For a quite excellent, full book treatment of this, see David
Livingstone, _The Education-Jobs Gap_, Garamond, 1999. The context is
Canadian but the evidence is drawn widely from US, Canadian and OECD
sources.
Paul P
Jim Devine wrote:
On 4/26/07, Gar Lipow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Also interesting that it seems not ot have affected her job
performance... Not justifying the deception: but it illustrates what
a lot the sociologists on this list have repeatedly pointed out: many
of the factors we use to determine if people are qualified for
positions are social signals rather than real measurements of ability
to do the job.
part of the winner-take-all nature of some labor markets is that there
are large numbers of perfectly qualified people who don't make the
cut, because the cut is usually much more stringent than it needs to
be.
A common critique of affirmative action assumes that (absent AA) every
person who gets a job is just qualified enough to get it, so that
people who don't get it aren't qualified at all. But in a hell of a
lot of labor markets, there are large numbers of people who are more
than qualified for the jobs available. The person who actually gets
the job is just one of many qualified candidates.
--
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your
own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
--
Paul Phillips Professor Emertus, Economics University of Manitoba Home
and Office: 3806 - 36A st., Vernon BC, Canada. ViT 6E9 tel: 1 (250)
558-0830 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
