Category Archives: Labor Economics

Crew abandonment cases closing in on another dire record

Posted on August 22, 2022 by | 1 comment

Abandoning your crew is an awful thing to do. Yet around the world there are frequent cases. This year has been one of the worst. The usual motivation is a cash shortage, or bankruptcy.

Most ships are incorporated as separate companies. That allows the owner to declare bankruptcy of the ship without jeopardizing his wealth. But guess who is paying the seamens’ wages? The ship. It’s too easy.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has been working hard for seafarers for many years. They count the number of seafarers whose wages go unpaid for more than two months. That’s the definition of abandonment of the seafarers.

Maritime is a wild world; seafarers deserve fair treatment, and it’s useful that some group is trying to look out for them.

Sam ChambersAugust 22, 2022

Crew abandonment cases closing in on another dire record – Splash247

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Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Shipping

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Seven key takeaways about economic mobility

Posted on August 4, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Brookings has a great article about new research on economic mobility (preferably upward) and friends. If people tend to be willing to make friends across economic classes it’s a big boost to chances of economic mobility.

One great thing is the links to interactive maps showing what drives social capital. You can see them here.

Richard V. Reeves and Coura Fall Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Seven key takeaways from Chetty’s new research on friendship and economic mobility

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Posted in Labor Economics, Quantitative Methods

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Gig driver for a day. Here’s what we learned making deliveries for Veho

Posted on August 4, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Here we see a day in the life of a package delivery driver for Veho, which seems to be an enlightened last-mile delivery company that is actively trying to make work friendlier to the driver. The system they have developed tries to take into account driver needs as well as those of the customer and the shipper.

One of the major factors involved in keeping a workforce today is giving workers input and making the workplace friendly for them.

Veho seems to be using that principle to drive their business. Let’s hope it is successful for them.

One downside of this approach is the need for a depot where the packages are brought before the routing is done. That’s a capital expense that not all services will want to implement. It also slows up expansion into new markets, since the warehouse sites must be found and built out. However, the depot is key to the optimization for all the involved parties, including the driver.

Brian Straight Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Gig driver for a day. Here’s what we learned making deliveries for Veho | Modern Shipper

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Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Trucking

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