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on Microeconomic European Issues |
| By: | Marie Poprawe (KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland); Christian Krekel (DIW Berlin, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of local crime on well-being in Germany, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and a novel data set constructed from official police crime statistics, covering both counties and urban districts for the time period between 1994 and 2012. We find that local area crime has a signicantly negative impact on life satisfaction, makes residents worry more frequently, and worry more about crime in Germany. In particular, a 1% increase in the crime frequency ratio results in a 0.043 standard deviation decrease in life satisfaction. This effect is driven almost exclusively by violent crimes, while property crimes and other crimes have no significant impact on well-being. |
| Keywords: | Crime, Well-Being, Germany |
| JEL: | I31 K42 R50 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kof:wpskof:14-358&r=eur |
| By: | Hallberg, Daniel (Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (ISF)); Johansson, Per (IFAU); Josephson, Malin (Swedish Social Insurance Inspectorate (ISF)) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies empirically the consequences of retirement on health. We make use of a targeted retirement offer to army employees 55 years of age or older. Before the offer was implemented in the Swedish defense, the normal retirement age was 60 years of age. Estimating the effect of the offer on individuals' health within the age range 56-70, we find support for a reduction in both mortality and in inpatient care as a consequence of the early retirement offer. Increasing the mandatory retirement age may thus not only have positive government income effects but also negative effects on increasing government health care expenditures. |
| Keywords: | health, mortality, inpatient care, retirement, health care, pensions, occupational pensions |
| JEL: | J22 J26 I18 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8260&r=eur |
| By: | Matthias Siller; Christoph Hauser; Janette Walde; Gottfried Tappeiner |
| Abstract: | Measuring innovation activities involves critical decisions in selecting appropriate indicators and levels of observation. The present article contributes to the literature on this subject by addressing innovation measurement on the regional level. The dimensionality of regional innovation is examined by applying a principal component analysis on seven innovation output indicators in European regions from the Community Innovation Survey and two traditional indicators, i.e. patent applications and R&D expenses. The analysis reveals that regional innovation indeed needs to be regarded as a multidimensional concept involving technological, commercial and service innovation. These distinct innovation activities exhibit clear regional patterns with both technological and service innovation concentrated in highly developed territories and urban areas displaying particularly strong innovation performance in services. In addition, commercially successful innovation appears clustered in backward regions and may thus be seen as imitation efforts and technology transfers from areas at the innovation frontier. Overall, the elaborated findings suggest that the selection of innovation indicators in empirical analyses demands appropriate motivation and theoretical guidance. |
| Keywords: | regional innovation, innovation dimensions, Principal Component Analysis, patent applications, Community Innovation Survey |
| JEL: | R11 O31 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2014-19&r=eur |
| By: | Huber, Martin; Lechner, Michael; Wunsch, Conny |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the average effects of (firm-provided) workplace health promotion measures in form of the analysis of sickness absenteeism and health circles/courses on labour market outcomes of the firms’ employees. Exploiting linked employer-employee panel data that consist of rich survey-based and administrative information on firms, workers and regions, we apply a flexible propensity score matching approach that controls for selection on observables as well as on time-constant unobserved factors. While the effects of analysing sickness absenteeism appear to be rather limited, our results suggest that health circles/courses increase tenure and decrease the number of job changes across various age groups. A key finding is that health circles/courses strengthen the labour force attachment of elderly employees (51-60), implying potential cost savings for public transfer schemes such as unemployment or early retirement benefits. |
| Keywords: | Firm health policies, health circles, health courses, analysis of sickness absenteeism, matching |
| JEL: | I10 I19 J32 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2014:17&r=eur |
| By: | Bratsberg, Bernt (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Raaum, Oddbjørn (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Based on individual longitudinal data, we examine the evolution of employment and earnings of post‐EU accession Eastern European labour immigrants to Norway for a period of up to eight years after entry. We find that the migrants were particularly vulnerable to the negative labour demand shock generated by the financial crisis. During the winter months of 2008/09, the fraction of immigrant men claiming unemployment insurance benefits rose from below 2 to 14 per cent. Some of this increase turned out to be persistent, and unemployment remained considerably higher among immigrants than natives even three years after the crisis. Although we find that negative labour demand shocks raise the probability of return migration, the majority of the labour migrants directly affected by the downturn stayed in Norway and claimed unemployment insurance benefits. |
| Keywords: | migration, assimilation, social insurance |
| JEL: | F22 H55 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8291&r=eur |
