Lisa M Lynch

• BA, MSc, PhD
• Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University

It is an honor to comment on directions for the Monthly Labor Review MLR over its next 25 years. The MLR is the federal government's oldest continuous publication—first printed in 1915 and now published online by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), one of the nation's oldest statistical agencies, established in 1884. BLS embodies the standards ar...

http://www.kc.frb.org/publicat/sympos/2014/2014.0918.LynchRemarks.pdf

Using a unique longitudinal survey of employers in the United States during the 1990s, this chapter examines the trends and factors associated with how businesses have invested in high performance workplace practices. The specific workplace practices examined include shared rewards, job rotation, workforce training, employee involvement in problem...

No abstract available.

In this paper we examine how the diffusion of technological innovation in the telecommunications industry influences employment levels across occupations and how a firm chooses among alternative personnel mechanisms to reach its target employment levels. We find that technological change has influenced the demand for different types of workers and...

Using a unique longitudinal representative survey of both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing businesses in the United States during the 1990’s, I examine the incidence and intensity of organizational innovation and the factors associated with investments in organizational innovation. Past profits tend to be positively associated with organizational...

The U.S. economy is highly dynamic: businesses open and close, workers switch jobs and start new enterprises, and innovative technologies redefine the workplace and enhance productivity. With globalization markets have also become more interconnected. Measuring business activity in this rapidly evolving environment increasingly requires tracking co...

The U.S. economy is highly dynamic: businesses open and close, workers switch jobs and start new enterprises, and innovative technologies redefine the workplace and enhance productivity. With globalization markets have also become more interconnected. Measuring business activity in this rapidly evolving environment increasingly requires tracking co...

Using a Cox proportional hazard model that allows for a flexible time dependence that can incorporate both seasonal and business cycle effects, we analyze the determinants of re-employment probabilities of young workers from 1978-1989. We find considerable changes in the chances of young workers finding jobs over the business cycle, however, the ch...

This chapter examines the measure of organizational capital in relation to human capital. It discusses recent related findings that the returns from the adoption of advanced technologies are improved by the adoption of state-of-the-art human resource practices. This chapter explains the three broad components of organizational capital which include...

A growing body of literature over the past decade suggests that a firm’s organizational structure/capital can contribute in significant ways to the productive capacity of a firm. But, as with other intangible assets, there is no consensus definition of what this organizational capital is, how to measure it, or how to best quantify its contribution...

In this paper I discuss a structural problem facing the United States with respect to our policy responses in the context of trade and technological change and their impact on workers. Both trade and technological change have put enormous pressure on the U.S. economy to raise the skill level of the workforce. But the supply of skilled workers in th...

We should acknowledge that discrimination still exists and that women’s work lives have been considerably improved by their ability to legally challenge discriminatory practices.

This paper argues that changes in workplace organisation, including re-engineering, teams, incentive pay and employee voice, have been a significant component of the turnaround in productivity growth in the US during the 1990s. Our work goes beyond measuring the impact of computers on productivity and finds that these types of workplace innovation...

This paper argues that changes in workplace organisation, including re-engineering, teams, incentive pay and employee voice, have been a significant component of the turnaround in productivity growth in the US during the 1990s. Our work goes beyond measuring the impact of computers on productivity and finds that these types of workplace innovation...

This Economic Letter looks at how increased managerial focus on employee involvement, quality management, continuous innovation, and incentive-based compensation has boosted labor productivity and draws out some implications for future productivity gains. The research summarized here indicates that the combination of investment in new technology al...

Complementing existing work on firm organizational structure and productivity, this article examines the impact of organizational change on workers. We find evidence that employers do appear to compensate at least some of their workers for engaging in high-performance workplace practices. We also find a significant association between high-performa...

Since unification, the debate about Germany's poor economic performance has focused on supply-side weaknesses, and the associated reform agenda sought to make low-skill labour markets more flexible. We question this diagnosis using three lines of argument. First, effective restructuring of the supply side in the core advanced industries was carried...

Using data from a unique nationally representative sample of businesses, the Educational Quality of the Workforce National Employers Survey (EQW-NES), matched with the Bureau of the Census' Longitudinal Research Database (LRD), we examine the impact of workplace practices, information technology, and human capital investments on productivity. We es...

This paper seeks to provide new insight into how school and post school training investments are linked to employer workplace practices and outcomes using a unique nationally representative survey of establishments in the U.S., the Educational Quality of the Workforce National Employers Survey (EQW-NES). We go beyond simply measuring the incidence...

Using data from a 1994 survey of U.S. establishments, the authors investigate how the incidence, content, and extent of employer-provided training were linked to workplace practices and characteristics, physical capital investments, and workers' education. Formal training programs were positively associated with establishment size, the presence of...

Using data from a 1994 survey of U.S. establishments, the authors investigate how the incidence, content, and extent of employer-provided training were linked to workplace practices and characteristics, physical capital investments, and workers' education. Formal training programs were positively associated with establishment size, the presence of...

This paper seeks to provide new insight into employer-provided training investment and how they are linked to workplace practices, physical capital investments, and educational qualifications of workers. Using a new and unique nationally representing survey of establishments in the US, we go beyond measuring the incidence of training to also examin...

