|
on Microeconomic European Issues |
|
Issue of 2019‒12‒16
twenty-six papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Gidehag, Anton (Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut)) |
| Abstract: | Immigrants have long faced great challenges in European labor markets, and policymakers in many countries are struggling to improve immigrants’ labor market integration. This paper evaluates whether a Swedish youth payroll tax cut had the unintended effect of promoting employment of nonwestern immigrants. The reform generated firm-level labor cost savings, which were proportional to the number of young employees at the time of the reform implementation. Utilizing matched employer-employee data, this study investigates the effect of these labor cost savings on the recruitment of nonwestern immigrants. The findings suggest a strong and positive link between firms’ labor cost savings and their subsequent hiring of first-generation nonwestern immigrants, which is largely driven by increased employment of older immigrants who were not targeted by the reform. Within the analyzed sample of firms, 1,100 jobs were created for this group, which corresponds to a net job creation that is more than proportionate to the group’s population share. The youth payroll tax reform thus had employment-promoting effects outside its target group, illustrating that general labor cost reductions can lower barriers against immigrant employment and enhance the labor market opportunities for non-western immigrants. |
| Keywords: | labor market integration; labor costs; payroll tax cut; non-western immigrants; employment |
| JEL: | H32 J23 J30 J61 L25 |
| Date: | 2019–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hfiwps:0005&r=all |
| By: | Alpaslan Akay (University of Gothenburg); Alexandra Brausmann (3Center of Economic Research, ETH); Slobodan Djajic (The Graduate Institute, Geneva); Murat G. Kirdar (Department of Economics Bogazici University) |
| Abstract: | How does the saving behavior of immigrants respond to changes in purchasing power parity between the source and host countries? We examine this question by building a theoretical model of joint return-migration and saving decisions of temporary migrants and then test its implications by using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel on immigrants from 92 source countries. As implied by our theoretical model, we find that the saving rate increases in the price of host- in terms of source-country currency, but decreases in the source-country price level and that the absolute magnitude of both relationships increases as the time to retirement becomes shorter. At the median level of years to retirement, the absolute values of the elasticity of savings with respect to the nominal exchange rate and with respect to the source-country price level are both close to unity. Moreover, as we gradually restrict the sample to individuals with stronger return intentions, the estimated magnitudes become larger and their stastical significance higher. |
| Keywords: | Migrants' Savings, Return Migration, Exchange Rates, Prices, PPP |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1916&r=all |
| By: | Giulia Bettin (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali - Universita' Politecnica delle Marche); Isabella Giorgetti (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali - Universita' Politecnica delle Marche); Stefano Staffolani (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali - Universita' Politecnica delle Marche) |
| Abstract: | We analyse how the availability of immigrant workers in the elderly care sector affects the labour force participation of Italian females aged between 45 and 65. We estimate a selection bias correction model and exploit an IV strategy based on the role of migration networks in determining the geographical distribution of immigrants over time. Our main findings show that the local availability of foreign–born caregivers has a positive impact on the number of hours worked by Italian women, especially those with high–educational levels and living in the Northern regions. The effect on participation rates are instead positive and significant only for low–educated women and for women living in Central Italy. |
| Keywords: | Keywords: immigration, female labour supply, elderly care services |
| JEL: | F22 J22 J61 C26 |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:444&r=all |
| By: | Antoine Dechezleprêtre; Nicholas Rivers; Balazs Stadler |
| Abstract: | This study provides the first evidence that air pollution causes economy-wide reductions in market economic activity based on data for Europe. The analysis combines satellite-based measures of air pollution with statistics on regional economic activity at the NUTS-3 level throughout the European Union over the period 2000-15. An instrumental variables approach based on thermal inversions is used to identify the causal impact of air pollution on economic activity. The estimates show that a 1μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentration (or a 10% increase at the sample mean) causes a 0.8% reduction in real GDP that same year. Ninety-five per cent of this impact is due to reductions in output per worker, which can occur through greater absenteeism at work or reduced labour productivity. Therefore, the results suggest that public policies to reduce air pollution may contribute positively to economic growth. Indeed, the large economic benefits from pollution reduction uncovered in the study compare with relatively small abatement costs. Thus, more stringent air quality regulations could be warranted based solely on economic grounds, even ignoring the large benefits in terms of avoided mortality. |
