This paper uses unit record data from the 1985 Australian Longitudinal Survey to review the major features of the youth labor market. Education plays an important role in determining the incidence of unemployment, wages, hours of work, and access to training opportunities. The probability of...

Human capital earnings functions typically explain a small fraction of the total variation in earnings. The considerable uncertainty associated with expected future earnings streams enhances the desirability of a loans scheme for higher education possessing income contingent characteristics on...

The exit/voice model of the labor market predicts that unionized workers will enjoy a greater level of fringe benefits, both absolutely and as a share of total compensation, than non- unionists. This is because unions can, through the medium of collective voice, communicate to management a...

It is well established in the literature that Australian unions raise their members' wages relative to those of otherwise comparable nonmembers by some amount in the range 7-15 percent. However, it is also known that firm size is positively associated with union density and that firm size is...

The theory of compensating wage differentials suggests that, for workers with similar human capital and other characteristics, earnings should be relatively high in industries where there is an above average risk of death. Using data from Worksafe Australia, this paper confirms the existence of...

The present paper uses data from the 1996 Australian Aspects of Literacy survey to examine the effects on labour market outcomes of literacy, numeracy and schooling. The survey includes a range of literacy and numeracy variables that are highly intercorrelated. A 'general to specific' approach...

Using data from the 2001 Australian Census of Population and Housing, on adult men in full-time employment, this paper augments a conventional human capital earnings function with information on occupations. It also estimates models of occupational attainment. The results from both the earnings...