 0.148 percentage points]) or of copayment differences between tiers (0.001 percentage points [95% CI, -0.002 to 0.004 percentage points]) with physician market share among new patients. The patients with the lowest income paid slightly lower mean (SD) copayments for office visits to a TPN physician than the patients with high income ($48.08 [$16.42] vs $51.59 [$16.79], a 6.8% difference). In this cross-sectional study of TPN health plans, there was no association between physician tier ranking and physician market share among any group of patients. These findings suggest there are limitations in TPNs' steering of patients toward high-value physicians. These plans were not associated with exacerbated health inequity in this setting.

Health insurance menu design for large employers

AbstractWe provide a framework for large employers designing a menu of health plan offerings that differ on both financial and nonfinancial dimensions. Using administrative data from Harvard University, we estimate a model of plan choice and utilization, and evaluate the benefits of cost sharing and plan variety. For this population of consumers, and a single plan with a generous out‐of‐pocket maximum and zero deductible, modest cost sharing of approximately 30% maximizes average employee surplus. Gains from offering choice are meaningful only if financial differentiation is paired with differentiation along other dimensions where consumer preferences are correlated with efficient coverage levels.

Health Benefits In 2023: Premiums Increase With Inflation And Employer Coverage In The Wake Of Dobbs.

In 2023 the average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health insurance coverage was $23,968-an increase of $1,505 (7percent) from 2022. Both single and family premiums increased faster in 2023 than in 2022, in a period of generally high inflation throughout the US economy. On average, covered workers contributed 17percent ($1,401) of the cost of single coverage and 29percent ($6,575) of the cost of family coverage. When compared to employers' perceptions of the number of primary care providers in their networks, a smaller share of employers believed that their provider networks had a sufficient number of mental health and substance abuse providers to provide timely access to services. One-quarter of employers indicated that their employees had a "high" level of concern with the level of cost sharing required by their plans. When asked about abortion coverage in the wake of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, almost a third of large employers reported that their largest plan covered abortion in most or all circumstances.

Price and saliency in health care: When can targeted nudges change behaviors?

This paper takes advantage of a natural experiment to examine the relationship between the price and saliency of health services. A large employer e-mailed individually targeted health education encouraging high-value care to high-risk employees. Weeks before the program launched, a company reorganization affecting about a quarter of employees resulted in employees in that group not receiving the intervention. Using event study, difference-in-differences, and triple differences methods, I find that costlier services are associated with relatively less utilization and that prior use was associated with relatively more utilization following the campaigns. In all cases, the targeted nudges either increased or did not affect utilization, suggesting that while these interventions may increase health care consumption choices for some lower-cost preventative services or for some services previously utilized, it is unlikely to reduce health care costs in the short-run. This research may inform employer, governmental, and health insurer choices concerning low-cost interventions seeking to shift health behaviors, and may also be relevant in other settings in which targeted informational nudges are deployed.

Industrial policy and labour productivity growth in Africa: does the technology choice matter?

The persistent gaps in African sectoral labour productivity and the disappointing growth in the manufacturing and service sectors have revived interest among academics and policymakers. In search of ways to boost labour productivity, this study explores how the technology choice as a proxy for industrial policy can affect labour productivity growth. First, I identify the different sources of growth with the decomposition method of shift–share analysis and a recent dataset from 1960 to 2017 of nine sectors. Then I investigate the impact of comparative advantage development strategy on growth components (within effects and structural effects). The shift and share decomposition analysis results suggest a changing role of growth components. While the structural change effect is driven by the “static gains” which still plays an important role, the within effect has been more prevalent during the MDGs and SDGs period. The empirical results indicate that defying comparative advantage hinders the within effect component mitigated by a weak and positive dynamic effect component. The evidence emphasises the design of industrial development based on the comparative advantage in SSA, complemented with policies and strategies aiming at increasing labour productivity in the agriculture sector due to its large employment share.

