This safety-procurement tradeoff can be addressed by setting safety standards and then exempting selected activities and/or contractors. Or this tradeoff can be balanced by an informal or formal best-value point system that weighs, in each case, the relative value of contractor safety...

The proposed Sempra 1250 megawatt (MW) tieline connecting the California grid to envisioned new wind-farms in Mexico is not just about electricity. It is also about foregone opportunities, lost human capital investment, lost worklives, lost tax revenues, and diminished economic development...

In California, a leading state in biotech research & development, and bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing, more than 100 establishments in these two related industries employ about 65,000 workers whose average wage exceeds $100,000 per year. On average, about 2000 construction workers build and...

This paper critically reviews Alex L. Rosaen, The Impact of Michigan’s Prevailing Wage Law on Education Construction Expenditures, Anderson Economic Group, LLC, Commissioned by the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, 2013. It is shown that Rosaen’s estimates of the prevailing...

This study is a descriptive statistical examination of apprenticeship training in the construction industry, based on the U.S. Department of Labor and California Apprenticeship Agency databases. It specifically addresses the following questions - What were the patterns of enrollment across...

This paper analyzes the impact of the Prevailing Wage Laws (PWL) on the recruitment of apprentices, their completion and cancellation rates, and the minority share in apprenticeship programs. Statistical analysis shows that, controlling for the size of the trade, the supply of apprenticeship is...

This paper uses individual-level data on registered apprenticeship for ten largest construction occupations from 31 states in the U.S. to evaluate the variations in the entry and exit of women apprentices, overall and by race/ethnicity, over the 1995-2003 period. We examine how women’s...