| Keywords: | air pollution, economic output, instrumental variables, thermal inversions |
| JEL: | J24 O13 Q53 Q51 R11 |
| Date: | 2019–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1584-en&r=all |
| By: | Emmanuel Asane-Otoo (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics); Bernhard Dannemann (University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we revisit the empirical observation that prices rise like rockets when input costs increase but fall like feathers when input costs decrease. The analysis draws on a novel dataset that include daily retail prices of gasoline and diesel from virtually all fuel stations in Germany over the period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2018. Our findings from the national, state-specific and station-level analyses based on an asymmetric error correction model indicate that asymmetric pricing is the norm rather than exception. Specifically, we find empirical evidence that points to a pervasive rockets-and-feathers pattern. We also find that asymmetric pricing in the German retail fuel market might partly be the consequence of tacit collusion among competitors as well as disparate search intensity on the part of consumers. We further show that temporal aggregation of station-level price data might lead to inaccurate inferences and could account for the contradictory findings in the extant literature. |
| Keywords: | Asymmetric Pricing, Market Transparancy, Search Intensity, Tacit Collusion |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:old:dpaper:426&r=all |
| By: | Del Fava, Emanuele (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research); Wiśniowsk, Arkadiusz; Zagheni, Emilio |
| Abstract: | Migration has become a significant source of population change at the global level, with broad societal implications. Although understanding the drivers of migration is critical to enacting effective policies, theoretical advances in the study of migration processes have been limited by the lack of data on flows of migrants, or by the fragmented nature of these flows. In this paper, we build on existing Bayesian modeling strategies to develop a statistical framework for integrating different types of data on migration flows. We offer estimates, as well as associated measures of uncertainty, for immigration, emigration, and net migration flows among 31 European countries, by combining administrative and household survey data from 2002 to 2015. Substantively, we document the historical impact of the EU enlargement and the free movement of workers in Europe on migration flows. Methodologically, our approach improves on the Integrated Modeling of European Migration (IMEM) framework by providing a robust statistical framework for evaluating recent migration trends that is flexible enough to be further extended to incorporate new data sources, like social media. |
| Date: | 2019–11–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:cma5h&r=all |
| By: | Dirk Czarnitzki; Kristof Van Criekingen |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the economic literature on patent litigation by taking a new perspective. In the past, scholars mostly focused on specific litigation cases at the patent level and related technological characteristics to the event of litigation. However, observing IP disputes suggests that not only technological characteristics may trigger litigation suits, but also the market positions of firms, and that firms dispute not only about single patents but often about portfolios. Consequently, this paper examines the occurrence of IP litigation cases in Belgian firms using the 2013 Community Innovation Survey with supplemental information on IP litigation and patent portfolios. The rich survey information regarding firms’ general innovation strategies enables us to introduce market-related variables such as sales with new products as well as sales based mainly on imitation and incremental innovation. Our results indicate that when controlling for firms’ IP portfolio, the composition of turnover in terms of innovations and imitations has additional explanatory power regarding litigation propensities. Firms with a high turnover from innovations are more likely to become plaintiffs in court. Contrastingly, firms with a high turnover from incremental innovation and imitation are more likely to become defendants in court, and, moreover, are more likely to negotiate settlements outside of court. |
| Keywords: | IP litigation, patenting, innovation, imitation |
| Date: | 2018–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ecoomp:621964&r=all |
