Justice for Janitors: The Challenge of Organizing In Contract Services

[Excerpt] In 1988 Omar Vasconez, a commercial office janitor in New York City, earned $11.29-an-hour plus full benefits. In Atlanta, janitor Mary Jenkins was earning$3.40-an-hour with no benefits. While Mary could be fired at the drop of a hat, Omar had job security and would keep his job even if his employer, a janitorial contractor, lost the cleaning account at that building and was replaced by another contractor. Both worked for large, multinational service contractors with tens of thousands of employees in all major U.S. cities. Omar is a member of Local 32B-32J, Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Mary typifies the nonunion office cleaner. This tale of two cities reveals at a glance some basic features of service contracting. In service industries, labor markets are strongly segmented by geography: janitorial services don\u27t compete in international markets, like cars and computers do. At the same time, cutthroat competition among contractors amplifies the already sharp competition among unskilled labor within the local market. Omar\u27s total compensation is over four times that of Mary for one reason only: his union controls the local labor market

Landscape aesthetics: Assessing the general publics’ rural landscape preferences

working paperThe central aim of this study was to gain greater insights into the factors that affect individuals’ preferences for a variety of landscape settings. To achieve this aim, this paper derived dependent variables (based on a factor analysis of respondents mean ratings of 47 landscape images) representing 5 different landscape categories. These variables were then utilized in separate OLS regression models to examine the effect of personal characteristics, residential location and environmental value orientations on landscape preferences. First in terms of visual amenity the results suggest that the general public have the strongest preference for landscapes with water related features as its dominant attribute which was followed by cultural landscapes. Second the results also demonstrate how there is significant heterogeneity in landscape preferences as both personal characteristics and environmental value orientations were found to strongly influence preferences for all the landscape types examined. Moreover the effect of these variables often differed significantly across the various landscape groupings. In terms of land use policy, given the diversity of preferences a one size fits all approach will not meet the general publics’ needs and desires

Landscape aesthetics: towards a better understanding of rural landscape preferences

The central aim of this study was to gain greater insights into the factors that affect individuals’ preferences for a variety of landscape settings. To achieve this aim, this paper derived dependent variables (based on a factor analysis of respondents mean ratings of 47 landscape images) representing 5 different landscape categories. These variables were then utilized in separate OLS regression models to examine the effect of personal characteristics, residential location and environmental value orientations on landscape preferences. First in terms of visual amenity the results suggest that the general public have the strongest preference for landscapes with water related features as its dominant attribute which was followed by cultural landscapes. Second the results also demonstrate how there is significant heterogeneity in landscape preferences as both personal characteristics and environmental value orientations were found to strongly influence preferences for all the landscape types examined. Moreover the effect of these variables often differed significantly across the various landscape groupings. In terms of land use policy, given the diversity of preferences a one size fits all approach will not meet the general publics’ needs and desires.Landscape preferences, environmental attitudes, Land Economics/Use,

Medical Students’ First Male Urogenital Examination: Investigating the Effects of Instruction and Gender on Anxiety

Objectives: To investigate the effect that standardized instruction of the male urogenital examination had on the anxiety levels of students and to determine what influence, if any, the gender of the student had on this experience. Methods: One hundred thirty six second year medical students were asked to report their level of anxiety before and after participation in a small group teaching session on the male urogenital examination. We gathered both qualitative and quantitative information to better understand students’ anxiety surrounding this instruction. Results: Students had significantly lower state-anxiety scores following the instruction than before (F(1, 76)=102.353, p=.000, eta2=.574) and female students were more likely to have greater state-anxiety than male students (F=6.952, p=.010, eta2=.084). Ninety-nine percent of students reported that the teaching associates successfully reduced their anxiety. This decrease was attributed predominantly to the personal qualities of the teaching associates and to the format of the instruction. Conclusions: This study provides both quantitative and qualitative evidence that the use of male teaching associates to provide standardized instruction on the urogenital exam is effective at reducing students’ anxiety, particularly with regard to female students. Added standardized instruction may lead to increased confidence, skill, and future compliance with intimate physical exam screening practices

Explaining the non-economic behaviour of farm foresters: The effect of productivist and lifestyle motivations

working paperCurrently rates of planting lag far behind levels that would be expected from a comparison of the returns from farm forestry with competing agricultural alternatives. Previous research has focused on the role of economic factors such as government subsidies, returns from competing agricultural alternatives and structural farm factors in explaining the decision to afforest. By examining the role of farming attitudes and motivations, the aim of this paper is to provide a framework for better understanding farmers’ behaviour in relation to the decision to enter into forestry. The results provide rare quantitative evidence that strong lifestyle and productivist motivations significantly affect farmers’ behaviour. Environmental values and perceptions regarding the extent to which forestry is seen as a component of a natural landscape were two further factors found to affect the probability of participation. We conclude that the design of policies aimed at encouraging changes in farm activities ought to be guided by a better understanding of the motivations and attitudes of farm operators

CAP reform post 2013: Examining the equity dimensions of agricultural support.

This research was supported by EU FP6 research funding, contract. SSPE-CT-2005- 021543.Using a dynamic multi-product partial equilibrium model, this paper firstly examines the potential impact of recent policy changes accruing from the mid term review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2003 on the cattle and sheep sectors in Ireland. Secondly, this paper evaluates the potential impact of the implementation of a CAP budget neutral, common EU flat area payment across all Member States. The European Commission has signalled that it will be evaluating current differences in the level of support between Member States as, for example, in the explanatory memorandum accompanying the Commission’s Health Check proposals the Commission argues that it is “increasingly harder to justify the legitimacy of significant individual differences in the support level which are only based on past support” (CEC, 2008; p.18). This paper demonstrates how there are significant differences in the level of CAP payments per hectare across Member States, as generally farmers in more prosperous Western and Nordic countries receive a much higher level of payment per hectare than farmers in relatively poorer Central and Eastern European countries. In relation to Ireland, similar to most other EU-15 countries, farmers benefit from the current inequitable distribution of payments and the results indicate that any move towards equalising the level of payments per hectare will have a significant negative impact on agricultural production and net trade.This research was supported by EU FP6 research funding, contract. SSPE-CT-2005- 021543

The role of non-pecuniary benefits in the labour allocation decision of farmers.

working paperPrevious research has primarily focused on the impact of economic variables in explaining the off farm labour allocation decisions of principal farm operators. This study finds attitudes regarding the non-pecuniary benefits associated with the farming lifestyle also significantly affect behaviour by acting as a strong disincentive to farmers towards working off farm. This may suggest that even if economic returns are greater in the offfarm labour market, farmers may not supply additional labour off farm. We also employed separate models of off-farm labour market participation and off-farm labour supply and found certain variables such as a farm operator’s age and the level of diversification undergone by the farm business affect off farm labour market participation and hours supplied differently

Computing semiparametric bounds on the expected payments of insurance instruments via column generation

It has been recently shown that numerical semiparametric bounds on the expected payoff of fi- nancial or actuarial instruments can be computed using semidefinite programming. However, this approach has practical limitations. Here we use column generation, a classical optimization technique, to address these limitations. From column generation, it follows that practical univari- ate semiparametric bounds can be found by solving a series of linear programs. In addition to moment information, the column generation approach allows the inclusion of extra information about the random variable; for instance, unimodality and continuity, as well as the construction of corresponding worst/best-case distributions in a simple way