|
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Justin van der Sluis (Amsterdam Center for Entrepreneurship and University of Amsterdam); Mirjam van Praag (Amsterdam Center for Entrepreneurship, Tinbergen Institute, University of Amsterdam and IZA); Arjen van Witteloostuijn (University of Groningen and University of Durham) |
| Abstract: | We compare the returns to education (RTE) for entrepreneurs and employees, based on 19 waves of the NLSY database. By using instrumental variable techniques (IV) and taking account of selectivity, we find that the RTE are significantly higher for entrepreneurs than for employees (18.3 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively). We perform various analyses in an attempt to explain the difference. We find (indirect) support for the argument that the higher RTE for entrepreneurs is due to fewer (organizational) constraints faced by entrepreneurs when optimizing the profitable employment of their education. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, self-employment, returns to education employment |
| JEL: | J23 J24 J31 J44 M13 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3058&r=hrm |
| By: | Christina Gathmann (Stanford University and IZA); Uta Schönberg (University of Rochester and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how portable skill accumulated in the labor market are. Using rich data on tasks performed in occupations, we propose the concept of task-specific human capital to measure the transferability of skills empirically. Our results on occupational mobility and wages show that labor market skills are more portable than previously considered. We find that individuals move to occupations with similar task requirements and that the distance of moves declines with time in the labor market. We also show that task-specific human capital is an important source of individual wage growth, in particular for university graduates. For them, at least 40 percent of overall wage growth over a ten year period can be attributed to task-specific human capital. For the low- and medium-skilled, task-specific human capital accounts for at least 35 and 25 percent of overall wage growth respectively. |
| Keywords: | human capital, skill transferability, wage growth, occupations, Germany |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3067&r=hrm |
| By: | Bianca Brandenburg; Jutta Günther; Lutz Schneider |
| Abstract: | Degree-level science and engineering skills as well as management and leadership skills are often referred to as a source of innovative activities within companies. Broken down by sectoral innovation patterns, this article examines the role of formal education and actual occupation for product innovation performance in manufacturing firms within a probit model. It uses unique micro data for Germany (LIAB) that contain detailed information about innovative activities and the qualification of employees. We find significant differences of the human capital endowment between sectors differentiated according to the Pavitt classification. Sectors with a high share of highly skilled employees engage in product innovation above average (specialized suppliers and science based industries). According to our hitherto estimation results, within these sectors the share of highly skilled employees does not, however, substantially increase the probability to be an innovative firm. |
| Keywords: | innovation, human capital, qualification, sectoral innovation system |
| JEL: | O31 J |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iwh:dispap:10-07&r=hrm |
| By: | Jason Fletcher; Barbara L. Wolfe |
| Abstract: | Recently, Currie and Stabile (2006) made a significant contribution to our understanding of the influence of ADHD symptoms on a variety of school outcomes including participation in special education, grade repetition and test scores. Their contributions include using a broad sample of children and estimating sibling fixed effects models to control for unobserved family effects. In this paper we look at a sample of older children and confirm and extend many of the JCMS findings in terms of a broader set of measures of human capital and additional specifications. |
| JEL: | I1 I2 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13474&r=hrm |
| By: | Pedro Carneiro (University College London, IFS and IZA); Costas Meghir (University College London, IFS and IZA); Matthias Parey (University College London, IFS and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We study the intergenerational effects of maternal education on children's cognitive achievement, behavioral problems, grade repetition and obesity. We address endogeneity of maternal schooling by instrumenting with variation in schooling costs when the mother grew up. Using matched data from the female participants of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and their children, we can control for mother's ability and family background factors. Our results show substantial intergenerational returns to education. For children aged 7-8, for example, our IV results indicate that an additional year of mother's schooling increases the child's performance on a standardized math test by almost 0.1 of a standard deviation, and reduces the incidence of behavioral problems. Our data set allows us to study a large array of channels which may transmit the effect of maternal education to the child, including family environment and parental investments at different ages of the child. We find that income effects, delayed childbearing, and assortative mating are likely to be important, and we show that maternal education leads to substantial differences in maternal labor supply. We investigate heterogeneity in returns, and we present results focusing both on very early stages in the child's life as well as adolescent outcomes. We present a falsification exercise to support the validity of our instruments, and our results are found to be robust in a sensitivity analysis. We discuss policy implications and relate our findings to intergenerational mobility. |
| Keywords: | education, child development, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3072&r=hrm |
| By: | Michael Burda; Daniel S. Hamermesh; Philippe Weil |
| Abstract: | Using time-diary data from 25 countries, we demonstrate that there is a negative relationship between real GDP per capita and the female-male difference in total work time per day—the sum of work for pay and work at home. In rich northern countries on four continents there is no difference—men and women do the same amount of total work. This latter fact has been presented before by several sociologists for a few rich countries; but our survey results show that labor economists, macroeconomists, the general public and sociologists are unaware of it and instead believe that women perform more total work. The facts do not arise from gender differences in the price of time (as measured by market wages), as women’s total work is further below men’s where their relative wages are lower. Additional tests using U.S. and German data show that they do not arise from differences in marital bargaining, as gender equality is not associated with marital status; nor do they stem from family norms, since most of the variance in the gender total work difference is due to within-couple differences. We offer a theory of social norms to explain the facts. The social-norm explanation is better able to account for withineducation group and within-region gender differences in total work being smaller than inter-group differences. It is consistent with evidence using the World Values Surveys that female total work is relatively greater than men’s where both men and women believe that scarce jobs should be offered to men first. |
