That's Not the Problem Here

Performance Support Bias and the Gender Pay Gap Among Stockbrokers

Janice Fanning Madden, Gender & Society, forthcoming

Abstract: This article analyzes organizational mechanisms, and their contexts, leading to gender inequality among stockbrokers in two large brokerages. Inequality is the result of gender differences in sales, as both firms use performance-based pay, paying entirely by commissions. This article develops and tests whether performance-support bias, whereby women receive inferior sales support and sales assignments, causes the commissions gap. Newly available data on the brokerages’ internal transfers of accounts among brokers allows measurement of performance-support bias. Gender differences in the quality and quantity of transferred accounts provide a way to measure gender differences in the assignment of sales opportunities and support. Sales generated from internally transferred accounts, controlling for the accounts’ sales histories, provide a “natural experiment” testing for gender differences in sales capacities. The evidence for performance-support bias is (1) women are assigned inferior accounts and (2) women produce sales equivalent to men when given accounts with equivalent prior sales histories.

Um.... fail. The fact that there is bias in stockbroker pay is not very interesting, because there is no objective standard to apply. The fact that stockbrokers get paid at ALL is astonishing. There is no basis for stockbrokers getting paid, except fraud.

Nod to Kevin Lewis.

Shatners Frying Club

This has everything: explosions, turkeys, and William Shatner.

Best Abstract Ever

Raoul sends "the best abstract ever..."

I'm Sure I Think I'm Sure This is a Joke

Dutch Boy sends this, from the Kinston paper.

Not sure how to describe it. I'm sure I think it is a joke, I think.

But this may be the first time an article has engaged in self-grandgame. Impressive. I think.

“I’m no prude,” says Paulette Burroughs, 39, of La Grange. “But something I saw in that store was way over the line.”

Burroughs said she made the discovery Monday afternoon while planning a “Dancing with the Stars” viewing party at her home.

“We had a real good time, except for when old Nancy Grace decided to turn one of her sweater puppies loose,” Burroughs said. “That thing looked like it’d been eatin’ lemons all day.”

HP Printer: It doesn't work, he doesn't pay

So, his HP "All in one" printer didn't.

Print, that is. So he asked HP for some assistance. But HP insisted he should have to pay for tech service, even though should still have been under warranty.

So, he went all Mungowitz on its ass!

(Two people sent me this video. Can't imagine why...)

How Many?

Optimal number of wives: <=1. Cedric the Entertainer shows why:

Bud Light Cedric the..
Watch the ad...

But there's a new "reality" show, perhaps patterned after "Big Love" fictional success. (Success is real, story is fiction).

Nod to Angry Alex...

UPDATE: Yes, of course the optimal number of husbands is zero, for a woman. Thank goodness the LMM failed to optimize, and accepted me.

Washaway Beach

This may be a hoax, I admit.

But it's a story about Washaway Beach, in Washington state.

In which a guy being interviewed says, quoting now:

“When you buy a place at Washaway Beach, you hope it’s there forever...”

(Nod to Angry Alex)

Anvil Shooting

I see this in my future, right after deer season ends.

Jon Stewart nails it

Jon Stewart comes up big....

We came. We saw. We sucked.

(nod to Angry Alex)

Why Vodka was invented

So that you wouldn't notice getting SHOT IN THE HEAD!

Hey, classes have started up; I'll have what he's having!

Government in Action

Some time ago, Las Condes (a municipality in Santiago) decided to widen a road near UDD, where I am hanging out. The road wasn't THAT busy, but they thought it would be useful to widen, for some reason. (Maybe the contractor was a big supporter of an elected official, whatever). The widened road now looks like this: That is, the entire "new" lane is blocked off behind a fence. A very sturdy, permanent looking fence, quite expensive. Why? Here's why:

Yup, they didn't move power lines. Now either they should have moved the power lines, or not added a new lane. At least, that's how I would have done it. When I asked what the deal was, I was told, "There were no funds available to move the power lines." Looking at the second picture above, you can see that there is a LOT of brush and trash piled up behind the fence. It has been nearly ten years.

The Chilean reaction to this, and to most government actions, is a half-smile and that Gallic-Ibero-Roman shrug. No one can shrug like people with a Mediterranean heritage.

Dan Gilbert: this one's for you!

Who's on first?

The "heard on the street" section of today's WSJ reports that Greek tourism workers had scheduled a press conference to announce a strike, but realized at the last minute that the Greek journalists were already on strike and thus unlikely to attend the conference, prompting its postponement until such time that the journalists might be available.

Whatever the over/under is on Greek default, I'll take the under.

When enough is enough

I am not a big fan of the "must get 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff" electoral system in Presidential Democracies.

Consider the current case of Colombia:

Santos got 46.5% and his nearest challenger, Mockus, got around 21.5%.

Where I come from, people, that's an ass-whoopin'.

There's no need for the time and expense of another round of voting.

Couldn't you make the runoff conditional?

Like if one candidate gets 40% or more and more than twice as many votes as the second place finisher, then no second round will be held?

Shouldn't Mockus just back down now and accept that, in the words of Mo Udall, "the voters have spoken, those bastards!"

Whats wrong with just letting the highest vote getter win, regardless of their absolute percentage, like the USA and Mexico?

Best Headline

Best Headline:

Governors Call For New Bureaucracy to Improve Efficiency

Here is the actual press release.

Let me know how that works out, okay?

(nod to JS)

Michael Tofias Plays PIR, Bids $X420 on EVERYTHING

Underground hotel: Not Much of a View, but Quiet

Null Stern (Zero Star) Hotel.

In a bunker.

Getaway Car

Another big police chase on I-40 this morning in Raleigh.

The guy was sure he could escape the cops. I'm guessing that drugs were involved, since.... well, look at the car:The PERFECT getaway car! No one will ever notice me in this baby. It's like camouflage.... if you were driving through a giant herd of flamingos.

Protecting the Honor of Wall Street

Remember when Gary Hart challenged reporters to follow him, and then was amazed when they did, catching him in "Monkey Business"?

Well, saying that the honor of Wall Street has been besmirched is a little silly, also. Those boys pretty much smirched themselves. "John Thomas Financial"? Really? And "lesbian strippers"? Why was that the priority?

I'm not saying that having the morality police from Washington will make things better, or that having Eliot "Yo, Mo Ho" Spitzer is an improvement. But if you have no honor, you can't very well protect your honor. Just keep quiet. Quite a story, quite a shiny, terrifying bald pate.

(Nod to Anonyman, who is NOT that bald, and who likes his strippers straight)

Conan's Exit Interview, and a Ken Burns Special...