| By: | Catherine Laffineur (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Eva Moreno-Galbis (GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales); Jérémy Tanguy (IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc); Ahmed Tritah (GAINS - Groupe d'Analyse des Itinéraires et des Niveaux Salariaux - UM - Le Mans Université, TEPP - Travail, Emploi et Politiques Publiques - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Over the period 1994-2012, immigrants' wage growth in France has outperformed that of natives on average by more than 14 percentage points. This striking wage growth performance occurs despite similar changes in employment shares along the occupational wage ladder. In this paper we investigate the sources of immigrants' relative wage performance focusing on the role of occupational tasks. We rst show that immigrants' higher wage growth is not driven by more favorable changes in general skills (measured by age, education and residence duration), and then investigate to what extent changes in task-speci c returns to skills have contributed to the differential wage dynamics through two different channels: different changes in the valuation of skills (\price effect") and different occupational sorting (\quantity effect"). We nd that the wage growth premium of immigrants is not explained by different changes in returns to skills across occupational tasks but rather by the progressive reallocation of immigrants towards tasks whose returns have increased over time. Immigrants seem to have taken advantage of ongoing labor demand restructuring driven by globalization and technological change. In addition immigrants' wages have been relatively more affected by minimum wage increases, due to their higher concentration in this part of the wage distribution. |
| Date: | 2019–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02334055&r=all |
| By: | Catalina MARTINEZ; Valerio STERZI |
| Abstract: | Intellectual property regimes governing university inventions were quite diverse in Europe at the end of the 1990s. Several European countries maintained the so-called professor’s privilege, an exception to employment law whereby university researchers were allowed to retain the ownership of academic inventions. The 2000s were characterised by convergence towards a more homogeneous system, in which university administrations took control of IP management. We investigate the impact of the reform and we observe a decline in the technological importance and the value of the patents owned and managed by universities in the countries abolishing the professor’s privilege. On the contrary, by differentiating the academic patents by type of ownership, we find that the technological importance of academic patents owned by companies has instead increased. Our study produces some new results that may alert policymakers to the possible unintended consequences of the university ownership model. |
| Keywords: | University-owned patents; academic-invented patents; patent quality; patent management; patent value; technology transfer |
| JEL: | I23 L26 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grt:wpegrt:2019-15&r=all |
| By: | Etienne Lalé (Université du Québec à Montréal, CIRANO and IZA); Linas Tarasonis (Vilnius University & Bank of Lithuania) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we first provide a comprehensive account of the relationship between cross-country differences in aggregate employment and disaggregated differences in worker flows along the life cycle. To this end, we use survey micro-data for 31 European countries, and estimate the life-cycle profiles of transition probabilities across employment, unemployment and non-participation for each country. We develop a decomposition measuring the contribution of these transition probabilities to aggregate employment differences. We find substantial cross-country and cross-gender heterogeneity with respect to the role of worker flows between each labor market state. |
| Keywords: | Employment, Unemployment, Labor Force Participation, Life cycle, Worker Flows, Labor Market Institutions |
| JEL: | E02 E24 J21 J64 J82 |
| Date: | 2019–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lie:dpaper:16&r=all |
| By: | John Hurley; Enrique Fernandez Macias (European Commission - JRC); Martina Bisello; Carlos Vacas; Marta Fana (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | Accumulating evidence indicates that large metropolitan centres are faring much better than other regions within the Member States of the EU. Such interregional inequality contributes to disenchantment with existing political systems, which in turn can weaken the social bonds that ground democratic systems. This report analyses shifts in the employment structure – meaning change in the distribution of employment across occupations and sectors – of the EU regions. The analysis covers 130 regions of nine Member states, which together account for nearly four out of five EU workers. The study finds that regions within countries are becoming more occupationally different, but in similar ways. It also finds that cities have disproportionately high and rising shares of well-paid, high-skilled services employment alongside growth in low-paid employment. The findings support continued EU regional policy assistance of regions in danger of being left behind. |
| Keywords: | Job polarisation, occupational change, labour markets, regional policy, inequality, structural change |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc117824&r=all |
