Search Results

Author: Shaw, Kathryn L.
Resulting in 4 citations.
1. Cardiff-Hicks, Brianna
Lafontaine, Francine
Shaw, Kathryn L.
Do Large Modern Retailers Pay Premium Wages?
NBER Working Paper No. 20313, National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2014.
Also: http://www.nber.org/papers/w20313.pdf
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Keyword(s): Current Population Survey (CPS) / CPS-Fertility Supplement; Firm Size; Job Promotion; Wages

With malls, franchise strips and big-box retailers increasingly dotting the landscape, there is concern that middle-class jobs in manufacturing in the U.S. are being replaced by minimum wage jobs in retail. Retail jobs have spread, while manufacturing jobs have shrunk in number. In this paper, we characterize the wages that have accompanied the growth in retail. We show that wage rates in the retail sector rise markedly with firm size and with establishment size. These increases are halved when we control for worker fixed effects, suggesting that there is sorting of better workers into larger firms. Also, higher ability workers get promoted to the position of manager, which is associated with higher pay. We conclude that the growth in modern retail, characterized by larger chains of larger establishments with more levels of hierarchy, is raising wage rates relative to traditional mom-and-pop retail stores.
Bibliography Citation
Cardiff-Hicks, Brianna, Francine Lafontaine and Kathryn L. Shaw. "Do Large Modern Retailers Pay Premium Wages?" NBER Working Paper No. 20313, National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2014.
2. Shaw, Kathryn L.
A Formulation of the Earnings Function Using the Concept of Occupational Investment
Journal of Human Resources 19,3 (Summer 1984): 319-340.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/145876
Cohort(s): Young Men
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Keyword(s): Earnings; Income; Job Skills; Occupational Investment; Schooling, Post-secondary; Training, Post-School; Transfers, Skill; Work Experience

Standard models of income determination specify income to be a function of two variables that measure postschool investment--the years of labor market experience and the years of employer tenure. This investigation develops a better proxy for general human capital investments by hypothesizing that the intensity of investment varies by occupation and that a proportion of the occupational skills are transferable with occupational change. After developing exogenous measures of these features, the occupational investment variable is calculated for the Young Men cohort. Empirical work demonstrates that occupational investment is a strong determinant of income--far superior to the experience variable.
Bibliography Citation
Shaw, Kathryn L. "A Formulation of the Earnings Function Using the Concept of Occupational Investment." Journal of Human Resources 19,3 (Summer 1984): 319-340.
3. Shaw, Kathryn L.
Income Effects of Occupational Change and the Investment in Occupational Skills
Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1981
Cohort(s): Young Men
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Earnings; Industrial Training; Job Tenure; Mobility, Job; Occupational Investment; Transfers, Skill; Work Experience

Standard models of income determination specify income to be a function of two variables which measure post-school investment, the years of labor market experience, and employer tenure. This investigation develops a better proxy for general human capital investment than experience. This variable, called occupational investment, hypothesizes that the yearly rate of investment varies by occupation and that a portion of skills are transferable upon occupational change. After developing exogenous measures of occupation-specific intensity and transferability, the occupational investment variable is calculated for the Young Men of the NLS. Empirical work demonstrates that occupational investment is a very strong determinant of income, far superior to the experience variable. Thus, the author has improved upon models of income determination, presented a unique model of occupational change, and provided evidence that stable occupational investment is a significant source of income growth for young men.
Bibliography Citation
Shaw, Kathryn L. Income Effects of Occupational Change and the Investment in Occupational Skills. Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1981.
4. Shaw, Kathryn L.
Occupational Change, Employer Change, and the Transferability of Skills
Southern Economic Journal 53,3 (January 1987): 702-719.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1058765
Cohort(s): Young Men
Publisher: Southern Economic Association
Keyword(s): Income; Job Training; Mobility; Mobility, Occupational; Transfers, Skill; Unemployment Rate, Regional

Presents a human capital investment model to describe the direction and timing of change in occupation for upward occupational mobility leading to the growth in income. Features of the investment processes associated with occupational change; Factors that one considers while changing occupation and employer specific skills; Empirical specification of the model; Reasons for change in occupation.
Bibliography Citation
Shaw, Kathryn L. "Occupational Change, Employer Change, and the Transferability of Skills." Southern Economic Journal 53,3 (January 1987): 702-719.