Training programs targeted toward lower skilled workers to a much greater extent than is currently the case could play an important role in narrowing the wage gap. Specific strategies would include assisting firms to develop their own programs, improving the school-to-work transition for non-college-bound high school graduates, and providing displa...

This chapter examines the impact of technological innovation on employment structures in a firm. It addresses two related questions: First, how does the diffusion of information technology influence employment levels across occupations within a firm? Second, how does a firm choose among alternative personnel mechanismslayoffs, quits, retirements, e...

This paper shifts the discussion in this conference from issues related to human capital creation provided by formal education, to the determinants and outcomes of human capital accumulation that occurs in the workplace after formal schooling has been completed. In recent years this type of human capital creation has received an increasing amount o...

How can today's workforce keep pace with an increasingly competitive global economy? As new technologies rapidly transform the workplace, employee requirements are changing and workers must adapt to different working conditions. This volume compares new evidence on the returns from worker training in the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Jap...

The ability of young workers to move from dead-end jobs into higher-wage jobs which have better career prospects is greatly influenced by the individual’s characteristics, local labor market conditions, and his or her human capital. This paper examines the characteristics of entry-level jobs of young workers in the 1980s with emphasis on how educat...

A variety of federal options could be pursued to stimulate employer-provided training. However, relying exclusively on a mandated training tax to meet all of the training needs of new entrants, currently employed workers, displaced workers, and the unemployed seems unrealistic. A broader menu of options and initiatives will need to be created to ad...

This paper examines the current structure of post-school training of young workers in the US, summarises new empirical evidence on the rates of return to various types of private sector training investments, and describes some of the options being proposed in the US to reform the way in which post-school training takes place, especially for young w...

Workplace training strategies in selected foreign countries were examined from the standpoint of their relevance to development of a national training policy in the United States. Case studies of the following were conducted: apprenticeship training in Germany, enterprise-based training in Japan, stimulation of training by training taxes in France...

This paper examines in detail the factors that influence the probability of new entrants leaving their first job after completing school, including the differential effects of company provided training, apprenticeships, and training received off-the-job from for profit proprietary institutions. Particular attention is paid to how training effects v...

As U.S. firms continue to face increasing international compet1t10n, deregulation, technological innovation, and changes in the demographic composition of the work force, they are being challenged to examine the skill formation process of their work force in order to increase productivity and remain competitive. Productivity growth in the United St...

This paper compares and contrasts the structure of school training for young non-university graduates in Britain and United States. We utilize two unique longitudinal surveys in these countries on young people to examine four issues: the extent of post school training in Britain and the U.S. and the wage gains associated with it; the link between f...

This paper shows that increases in the minimum wage rate can have ambiguous effects on the working hours and welfare of employed workers in competitive labor markets. The reason is that employers may not comply with the minimum wage legislation and instead pay a lower subminimum wage rate. If workers are risk neutral, we prove that working hours an...

This paper shows that increases in the minimum wage rate can have ambiguous effects on the working hours and welfare of employed workers in competitive labor markets. The reason is that employers may not comply with the minimum wage legislation and instead pay a lower subminimum wage rate. If workers are risk neutral, we prove that working hours an...

While there have been numerous studies devoted to examining the impact of governmental training programs on workers who? have experienced difficulties in the labor market, there has been remarkably little research on the actual occurrence and consequences of training provided by the private sector in the U.S .. Using data from the new National Long...

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey youth cohort, a model is developed to analyze transition probabilities from nonemployment to employment. The key factors examined include personal characteristics, unemployment income, local demand conditions, and duration dependence. There are significant differences between the labor-market experie...

There have been relatively few studies on why workers choose to decertify a union as their bargaining unit and virtually no empirical studies on the outcomes of employer-initiated representation elections. Using data from the NLRB monthly election reports (1977–1981), we attempt to analyze the factors that seem to influence the outcomes of employer...

The governments of many countries continue to be deeply concerned about the high unemployment rates of young workers, and Great Britain is no exception. Part of this concern has been generated by disturbing trends in unemployment figures for young workers. As Table 9.1 shows, the unemployment rate in Britain for young males under the age of 18 has...

We examine fluctuations in the predicted educational attainment of newly arrived legal U.S. immigrants between 1972 and 1999 by combining data from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service with the Current Population Survey. A mid-1980s decline gave way to a noticeable improvement in the skill base of the immigrant population between 1987 an...

We examine fluctuations in the predicted educational attainment of newly arrived legal U.S. immigrants between 1972 and 1999 by combining data from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service with the Current Population Survey. A mid-1980s decline gave way to a noticeable improvement in the skill base of the immigrant population between 1987 an...

Bien que le taux de chômage aux États-Unis soit particulièrement bas, cela ne veut pas dire pour autant que tout va bien sur les marchés du travail américains. On constate un élargissement des disparités de salaire et de revenu, un accroisse-ment du chômage de longue durée et la persistance de pertes d'emploi coûteuses et permanentes au sein de la...

"Final Revision: July 1992."

"January 1989." "Presented at the IRRA contributed papers session in 'Labor Economics and Labor Markets', December 1988, New York City." Originally issued as WP#1900-89 in series.

"First draft: June, 1992."

"Prepared for the BPS conference "Achieving Systemic Organizational Change," May 1990."--P. 1.