Percentage Of Workers Research Articles

Competition, Scale and Political Explanations for Inequality: An Integrated Study of Sectoral Explanations at the Aggregate Level

Explanations from the sectoral and political traditions are used in panel analyses to predict income inequality in the American states. Sectoral explanations which stress competition and the size of the employing unit are represented by a weighted index of concentration in manufacturing and by the percentage of workers in small enterprises. Democracy and the corresponding ability of those with low incomes to influence political outcomes is gauged with indicators of political competition and voting. With four additional factors controlled, the most consistent predictor of inequality is the degree of competition. States with more black residents and greater proportions of the work force in small establishments were also likely to have comparatively unequal income distributions. These results widen the impact of the sectoral argument and show that institutional arrangements in the economy have important effects on aggregate inequality in one highly industrial society.

Preferences for Decision‐Making Responsibilities Indicated by Skilled Blue‐Collar Workers

Except for a few notable exceptions, such as Zupanov and Tannenbaum, Arzensek, Ramsay and Bertsch and Obradovic, most studies on workers' participation appear to ignore the fundamental point that workers have a greater preference to participate in some areas of the decision‐making process than others. The workers' propensity to participate depends upon the ability and interest of workers. Arzensek's study indicated that a higher percentage of workers are interested in participating in personnel and social decisions than in economic decisions (Shuchman's terminology). Hespe et al, in a pilot study of steel workers in Sheffield, found similar results. This supports the concept that workers are more interested in participating in decisions which immediately affect them, rather than decisions which affect other parties, and may relate to long term matters. However, Dyson says that “people are not really much more interested (than their parents) in being consulted: but they would prefer to be told rather than ignored”.

The relationship between job design, human behaviour and system response

Many industrial and service processes are performed by using lines composed of a number of sequential and parallel work stations. Certain production rates can be attained either by using a single line, or parallel lines with less stations. The design of a job, or process, has an impact on human behaviour and thus on production performance. Incorrect job design may lead to absenteeism and turnover. Absenteeism causes fluctuations in production, and turnover may slow it down. Correct job design decreases the sensitivity of the technical system to the human one; if instead of a single line, two parallel lines are used, the production system is less sensitive to absenteeism, since the absence of a person disturbs only one half of the system. This paper develops a simulation model to examine the influence of various job design strategies (number of parallel lines) on human behaviour (learning, absenteeism, turnover), the system's response time and percent of work accomplished. The model has been tuned to a spe...

Viewpoint

Prior to the advent of the factory system considerably more flexibility prevailed in respect of work schedules than is the case today. Nowadays, except in very hot countries where non‐factory employees take an afternoon siesta, a high percentage of workers are locked into rigid systems. But this slavery to the clock and calendar is being challenged for a variety of reasons.

Market forces, trade union action, and the Phillips curve in Italy

This study is an extension of two previous studies in which the authors build upon their model of trade union action on contract renewals. To this end, a distinction is made between the percentage of workers at any given moment of time whose new contracts take effect on or before the expiration date of their previous contract. The model is subjected to economic tests with data referring to the Italian industrial sector. The central conclusion is that, since with the wave of strikes initiated by the contract renewals of Fall 1969, the Phillips curve has shifted to the right and upwards and its slope for any given level of unemployment is nearly doubled with respect to the slope prevailing in the previous twenty years. Some implications concerning the present conditions of dynamic instability of the inflationary process are then highlighted. JEL: E24, E31, J51

