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on Microeconomic European Issues |
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Issue of 2021‒02‒01
23 papers chosen by Giuseppe Marotta Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia |
| By: | Valentina Tocchioni (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze); Anna Rybińska; Monika Mynarska; Anna Matysiak; Daniele Vignoli (Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti", Università di Firenze) |
| Abstract: | While existing research has documented complexities in the life-courses of childless women, few studies to date have systematically examined the life-course pathways of the childless from a comparative, cross-country perspective. In this paper, we analyse biographies of childless women in four countries – Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United States – in order to investigate whether pathways into childlessness are country-specific or commonly shared across institutional, cultural, and geographical settings. Partnership, education, and employment histories are examined using sequence analysis with dynamic Hamming distance to reveal distinct clusters of life-course trajectories in each country. The results highlight a marked variation in the life-courses of childless women both within and between the analysed countries. Although a few typical clusters can be identified in all of the examined settings, the size of the clusters, as well as the socio-demographic characteristics of women within them, differ across countries. |
| Keywords: | childless women, life-course, sequence analysis, discrepancy analysis, cluster analysis |
| JEL: | J13 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fir:econom:wp2021_01&r=all |
| By: | Abatemarco, Antonio; Cavallo, Mariagrazia; Marino, Immacolata; Russo, Giuseppe |
| Abstract: | A double disadvantage occurs when the interaction of two disadvantages generates an additional disadvantage. We show that second-generation immigrant children in the Italian primary school experience a double disadvantage that, relative to the average native, reduces scores in Italian by 17% and in Math by 20%. The double disadvantage stems from the interaction of the immigration background with age effects (namely, Absolute Age Effect and Relative Age Effect). In a policy perspective, we show that controlling for age effects in class composition criteria pursues integration because it delivers extra benefits to second-generation immigrant children. Besides, we point out the possibility of exploiting the larger impact of the relative age on second-generation children in order to support their performance and reduce the large penalization associated to the immigration background. |
| Keywords: | second-generation immigrants,education,age effects,double disadvantage |
| JEL: | I21 J01 J13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:761&r=all |
| By: | Joxhe, Majlinda; Scaramozzino, Pasquale; Zanaj, Skerdilajda |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the net fiscal position (NFP) of immigrants versus natives using data from the European Survey on Living Conditions (EU-SILC) for the period 2007-2015. By employing a quantile regression approach, we find that European and non-European migrants have a different fiscal position from natives only on the extreme tails of the NFP distribution. Non-EU migrants contribute more than natives in the top quantile of the NFP, whereas they are more fiscally depend in the bottom quantile. We also examine the relationship between our calculated migrants' fiscal position and the fiscal perception of European citizens versus migrants as measured in European Social Survey (ESS) data. The negative perception in some European countries may be entirely driven by the fiscal position of migrants in the lowest quantile. Our results highlight the critical need to better understand the fiscal contribution of migrants in the destination countries for a fair and constructive migration policy |
| Keywords: | fiscal position,immigration,quantile regression,European countries |
| JEL: | H53 I30 F22 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:758&r=all |
| By: | Sarah Kuypers (University of Antwerp); Francesco Figari (University of Insubria); Gerlinde Verbist (University of Antwerp) |
| Abstract: | Redistributive analyses typically use household income as the main reference variable to rank households and to assess their tax liabilities and benefit entitlements. However, the importance of wealth, and the potential redistributive effects of wealth-related taxation, are increasingly recognised. By using data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) as input data for the tax-benefit microsimulation model EUROMOD, we assess the redistributive effects of taxes and benefits against the joint income-wealth distribution for 16 European OECD countries. This is a new approach that extends indicators developed in the asset-based poverty literature. We study wealth-related taxes alongside other tax-benefit instruments. The analysis allows us to gain insight into which types of policies are redistributive in which institutional settings taking account of the distribution of both income and wealth. This paper extends our pilot study of six countries (Kuypers, Figari, & Verbist, 2019), and updates it to 2017 policies. |
| JEL: | D31 H24 I30 |
| Date: | 2021–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:257-en&r=all |
