Browsing by Subject "Employment"
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Item Capital flows to Latin American countries: effects of foreign direct investment and remittances on growth and development(2009-05-15) Vacaflores Rivero, Diego EduardoThe significant restructuring of international capital flows to developing countries ? in particular to Latin American countries ? observed in the last quarter century has generated significant research in the area to examine its potential impact on development efforts. The resurgence of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the increasing significance of remittances, both as shares of gross domestic product (GDP), have made these types of capital flows the most analyzed. Despite the large fraction of empirical studies that find a positive and significant relationship between FDI and economic growth, an important fact that has been so far overlooked in the literature is its impact on standards of living in host countries. This dissertation first establishes the strong complementary connection between FDI and economic growth in Latin America, measured by increases in GDP per capita growth rates, to then examine additional channels through which it could affect the welfare of the region. I first show that FDI has a positive effect on central government tax revenues, which is mainly channeled through its effect on taxes on goods and services. I then show that FDI has a positive and significant effect on the employment rates in these host countries, with female employment rate getting the largest impact ? relative to males. Remittances are another capital flow that plays a large and important role in certain economies, exceeding 10% of GDP in some countries. The impact of remittances on the main macroeconomic measures of a small open economy is analyzed in the last section using a stochastic limited participation model with cash in advance constraints and costly adjustment of cash holdings. After verifying that the model responds adequately to standard shocks, a remittances shock is introduced to examine the dynamic response of the representative economy. The results show that a positive remittances shock forces the exchange rate to depreciate and lowers both output and consumption in the period of the shock. The positive shock lowers utility during the shock but raises it from the following period onwards, improving discounted utility after 10 years when remittances are 10% of GDP and there are no adjustment costs.Item Disability policy in the U. S. : current challenges and future opportunities(2014-08) Woodard, Taylor Connor; Warner, David C.; Hough, CatherineNearly a quarter of a century after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities remain severely under-employed. All the while, they command a disproportionate share of public monies through Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). This report seeks to contribute to the conversation on current disability policy, as well as offer short-, mid-, and long-term solutions. The document opens with a history of the Social Security Administration (SSA), the federal agency responsible for setting national disability policy. This is followed by a discussion of SSA’s primary categories of client support: health care and employment initiatives. The health section details the medical coverage attached to both SSDI and SSI, with a particular focus on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Next is a review of work incentives offered to SSDI/SSI beneficiaries. Concluding this chapter is an investigation of the causes of under-employment that continue to plague the disabled circle, in spite of these many interventions. The study continues by exploring various issues affecting today’s U.S. disability policy. These include both exogenous and endogenous factors, including the growth of SSDI and SSI; the structural issues inherent to the current paradigm, as well as a number of disincentives to employment. The analysis then turns to disability policy in the international community. Of particular interest are the experiences of Sweden and the Netherlands as they established fiscally sound policy while assisting the nation’s disabled. From these case studies emerge several lessons pertinent to the U.S. This chapter closes with a thorough analysis of these European nations’ responses to their ever-growing disability programs, and the implications for disability policy makers and advocates. Concluding the report are several recommendations that can guide policy makers and advocates as they strive to place the disability community on the path to self-sufficiency. Most relevant and promising to the U.S. are the passage of the ABLE Act, instituting a national Medicaid Buy-In, and establishing a central disability agency. With successful implementation of these reforms, American with disabilities can potentially finally realize what the ADA promised 25 years ago.Item Early career development in the sport industry: factors affecting employment(2009-05-15) Hutchinson, Michael DanielThe purpose of this study is to identify the processes and factors contributing to employment in the sport industry. In order to completely address the sport industry as a whole, sport management has been pragmatically divided into five sub disciplines, including professional practitioner, recreational, Olympic, collegiate athletic administration, and