Collective Agreements and Relative Earnings in UK Manufacturing in 1973

The primary purposes of this paper are to investigate hypothesis that differences in trade union wage coverage between industries are a significant source of variation in earnings between industries and to attempt to estimate any union-non-union earnings The stimulus for this paper was publication, in New Earnings Survey (NES) for 1973, of a unique series of data which, inter alia, indicate percentage of workers in each industry whose wages are subject to agreements of various kinds. Prior to publication of collective agreement (CA) data only recently available data on extent of trade union organization in United Kingdom were published data on aggregate trade union membership. At industry group level of disaggregation these data must be allocated to industries in an ad hoc way. The result is that only limited reliance can be placed on them. Pencavel's (1974) recent study of relative wage effects of trade unions, only one for United Kingdom, used such data and is therefore subject to limitations of those data. The NES data have quality that they directly nieasure extent of coverage of unlion1 rate. As a result measures of union and non-union wages in this study are different from those used in most other studies. The union wage here is not estimated wage paid to uinion members as estimated from union membership data. It is, instead, estimated wage negotiated by union and paid to union and some non-union workers as estimated from union wage coverage data. In many respects this is main feature of this study that distinguishes it from most others. In literature in this area it is usually observed that there are wage spillover effects from union to non-union sector, making concept of a union-non-union wage differential elusive in empirical analysis. (See for example Lewis, 1963; Pencavel, 1974.) Hence we would expect that differential estimated from our data would tend to be considerably higher than that estimated in most other studies. We shall call concept of union-nonunion differential used in this paper the coverage differential.

THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON THE INCIDENCE OF LUNG CANCER AMONG RURAL RESIDENTS

Lung cancer mortality in the rural areas of Moscow Oblast is found to be virtually identical with data for urban areas. In an effort to establish a set of potential causative factors in rural areas, selected factors are correlated with lung cancer mortality by Moscow Oblast rayons. The highest positive correlation is found for the use of farm pesticides from the carcinogenic dithiocarbamate group, followed by the percentage of workers employed in agriculture, the amount of smoking per capita, the amount of dust-causing plowing, the use of farm machinery (producing exhaust gases) and the use of kerosene (producing household soot). A negative correlation is found between lung cancer and the percentage of white-collar workers employed in rural areas. The selected set of factors accounts for 45 percent of the variance in lung-cancer incidence, but no single specific factor can be isolated to explain the high mortality in rural areas, which evidently stems from a combination of causes.

Forze di mercato, azione sindacale e la curva di Phillips in Italia.

This study is an extension of two previous studies in which the authors build upon their model of trade union action on contract renewals. To this end, a distinction is made between the percentage of workers at any given moment of time whose new contracts take effect on or before the expiration date of their previous contract. The model is subjected to economic tests with data referring to the Italian industrial sector. The central conclusion is that, since with the wave of strikes initiated by the contract renewals of Fall 1969, the Phillips curve has shifted to the right and upwards and its slope for any given level of unemployment is nearly doubled with respect to the slope prevailing in the previous twenty years. Some implications concerning the present conditions of dynamic instability of the inflationary process are then highlighted. JEL: E24, E31, J51

電気工事労働者の腰痛に関する衛生学的研究

Rapid industrialization, supported by political and economic forces, has increased greatly the need of electric supply. Recently, there has been corresponding increase in quantity and change in quality of labour resulting from automation and so-called “rationalization” among electric construction workers.Many reports have already pointed out that there has been an increase in the number of workers complaining of low back pain related to the changing patterns of labour due to automation and so-called “rationalization” in the entire field of industry, and also that it has produced an important problem in the field of occupational health in Japan, today.The author examined 6, 907 workers of the electric construction industry in “Chugoku” area by questionnaires which were provided by the committee on Occupational Low Back Pain organized in the Japan 'Association of Industrial Health.The author discussed the effects of many factors on the low back pain among these workers and demonstrated that certain factors were much more important for their low back pain in etiology, prevention and treatment.Results were as follows : 1. There are 54. 1 percent of the workers who have had low back pains since they were employed in this industry, 38.7 percent of them are still suffering from the low back pain, and 6.4 percent of them are the sufferers from continuous pain. According to these prevalences of the low back pain among the workers, the author concludes that the workers of this industry, especially those engaged in outdoor-wiring jobs, are in high risk of the low back pain.2. There are 1. 9 percent of workers who have to be often absent from their work owing to their low back pain.3. Development of the low back pain has been related to their working conditions such as handling heavy objects, improper working posture, working on the electric pole, digging a hole and so on. The recent drastic changes in quantity and quality of their labour have brought the increased occurrence of gradually developing and less curable low back pains, in relation to improper working posture or overwork even among younger workers, indoorwiring workers and clerks.4. It has been very difficult for most workers with the low back pain to be absent from work, because their duties are too much, or the low back pain is not admitted as an occupational disorder.5. It has been the most helpful effect on their low back pain to be absent from work on the occurrence of the disorder, while any medical cares without being absent from work seem almosthelpless to their low back pain and unable to improve their disorder.6. In order to prevent the low back pain, it is necessary not only to remove etiological factors and conditions mentioned above, but also to improve their working conditions : that is, the reduction of working hours, the promoted employment of workers and the lessening of working load.7. The employers of these workers with the low back pain should let the workers be absent from work more easily when they wish. The regulation in force covering these occupational disorders must be revised because it is very difficult for these workers to be absent from work under the present regulation.