| By: | Luca Pieroni; Melcior Rossello Roig; Luca Salmasi (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of immigration on the upsurge of populism in Italy. Our data considers electoral results at municipality level of the Senate of the Italian Republic and the Chamber of Deputies over the period 2006-2018. Findings in our research point toward a positive impact of the share of migrants on the rise of right-wing populist parties. According to our estimates the size of the average increase of the share of immigrants between our first and last electoral years (3.33 percentage points) corresponds to an increase of 2.08 percentage points for the Centre-right coalition. Lega is the party that capitalizes the most out of the anti-immigration. The size of the effect for Lega raises to 6.41 percentage points. We explore the heterogenous e ect of how the antiimmigration rhetoric is the main mechanism that exacerbates out of fear and insecurity the gap between Lega and its most direct rivals. Our paper o ers a fresh view by looking at plausible mechanisms behind our results by inspecting the European Social Survey. |
| Keywords: | Immigration, Populism, Italy, Instrumental Variables. |
| JEL: | P16 D72 J15 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def098&r=all |
| By: | Ricci, Chiara Assunta; Scicchitano, Sergio |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use two different non-parametric methods to disentangle the role of Great Recession on income polarization in Italy by population groups (gender, occupational status, education, age, residential area and state of birth). By using data from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth of the Bank of Italy, first, we decompose the Duclos, Esteban and Ray polarization index by population groups. Second, we employ the Relative Distribution Approach by groups. Our results show a general downgrading, particularly of lower incomes, where low-educated, young, southern and foreign head of household are located out of the crisis. Young people and especially foreigners have suffered the most from the crisis. The lowest (highest) homogeneity within groups and the lowest (highest) heterogeneity between groups is observed when groups are formed on the basis of the state of birth (residential area).Thus, the decomposition of the polarization indices by population groups is able to provide specific useful policy indications, tailored to groups' needs. |
| Keywords: | Polarization,Non-parametric method,Decomposition,Relative distribution,Income distribution,Great Recession |
| JEL: | D3 J3 C14 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:766&r=all |
| By: | Denti, Daria; Iammarino, Simona |
| Abstract: | Sexual crimes against women are severely underreported to the police, allowing for impunity of perpetrators. Observers suggest that a stimulus towards reporting the crime comes from nearby support services for victims of sexual offences -like refuges and advisors. Still, the evidence about the effects of nearby support on the reporting of sexual crimes remains scattered and mainly qualitative. This paper provides quantitative evidence on this effect, by exploiting the uneven geography of local support services which resulted in the UK after the introduction of the austerity program. Findings highlight a positive net effect of the provision of local support services on the victims’ propensity to report. The positive effect holds also in the aftermath of a space-neutral high-impact media campaign empowering women to report sexual violence. This evidence relates to relevant policy implication, given that in some countries the austerity-driven cuts to public budgets have reduced and dispersed the local availability of support services, making digital support and/or helpline the only available options in many places. |
| Keywords: | women; gender violence; austerity; policy evaluation; synthetic control |
| JEL: | H75 I12 I18 J16 J78 |
| Date: | 2021–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:108186&r=all |
| By: | Davillas, A.; Jones, A.M. |
| Abstract: | We use data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) to compare measures of socioeconomic inequality in psychological distress, measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), before (Waves 9 and the Interim 2019 Wave) and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (April to July 2020). Based on a caseness measure, the prevalence of psychological distress increased from 18.5% to 27.7% between the 2019 Wave and April 2020 with some reversion to earlier levels in subsequent months. Also, there was a systematic increase in total inequality in the Likert GHQ-12 score. However, measures of relative socioeconomic inequality have not increased. A Shapley-Shorrocks decomposition analysis shows that during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic (April 2020) other socioeconomic factors declined in their share of socioeconomic inequality, while age and gender account for a larger share. The most notable increase is evident for younger women. The contribution of working in an industry related to the COVID-19 response played a small role at Wave 9 and the Interim 2019 Wave, but more than tripled its share in April 2020. As the first wave of COVID-19 progressed, the contribution of demographics declined from their peak level in April and chronic health conditions, housing conditions, and neighbourhood characteristics increased their contributions to socioeconomic inequality. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; health equity; socioeconomic inequality; GHQ; mental health; psychological distress |
