Kevin Duncan
Biographic Data
| ID | 3624618 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kevin Duncan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kevin |
| FAMILY NAME | Duncan |
| SIGNATURE | DUNCAN K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Colorado State University Pueblo |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4261-9787 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 25 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Construction apprenticeships and economic mobility
Apprenticeship Program Performance and Macroeconomic Fluctuations
Apprenticeship training in construction is an important source of human capital investment for workers, employers, and society. We address the extent to which macroeconomic fluctuations such as building booms and recessions affect apprenticeship completion rates—an important indicator of program performance. Using data from the U.S. Department of Labor, we find that one of the most important determinants of performance is a measure of macroeconom…
Prevailing Wage Repeal, Highway Construction Costs, and Bid Competition in Kentucky
Data for over 2,000 highway pavement projects, constructed between 2014 and 2020, are used to examine the effect of Kentucky’s prevailing wage repeal in 2017 on relative bid costs and bid competition for state and federally funded work. Other than Davis-Bacon and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise policies for federal projects, and prevailing wage requirements on state-funded work prior to 2017, all highway construction in Kentucky is built to the…
Unintended Consequences of Nevada’s Ninety-Percent Prevailing Wage Rule
In 2015, the State of Nevada reduced prevailing wage rates on education-related construction to 90 percent of the applicable rate for other state-funded construction. The examination of projects built for Clark County School District between 2009 and 2108 indicates that Nevada’s wage policy has no statistically significant effect on school construction costs or bid competition, taking into consideration bids placed before and after the 2015 polic…
What Does the Research Tell Us about Prevailing Wage Laws
This paper reviews the research on prevailing wage laws. These policies establish location and job-specific minimum compensation rates for construction workers and apply to projects funded by the federal government, twenty-seven states, and numerous municipalities. Prevailing wage laws are controversial and are a source of ongoing policy debate. To better inform this debate this review finds that the most methodologically advanced research genera…
The Effect of Federal Davis-Bacon and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Regulations on Highway Maintenance Costs
The author compares winning bids on state and federal highway maintenance projects in Colorado between 2000 and 2011 to determine whether federal prevailing wage and disadvantaged business enterprise regulations are associated with increased construction costs. The effect of the Davis-Bacon Act is evaluated when average wage rates prevail for almost all workers involved in highway maintenance for most of the period of the study. The federal minim…
Using the Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Method to Measure Racial Bias in Achievement Tests
The Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique is typically applied to gender or racial earnings gaps with the goal of determining the percent of the gap that can be attributed to differences in attributes between groups and to labor market discrimination. We apply this technique to the racial gap in achievement tests with the goal of measuring the relative racial bias of these tests. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and the Pea…
Gender differences in faculty pay and faculty salary compression
A recording distinction between cost-of-living and merit adjustments at a unionized, public liberal arts college allows us to examine several issues related to gender differences in faculty pay. For example, we find that annual fixed-dollar merit increases and similar starting salaries contribute to comparable salary growth rates for female and male faculty. In this setting, the male faculty earnings advantage is traced to higher rank and years o…
Incentives and the Work Decisions of Welfare Recipients
Gender Differences in the Effect of Education on the Slope of Experience-Earnings Profiles
TWO earnings models are estimated for men and women of the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience of Youth (1979 to 1988). Model 1 (a standard human capital equation) indicates women receive a relatively higher earnings effect from another year of education and week of work, suggesting that narrowing of the wage gap can occur through increasing these. However, increases in female education of over 20%, or increases in weeks worke…
Racial disparity in earnings and earnings growth
Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience for Youth indicates a vintage effect (lower black-white earnings ratios for older cohorts relative to younger cohorts), but an examination of longitudinal earnings ratios suggests such an effect can be attributed to intra-cohort deterioration of black earnings over the life cycle rather than to inter-cohort differences in school quality. Regression results indicate that the…
Starting wages of women in female and male occupations
Using mature women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience we test the human capital propositions that predominantly female occupations are characterized by relatively higher starting wages and lower penalties for time spent out of the labor market. An examination of average hourly wage rates by level of work experience failed to indicate the kind of statistically significant starting wage differentials that would support…
