IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecdequ/v24y2010i1p33-44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Chains and Ladders: Exploring the Opportunities for Workforce Development and Poverty Reduction in the Hospital Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Marla Nelson

    (University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA, mnelson@uno.edu)

  • Laura Wolf-Powers

    (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA)

Abstract

In this article, the authors investigate the potential of hospitals to offer low- and semiskilled workers employment and advancement options.This study uses the job chains approach to measuring economic development impacts devised by Persky, Felsenstein, and Carlson to compare hospitals with three other industries highly concentrated in central cities and examines the practical challenges facing workforce development professionals. The findings suggest that growth in hospital employment has the potential to outstrip the impact of growth in accommodations, legal services, and securities and commodities on the well-being of low-income workers and should prompt economic development practitioners to take the sector more seriously as a locus for attention and investment. To maximize welfare gain and distributional equity, economic development policy makers must accompany investments in health care—based economic development both with strategies to promote skills attainment and credentialing among low-paid health care workers and with formal strategies to facilitate upward movement.

Suggested Citation

  • Marla Nelson & Laura Wolf-Powers, 2010. "Chains and Ladders: Exploring the Opportunities for Workforce Development and Poverty Reduction in the Hospital Sector," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 24(1), pages 33-44, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:24:y:2010:i:1:p:33-44
    DOI: 10.1177/0891242409347721
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891242409347721
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0891242409347721?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marla Nelson, 2009. "Are Hospitals an Export Industry?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 23(3), pages 242-253, August.
    2. Joseph Persky & Daniel Felsenstein & Virginia Carlson, 2004. "Does "Trickle Down" Work? Economic Development and Job Chains in Local Labor Markets," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number dtdw.
    3. Timothy J. Bartik & George Erickcek, 2007. "Higher Education, the Health Care Industry, and Metropolitan Regional Economic Development: What Can “Eds & Meds” Do for the Economic Fortunes of a Metro Area’s Residents?," Upjohn Working Papers 08-140, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    4. Daniel Felsenstein & Joseph Persky, 1999. "When is a Cost Really a Benefit? Local Welfare Effects and Employment Creation in the Evaluation of Economic Development Programs," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 13(1), pages 46-54, February.
    5. Timothy J. Bartik, 1997. "Short-Term Employment Persistence for Welfare Recipients: The "Effects" of Wages, Industry, Occupation and Firm," Upjohn Working Papers 97-46, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ribas, Vanesa & Dill, Janette S. & Cohen, Philip N., 2012. "Mobility for care workers: Job changes and wages for nurse aides," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2183-2190.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joseph Persky & Daniel Felsenstein, 2008. "Multipliers, Markups, and Mobility Rents: In Defense of ‘Chain Models’ in Urban and Regional Analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(12), pages 2933-2947, December.
    2. Marla Nelson, 2009. "Are Hospitals an Export Industry?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 23(3), pages 242-253, August.
    3. Carolyn J. Heinrich & Peter R. Mueser & Kenneth R. Troske, 2005. "Welfare to Temporary Work: Implications for Labor Market Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 154-173, February.
    4. David Card & Charles Michalopoulos & Philip K. Robins, 2001. "The Limits to Wage Growth: Measuring the Growth Rate of Wages For Recent Welfare Leavers," NBER Working Papers 8444, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Bosley, Stacie A., 2004. "Dead-End Jobs Or Stepping Stones? The Long-Run Consequences Of Early Industry And Occupation," Working Papers 14301, University of Minnesota, The Food Industry Center.
    6. Jeffrey Thompson, 2010. "Prioritizing Approaches to Economic Development in New England: Skills, Infrastructure, and Tax Incentives," Published Studies priorities_september7_per, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    7. Peter R. Mueser & Kenneth R. Troske & David R. Stevens, 2007. "The Impact of Welfare Reform on Leaver Characteristics, Employment and Recidivism: An Analysis of Maryland and Missouri," Working Papers 0720, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    8. Jonathan I. Dingel & Joshua D. Gottlieb & Maya Lozinski & Pauline Mourot, 2023. "Market Size and Trade in Medical Services," NBER Working Papers 31030, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Julia Lane & David Stevens, 2001. "Welfare‐to‐Work Outcomes: The Role of the Employer," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(4), pages 1010-1021, April.
    10. Joseph Persky & Daniel Felsenstein, 2006. "Restricting access in a job chains model of local employment creation," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 40(2), pages 423-435, June.
    11. Stephan J Goetz & Mark D Partridge & Dan S Rickman & Shibalee Majumdar, 2011. "Sharing the Gains of Local Economic Growth: Race-to-the-Top versus Race-to-the-Bottom Economic Development," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 29(3), pages 428-456, June.
    12. Timothy J. Bartik, 2012. "The Future of State and Local Economic Development Policy: What Research Is Needed," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 545-562, December.
    13. Lambert, Thomas & Mattson, Gary & Dorriere, Kyle, 2016. "Industry Clustering and Unemployment in US Regions: An Exploratory Note," MPRA Paper 69584, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Thakuriah (Vonu), Piyushimita & Persky, Joseph & Soot, Siim & Sriraj, P.S., 2013. "Costs and benefits of employment transportation for low-wage workers: An assessment of job access public transportation services," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 31-42.
    15. Jia Wang & Stephen E. Ellis & Cynthia Rogers, 2018. "Income Inequality and Economic Development Incentives in US States: Robin Hood in Reverse?," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 48(1), pages 93-117, Spring.
    16. Laura A. Reese & Minting Ye, 2011. "Policy Versus Place Luck: Achieving Local Economic Prosperity," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 25(3), pages 221-236, August.
    17. Judith A. Cook & Jane K. Burke-Miller & Dennis D. Grey, 2015. "Impact of Contingent Work on Subsequent Labor Force Participation and Wages of Workers with Psychiatric Disabilities," Mathematica Policy Research Reports dc9fe635fb3940d6a5740964f, Mathematica Policy Research.
    18. Kitty Stewart, 2007. "Employment trajectories for mothers in low-skilled work: Evidence from the British Lone Parent Cohort," CASE Papers case122, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    19. Felsenstein, Daniel & Persky, Joseph & Carlson, Virginia, 2002. "Job vacancy chains in metropolitan labor markets," ERSA conference papers ersa02p088, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Peter Schochet & Anu Rangarajan, 2004. "Characteristics of Low-Wage Workers and Their Labor Market Experiences: Evidence from the Mid- to Late 1990s," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 579c8356364142fcafb95b72b, Mathematica Policy Research.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:24:y:2010:i:1:p:33-44. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.