| JEL: | C1 D63 I12 I14 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:21/01&r=all |
| By: | Wolfgang Keller; Teresa Molina; William W. Olney |
| Abstract: | This paper examines gender differences among top business executives using a large executive-employer matched data set spanning the last quarter century. Female executives make up 6.2% of the sample and we find they exhibit more labor market churning – both higher entry and higher exit rates. Unconditionally, women earn 26% less than men, which decreases to 7.9% once executive characteristics, firm characteristics, and in particular job title are accounted for. The paper explores the extent to which firm-level temporal flexibility and corporate culture can explain these gender differences. Although we find that women tend to select into firms with temporal flexibility and a female-friendly corporate culture, there is no evidence that this sorting drives the gender pay gap. However, we do find evidence that corporate culture affects pay gaps within firms: the within-firm gender pay gap disappears entirely at female-friendly firms. Overall, while both corporate culture and flexibility affect the female share of employment, only corporate culture influences the gender pay gap. |
| JEL: | G30 J33 M14 M52 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28216&r=all |
| By: | David G. Blanchflower; Alex Bryson |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between union membership and job satisfaction over the life-course using data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) tracking all those born in Great Britain in a single week in March in 1958 through to age 55 (2013). Data from immigrants as well as non-respondents to the original 1958 Perinatal Mortality Study (PMS) are added in later years. Conditioning on one’s social class at birth, together with one’s education and employment status, we find there is a significant negative correlation between union membership and job satisfaction that is apparent across the life-course. Lagged union membership status going back many years is negatively correlated with current job satisfaction, though its effects become statistically non-significant when conditioning on current union membership status. These results provide a different perspective to longitudinal studies showing short-term positive responses to switches in membership status. They are consistent with earlier work showing that this cohort of workers, and others before them, have persistently lower job satisfaction as union members compared to their non-union counterparts. |
| JEL: | J28 J50 J51 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28206&r=all |
| By: | Giacomo De Luca; Thilo R. Huning; Paulo Santos Monteiro |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of social media on the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom membership of the European Union. We leverage 18 million geo-located Twitter messages originating from the UK in the weeks before the referendum. Using electoral wards as unit of observation, we explore how exogenous variation in Twitter exposure affected the vote share in favor of leaving the EU. Our estimates suggest that in electoral wards less exposed to Twitter the percentage who voted to leave the EU was greater. This is confirmed across several specifications and approaches, including two very different IV identification strategies to address the non-randomness of Twitter usage. To interpret our findings, we propose a model of how bounded rational voters learn in social media networks vulnerable to fake news, and we validate the theoretical framework by estimating how Remain and Leave tweets propagated differently on Twitter in the two months leading to the EU referendum. |
| Keywords: | Fake News, Social Networks, Social Media, Brexit |
| JEL: | D72 D83 L82 L86 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:21/01&r=all |
| By: | Hartog, Joop; Raposo, Pedro S.; Reis, Hugo |
| Abstract: | We document and analyse the wage gap between vocational and general secondary education in Portugal between 1994 and 2013. As Portuguese workers have been educated in different school systems, we have to distinguish birth cohorts. Analysing the wage gaps within cohorts, we find no support for the human capital prediction of crossing wage profiles and no support either for the hypothesis that general graduates increasingly outperform vocational graduates in late career. We discover that the lifecycle wage profiles have shifted over time. We link the pattern of shifting cohort profiles to changes in the school system and in the structure of labour demand. We conclude that assessing the relative value of vocational education requires to assess how the vocational curriculum responds to changes in economic structure and technology. We show that the decline in assortative matching between workers and firms has benefitted vocationally educated workers. |
| Keywords: | returns to education,vocational wage gap,worker-firm allocation |
| JEL: | J31 I26 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:769&r=all |