high school athletic administration. Academia has been specifically excluded from this study as a category, since its purpose is to focus on those with experiences outside the educational setting. Recognized professionals in each of the above mentioned areas were interviewed to establish their individual views and perceptions. These candidates have been drawn from a cross-section of both educational (bachelor?s and/or graduate) degree programs and several different university institutions. Individual phone interviews were utilized to establish the primary contributors for each participant in their career development. The data has been analyzed to answer research questions and form recommendations that will provide guidance for current students and practitioners in developing their career aspirations.Item Female Criminality: A Result of Feminist Movement or Public Concern?(Texas Tech University, 1983-05) Labropoulou, HeleneNot Available.Item Female veterans face complex transition, high unemployment(2015-05) Kulshrestha, Kritika Pramod; Todd, Russell; Rivas-Rodriguez, MaggieJulie Puzan left Falls City, Texas, to join the Air Force in September 2003 as soon as she completed high school. Over the next six years, she was deployed to Guam twice as a weapons loader. In 2009 she left the service. That’s when things got tough. When she mustered out, she knew she needed help getting back in civilian life. She just didn’t know where to get it. Eventually she navigated the maze of assistance programs for vets and began putting her life together. Help was out there, but it was hard to find. She also realized that a flood of female vets was coming home to assistance that had been designed for men. Lots of programs dealt with problems like combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, but few were out there to treat the aftermath of sexual assaults and other challenges faced by females. Puzan is among 2.3 million female veterans in or entering the American work force after America's recent series of wars. The economy hasn't been good at absorbing these veterans. The V.A. and other veterans organizations are beginning to reach out to female vets, but find themselves behind the curve given the fast growth of the population they serve. As long as that's true, female vets will have to look hard to find the help they need in a system designed for males.Item Origins of labor market changes in the transition to an information economy : wage structure, employment, and occupation transformation in Taiwan after 1990(2009-05) Wang, Wei-ching; Sinha, Nikhil; Straubhaar, Joseph D.Labor market change in societies where an information economy is evolving, is a central area of concern for information society scholars today. While there has been considerable research conducted on cases of developed countries, research on labor market changes during a transition to an information economy outside of the advanced industrial economies is scarce. Thus, this dissertation proposes to examine the changes in wage, employment, and occupation structure that take place when an NIC, such as Taiwan, ushers in an information economy, and to explore the reasons behind these changes. This dissertation combined the historical, policy, and statistical analyses and concluded that the transformation from labor intensive manufacturing to an information intensive economy, as arranged by the Taiwanese government due to its own political and governing purposes, and also in the context of international political and economic circumstances, determined Taiwan’s economic resource arrangement, which resulted in an increasingly unbalanced labor market in terms of wage distribution, unemployment, and occupation structure. This transformation changed and shaped the structure of the labor market to benefit workers more skilled with information, more professional, having higher level knowledge and a higher level of education, while an increasing amount of white-collar and service workers began earning comparatively low wages. At the same time the demand for blue-collar and lower skill workers severely declined. Moreover, the total labor demand of information manufacturing and information intensive service is much less than that of traditional labor intensive manufacturing, resulting in Taiwan’s increasing unemployment problem. Among these processes, many different social, political, policy, and economic factors interacted and collectively determined this result. Among them, the role of the state in shaping Taiwan’s information economy in general and the labor market situation in particular did matter considerably.Item Predictors of postsecondary educational and employment outcomes for transition age state-federal vocational rehabilitation consumers with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)(2015-05) Glynn, Kathleen Mary; Schaller, James L.; Sorrells, Audrey M; Brooks, Gene I; Seay, Penelope C; Flower, Andrea LThis study examined the relationships among consumer demographic and vocational rehabilitation case service predictor variables and employment/postsecondary educational outcome variables for transition age consumers with ADHD ages 16-19 and 20-24. Utilizing the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) 911 data file from the 2012 fiscal year, logistic regression was used to examine predictors of successful employment outcomes and postsecondary educational