| Keywords: | time use, gender differences, household production, paid work. |
| JEL: | J22 J16 D13 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2007-058&r=hrm |
| By: | Maite Blázquez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid); Sílvio Rendon (Stony Brook University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | Catalonia’s economy is characterized by linguistic diversity and provides a unique opportunity to measure the incidence of language proficiency on over-education, particularly, whether individuals with deficient language skills tend to acquire more formal skills or, on the contrary, become discouraged to attend school. Descriptive evidence suggests the latter, that individuals with better language knowledge are more likely to be over-educated. However, estimating a model that controls for individuals’ socio-demographic characteristics reveals the opposite: better language knowledge decreases over-education. This effect, although robust to accounting for endogeneity of language knowledge and significant at the individual level, is mostly non-significant on average. |
| Keywords: | over-education, language, immigration, skill premium |
| JEL: | J24 J41 I20 J61 J70 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3061&r=hrm |
| By: | Daniele, Vittorio |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the evolution of regional disparities among Italian regions in the period 1980-2007. A growth accounting exercise offers some evidences on the sources of growth and convergence. |
| Keywords: | Mezzogiorno; contabilità della crescita; convergenza; divari di sviluppo |
| JEL: | O49 R11 |
| Date: | 2007–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4994&r=hrm |
| By: | Teresa Casey (University College London, CReAM and CEP); Christian Dustmann (University College London, CReAM, CEP and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the intergenerational transmission of language capital amongst immigrants, and the effect of language deficiencies on the economic performance of second generation immigrants. Using a long panel that oversamples immigrants, we can follow their children after they have left the parental home. Our results show a sizeable significant association between parents’ and children’s fluency, conditional on parental and family characteristics. We find that language deficiencies of the second generation are associated with poorer labour market outcomes for females only. Finally, we find a strong relationship between parental fluency and female labour market outcomes, which works through the child’s language proficiency. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational transmission, human capital, language proficiency of immigrants |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3074&r=hrm |
| By: | Joaquim Oliveira Martins; Romina Boarini; Hubert Strauss; Christine de la Maisonneuve; Clarice Saadi |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses how policies and institutions affect private returns to invest in tertiary human capital, the ability of individuals to finance this investment and the institutional characteristics of tertiary education systems. Focusing on core tertiary education services, the paper presents new measures of private returns to tertiary education, the institutional setting for supplying tertiary education and the availability of individual financing in OECD countries. Using a panel of 19 countries, the number of new tertiary graduates (a proxy for investment in tertiary education) is regressed on these new proposed measures, as well as other standard determinants of investment in tertiary education. The resulting estimates are used to assess empirically the relative importance of several education, taxation and social policies affecting investment in tertiary education. Several avenues for reform and the trade-offs they present for public policy are discussed. <P>L'impact des politiques économiques sur l'investissement en éducation supérieure <BR>Cette étude examine comment les politiques économiques et les institutions affectent le rendement privé de l’éducation supérieure, la possibilité pour les individus de financer cet investissement et les caractéristiques institutionnelles de l’offre d’enseignement supérieur. Se concentrant sur les services de l’éducation supérieure proprement dite, l’étude présente des nouvelles mesures des rendements privés de l’éducation supérieure, le contexte institutionnel de l’offre d’enseignement supérieur et la disponibilité de financement individuel pour les pays de l’OCDE. Utilisant un panel sur 19 pays, le nombre harmonisé de nouveaux diplômés (une approximation de l’investissement dans l’enseignement supérieur) est régressé sur ces nouvelles mesures ainsi que sur d’autres déterminants standards de l’investissement en éducation supérieure. Les estimations qui en résultent sont utilisées pour évaluer empiriquement l’importance relative des différentes politiques ayant trait à l’éducation, à la fiscalité ou dans le domaine social et ayant un impact sur l’investissement en enseignement supérieur. Plusieurs options de réforme et les arbitrages qu’elles représentent pour la politique économique sont discutées. |
| Keywords: | Investment in tertiary education, Returns to education, Supply of tertiary education, Student individual financing systems and Taxation, Investissement en éducation supérieure, Rendements de l’éducation, Offre d’éducation supérieure, Financement individuel pour les étudiants et fiscalité |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–09–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:576-en&r=hrm |
| By: | Shin-Yi Chou; Jin-Tan Liu; Michael Grossman; Theodore J. Joyce |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits a natural experiment to estimate the causal impact of parental education on child health in Taiwan. In 1968, the Taiwanese government extended compulsory education from six to nine years. From that year through 1973, the government opened 254 new junior high schools, an 80 percent increase, at a differential rate among regions. We form treatment and control groups of women or men who were age 12 or under on the one hand and between the ages of 13 and 20 or 25 on the other hand in 1968. Within each region, we exploit variations across cohorts in new junior high school openings to construct an instrument for schooling. We employ this instrument to estimate the causal effects of mother's or father's schooling on the incidence of low birthweight and mortality of infants born to women in the treatment and control groups or the wives of men in these groups in the period from 1978 through 1999. Parents' schooling, especially mother's schooling, does indeed cause favorable infant health outcomes. The increase in schooling associated with the reform saved almost 1 infant life in 1,000 live births, resulting in a decline in infant mortality of approximately 11 percent. |
| JEL: | I10 I20 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13466&r=hrm |