| By: | Bütikofer, Aline (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Karadakic, René (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Salvanes, Kjell Gunnar (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | While Norway has experienced income growth accompanied by a large decline in mortality during the past several decades, little is known about the distribution of these improvements in longevity across the income distribution. Using municipalitylevel income and mortality data, we show that the stark income gradient in infant mortality across municipalities in the 1950s mostly closed in the late 1960s. However, the income gradient in mortality for older age categories across municipalities persisted until 2010 and only flattened thereafter. Further, the infant mortality gap between rich and poor Norwegian families based on individual-level data persisted several decades longer than the gap between rich and poor municipalities and only finally closed in the early 21st century. |
| Keywords: | Mortality; Income Inequality |
| JEL: | I00 |
| Date: | 2021–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2021_004&r=all |
| By: | David Hugh-Jones (University of East Anglia, Norwich); Abdel Abdellaoui (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Natural selection has been documented in contemporary humans, but little is known about the mechanisms behind it. We test for natural selection through the association between 33 polygenic scores and fertility, across two generations, using data from UK Biobank (N = 409,629 British subjects with European ancestry). Consistently over time, polygenic scores associated with lower (higher) earnings, education and health are selected for (against). Selection effects are concentrated among lower SES groups, younger parents, people with more lifetime sexual partners, and people not living with a partner. The direction of natural selection is reversed among older parents (22+), or after controlling for age at first live birth. These patterns are in line with economic theories of fertility, in which higher earnings may either increase or decrease fertility via income and substitution effects in the labour market. Studying natural selection can help us understand the genetic architecture of health outcomes: we find evidence in modern day Great Britain for multiple natural selection pressures that vary between subgroups in the direction and strength of their effects, that are strongly related to the socio-economic system, and that may contribute to health inequalities across income groups. |
| Date: | 2021–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:ueaeco:2021-02&r=all |
| By: | Collado, Diego; Framarin, Nicolo; Gasior, Katrin; Jara Tamayo, Holguer Xavier; Leventi, Chrysa; Manios, Kostas; Popova, Daria; Tasseva, Iva Valentinova |
| Abstract: | This paper presents baseline results from the latest version of EUROMOD (version I3.0+), the tax-benefit microsimulation model for the EU. First, we briefly report the process of updating EUROMOD. We then present indicators for income inequality and risk of poverty using EUROMOD and discuss the main reasons for differences between these and EU-SILC based indicators. We further compare EUROMOD distributional indicators across all EU 28 countries and over time between 2017 and 2020. Finally, we provide estimates of marginal effective tax rates (METR) for all 28 EU countries in order to explore the effect of tax and benefit systems on work incentives at the intensive margin. Throughout the paper, we highlight both the potential of EUROMOD as a tool for policy analysis and the caveats that should be borne in mind when using it and interpreting results. This paper updates the work reported in Kneeshaw (2020). |
| Date: | 2021–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:emodwp:em1-21&r=all |
| By: | Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, & Centro Studi Economia Applicata (CSEA), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Raul Caruso (Dipartimento di Politica Economica, DISCE, & Centro Studi Economia Applicata (CSEA), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Catholic University ‘Our Lady of Good Counsel’, Tirana, European Center of Peace Science, Integration and Cooperation (CESPIC)); Marco Di Domizio (Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, Università di Teramo - Centro Studi Economia Applicata (CSEA), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of payroll and its distribution in determining the seasonal performances of Italian football teams playing in Serie A. The novelty of our investigation lies in the introduction of a new extent upon which to compute traditional measures of dispersion of payroll. We calculate the coefficient of variation on real wages, on corrected wages and on weighted wages, using players’ characteristics, so that the players’ own perceived differences are considered. This aids us in testing for the role of envy in determining the teams’ performances. We exploit a data set on Serie A from 2007 to 2019, exploring the wages of 1,509 players in different seasons, to produce 4,633 total observations. Since Serie A is an open league with seasonal relegations and promotions, we have unbalanced panel data derived from 220 observations of 35 teams over 11 seasons. We use the percentage of points achieved by teams and a measure associated to the position of the team (rank) at the end of the first round of each season as dependent variables, and then we employ panel data techniques to estimate fixed effect models. We find a statistically significant association of team performance with relative wages and with previous results, while the salary dispersion seems to have no effect on performances. Moreover, by restricting our sample to teams that have never been relegated, and so balancing the panel, our empirical investigation validates the cohesion theory, since more equally weighted wages are associated with better on-field performances. |