| By: | Beckmann, Klaus (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg); Franz, Nele (Carinthian School of Applied Sciences); Schneider, Andrea (University of Münster) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with discrete labour supply decisions of different groups of persons in response to a change in net wage rates. The centrepiece of this approach is individuals' switching between working time categories, while facing switching costs that arise when people expand or reduce working hours. We define a degree of persistence of individual behaviour as well as its complement, labour supply mobility. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we estimate persistence and mobility by gender and type of household. |
| Keywords: | labour mobility; discrete choice approach; labour supply elasticity |
| JEL: | C25 H31 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:vhsuwp:2014_145&r=eur |
| By: | Cardamone, Paola |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of research and development (R&D) on productivity by taking into account productivity spillovers. To this end, by using a sample of Italian manufacturing firms provided by the Xth UniCredit-Capitalia survey (2008), which covers the period 2004-2006, we have analyzed the role of R&D in firm productivity by using a spatial autoregressive model. In so doing, we have allowed the total factor productivity (TFP) of each firm to be affected by the TFP of nearby firms. Results show that R&D play an important role in Italian firm productivity. Moreover, we find evidence in favor of productivity spillovers across firms due to spatial proximity. In addition, intrasectoral R&D spillovers seem to have a relevant effect on firm productivity, while intersectoral R&D spillovers do not have a significant effect. |
| Keywords: | R&D, TFP, spillovers, spatial econometrics, Italian manufacturing firms |
| JEL: | C21 D24 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57149&r=eur |
| By: | Loken, Katrine Vellesen (University of Bergen); Lundberg, Shelly (University of California, Santa Barbara); Riise, Julie (University of Bergen) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use a 1998 reform in the federal funding of local home-based care for the elderly in Norway to examine the effects of formal care expansion on the labor supply decisions and mobility of middle-aged children. Our main finding is a consistent and significant negative impact of formal care expansion on work absences longer than 2 weeks for the adult daughters of single elderly parents. This effect is particularly strong for daughters with no siblings, and this group is also more likely to exceed earnings thresholds after the reform. We find no impacts of the reform on daughter's mobility or parental health, and no effects on adult sons. Our results provide evidence of substitution between formal home-based care and informal care for the group that is most likely to respond to the parent's need for care – adult daughters with no siblings to share the burden of parental care. These results also highlight the importance of labor market institutions that provide flexibility in enabling women to balance home and work responsibilities. |
| Keywords: | formal and informal care, elderly, welfare state, women's career |
| JEL: | J14 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8267&r=eur |
| By: | Martin Binder; Alex Coad |
| Abstract: | Unemployment has been robustly shown to strongly decrease subjective well-being (or "happiness"). In the present paper, we use panel quantile regression techniques in order to analyze to what extent the negative impact of unemployment varies along the subjective well-being distribution. In our analysis of British Household Panel Survey data (1996-2008) we find that, over the quantiles of our subjective well-being variable, individuals with high well-being suffer less from becoming unemployed. A similar but stronger effect of unemployment is found for a broad mental well-being variable (GHQ-12). For happy and mentally stable individuals, it seems their higher well-being acts like a safety net when they become unemployed. We explore these findings by examining the heterogeneous unemployment effects over the quantiles of satisfaction with various life domains. |
| Keywords: | Subjective Well-being; Unemployment; Quantile Analysis; Heterogeneity; British Household Panel Survey; Domain Satisfaction |
| JEL: | I31 J01 J64 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_808&r=eur |
| By: | Lehmann, Etienne (CRED, Université Panthéon Assas Paris 2); Lucifora, Claudio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Moriconi, Simone (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Van der Linden, Bruno (IRES, Université catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we argue that, for a given overall level of labour income taxation, a more progressive tax schedule increases employment. From a theoretical point of view, higher progressivity increases overall employment through a wage moderating effect and also because employment of low-paid workers is more elastic to wages. We test these theoretical predictions on a panel of 21 OECD countries over 1998-2008. Controlling for the burden of taxation at the average wage, our estimates suggest that a more progressive tax schedule reduces the unemployment rate and increases the employment rate. These findings are confirmed when we account for the potential endogeneity of both average taxation and progressivity. Overall, our results suggest that policy-makers should not only focus on the detrimental effects of tax progressivity on in-work effort, but also consider the employment-enhancing effects. |
| Keywords: | wage moderation, employment, taxation |
| JEL: | E24 H22 J68 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8276&r=eur |
| By: | Edmark, Karin; Frölich, Markus; Wondratschek, Verena |
| Abstract: | This study analyses whether the Swedish school choice reform, enacted in 1992, had different effects on students from different socio-economic backgrounds. We use detailed geographical data on students' and schools' locations to construct measures of the degree of potential choice. This allows us to study the effects of choice opportunities among public schools, whereas previous studies have focused on newly opened private schools. Our results suggest small positive or no effects of choice opportunities, depending on specification and outcome. We find no strong evidence of differences between subgroups; if anything, effects tend to be slightly more positive for disadvantaged groups, such as students from low-income families. Taken together, the results indicate that students from a socio-economically disadvantaged or immigrant background were not harmed by the reform. -- |
