Work Rules, Featherbedding, and Pareto-Optimal Union Management Bargaining

The recent literature on the economic behavior of unions is dominated by a controversy over whether or not bargaining is Pareto optimal. If unions care about employment as well as wages, efficient bargains between unions and management "should" involve both these variables rather than only wages. In fact, explicit bargaining over employment levels is virtually unknown. There is, however, implicit bargaining over employment in the form of rules concerning the labor/capital ratio, job assignment, work speeds, and the like.This paper examines a model of "semi-efficient" bargaining in which the unionand the firm bargain over wages and various types of work rules. The results are compared to the outcomes that are associated with fully efficient bargaining (i.e, over wages and the level of employment) and bargaining solely over wages. Of particular interest is the case in which the union and the firm mutually consent to "feather bedding" agreements (requiring the hiring of workers with zero marginal product). The major conclusion of the paper is that the outcome of collective bargaining is different in the case of negotiations over work rules and wages than in both the cases of fully efficient bargaining and of bargaining solely over wages. In general, however, the outcome of this "partially efficient" bargaining process is closer to the outcome of bargaining solely over wages than to that associated with fully efficient bargaining over both wages and employment.

Pay Differences Between Women's and Men's Jobs: The Empirical Foundations of Comparable Worth Legislation

Civil rights legislation of the 1960s made it illegal foran employer to pay men and women on different bases for the same work or to discriminate against women in hiring, job assignment, or promotion. Two decades later, however, the ratio of women's to men's earnings has shown little upward movement. Furthermore, major sex differences in occupational distribution persist with predominantly female jobs typically paying less than predominantly male jobs. This negative relationship between wage rates and femaleness of occupatiop has stimulated efforts, in both the judicial and political arenas, to establish "comparable worth" procedures for setting wage rates.This paper etimates the relationship between wages and femaleness of occupation and finds that it is indeed negative even after controlling for relevant worker and job characteristics. The magnitude of the relationship, however, implies a surprisingly small effect for a comprehensive comparable worth policy. The estimates indicate that, even if comparable worth succeeded in eliminating this negative relationship, the disparity between mean male and female wages would be reduced by well under ten percent of its current magnitude.

Changes in the Structure of Wages During the 1980's: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations

Between 1979 and 1987 there were three significant changes in the wage structure in the United States. the pecuniary returns to schooling increased by about a third; the wages of older relative to younger workers with relatively low education increased to some extent; and the wages of women relative to men rose by almost ten percent. It is important for policy purposes to know why these changes occurred and whether they are temporary or permanent. The paper investigates several alternative explanations of these wage structure phenomena, including the most popular ones that their principal causes were shifts in the structure of product demand, skilled-labor saving technological change, and changes in the incidence and level of rents received by lower skilled workers. our reading of the evidence suggests that the major cause of the dramatic movements in the wage structure during the 1980's may have been some combination of changes in both production technology and the average relative nonobserved quality of different labor groups.

A Case History of Titanium Stress Corrosion in Nitrogen Tetroxide

An investigation of the incompatibility of titanium in certain grades of nitrogen tetroxide will be discussed as a case history. The methodology used in its resolution will point out some of the dangers associate with compatibility testing. The methodology also will present some of the difficulties associated with coordinating an investigation involving many contractors and U. S. Government agencies. The techniques employed in this investigation are described in considerable detail for the benefit of investigators with similar problems

List of titles Marine Fisheries Information Service, Technical and Extension Series No.1-50

Marine Fisheries Information Service, Technical and Extension Series No.1-5

A Real-time Image Reconstruction System for Particle Treatment Planning Using Proton Computed Tomography (pCT)

Proton computed tomography (pCT) is a novel medical imaging modality for mapping the distribution of proton relative stopping power (RSP) in medical objects of interest. Compared to conventional X-ray computed tomography, where range uncertainty margins are around 3.5%, pCT has the potential to provide more accurate measurements to within 1%. This improved efficiency will be beneficial to proton-therapy planning and pre-treatment verification. A prototype pCT imaging device has recently been developed capable of rapidly acquiring low-dose proton radiographs of head-sized objects. We have also developed an advanced, fast image reconstruction software based on distributed computing that utilizes parallel processors and graphical processing units. The combination of fast data acquisition and fast image reconstruction will enable the availability of RSP images within minutes for use in clinical settings. The performance of our image reconstruction software has been evaluated using data collected by the prototype pCT scanner from several phantoms.Comment: Paper presented at Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, CAARI 2016, 30 October to 4 November 2016, Ft. Worth, TX, US

Atrazine management and water quality (1999)

New 1/99/20M

The average X-ray/gamma-ray spectrum of radio-quiet Seyfert 1s

We have obtained the average 1--500 keV spectrum of radio-quiet Seyfert 1s using data from EXOSAT, Ginga, HEAO, and GRO/OSSE. The spectral fit to the combined average EXOSAT and OSSE data is fully consistent with that for Ginga and OSSE, confirming results from an earlier Ginga/OSSE sample. The average spectrum is well-fitted by a power-law X-ray continuum with an energy spectral index of $\alpha \simeq 0.9$ moderately absorbed by an ionized medium and with a Compton reflection component. A high-energy cutoff (or a break) in the the power-law component at a few hundred keV or more is required by the data. We also show that the corresponding average spectrum from HEAO A1 and A4 is fully compatible with that obtained from EXOSAT, Ginga and OSSE. These results confirm that the apparent discrepancy between the results of Ginga (with $\alpha \simeq 0.9$) and the previous results of EXOSAT and HEAO (with $\alpha \simeq 0.7$) is indeed due to ionized absorption and Compton reflection first taken into account for Ginga but not for the previous missions. Also, our results confirm that the Seyfert-1 spectra are on average cut off in gamma-rays at energies of at least a few hundred keV, not at $\sim 40$ keV (as suggested earlier by OSSE data alone). The average spectrum is compatible with emission from either an optically-thin relativistic thermal plasma in a disk corona, or with a nonthermal plasma with a power-law injection of relativistic electrons.Comment: 7 pages, 3 Postscript figures, MNRAS accepte