Correlates of Commutation Between Central Cities and Rings of SMSAs

An attempt was made to relate variations in metropolitan characteristics to those in rates of commutation between central cities and rings of 95 SMSAs that contained 250,000 inhabitants or more in 1960 based on the data drawn from the U.S. Census of Population. Net commutation rate and ring-to-city commutation rate were employed as dependent variables and twelve independent variables reflecting demographic, socioeconomic, and industrial characteristics of each SMSA were used for the analysis. Multiple stepwise regression and correlation techniques were utilized in order to identify the relevant variables linked to the commutation rates. Several metropolitan characteristics have been found to explain significant portions of variation in commutation rates after controlling for the effect of the location of the line between central city and ring. Factors showing a positive association are manufacturing job concentration in the central city, percent Negro in the central city, median earnings of SMSA workers, and percent of workers in centralized industries. Those showing a negative association are population size of SMSA and percent of workers in extractive industries. Findings of this study clearly indicate that the level and direction of the commutation between the central city and ring of SMSAs are largely determined by the industrial and socioeconomic structure of SMSA and the locational pattern of manufacturing jobs between the city and ring. The growth of the metropolitan areas has been a dominant feature of urbanization in America since the beginning of the twentieth century. The number of metropolitan areas as well as the population living in them have increased greatly. By 1960 there were 212 Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) containing 63 percent of the American population. During this period, a combination of technological and other factors has contributed to complex changes in the functions and structures of the cities and suburbs. Prominent among these are: centralization of such activities as wholesale trade and finance; decentralization of heavy manufacturing activities and of high-income residences; and an increasing separation between home and workplace over greatly extended spatial areas in the metropolitan community. This trend in home-and-work separation has resulted in a tremendous volume of daily commuter movements between the central and surrounding areas of modern metropolis. A basic understanding of commuter movements is essential for a sound urban, regional, and transportation planning. A number of analyses of commuting have been made for the United States and for European countries. Most investigations are confined to one city or region. Thorough analyses of nationwide commuting patterns are rare. Many studies are mainly concerned with direction, distance, cost and volume of commuting, and have not attempted to relate the commuting patterns to social and economic characteristics of the area being studied (Schnore, 1960). Despite the abundant data on journey to work available from the 1960 census (Bureau of the Census, 1963c) there has been little comparative analysis of the patterns of commutation in metropolitan areas in the United States. The present study therefore attempts to relate variations in metropolitan characteristics to those in rates of commutation that were taking place between the central city and the ring of the large metropolitan areas of the United States at the time of the 1960 census. * This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Atlantic City, New Jersey, April 1969. The paper is based on the author's Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania, May 1969. I wish to express my appreciation to Hope T. Eldridge, Edward P. Hutchinson, Ralph Thomlinson, and Eli S. Marks for their advice and comments.

