_________________________________________________________________

  E M P L O Y E E   B E N E F I T S ,   C O M P E N S A T I O N
                    &   P E N S I O N   L A W
                Vol. 6,  No. 4: February 24, 2005
_________________________________________________________________

Publisher:     Employment, Labor, Compensation & Pension Law Journals
               a division of
               Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. (SSEP)
               and Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

Editor:        PAMELA PERUN
               Urban Institute
               Mailto:pamela@planetnow.com

Copyright:     SSEP, Inc. 2005. All rights reserved.

Leading Social Science Research Delivered To Your Desktop
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                      Topic of This Issue:
                         Part-Time Work
   ___________________________________________________________


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T A B L E   of   C O N T E N T S
_________________________________________________________________


NEW and FORTHCOMING ARTICLES

"Divergence in Part-Time Work in New Zealand, the Netherlands and
 Denmark"
      British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 42, No. 4,
      pp. 637-658, December 2004
     ERLING RASMUSSEN
        University of Auckland
        Faculty of Business & Economics
     JENS LIND
        Aalborg University
     JELLE VISSER
        University of Amsterdam
        Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies
        (AIAS)


"Phasing into Retirement"
      Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp.
      112-127
     STEVEN G. ALLEN
        North Carolina State University
        College of Management
        National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
     ROBERT L. CLARK
        North Carolina State University
        College of Management
     LINDA GHENT
        Eastern Illinois University
        Department of Economics


"Regulation or Markets? The Case of Employment Contracts"
      CESifo Economic Studies, Vol. 51, January 2005
     WILLIAM BENTLEY MACLEOD
        University of Southern California

WORKING PAPERS

"The Part-Time Wage Penalty: A Career Perspective"
     GIOVANNI RUSSO
        University of Utrecht - Department of Economics
     WOLTER H.J. HASSINK
        Utrecht University
        Department of General Social Sciences
        Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)


"Recent Developments in Part-Time Work in EU-15 Countries: Trends
 and Policy"
     HIELKE BUDDELMEYER
        University of Melbourne
        Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social
        Research
        Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
     GILLES MOURRE
        European Union
        European Commission
     MELANIE E. WARD
        European Central Bank
        Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
        Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)


"'Atypical Work' and Compensation"
     JOHN T. ADDISON
        University of South Carolina
        Department of Economics
        Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
        Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
        Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)
        International Finance and Financial Management
     CHRISTOPHER J. SURFIELD
        Lander University


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 To provide the broadest coverage of research in Employee
 Benefits, Compensation & Pension Law we do not referee working
 papers. We accept abstracts of working papers in Employee
 Benefits, Compensation & Pension Law whose topics suit the
 coverage of the journal and which are part of the worldwide
 scholarly discourse.


N E W   and   F O R T H C O M I N G   Articles
_________________________________________________________________

"Divergence in Part-Time Work in New Zealand, the Netherlands and
 Denmark"
      British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 42, No. 4,
      pp. 637-658, December 2004

      BY:  ERLING RASMUSSEN
              University of Auckland
              Faculty of Business & Economics
           JENS LIND
              Aalborg University
           JELLE VISSER
              University of Amsterdam
              Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies
              (AIAS)

Document:  Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
           http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=631264

 Contact:  ERLING RASMUSSEN
   Email:  Mailto:e.rasmussen@auckland.ac.nz
  Postal:  University of Auckland
           Faculty of Business & Economics
           Private Bag 92019
           Auckland,    NEW ZEALAND
   Phone:  64 9 - 373 7599, ext. 87256
 Co-Auth:  JENS LIND
   Email:  Mailto:jlind@socsci.aau.dk
  Postal:  Aalborg University
           Fredrik Bajers Vej 7E
           DK-9220 Aalborg,    DENMARK
 Co-Auth:  JELLE VISSER
   Email:  Mailto:jelle.visser@uva.nl
  Postal:  University of Amsterdam
           Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies
           (AIAS)
           1018 WB Amsterdam,    NETHERLANDS

ABSTRACT:
 A comparison of developments in part-time work in New Zealand,
 the Netherlands and Denmark shows three very different trends.
 The Dutch are moving towards a 'part-time economy', the decline
 in Danish part-time employment confounds the common expectation
 of rising atypical employment, while the New Zealand case
 illustrates some of the negative employment outcomes often
 associated with part-time employment and provides a contrast to
 the negotiated, tripartite solutions found in the Netherlands
 and Denmark. Overall, the diversity in part-time work patterns
 raises important theoretical and public policy questions, such
 as the interaction between institutional and preference changes,
 gender patterns and union strategies.

