Publications
Fang, T, Gunderson M., and Richard J. Long. (2021). “Profit Sharing and Workplace Productivity Growth in Canada: Does Teamwork Play a Role?” Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations (2021)，76(1), 90-114.
Abstract: Using panel data, the study examined whether adoption of an employee profit-sharing plan was related to subsequent productivity growth in Canadian establishments, and whether this relationship was affected by the use of work teams. We utilized a longitudinal research design to compare within-firm productivity growth during the three-year and five-year periods subsequent to profit-sharing adoption and within-firm productivity growth during the same periods in firms that had not adopted profitsharing. We found significant positive effects of profit-sharing adoption on workplace productivity growth in firms that had work teams in place when profit-sharing was adopted, but not in firms without work teams. Our results highlight the complementarity of profit-sharing and teamwork.
Barry, M., Gomez, R., Kaufman, B. E., Wilkinson, A., & Zhang, T. (2020). “Is it ‘you’ or ‘your workplace’ ? Predictors of job‐ related training in the Anglo‐American world.” International Journal of Training and Development, 24(3), 173-203.
Abstract: This paper examines the determinants of job-related training and workplace voice. Using data from a unique 2016 cross-national survey of Australian, British, Canadian, and American employees, the paper contrasts the neoclassical/human capital approach and the traditional institutional approach. We find the human capital model provides, at best, only a partial explanation for the differences in training observed across individuals. In contrast, variables invoked by the institutional literature (i.e. occupation level; industry; ownership type; and market structure) are highly significant and account for a much greater proportion of the variance in training observed across workers. Other institutional factors such as the presence of a union and a human resource department were strong positive predictors of job-related training. But most important were product market strategy and employee voice, as an important channel by which training is optimally delivered inside the firm.
Fang, T, Gunderson M., and Lin C. (2020). The Impact of Minimum Wages on Wages, Wage Spillovers and Employment in China: Evidence from Longitudinal Individual-Level Data,” Review of Development Economics.
Abstract: We utilize the substantial variation in both the magnitude and frequency of minimum wage changes that have occurred in China since its new minimum wage regulations in 2004 to estimate their impact on wages, wage spillovers, and employment. We use county‐level minimum wage data merged with individual‐level longitudinal data from the Urban Household Survey for the period 2004–2009, spanning the period after the new minimum wage regulations were put in place. Our results indicate that minimum wage increases raise the wages of otherwise‐low‐wage workers by a little less than half (41%) of the minimum wage increases. Depending on the specification, these wage effects also lead to a 2–4 percentage point reduction in the probability of being employed, with a 2.8 percentage point reduction being our preferred estimate. We also find statistically significant but very small wage spillovers for those whose wages are just above the new minimum wage, but they are effectively zero for those higher up in the wage distribution.
Fang, T, et. al. “Syrian Refugee Integration in Newfoundland and Labrador” in A National Project: Canada’s Syrian Refugee Resettlement Experience, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020.
Link: Syrian Refugee Integration in Newfoundland and Labrador
Frangi, Lorenzo, Tingting Zhang, and Rupa Banerjee. (2020) Constructing Inequalities: Tenure Trajectories of Immigrant Workers and Union Strategies in the Milan Construction Sector. British Journal of Industrial Relations.
Abstract: In this mixed‐methods study, we examined the employment trajectories of immigrant employees in the construction sector in Milan and the role of unions in promoting their labour market inclusion. Drawing on a unique dataset of 417,004 contracts representing more than 166,000 construction workers over a 12‐year period (2000–2011), we employed Growth Curve Modelling (GCM) to explore national group differences in contract, firm and sector tenure trajectories. We found Egyptian and Romanian workers suffer from lowest tenure levels. To investigate these results, we conducted 15 interviews with key informants. Results suggested firm characteristics and position along the production process (mono‐task), pervasive immigrant hiring queues (mono‐national) and union's use of class strategies are interlocking forces that shape deep labour market segregation. We recommend unions develop and apply tailored ethnic strategies to empower highly segregated immigrant groups.