
Rafael GomezUniversity of Toronto | U of T · Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources
Rafael Gomez
PhD, Industrial Relations
About
140
Publications
65,479
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
2,231
Citations
Introduction
Labour markets and employee participation and voice at work.
Publications
Publications (140)
This paper examines discrimination in the NFL draft. The NFL is a favorable empirical setting to examine the role of skin color because franchise selectors are required to make rank-order judgements of players based on noisy signals of future productivity. Since wages are tightly related to the rank-order of the draft for the first four years of a...
Integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is recognised as the latest development stage on the pathway to a highly capable future workforce, and is thus linked to a nation’s future development and prosperity. However, despite various appeals and efforts by the Australian Government, effective processes for constr...
This paper examines discrimination in the NFL draft. The NFL is a favourable empirical setting to examine the role of skin colour because franchise selectors are required to make rank-order judgements of players based on noisy signals of future productivity. Since wages are tightly related to the rank-order of the draft for the first four years of...
In this article, we examine whether (and by how much) workers in Canada have been compensated for the ‘novel’ risks associated with COVID‐19. We create a unique dataset from a system that scores occupations in the US O*NET database for COVID‐19 exposure. We then combine those COVID exposure scores with Canadian occupational data contained in the Pu...
The frames of reference model developed by Fox, and extended by a number of other authors, is arguably the central paradigm framework in the employment/industrial relations field. Despite its importance and popularity, use of frames of reference to structure empirical analysis and develop hypotheses is relatively rare and, to the best of our knowle...
Income support programs introduced for workers during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns faced criticism for their theoretically negative labour supply effects. We propose that these concerns about work disincentives are embedded in restrictive assumptions about work, and led to suboptimal design of crisis support policies. We describe a framewor...
This paper examines the determinants of job‐related training and workplace voice. Using data from a unique 2016 cross‐national survey of Australian, British, Canadian and American employees, the paper contrasts two classic formulations in the literature; (1) the neoclassical/human capital approach which predicts that individual characteristics (suc...
This paper constructs alternative balanced scorecards based on high‐performance work system (HPWS) and employment relations system (ERS) models. The models are depicted and compared in diagrams and used as framework skeletons for building separate HPWS and ERS scorecards, intended to provide a detailed data picture of the operational health and per...
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to take a serious look at the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, while at the same time accounting for the (possible) interactions with similar union and management-led high commitment strategies. Design/methodology/approach Using new, rich data on a repre...
The authors examine the association between unionization and non-standard work in terms of coverage and wages. They use data from the master files of Canada’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) between 1997–98 and 2013–14 to define and measure non-standard work and to provide a continuum of vulnerability across work arrangements. The estimated probability o...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to take a serious look at the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, while at the same time accounting for the (possible) interactions with similar union and management-led high commitment strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Using new, rich data on a re...
International short‐term study tours are a fast‐growing format for outbound education and provide exciting experiential learning opportunities for students in the creative industries disciplines. This success has encouraged researchers to seek a comprehensive view of the various concrete experiences that contribute to student learning during study...
This chapter will review the major studies undertaken in the twenty-first century to assess the changing nature of employee voice in the Anglo-American context. These studies are predominantly based on employee perceptions but also include employer surveys and multilevel analysis.
This study, and the project behind it, is an attempt 100 years on from the Webbs to comprehensively assess the health of the industrial relations/employment relations system by ‘taking the pulse’ of the employment relationship. If, as we argue, the relative health and performance of the employment relationship remains the key dependent variable of...
Resumen Mientras que el porcentaje de crecimiento demográfico sea igual o superior al del crecimiento económico, el tan deseado desarrollo africano será imposible. Es cierto que un continente que será de 2.000 millones de habitantes en 2050 se está constituyendo a las puertas de Europa en un Mediterráneo que jamás fue una frontera, pero si un trazo...
