|
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Bernd Fitzenberger; Gary Mena; Jan Nimczik; Uwe Sunde |
| Abstract: | Economists increasingly recognise the importance of personality traits for socio-economic outcomes, but little is known about the stability of these traits over the life cycle. Existing empirical contributions typically focus on age patterns and disregard cohort and period influences. This paper contributes novel evidence for the separability of age, period, and cohort effects for a broad range of personality traits based on systematic specification tests for disentangling age, period and cohort influences. Our estimates document that for different cohorts, the evolution of personality traits across the life cycle follows a stable, though non-constant, age profile, while there are sizeable differences across time periods. |
| Keywords: | Big Five Personality Traits, Locus of Control, Risk Attitudes, Age-Period-Cohort Decomposition, Life Cycle |
| JEL: | D8 J1 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1153&r= |
| By: | Christian Grund; Katja Rebecca Tilkes |
| Abstract: | Evidence shows that working time mismatch, i.e. the difference between actual and desired working hours, is negatively related to employees’ job satisfaction. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we examine the potential moderating effect of working time autonomy on this relation and we also consider the corresponding role of gender. First, individual fixed effects panel estimations reaffirm both the negative link of working hours mismatch and the positive relation of working time autonomy to employees’ job satisfaction. Second, our results show a positive moderating relation of working time autonomy on the link between mismatch and job satisfaction. Third, our analyses hint at gender-specific differences: particularly women seem to benefit from the moderation role of working time autonomy. |
| Keywords: | working time mismatch; working hours discrepancies; job satisfaction; over-employment; Socio-Economic Panel; working time autonomy |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1149&r= |
| By: | Jordy Meekes (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne | IZA – Institute of Labor Economics LCC – The ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course); Wolter H. J. Hassink (Utrecht University, Utrecht University School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We study whether women and men cope with job loss differently, focusing on the importance of workers’ job flexibility and household setting. Our empirical analysis is based on Dutch administrative monthly microdata over the period 2006-2017 using a quasi-experimental design involving job loss because of firm bankruptcy. We find for displaced women, but not for displaced men, a persistence in job flexibilities involving limited working hours and short commuting distance. Relative to men, women experience longer unemployment and a slightly smaller hourly wage loss after job loss, suggesting that displaced women trade off job flexibilities to longer job search without widening the gender pay gap. Also, we show that women who are pregnant when job loss occurs experience large losses in employment and conditional on re-employment take up a highly flexible job. Policy advice is to protect pregnant women against the consequences of dismissal due to firm bankruptcy. |
| Keywords: | job loss; gender; job flexibility; household; pregnancy |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J31 J32 J6 R2 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2020n03&r= |
| By: | Alexandra de Gendre (School of Economics, The University of Sydney Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)); Nicolás Salamanca (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne | Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)) |
| Abstract: | Studying with higher ability peers increases student performance, yet we have little idea why. We exploit random assignment of students to classrooms and find positive peer effects on test scores. With very rich data on seventeen potential mechanisms, we then estimate how peer effects on attitudes, parents, etc. could drive these results. Higher-achieving peers reduce student effort, increase student university aspirations, increase parental time investments, and have precise null effects elsewhere. None of these mechanisms, however, explain our peer effect on test scores. Our findings question the prevailing empirical approach to understanding the mechanisms underlying academic peer effects. |
| Keywords: | Random assignment; standardized test; mediation analysis; parental investment; school inputs |
| JEL: | I23 I26 D13 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2020n19&r= |
| By: | Fernandes, Sofia (Notre Europe); Tojerow, Ilan (Free University of Brussels) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether flexible pay increases the wage costs of job displacement. We use quasi-exogenous variation in the timing of job loss due to mass layoffs spanning over an institutional reform that restricted single-employer bargaining, the Belgian Wage Norm in 1996. We find that average earnings losses over a ten-year period after displacement are 10 percentage points larger under flexible pay. Workers displaced from jobs with higher employer-specific wage premiums—service sector and white-collar—benefit the most from restricted single-employer bargaining as their earnings fully converge to non-displaced workers' earnings within three years. We show that the differences in earnings losses across wage-setting systems are not driven by fluctuations in the business cycle. Finally, the wage-setting reform had similar effects on female workers, though it did not narrow the gender gap in pre-layoff wages. Our results suggest that reduced pay flexibility may help displaced workers catch up faster to non-displaced workers' pay premium ladder conditional on re-employment. |
| Keywords: | job displacement, wage flexibility, bargaining |
| JEL: | J31 J51 J63 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14942&r= |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Conchita D’ambrosio (Uni.lu - Université du Luxembourg); Rong Zhu (Flinders University [Adelaide, Australia]) |