| Keywords: | school choice,school competition,treatment evaluation,cognitive and non-cognitive skills |
| JEL: | I24 C21 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14041&r=eur |
| By: | Mickael Benaim; Jean-Alain Héraud; Valérie Mérindol; Jean-Paul Villette |
| Abstract: | The diversity of European regions in terms of R&D and of absorptive capacities has been extensively investigated but without taking into account all dimensions of the regional innovation systems. Even though the variety of connections is a source of constraints and opportunities for the development of territories, few analytical contributions have been devoted so far to this subject and to the implications for regional public policies. This article aims at contributing to the analysis of regional research and innovation systems. It focuses on the different types of scientific connectivity present at local to global levels, and proposes a typology of European regions based on co-publication statistics. It links this characterization of European regions with regional policy issues and discusses the relevance of these measures. The typology of scientific connectivity produces new maps of European regions, and challenges the classical R&D point of view about regional systems. |
| Keywords: | European regions, global-local connectivity, regional public policy, absorptive capacity, scientific activities. |
| JEL: | O18 O31 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2014-13&r=eur |
| By: | Alex Coad; Martin Binder |
| Abstract: | Work and life satisfaction depends on a number of pecuniary and nonpecuniary factors at the workplace and determines these in turn. We analyze these causal linkages using a structural vector autoregression approach for a sample of the German working populace collected from 1984 to 2008, finding that workplace autonomy plays an important causal role in determining well-being. |
| Keywords: | Subjective Well-Being; Job Satisfaction; Structural VAR; German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) |
| JEL: | C33 I12 I31 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_809&r=eur |
| By: | Bratsberg, Bernt (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Raaum, Oddbjørn (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Using longitudinal data from the date of arrival, we study long‐term labor market and social insurance outcomes for all major immigrant cohorts to Norway since 1970. Immigrants from high-income countries performed as natives, while labor migrants from low‐income source countries had declining employment rates and increasing disability program participation over the lifecycle. Refugees and family migrants assimilated during the initial period upon arrival, but labor market convergence halted after a decade and was accompanied by rising social insurance rates. For the children of labor migrants of the 1970s, we uncover evidence of intergenerational assimilation in education, earnings and fertility. |
| Keywords: | migration, assimilation, social insurance |
| JEL: | F22 H55 J22 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8292&r=eur |
| By: | Lasse Eika; Magne Mogstad; Basit Zafar |
| Abstract: | We investigate the pattern of educational assortative mating, its evolution over time, and its impact on household income inequality. To these ends, we use rich data from the U.S. and Norway over the period 1980-2007. We find evidence of positive assortative mating at all levels of education in both countries. However, the time trends vary by the level of education: Among college graduates, assortative mating has been declining over time, whereas low educated are increasingly sorting into internally homogenous marriages. When looking within the group of college educated, we find strong but declining assortative mating by academic major. These findings motivate and guide a decomposition analysis, where we quantify the contribution of various factors to the distribution of household income. We find that educational assortative mating accounts for a non-negligible part of the cross-sectional inequality in household income. However, changes in assortative mating over time barely move the time trends in household income inequality. This is because the decline in assortative mating among the highly educated is offset by an increase in assortative mating among the low educated. By comparison, increases in the returns to education over time generate a considerable rise in household income inequality, but these price effects are partly mitigated by increases in college attendance and completion rates among women. |
| JEL: | D31 I24 J12 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20271&r=eur |
| By: | Alfred Stiassny (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Christina Uhl (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | Does an increase of elderly employment cause a decline in youth employment? A simplified view of a demand driven economy would give a positive answer to this question. Econometric studies based on a single equation approach deliver little support for this belief. However, these studies typically suffer from identification problems to which no attention is paid in most cases. We therefore use a general equilibrium framework when trying to quantify these effects. Using yearly and quarterly Austrian labor and gdp data, we estimate two model variants by Bayesian methods: a) a standard equilibrium model where the degree of complementarity between old, young and primary labor is crucial for the sign and strength of the relevant effects and b) a simple, solely demand driven model which always leads to a crowding out of young through an increase in employment of the old. It turned out that the demand driven model is inferior in fitting the data compared to the standard model. Further, the degree of complementarity is estimated to be strong enough to lead to a small positive effect of elderly employment on youth employment. |