| Keywords: | relative wage, payroll distribution, sport performance, Italian Serie A |
| JEL: | Z20 Z22 Z21 L83 J49 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie5:dipe0015&r=all |
| By: | Müller, Dagmar (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Relying on Swedish linked employer-employee data over a 30-year period, I study the importance of work during high school for graduates’ school-to-work transition and labor market outcomes. I show that employer links established through work during school provide students with an important job-search channel, accounting for 30 percent of direct transitions into regular employment. I use the fact that some graduates are deprived of this channel due to establishment closures just prior to graduation and labor market entry. I compare classmates from the same vocational high school tracks to identify the effects of the closures and show that the closure of a previous in-school establishment leads to an immediate and sizable negative effect on employment after graduation. The lost employer connections have also persistent, but diminishing negative effects on employment and earnings for up to 10 years. Parts of the negative effect are driven by the loss of employers links that offer job opportunities in industries related to graduates’ specialization in vocational school. I find evidence supporting that students who lose such relevant links shift towards jobs in less- relevant industries. |
| Keywords: | Social contacts; Young workers; Labor market entry; Establishment closures |
| JEL: | J01 J64 |
| Date: | 2021–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1381&r=all |
| By: | Chiara Castelli (Università degli Studi di Brescia); Angela Parenti (Università degli Studi di Pisa) |
| Abstract: | Commuting shapes countless everyday-lives around the world, with dynamics varying from city to regional and cross regional level. Taking as reference the free-movement EU-28 area (plus Switzerland and Norway), the analysis considers a total sample of 195 NUTS2 regions over the decade 2007-2017 to depict regional cross-border dynamics, thus including the impacts of the 2008 financial crisis. The tested presence of spatial interactions among regions leads to the adoption of the Spatial Durbin Model in a panel context, thus including fixed effects in order to eliminate any time influence on variables as well as any regional idiosyncrasy (i.e. cultural, institutional etc.). The outcoming analysis highlights the potentiality of temporary contracts in preserving jobs during crisis, as they offer a flexible tool for employment adjustments. Moreover, the regional specialization in the knowledge sector is found to be an important attractor of external workers as well as a relatively effective retaining factor of the domestic labour force. But there are also other factors affecting mobility. For instance, the perceived commuting distance significantly depends on the time needed to reach the corresponding workplace and this study finds that the more diffused is the transportation system (in terms of highways’ density) the higher the commuting outflow. A similar impact is found with respect to housing costs, that is the cheaper is the relative house price of the region of residence with respect to the surrounding territories, the more travel-to-work becomes an attractive option, even in its extend of long-distance commute. Finally, a last strong push factor of mobility is found in the lack job opportunities, here expressed as the unemployment rate differential for each single territory with respect to its surroundings. Indeed, the higher the lack of job opportunities in the domestic market with respect to its neighbours, the higher the share of workers that will try to seek their fortune crossing the regional border. |
| Keywords: | Cross-border Commuting Outflows, Regional Economics, Panel Analysis, Fixed Effects, Spatial Econometrics |
| JEL: | C51 C54 C55 J21 J61 J62 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2020–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2020.19&r=all |
| By: | Waitkus, Nora; Minkus, Lara |
| Abstract: | This study examines the role of occupational class in the Gender Wealth Gap (GWG). Despite rising interest in gender differences in wealth, the central role of occupations in restricting and enabling its accumulation has received less scrutiny thus far. Drawing on the German Socio-economic Panel, we employ quantile regressions and decomposition techniques. We find explanatory power of occupational class for the gender wealth gap, which operates despite accounting for other labour-market-relevant parameters, such as income, tenure, and full-time work experience at all points of the wealth distribution. Wealth gaps by gender vary between and within occupational classes. Particularly, women's under-representation among the self-employed and over-representation among socio-cultural professions explain the GWG. Our study thus adds another dimension of stratification - occupational class - to the discussion of the gendered distribution of wealth. |
| Keywords: | gender wealth gap; inequality; gender; wealth; occupational class |
| JEL: | R14 J01 N0 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:108206&r=all |