______________________________

"Phasing into Retirement"
      Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp.
      112-127

      BY:  STEVEN G. ALLEN
              North Carolina State University
              College of Management
              National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
           ROBERT L. CLARK
              North Carolina State University
              College of Management
           LINDA GHENT
              Eastern Illinois University
              Department of Economics

 Contact:  STEVEN G. ALLEN
   Email:  Mailto:steve_allen@ncsu.edu
  Postal:  North Carolina State University
           College of Management
           Raleigh, NC 27695-8614  UNITED STATES
   Phone:  919-515-6941
     Fax:  919-515-5073
 Co-Auth:  ROBERT L. CLARK
   Email:  Mailto:robert_clark@ncsu.edu
  Postal:  North Carolina State University
           College of Management
           Raleigh, NC 27695-8614  UNITED STATES
 Co-Auth:  LINDA GHENT
   Email:  Mailto:cflsg@eiu.edu
  Postal:  Eastern Illinois University
           Department of Economics
           Charleston, IL 61920-3099  UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT:
 To help workers navigate the transition from work to retirement
 more effectively, employers have been launching phased
 retirement programs, which allow older employees to work
 part-time and receive full retirement benefits. This paper
 examines the experience of the phased retirement system for
 tenured faculty in the University of North Carolina system over
 the years 1996-98. After phased retirement was introduced, there
 was a sizable increase in the overall separation rate in the
 system. The key finding from an empirical analysis of the
 retirement decision as a function of pension incentives,
 employee performance, demographics, and campus characteristics
 is that the odds of entering phased retirement were strongly and
 inversely related to employee performance, as measured by recent
 pay increases.


JEL Classification: J26, J14, J63
______________________________

"Regulation or Markets? The Case of Employment Contracts"
      CESifo Economic Studies, Vol. 51, January 2005

      BY:  WILLIAM BENTLEY MACLEOD
              University of Southern California

Paper ID:  USC CLEO Research Paper No. C05-2

 Contact:  WILLIAM BENTLEY MACLEOD
   Email:  Mailto:wmacleod@usc.edu
  Postal:  University of Southern California
           Los Angeles, CA 90089  UNITED STATES
   Phone:  213-740-3517
     Fax:  213-740-8543

ABSTRACT:
 Regulation of the employment contract is both wide spread and
 diverse. The diversity of regulation is surprising because it
 suggests that there is little consensus regarding optimal
 intervention into the labor market. This paper discusses several
 economic reasons why it may be efficient for employers and
 employees to enter into long term contracts that make employee
 dismissal expensive. This analysis suggests that employment
 contracts can be expected to be complex in practice, and hence
 can be viewed as part of the technology of exchange. Given that
 knowledge of a technology requires skill and know-how, one
 cannot expect all employee-employer matches to discover and use
 the most efficient contract terms possible. It is suggested that
 the regulation of the employment relationship might be improved
 with the creation of a market for contracts, similar to the one
 that currently exists in the United States for construction
 projects.


JEL Classification: J30, J41, K31
______________________________

W O R K I N G   P A P E R   Abstracts
_________________________________________________________________

"The Part-Time Wage Penalty: A Career Perspective"

      BY:  GIOVANNI RUSSO
              University of Utrecht - Department of Economics
           WOLTER H.J. HASSINK
              Utrecht University
              Department of General Social Sciences
              Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Document:  Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
           http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=651983

Paper ID:  IZA Discussion Paper No. 1468
    Date:  January 2005

 Contact:  WOLTER H.J. HASSINK
   Email:  Mailto:W.HASSINK@FSS.UU.NL
  Postal:  Utrecht University
           Department of General Social Sciences
           Algemene Sociale Wetenschappen
           Postbus 80.140
           3508 TC Utrecht,    NETHERLANDS
   Phone:  +31 30 2531115
     Fax:  +31 30 2533992
 Co-Auth:  GIOVANNI RUSSO
   Email:  Mailto:g.russo@fss.uu.nl
  Postal:  University of Utrecht - Department of Economics
           NL-3508 TC Utrecht,    NETHERLANDS

ABSTRACT:
 Part-time employment has become an extremely popular work
 arrangement in the Netherlands because it renders employment
 compatible with non-work activities. We posit that there may be
 a downside to part-time employment, which is related to its
 negative effects on workers' career. This may be the case when
 firms use promotions to stimulate skill acquisition and human
 capital accumulation or when they base their work incentive
 schemes on performance measures that are affected by the number
 of hours worked or when they screen workers on the basis of the
 number of hours worked. Because promotions are an important
 source of wage growth, the low incidence of promotion among
 part-time workers may contribute to the emergence of the
 part-time wage penalty (i.e., the wage difference between a
 part-time worker and an otherwise equal full-time worker) in due
 time. Consistent with this view, we find that (male and female)
 workers in part-time jobs are characterized by a lower incidence
 of promotion relative to workers in full-time jobs and that
 promotions account for a wage growth of eight log points.
 Moreover, we find that the part-time wage penalty does not arise
 at the onset of a career as young workers join the labor market
 but that it tends to develop over time as labor market
 experience and the effect of missed promotions cumulate.