The Vintage Schooling Hypothesis and Racial Differences in Earnings and On-The-Job Training
Why do younger black males earn more relative to whites than do older black males? The literature offers two competing explanations. Smith and Welch suggest this pattern is evidence that employers are rewarding the improved skills of more recently, better-educated blacks. Lazear, and Duncan and Hoffman suggest that the pattern is the result of employer discrimination that prevents blacks from entering occupations that offer on-the-job training (O…
Gender Differences in the Effect of Education on the Slope of Experience-Earnings Profiles
TWO earnings models are estimated for men and women of the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience of Youth (1979 to 1988). Model 1 (a standard human capital equation) indicates women receive a relatively higher earnings effect from another year of education and week of work, suggesting that narrowing of the wage gap can occur through increasing these. However, increases in female education of over 20%, or increases in weeks worke…
Using the Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Method to Measure Racial Bias in Achievement Tests
The Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique is typically applied to gender or racial earnings gaps with the goal of determining the percent of the gap that can be attributed to differences in attributes between groups and to labor market discrimination. We apply this technique to the racial gap in achievement tests with the goal of measuring the relative racial bias of these tests. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and the Pea…
The Effect of Federal Davis-Bacon and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Regulations on Highway Maintenance Costs
The author compares winning bids on state and federal highway maintenance projects in Colorado between 2000 and 2011 to determine whether federal prevailing wage and disadvantaged business enterprise regulations are associated with increased construction costs. The effect of the Davis-Bacon Act is evaluated when average wage rates prevail for almost all workers involved in highway maintenance for most of the period of the study. The federal minim…
What Does the Research Tell Us about Prevailing Wage Laws
This paper reviews the research on prevailing wage laws. These policies establish location and job-specific minimum compensation rates for construction workers and apply to projects funded by the federal government, twenty-seven states, and numerous municipalities. Prevailing wage laws are controversial and are a source of ongoing policy debate. To better inform this debate this review finds that the most methodologically advanced research genera…
Gender differences in faculty pay and faculty salary compression
A recording distinction between cost-of-living and merit adjustments at a unionized, public liberal arts college allows us to examine several issues related to gender differences in faculty pay. For example, we find that annual fixed-dollar merit increases and similar starting salaries contribute to comparable salary growth rates for female and male faculty. In this setting, the male faculty earnings advantage is traced to higher rank and years o…
Unintended Consequences of Nevada’s Ninety-Percent Prevailing Wage Rule
In 2015, the State of Nevada reduced prevailing wage rates on education-related construction to 90 percent of the applicable rate for other state-funded construction. The examination of projects built for Clark County School District between 2009 and 2108 indicates that Nevada’s wage policy has no statistically significant effect on school construction costs or bid competition, taking into consideration bids placed before and after the 2015 polic…
Incentives and the Work Decisions of Welfare Recipients
Starting wages of women in female and male occupations
Using mature women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience we test the human capital propositions that predominantly female occupations are characterized by relatively higher starting wages and lower penalties for time spent out of the labor market. An examination of average hourly wage rates by level of work experience failed to indicate the kind of statistically significant starting wage differentials that would support…
The Vintage Schooling Hypothesis and Racial Differences in Earnings and On-The-Job Training
Why do younger black males earn more relative to whites than do older black males? The literature offers two competing explanations. Smith and Welch suggest this pattern is evidence that employers are rewarding the improved skills of more recently, better-educated blacks. Lazear, and Duncan and Hoffman suggest that the pattern is the result of employer discrimination that prevents blacks from entering occupations that offer on-the-job training (O…
Starting wages of women in female and male occupations
Using mature women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience we test the human capital propositions that predominantly female occupations are characterized by relatively higher starting wages and lower penalties for time spent out of the labor market. An examination of average hourly wage rates by level of work experience failed to indicate the kind of statistically significant starting wage differentials that would support…
The Vintage Schooling Hypothesis and Racial Differences in Earnings and On-The-Job Training
