ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00836.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

An important and emerging public policy consideration… generally called equal pay for comparable worth…has received great attention from those who influence or report public policy initiatives. The comparable worth movement is directed at pay equity issues, primarily between men and women. The source of controversy surrounding comparable worth concerns the mechanism for determining wages in the economy…either an unrestricted market process or a subjective valuation process by designated “pay equity experts.” Although the pay and allocation mechanisms and their side effects are controversial, other important questions concern the actual method of equity determination to be used in implementing comparable worth. This paper analyzes, from a general public policy perspective, many of the issues and much of the evidence surrounding comparable worth in

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00837.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Comparable worth proposals presume that the gender wage gap is a result of occupational segregation. The proposals argue that females are channeled into “women's jobs” and that overcrowding depresses women's wages below the “value” of the work performed. Comparable worth legislation proposes replacing the idea of equal pay for equal work with a principle of equal pay for different work of comparable worth determined by job evaluations. Such job evaluations are feasible only for the public sector and large private employers. The analysis in this paper recognizes that comparable worth wage adjustments are to be limited to the large employers. It examines how employers in the covered sector tend to alter their pay packages and hiring standards. Comparable worth legislation also affects wages in the uncovered sector populated by small employers. The rationing of women's jobs and the changes in hiring standards for men's jobs in the covered sector tend to redound to the benefit of smart, energetic women and dull, indol

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00838.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Despite its somewhat impudent tone, this paper examines a major controversy. “Comparable worth” has its proponents and detractors, but as in most debates, neither side fully appreciates the maintained hypotheses of the other. From an economic point of view, the disagreement seems to boil down to differences of opinion about whether the “excessive supply” of women to “women's jobs” is a result of their different utility functions or of their different constraints. There also has been a serious confusion of the “normative” with the “positive,” some oversight of the potentially large regulatory costs that would accompany comparable worth legislation, and a tendency to consider only the partial‐equilibrium consequences of these measures. Each of these considerations is examined in detail, with the conclusion that while comparable worth measures might alleviate some inequities in the short term, the long‐term consequences could seriously aggravate the very problem the polic

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00839.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The comparable worth approach is a radical departure from market determination of wages. This paper considers some economic issues pertinent to the comparable worth dialogue and focuses on implications of comparable worth legislation at the state and local levels. We show that current sex differentials in wages could reflect voluntary labor supply choices and/or discrimination. We also discuss the reverberations of comparable worth and note that some women in an occupation targeted with a wage increase could be made worse off as a result of employer cutbacks. We discuss why state or local officials may be hesitant to adopt comparable worth and also offer possible explanations for their being receptive to it. The intent throughout is to provide a balanced discussion that will aid individuals in taking an educated stand on the issue.

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00840.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Two recent court rulings have forced both law and economics to seriously reevaluate emerging marketplaces. In SonyCorporation v. Universal Studios(1983), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that videocassette recorders donotinfringe upon the patent rights of a movie producer whose creation is viewed but not purchased (i.e., not bought from the producer or its assignee). This copyright issue has turned into a powerful political issue and a hot subject of conversation…in Hollywood as well as in Washington, D.

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00841.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper assesses the economic harm to copyright owners from selected uses of home videocassette recorders. Specifically, we examine the consequences of such household behavior as the copying of prerecorded videocassettes and taping television broadcasts for permanent collections (i.e., “librarying”). Such uses have an adverse effect on the efficiency of intellectual property creation, and on the equitable distribution of monetary rewards generated by commercial exploitation of those private properties. Economic harm is described in the context of existing property rights enforcement. We also present estimates of lost monetary rewards (royalties) to copyright owners from displaced sales of prerecorded videocassettes due to such library

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00842.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Franchising and renewing of franchises for cable television systems is an important urban policy issue. Of particular interest is whether franchise authorities ought to grant more than one franchise to provide cable service in a given area. This paper reports results of an empirical investigation into the cost structure of large, modern, urban cable systems. We find modest economies of scale in dimensions relevant to the feasibility of direct competition. The economies are not so large as to rule out the possibility that competition…whether direct or potential…can be an important disciplinary force in the marketpl

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00843.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

A modern defense of public utility regulation has arisen from the “transactions costs” literature. Traditional economic theorists called for government to establish regulated, franchise monopolies to guard against over‐investment and wasteful duplication in natural monopoly (i.e., cost subadditive) markets. However, the new view is that monopoly licenses are issued to promote investment into markets where suppliers must sink considerable sums of specific…nonsalvageable…capital. Consumers, in this scenario, “delegate” their choice‐making to political or bureaucratic agents, who administer day‐to‐day and year‐to‐year arrangements with a monopoly producer in a long‐term exclusive‐dealing arrangement. This may be a plausible explanation for the issuance of legal monopoly rights. But the troubling question regarding the public agency is: why should self‐interested political agents create proconsumer regulatory contracts? They might instead be expected to maximize political clout by erecting monopolistic restrictions and directing excess returns to effective distributional coalitions. These competing explanations for the political issuance of monopoly franchises are contrasted in this paper through the use of legal and economic evidence in

ISSN:1074-3529    

DOI:10.1111/j.1465-7287.1986.tb00844.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY