IZA Working Paper: A Guide and Advice for Economists on the U.S. Junior Academic Job Market

IZA DP No. 5984

John Cawley:

A Guide and Advice for Economists on the U.S. Junior Academic Job Market (2011-2012 Edition)

Abstract:
This guide, updated for the 2011-12 job market season, describes the U. S. academic market for new Ph.D. economists and offers advice on conducting an academic job search. It reports findings from published papers, describes practical details, and provides links to internet resources. Topics addressed include: preparing to go on the market, applying for academic jobs, signaling, interviewing at the ASSA meetings, campus visits, the secondary market scramble, offers and negotiating, diversity, and dual job searches.

http://ftp.iza.org/dp5984.pdf

Happiness and work in Ireland

One of the results that emerged from the well known Whitehall studies, considered landmark studies in social epidemiology which looked at British civil servants, is that where people come in an organization has an important effect on people's health. People at the bottom of the rung had poorer health. One explanation is that such people have less control of their circumstances and have more stress as a result.
The European Social Survey asks individuals how much control they have over how their daily work is organized (on a scale of 0 to 10). As an alternative to looking at health, one could also consider subjective well-being: in the data happiness is also ranked on a scale of 0 to 10.
The graph plots the mean of the happiness variable against how much control individuals say they have, using the data for Ireland. This is purely a bivariate comparison.
So there is a correlation with those at the top recording greater happiness but the gradient seems fairly gentle to me. More importantly, those at the bottom of the ladder seem happier than those immediately above them. So it may be that those at the bottom just don't worry and get on with things. A multivariate analysis would be needed to consider this more throughly.
If one looks at subjective general health with the same data, the relationship is rather more monotonic with those at the top having better health.

Coffee anyone?

If a meeting becomes stressful, does it help, or make things worse, if team members drink lots of coffee? A study by Lindsay St. Claire and colleagues that set out to answer this question has uncovered an unexpected sex difference. For two men collaborating or negotiating under stressful circumstances, caffeine consumption was bad news, undermining their performance and confidence. By contrast, for pairs of women, drinking caffeine often had a beneficial effect on these same factors. The researchers can't be sure, but they think the differential effect of caffeine on men and women may have to do with the fact that women tend to respond to stress in a collaborative, mutually protective style (known as 'tend and befriend') whereas men usually exhibit a fight or flight response.

The study involved 64 male and female participants (coffee drinkers at the University of Bristol with an average age of 22) completing various construction puzzles, negotiation and collaborative memory tasks in same-sex pairs. They did this after drinking decaffeinated coffee, which either had or hadn't been spiked covertly with caffeine (the equivalent of about three cups' worth of coffee). Stress was elevated for some of the pairs by telling them they would shortly have to give a public presentation, and by warning them that their participation fee would be performance dependent.

How large were the caffeine effects? The men's memory performance under stressful conditions with caffeine was described by the researchers as 'greatly impaired' whereas caffeine didn't affect women in the same situation. For the construction puzzles, caffeine under high stress conditions led men to take an average of twenty seconds longer (compared with no caffeine) whereas it led women to solve the puzzles 100 seconds faster.

St. Claire, L., Hayward, R., and Rogers, P. (2010). Interactive Effects of Caffeine Consumption and Stressful Circumstances on Components of Stress: Caffeine Makes Men Less, But Women More Effective as Partners Under Stress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40 (12), 3106-3129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00693.x

From BPS Research Digest, issue 182

Mindfulness, meditation and mental health

Some researchers have advocated the use of mindfulness based techniques to deal with affective disorders, for example there is an RCT that finds it effective against depression for women with fibromyalgia and also evidence of how meditation can help anxiety, stress or agoraphobia.
Closer to home, the Northern Ireland Health Service has brought in a Buddhist monk to provide mindfulness based "happiness classes". I don't know how accurate a description that is but Sammy Wilson MP is not a happy bunny.

Job stress and satisfaction amongst Irish primary school principals

A recent article in the Irish Independent pointed to difficulties that primary schools in Ireland were having in attracting applicants for vacancies "Longer working hours, increased bureaucracy and poor rewards are thought to be the main causes of the poor take-up of jobs" it concluded. If so this is a serious problem. Interestingly, the Sunday Business Post recently carried an article suggesting that Irish public sector workers, including primary teachers, were comparatively well paid.
So what evidence do we have ? Growing Up in Ireland actually has some very good data on this and related issues. The principals in which the 9 year olds were pupils were asked about their stress levels. This is not a random sample of principals note: in schools where there are more than one study child then that principal will be counted more than once. But since these will tend to be in bigger schools this makes sense. So it should be reasonably representative of the population I think.
So what did they say? The graph below gives the responses and indicates fairly high stress levels. Almost 68% were "very" or "fairly" stressed.













The principals were also asked about job satisfaction. The results there suggest a different picture.Over 95% are "very" or "fairly" satisfied by their job. So based on this criterion, it would seem that our principals are not doing too badly and it is harder to understand why there might be recruitment difficulties. It may well be the case that it is particular types of school that are experiencing problems retaining or recruiting principals. It would be an interesting task to use this rich data source to explore what are the predictors of principals' (& teachers') job stress and satisfaction.

Truth, Torture and Memory

Torture techniques used on suspected terrorists by the Bush administration may have failed to get to the truth, researchers say.

Professor Shane O'Mara of Trinity College, Dublin, said the interrogation techniques had a detrimental effect on brain functions related to memory. His review is published in the journal, Trends in Cognitive Science.

BBC News story available here. Extract as follows: "Professor O'Mara said contemporary neuroscientific models of human memory showed that the hippocampus and prefrontal cortices of the brain were very important. The stress hormone, cortisol, binds to receptors in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex increasing neuronal excitability which compromises the normal functioning of the brain if it is sustained."

Does Cortisol Help Us To Regulate Our Emotions?

Low levels of the stress hormone cortisol could be linked to antisocial behaviour in adolescent boys, UK researchers say...

An increase in cortisol levels is thought to make people behave more cautiously, and help them to regulate their emotions, particularly their temper and violent impulses.

But (the) Cambridge university study found this did not happen in boys with a history of severe antisocial behaviour.

Read comments from lead researcher Dr. Graeme Fairchild on MedIndia.com here.