JEL Classification: J31, J24, J22
______________________________

"Recent Developments in Part-Time Work in EU-15 Countries: Trends
 and Policy"

      BY:  HIELKE BUDDELMEYER
              University of Melbourne
              Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social
              Research
              Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
           GILLES MOURRE
              European Union
              European Commission
           MELANIE E. WARD
              European Central Bank
              Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
              Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Document:  Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
           http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=628042

Paper ID:  IZA Discussion Paper No. 1415
    Date:  November 2004

 Contact:  HIELKE BUDDELMEYER
   Email:  Mailto:hielkeb@unimelb.edu.au
  Postal:  University of Melbourne
           Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and
           Social Research
           Parkville,  Victoria 3010  AUSTRALIA
 Co-Auth:  GILLES MOURRE
   Email:  Mailto:Gilles.MOURRE@cec.eu.int
  Postal:  European Union
           European Commission
           B-1049 Brussels,    BELGIUM
 Co-Auth:  MELANIE E. WARD
   Email:  Mailto:melanie.ward-warmedinger@ecb.int
  Postal:  European Central Bank
           Kaiserstrasse 29
           D-60311 Frankfurt am Main,    GERMANY

ABSTRACT:
 A growing part-time employment share has been a main feature of
 a number of industrialized countries over the past two decades.
 A considerable variation in the rate of part-time work is
 evident by gender, age group, industrial sector and occupation.
 The stylized facts support the view that part-time employment
 represents an important opportunity particularly for young,
 older and female workers to enter the labour markets of the
 European Union. For the majority of workers in these groups, the
 decision to work part-time has been a voluntary one, which is
 all the more satisfactory in terms of welfare maximization.

 Our results indicate that the development of the part-time
 employment rate over time and the strong variation in the PTR
 across countries are significantly affected by policy and
 institutions. In particular policy measures geared toward
 encouraging part-time work are found to be positively related to
 actual part-time developments. These measures include both the
 legal framework directly affecting part-time positions and the
 creation of financial incentives (subsidies and improvement of
 social protection) to take up a part-time job. Moreover, other
 labour market institutions, including benefit systems and the
 stringency of employment protection legislation for regular
 contracts, are found to significantly but indirectly influence
 the growth in part-time work.


JEL Classification: J21, J22, J28
______________________________

"'Atypical Work' and Compensation"

      BY:  JOHN T. ADDISON
              University of South Carolina
              Department of Economics
              Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
              Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
              Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)
              International Finance and Financial Management
           CHRISTOPHER J. SURFIELD
              Lander University

Document:  Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
           http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=659181

Paper ID:  IZA Discussion Paper No. 1477
    Date:  January 2005

 Contact:  JOHN T. ADDISON
   Email:  Mailto:ecceaddi@moore.sc.edu
  Postal:  University of South Carolina
           Department of Economics
           The Francis M. Hipp Building
           1705 College Street
           Columbia, SC 29208  UNITED STATES
   Phone:  803-777-7400
     Fax:  803-777-6876
 Co-Auth:  CHRISTOPHER J. SURFIELD
   Email:  Mailto:csurfield@lander.edu
  Postal:  Lander University
           Greenwood, SC 29649  UNITED STATES

ABSTRACT:
 Atypical work, or alternative work arrangements in U.S.
 parlance, has long been criticized for providing
 poorly-compensated employment. Although one group of atypical
 workers (contractors) seems to enjoy a wage premium, our
 cross-section results from the CPS and NLSY for the better-known
 category of temporary workers point to a negative wage
 differential of some 7-12 percent. It emerges that much of the
 latter disparity stems from unobserved worker heterogeneity
 (accounting for which supports a wage advantage for contracting
 work). Turning to fringes, the appearance in cross section of a
 potentially large deficit in atypical worker health benefits is
 again reduced after accounting for permanent unobserved
 individual heterogeneity. But on this occasion the reduction is
 very modest. Further, there is now some indication that the wage
 advantage of contract workers partly compensates for their
 reduced access to such benefits.