Rapid automation in manufacturing has raised pressing questions public and policy discourse regarding the effects of labor-eliminating technical progress an industry. We address implications a technology adopted for factor price changes, skilled–unskilled wage gap, trade policies intended to protect workers. Using otherwise traditional multisector general equilibrium model, we derive conditions...

There is now compelling evidence that psychosocial stress is a cause of reproductive suppression in humans. However, women continue to conceive in the harshest conditions of war, poverty, or famine, suggesting that suppression can be bypassed. The reproductive suppression model (RSM) proposes that natural selection should favor factors that reliably predict conditions for reproduction. In this ...

This study examined the relation between occupation and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in 2,795 individuals between ages 35 and 54 years from the rapidly developing island nation of Mauritius. Participants attended a 1992 population-based survey of noncommunicable disease (89.1 % response rate). Occupational status, physical activity in the previous year, cigarette smoking, and alcoh...

Three central observations motivate this paper. First, there is little variation in the fraction of unskilled workers between rich and middle income countries. This occurs despite well-known, large differences in output per worker. Among a set of rich countries, unskilled workers 25 and older, defined as those with at most high school education, averaged 82 percent. Meanwhile, for a set of midd...

OBJECTIVE To establish whether the employment consequences of musculoskeletal disorder vary by gender and socio-economic group in Sweden. METHODS Two linked registers, containing diagnostic and socio-economic data for the 1.8 million residents of Stockholm County, were used to investigate the subsequent employment consequences over 5 yr of having a musculoskeletal disorder requiring hospital ...

Reduced employer commitment to health benefits for workers reflects economic pressures to cut labor costs and compete in an international market, as well as the impact of international competition on the composition of U.S. jobs.The resulting economic pressures on workers—especially unskilled and lowwage workers—are severe. If employers do not offer health insurance coverage or pay a significan...

The immigration of relatively unskilled workers poses a fundamental problem for liberals. While from the perspective of the economic welfare of natives, the optimal policy would be to admit these aliens as guest workers, this policy would violate liberal ideals. These ideals would treat these workers as equals, entitled to access to citizenship and to the full set of public benefits provided to...

Were ordinary factory workers unskilled and was technology “de-skilling” during the Industrial Revolution? I measure foregone output to estimate the human capital investments in mule spinners and power loom tenders in ante-bellum Lowell. These investments rivaled those of craft apprentices. Although factory workers were unskilled in a sense, the implementation of this technology depended on the...

In many economies, studies have found large wage differentials not accounted for by workforce characteristics, collective bargaining, or market power. Researchers attribute these differentials to either unobserved worker quality or pay incentives designed to elicit worker effort. This article finds empirical support for an alternative explanation: These wage differentials result from firms’ tec...

A prospective study of self-poisoning and self-injury in the Oxford area for 1972-73 and a retrospective study for 1969 has shown the following: (a) The number of admissions to a general hospital following self-poisoning and self-injury has increased by approximately 45% in 3 1/2 years. The increase is more marked in women than in men. (b) When compared with a previous study the incidence in Ox...