The industrial relations (IR) field in Canada and the United States (US) emerged in the late 1910s-early 1920s and is thus on the cusp of its 100th anniversary. The impetus for the creation of the IR field was growing public alarm in both countries over the escalating level of conflict, violence, and class polarization in employer-employee relation...
We analyze the performance outcomes of National Hockey League (NHL) players over 18 seasons (1990–1991 to 2007–2008) as a function of the demographic conditions into which they were born. We have three main findings. First, larger birth cohorts substantially affect careers. A player born into a large birth cohort can expect an earnings loss of roug...
Short-term international study experiences, or study tours, aim to increase students’ global awareness, educate and empower them to be productive global citizens, and contribute to their future employability. Learning outcomes from study tours often include intangible personal characteristics or soft skills, as opposed to specific disciplinary skil...
Abstract. It is well documented that unionised workers earn significantly
more than their non-union counterparts. However, over the last three
decades, the union wage premium along with overall union coverage has
fallen in most industrialized economies. Though the principal causes are
still under dispute, the effects of technological change, manage...
In Small Business and the City, Rafael Gomez, Andre Isakov, and Matt Semansky highlight the power of small-scale entrepreneurship to transform local neighbourhoods and the cities they inhabit. Studying the factors which enable small businesses to survive and thrive, they highlight the success of a Canadian concept which has spread worldwide: the Bu...
As technology continues to become more accessible, miniaturised and diffused into the environment, the potential of wearable technology to impact our lives in significant ways becomes increasingly viable. Wearables afford unique interaction, communication and functional capabilities between users, their environment as well as access to information...
This paper studies the effects of occupational licensing in Canada on the earnings of immigrants and nonimmigrants. The econometric model is estimated for immigrants and non-immigrants as well as between joiners and leavers from occupationally licensed jobs using a large panel data set. The results suggest that occupational licensing raises wages m...
This article draws on the design and implementation of three mobile learning projects introduced by Flanagan in 2011, 2012 and 2014 engaging a total of 206 participants. The latest of these projects is highlighted in this article. Two other projects provide additional examples of innovative strategies to engage mobile and cloud systems describing h...
Across countries, union membership and voter turnout are highly correlated. In unadjusted terms union members maintain a roughly 0.10 to 0.12 point gap in voting propensity over non-members. We propose a model-with three causal channels-that explains this correlation and then empirically tests for the contribution of each channel to the overall uni...
The use of Portable Medical Devices (PMDs) has become increasingly widespread over the last few years. A combination of factors; including advances in technology, the pressure to reduce public health costs and the desire to make health solutions accessible to a wider patient base are contributing to the growth in the PMD market. Design has a clear...
We examine life-satisfaction of older adults using a representative sample of Canadian individuals aged 45+. Our findings confirm a long line of employment relations research on the importance of ‘relational concerns’ in that: (i) income relative to the average for a given person's gender, age, region and marital status (relative income) matters mo...
We offer an explanation for the phenomenon of declining democratic engagement by
assuming that what happens at work is the primary driver of what occurs outside of the
workplace. If workers are exposed to the formalities of collective bargaining and union
representation, they also perhaps increase their attachment to, and willingness to
participate...
In every manager’s career there are moments where decisions need to be made in order to achieve success and this smart, nicely packaged little book can be there to help each time. The trick to succeeding in these moments is to identify each of these situations ahead of time and understand how to act and what to do to reduce the chances of failure....
Changing population trends lie behind our diminished prospects for economic growth. If we understand the demographic facts we'll be able to come up with the right policies to deal with the economic challenges.
About one‐fifth of Canadian employees are in jobs that are vulnerable to service offshoring. Despite this figure, both theory and our empirical evidence (based on a variety of methodologies and datasets) suggest that the offshoring of business services is not likely to lead to large adverse employment effects. We also conclude that existing active...
The demographic dividend, that is, the growth of the working age population aged 16 years relative to younger and older age dependents, has often been cited as a crucial component of the accelerated economic growth experienced by disparate countries and regions at different points in time. Generally less emphasized are the ramifications of this pro...