attainment at case closure for each age group. Differences in weekly earnings at closure for White, African American and Hispanic/Latino males and females were examined using Analysis of Variance. Independent measures t-tests were used to examine mean earnings between consumers who received college training as a case service and those who were not provided with this service. Results revealed similarities and differences between the two age groups. Nearly 80% percent of transition age consumers with ADHD were in the younger age group. Race was a statistically significant demographic variable with Hispanic/Latino ethnicity related to successful employment and postsecondary educational outcome whereas African American status was negatively related to both successful employment and postsecondary educational outcome. Public support was also negatively related to successful employment outcome in both age groups. Job placement assistance, job search assistance, and on the job supports significantly predicted successful employment outcomes in both age groups. Gender, race/ethnicity and level of education were demographic predictors of postsecondary educational outcomes. Female and Hispanic/Latino consumers were more likely to have attained postsecondary education. Assessment, college training, occupational training, maintenance, rehabilitation technology and information and referral all positively predicted postsecondary educational attainment. On the job supports, job readiness training, job placement assistance, and miscellaneous training had a negative relationship to postsecondary educational attainment. Statistically significant differences were found in weekly earnings across race in both age groups and between men and women in the younger age group only. White males earned more than any other group and Hispanic/Latino consumers earned lower wages, despite having higher levels of education and employment. In both age groups, consumers receiving college training as a case service earned significantly more per week at closure than those who were not provided this service. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.Item Relationship between Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionaire (FABQ) Scores and Acute Low Back Pain Treatment(2009-09-04) Ingram, Jokae Aisha; Silver, Cheryl H.Each year, millions of individuals are afflicted with low back pain. Clinical researchers have a growing concern that patients' acute pain will develop into chronic pain, partly because of their fear-avoidance beliefs often resulting in them not returning to work (George, 2006; Pincus, 2002). The aims of this present study were as follows: a) to examine if FABQ risk criteria was significantly related to risk criteria with the ALBP algorithm; b) to examine the differences in patients' fear-avoidance beliefs scores and their return-to-work status; c) to examine the relationship between FABQ scores and scores on other psychosocial pain measures; d) to examine the FABQ scores for those who completed treatment, compared to those who did not complete treatment; and e) to examine the differences in FABQ scores from pre-treatment to one-year follow-up. The risk criteria with the ALBP algorithm was significantly related to risk criteria on the FABQ-W, but not significantly related to risk criteria on the FABQ-PA. Patients who returned to work tended to have lower FABQ scores than patients who did not return to work. Findings indicated that patients who had higher fear-avoidance beliefs (high FABQ scores) were more likely to have obstacles that prevented them from returning to work. Also, patients with higher fear avoidance beliefs tended to perceive their overall health status as poor. Patients who were classified as 'adaptive copers' tended to have lower FABQ scores than patients classified as 'dysfunctional' which indicates patients classified as 'adaptive copers' utilize healthier coping skills. No significant difference was found between those who completed treatment and those who did not complete treatment. Additionally, patients tended to have higher fear-avoidance beliefs at pre-treatment than at one-year follow-up indicating some potential benefits of treatment. Overall, patients who tended to have high fear-avoidance beliefs were more likely not to return to work, have more obstacles when trying to return to work, perceived their overall health status as poor, and were less likely to utilize healthy coping, hence their avoidance behavior.Item Role of transportation in employment outcomes of the disadvantaged(2009-05) Yi, Chang, Ph. D.; Zhang, Ming, 1963 Apr. 22-This dissertation focuses on the relationship between accessibility to job opportunities, travel mode choices and employment outcomes of the disadvantaged. In past research examining the impact of accessibility on employment outcomes of the underprivileged, it has been an implicit assumption that a poor individual's employment status is directly connected to accessibility to transport modes and job opportunities. This dissertation challenges such a fundamental assumption and argues that due to unique travel needs of the poor, a high level of access to transportation means or job accessibility provided by a given travel mode does not automatically determine the choice of that particular travel mode. What is missing in the existing literature is examination of how accessibility affects travel mode