Short, insightful articles on work. Well worth reading!
http://column.global-labour-university.org/
dinsdag 29 januari 2013
woensdag 2 januari 2013
European Federation of Employee Share Ownership (EFES)
http://www.efesonline.org/
Doesn't have a lot to do with stats, besides the fact that it is quite an interesting subject. Typically, socialist trade unions oppose to the idea of employee ownership, which however contradicts the standard Marxist claim of employees ruling the factories. Strange fellows.
Doesn't have a lot to do with stats, besides the fact that it is quite an interesting subject. Typically, socialist trade unions oppose to the idea of employee ownership, which however contradicts the standard Marxist claim of employees ruling the factories. Strange fellows.
maandag 10 december 2012
Stata: various
Below is a selection of practical stuff not worth spending a full post about
Display lead values
Some administrative sources or classification codes use fixed length numbers, which have leading zero's for the first so many numbers. To allow for this in Stata (effectively converting the number into a string), walk through the following page:
vrijdag 7 december 2012
Polarization: TINA?
One big question that runs through my research is the contraposition of wage inequality and wage equality. At first, it seems like a very simple, nearly trivial point. Let me expand on it.
We all know that wages, by employer's request, have the tendency to move towards marginal productivity. However difficult to calculate, the difference between a brilliant order of one engineer and a stupid order of another one is more important than between a brilliant operation of one manual worker and a stupid operation of another worker. Hence, the good engineer gets paid a lot. This is in accordance with the demand for bright people in management, while manual workers have a whole army of unemployed equally unschooled workers that cause a surplus offer. Therefore, for each segment in the workforce, there is an optimal wage.
Ever since 2006, however, the world has discovered externalities. Externalities come in between seemingly Pareto efficient deals, such as the one discribed above. Would it be possible that two segments in the workforce are both better off if government intervenes? Wilkinson & Pickett believe so: inequality has a price. That price is to be paid by all, also by the rich. In so far that the underclass or precariat causes trouble, this price goes up. This is no moral position at all, I confess, but it may be a very convincing one. The upper segments will profit from having a lower wage, if it smoothens differences in society. Of course, the underclass gets leveled up, which may equally improve happiness and even provide chances for development. In the end, there will be a Pareto efficient equilibrium in some degree of wage inequality way less than the one based on marginal productivity.
Now there is a paradoxical complication in this reasoning: what is the optimal choice when the underclass causes trouble. One can suppress the consequences or the causes, and be indifferent between both options. For example, the upper class can demand a higher wage to compensate for increasing insecurity and the need to have private surveillance. This will actually be the first idea from a free riding micro perspective. It will fail for two reasons:
- The need to be surrounded by guards implies the cost of individual freedom in all cases. In a way, one could however still say that one can be bribed to accept this cost.
- Wages rise far above marginal productivity, which should be compensated by wages far below marginal productivity for lower skilled workers. This will however create ever more trouble, so that this solution is not stable.
In my view, therefore, there is a rational foundation for more equality, which may be the subject of specification in further research. I hope social sciences one day will be able to bring one and one together on this matter.
We all know that wages, by employer's request, have the tendency to move towards marginal productivity. However difficult to calculate, the difference between a brilliant order of one engineer and a stupid order of another one is more important than between a brilliant operation of one manual worker and a stupid operation of another worker. Hence, the good engineer gets paid a lot. This is in accordance with the demand for bright people in management, while manual workers have a whole army of unemployed equally unschooled workers that cause a surplus offer. Therefore, for each segment in the workforce, there is an optimal wage.
Ever since 2006, however, the world has discovered externalities. Externalities come in between seemingly Pareto efficient deals, such as the one discribed above. Would it be possible that two segments in the workforce are both better off if government intervenes? Wilkinson & Pickett believe so: inequality has a price. That price is to be paid by all, also by the rich. In so far that the underclass or precariat causes trouble, this price goes up. This is no moral position at all, I confess, but it may be a very convincing one. The upper segments will profit from having a lower wage, if it smoothens differences in society. Of course, the underclass gets leveled up, which may equally improve happiness and even provide chances for development. In the end, there will be a Pareto efficient equilibrium in some degree of wage inequality way less than the one based on marginal productivity.
Now there is a paradoxical complication in this reasoning: what is the optimal choice when the underclass causes trouble. One can suppress the consequences or the causes, and be indifferent between both options. For example, the upper class can demand a higher wage to compensate for increasing insecurity and the need to have private surveillance. This will actually be the first idea from a free riding micro perspective. It will fail for two reasons:
- The need to be surrounded by guards implies the cost of individual freedom in all cases. In a way, one could however still say that one can be bribed to accept this cost.
- Wages rise far above marginal productivity, which should be compensated by wages far below marginal productivity for lower skilled workers. This will however create ever more trouble, so that this solution is not stable.
In my view, therefore, there is a rational foundation for more equality, which may be the subject of specification in further research. I hope social sciences one day will be able to bring one and one together on this matter.
woensdag 5 december 2012
Latin abbreviations
APA has provided this list, where you'll find that a.o.:
- E.g. = exempli gratia = for example
- I.e. = id est = that is
- Cf. = confer = compare with
- Etc. = et cetera = and so on
- Well... et cetera.
Moreover, we should use al of these abbreviation only within parentheses (and footnotes maybe). Except for et al. (et alii), which is used all over the place. And mind you, when you use these abbreviations, there is no need to italicize!
vrijdag 23 november 2012
Online graphical calculators
Good news for people who want quick graphs: there is now a Google graphical calculator.
We already loved graph.tk, which delivers these kind of beauties:
Well, Google's graph thing may not be as slick, it is quite handy as you can enter multiple functions on one line from the search box. This for example gives us the Batman equation.
It doesn't replace your Matlab copy, as the output is below publication quality, but for a quick check it is brilliant and fun.
We already loved graph.tk, which delivers these kind of beauties:
Well, Google's graph thing may not be as slick, it is quite handy as you can enter multiple functions on one line from the search box. This for example gives us the Batman equation.
It doesn't replace your Matlab copy, as the output is below publication quality, but for a quick check it is brilliant and fun.
maandag 1 oktober 2012
World salaries
http://www.worldsalaries.org/
Seems like a huge exercise to combine so many sources, comparing wages by sector, occupation and country. Not customizable at all, sometimes outdated. Props for precisely quoting sources.
For amusement only.
Seems like a huge exercise to combine so many sources, comparing wages by sector, occupation and country. Not customizable at all, sometimes outdated. Props for precisely quoting sources.
For amusement only.
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