| Research into employee benefits in the economics, psychology, and sociology literature is reviewed, and a conceptual model of the entire benefits process is presented. The model shows how current research concentrates on only a small portion of the entire benefits determination process, and three essays are presented that examine current issues and extend benefits research into areas identified as needing additional research.;The first essay examines the impact that health benefits cost sharing has on wages and total compensation levels. In recent years, many employers have been requiring employees to pay an increased portion of health care costs. The economic theory of compensating differentials would lead one to conclude that the decrease in total compensation due to cost sharing (since the value of the health benefits offered declines) will lead to increases in direct compensation (wages). However, the evidence presented indicates that health benefits cost sharing does not appear to have any compensating wage adjustment.;The second essay examines the impact that work related cultural values have on social and workplace benefit policies across nations. The measures of culture used comes from Hofstede (1984). The results indicate that Hofstede's measures are related to a number of social and workplace benefits, both in what benefits are commonly available, as well as the quantity and quality of the benefits. Examples of benefits that are influenced by culture are social pension, job and income protections, and health care.;The final essay uses stochastic systems simulation techniques to study the impact that the decision to hire full-time or part-time workers has on labor costs. While such techniques have become common in production management as a decision support system, these modeling techniques have not been used in human resource management before. By using simulation techniques to model the production process, it is possible to estimate the impact that different policy choices involving part-time employees will have on costs. The model output indicates that even with mandated health insurance for part-time employees, the use of part-time employees can save money, particularly when product demand is highly variable. |