choices for low-income individuals, and how travel mode preferences subsequently influence their employment outcomes. The objective of this dissertation is to shed new light on current understanding of the relationship between transportation and employment of the disadvantaged. The study focuses on explaining what factors influence low-income individuals in their choice of a transportation mode, and more importantly, how modal preferences, along with job accessibility, affect employment of the poor. Household travel survey data from the San Francisco Bay Area and the Atlanta Metropolitan Region were used to examine this interrelationship. The research findings show that higher modal and job accessibility do not always determine the choice of a particular travel mode, defying the assumption of the previous studies. What is important for enhancing one's employment is whether or not a low-income person has regular access to cars and an individual circumstance allows the poor to utilize existing automobiles rather than the efficiency of highway network. In terms of public transportation, higher job accessibility by transit network is associated with better employment outcomes for transit users. Nonetheless, when transit riders had to access transit systems by walking, job accessibility did not have meaningful impact on employment. It is important to note that the impact that job accessibility by transit has on employment is found only in a transit-friendly Bay Area. Policy implication from this dissertation is discussed.Item The Effect of Light Rail Transit on Employment: A Case Study of Dallas, Texas(2014-08-05) Mendez, JoelThe decentralization of residents and jobs from central cities has greatly impacted low income residents as they have remained in the central city while employment opportunities are locating further away. This trend has negatively impacted the employment participation of these residents, worsening their economic situation. Public transit may mitigate this issue by providing direct employment connections to residents and creating employment opportunities through the stimulation of development in the area. This can help attract more jobs into the central city, while potentially increasing the employment opportunities for low income residents. This study aims to investigate whether proximity to light rail transit influence total employment and various types of employment opportunities by comparing longitudinal employment data within ? mile of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light rail stations to those in the control groups identified through the propensity score matching technique. The propensity score matching method was utilized in an attempt to obtain an adequate control group within the analysis and estimate the influence which proximity to transit has on employment. Additionally, multi-linear regression was integrated into the analysis act as a second level of analysis in the estimation of the influence which proximity to transit has on employment. Although differences in employment were found between areas in close proximity to transit versus comparable areas located elsewhere, it was not found that proximity to transit had a positive or negative influence on employment. The results did not support the stated hypotheses as no significant influence was obtained through this analysis. As seen by these results, the presence of transit does not automatically induce development; certain policies have to be in place in order to encourage it to occur.Item The Effects of Structured Work Experience on the Work-Readiness Skills of Students with Disabilities(2013-05-03) Pacha, Jacqueline KIt is common knowledge that employment is a large part of participation in society for all adults; and, one role of public education is to prepare students for these adult roles. Despite increasing school accountability measures for post-school outcomes of students with disabilities, a significant gap in employment between those with and those without disabilities remains. Work experience during high school has been established as the most consistent predictor of post-school employment. The problem is the lack of intervention research demonstrating ways of implementing programs that are associated with acquisition of work-readiness skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of structured work experience on the work-readiness skills of students with disabilities, and examine whether or not disability, or type of program, affected student outcomes while controlling for number of participant contact hours. To accomplish this purpose, a quasi- experimental one-group pretest-posttest design was selected and used. The target population for this study was high school students with disabilities in three high schools in Texas. The final sample included 37 students. The Becker Work Adjustment Profile: 2 was the instrument used to measure the participants? work-readiness skills. The pretest was administered within two weeks of student entry into the program. The posttest was administered within two weeks of student exit from the program. