This study argues that the aggregative specifications often used to examine wage diferentials fail to control for important demographic variations in wage patterns. In testing how postal wages compare to wages in the private sector, the authors therefore introduce interaction terms to control for gender and race differentials by industry. Their analysis of data from the May 1979 Current Population Survey indicates that average wages are higher in the Postal Service than in many private sector industries because the Postal Service pays nonwhites and women wages similar to those it pays comparable white men, whereas gender and race differentials are common in the private sector. The findings also indicate that the postal wage for white men is about the same as the average wage paid to comparable white men in other sectors of the economy, a relationship that the authors argue should be the key criterion for wage comparability in any public agency that follows a nondiscriminatory wage policy.
Commodity Prices and t he U. S. Price Level AN IMPORTANT ASPECT of the recent high rates of inflation in both the United States and other countries has been the sharp increases in prices of raw commodities. To be sure, prices of primary industrial products usually have risen significantly during cyclical upswings, particularly during the phase when output is accelerating. Prices of raw agricultural commodities are also responsive to demand to some degree, although their most striking movements are usually induced by changes in supply. That the recent advance in raw commodity prices was one of the largest experienced in the United States is generally attributed to two factors: (1) the coincidence of the general business expansion in the United States with a reduction in the supply of some major agricultural products; and (2) the coincidence of the acceleration in general business expansions in the United States and other countries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of this worldwide surge in the prices of raw commodities on the price level in the United States in 1973.1 The analysis uses an econometric model of price behavior by stage of process. Note: Lydia Segal and Rosemary Quintano assisted in the research for this paper. The author is solely responsible for the views expressed and any errors of analysis.1. Such an analysis assumes that the rise in raw commodity prices, in the short run at least, affects the overall price level and not merely relative prices. Specifically, it assumes that overall prices are not completely determined by the supply of money in the short run.
249
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.