Why do younger black males earn more relative to whites than do older black males? The literature offers two competing explanations. Smith and Welch suggest this pattern is evidence that employers are rewarding the improved skills of more recently, better-educated blacks. Lazear, and Duncan and Hoffman suggest that the pattern is the result of employer discrimination that prevents blacks from entering occupations that offer on-the-job training (O…
Racial disparity in earnings and earnings growth
Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience for Youth indicates a vintage effect (lower black-white earnings ratios for older cohorts relative to younger cohorts), but an examination of longitudinal earnings ratios suggests such an effect can be attributed to intra-cohort deterioration of black earnings over the life cycle rather than to inter-cohort differences in school quality. Regression results indicate that the…
Gender Differences in the Effect of Education on the Slope of Experience-Earnings Profiles
TWO earnings models are estimated for men and women of the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience of Youth (1979 to 1988). Model 1 (a standard human capital equation) indicates women receive a relatively higher earnings effect from another year of education and week of work, suggesting that narrowing of the wage gap can occur through increasing these. However, increases in female education of over 20%, or increases in weeks worke…
Incentives and the Work Decisions of Welfare Recipients
Gender differences in faculty pay and faculty salary compression
A recording distinction between cost-of-living and merit adjustments at a unionized, public liberal arts college allows us to examine several issues related to gender differences in faculty pay. For example, we find that annual fixed-dollar merit increases and similar starting salaries contribute to comparable salary growth rates for female and male faculty. In this setting, the male faculty earnings advantage is traced to higher rank and years o…
Using the Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Method to Measure Racial Bias in Achievement Tests
The Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique is typically applied to gender or racial earnings gaps with the goal of determining the percent of the gap that can be attributed to differences in attributes between groups and to labor market discrimination. We apply this technique to the racial gap in achievement tests with the goal of measuring the relative racial bias of these tests. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and the Pea…
The Effect of Federal Davis-Bacon and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Regulations on Highway Maintenance Costs
The author compares winning bids on state and federal highway maintenance projects in Colorado between 2000 and 2011 to determine whether federal prevailing wage and disadvantaged business enterprise regulations are associated with increased construction costs. The effect of the Davis-Bacon Act is evaluated when average wage rates prevail for almost all workers involved in highway maintenance for most of the period of the study. The federal minim…
What Does the Research Tell Us about Prevailing Wage Laws
This paper reviews the research on prevailing wage laws. These policies establish location and job-specific minimum compensation rates for construction workers and apply to projects funded by the federal government, twenty-seven states, and numerous municipalities. Prevailing wage laws are controversial and are a source of ongoing policy debate. To better inform this debate this review finds that the most methodologically advanced research genera…
Unintended Consequences of Nevada’s Ninety-Percent Prevailing Wage Rule
In 2015, the State of Nevada reduced prevailing wage rates on education-related construction to 90 percent of the applicable rate for other state-funded construction. The examination of projects built for Clark County School District between 2009 and 2108 indicates that Nevada’s wage policy has no statistically significant effect on school construction costs or bid competition, taking into consideration bids placed before and after the 2015 polic…
Prevailing Wage Repeal, Highway Construction Costs, and Bid Competition in Kentucky
Data for over 2,000 highway pavement projects, constructed between 2014 and 2020, are used to examine the effect of Kentucky’s prevailing wage repeal in 2017 on relative bid costs and bid competition for state and federally funded work. Other than Davis-Bacon and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise policies for federal projects, and prevailing wage requirements on state-funded work prior to 2017, all highway construction in Kentucky is built to the…
Apprenticeship Program Performance and Macroeconomic Fluctuations
Apprenticeship training in construction is an important source of human capital investment for workers, employers, and society. We address the extent to which macroeconomic fluctuations such as building booms and recessions affect apprenticeship completion rates—an important indicator of program performance. Using data from the U.S. Department of Labor, we find that one of the most important determinants of performance is a measure of macroeconom…
Construction apprenticeships and economic mobility
Economics (12 works) · Labour economics (10 works) · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality (9 works) · Wage (9 works) · Demographic economics (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Earnings (4 works) · National Longitudinal Surveys (4 works)