| By: | Bertrand Garbinti (Banque de France, Crest); Jonathan Goupille-Lebret (Univ Lyon, CNRS, ENS de Lyon, GATE UMR 5824, F-69342 Lyon, France); Thomas Piketty (Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Measuring and understanding the evolution of wealth inequality is a key challenge for researchers, policy makers, and the general public. This paper breaks new ground on this topic by presenting a new method to estimate and study wealth inequality. This method combines fiscal data with household surveys and national accounts in order to provide annual wealth distribution series, with detailed breakdowns by percentiles, age and assets. Using the case of France as an illustration, we show that the resulting series can be used to better analyze the evolution and the determinants of wealth inequality dynamics over the 1970-2014 period. We show that the decline in wealth inequality ends in the early 1980s, marking the beginning of a rise in the top 1% wealth share, though with significant fluctuations due largely to asset price movements. Rising inequality in saving rates coupled with highly stratified rates of returns has led to rising wealth concentration in spite of the opposing effect of house price increases. We develop a simple simulation model highlighting how changes in the combination of unequal saving rates, rates of return and labor earnings that occurred in the early 1980s generated large multiplicative effects that led to radically different steady-state levels of wealth inequality. Taking advantage of the joint distribution of income and wealth, we show that top wealth holders are almost exclusively top capital earners, and less and less are made up of top labor earners; it has become increasingly difficult in recent decades to access top wealth groups with one’s labor income only. |
| Keywords: | income inequality, wealth inequality, gender inequality |
| JEL: | D31 E01 E21 N3 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:1935&r=all |
| By: | Pierre Levasseur (UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - AgroParisTech - IRSTEA - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier); Katrin Erdlenbruch (UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - AgroParisTech - IRSTEA - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier, CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - FRE2010 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - UM - Université de Montpellier - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique); Christelle Gramaglia (UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - AgroParisTech - IRSTEA - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier) |
| Abstract: | Poverty is a major determinant for pollution exposure, according to the US location choice literature. In this paper, we assess the impact of poverty on location choices in the European context. Our analysis is based on an original dataset of 1194 households living in polluted and non-polluted areas in three European countries: Spain, Portugal and France. We use instrumental variable strategies to identify the socioeconomic causes of location choices. We show that low education, wealth and income are main reasons for living in polluted areas. However, we also highlight several reasons why intermediate social groups (especially young couples) prefer living in polluted areas, such as greater housing surfaces or non-environmental amenities. Similarly, we show that middle-income households have lower move-out intentions than other income groups, next to households with strong community attachment or long lengths of residence in the area. |
| Keywords: | instrumental variables strategy.,soil pollution exposure,residential choice,socioeconomic status,environmental inequalities |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02277633&r=all |
| By: | Idriss Fontaine (CEMOI - Centre d'Économie et de Management de l'Océan Indien - UR - Université de La Réunion) |
| Abstract: | Since the mid-1990s, the labor force participation of older men and women increased substantially in France. In this paper, we investigate the causal impact of having a participating wife on the labor market behavior of the elderly husband. Working with data from the French Labour Force Survey and using the cohort-specific participation rate of women at age 40 as an instrument for their current participation, we find that the magnitude of the causal relationship is strong. The likelihood of husbands' participation increases of about 28 points when their wives are currently active on the labor market. Such findings support the view that some complementarities in leisure exist so that French married men attribute a higher value to leisure when it is shared with their wife. It also suggests that policy makers should take into account both direct and indirect effects when they implement a change in the economic environment of elderly. |
| Keywords: | Labor force participation,elderly,cohort effects,France |
| Date: | 2019–10–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02334085&r=all |
| By: | Ali-Yrkkö, Jyrki; Pajarinen, Mika; Ylhäinen, Ilkka |