| Abstract: | We here consider the relationship between workplace gender measures and employees' perceived job quality, where the former cover both the gender mix of workers with the same job title and the gender of the immediate boss. Data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey show that men's job evaluation is higher in gender-balanced job positions at the workplace, while that of women is higher in either gender-balanced or male-dominated positions. The gender of the immediate boss plays no significant role in employee job evaluation. There is some evidence that these correlations differ by job-quality domains. We introduce co-worker support and help, gender discrimination, and unwanted sexual attention as possible mediators of the gender-mix correlations: these change the estimated coefficients only little. Our estimated correlations could therefore reflect a pure preference for job-position gender composition. Last, we use a bounding approach to show that our main results are robust to the potential influence of unobservables. Overall, job-position gender diversity is associated with higher worker well-being. |
| Keywords: | Perceived job quality,Job-position gender diversity,Gender of immediate boss |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-03467113&r= |
| By: | Alex Bryson (UCL - University College of London [London]); Andrew E. Clark (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Colin Green (NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology [Aalesund] - NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
| Abstract: | Purpose A small literature has shown that individual wellbeing varies with the price of company stock, but it is unclear whether this is due to wealth effects amongst those holding stock, or more general effects on sentiment, with individuals taking rising stock prices as an indicator of improvements in the economy. The authors contribute to this literature by using two data sets to establish the relationship between share prices on the one hand and worker wellbeing on the other. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors use over 20 years of British panel data to show that employee happiness and job satisfaction moves with share prices among those whose pay is partly determined by company fortunes. The authors then examine share price movements and employee stock holding in a single corporation and provide suggestive evidence that an increase in the firm's stock price increases the well-being of those who belong to its employee share purchase plan (ESPP). These effects are greatest among those making the largest monthly contributions to the program who have the most to gain (or lose) from stock price fluctuations. There is also tentative evidence that the well-being effects of a higher share price are larger for those who hold more shares. Taken together these results suggest that, although stock price movements have little effect on well-being in the population at large, the well-being of those holding stock in their own company rises when the price of that stock is higher, suggesting the effects of share prices work at least partly via changes in wealth. Findings Taken together these results suggest that the wellbeing effects of share prices work at least partly via changes in wealth. Research limitations/implications The authors cannot be certain that the job satisfaction movements they see are causally linked to share plan participation and bonus receipt. Future research might fruitfully examine the mechanisms at play, and whether the effects identified here are linked to differences in employee motivation and effort over the business cycle. Practical implications Firms may wish to consider the appropriateness of linking their workers' pay to firm performance through share plans or profit shares to establish whether this improves worker wellbeing. Social implications The utility of workers may increase where firms offer some compensation via a share plan or profit share. Originality/value The literature suggests a link between share price movements and worker wellbeing, but the reasons for the link are contested. Using two very different data sources, the authors are able to show that share price increases induce higher worker wellbeing, at least in part, through wealth effects. |
| Keywords: | Job satisfaction,Profit Sharing,Share prices,Worker wellbeing |
| Date: | 2021–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-03467147&r= |
| By: | A. Ricci; S. Scicchitano; M. Conti; G. Cardullo; G. Sulis |
| Abstract: | We explore the long run determinants of current differences in the degree of cooperative labor relations at local level. We do this by estimating the causal effect of the medieval communes –that were established in certain cities in Centre-Northern Italy towards the end of the 11th century– and that contributed to the emergence of a cooperative attitude in the population on various proxies for current cooperative labor relations for a (repeated) cross section of Italian firms observed over the period 2010- 2018. Conditional on a large set of firm and municipality level controls, as well as a full set of province fixed effects, we find that firms located in municipalities that had been a free medieval commune now have higher current probabilities to adopt two-tier bargaining structures and to be unionized. We also report IV estimates that confirm our main results. |
| Keywords: | unions;Two-Tier Bargaining;Persistence;Industrial relations;Cooperation |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202201&r= |
| By: | Egger, Hartmut (University of Bayreuth); Jahn, Elke (Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Nuremberg); Kornitzky, Stefan (University of Bayreuth) |
| Abstract: | We merge firm-level data on ownership linkages with administrative data on German workers to analyze how the position in a business group hierarchy affects workers' wages. To acknowledge that ownership linkages are not onedirectional, we propose an index of hierarchical distance to the ultimate owner that accounts for the complex network structure of business groups. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, we find a positive effect of larger hierarchical distance to the ultimate owner of a business group on workers' wages. To explain this finding, we develop a monitoring-based theory of business groups. Our model predicts higher wages to prevent shirking by workers if a larger hierarchical distance to the ultimate owner is associated with lower monitoring efficiency. |
| Keywords: | business groups, ownership networks, workers wages, difference-in-difference, hierarchical distance |
| JEL: | C23 J31 L23 |
| Date: | 2021–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14956&r= |