Business research methods: A perspective of street traders in the informal economy

Many people, despites being educated or not, struggle to find decent jobs in the formal economy. Some end-up working in the informal economy as self-employed/own-account workers. Informal economy is the largest employer with more potentials, employing approximately 61 percent of the global labour force. Despite different forms of occupations, street trading is the most visible occupation in the informal economy. There is a research gap between formal and informal economy, with most research done in the formal economy. It is recommended that micro-level individuals must be included in research to broaden knowledge. The informal economic activities are not reported in government statistics. It is odd because the informal economy is the largest global employer and street trading is found in both developed and developing economies. Informal economic activities are however associated with lack of growth and social security, money laundering, and financing of terrorist activities. The study was conducted to determine work engagement of street traders using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). The UWES is validated and used for quantitative studies in the formal economy. The instrument was pretested and piloted for quality appraisal purposes for validation and use in the informal economy. The general lack of credible records of street trading activities, makes it difficult for researchers to conduct studies using different methodologies in the informal economy. The convenience sampling strategy, a nonprobability sampling startegy, was used in choosing participants, and was most valid for solving the problem of the study, choosing participants accidentally on availability. Most quantitative studies involving street traders are restricted to using nonprobabiliity sampling, which is a concern. The high birth and/or mortality rate of street trading businesses make the database inconsistent to use as some do not report when exiting or entering. The lack of credible records/database of street trading activities, and over reliance on nonprobability sampling strategy, restrict the holistic generation of knowledge. The street traders’ activities must be registered to develop from knowledge generated through research.

Understanding Key Drivers of Participant Cash Flows for Individually Managed Stable Value Funds

In this paper, we investigate the behavioral and statistical characteristics of cash flows for stable value funds provided by numerous U.S. employee benefit plans. We analyze participant-initiated aggregated cash flow data, representing approximately 80% of the market for large employer plans with stand-alone stable value wraps within a 401(k) offering. By leveraging this unique dataset and contextualizing the 401(k) ecosystem, we examine numerous behavioral lapse hypotheses. Our findings highlight key behavioral lapse hypotheses for modeling lapses and generating risk scenarios. We demonstrate that cash flows exhibit medium- to long-term non-monotonic trends. Factors within the plan sponsor’s ecosystem, such as employment growth, default 401(k) plan options, and the introduction of new investment options, significantly impact participant cash flow behavior indirectly. Moreover, we find that flight-to-safety behavior plays a dominant role during global market crises. Although the risk of mass lapses due to reputational issues is observed, their probability of occurrence is low. Other behavioral hypotheses discussed in the literature, such as the moneyness hypothesis, are found to be less prevalent in this context.

Some facts about concentrated labor markets in the United States

AbstractWe estimate employer concentration by occupation in the United States from 2003 to 2018. Findings include the following: (1) concentration is a characteristic of small labor markets; (2) patterns of concentrated employment differ from patterns of employment in very large employers, with overlap largely in the public sector; (3) the public sector and hospital industry play prominent roles in concentrated employment; (4) more concentrated labor markets are associated with slightly lower wages, only within the private sector.

In Case You Haven't Heard…

Although many large employers think they are providing a flexible work environment, a new survey reveals that they should be doing more in regards to mental health. A Northeast Business Group on Health survey, published June 26, found that 26% of employers never identify the needs of employees, nor the “awareness and effectiveness” of their mental health programs. About 3 in 10 respondents don't have messaging campaigns through social media and internal platforms on mental health, MedCity News reported. The survey included responses from 140 large employers in the U.S. It used a tool that Northeast Business Group on Health launched in November called Well Gauge. The tool asks participants a series of questions through four sections: communicating a commitment to mental health, engaging leadership at all levels, demonstrating a commitment to mental health, and fostering environments that support total health. Users of the tool also receive a list of recommendations to improve mental wellness support at their organization. The survey also found that just 52% of employers “always” or “usually” offer easily accessible information about mental health support. Less than half of employers reported that managers are engaged when it comes to “breaking mental health stigma.” Not only are they often not engaged, but only half “always” or “usually” know how to address employees' mental health needs and how to direct them to support.

Polarization of employment and wages in China

AbstractIn China, between 1995 and 2018, the proportion of workers employed in unskilled job categories grew, while the share holding middle‐skilled jobs declined. The resulting income polarization magnified a major redistribution of wages within job categories, which is not only the main component of total income inequality but is also the driving factor contributing to changes in total income inequality over the 1995–2018 period. Our counterfactual simulation results support our conjecture that the large employment shift from middle‐skilled to unskilled jobs reflects the adoption of labor‐saving technologies and the response to increased demand for services. We believe that our study sheds light on similar transformations in other developing economies.