| Abstract: | Abstract In recent years, business angels have invested in a few hundred Finnish firms annually. The target firms are mainly young and small: 75% of them employ fewer than 10 workers and are less than 8 years old. These firms are most likely to be found in the ICT and professional service industries and manufacturing. Although many angel-funded firms have faster employment growth compared to matched nonfunded firms, the average growth rates do not significantly differ when we control for receiving public innovation funding and other firm characteristics. As many as 75% of the firms funded by business angels have also received public innovation funding in some phase, and 57% have received it before angel funding. However, no robust indication was found that combining these two sources of funds would give an extra boost to growth. |
| Keywords: | Business angels, Innovation subsidies, R&D, Firm growth |
| JEL: | D22 G24 G30 L53 O31 |
| Date: | 2019–12–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:report:97&r=all |
| By: | Cattaneo, Maria; Lergetporer, Philipp; Schwerdt, Guido; Werner, Katharina; Woessmann, L.; Wolter, Stefan C. |
| Abstract: | Do differences in citizens’ policy preferences hamper international cooperation in education policy? To gain comparative evidence on public preferences for education spending, we conduct representative experiments with information treatments in Switzerland using identical survey techniques previously used in Germany and the United States. In Switzerland, providing information about actual spending and salary levels reduces support for increased education spending from 54 to 40 percent and for increased teacher salaries from 27 to 19 percent, respectively. The broad patterns of education policy preferences are similar across the three countries when the role of status-quo and information are taken into account. |
| Keywords: | policy preferences, cross-country comparison, international cooperation, Switzerland, Germany, United Stated, education spending, information, survey experiments |
| JEL: | H52 I22 D72 D83 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2019027&r=all |
| By: | Lordan, Grace (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study follows the Lordan and Neumark (2018) analysis for the US, and examines whether minimum wage increases affect employment opportunities in automatable jobs in the UK for low-skilled low-wage workers. Overall, I find that increasing the minimum wage decreases the share of automatable employment held by low-skilled low-wage workers, and increases the likelihood that workers in automatable jobs become disemployed. On aggregate the effect size is modest, but I also provide evidence that these effects are larger in more recent years. The study also highlights significant heterogeneity by industry and demographic group, including more substantive adverse effects for older low-skilled workers in manufacturing, as well as effects at the intensive margin. |
| Keywords: | technology, robotics, automation, unemployment, employment, minimum wage |
| JEL: | J23 J38 |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12716&r=all |
| By: | Levi, Eugenio; Patriarca, Fabrizio |
| Abstract: | We present an exploratory machine learning analysis of populist votes at municipality level in the 2018 Italian general elections, in which populist parties gained almost 50% of the votes. Starting from a comprehensive set of local characteristics, we use an algorithm based on BIC to obtain a reduced set of predictors for each of the two populist parties (Five-Star Movement and Lega) and the two traditional ones (Democratic Party and Forza Italia). Differences and similarities between the sets of predictors further provide evidence on 1) heterogeneity in populisms, 2) if this heterogeneity is related to the traditional left/right divide. The Five-Star Movement is stronger in larger and unsafer municipalities, where people are younger, more unemployed and work more in services. On the contrary, Lega thrives in smaller and safer municipalities, where people are less educated and employed more in manufacturing and commerce. These differences do not correspond to differences between the Democratic Party and Forza Italia, providing evidence that heterogeneity in populisms does not correspond to a left/right divide. As robustness tests, we use an alternative machine learning technique (lasso) and apply our predictions to France as to confront them with candidates' actual votes in 2017 presidential elections. |
| Keywords: | Voting,Populism,Economic insecurity,Political Economy |
| JEL: | D72 F52 G01 J15 O33 Z13 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:430&r=all |
| By: | Facchini, Marta (Sciences Po); Triventi, Moris; Vergolini, Loris |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether grants improve the academic outcomes of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged families and, by this way, contribute to reducing inequalities of educational opportunities. Differently from most previous studies, we focus on Italy, a context with high dropout rates and prolonged duration of higher education studies. To estimate the causal effect of the grant we followed a counterfactual approach relying on a three-step reweighting matching procedure, applied to survey data collected at national level by ISTAT on a sample of upper secondary school graduates in 2004 and 2007. We ?find that grants reduce drop-out and increase timely graduation, with larger effects among males and students in Central-Southern Italy, those who are more at risk of withdrawal from university. |
| Date: | 2019–04–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:k3gwv&r=all |