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted to answer the primary and exploratory research questions. Inferential analyses included a dependent sample t test and an ANCOVA using number of participant contact hours as the covariate. Results indicated participation in a structured work experience program had a positive effect on the work-readiness skills of these participants. ANCOVA results indicated (a) disability type was not a significant factor affecting the work-readiness of the participants, (b) program type produced a statistically significant main effect, (c) there was no statistically significant interaction effect between disability type and program type, and (d) number of contact hours produced a statistically significant main effect. Future research studies should focus on replication of the current study results and examination of the long-term effects of participation in structured work experience programs on post-school outcomes.Item The transition from school to work among Chile Solidario and Oportunidades beneficiaries(2014-08) Gelber Nunez, Denisse Andrea; Roberts, Bryan R., 1939-; Auyero, Javier; Crosnoe, Robert; Stolp, Chandler; Ward, Peter MConditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs aim to reduce the inter-generational reproduction of poverty through human capital investment. By 2010, most Latin American countries offered these programs covering almost one fifth of the regional population. CCTs have remained in spite of government changes, economic crises and growth. However, long-term impact evaluations are not encouraging. CCTs have not promoted the completion of high school (the minimal level to obtain a salary above the poverty line), neither labor market mobility among youth. Therefore, CCTs are not achieving their long term goal. In order to shed light on the aspects that explain this failure, my study explores the structural limitations that long-term CCT beneficiaries face in the transition from school to work, a crucial phase in the transition to adulthood and, therefore, in the reproduction of poverty. I analyze two emblematic CCTs in the region: Chile Solidario (Chile) and Oportunidades (Mexico). While Oportunidades is a pioneer CCT and is strictly focused on human capital investment (without connection with the labor market), Chile Solidario is the regional CCT that offers more connections with social programs, especially employment. With an exploratory-descriptive approach, I apply mixed-methods. I analyze CCTs surveys (Panel Chile Solidario for Chile and ENCELURB for Mexico) and in-depth interviews with long-term young beneficiaries and their mothers (cash recipients), from an assets and vulnerability framework. The dissertation sheds light on the heterogeneous characteristics of long-term beneficiaries and the variables that contribute the most to youth's transition from school to work. It also accounts for the main challenges faced by these policies to succeed: lack of local educational and employment opportunities, as well as lack of efficient connections between scholarships' worth, training programs and grants with beneficiaries' needs and situation.Item Urban poverty in Pakistan(2011-05) Zaidi, Syed Hashim; Wong, Patrick, 1956-; Bussell, JenniferThis report analyzes the spatial shift occurring in the nature of poverty in Pakistan. Given the rapid urban growth in Pakistan, poor families residing in cities are confronted with limited employment opportunities, poor living conditions, minimal access to services, and face environmental and health risks. Macroeconomic factors such as slow economic growth, Structural Adjustment Programs, food inflation, low job creation rate and housing crisis have all contributed to the rise in urban poverty. The weak local government structure and a lack of community involvement in governance decisions have only worsened the situation. With a burgeoning urban population, it is imperative that the government introduces a holistic pro-poor development package that focuses on interventions in the education, labor and housing markets across Pakistan.Item Vocational Evaluations and Self-Efficacy(2005-05-03) Featherston, Jennifer Faye; Vash, BobbieVocational evaluations are not used in every Individualized Plan for Employment, despite evidence that vocational evaluations are helpful in developing employment plans for consumers of vocational rehabilitation services. Vocational evaluation reports contribute to the knowledge base about consumers' abilities, interests, and aptitudes and assist consumers and counselors in deciding the best job match for the consumer. In addition, it is hypothesized in the current study that consumers' career self-efficacy is increased through participation in the vocational evaluation process, because situational assessments have been shown to increase career self-efficacy (Scroggin, Kosciulek, Sweiven, and Enright, 1999) and vocational evaluations are simulated situational assessments. Career self-efficacy is defined as an individual's perception of her ability to act effectively and competently (Strauser, 1995). This study will explore the influence formal vocational evaluations have on the career self-efficacy of people with disabilities. Specifically, does participation in a formal vocational evaluation increase career self-efficacy? The participants are consumers of a state vocational rehabilitation program in a Texas. A repeated measures ANOVA will be used to compare pre-test and post-test self-efficacy scores for clients participating in vocational evaluations. Results are expected to show that a direct benefit of vocational evaluations may be the increased career self-efficacy of individuals with disabilities.