An analysis of the argument that a market imperfection (wage differentials and queuing caused by unions) raises the marginal social product (MSP) of college education above the average before-tax private wage premium (APP) for college (this discrepancy is called a union-Q-nality) focuses on verifying five hypotheses: (1) Workers with identical…

A study was conducted to determine the effect of participation in vocational education on labor market experience immediately after high school. Data were gathered in March and April of 1980 while the young people were seniors in high school, and again two years later. The first wave of data contained various measures of education and grades in…

Wage rates and earnings can mislead public and private decisionmakers about the social benefits of certain kinds of education and training investments. This confusion arises because (1) workers and employers prefer employment contracts that downplay productivity differences among workers doing the same job; and (2) important dimensions of…

A study examined the effect of the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) on a variety of employer- and employment-related outcomes. Data were collected from two databases and a set of case studies. Although most employers report having heard of TJTC, only a small number of firms were actually participating in the program. TJTC did not appear to change…

A study compared different firms' methods of recognizing and rewarding employee performance and examined the impact of such recognition and reward on such factors as involuntary and voluntary labor turnover and worker productivity. Data from a survey of 3,412 employers that was sponsored by the National Institute of Education and the National…

This paper presents evidence that recent aptitude test score decline is signaling a significant deterioration in the quality of entering cohorts of workers. The impact of general intellectual achievement (GIA) on productivity; trends in the GIA of the adult populations, students, and working adults; accounting for the labor quality growth when…

This collection contains studies of two large-scale national survey databases that have rich information on on-the-job training. The following papers are included: "On-the-Job Training/Sorting: Theory and Evidence," by John Bishop and Suk Kang; "The Magnitude and Determinants of On-the-Job Training," by John Bishop; "Impacts of Training," by John…

Wage rates and earnings give misleading signals to public and private policymakers as to the benefits of certain kinds of education and training investments. These misleading signals result from the fact that (1) workers and employers prefer employment contracts that either do not recognize or only partially recognize differences in productivity…