| By: | Harbo hansen, Niels-Jakob (IIES) |
| Abstract: | In modern macroeconomic models job openings are a key component. Thus, when taking these models to the data we need an empirical counterpart to the theoretical concept of job openings. To achieve this, the literature relies on job vacancies measured either in survey or register data. Insofar as this concept captures the concept of job openings well we should see a tight relationship between vacancies and subsequent hires on the micro level. To investigate this, I analyze a new data set of Swedish hires and job vacancies on the plant level covering the period 2001-2012. I find that vacancies contain little power in predicting hires above (i) whether the number of vacancies is positive and (ii) plant size. Building on this, I propose an alternative measure of job openings in the economy. This measure has the features of (i) better predicting hiring at the plant level and (ii) providing a better fitting aggregate matching function vis-à-vis the traditional vacancy measure. |
| Keywords: | Job opening; vacancies; labour supply |
| JEL: | J20 |
| Date: | 2019–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2019_027&r=all |
| By: | Hélène Le Forner (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - Ecole Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the link between parental separation and children's achievement in their adulthood. Using a French dataset "Education-Training-Employment", the differences in age of the children at divorce, within a family, are examined in order to control for divorced families selection. The main interest of the paper lies in three particular outcomes : the number of years of schooling, earnings-weighted education, and social position. The results show that individuals whose parents separated have about one semester of schooling less than the children of non-divorced families, they also have lower quality of education and lower social position associated with wages from 4% to 9% lower than individuals who grew up with their two parents. All these estimated effects remain negative and significant within the family. Parental separation is more harmful for boys, or for individuals whose mother is less highly educated. |
| Keywords: | Education,Divorce,Family Economics,Family Structure,Marital Dissolution |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02320368&r=all |
| By: | Petr Teply (Department of Banking and Insurance, Faculty of Finance and Accounting, University of Economics in Prague, Winston Churchill Sq. 4, 130 67 Prague, Czech Republic); Matej Kuc (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Opletalova 26, 110 00, Prague, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | Our aim is to empirically assess differences in behaviour and performance of European cooperative and commercial banks in a low interest rate environment. We employ dynamic panel data methods to assess the relative performance of both ownership structures based on a data set of nearly 1,000 banks from 11 European countries for the 2009-2015 period. Our findings are threefold. First, we find that commercial banks are more profitable than cooperative banks in all three metrics used (return on average assets, return on average equity and net interest margin). Second, commercial banks decrease their loan loss provisioning to maintain their profitability. Interestingly, this trend is not present in the financial statements of cooperative banks. Third, cooperative banks are significantly more stable than commercial banks in terms of Z-score. In addition, the Z-score of cooperative banks increased during the observation period, whereas the Z-score of commercial banks remained stable. Therefore, our results show structural differences in the priorities and behaviour of both ownership types in a low interest rate environment: European commercial banks focus on maintaining their profitability, whereas cooperative banks seek to increase their stability by increasing their capital buffers. |
| Keywords: | banks, cooperative banking, European Union, low interest rate environment, profitability, Z-score |
| JEL: | C23 G21 L25 |
| Date: | 2019–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2019_36&r=all |
| By: | Normann Rion (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I build a simple Mortensen-Pissarides model embedding a dual labor market. I derive conditions for the existence of an equilibrium with coexisting strongly protected open-ended contracts and exogeneously short fixed-term contracts. I also study dynamics after a reform on employment protection legislation. Temporary contracts play the role of fillers while permanent contracts are used to lock up high-productivity matches. High firing costs favor the emergence of a dual equilibrium. Employment protection legislation encourages the resort to temporary employment in job creation. This scheme is intertwined with a general-equilibrium e_ect: permanent contracts represent the bulk of employed workers and a more stringent employment protection reduces aggregate job destruction. This pushes down unemployment and in turn reduces job creation ows through temporary contracts. The model is calibrated to match the French labor market. Policy experiments demonstrate that there is no joint gain in employment and social welfare through reforms on firing costs around the baseline economy. The optimal policy consists in implementing a unique open-ended contract with a strong cut in firing costs. Increases in firing costs within a dual labor market lead to a sluggish adjustment, while large cuts in firing costs lead to a quick one. The adjustment time of the labor market is highly non-monotonous between these two extremes. Policy-related uncertainty significantly strengthens fixed-term employment on behalf of open-ended employment. Considering extensions, I draw conclusions on the inability of a large class of random-matching models to mimic the distribution of temporary contracts' duration while maintaining possible the expiring temporary contracts' conversion into permanent contracts. |