| Keywords: | Labor market, pension reform, equilibrium models, Bayesian estimation |
| JEL: | A10 C11 E10 J01 J26 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp178&r=eur |
| By: | Erick LEROUX; Jean-Michel SAHUT |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the use and the satisfaction derived from e-learning training by sales representatives of commercial banks in France. The research carried out among these representatives concerns a banking training scheme which was followed from |
| Keywords: | eLearning, continuous training, sales force, commercial bank, textual analysis |
| JEL: | M53 O33 L86 |
| Date: | 2014–06–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipg:wpaper:2014-354&r=eur |
| By: | Petreski, Marjan; Mojsoska-Blazevski, Nikica; Petreski, Blagica |
| Abstract: | The objective of this research is to understand if large gender employment and participation gaps in Macedonia can shed some light on the gender wage gap. A large contingent of inactive women in Macedonia including long-term unemployed due to the transition process, female remittance receivers from the male migrant, unpaid family workers in agriculture and so on, is outside employment, but is not necessarily having the worst labour-market characteristics. In addition, both gender wage gap and participation gap enlarge as education decreases, revealing the importance of non-random selection of women into employment. Though, the standard Heckman-type correction of the selectivity bias suggests that non-random selection exists, but the resulting wage gap remains at the same level even when selection has been considered. Instead, we perform repeated wage imputations for those not in work, by simply making assumptions on the position of the imputed wage observation with respect to the median. Then, we assess the impact of selection into employment by comparing estimated wage gaps on the base sample versus on an imputed sample. The main result is that selection explains most of the gender wage gap in the primary-education group (75%), followed by the secondary-education group (55%). In the tertiary group, the small initial gap vanishes once selection considered. This suggests that indeed non-working women are not those with the worst labour-market characteristics. Results suggest that gender wage discrimination in Macedonia is actually between 5.4% and 9.8% and does not exist for the highly-educated women. The inability of the Heckman-type correction to document a role for selection in explaining the gender wage gap may be due to the criticisms to the exclusion restrictions and the large amount of missing wages. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, gender participation gap, selection bias, repeated imputations |
| JEL: | E24 J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57226&r=eur |
| By: | Pelkonen, Antti – Thomas |
| Abstract: | While societal expectations for university research have grown, university research has become more and more dependent on external funding sources. External funding has substantially increased at Finnish – and also UK – universities, and currently in practice a major share of university research is conducted with external funding. This report relates the main findings of a study that analysed the use of project-based research funding instruments at universities, most of which are external. The main focus in the study is on the aspects of novelty and creativity in research and the question of the extent to which different research funding instruments promote these aspects of research. This report draws on different data sources, but mostly on the UNI project (Universities, funding systems, and the renewal of the industrial knowledge base), funded by Tekes innovation research instrument. The major findings include an observation that Finnish research funding system lacks a funder that would strongly encourage risk-taking and novel approaches. Discontinuity and instability of research funding appears as a major challenge for research. There seems to be an overall increase of thematically predefined funding vis-à-vis free researcher-driven funding and close attention should be paid to this balance. Differences between Finland and the UK in terms of novelty generation turned out to be smaller than orignally expected. |
| Keywords: | funding, university research, novelty |
| JEL: | O38 O39 |
| Date: | 2014–06–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:report:29&r=eur |
| By: | Adriana Nikolic (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Christoph Weiss (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | In the past few decades spatial econometric models have become a standard tool in empirical research. Nevertheless applications in binary-choice models remain scarce. This paper makes use of Bayesian Spatial Probit Models to model and estimate spatial interactions in location decisions. For this purpose, we focus on the Austrian retail gasoline market, which is going through a process of remarkable structural changes. A short analysis shows that, during the last decade 10.9% of the stations had left the market and a percentage of 29.6% had either left the market or had changed the brand. This paper aims at investigating this process. A special characteristic of this market is the local competition structure which is characterized by spatial dependencies along local competitors. To capture these spatial dependencies and since the dependent variable is binary in nature (an exit had taken place or not), we apply a Bayesian spatial probit model using MCMC estimation on station level data for the whole Austrian retail gasoline market. Our results suggest, that the decision to leave the market, does not only depend on own characteristics, but also on competitors. In particular, we find the exit decisions to exhibit a negative spatial correlation. Moreover, our model allows to quantify spatial spillover effects of this market. |
| Keywords: | Bayesian Spatial Probit Model, Exit, Gasoline retailing, Spatial competition |
| JEL: | L13 L81 C21 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp177&r=eur |