産業における胃・十二指腸疾患対策の方式について

To search for a good medical care system for gastric and duodenal diseases in industry, mass screening examination system and out-patient clinic system were compared in terms of efficiencies for finding workers to be cared medically or to be kept under medical surveillance. Percentage of workers who needed further medical care among the total screenees was higher in the out-patient clinic system han in the mass screening system. The difference in the percentage of case-finding was most distinct in cases of gastric ulcers and scars, and was not so distinct in those of duodenal ulcers. Number of cases of interruption for, medical care after screening amounted to one fifth of the total number concerned in the both systems. From these facts the necessity of enforcement of health education program was discussed.

The evaluation of physical tasks in industry.

Abstract The evaluation of physical tasks in terms of fatigue has often been based on their effect on the “average man,” thus serving to protect only half of the population from excessive fatigue. The concept of group work capacity is proposed as a technique for task evaluation which includes the entire population. It is defined as the percentage of workers that can perform a task without showing physiological signs of fatigue. An experiment that investigates 30 different lifting tasks is described. Thirty subjects were used, and group work capacity was estimated for each task by three different methods. The application of the results to industrial situations is discussed.

The Centre of Prague as a Place of Residence and Work

The Centre of Prague as a Place of Residence and Work

Possibilities for Improvement and Reduction of Cost of the Managerial Personnel

If the magnificent objectives for the development of the national economy and culture advanced at the 21st Congress of the CPSU are to be brought to reality, this requires a further improvement of and a reduction in the cost of the apparatus of administration. The reorganization of the management of industry and construction carried out in 1957 made possible a sharp improvement in the management of the economy and, along with this, a reduction in the numbers of the managerial personnel, increasing the percentage of workers engaged directly in production.

Financial Incentives as the Expression of a System of Beliefs

r NHIS PAPER discusses a problem which lies on the borderline of economics where the economist reaches the limits of his comn . petence and the sociologist or social anthropologist may be interested to take over. Expressed in general terms, the problem is this: when buiness firnu experience the impact of strong economic (or other) pressures, their managements are forced to take steps to meet the pressures; how do managers justify the measures they adopt? Do they demand factual proof or do they rely on impressions? If the difficulties continue, do they stick by the measures they have taken because they are committed to a belief in them or do they abandon them? If theyfeel committed to the measures, do they build up a supporting system of beliefs? This paper examines these questions with reference to financial incentives. In the post-war years the impact of full employment on managerial policy was particularly marked. British management was conSonted with an acute shortage of labour, made worse by what management considered particularly low standards of effort. Many firms found that action was urgently required to deal with the problem of the shortage of labour. Under increasing pressures they tried payment by results as a solution. This trend is illustrated by the fact that the percentage of workers in British manufacturing industry who were paid by results rose from 33 per cent in I938 to 40 per cent in I95I.2 In an enquiIy which I conducted in I954 to I955,3 a third of the firms visited had recently made changes introducing or refining incentives schemes and others were in process of making changes. Various reasons were given for taking action, such as:

A Comparative Study on the Living Conditions and Frequency of Hypertension and Deaths for Cerebral Apoplexy in Agricultural and Piscatorial Districts, with Emphasis on the Effect of Anti-Hypertension Measures in Farming Villages Focussed on Improvement of Living Conditions