| Keywords: | Fixed-term Contracts,Unemployment,Employment Protection,Policy,Dynamics |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02331887&r=all |
| By: | Jacob Rubak Holm (Aalborg University); Bram Timmermans (Norwegian School of Economics and Aalborg University); Christian Richter Ostergaard (Aalborg University); Alexander Coad (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú); Nicola Grassano (European Commission - JRC); Antonio Vezzani (Roma Tre University) |
| Abstract: | Private sector R&D is largely concentrated in a few multinational companies (MNCs), which thus play an important role in the creation of knowledge and technology in the economy. The mobility of labor between these firms and the rest of the economy is therefore an important mechanism for the diffusion of knowledge. This paper analyses in great detail the flow of labor between firms with specific emphasis on flows to and from R&D intensive MNCs. Using linked employer-employee data for Denmark, we match employees moving from R&D intensive MNCs to other employees switching jobs. We find that employees are more inclined to move between R&D intensive MNCs and their subsidiaries rather than between these firms and other firms in the economy. This is particularly true for high skill employees. Our results suggest that other domestic firms are to a larger extent kept out of the ‘knowledge spillover’ loop, which provide them with fewer opportunities to learn from the R&D intensive MNCs. In other words, R&D intensive MNCs and their subsidiaries form a kind of sub labor market within the national labor market; employees exhibit higher mobility within this group of firms than between this group and the rest of the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Labor mobility, Multinational companies, Knowledge flows, R&D |
| JEL: | J21 F23 O32 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201906&r=all |
| By: | Walter Bossert (CIREQ - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, University of Montreal - University of Montreal); Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Conchita d'Ambrosio (INSIDE - INtegrative research unit on Social and Individual DEvelopment - University of Luxembourg [Luxembourg]); Anthony Lepinteur (INSIDE - INtegrative research unit on Social and Individual DEvelopment - University of Luxembourg [Luxembourg]) |
| Abstract: | Economic insecurity has attracted growing attention in social, academic and policy cir- cles. However, there is no consensus as to its precise de_nition. Intuitively, economic insecurity is multi-faceted, making any comprehensive formal de_nition that subsumes all possible aspects extremely challenging. We propose a simpli_ed approach, and character- ize a class of individual economic-insecurity measures that are based on the time pro_le of economic resources. We then apply our economic-insecurity measure to data on political preferences. In US, UK and German panel data, and conditional on current economic resources, economic insecurity is associated with both greater political participation (sup- port for a party or the intention to vote) and notably more support for parties on the right of the political spectrum. We in particular _nd that economic insecurity predicts greater support for both Donald Trump before the 2016 US Presidential election and the UK leaving the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum. |
| Keywords: | Economic index numbers,Insecurity,Political participation,Conservatism,Right-leaning political parties,Trump,Brexit |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02325984&r=all |
| By: | Liu, Yi; Bessudnov, Alexey; Black, Alison; Norwich, Brahm |
| Abstract: | In the past few decades, several countries have introduced reforms aimed at increasing school autonomy. We evaluate the effect of the introduction of autonomous academies, in secondary education in England, on the educational trajectories of children with special educational needs. This has been done using longitudinal data on all schoolchildren in state schools in England, from the National Pupil Database. The results show that the effects of school autonomy on educational inclusion depend on schools’ previous performance and socio-economic composition. Poorly performing schools that obtained autonomy under the control of an external sponsor were more likely to decrease the proportion of pupils with special needs and remove additional support for them. We compare these results with the previous studies of charter schools in the USA. |
| Date: | 2019–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:y7z56&r=all |