| By: | Hernanz, Virginia; Carrasco, Raquel |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the degree of involuntariness in the entrepreneurial activity ofthe dependent solo self-employed, as well as the effect of the country's wealth and labormarket institutions. Using the unique information available in the 2017 European LaborForce Survey (EU-LFS) for 25 countries, we can properly identify the dependent soloself-employed and analyze to what extent they behave in accordance with anoccupational choice model when making their self-employment decision. For that, weaccount for the reasons why they enter into self-employment (voluntarily orinvoluntarily either out of necessity or requested by the former employer). The resultsindicate that involuntary self-employment, mostly due to being required by previousemployer, significantly increases the probability of being dependent solo versus nondependent self-employed. The wealthiest countries have a lower incidence of this groupof workers, mainly if they are involuntary self-employed. Moreover, labor marketinstitutions that decrease the flexibility of paid employment tend to increase theincidence of dependent solo self-employment. These results point to this group ofworkers being particularly vulnerable with the degree of vulnerability significantlyincreasing for those self-employed with a lesser degree of occupational choice. |
| Keywords: | Labor; Economic Conditions; Involuntariness; Dependent Solo Self-Employed |
| JEL: | L26 L24 J28 J08 J01 |
| Date: | 2021–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:31788&r=all |
| By: | Bachmann, Ronald; Stepanyan, Gayane |
| Abstract: | We analyse whether the rise in female labour force participation in Germany over the last decades can be explained by technological progress increasing the demand for non-routine social and cognitive skills, traditionally attributed to women. We do so by examining which task groups and occupations drive the increase in the female share and how this is related to women's wages. Our findings show that the share of women indeed rises most strongly in non-routine occupations requiring strong social and cognitive skills. While the female share in high-paid occupations increases over time, the share of women in the upper parts of the overall wage distribution rises much less which implies significant within-occupation gender wage gaps. |
| Keywords: | Female labour market participation,occupations,tasks,technological progress |
| JEL: | J21 J31 O33 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:889&r=all |
| By: | Pauline Affeldt; Tomaso Duso; Klaus Gugler; Joanna Piechucka |
| Abstract: | An increasing body of empirical evidence is documenting trends toward rising concentration, profits, and markups in many industries around the world since the 1980s. Two major criticisms of these studies is that concentration and market shares are poorly measured at the national industry level while firm level revenues are a poor indicator of product sales. We use a novel database that identifies over 20,000 product/geographic antitrust markets affected by over2,000 mergers scrutinized by the European Commission between 1995 and 2014. We show that concentration, as measured by the market-specific post-merger HHI, is larger than reported in the extant literature (at least) by a factor of ten. We also show that concentration has increased over time on average. Yet, there is a great deal of heterogeneity across geographic markets and within broader industries. In a regression analysis that exploits this within-industry variation, we show that barriers to entry are unambiguously positively related to concentration irrespective of time periods, sectors of activity, and geographical market dimension analyzed. Strict past merger enforcement negatively correlates with concentration. Yet, this effect is stronger in the earlier decade (1995-2004) than subsequently. Intangibility of investments consistently displays positive correlation with concentration only for EU wide and worldwide services markets. In contrast, the correlation is negative in national markets. This underscores the importance of the large heterogeneity present in concentration developments across markets. |
| Keywords: | Concentration, HHI, market definition, entry barriers, mergers, merger control, intangibles |
| JEL: | L24 L44 K21 O32 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1930&r=all |
| By: | Iwasaki, Ichiro; Kočenda, Evžen; Shida, Yoshisada |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we traced the survival status of 94,401 small businesses in 17 European emerging markets from 2007–2017 and empirically examined the determinants of their survival, focusing on institutional quality and financial development. We found that institutional quality and the level of financial development impact the survival probability of the researched SMEs in statistically significant and economically meaningful ways. The evidence holds even when we control for a set of firm-level characteristics such as ownership structure, financial performance, firm size, and age. The findings are also uniform across industries and country groups and robust beyond the difference in assumption of hazard distribution, firm size, region, and time period. |
| Keywords: | small business, institutions, financial development, survival analysis, European emerging markets |
| JEL: | C14 D02 D22 G33 M21 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2020-10&r=all |