Non‐union direct voice has replaced union representative voice as the primary avenue for employee voice in the British private sector. This study explains this development by providing a framework for examining the relationship between employee voice and workplace outcomes. Voice is associated with lower voluntary turnover, especially in the case o...
This paper examines two central questions related to non‐union employee representation (NER) in Canada and the United States. First, using Taras and Kaufman's (2006) four faces NER approach, we ask whether non‐union and union forms of voice act as substitutes or complements for employees at the workplace? Second, we ask whether non‐union forms of e...
We use a cross-country survey of attitudes toward work and unions, which includes a sample of managers in both the US and Canada, to explore whether there is greater attitudinal hostility to unions in the U.S. Our estimates indicate that American manager’s attitudes towards unions are, perhaps surprisingly, less hostile than those of Canadian manag...
Data from the 2002 and 1994 General Social Survey are used to analyze the determinants of retiring due to mandatory retirement and the expected age of retirement in Canada. Changes between 1994 and 2002 are decomposed into two components, one attributable to shifts in the composition of respondents and the other to changes in the preferences and/or...
Resumen
El presente trabajo se circunscribe al análisis de lo que en Plan de Desarrollo tiene que ver con los propósitos de reactivación del sector manufacturero aunque, como se hará evidente más adelante, esto obliga a tratar la mayoría de los aspectos contemplados en el mismo Plan. Es así, como lo largo del texto se evalúan los tres aspectos que...
We utilize two representative cross-national data sets to shed light on what has been a vexing problem in the industrial relations literature; namely, the existence and persistence of the representation gap documented more than a decade ago by Freeman and Rogers (1999). Specifically, we estimate the determinants of employee desire for a range of co...
We estimate the relation between union presence and executive compensation using a unique panel of executives in publicly listed US firms during the period 1992-2001. We find evidence that union presence is associated with lower levels of total executive compensation. We find this union effect to be primarily the result of substantially lower stock...
We estimate the relation between union presence and executive compensation, using a unique panel of executives in publicly listed US firms during the period 1992-2001. We find evidence that union presence is associated with moderately lower levels of executive compensation. Moreover, the magnitude of the union estimate becomes larger at the right t...
A detailed longitudinal dataset is assembled containing annual performance and biographical data for every player over the entire history of professional major league baseball. The data are then aggregated to the team level for the period 1920-2009 in order to test whether teams built on a more even distribution of observed talent perform better th...
Alex Bryson and colleagues use US baseball data to investigate whether performance suffers if there is too wide a gap between the skills of a team's stars and the rest.
Data from the 2002 and 1994 General Social Survey are used to analyze the determinants of retiring due to mandatory retirement and the expected age of retirement in Canada. Changes between 1994 and 2002 are decomposed into two components, one attributable to shifts in the composition of respondents and the other to changes in the preferences and/or...
Using nationally representative workplace data for Britain we show that over the last quarter century union voice – especially union-only voice – has been associated with poorer climate, more industrial action, poorer financial performance and poorer labour productivity than nonunion voice and, in particular, direct voice. On the other hand, union-...
The effects of salary disclosure on public-sector compensation have long been a source of controversy in political and academic circles. Some commentators suggest that because of political pressure and closer public scrutiny, salary disclosure is a good thing because it results in pay that is both lower than it would otherwise be and more sensitive...
Union membership has declined precipitously in a number of countries, including in the United States, over the past fifty years. Can anything be done to stem this decline? This article argues that union voice is a positive attribute (among others) of union membership that is experiential in nature and that, unlike the costs of unionization, can be...
This article deals with the emergence, presence, and gradual transformation of workplace voice in Britain. Britain is an interesting case because it has sustained one of the longest and most prolonged falls in union representation in the Western world. Some have interpreted this as a move away from institutionalized voice by both workers and employ...