Wastewater-based surveillance can be used to model COVID-19-associated workforce absenteeism

Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) of infectious diseases is a powerful tool for understanding community COVID-19 disease burden and informing public health policy. The potential of WBS for understanding COVID-19's impact in non-healthcare settings has not been explored to the same degree. Here we examined how SARS-CoV-2 measured from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) correlates with workforce absenteeism. SARS-CoV-2 RNA N1 and N2 were quantified three times per week by RT-qPCR in samples collected at three WWTPs servicing Calgary and surrounding areas, Canada (1.4 million residents) between June 2020 and March 2022. Wastewater trends were compared to workforce absenteeism using data from the largest employer in the city (>15,000 staff). Absences were classified as being COVID-19-related, COVID-19-confirmed, and unrelated to COVID-19. Poisson regression was performed to generate a prediction model for COVID-19 absenteeism based on wastewater data. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 95.5 % (85/89) of weeks assessed. During this period 6592 COVID-19-related absences (1896 confirmed) and 4524 unrelated absences COVID-19 cases were recorded. A generalized linear regression using a Poisson distribution was performed to predict COVID-19-confirmed absences out of the total number of absent employees using wastewater data as a leading indicator (P < 0.0001). The Poisson regression with wastewater as a one-week leading signal has an Akaike information criterion (AIC) of 858, compared to a null model (excluding wastewater predictor) with an AIC of 1895. The likelihood-ratio test comparing the model with wastewater signal with the null model shows statistical significance (P < 0.0001). We also assessed the variation of predictions when the regression model was applied to new data, with the predicted values and corresponding confidence intervals closely tracking actual absenteeism data. Wastewater-based surveillance has the potential to be used by employers to anticipate workforce requirements and optimize human resource allocation in response to trackable respiratory illnesses like COVID-19.

Weak State as a Security Threat: Study Case of El Salvador (2014-2019)

Weak State as a Security Threat: Study Case of El Salvador (2014-2019)

A Study on Adoption Level of Different Recommended Agricultural Practices by Farmers in Kharar Division of Punjab

Since agriculture employs half of all workers worldwide, it is the largest employer and the economic engine of rural India. Rural India's development in relation to national development would be reflected in the development of agriculture [1]. Agriculture and allied industries are without a doubt the greatest employer in India, particularly in the vast rural areas. A vital basis for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is also provided by it. The agriculture industry in India contributes considerably to the economy, accounting for around 18.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). All of the procedures that a farmer follows from seed to seed, from seed sowing through seed harvesting and storage, are referred to as agronomical practices. A study on agronomic practices followed by 120 farmers from five villages viz. Shakrullapur (28 farmers), Rora (30 farmers), Bibipur (22 farmers), Batta (18 farmers) and Fatehpur-Theri (22 farmers) was considered.The data collected from the respondents include major crops grown, seed rate followed by respondents, fertilizer dose followed, major weeds affecting, major plant diseases, major insect and pests, harvesting methods and yield records. As per the data collected, wheat is cultivated by nearly 87% of the farmers in this region and 100% farmers who are growing wheat, agreed that the Phalaris minor is the major weed affecting the wheat production. The data collected from the farmers shows that, only 59% of the farmers are following recommended seed rate. Sheath blight and Yellow rust are the two major diseases affecting paddy and wheat respectively. And the major pests affecting the production in rice and wheat are grasshoppers and aphids respectively.In order to secure the best crop growth and highest yields, the study's findings showed that farmers used the most recent technology in the fields.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE DIVERSITY IN A REGIONAL CONTEXT

Lela Iremadze&#x0D; E-mail: leliremadze@gmail.com&#x0D; PhD student, Caucasus International University&#x0D; Tbilisi Georgia&#x0D; https://0000-0002-0444-9740&#x0D; Aim. In Georgia, the term “organizational culture” is new and, therefore, the practice in this direction is not so great. It has been about 20-30 years since some companies started using organizational culture to focus on specific outcomes. The analysis of organizational culture should be equally relevant to all regions in the country so that the local community can better analyze its importance and recognize its need.&#x0D; Research shows that there is a cultural difference in different branches of the same company according to the regions. The aim of the paper is to reflect the real situation in this area and to identify regional discrimination, if any. &#x0D; The main research object of the paper is the large employers in Georgia, which has branches in various regions. Based on the study of the research object, we will make an analysis of the regional differences in the level of development of organizational culture.