Generally speaking, the mortality for cerebral apoplexy in Miyagi Prefecture is higher in the agricultural districts than in the maritime areas. The present author, in consideration of this fact, selected a farming village (Village A hereunder) and a fishing village (Village B hereunder) in the Prefecture for a closer survey of the living conditions, the incidence to hypertension and the mortality for cerebral apoplexy in these villages in comparison.Besides, the effect of the periodical examinations, patient administration and the campaign for improvement in living conditions, especially alimentary conditions, in Village A kept up for these 5 years for fighting and preventing hypertension and apoplexy was also reviewed.The results were in summary as follows.1. The crude, the mid-age and the age-adjusted death rates for apoplexy were all the highest in the inland rice-producing farming districts, followed by the urban areas and the maritime areas in descending order.2. In the comparative survey by communal divisions, the mortality for apoplexy was correlated positively with the area of paddy fields and the rice production in the respective communes (counties, cities, towns and villages), positively with the percentage of farmers and negatively with the percentages of workers in commercial and service businesses among the population.3. The rate of death for apoplexy and the frequency of hypertension were both higher in the Village A than in the Village B selected for the survey. Especially, I found the general level of blood pressure above normal in younger age-classes already in the agricultural village.4. The dietary habits are very different in farming and fishing villages. In the former, overconsumption of polished rice in the general tendency, wheat and barley, potatoes and sea-weeds being only sparsely eaten, causing deficiency in vitamins A and C, besides, table salt tends to be too largely consumed here.5. The climate in farming district in Mryagi Prefecture shows rather vehement seasonal fluctuations, temperatures below 0C being frequently recorded in winter, but in the fishing districts, the climate is more mild, sub-zero frigidity being rarely recorded. In heating facilities there is little to choose between agricultural and piscatorial districts, stoves being rarely used, and the indoor temperature being largely influenced dy the outdoor temparature.6. The hours of labor are longer and the times for recesses and sleep are shorter in the farming than in the fishing villages, works assigned to women are manifold, both in rural and maritime districcts, the womenfolk being subject to labor hours as long as those of men. A high level of blood pressure, however, was noticed in primary school children below laboring age already, in the agricultural village surveyed.7. Drinking water tended to acidity in Village A but to alkalinity in Village B.8. The soli too tended to acidity in Village A and to alkalinity in Village B.

THE LONG‐RUN EFFECTS UPON THE UNITED STATES OF THE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAR EAST*

THE OBJECTIVE of this dissertation was to explore theoretically the economic effects of the industrialization of India and China upon the United States. This examination involved a combination of theoretical analysis, and the application of this theory to the statistical material available on India and China. The theoretical framework used was the theory of international trade. An attempt was made to determine those fields in which India and China might have a comparative advantage, which would enable them to compete effectively in the production of industrial goods. Then, assuming that the two countries did industrialize to a technical level approximately equivalent to that of Japan (possible new techniques were not considered), calculations were made of the output of various types of goods that the countries would produce, the percentage of workers in India and China that would be employed, and the raw material requirements for such a level of industrialization. Following this, the foreign trade and productive structure of the United States was examined to estimate the effect of this industrialization upon the comparative advantage of this country, under conditions of relatively free movement of goods in international trade. The population of 800,000,000 people in India and China is both a source of a major comparative advantage, as a supply of relatively inexpensive labor, and a major problem in the attempt to raise the living standards of the people. Industrialization is probably the one hope of the latter goal, but any industrial program would have to be very extensive if it wDre to employ a large proportion of the total population. It is doubtful if there is sufficient internal consumer's demand for industrial products, at present low per capita incomes, to support such a program, so that a large part of the output might have to be exported. This might so reduce the prices of manufac-

Two Cases of Fluorine Osteosclerosis

The skeletal changes found in workers exposed to fluorine compounds were first described in 1932 by Flemming Moller and Gudjonsson.1 During the examination of cryolite workers for pulmonary manifestations of exposure to dust, their attention was directed to a peculiar form of bone sclerosis, occurring in a certain percentage of workers who had been exposed to cryolite dust for a number of years. Cryolite is a double fluoride of sodium and aluminium, occurring naturally, chiefly in Iceland and North America. The raw material is quarried on a large scale in Iceland, and shipped to Copenhagen, where it is crushed and refined before being used as a source of metallic aluminium. The original investigation by Flemming Moller and Gudjonsson was followed by an extensive research into the effects of fluorine by Roholm.3 In an excellent monograph, in which the whole subject is studied from the clinical, biochemical and experimental aspects, Roholm gives a complete survey of the toxic effects of fluorine. The monogr...