We study the propensity of persons with disabilities to engage in volunteer activity using the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS). Our principal focus is on the effects of various income support programs on persons with disabilities participation in volunteer activities because income support programs can differ with respect to the...
Non-union direct voice has replaced union representative voice as the primary avenue for employee voice in the British private sector. This paper provides a framework for examining the relationship between employee voice and workplace outcomes that explains this development. As exit-voice theory predicts, voice is associated with lower voluntary tu...
Non-union direct voice has replaced union representative voice as the primary avenue for employee voice in the British private sector. This paper provides a framework for examining the relationship between employee voice and workplace outcomes that explains this development. As exit-voice theory predicts, voice is associated with lower voluntary tu...
We study the propensity of disabled persons to engage in volunteer activity with the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) -- a unique Canadian dataset which provides extensive information on disabled persons as well as volunteering behaviour. Our principal focus is on the effects of various income support programs on disabled personâ...
Data from the 2002 and 1994 General Social Survey are used to analyze the determinants of retiring due to mandatory retirement and the expected age of retirement in Canada. Changes between 1994 and 2002 are decomposed into a component attributable to shifts in the composition of respondents and the other component to changes in the preferences and...
Can divergent demographic trends account for differences in per capita output across countries? We address this question by offering evidence that the process of population ageing is positively and significantly related to cross-country economic performance. We define and estimate the effect of demographic change in two ways. First, a growing cohor...
Given that savings behaviour and worker productivity have strong life-cycle components and given that demographic profiles vary across countries, population age structure should be linked to differences in levels of economic development. In this paper, we measure the economic importance of age structure variation for the global economy. We find tha...
Given that savings and productivity follow a hump shaped profile with respect to age and given that demographic profiles vary across countries, population age structure may be linked to differences in levels of economic development. In this paper we measure the importance of age structure in accounting for differences in per capita income levels an...
Given that savings behaviour and worker productivity have strong life-cycle components and given that demographic profiles vary across countries, population age structure should be linked to differences in levels of economic development. In this paper, we measure the economic importance of age structure variation for the global economy. We find tha...
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...
Coronary angiography that uses multislice spiral computed tomography is a noninvasive technique for the detection of coronary stenosis that has had significant improvements in recent years. The introduction of 16 and 64 row scanners, the development of synchronized scanning electrocardiogram and better reconstruction techniques permit higher spatia...
This paper argues that the secular decline in union voice in the UK cannot be fully explained without understanding the role of employers in choosing and modifying voice regimes. The paper presents a model of employee voice; the model assumes regimes are chosen by firms on the basis of positive net benefits, and that once adopted there are switchin...
Workplace voice and systems of high-commitment human resource management (HCHRM) have been found to impart measurable benefits
to adopting firms, yet significant numbers of establishments fail to employ such practices. This article addresses the puzzle
of staggered diffusion by explicitly treating voice and HCHRM as technological innovations. Using...
Using British workplace data we examine the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and different forms of employee voice. After controlling for observable establishment characteristics, we find voice and HRM are positively correlated, but this positive association is confined to certain voice regimes. Previous research has found no as...
This paper argues that the secular decline in union voice in the UK cannot be fully explained without understanding the role of employers in choosing and modifying voice regimes. The paper presents a model of employee voice; the model assumes regimes are chosen by firms on the basis of positive net benefits, and that once adopted there are switchin...
Over a million self-employed Canadians work every day but many of them not entitled to the basic labour protections and rights such as minimum wages, maternity and parental leaves and benefits, pay equity, a safe and healthy working environment, and access to collective bargaining. The authors of Self-Employed Workers Organize offer a multi-discipl...
In this paper we estimate the relation between union presence within a firm and CEOcompensation, using a unique panel of publicly listed companies for the period 1992 to 2001.We find that, on average, union presence: 1) is significantly associated with lower levels oftotal CEO compensation; 2) affects the mix of CEO compensation by providing higher...